Soulguard (19 page)

Chapter 42

              Eleven of us were seated at several tables that had been pulled together by our hostess when we came into Ruby Tuesdays in Fountain City.

              “To taking out the trash,” Rictor raised his glass of beer. We’d finished cleaning out a nest of Demons down near Chattanooga and had returned to our base earlier today.

              “Taking out the trash,” we all replied with our glasses in the air. Every one of them held beer except mine, I was only twenty, and I don’t like beer much anyway.

              “Let me tell you,” I said, “If there’s one thing Kyra Nightwing’s cooking accomplished, it’s to teach me to appreciate food. This was the best steak I’ve ever eaten.”

              “Really?” Andrea Prada asked, “You should try the steak at J Milton’s in Middlesboro.”

              “They’re good,” Rictor said, taking a sip of his beer, “I like the rib eye you can get at Pete’s Place in Maynardville.”

              “The Chop House is great,” Janacek offered.

              As the Guards started talking about where to get the finest steak my eye fell on a little girl, she was probably ten. There was something off about her so I opened my Inner eye. Her soul was dim, but it didn’t seem to be from illness. I think this girl actually wanted to die.

              Now why would that be? I wondered, until I saw the man sit next to her and she cringed. Fear and loathing rolled across her aura and I looked at the man. His aura was disgusting, it was vile. Then he looked at the girl and a memory rolled through his aura.

              The things that man had done to the girl were hideous, and the rage began trying to claw its way out of me.

              “Boss!?” Rictor had set his beer down as he saw my eyes begin to smolder, “What is it? Code Zulu?”

              He looked the direction I was looking and then back at me, “Andrea, Janicek, get him out of here he’s about to melt down!”

              The two nearest Guards grabbed my arms and pushed me out of the restaurant. I was shaking all over as they steered me away from the front and toward the two SUV’s we had driven in.

              “Colin,” Andrea asked with a note of concern in her voice, “What is it?”

              Several more of our patrol strode out and headed in my direction. They were looking around for the Demons everyone expected to show up any minute.

              The memory was burned into my mind along with every emotion that twisted bastard had felt as he beat and raped that child repeatedly.

              Rictor stood in front of me and grabbed my arms, “Snap out of it! What the hell is wrong?”

              I did something I had never done before, I took a memory and Pushed it into another’s aura. Actually I Pushed it into all ten Guards’ auras. They witnessed what I saw and they felt what I felt, all of the rage that was boiling inside me.

              I finally beat the rage down and looked to see Rictor, his eyes bloodshot and his arms were shaking. Each of the Guards were looking at me in a mix of fear and fury. My fury and their fear.

              Rictor managed to calm himself, “How did you keep from blowing up the whole place, Boss? I’ve never felt anything like what you just felt in my life.”

              “It’s my curse, Ric,” I said and held my hands over my face as I bent my head forward.

              “That’s what you feel when we fight?” Andrea asked softly.

              “Every time.”

              “Damn,” muttered Wilson.

              “I can’t let that man live another day, Ric. My Oath says I can’t do it but I have to.”

              "Ever since that day at the Academy, you’ve asked me to trust you. Now I’m gonna ask you to trust me. It will be dealt with. This isn’t the first time we’ve come across circumstances like this, and no one’s Oath will be broken. Just trust me.”

              My Sight was still active and I saw truth in his aura and I saw the worry he felt about what I might do.

              I nodded and Rictor turned to Wilson, “Bring the other truck after you find out which vehicle is his. Get a tag number and the rest will be handled.”

              “Gotcha,” Wilson answered with a vicious look on his face. They all had seen what that bastard had done.

              “You’re sure he did this and wasn’t just wanting to do it?” Ric asked.

              “I don’t read minds, Ric, I see memories.”

              He nodded and pushed me into the SUV, “All right then, It’ll be settled soon then.”

***

              Rictor and I stood outside of a house on Emory Road. We stood well out of range of any lights, back amongst the trees.

              I watched as that evil, disgusting soul wandered through the house. The child’s dim and damaged soul was alone in a room at the back of the house.

              In the darkness I almost missed it as another soul approached the house. I’d never seen a soul like this. It was pure black, not ugly or vile, just black. It held a beauty of its own, not like the brilliant color of a normal soul, but a beauty, nonetheless.

              “He should be here anytime,” whispered Rictor.

              “He’s here now,” I answered quietly, “Who is he?”

              “I met him in Afghanistan. He was the man they sent when they absolutely had to have someone disappear. The Afghanis had a name for him, The Whisper in the Night. That’s all his target hears, a whisper out of the darkness and then death.”

              I watched as that black soul entered the house. The ugly soul entered the room with the girl and I saw the fear flare up in her soul. Then our man was in the room and that vile soul flickered once and disappeared.

              I felt the rage stop beating at the walls to be free as I saw that soul extinguished.

              “He was offered a place in the Guard, but he refused. He said that there were monsters out there that we’re not allowed to fight and he would fight them while we fight ours.”

              The girls fear was replaced with hope as she neared the black soul. Then the two of them went out of that room and parted ways. The man left and the girl called the police. I could see her through a window dialing the phone.

              “Justice is served,” I mumbled.

              “Yep.”

Chapter 43

              I was sitting in my office at HQ looking at a computer screen. I was trying to decide what to write in a letter to my parents. Some things I just can’t say over a phone line, not after the events at the Academy. I can’t give the Archmage an excuse to remove me, or worse an excuse to remove Kharl and Kyra.

              “Hey Boss,” he looked at me with a worried expression, I didn’t need to see his aura to know that something was bothering him.

              “Ric, what’s up?”

              He reached back and shut the door, so I opened my Inner Eye to better read the situation. Ric wouldn’t have shut it if it wasn’t serious.

              He took a deep breath and let it out, “I need you to do me a favor. What you feel, that rage, there’s something not natural about that, Boss. People just don’t feel that much rage unless something is wrong.”

              “I know, I can see what people feel and I’ve never seen anything like this in others. Sure, there’s rage in some people but I don’t think it’s like this.”

              “That’s what I’m saying,” he sat down in the chair across from my desk, “The thing is, I know a guy. He works for us when we need a doctor for, let’s say, sensitive matters. If I get him to come out here, will you talk to him? Just let him see if there’s something wrong.”

              I looked at Ric and the genuine worry he had in his aura. He wasn’t worried because he was picked by Kharl to be my watchdog or because he was worried for himself. It was because he was my friend. That, more than anything convinced me to nod.

              “Yeah, I’ll see him. I need to know what it is. It started when I was about thirteen but it wasn’t bad then, I just had a bit of a temper. The bad part started after Morndel, after I killed Demons.” I met his eyes with my own, “Bring on this doctor, maybe we can get some answers.”

              “All right then,” Ric stood up and turned toward the door, “I’ll call him today.”

***

              I Pulled as I Danced the Blades in our training Dome at HQ. Faster I danced with my blades weaving around me in a blaze of Soulfire. As the Dance ended, I landed in the finishing stance. The Soulfire faded and the world came back into focus around me.

              “That looks as awesome as it did the first time I saw you do it,” Rictor’s voice came from behind me. “You’re mom looks a lot better doing it though. You just look scary.”

              I laughed and looked at the ex-Marine, “If you saw her kill Demons with the Dance, you’d know it was scary when she did it too.”

              “That may be true,” he answered and ran his hand across his buzz cut hair. “We need to talk, Boss.”

              “Results from the Doc?”

              “Yeah, he’s here. He’s in your office.”

              “Well, let’s get it over with then,” Doctor Terrence Pickney had done a great many tests on me. I don’t know what they were called, but there had been a lot of them.

              I followed Rictor out of our Mini-Dome and we made our way to my office. Pickney was seated across from my desk and rose as we entered, his hand outstretched. I shook his hand and moved around my desk to my seat.

              “So what’s the prognosis Doc?”

              “I found something interesting when I ran your DNA.” The doctor spoke in very precise words, English was not his first language and he spoke without accent of any sort that I could detect.

              “I have found this same anomaly three times before. I was the man who was responsible for the autopsies after Demon attacks for many years. The first time I saw this was in 1970, in Berlin. After a pregnant woman had been killed by Demons, I found this anomaly in the body of the unborn child. There had been Demon blood in the umbilical cord from the slaughter. It had made its way into the child.”

              “After finding the Demon blood in the chord, I checked the child to find that a very small amount of the unborn child’s DNA had been altered before it too died.”

              I could see where this was going already and I really dreaded the rest of the story.

              “The second time was in 1981, with much the same results. The interesting thing is that the third time was in 1990, when the Demon’s killed Rhayne Rourke. This same thing was found there, but there was no baby. It was presumed that a Demon had eaten the child. But that’s not true, is it?”

              I looked at the Doctor for a moment and shook my head, “No, I’m Colin Rourke. Kelvin Demonkiller was my father and Rhayne was my mother.”

              “I do not know how many changes this event has done in you, except to say that your DNA is not exactly human any more. Physically, everything is fine. But this rage you feel may be from a non-human heritage that we know very little about.”

              “If the Demons are driven by this sort of rage,” I said softly, “they’ll never stop coming, no matter how many we kill.”

              “That could very well be, but now we know some of what drives them and that is more than we knew before. The only thing I know that would help you is to retire to some peaceful spot where there is no stress to trigger your rage. Or whenever you face the Demons, embrace that rage so it has some outlet. It is very dangerous to let the rage build inside of you without an outlet.”

              He stood back up, “With the profession you have chosen, the second option is your only hope for now. I will do the research to try to find something you can counter this with but I will not give you false hope. The problem may not be able to be treated. Release your rage any time you can safely do so. Lives may depend on this.”

              I sat back in my chair as the doctor strode out of the office with Rictor. That’s just great, I’m part Demon. It’s probably where the hole in my soul comes from too, I thought. How the hell do I put that in a letter home? Hi mom, everything’s going great out here and, by the way, I’m a freaking Demon spawn.

Chapter 44

              “The Dance isn’t set in any one stance. Each stance you use in battle can be a part of the Dance,” I stood before a group of twenty Guards, “The Dance is not the stance but the flow from one stance to the next.”

              I was surprised that so many Guards had shown up to learn the Dance of Blades.

              “The change from stance to stance becomes effortless after you practice enough times. The more different stances you are actually using, the more complex the Dance. Kyra taught me a great many stances so I can do a complex Dance.”

              “In battle, the key is to know what stance you need for what you face. Each moment, that need may change and you must be able to flow into the next stance without effort.”

              As I spoke, I worked through five different stances in front of the Guards. My movements flowed like water. There was no noticeable spot where my stances changed. They flowed together seamlessly. Well mostly seamless.

              “Kyra is much better at the changes than I am, but I do ok.”

              Prada laughed, “He does ok,” She said and shook her head.

              “Each of you pick two stances you are familiar with and begin switching between the two. I will come by and we can see the best way to minimize the energy used in the change.”

              Prada had two stances she was switching between. One had her two wands poised for an attack from down low on the left and high on the right. She switched from that one to a stance with a powerful thrust with both swords combined with two steps forward to add emphasis on the thrust.

              “The switch is good but there are several of the movements that aren’t necessary. Part of the Dance is to remove any unnecessary movement between the attacks.”

              I took the same beginning stance and showed her where I would trim the moves down and assumed the second stance with a seamless flow.

              She nodded and repeated the moves I made, “That was easier, it felt more natural.”

              “The Dance is all about feeling the natural flow in the changes. Keep using those two until it comes natural to you to use those moves to accomplish the change. After you are comfortable with it, add another stance.”

              I moved to Janicek, the next Guard in line, “If you lower the left one just a bit, you’ll find it feels better.”

              He followed my advice and smiled as he felt the difference, “It is better.”

              “Most of the Dance, you figure out as you practice. I spent hours a day for thirteen years to learn what I have and I saw a man who came to the Academy that made me feel clumsy and inept. He was the most awesome swordsman I’ve ever seen and if I ever get the chance to learn under him I’ll jump at it. He said he was the one who taught Kyra the Dance.”

              I looked to the door to the dome to see Rictor motioning for me.

              “Excuse me guys, duty calls. Keep going and you don’t have to accept my way as a rule. Each of us is different and the movement that works for me may be totally different than the move needed for a six and a half foot tall ox,” I said as I motioned in the direction of Lawrence Davies.

              He chuckled and kept on with his movements.

              I placed my wands on the rack and headed toward Ric. As I reached him I opened my Inner eye to see that he was worried.

              “You got an official visitor, Boss,” he said, “Some guy from the Council, Guilefort I think.”

              “That’s the truth seer,” I said, “What are they after now, you think?”

              “They want you to fail, Boss. There’s no telling what they’re after this time.”

              “Let’s go ask him.”

              “Lead on, I’m right behind you,” Rictor said with a laugh.

              Guilefort stood as we entered my office and extended his hand to me. I shook his hand and motioned for him to return to his seat.

              “So what can I do for you, Mr. Guilefort?”

              “I’m here at the behest of the Council, and I have a list of questions that they demand answers to.”

              I could see the emotions rolling across his aura, doubt and unease with his assigned task flashed through him.

              “All right, just cut to the chase, Mr. Guilefort,” I said, “We both know you have orders and have to follow them. Put the questions out there and we’ll see what we see.”

              He chuckled, “As straight forward as you were the last time we met, I see.”

              “The truth is the truth Mr. Guilefort.”

              “It’s Simon, I feel ancient when you keep saying Mr. Guilefort.”

              “Ok, Simon,” I leaned back in my chair, “Let’s hear these questions the Council demands answers to.”

              “Number one. Are you familiar with Franklin DeRosa?”

              “No.”

              “He was found dead in his home on Emory Road two weeks ago,” he said, “He was also discovered to be a pedophile and child abuser.”

              “Oh,” I said realizing who he was talking about. I’d never even asked the man’s name, “Then I am familiar with him.”

              Guilefort nodded at the truth, “Second question. Did you kill him?”

              “No.”

              I saw the relief in his aura. He had been worried about that answer.

              “Did you violate your Oath to the Soulguard in any way pertaining to this man?”

              “No.”

              I saw the relief once more. Guilefort was definitely rooting for me in this whole situation.

              “Fourth question. Did you participate in any criminal activity pertaining to the death of this man?”

              I turned to Ric, “Were we trespassing where we were standing?”

              “Nah, too close to the road to be considered trespass.”

              “Then, no.”

              Guilefort smiled. Those had been the four major questions that he feared the answers to.

              “Wait, is it illegal to see a crime and not report it?” I asked.

              “No it is not,” Guilefort answered.

              Guilefort really wanted to hear what had happened but he didn’t want to ask as a Council representative. The curiosity was eating at him and he was biting his tongue not to say anything.

              “Oh, ok,” I said, “you’ll tell Gregor for me, right?”

              He nodded and his curiosity was flaring through his aura.

              “It started at Ruby Tuesdays...”

***

              “Can I talk to you a minute, Boss?”

              I looked up from the reports I was going over to find Orrick Wilson standing in my door.

              “Sure,” I said, “What’s on your mind Orrick?”

              “Sir, I just can’t keep doing this,” I could see the shame and embarrassment flow through his aura, “I’ve been reporting to the Council and I feel like I’ve betrayed you and the other Guards here. I would like to request a transfer because I can’t keep it up.”

              “Why not?”

              He looked at me like I’d lost my mind, “What do you mean, why not? I knew the Council wanted to hang you and I reported your actions to them.”

              “Were you ordered to report to the Council by someone of higher rank than you are?”

              “Well, yeah. But...”

              “Then continue to do so,” I said, “The first thing you need to understand, Orrick, is that I won’t hide anything from the Council. The only thing they don’t know about me is my real last name. It was and is none of their business.”

              “You are not betraying anyone by following the order to report to the Council, as long as you are telling them the truth,” I paused and looked at him for a moment, “I should have brought it up before now and saved you a good bit of angst. They want to bury me, yes, but if they plan to destroy me, they better stop sending a truth seer for their evidence against me.”

              “You knew about me?” he asked incredulously, “and still you trusted me in your patrols?”

              I smiled, “Orrick, I’m a Soullord, I can see into your very Soul. Do you think I can’t tell what sort of man you are, regardless of the fact your mother’s maiden name is Denton. You’re a Soulguard and that’s enough for me.”

              I could see many emotions rolling through his aura ending in a flash of fierce loyalty to the Guard and to me personally. I shut down my sight because it was a bit embarrassing to see that sort of loyalty to me. What would spark something like that? I’m just a half crazed Soullord with Demon DNA, anger issues and a firm belief in the truth.

              “Continue reporting to the Council and don’t report anything but the truth. They’ll never succeed through this sort of thing to destroy me. If they want to get rid of me they’ll just have to come and try to do it themselves.”

              “Not one of em has the balls for that, Sir.” Orrick turned to leave and looked back over his shoulder, “Thanks, Boss.”