Born of Silence (Immortal Guardians) (6 page)

Pyro’s eyes twitched as he stepped toward her, holding his arms out as though he’d catch her if she fell. And she did. She fell forward into his arms,
her face crushing
against his chest
. It
took
her last ounce of strength to look up at him
, pleading as she did
.
S
he blacked out
with his answer echoing in her mind
.

Ally heard voices in the kitchen, one of which belonged to a certain wolf she wanted to have some words with. Walking from the entertainment room, she silently made her way to the French door that led into the kitchen. Just as she touched the door, she heard the other voice, and it stopped her short.

“I told you to leave me alone, little pup,” Thrash said. “You’ll get me in trouble again.”

“But
…
can’t you just do it again?” Skylar asked
. His voice sounded small, like a little mouse, compared to the rough baritone of
the
wolf
.

Thrash chuckled, and Ally could hear as he rummaged through the fridge and dished up some
food.
“No,” he finally replied.
There were more sounds as
h
e
put his plate of food in the microwave and hit a few buttons.

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” Skylar’s squeaky little voice
offered
.

Ally dared a peek through
the door,  push
ing
it
open just a few inches. Thrash’s back was to Skylar, but he quickly faced him with a groan. “Look, little pup. I’m not going to change for you anymore if it makes Red all that pissed off.”

Her lips twitched at the mention of Thrash’s nickname for her. The night the two of them had met, she’d worn a red sweater. And so the nickname had stuck, though he was the only one to use it. She looked at Thrash through the narrow opening in the door, seeing his expression change as he looked down at her youngest brother. “What is that?” he asked, taking a step toward the four-year old.

Skylar’s face lit up in a huge smil
e. From what she
could see, he held a red bundle of fabric in his hands, a matching one tied around his neck. “Oh.” He dropped the fabric he held and turned around. “This is my cape,” he said proudly, holding his arms behind him so he could pull the edges of the cape tight.

Thrash
peered
down, his head cocking to
one
side then th
e other
as he tried to figure out the design Skylar had drawn on the cape. “And what is that?” he asked, obviously giving up.

“You can’t
tell
?” Skylar gawked, a little sadly.

Ally looked at Thrash then, seeing an expression she’d never seen on the wolf before. Almost
…
tenderness, if that was even possible.

“I’m not sure I’m looking at it right,” he answered quickly.

“It’s a wolf,” Skylar explained. “See the ears and the fangs? They’re just like yours.”

He
blinked at the boy and the cape, and whatever he was about to say was interrupted as the microwave beeped, informing him that his mound of food was warmed through. He opened the microwave door and pulled out his plate, setting it on the counter. Sitting on a stool, he gripped a fork and started shoveling food into his mouth.

Skylar picked up the bundle of fabric he’d dropped and awkwardly climbed up the neighboring stool. Thrash
peeked
at him through the corner of his eye and swallowed his mouthful of food. “You’re still here?”

He smiled, nodding. “I made one for you too,” he said, sliding the bright red
cloth
toward him.

Thrash grabbed it, gripping one side of the fabric and fanning it out on the counter. From Ally’s vantage point, she couldn’t make out the design drawn on this one, but she imagined it was the same as the
cape
Skylar
wore around his neck.
Her brother
looked up at him, smiling at the wolf with his little dimples. “Now we can be superheroes together.”

****

“We’ve made national news,” Pyro said, grabbing the remote and turning on the television.

Ekhart leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk as he waited for Pyro to replay whatever he’d wanted him to see. Even his guest looked over at the TV as if mildly interested in what the Ignitis had to show. Within seconds, Pyro had it up and running, and he saw a section of
News in the Nation
that quickly discussed the unexplainable outbreak at the Children’s Hospital in
New Jersey
.

Turning away from the TV, he couldn’t help but smile as Damion’s eyes met
his
. “Nice work.”

The vampire nodded casually. “I could say the same. They are your demons.”

“Did you really have to level the place?” Ekhart asked. “There were some good Harbingers in there.”

“Dracs,” Damion said. “Or, at least that’s what the Guardians are calling them.”

Ekhart stretched back in his chair, running his fingers over his chin. Not the name he’d wanted for his creations, but it would do.
He had to hand it to the Guardians, the name was fitting,
in a way.

“And besides,” Damion continued. “That wasn’t my call. Had the Guardians listened to me when I tried to draw them away,
I could have gathered them all and delivered them to you
.”

“Yes,” Ekhart agreed. “I know Nitro’s handiwork when I see it.”

The room was silent as they both reached for their glasses and sipped their Scotch.
Since the Guardians had gone against
Damion
’s command, he
wasn’t able to bring all of the newly-created Dracs to the Institute. He had, however,
intercepted the officers who had been infected before they reached another hospital. While he wanted to have a widespread epidemic of Dracs
—eventually—he
wasn’t quite ready for a full-blown deployment.

“Ah,” Ekhart said as the warmth of the alcohol bloomed in his chest. He set his now-emp
ty glass on the desk and poured
himself another cupful. “I’ve met with your Fairy.”

Damion’s face hardened. “He’s not
my
Fairy.”

Waving a hand to dismiss
the
comment, he said, “I think we may have some use for him. He’s
strong. A lot stronger than we
anticipated.”

“Really,” Damion said, perking up in his seat.

“Mmm-hmm.” Ekhart nodded. “He’s able to use his Instincts even though there are wards
against it
.”

“Can he escape?”

“No. Of course not. No one gets out of here. We’ve monitored the boy. He’s used magic inside his cell
,
s
o I’ve got some of my men working on a
…
a power suck, you could say.”

Damion’s eyes narrowed. “A power suck?”

“Yes. We’re hoping to capture his abilities whenever he uses them. If we can, then eventually he’d be rendered useless.”

The vampire nodded, obviously impressed. A knock at the door sounded and Dr.
Shorman popped his head inside, his eyebrows rising above the rim of his thick, black glasses in question. Ekhart waved him in and
Shorman
entered,
holding a box between his hands. He set the box on the desk in front of Damion, opening it for his inspection. “Will this be enough, sir?” he asked.

Damion closed the box, sliding the lock into place and dropping the key into his jacket pocket.
“It should do for now.”

“Do you need any other needles or lines? To avoid infection, of course,” Shorman added hastily.

“No,” he replied. “I’m not too concerned about infection at the moment.”

The good doctor seemed upset at Damion’s comment, though he knew when to leave well enough alone.

“And how is the patient?” Ekhart asked
, turning his attention toward
the vampire
.

“He rouses easily, not too long after I run out of this stuff.”

“Ah,” Ekhart nodded. “Explains why you need so much. Have you found out what he is yet?”

Damion shook his head. “No, and no one has mentioned it yet either.”

“Well, I do appreciate you keeping him on ice for me.” Ekhart looked at the scientist before he could retreat.
“Dr. Shorman
, a
re we still on for the presentation tomorrow?”

“We are
.
Do you still have time to watch?”

“Of course. And I should like for Damion to witness it as well.” He took a few swigs of his
S
cotch before looking at the vampire again. “I assume you can stay another night?”

The vampire eyed Shorman
before his gaze moved to him
. “What kind of presentation?”

“Trust me,” Ekhart
replied. “You won’t want to miss this.”

****

Danielle woke up, screaming and huffing. She sat up suddenly, gasping for air, feeling as though she was suffocating. Why was she dreaming like this again? Why did she dream of death and blood and screaming and begging? And why was she always on the punishing side of it?

She
barely reached the toilet before she
retched, any little bit of food she actually had emptied from her stomach until she was reduced to dry heaving. Gradually, her breathing slowed and she
returned to her bed, placing a cold palm to her sweat-slicked forehead
. She was
back in her cell, on the
hard mattress that was inherently home now.

As
crappy of
a
home as it was
.

She was still burning hot, her skin fevered, so s
he rolled out of bed onto the floor so she could lay her sweaty face against the rock. The cave was dark,
as
the lights had all been s
hut off. Pyro knew the migraines and
body pain
s
that came after her experiments, and many times he convinced the other guards to turn the lights off.

A sigh escaped her and she pushed the morbid thoughts from her mind
. Instead, she focused on thoughts of Garrick
. She couldn’t believe she’d actually been frightened of him when she had all the monsters in the cave to contend with.

Ah, that man had beautiful brown hair.
She wished her hair looked as good as his, but hers was
disheveled. Somehow he remained clean-shaven when any other man would have had more than just a dusting by now. She
ran
her fingers through her hair,
and they
got caught up in the rat’s nest
of tangles
.
Oh well, there wasn’t much she could do about it.

She wasn’t sure if her mind was messing
with
her, or if maybe it was her heart. Heck, maybe it was just because of how lonely
she
was, but she thought that maybe
Garrick was her only friend. She’d never trusted Pyro, but he’d at least attempted to treat her slightly nicer than the others had—if she could overlook the beatings. He’d often come back after she woke up explaining that she’d forced him to beat her. Garrick had never tried to hurt her—not that he’d been given t
he chance. But he did
try to get Pyro to stop each time he came in for her. She’d noticed that much. Each time the guard would come inside her room, Garrick’s face turned intent on trying to either get through the glass or try to get Pyro’s rage turned on himself.

Opening her eyes, she gazed
at the window. She could faintly see Garrick’s shape through
her blurred vision, and she realized she couldn’t focus too long without causing a throbbing pain to crush her skull. She was just about to close her eyes when a small blue globe appeared by Garrick’s
side
. She did a double
take, wondering if she was hallucinating. The light
slowly floated its way over into her cell
, somehow penetrating the glass, passing right through as though it was no hindrance at all
. She was too s
ore to react, could only watch
in amazement
as it neared her
. The globe hovered above her face momentarily, and then slowly traveled downward,
float
ing over the rest of her body, only to return to her face once more.

A
quiet
pounding sounded at the glass, and she looked
over to see that Garrick was
against
it
. The globe slowly made its way back toward him. But instead of crossing through the window, it hovered just beside it.