7 - The Cave
"Who...this?" the old man asked in his stuttered way when I stood to stand next to my son. My movement must have alerted him to my presence, he turned his head to examine me with his "good" eye. It was doubtful that he saw much detail when it had to be filtered through that hazy lens. While this planet had the medical technology to do something about cataracts you needed money for such services; this man did not look like he had access to advanced medical treatment. As he turned his body to face me more squarely the stained coat he was wearing opened slightly to reveal what could only be described as rags underneath.
I adjusted my very expensive jacket and planted my feet before leaning into my walking stick. To an outsider our standoff might have appeared humorous. Just two old men trying to stare each other down. I certainly not amused by the scene. This had altered from my son being his usual scatterbrained self and needing a fatherly intervention. It had developed into a potentially dangerous situation where my son needed me to be a balance guardian rather than a father. Honestly, I was much more comfortable with the role of balance guardian than that of father.
I tried to look past the ragged clothes that were peeking out from under the stained and oversized coat he wore; instead I concentrated on his mind. It was easy enough to pick up the thoughts of the other patrons of the bar; their focus was on the drinks or the various petty problems that seem to consume mortals. Worries about finances, the faithfulness of their partner, or the poor chances of being able to obtain a bedmate for the evening were the main themes. Over the years as a courtesy I had learned to block out all but the loudest of my son's thoughts but now that was lost as I searched the thoughts of anyone and everyone around me. Kalim was worried about my presence scaring this old man away and missing the opportunity to finally avenge his parents.
The skeletal man in front of me was a mystery, and unfortunately I could not tell what he saw when he looked at me. I was going to have to do this the old fashioned and unreliable way. It had become necessary to read his expression. The old man spent far too much time staring back at me. Did he suspect what I was? That was doubtful, my disguise was far too good to be penetrated by his poor vision. He would see only what I wanted him to see. Another old man who had left his youth behind several decades ago but was still intelligent enough to be wary of those who would try to take advantage of his son. I gave him my what the fuck are you trying to pull on my son look, or at least I hope that is what it was.
The old man cautiously examined my walking stick and I made sure to give him a threatening smile as he did so. Yeah I am going to beat your ass if you try anything.
He seemed overly guarded as he first examined me and then the other patrons of the bar. This made me wonder why he had approached my son who was a stranger in these parts.
"This is my father," Kalim spoke swiftly, throwing me a look that demanded his support. He need not have worried, this old man now had my full attention. Something he probably did not want to have.
"Well you never said ... father," the old man's speech improved slightly as he threw me a glare. To my relief I was soon dismissed as a non-threat, and he shifted away from me to stare at the other patrons yet again.
"Everyone has a father," I told him with a small smile. All the while pushing with every mental muscle I had against the barrier of his thoughts. He did not react to my joke, and instead shifted around on his feet in a restless way.
Again he addressed Kalim as if I did not even exist, "well we... going, are you ...coming?"
"Yes, yes let us go." Kalim moved so quickly that he knocked the chair over. In doing so causing a ruckus that pulled all eyes to him. I barely resisted the urge to roll my own eyes at him. Subtlety was not one of my son's strong points. Aodh had been correct in dismissing Kalim as a possible candidate for a balance guardian, as he would have been killed before he even began to fulfill his duties. Very rarely we would find children that we would "adopt" into the family. Kendrick's daughter was such a child. When he had found her his spirit had told Kendrick to bring her home to the family. Aliah had the right genetic make-up for easy insertion of the guardian genes, and more importantly she had passed Bee's and Mari's inspection. I had never considered introducing Kalim to the elders of my family, so he was to remain ignorant of life as a member of my family.
I watched in horror as instead of brushing the incident off as a mere accident Kalim made things worse by clumsily attempting to stand the chair back into an upright position. So now that he had the attention of all the other patrons he exposed his back to them, and in this society doing something that stupid was like asking to be robbed. When this was over we were going to have a talk about how not to get killed. It amazed me that he had survived this long, especially since Kalim was so fond these wild goose chases.
"But before we leave I need to use the facilities," I did not give them time to protest instead I headed for the small side door that had the bathroom symbol on it. The stench was nearly unbearable. A combination of piss, vomit, and shit.
"Lovely," I muttered under my breath as while attempting to not step on any part of the floor as I closed the door behind me. "Why bother aiming for the troth, if I pissed all over the floor it might make things a little cleaner." Fortunately I did not have to actually pee. This trip to the bathroom was a ruse to allow me to pull out my phone in private. Fearing that a conversation might be overheard I sent a message to Aurora wanting her to alert any nearby family members that there might be an infected in the area. Having warned the family in the region of possible trouble I headed back out of the foul room not even bothering to wash my hands. I had some sanitizer in my pocket and would have to pull it out when no one was looking; it was of no use to clean my hands before heading out since touching the door would have negated the effects of the sanitizer.
My son was waiting rather impatiently by the exit, the old man next to him looking ready to flee at any moment.
"All done," I told them with a false smile while indicating with my walking stick that someone should open the door.
The old man, who had yet to volunteer any sort of name, was first to move. Again the ease with which he manipulated the handle on the door raised red flags. The swollen and misshapen joints of his hand should not have been able to bend and twist that fast without a great deal of pain.
"Follow... me," he hesitated on the words. Opening his mouth long before anything came out.
The old man tried to set a brisk pace as we walked past the houses and all signs of civilization. If you could call this shanty town civilization. I dictated the speed of our journey wanting to gain more time to get into his brain, or perhaps a thought from the person trapped inside of the infected body. I was hoping that my suspicious were wrong and that he was just an ex-miner looking to make some quick money by robbing travelers. A man that looked as frail and helpless as this one would have been taken out by society for his own good, and the only way he could avoid such fate would be by having the physical advantages that are the benefits of a nano infection.
Pretending to rely on my walking stick as we headed down the heavily rutted dirt road I kept the others moving at a snail's pace. The old man gave us no clues to his plan or our destination, and instead spent most of his time answering my son's numerous questions with nothing but grunts. The scenery did not give us much more information about where this old man intended to take us. On either side of us were rather tall fences to contain the cow-like creatures that were the main source of meat for the residents of this region. A few sparse patches of trees added to the pastoral scene along with a rickety looking farmhouses. In the background were some low lying hills that in this region were riddled with mine shafts. The feeling of imminent doom was not alleviated by the gloomy clouds overhead. Soon those clouds would open up and a major downpour would come down. Hopefully the acid content of the rain would be low enough that it would not eat through our clothes.
Suddenly our guide stopped and turned toward the tall fence. I did not see the landmark or sign that distinguished this particular section of the road. The old man hesitated for a moment before he jumped the tall fence into the meadow filled with livestock. The move would have been impressive had a young man done it, and the fact that this old, broken man managed to do it was nothing short of a miracle.
"Kroit's gonads," even Kalim noticed the feat.
Unlike my son I let a swear slip past my lips not out of admiration but frustration. "Yes, my sentiments exactly."
While the jump was extremely suspicious it was not enough evidence. The rules of my family required absolute proof that the person we destroyed was infect. All I needed was one stray thought screaming for help, or I could of course get a blood sample and look at it under the microscope. Somehow I doubted he would easily volunteer a blood sample.
Wondering where the fuck the family I moved to follow the old man. My climb over the tall fence was done in the manner that befitted a man my age - well the age I was supposed to be. Once I finally made it to the other side I spent some time rearranging my disheveled clothes, and if at the same time I just happened to do a weapons check well I was the only one who was aware of that. There was a large knife strapped to the inside of my boot, and the bracelet I wore around my wrist could double as a garrote. Unfortunately I had not thought to bring any of my heavier weapons. It would have been good to have a sword or one of the particle weapons my mother had helped design. The small gun that was hidden at the small of my back would do little to stop an infected; they needed to be hacked into bits so that they would stay still long enough to burn. The walking stick my son had given me was heavy enough that it might do some damage.
The old man had paused long enough to make sure we were following before he moved across the empty meadow. I became fairly certain he was leading us towards the mines. Many in this area were abandoned and poorly maintained making them a place that would be dangerous to outsiders even without the potential infected. I amped up my concerned parent act, and became the dad that was helping his son fulfill his mission - albeit very cautiously.
"Where are we going?" I asked while pretending to look around as if I was not one hundred percent aware of our surrounding. Our guide only replied with a grunt. "Will we get there soon?" I continued as if there was a chance he would answer my question.
Kalim threw me a confused but grateful look, wondering why I was playing along with his quest. Usually I was against any attempts he made to find the hunters. Now Kalim was happy that for once I was not stopping him. While he was curious about my sudden change in attitude he was not going about to start complaining about gaining my approval. He even went so far as to try to offer me help over the rock fence we had to scale as we got to the other side of the meadow.
I pushed his hands away, "the day I can't climb over a puny pile of rocks like this is the day you get to start gathering wood for my funeral pyre."
The old man had not noticed this exchange in his anxiousness to lead us to our final destination, and there was no doubt in my mind that final was the key word here. At best he was taking us somewhere private to murder and rob us. At worst he was wanting someplace private to infect us with the nanos. I wanted to make him work for it and to gain a little more time to find the evidence needed to prove he was infected. It did not bother me when he disappeared behind the rather dense group of trees that lined the meadow. Unlike my son who was throwing frantic glances at the trees I knew he would be back for us.
Less than a minute later he returned. The annoyed click he made with his tongue would have been amusing under other circumstances. "Come," he muttered his first word since we had left the pub.
"Father, hurry or he may leave," my son whined like a five year old.
"I am coming a fast as I can, and you will wait for your father," the rocky terrain was easy enough to cross, and I could have done it easily had I not been a little worried. Why had I not heard back from one of the local family? Was no one here? Sometimes if things were a little too quiet in the region partners would be given extra land to guard. Even if they were elsewhere Aurora should have contacted them and passed along my message.
Finding an infected was an emergency situation; it was not something you dismissed to be dealt with later. The rows of trees did not last more than 100 meters before they thinned and disappeared, showing me that my poor navigation skills had not revealed how close we were to the hills.
Someone had been very busy here lately, and clearly they were no engineer. In front of us was a very large hole in the side of the hill. It looked like an old mineshaft that had been very poorly expanded to make the entrance bigger.
It was not the large dark cave that made me stop in my tracks. Instead, it was the final confirmation of what I had suspected all along. It could not even be called a thought, more like a whisper of a feeling. For a moment I heard a weak voice mutter a word of despair. It was almost nothing but at the same time everything I needed. This man was infected. My outward appearance did not alter as I reached into my back pocket, and changed my direction so that my path crossed a large rock. The combination of accidentally tripping over the rock and the folds of my clothes allowed me to hide the fact that I was sending a message: To the guardians of this region there is an infected at my location.
"Father, are you all right?" Kalim asked with a great deal of concern as he came to help me up.
"Just a rock. I lost my footing for a moment," my poker face intact as I suddenly heard the other minds. They were screaming for help and mercy, and unlike the quiet one in front of me their thoughts almost overwhelming. At least half a dozen that I could discern but maybe even more. This might become the day Kalim had been dreaming about for years, as he might finally find the hunter that killed his parents. The old man was clearly leading us into a trap, but I was still trying to figure out why he had picked my son and not one of the dozen locals. Was he wanting to rob him? or did he want to infect us and make us puppets? Regardless of his plans if I was wrong and there were no guardians stationed here, then I would have to kill all these infected.
A younger guardian would have possibly rushed in and taken them all on. Fighting this many infected with no weapons was dangerous but not impossible. My training had involved such scenarios but it would have been beyond foolish to do this without help. My best option was to somehow contact Phila and hope she got here in time before the infected figured out what I was. Under normal circumstances I would have run away, put on my armor, and come back to clean house. Unfortunately I had Kalim with me and he was a complication that made everything that much harder. He was a very poorly modified human and could not outrun an infected. So now all my plans had to revolve around Kalim not getting killed or infected. At this point my son finding out that I was a hunter was not a major concern.
I could now understand why Aodh had wanted me to come here, because Kalim would have been dead had he done this alone. As it was, I could not guarantee his safety if the shit hit the fan. I attempted to calculate the odds of him surviving, but honestly his changes really depended on my ability to keep him from getting infected. The medical technology on the island would cure anything except infection. If that happened to him there would be nothing I could do but kill him myself.
"Maybe I should sit down for a minute," I told Kalim while allowing him to lead me to a flat rock. "I think I might have twisted something." Faking an injury was easy enough and it was not like either my son or the old man had any medical experience to ascertain that I was lying.
"Do you want this or not?" The old man looked at the large mouth of the cave that was obviously his final destination. His speech seemed to have improved in the past few minutes making me suspect that the nanos were somehow connecting the infected. In the past we had found those infected with the nanos that appeared to move as a single organism, and unfortunately for me these tended to be a lot harder to kill.
"A few minutes to catch my breath, not all of us have your stamina." I told him feigning shortness of breath. In a huff the old man found his own rock to sit on. He turned his back on us but I was willing to bet he knew every move we made.
"Let me check your leg father," Kalim circled me trying to find a way to help. He never did like seeing others hurt.
"I will be fine, just give me a minute." Or I will be as soon as my family gets here.
So we sat there quietly and commented on the weather until I "caught my breath". This did not happen until the cacophony of cries for help were joined by another set of thoughts. What is wrong Phillip can't you take down one small infected old man? I recognized Alexis' thoughts, my family had arrived.
I can take him but it will be hard to destroy him and the ones inside of the cave without Kalim being hurt. I though back at her while lowering a few of my mental shields so she could hear my mind easier. I stood up and pretended to test my ankle, Kalim continued to hover.
There are more inside the cave? This explains where the little bugs have been hiding. We haves suspected for months, but could never find them. All right let is burn them. Her thoughts were stronger which meant she must have been getting closer. Malcolm will disable them with guns and I will burn them, all you have to do is act scared and protect your boy.
And what the hell am I going to do? Asked another voice, this new one belonged to Alexis' cousin Snow. Her real name was Cassandra but no one ever called her that, and if Cassandra was here that meant Malcom's brother Simon would be here too. Five guardians would make this fight go in our favor.
Sit there and look cool as a cucumber, Alexis thought back with a laugh. Snow had no problem looking cool as she was the opposite of Alexis. While Alexis was somewhat of a fire bug her cousin Snow tended to prefer ice. She fought the infected by freezing their bodies into solid ice and then shattering them before her partner would set the shards on fire. The nanos made the bodies burn a lot easier than that of a normal human.
"Looks like nothing is wrong, maybe I am just getting old," I pretended to test the weight bearing ability of my ankle before pushing myself up. The old man noticed we were moving again and jumped off his rock before heading into the cave.
I slowly followed him into the cave, all the while making sure that my son was in arm's reach. Kalim's survival instincts finally started to kick in as we descended into the gloom. He began looking around trying to figure out what was hiding in the growing shadows. Our path only dimly lit by miner's lanterns that were too far apart to be safe but our guide did not seem to have any trouble navigating.
"Are you sure you saw them here?" Kalim asked, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
"Bodies... this ...way, we... show," the creepy disembodied voice was calling from the flickering shadows. Almost like Hades beckoning us into the underworld.
"We, who is we?" I asked wanting to know the numbers we would be dealing with. As it was I had teased out nine individual voices among the mental screams.
"My friend," the old man hissed in an impatient reply.
"You know we are probably going to get robbed and murdered," I explained to my son under my breath. "Not necessarily in that order."
"Father I wish you would stop joking about such things," Kalim tried to laugh but I could hear the tremor in his voice. It had finally clicked for him that this was a dangerous business. In a way I was glad it was going to happen this way since he needed some sense beaten into him. If I was not afraid of the infection being passed onto Kalim I might have been tempted to let the infected beat on him for a while.
Hey can you guys scare Kalim some, he needs to stop abandoning his duties in order to find the hunters. I sent the thoughts out to my family hoping that they would cooperate in teaching Kalim a lesson. Alexis especially had a flare for the dramatic, perhaps I could "die" here. Dying at the hands of the hunters or infected would certainly gain my family a great deal of reputation.
No you can't do that. His parents were killed by hunters and if you died the same way it might break him. Alexis the know it all psychiatrist chimed in reading the thoughts that had not been meant for her.
She may have possibly been right. For a boy who had watched his parents taken out by the hunters, and who then had proceeded to make killing hunters his lifelong mission it might be too much to watch his adopted father be killed by more hunters. I would have to find a different and less convenient way to fake my death. Plus it would be hard to maintain my greatest grandpa status from the grave.
The stench of human refuse was starting to permeate the air, and only got stronger as we descended down into the mine. I made sure to stomp my feet harder than necessary to cover any sounds that would have been made by the other four guardians following behind us. Normally we would have tried to find several ways into the cave, but there was the fear that this old man would alert the other and they would flee before we could clear out this nest of infected.
There was more light in the large cavern we entered, and around us were clumps of rags that could possibly have been the beds for these people. The stench of refuse and unwashed human bodies nearly knocked me on my ass. Smoke from the small fires that dotted the floor permeated the air. Unfortunately the fires did not add much warmth to the otherwise chilly room.
"What the hell is this?" My son asked as it became apparent that the only bodies in the room were very much alive. Eleven sets of eyes were focused on us and they appeared very interested.
There are eleven in this cave alone, I relayed the intel to Alexis. "Obviously some sort of trap." I explained to my clearly disappointed son. "The trap where we die and they loot our corpses for anything useful they can find." I spelled it out for him in case he did not hear me the first time that we were going to be murdered and robbed.
The eyes watching us were somewhat glassed over and vacant. The lights were on but the ones home were no longer in charge. I made a mental note as to which of the side caves the old man disappeared into. Kalim was watching as well, and I watched as the last of the hope leached out of his face. I was hoping the full extent of the situation would sink in quickly.
The people in the cave were slowly but surely moving towards us; one of them had an extremely choppy walk. To a physician it might have looked like the man had Parkinson's disease, but to me it was a clear indication that he had been recently infected and the nanos had not yet figured out how to pull his string.
Kalim appeared fascinated by the movement comparing it to the way his parents had moved the last few days of their life. His mind was too busy reliving the memories to notice the imminent danger. Luckily for both of us my family had positioned themselves around the cave and were ready to attack. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the flash grenade arc up before it hit the floor in the middle of the cave. Having anticipated the large burst of light I closed my eyes before the timer went off.
The infected would recover quickly since their other senses could adapt to moving around blind. Kalim had not anticipated the flash nor had he the physiology to adapt quickly. Currently he was moving around blindingly with his hands straight out in front of him trying to find a wall. This gave me a lot more leeway in my defense of him. Pushing my son into a small corner I went to stand next to Malcolm making sure to whistle so that he would notice me coming up next to him. I grabbed one of the swords strapped to his back, and was back to my son before the first infected reached him.
He was a male that looked just a few years older than my son, but the lines in his face told of a much harder life. He either did not see or he did not care about the large sword in my hand. When he was a few meters away I kicked his legs out from under him and quickly cut off his head. The arms and legs were next to come off, and after that I cut his torso in half. Using my mind I threw the body parts to the center of the room where a pile of body parts were gathering.
Malcolm and his brother were both shooting the infected; their guns were built for silence, so that others would not be alerted by the noise. The swift spray of bullets was literally cutting the infected into pieces before those body parts were mentally thrown into the fire that Alexis had started.
A large chuck of ice zoomed across the room lifting and impaling an infected against the wall; Snow disappeared and re-appeared next to the infected pinned to the wall. She used her sword to quickly carve the infected up before taking down the other one who had tried to sneak up behind her.
Across the room Alexis was throwing fire balls around, and adding a few extra fireballs to the pile of bodies in the middle. The infected that were still moving around did not dare approach her since they were deathly afraid of fire. I almost regretted the fact that Kalim was too blind to see this spectacle.
"Father, are you all right?" Kalim asked frantically as he tried to grab for the wall next to him.
"Fine, just stay still for a minute," I moved away from him as another infected tried to make its way to where my son was pulling himself up next to the wall. I used my borrowed sword one last time before whistling at Malcolm yet again; this time to warn him that I was throwing the sword back to him.
As I watched Kalim start to blink less I picked up my walking stick again and stood next to my son. I need you to make this brutal. Kalim needs to learn that he should not be chasing after hunters. There was not much left to see as the infected were dead and already burning in the middle of the cavern. The light being made by the burning infected was bathing the room in a very cheery orange light. Kalim rubbed his eyes and blinked a few more times before his attention was grabbed by Alexis. She was currently juggling several fireballs above her as she watched the burning pile in front of her.
Suddenly there was a loud noise and several fast moving infected came running into the room. The first one was hit by a fireball that made its head burst into flames and a chunk of ice that made it fly through the air before it was pinned to the cave wall where it then became the human torch. More infected entered the cave, and those who were moving around too quickly to properly set on fire were taking out by Malcolm and Simon. I watched my son as Kalim finally began to understand the situation.
"Oh gods, it is them," Kalim said in a combination of awe and fear.
"Yes congratulations you have found the hunters. Now all we have to do is survive." I explained while pulling him further into the shallow alcove to stay out of the line of fire. Yes the fire pun was intended but unfortunately my son did not speak english so I was not going to share the joke with him.
"I have never seen anything like this, what are they?" Kalim asked so quietly even I could barely hear him as he watched more people pour into the cave. They were coming in groups of three and four but they did not stand a chance.
"Obviously the infected," I grumbled back, pissed off that to keep up pretenses all I could do was sit here and watch. Well I could technically pick up the one about to pounce on Simon and throw them at the wall. My son would not know that it was not one of the "hunters" tossing the infected around.
Alexis and Snow did not disappoint as they methodically took out one group of infected after another. My son's eyes got bigger and bigger. It was really not all that impressive since most of the these were old and half dead miners. While the nanos could give you some extra strength there was only so much they could do with a body that was falling apart from old age and disease.
Alexis was bouncing a fireball in her hand before she finally contained it within her palm. The small fireball became larger until it consumed her entire arm, and it slowly moved up and around her body. Soon her entire body was covered with golden and red flames. I could hear Kalim's whimper next to me as he watched one of the infected try to grab her from behind. Apparently this one was brave enough to approach the fire. Alexis simply twisted her body around him. Her movements as fluid as the flames circling her. The infected opened his mouth in a silent scream of agony as Alexis held it down with her burning foot and threw another fireball at the next infected.
The bodies kept piling up in the center of the room, and the flames began to rise higher and higher until they nearly touched the ceiling of the large cavern. Dark oily looking smoke began to fill the room making it harder to breathe. Fortunately the infected finally stopped coming, but this was probably not all of them. A thorough search would have to be done on these caverns to make sure every infected had been killed. I did not envy them that task because it could take months to go through this entire cave system.
"Come on let us go," I pulled on Kalim's arm to get him to start moving. If watching this fight did not teach him how futile his attempts to avenge his parents were I did not know what could be done. He looked slightly in shock as I yanked on his arm as we skirted the edges of the cavern trying to make it to the exit.
Leaving so soon? I heard an amused thought from Simon.
Yeah I think Kalim might have learned his lesson, thanks for the help. I pushed and pulled Kalim towards the passageway that had brought us here. Hopefully the rotting wood beams would hold long enough for us to safely escape.
It was with a great deal of relief that I saw the green color of the leaves on the trees. Signaling the fact that we had made it out of the caves. We spent a few moments coughing and breathing in the outside air.
"Are you all right?" I asked Kalim yet again. His heartbeats had not settled down, but that could have been due to our rapid exit from the caves.
"Good," he replied as he threw himself onto a patch of grass.
"Why are you doing that? We are not out of danger yet. Come on move." I kicked his side gently trying to prod him to get going.
My peripheral vision caught a movement to my left. Two thousand years of training made me swing my walking stick in the right direction. With a satisfying crunch my walking stick connected with the jaw of the old man. He staggered backwards at the unexpected blow, but I did not give him any time to recover.
Ignoring my son who had finally realized that something was wrong I swung my stick yet again, and hoped the wood would be able to withstand the stress. I kept swinging and pummeling the old man until he was nothing but a sack of skin with broken bones inside. This was not an ideal way to stop him but considering my audience I would have to improvise.
"Father I think you are supposed to set him on fire, at least that is what the hunters did." My son suggested after watching me pound on the old man for nearly a minute.
"Well since I forgot my fire starter kit it will be somewhat hard to do that." I let some of my frustration leak into my voice. There was no way I could use my powers to set him on fire without the cover of the other guardians.
"Well regardless of all that, I am fairly certain he is dead."
It was not possible to explain to him that for a while even the dead ones could continue to move around. Hence the "space zombie" nickname for the infected. A healer would not have such knowledge so I ignored him and kept hitting any body part of the old man that moved even a centimeter. The mind stuck inside this body could fortunately not feel the pain anymore, and the nanos were not capable of feeling pain except when they were set on fire.
"Well, well, well. What have we here?" I heard Alexis' voice getting closer to me. Kalim stood closer to me, turning his back to mine in a futile attempt to protect me. I rolled my eyes as I watched Alexis saunter towards us. She really should have gone into the theater. If anyone could scare Kalim into not looking for hunter it would be Alexis. Not that Snow was a slouch in the drama department. She was capable of lowering her body temperature to below freezing, and for some reason while other things around her turned solid she could still function as normal. The humidity in the air condensed and froze on her skin, so her entire body was covered in a white ice powder. This gave her a very monochrome look especially since the only color on her entire body were her dark grey eyes.
"Are you infected?" Snow asked as she too approached. I could feel the heat radiating off of Alexis on our right and the cool coming off of Snow on the right. Alexis' fire was not an illusion. Since she was Snow's exact opposite Alexis could raise her body temperature to the point where the air around her burst into flames.
"No..." Kalim stuttered out, clearly very afraid. I rolled my eyes at the smirk on Alexis' face. She was enjoying this a little too much. "But we think he is."
"Hmmmm, that is what they always say." Alexis continued on with the game.
"Are you going to kill us?" Kalim asked, all his earlier bravado regarding his training gone now that he was faced with the reality of the hunters.
"We only kill infected," Snow explained as she stepped even closer. Malcolm and Simon had come up behind the two girls flanking them without making a sound.
Alexis made a small fireball and threw it at the old man. I stepped back and threw my walking stick onto the pyre since it was coated with his blood.
"They could be lying," Malcolm explained in a detached voice.
Snow circled us and stepped right up to Kalim. She was a good head shorter than he but she still managed to intimidate him. "Are you infected? This time answer with your mind."
"No," Kalim said out loud before his thoughts became jumbled and confused.
"While your body can lie, your thoughts always give you away." Snow's breath was coming out in a cool cloud. She had the cool turned on and if she got any closer to my son she would give him frostbite. "Try to stay away from the infected because if you manage to get nanos in you not even your daddy with his big stick can save you."
Her threat made Snow disappeared and soon the other guardians followed as well. Bravo, bravo. That was an oscar worthy performance. I thought at them as they moved back towards the caves; they were still here but invisible to Kalim. Thanks, don't get dead. I wished them luck as they went back to hunting more infected.
"What do we do now father?" Kalim asked in a whisper.
"Now we walk back to town. After that you get to go home so that you can console your distraught wife and lonely son." I gave my command in a firm voice.
"Oh," he seemed disappointed at the mundane reply.
"What kind of a man leaves his responsibilities in order to pursue their personal vendetta?" I allowed my own disapproval leech into my voice. If it was not for his need for revenge I could be happily stalking a very pretty girl right about now.
It took me a day and a half to get back to Earth and the young woman who had suddenly become so important to me. First I had to go back to the island for decontamination. It would have been the ultimate irony if a guardian, the ones who were supposed to destroy the infected, were to carry the infection back to earth. Since I had come into such close contact with the infected my clothes were destroyed while a diagnostic tool verified that my body was clean of infection.
The attic of Sassy's cabin was a lot cleaner, but this house was still occupied on a regular basis. I stepped down down from the attic and headed to the shower in order to wash off the disinfectant from my body. I wanted more than anything to hunt down my mate but that would have been tricky since the sun was fully up. Plus I needed some sleep since it had been nearly a week since the last time I had slept. I toweled myself off and headed to the bedroom and nearly laughed. It seemed that Phila had the same plan as she was asleep in bed. Throwing my wet towel into the hamper I pulled back the covers and joined her in bed.
"Oh hey, you are back." My lifting of the comforter and letting in the cool air woke Phila up a little.
"Yeah, is Leah ok?" I whispered back not wanting to wake her up fully.
"Yeah, she went patrolling for the past two nights. Now she is off on a job hunt in Forks." Even half asleep Phila managed to spit out the name of the small town with a great deal of derision. Phila was really a big town sort of girl.
"Thanks, for watching out for her." I whispered while getting comfortable on my pillows.
It was not until the next morning that I was able to see my mate again. We had woken up before noon so that Phila could have enough time to jump to Seattle and make it to her afternoon lab. She was the one who pointed out what I had completely missed.
"You know we are going to have to stop doing this, at least for a while." She waved her hand in a general way.
"Eat lunch together?" I asked confused.
"No sleep together," she spoke slowly enunciating the words almost like I was an idiot.
"We have alway slept together," there were places where you needed someone you could trust at your back when you caught a few hours of sleep.
"Yeah but a girlfriend is not going to exactly understand that you sleep naked with another woman." Phila pointed out the obvious as she ate her sandwich.
So what is why I spent most of Monday getting rid of all evidence of Phila. It was not that I wanted to exactly hide her from Leah, but it would have been hard to explain how partners lived without explaining parts of being a guardian. Especially for a girl who had been dumped in such a bad way. She would not appreciate the fact that I slept naked with another woman, and I am sure she would not understand the fact that I always slept in the nude.
It was not until Tuesday morning that I had the opportunity to go see Leah. I was ready to head out Monday night but I got a call from my mother that could not be avoided. Instead of getting to watch my mate on patrols I got a verbal ass kicking from my mother for failing to tell her all about my mate. The only thing that kept me sane was Aodh sending me images of what Leah was doing.
The sun was fully up when I reached the woods that bordered near Leah's home. The ease with which the werewolf patrol could be avoided made me a little wary. What did a group of teenagers know about military strategy? Having seen them operate I was going to say absolutely nothing. I shuddered to think that this inept group was going to have to face off against the highly trained Volturi guard.
Making sure my cloak of invisibility was solid I took a step out into the light of day. I did not walk across the field. Instead I jumped to the window I knew to be her bedroom.
I spotted her passed out on the bed as soon as I looked in her window. Not able to help myself I jumped inside of her room, the brother was still home pretending to finish up some homework. The mother was too busy concentrating on her bookkeeping to notice her son slacking off.
Leah's hands were carefully folded underneath her head as she lay on her side. Her forehead no longer creased with the lines of worry and despair. The moment of peace was giving me an image of what she must have been like before the fates had decided to toss her around. The normally angry and downturned twist of her lips was gone. They were currently slightly puckered almost as if she was a sleeping beauty waiting for the prince charming to come and kiss her awake. I hope this was not the case because while my heritage included a royal bloodline I was no prince charming. She heaved a small sigh and a strand of hair fluttered and landed on the soft pink lips. I was consumed with jealousy, I wanted to be the one to touch those pillowy pink lips.
Against my better judgement I reached over and pulled the hair out of the way. My fingers taking care only to touch the hair, but despite the softest of touches she started to wake.
"Shhh, Princess sleep and dream only happy dreams," I whispered the word so quietly that not even the acute hearing of the wolf in the next room could hear me. The frustration of the past couple of days slipped away like water through my fingers by watching her resting so peacefully. I spent a few minutes watching her sleep before the racket of her brother getting ready to leave for school woke her up. The lines of misery returned to her face almost the second she became aware of her surroundings. As Leah went off in search of a job I retreated to the cabin and plotted.
It was time to introduce myself to Leah's mother. It was going to take all of my expert skills to prevent Sue Clearwater from kicking me out of her daughter's life as soon as she saw me.
A/N: Happy Mother's Day. I would like to say that this morning I woke up to a beautiful gift handmade by my grateful children, but unfortunately this morning resembled most weekend mornings. This usually involves two kids and two cats trying to squeeze into the bed with my husband and I; all this at an ungodly early hour.
In other news: Dreaming at Dawn has been nominated for a She Wolf Award for most inventive Leah/OC. shewolfawards (dot) blogspot (dot) com if you want to see the other nominations. Voting begins May 21st if you want to send some support, or just want to look for other good fanfic stories to read.
x-Converse-Queen-x: Don't know if you are reading this part but thanks for the review. I am glad you like the story. The only Myles I know is this old man who absolutely loves to pull pranks on people, how do people misspell Myles?
Moani-Sama: How did Kendrick lose his mate? In a very violent way. I have had several people asking me what Kendrick looks like. I am going to go with Lenny Krazitz (someone had suggested him and I am fine with it), and after looking up his name to make sure I spelled it right I spent the next 15 minutes staring at his hotness. I thought I answered this question for someone a while back.
Princessx: Glad you liked the less perfect side of Phil, and while he is not perfect he really does try for his Princess.
December Duchess: I liked how Phil interacts with his grandson too, and I wanted to add a little bit of the competitive side of Phil in there as well. He does need to be the number one grandpa. His son is just an ordinary kid who got caught up in some bad circumstances and it scarred him for the rest of his life. Though you have to admit that the story is from Phil's point of view so he will be a little bit biased. Especially since the son's foolishness is keeping Phil away from Leah. Thanks for the insightful reviews.
MeMeMeMeeeeee: I think Phil knows the way he is supposed to behave, but he does not always have the emotional cues to help him out. He has a very strong sense of family and responsibility, but that comes from being a guardian. I see Phil as being somewhat of an awesome father to have, but he would be totally hated when his kids are teenagers. He is a psychic so he would be able to see anytime they try to sneak out or drink too much. His son is an ordinary guy that has too much to deal with and is making some poor choices.
Myyoung228: Writing from Phil's perspective is kind of fun but at the same time I have to get a little creative so I don't just end up repeating myself. Going off on a tangent with Kalim and Phil's interactions was at first only a way to develop Phil's character better.
Sassy and Seth may take me a while, I am thinking about redoing parts of the story and adding some action. Embry and Stephi might just be a really long short story but we will see what happens.
Inosolan: He has responsibilities, and that sucks when all he wants to do is stalk a miserable little she-wolf.
IBTeri: Glad you liked the story, Leah going through family training and upgrades might have to come in snippets. It really is not all that cool, I was thinking about adding Leah's partner. Now that is going to be fun :D.
Hgmsnoopy: Don't worry Phil will take care of his adopted son, especially since his own family is willing to help him out.
Connect2tjb: Writing about Phil is fun, he has a lot more history. This gives me the opportunity to make him more complex than 19 year old Leah.
