Thank you all for the kind reviews.
Disclaimer: They're not mine. Please don't sue. Just working my way through a bad case of writer's block.
Eliot stood behind Nate and stared down at his own motionless body, broken and bloody. He hardly recognized himself amid the flurry of activity around him. Nate and Sophie had been pulled away from him and were sitting on the floor about 6 feet away. Captain Mercier cradled his head and closed Eliot's eyes.
"Surreal isn't it?"
Eliot twitched. It had been a long time since someone was able to sneak up behind him and it happened twice in a short period of time. He turned and next to him stood another man, slightly taller than Nate and blond. "What's surreal?"
"Being dead," he replied. "One moment you're there, the next you're not." His voice was deep and calm.
"Dead. I'm dead."
"Temporarily anyway. In about twenty four hours you'll be back in your body. You'll be different, of course, but you'll get used to it."
Eliot rubbed his eyes. "What the hell did they do to me?"
The man lit up a cigarette and leaned against the arm of the couch. "It should be pretty obvious considering the bites on your neck. It's a cliche really. Most vamps actually prefer the femoral artery."
He took a drag off the cigarette and watched as Eliot's body was carried to the garden. Two men set him down in the grass just beyond a brick patio. One of them remove the sling that immobilized Eliot's injured shoulder.
Eliot felt the pain of movement as his arm was placed out to the side. He rubbed the sore spot.
"You okay?" the man asked.
"Phantom pain I guess. Why can I still feel things?"
"Because your soul is still connected to your body. Oh, you might wanna brace yourself. They're bringing out the garden hose."
"Gard...For wha? Holy shit!" Eliot screamed as his corporeal body was doused in cold water. He shivered as he watched the blood flow off his body. Captain Mercier removed his clothing and two other men scrubbed the dried blood from his skin and hair. Sophie sat on a marble bench a few feet away with Parker who had just come out of her drug induced stupor. Eliot moved closer to them and again, looked down at his body.
"What's going to happen to me?" he asked. "And can they put a towel over me or something? Cold water...it's embarrassing."
"Well, they're preparing your body." the man replied.
"For what?"
"For your transition. You see, there are two basic ways to create a vampire. One, you bury them and they become night walkers. Or, you can leave them out in the open to be exposed to the sun and they become day walkers. Looks like you're gonna be a day walker."
Eliot walked over to the bench where Sophie was sitting and sat down beside her.
"Sophie, are you okay?" He tried to put his hand on her arm but it passed right through her. He felt a sting in his chest.
"Nobody can see you and nobody can hear you."
Eliot sighed. "What 's a day walker?"
"It should be obvious. You'll be able to walk around in the daytime without bursting into flames. You'll be weaker at night, stronger than human, but weak for a vampire. In order to do that, they need to make sure they expose as much skin as possible."
Eliot looked up at the sky. The last of the stars were fading and the tell tale white of the sunrise was creeping up on the horizon. "Are they day walkers too?"
"No, they have only a few minutes to get you squared away. I'm sure they have others coming to protect you and your friends.". The man took another drag on his cigarette.
"Protect me?" Eliot stared down at the brick patio. "Am I that vulnerable?"
"For the next 24 hours, you'll be vulnerable. And for the next few hours after that, you'll be very dangerous to your friends."
Eliot looked back to Sophie and Parker. He looked around from Nate and Hardison but couldn't see them.
"Why is this happening?"
"To be honest, I don't know. And if I did, it's not my place to tell you."
"Then why are you here, talking to me?" Anger was building in Eliot and he actually felt a bit relieved to feel a familiar emotion.
"I'm waiting, like you. I've been stuck in that damn blade for I don't know how long. When you go back to your body, I go with you."
"What do you mean you go with me?"
The man dropped his cigarette butt on the ground. "The Staff of Inigo holds the souls of the queens and their guardians. When a queen dies, her guardian, if he didn't die with her, is killed and their souls are collected in the blade of the Staff. The staff is a symbol of the queen's power. The Staff chooses each new queen and her guardian."
Eliot took a deep breath and stood up. "The last thing I remember is this...thing...coming at me. I think it came from the Staff."
"Then you must be the new guardian."
"Guardian?"
"Guardians, are like advisors. They hold all the knowledge and history of our people. Because we have to stay hidden from the outside world, we don't write anything down. Our thoughts, music, literature, philosophy , history, politics, everything about us is retained by the guardians. The Queen rules but without a guardian, she is powerless."
"And the girl the I pulled up out of that dungeon. She's the Queen? She's a vampire too?" Eliot watched the vampires run for cover as the sun broke the horizon.
"Ironically, no. Immortal, yes...sort of. But she's not a vampire. She doesn't need to feed like they do. She straddles the two worlds. In fact, you weren't supposed to be a vampire. Guardians are human, too."
Eliot began to pace back and forth along the brick patio. "This is so messed up. Explain this to me. From the beginning."
"No."
"No? What is this, huh?" Eliot stopped and stared him down. "You drop all this on me and now you're just gonna stop?"
"What's your name?"
"What?" Eliot snapped.
"What's your name?"
"Eliot. Eliot Spencer."
"Jarek."
"Jarek, give me something here. Why me?"
"You know, I asked myself the same question when the Staff choose me."
"You were a guardian?"
"For seven hundred years."
"Seven..."
"Hundred, yes."
"Were you a vampire?"
"No. Immortal, almost. Obviously we can die. I just takes a lot more effort to make it happen."
Eliot looked back at his body. As the sunlight touch him, his skin glowed in shades of rose and gold.
"I hope you're not attached to that tattoo," Jarek said.
"Why? What's gonna happen to it?"
"During the transition, the body will push out impurities, including tattoo ink."
"That's too bad."
"You're not going to remember any of this." So you might as well stop asking questions. The minister will brief you as soon as you complete the transition."
"And what am I supposed to do until then?"
"Step out into the sun."
"Step out into the sun. What good's that gonna do?"
"Follow me." Jarek motioned to a sunny spot in the garden.
Eliot followed him and stopped in the light. He felt the warm touch of the sun on his shoulders and a light breeze blew through his hair. He turned his face up toward the sky and took a deep breath, letting fresh morning air fill his lungs. The air smelled like lilac.