Shadow Guardians: The Beast

Katherine admired Magnus while he armed himself. In his holster were his two daggers and two retractable scimitars, and how was it even possible to retract a full sword into a handle, she wondered. Then he had five throwing stars in a holster over his chest. His personal armory, conveniently hidden in the walk-in closet, had so much more than that. Handguns, rifles, and bandoleers of ammunition were all anointed with holy water. And all that leather... His trench coat hid the weapons perfectly, and his boots were heavy enough to cave in a man’s skull. She supposed he didn’t need much more than he was already carrying. He was a ticking time bomb himself.

“What happens if you’re alone and you change? I mean, the last time you were buck naked when you changed back. What happens to your weapons? And your clothes?” she asked.

He checked all his holsters and the position of the weapons again. “The weapons are blessed. They always end up back here. The clothes, well, they get ripped to bits. I go through a lot of leather. Changing is expensive, so I try not to do it too often. I have some measure of control over it.”

“What do you mean they end up back here?"

He shrugged. “They just do. Almost in the same way a demon spawns in the world. They disappear of their own volition and end up back in my closet.”

“Oh…”

The corners of his mouth tugged up. “The gods look after their creations as best they can.”

She thought back to how pained he’d been when he last transformed. “But if it hurts so much when you transform back, isn’t it dangerous for you to be alone? Why does the healing hurt more than the wound? I mean, you could barely move.”

“You’re right, it’s better for me to be with Draven and Zachiel when I transform, but I sometimes go off on my own. I enjoy the solitude some nights, even if I have demons screeching my eardrums apart. Being away from everyone sometimes resets my internal systems to a state of calm. My beast will never transform mid-battle. It doesn’t stop until all demons in close proximity to me are dead. But the chance is there that a demon can spawn from another dimension near me. It’s happened before. And I do make it through, even if blind with agony. The angels have time and again offered me their aid.

The pain of healing is a trade-off for swiftness. As warriors, we can’t afford to spend six weeks in bed with a broken bone. It has to be minutes, at worst, around half a day.”

“The angels,” Katherine felt at the soft collar of Ophie’s pale purple polo neck sweater. Her slight frame kept her perpetually cold, especially at night. “They appear on reflective surfaces, right? Like, the mosaic tiles on the pots outside?”

Magnus gave a nod and removed some keys from the holder mounted next to the door. “That’s one of the places. They also like to dance on the water droplets in the fountain. They keep watch over us during the day, but demons are usually more nocturnal. At least in this realm. Their main undertakings go down at night.”

“Why is that?” Katherine asked as she followed him out of his living pad. The lights of his space were always dimmed, or they consisted merely of candle glow, so the bright LED of the hallway momentarily blinded her, even if it was in a warm-white color.

“Humans in general fear things that go bump in the dark. They feed off that fear.”

They headed straight for the elevator. As soon as the doors closed, she was wrapped in his embrace, and his mouth coupled lovingly with hers, his tongue savoring her, not demanding. His lips were so perfectly carved, like those of a dark angel. Inhaling, her nostrils were filled with that wonderful scent of him.

The doors opened, and by then they were standing next to one another, him in dark sunglasses, her all rosy and red. They stepped into the grand hall downstairs, which was packed with civilian nosferi chatting with one another or in groups, some kissing and showing affection to their mates. The clinking of glasses filled with alcoholic drinks, mirth, and the drone of conversation filled the air.

It wasn’t a party, but the grand hall downstairs was a common hangout for the civilians that sought the safety of the vampire warriors’ house. Many of them were related in some way or another to the warrior nosferi, and it was risky for them to be outside where demons could use them for retribution against a nosferi warrior. Besides, the servants just absolutely adored having a full house to tend to. It was more of a safe house than a coven.

This time, when Katherine walked out with Magnus, she received fewer astonished stares than the first time, but still a few were fixated on her, and she was unable to decipher their expressions.

“Why do they stare at me?” she whispered to Magnus.

He smiled. “Because you’re a neron. You’re a rare breed. They’re open about their admiration for you. Of course, now they’re probably staring because any fool would know that you’re bonded to me.”

She defensively crossed her arms around herself. “Not sure if I like the celebrity status.”

“I gathered that from the fact that you told Lizbeth to call you by name. The servants will never call any vampire or nosferi by name. Trust me, I’ve tried over the last seven hundred years. They are set in their traditional ways. So you’ll just have to get used to being treated with respect around here.”

Outside, a lime-green Corvette was waiting for them.

Katherine gaped in awe. “Wow,”

Magnus pressed a button on the keys in his hand, and the alarm disengaged with two blinks of the lights and two beeps. When he opened the door for her, Katherine was stupefied that there were still men—ah, vampires—out in the world who did that.

She got into the car and rubbed her hand over her heart. She was nervous about how Magnus would react when he saw Kyle or whatever Kyle was busy with. Maybe it would be better for her to try to prepare him for it. She considered which words she was going to use that wouldn’t trip his switch. He got into the car next to her, and with the press of a button, the V8 engine roared to life.

The strangest thing happened when they left through the gates of Grandfall Manor. Everything outside the windows suddenly became indistinct, and she couldn’t distinguish in which direction they were moving. She rubbed at her eyes, but it didn’t clear the haziness.

“Don’t worry about it,” Magnus said. “It’s better for your own protection and for the protection of everyone else if you don’t know where the house is.”

“How is this happening?” she asked, leaning her head back, which was now swimming with motion sickness.

Magnus glanced at her, sensing the queasiness. “Close your eyes or look at something that’s not moving, like the dashboard. It’s a fissure in dimensions that creates the distortion.”

She closed her eyes and breathed down the nausea, felt the warmth of his hand over her own. It occurred to her suddenly that no one had ever held her hand through her sickness; no one had ever visited her in the hospital. Not even Chloe. The thought engaged her tear ducts.

“We’re almost through it.”

“Jeez, how do the servants know how to navigate through this?”

“I’m not at liberty to share much of that information, but I can tell you, they count. You can open your eyes now.”

She did, and now she instantly recognized Prospect Avenue. Kyle’s apartment building was another thirty minutes or so from here. She turned her head toward him. He looked menacing in the dark with all that black.

She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. “Magnus I need to tell you something. I need to warn you. Promise me you won’t get angry.”

He was silent for a beat. “I don’t make promises I can’t keep. I can promise that I’ll try… That’s it.”

“It’s about Kyle. My ex-boyfriend,” she said, and at the mention of that, she saw his fingers squeeze around the steering wheel. But it was too late to stop now.

“Okay,” he said evenly.

“Magnus, Kyle cheated on me with more than one person.”

He gritted his teeth so hard that she was expecting to hear them crack at any moment. His chest constricted with anger, and he deepened his breathing to compensate for the lessening oxygen.

She deliberated for a minute if she really wanted to explain further, but since they were heading to his apartment building, she didn’t have a choice. They were probably going to walk in on him while he was in the midst of some bizarre fleshly act.

“I’m not into the gangbang thing, but he is. And I’ve got nothing against him for that. By all means, every person is free to do as they please. But he’s…very open… about it, if you know what I mean. He’s into public nudity.” Especially in front of me. “We might walk in on something.”

Magnus pulled the car over to the side of the road, killed the engine, and leaned his elbow on the space beneath the window. He covered his eyes with his hand. “I need a minute.”

“Okay.”

He sensed exactly what she was so carefully trying to hide from him. That deadbeat bastard was breaking down her self-worth by flaunting his lovers to her, showing her exactly how pathetic he thought she was. She was ailing, and he was showing her how much better he could do by taking not one, not two, but three lovers at a time. They weren’t even the same ones, night after night. He just picked them up anywhere, so long as he could humiliate her. Magnus shut his eyes when he realized that he was now picking up on Kyle’s mind through his connection with her. She didn’t even see it the same way.

And she was thinking now about how she had to clean the house and cook for everyone too. That was like a final insult. She wasn’t good enough to take care of herself and find other lodging, nor was she good enough for him. She was merely a disposable creature of toil.

Magnus was in a downward spiral, and he was losing control more than gaining it the longer he listened to the depths of her mind.

“I want you to promise not to kill him.”

That request was like a box closing in on a claustrophobic person. His heart smarted. He leaned over to her and caressed her face down to the nape of her neck. She leaned her head into his hand. He so wanted to show her how worthy she was of better. “My meeran,” he murmured.

“What’s that mean?”

He smiled lightly. He cupped her chin with his fingers and traced the edges of her lips with the pad of his thumb. “My beloved,”

She liquefied inside. His touch, his voice, and his gaze were spellbinding, even though she couldn’t see his eyes through the sunglasses, and they broke down all her barriers. “Yes,” she said softly, her eyes hazy.

“I promise not to kill the human—only for you, even if I should nail his hands and feet to a burning stake.”

That snapped her out of that dreamy haze he created around her almost instantly.

He sighed as he pulled back and started the engine again.