Shadow Guardians: The Key

“I wasn’t in any realm I’ve been to before,” Katherine murmured in the dark. She’d woken up from yet another dream in a cold sweat. This one felt so much closer to home for some reason. Her screams woke Magnus, and he calmed her right down by doing that hypnotic rubbing thing against her jugular vein, a steady sweeping rub of the pad of his thumb. She lay cradled in his arm now, her head resting on his chest.

“I know I say that every time,” she heaved a weary sigh, and he was truly becoming worried that she wasn’t getting enough sleep. He stroked her back in a slow, comforting sweep.

“There are so many realms of hell it’s batty. But I didn’t sense a demonic presence in the realm. It all just seemed like an endless, formless black abyss, with this blue purple fog all over the place. It seemed like it was contained, almost like the fog was inside some kind of invisible enclosure. There wasn’t really anything scary about it that I could see, but I felt so much terror while I was there that, I don’t think it was my own. I think I was picking up on the emotions of whatever was in that fog.

And there was no lock to open this time.

There was an angel there that I hadn’t seen before, just before I woke up,” She became silent for a minute, remembering the beauty of her.

“Her skin was dark, like a luscious chocolate, her hair was wavy and black and her eyes...gods, her eyes...they were these deep purple pools of mystery that soothed the soul. She never gave me her name, but I felt like she had me there for a reason, she was trying to tell me something, but before I could figure out what, it’s like something just cut us off from each other. Guess someone cut the wire to my hotline to the other side.” She smiled in the dark.

There was a pause as Magnus considered what she had told him, while he toyed with a strand of her hair. “There are a few angels who look like that,” he said, his voice hoarse after waking. “They’re from a tribe of angels called the Aliaki. They usually work with the dead in some way.” He tried clearing his throat but it didn’t help at all to clear it up. He continued sounding like sandpaper made audible. Katherine found it kind of sexy. “Her job may well be to guide deceased souls to the Light Realm. In which case, her name might be Naya’il.”

“Well that’s a little nerve wracking, if I was just with the Grim Reaper. Never thought Grim would be so beautiful, though.”

“Yeah, you putting it like that isn’t really making me feel any better, you know.”

“How do you know her name?” Katherine asked curiously, swinging her leg over his beneath the sheets. She accidentally brought her knee up a little too high, and couldn’t stop the grin when she felt his excitement.

“A long time ago, there was a demon that blocked the way to the Light Realm. The souls of the deceased couldn’t pass through the fissures to the other side. She cast me in there, into that ever changing river between dimensions to kill it. I nearly went insane because I had no sense of time or direction. Even my body felt out of my control, and I need control, because of my beast. I was in there for minutes. Felt like years. I was never so glad to be back in the land of the living.”

She rolled, sat herself down on him. “Lucky for me, that you came back,” she purred, churning her hips, simmering heat. His hands groped at her ass.

His hips began moving in tandem with her, “Lucky for both of us. I’m an addict now, I need my fix.”

She smiled in the dark, and leaned forward, locking her lips with his in a drowning kiss.

Uriah couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned in bed like someone wrestling an alligator, unable to settle himself into any kind of comfortable position. Eventually giving up, an hour before the shutters lifted for the night, he made his way down to the shooting range.

The underground shooting range was brightly lit with those blasted white LEDs, with concrete floors and metal walls. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and metal, and the sound of gunfire echoed off the walls, intensifying the experience.

There was a variety of weapons and guns including assault rifles, pistols and semi-automatics, displayed on a rack against the wall. Uriah donned the protective goggles and earplugs, feeling like a nancy. But his eyes and ears were so sensitive right now, his head would blow off if he used the stuff without it. Even with the earplugs, it was uncomfortable.

He chose a simple 9mm pistol. The kind of weapon didn’t matter right now. He had to hit the target. He checked the magazine, then moved over to the firing line, shuffling kind of like the advanced elderly. His bones were killing him. Whatever.

The range was divided into different sections, each with its own set of targets that moved and popped up randomly, helping to improve reaction time.

Uriah let loose, trying to hit the targets as fast and accurately as possible. He got better at actually hitting them as time went on and his adrenaline started rising, sharpening his senses. It gave him a sense of power and pride, knowing that he was going to use these skills to slay evil. Especially when he remembered why he was doing it, to avenge his parents. But there were so many other innocents to avenge, weren’t there?

The temperature in the room rose as he continued popping bullets, the smell of gunfire thick in the air. Hearing nothing but the explosive bangs over and over again, he nearly forgot about the aches in his body.

Then he saw movement out of his peripheral vision. He startled and swung with the gun still held high.

“Whoa! Easy, man...” Strix, Ruse and Loki raised their hands in surrender.

Uriah lowered the gun, almost a tad too slowly. Rip’s pals being here can never mean anything good. Why the heck were they up so early? And he wondered where Rip was hiding, if he was going to tackle him from behind when he wasn’t expecting it.

“What do you want,” Uriah said evenly, his voice low. He ejected the magazine of the pistol and started reloading.

“Hey ah, we were wondering if you’d like to come hang out with us at Nova? We were going out in, like half an hour.” Strix asked, kicking at the ground awkwardly.

Uriah paused with what he was doing. They want to hang with him? “Why, where’s Rip.”

“He ah, he’s gone home. Family business.”

Uriah continued reloading bullets. “And now you want to hang with me after treating me like shit, because?”

Strix sighed and exchanged glances with Loki and Ruse, who both looked kind of embarrassed. “Look man, we’re sorry about all that. We wanna make it up to you. Rip beat the shit out of us if we didn’t follow him.”

Uriah sighed, his head was too fuzzy to think straight. “You don’t have to make it up to me.” Out of nowhere, a vicious headache started pounding behind his eyes.

A deep need to burrow into himself started growing in his gut. He wanted to curl into a ball in the corner of a dark room where it was silent and he was alone. Maybe he’d wrap himself in a blanket, cocoon in.

“Come on, man. Lemme just buy you a beer, that’s all.”

Uriah stared down at the gun he’d laid down on the metal table. He probably wasn’t going to continue practicing.

“Please?”

Uriah shut his eyes in pure irritation. “Fine!” He said just to get the guy to shut up and leave.

“Great! Be ready in thirty. We’ll meet you outside.” Strix gave him a pat on the shoulder in a gesture of camaraderie.

When they left and Uriah was alone with his thoughts again, he wondered what the hell just got into him to agree? He wanted silence, and now he was going out to a club? He rubbed fingers at his temples. Great, now he was losing his sanity too.

Outside in the hall, Strix grinned victoriously and placed his arms around the shoulders of his buds, satisfied that the wuss fell for the act. It was time for a reckoning. No way he was going to let him get away with sic’ing the brothers on Rip.

When Uriah arrived with Strix and his buds at Nova, the noise alone told him he’d made a mistake. Somehow though, he couldn’t bring himself to register that in his gut. He felt intrinsically that there was a reason why he was here at this moment. And it didn’t feel like it had anything to do with the three nosferi.

The inside of Nova was sensory overload. The sound of trippy music and the heavy beat of bass filled the air, creating a trance-like atmosphere. The lights flashed and pulsed, casting a kaleidoscope of colors across the room that was dizzying.

The smell of pot smoke mixed with the strong scent of cologne, perfume and sweaty dancing bodies created an intoxicating aroma. People were gathered at the bar, sipping on cocktails and chatting with each other. Some were dancing to the music, while others were lounging on sleek couches, with women wearing very little clothing on their laps.

Uriah felt totally out of place, not to mention the bouncer had to check his ID four times, and reconfirm it with three other bouncers before actually letting him in.

“Now this is what I’m talkin’ bout!” Loki said, checking out the babes passing him by.

The three of them led Uriah through the crowds to a corner in the back, out of the eye of the security. At this point, he followed only because he needed a place to sit down. The lights disoriented him so, he stumbled all over the place and had to perpetually rebalance himself. He considered calling the servant back to take him home, instead he sank down into the chair, sweat glistening on his skin. The three big nosferi sat opposite him.

Eventually they ordered beer, which Uriah probably wasn’t going to drink. Not unless he wanted to spill his guts all over the floor. Some of the women who passed by their table looked at him with curiosity, as aware as he was that he didn’t belong here.

The atmosphere was awkward between the four of them. The three nosferi conversed about whores and drinking and partying, while Uriah sat there staring at the droplets of condensation on the glass of his untouched beer. It felt petty to him, the shit they were talking about. There was a war ongoing out there. He wished that whatever he felt was going to happen would just happen already.

“How you doin’, Uriah? Havin’ a good time?” Strix asked with a smirk.

Uriah didn’t look at him, just shrugged. No. I feel like shit and I want to go back to my room. “Sure. Whatever.”

“I wanna show you something at the back, like in the VIP section, come on.” Strix rose, the other two following, and nodded him over.

Uriah heaved a sigh and followed. He weaved through the crowd, that image of huddling into himself appearing in his head again. That was mighty appealing right about now. The sweaty bodies and the stenches in the air made him feel...dirty.

He followed them into some kind of backstage area to a metal door.

“VIP area’s through here, looks like you could use the quieter atmosphere.” Loki said.

Much as he didn’t trust them, the promise of quiet was too alluring.

Except, when he went through the door, he had a split second to realize they were in the alley behind the club before Strix landed a punch right under his jaw that sent him flying onto the wet tarmac. Pain blasted up into his head, creating white spots in his vision.

“You think we were gonna let you get away with sending Rip away? You little bitch,” Loki spat.

Uriah sensed, rather than saw, that he had a pistol hidden under his jacket. “I didn’t do anything. Rip was a big enough moron to get himself expelled,” he groaned.

A boot kissed his gut, and bile shot up into his throat, but he swallowed it down, clenching his teeth and rolling onto his side.

Just as they were getting ready to beat the living shit out of him, a portal blasted open in a flash of white light ten feet from them. Strix, Loki and Ruse stumbled back, blinded by the intensity. As a black sinewy screeching monstrosity with Freddie Kruger claws slithered out of it, the nosferi retreated. Uriah rolled over onto all fours, ignoring pounding pain all over him, and stared the thing down, locking gazes with its beady red eyes.

Three khad lunged out of the portal before it closed.

Strix and his pals sketched out without weapons. Loki let off shots at the thing, and only managed to make it angry, since his pistol wasn’t blessed. He’d bought it from a general gun dealer. They were screaming curses and scrambling to get out of the way when the khad charged, seeing that their weapons had no effect on them.

Uriah managed to drag himself onto his feet, panting for breath. His heart felt like it was going to hammer a hole into his chest and leap out. “Loki! Give me your gun!”

Loki glanced between him and the creatures, not sure whether to trust him or not. What’s to say he wouldn’t just use the pistol to shoot him, after all?

“Do it!” Uriah yelled.

Two khad were lunged near him, ready to jump right on him, their eyes abysmal, their sneers splitting their faces.

Fuck it. He threw Uriah the gun, and the folder knife in his pocket. He caught them, and like they knew he was now armed, the creatures turned to him.

The next few seconds felt slowed, like minutes. Before Uriah’s eyes he saw a vision of a tall wall of stone, with hundreds, thousands, of names carved into the stone, some glowing azure blue. The words came to him in the old language, and he used the first name he saw.

“In the name of the goddess Astera, in the name of the angel Furia, our guardians in war and battle, I bless these weapons, that they may strike down mine enemies and banish them from this world. For these weapons I carry with honor, and a gladness of heart in battle.”

The glow passed over the knife and pistol. Uriah lifted the gun and shot the two khad, one in the head, one in the chest. They went up in flames. In a vision that was only seconds ahead of reality, he saw the third leaping at him from the side. He swung, squeezed the trigger, plugged it right into its gaping maw. It ashed all over him.

While the nosferi were huddled in fear and shock together, wondering where the hell he learned whatever language he just used, he aimed at the demon, squeezed, and got nothing but an empty click. He gaped at the empty gun in panic. The creature sprang towards him, and again, a vision gave him a second of advantage to get out of the way. He floundered, and the creature managed to take a swipe at his back. Burning pain ran over his shoulder blades where its claws dug into his flesh.

On uneven footing while stumbling back, mere seconds before he yard-saled it, he grasped the knife, swung and threw. It hit the demon square between the eyes just as it was about to leap on top of him. Before that great weight landed on him though, it disintegrated with an ear-piercing shrill.

Uriah collapsed down on his back, claw marks and all, and clamped down on his teeth, too exhausted to care about the stinging pain that was like a hot iron. He turned his head to look at Strix & Goon from his vantage point on the ground. They stared at him in disbelief. The little guy took down four big bad guys.

He didn’t know if it was admiration or jealousy he was seeing. With a huff, and several rounds of counting from one to three, he managed to get himself up off the ground, feeling like he’d tumbled down the side of a two thousand foot cliff. He swayed as he went back inside the club.

Phone. Draven. Servant. Anyone to just get him home. Strix & Goon didn’t attempt to even stop him. As he went back inside, another vision happened.

Abbot Lane, 00:03.