Bound by Revenge (Guardian Series) (32 page)

“You watch too many movies.” Tom shook his head. He thought the plan was a lot more complicated that Alex was realizing.

“No. I watch the perfect amount of movies.” He said. “You wanna get dad back to the car or go after a demon?”

“I think I’ll take dad.” Tom bit the inside of his cheek. “I don’t think I can carry him myself, though.”

“You can. You haven’t used your new body yet. You’re stronger than you think. And you’ll keep getting stronger, for a little while at least. I don’t know where it plateaus yet.”

Tom hesitated. He found it hard to believe that so much could be different, but Alex was right. Tom was able to sling Bradley’s body over his shoulder like he was the size of a small child and not a grown man and Tom headed back through the window to get his father out of there before they blew everything to smithereens.

Alex cracked his knuckles and headed for the front door. There would be demons around; there was no doubt about it. He just needed to find one without getting anyone else’s attention. It’d be a lot harder for the rest of them to believe they’d miss a fight between a bunch of demons and the leanthan than a stupid argument between just the two.

The main house was hopping. There were cars out front and lights shined on all the floors. It wasn’t the right place to search for a lone guard. Instead, Alex headed towards the other side of the property, to the small cabins along the edge.

The first one was empty but the second one had just what he needed. There was a solitary thug, roaming around the room.

This is it
, he thought to himself. Fighting inside the house would defeat the purpose of this whole masquerade. They’d leave evidence of a melee and someone would catch on. He needed to get the demon outside.

It was an easy enough task, it turned out. He didn’t even have to try. While looking in the window, he cast a shadow on the floor from all the lights in the main house. The demon was outside before Alex even realized he’d been spotted.

This guy was nothing like the creatures he’d fought earlier that day, though. The way he moved lacked the strength and confidence of the others.

“Who the hell are you?” The demon barked.

“Is that any way to treat a guest?” Alex smirked. He turned to the sarcastic humor that was his failsafe move.

“I didn’t invite you here. So, unless you tell me what you’re doing here, you’re a dead man.”

The demon has no sense of humor
, Alex thought. “That’s where you’re wrong. Twice, in fact. I’m not dead
and
I’m no regular man. I like to think of myself akin to the other greats. Superman. Batman.”

“Guardian.” The demon spit the word in disgust.

“Ding, ding, ding. You got it.” Alex twisted the demons arm and pulled him tight to his chest. He held the knife up against the throbbing vein in the demon’s neck. “You’re coming with me.”

Alex led the demon through the shadow back across the yard to the guest house. Tom was already back inside ready to attack when Alex and the demon came in through the front door.

“You take the demon, Tom. I have to find a few things, real quick.” Alex handed the demon over to Tom quickly, without giving him a chance to break free from the knife’s pressure.

“Stupid human. You came back.” The demon struggled against Tom. He didn’t realize Tom had become a guardian, too.

Tom looked closely at the demon. He had been one of the jerks who’d beaten him before they’d brought him to the warehouse. Tom remembered the demon begging Marius for the pleasure of being the one to kill him. Marius refused, though he only saved Tom because he needed him as bait.

“You’re gonna make this easy for me.” Tom bit out. “Thanks.”

“Not a chance. Marius isn’t here with us. So there’s no one to stop me from finishing you off.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Just because the leanthan isn’t here, doesn’t mean it’s gonna be a free for all.” Alex walked in from the back of the room with Aron’s body flung over his shoulder and a bag of supplies in the other hand.

“I’ve got to remember to thank Vance later for his lessons in improvised weaponry.” Alex pulled a slew of bottles and chemicals out of the bag. “But first we’ve gotta stage this a little better. I think maybe you guys were fighting in here first and then you headed outside. One of you got out first and tried to blow the other one up, without realizing that he had just made it outside. Finally, you each take a shot at the other at the same time. It leaves you both dead and destroys everything.”

“Sounds good to me.” Tom smiled as he struggled to hold the demon still.

Alex walked over to the demon and frisked him. “Very convenient. I didn’t bring a gun with me, so I was a little worried that I’d have to come up with a different plan, but thanks to your preparedness I don’t need to worry.” He pulled the black automatic out of the demon’s sock.

“Raaaah!” The demon fought hard to get loose and Tom let him once he was sure Alex was ready with the gun.

Alex pulled the trigger right when the demon’s large body pummeled into him and they both landed on the ground.

“Great job muffling the sound of the gun.” Tom reached down to pull the demon off his brother.

“Thanks, that was my plan all along.” Alex played along. “We have to do this quick now.”

“No kidding.” Tom gave Alex a ‘fuck you’ glance over his shoulder as he dragged the demon out onto the gravel.

That little bastard was exactly like him at that age, sans all the supernatural bullshit
, Alex thought to himself
, he couldn’t get through a sentence without throwing in some sarcasm
.

“You gonna grab Aron or should I come back in and take care of the rest?” Tom added.

“Hold on to your shorts. I got it.” He grabbed Aron and threw him out the door, closer to the building than the demon. He grabbed the bomb he built and ran out the door to stand next to Tom.

“You got your running shoes on?” Alex looked down at Tom’s feet to see a pair of beat up converses.

“Never leave home without ‘em.” Tom volleyed back.

“Good, start running.” He said through the side of his mouth before throwing the bomb through the door.

They were almost by the gate when they heard the explosion and saw the giant ball of fire rise up from the house. And they were on the other side of the gate and down the road before anyone else would have had the time to realize what had happened.

“Two birds with one stone, kid.” Alex said to Tom when they were driving back home.

“Now, the million dollar question. How do we explain to the other’s how we got dad’s body? Leus can’t know that Deanna killed Aron. I have to keep that secret for her.”

“We’re gonna give them the same story we left for the demons. We’ll tell them that I asked you where she lived because I wanted to go in and see if we could find dad.”

“Cool. That makes sense. Should we say anything about Aron?”

“We might as well. Leus’ll find out sooner or later that his son’s dead. At least this way we can control what he hears. That’ll keep your little girlfriend in the clear.” Alex pursed his lips when he looked over at Tom and made a kissy noise.

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Tom punched Alex in the arm. “Not that I wouldn’t love it if she was. But she’s not.” He turned away from Alex to watch the houses pass by.

“You still have time, I’m sure. Noble gestures go over really well with the ladies.” Alex looked at Tom and winked. “But in the mean time, I need you to call your sister and let her know we’ve got dad’s body and we’re bringing it home. I don’t want her to get this kind of a surprise, you know what I mean. She’s tough but this would be too much, even for her.”

Tom pulled his cell out of his jeans and dialed her number. Alex grabbed his own and dialed the only person he could think of turning to. The company lawyer. His father had told him over and over again that if anything happened, no matter how bad or bizarre, to call Craig Anderson, he’d know what to do.

Abby was waiting in the living room when her brothers finally pulled up. Alex carried their father into the living room and laid the body out across the leather couch. And Abby was right there sobbing into her father’s chest.

“Stay here with your sister.” Alex gave Tom a stern look. “I’m going up to find Leus.”

“Why does he need Leus?” Abby sniffed and wiped the back of her hand across her face.

“His son’s dead. Alex is gonna tell him.”

“Did you guys kill him?” Abby pulled her arms tightly across her chest. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer. The only thing she could think of that would be harder on someone than losing a parent was losing a child.

“No. One of their own did.” Tom rubbed the center of Abby’s back to help her relax.

“Good, I guess. I know how miserable I am. I’d hate to know that we’d caused him the same kind of heartache.” Abby looked back down at her father’s body. It wasn’t the man she had been so close to. His body had transformed back to the form that he’d showed them earlier in the week. His true form. It was that young man’s body that stretched across the couch in front of her. But it was more than she had before. And she was happy to have the little bit of closure that it provided.

Leus’s door was open when Alex approached. He was sitting on the bed waiting.

“I heard you coming down the hall.” Leus said when Alex stopped in front of the door and glanced inside.

“Can I come in?” Alex stepped over the threshold and into Leus’ room. A room that was no different than it’d been before its current occupant arrived, since Leus brought no belongings.

“It’s your house.” Leus shrugged. “You can do whatever you want.”

“True.” Alex walked further into the room and stopped next to the leanthan. “I need to talk to you.”

“Are we gonna get into this again? I told you, my daughter is
not
a threat. She’s the least threatening leanthan I know.” Leus sighed and rubbed the back of his neck to massage out the tension.

“I believe you.” Alex hesitated, not sure how to bring up such a terrible thing. “It’s not about her; it’s about your son.”

“Which one?” Leus tilted his head back and squinted up at Alex.

“Aron.”

“What about Aron?” He stood up to look straight at Alex.

“I’m so sorry. He’s dead.” Alex reached out to touch Leus but pulled back seeing the anger on the leanthan’s face.

“You’ve never even seen him. Why would you make something like that up?” Leus shoved Tom away and walked around to the other side of the bed.

“I’m not. I promise. We went to Morgan’s to try to find my father, and he was there, killed by one of the demons. We barely made it out with my dad. We couldn’t go back for your son. There was an explosion that started drawing everyone out of the main house.”

“How do you know it was him?” Leus asked trying to stabilize his voice. Either Alex was lying to instigate him or his son was really dead.

“Tom was with me. He’s the one who identified him.”

“So it’s true, then.” Leus pleaded, unwilling to accept that another member of his family was gone.

“It’s true.” Alex saw Leus for what he truly was, for the first time since they’d met. He was a father, a family man who had so much taken away from him.

“I need to be alone.” Leus walked Alex out of the room.

“I’m here if you need to talk.” Alex put his hand on Leus’ shoulder.