The Guardian's, Book One, Chapter One

                                              Chapter One



         Damnit, he so didn’t need this tonight, Michael thought as he watched the battered woman fall through the doorway into Jeremiah’s quick arms. He had been in the field for hours that night and so far two more young women had been found dead and mutilated with no clues as to who was behind it, so to say the least he was already in a foul mood.

         “What the hell is she doing here?” he spat out as he instantly recognized Gaden Rowley beneath all the blackened, dried blood and grime. She was wearing what had once been a purple tank top and black leather pants, but now was tattered and torn into rags. There were cuts slashed up and down her arms, some still bleeding freely, leaving red trails like veins on her deathly pale skin. Through the holes ripped into the clothing, he saw that she had similar cuts riddled all over her body. It looked as if someone had wrapped her in barbed wire and spun her out of it.

         Before he had time to react or say anything else, he heard familiar footsteps pounding down the stairs at a run. Gareth went straight to Gaden and helped Jeremiah lay her on a sofa in the foyer. The woman was out cold and looked on the verge of death. Gareth quickly flipped out his cell phone and Michael knew who he was calling as he spoke quietly into the phone with short, chopped sentences.

         Seconds later, there was a crackling sound in the room and suddenly three women stood there, appearing out of thin air. He knew two of them, Jayla and Leah, because they helped them out now and then. The other woman was the one he was staring at though.

         She was absolutely the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She was short and slender, her skin lightly tanned and perfect. She had a face with soft, delicate features, purely feminine, with lush lips and big, warm honey eyes. She had a thick, wild mass of golden curls that tumbled down to her waist. He itched to run his figures through those beautiful curls and see if they were as soft as they looked, which shocked him. She wore a light yellow sundress that stopped just above her knees and revealed long legs that looked smooth and perfectly shaped.

Realizing he was staring like a dumbfounded buffoon, Michael tore his gaze away from her and looked back at Gareth. His brother was kneeling beside the sofa, looking up at the women.

“This is Sarris Alin,” Jayla said, gesturing to the other woman. “She’s been staying with us for awhile. She’s a healer, too. Actually, the strongest we’ve ever met.”

Gareth gave the woman a pleading look, and said quietly in his deep, commanding voice,

“Please, help her.”

“Of course I will,” the woman named Sarris said and she crossed over to where Gaden lay in a burst of movement, curls bouncing, and dress dancing around her legs. Her voice was soft and musical, like a wind chime in the breeze. Michael felt desire course through his body, felt himself starting to heat up, and shoved the feelings away, not wanting to deal with them right now.

He watched as Sarris calmly assessed Gaden’s injuries and then placed her hands over the unconscious woman. He expected the healing light to be the same color as Jayla and Leah’s, a pure white glow, but it started out as a soft pink, then grew stronger as Sarris moved her hands up and down the woman’s body, becoming a blaze of deep red, orange, and yellow. It was like fire, he thought, fascinated as it enveloped Gaden. It took her less than five minutes to heal the woman’s whole body, which was a shock as well. It would have taken Leah and Jayla hours together. This Healer was like no other, he though, and found that Gareth was looking at her with the same wonder.

They were quickly distracted, though, when Gaden shot up off the couch and started screaming at the top of her lungs, the sound a high, piercing wail of terror. Before anyone could stop her, she was across the room, huddled against the wall, shaking with fear, staring at them through bright, emerald green eyes that leaked tears. She wasn’t seeing them, though; she was back where ever she had received her injuries.

Michael was shocked all over again, a feeling he was growing wearier of by the second. Gaden had always been a fighter, always been tough and strong. Michael remembered her once almost having her arm torn off by a Crawler and she hadn’t even shed a tear or complained, but continued to fight until she’d passed out from blood loss. He had always respected her strength and endurance, but now she looked like a small, helpless child curled up against that wall.

“Oh, shit,” he said as he looked down at his brother. Gareth was also on the floor, his head clutched between his hands and his face screwed up with a look of pure agony. His breathing was fast and uneven, his face red with strain as he tried to control his own mind. He knelt beside his brother and spoke to the women and Jeremiah,

“Get her out of here.” When they didn’t respond, their eyes shooting back and forth between the two people on the floor, uncertain, he shouted, “NOW,” and they jumped into action. He turned his attention to his brother, knowing that, as an Empath, the man was feeling everything that was spilling out of Gaden in the state she was in.

“It’s alright, Gareth, snap out of it,” he said, making his rough voice as soothing as he could. Gareth opened his eyes, those pools of penetrating sky blue they shared, and Michael saw all the pain and fear he was feeling reflected in them. “Come on back, my brother. You know how to block it out. Control it, don’t let it control you,” he kept talking, keeping his voice calm, letting calming feelings wash through him, knowing his brother could focus in on his feelings to find his way back from inside his head.

Eventually, Gareth calmed down and Michael helped him off the floor onto the sofa Gaden had been on.

“How do you feel?” Michael asked as he studied his brother.

“Like a tractor plowed my brain,” Gareth said, and then looked up to meet Michael’s eyes. “I’m fine,” he assured him, “but Gaden may not be. The things she felt…” he said, but trailed off with a shudder. “Let’s go see if she’s calmed down any.”

He stood, began walking to the stairs before Michael stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“She was wrong,” Michael said with anger in his voice. “What she did was wrong, Gareth, and you know it.”

“Yeah,” his brother nodded. “But I need to know why.”

Michael’s curiosity was struck to, but that didn’t make up for the fact that Gaden had hurt his brother and she didn’t deserve his kindness. He would make sure Gareth got his explanations, no matter what it took.