Guardian's Joy #3 (13 page)

“Under threat of annihilation, the
Paenitentia were born. They saw the Daughters of Man as the source
of their downfall and renounced them, severing all ties.

“The Daughters of Man quietly continued,
suffering the indignities of persecution, making their way as best
they could, passing the gifts and knowledge down from one
generation to the next, Daughter to Daughter. They no longer bore
sons.

“They were forced to live the lives of humans
in the human world and learned to adapt to maintain their
anonymity. As we do today. We are their descendants.”

Manon pointed to each of the women in the
room and then to herself. “We are Daughters of Man.”

“The Paenitentia see it differently,” she
continued, “They believe that they were seduced by the Daughters of
Man and betrayed into giving them the secrets of magicks. They
believe that had they never mated with us, they would never have
fallen from grace and suffered the wrath and curses of God.”

JJ took a few minutes to think it over. Each
time they answered one of her questions, she found six more. “So if
these guys are Paenitentia, how did they end up with you?”

“I’d like to say it was a matter of love
conquering all, but I think it’s more than that.” Grace eyed Manon
with sympathy. “Going against everyone you know and everything
you’ve been taught isn’t easy. To be shunned by the Paenitentia
would mean total isolation. It’s not like humans where you can find
new friends who think like you do. If you’re a member of the Race,
where would you go? Canaan had men who would stand with him and
with me. He and his House were already breaking with traditions and
Guardians are a stubborn lot. His love for me became part of the
rebellion.”

“It opened the door for Nico and me,” added
Hope.

“And it brought Otto’s love out into the
open,” Manon chuckled. “Something I couldn’t do in a few hundred
years.”

JJ nodded as if she understood, but something
in the story bothered her. Did the Paenitentia still have the
ability to beguile the Daughters of Man? Did these women truly love
these Paenitentia or were they under some kind of thrall? It
probably wouldn’t be wise to ask these questions aloud. But she
really needed to know, because every time Nardo looked at her… “So
what’s a Guardian?” she asked instead.

*****

“What do you mean three?” Canaan’s looked
like he wanted to hit something or someone and Nardo hoped it
wasn’t him.

He sat at one of the computer stations,
pointing at the screen. "I've got an email here from Dr. Shirley,
the coroner, to the Police Commissioner. He’s referencing an
incident, previously discussed, that occurred last month.” He read
from the email, “It would appear that the current party was subject
to the same physical anomalies as previously discussed.”

“And that would mean…?” Col asked, “In
English please.”

Nardo ignored the interruption and continued
reading. “Questions have been asked by inquisitive parties and I am
unsure of the appropriate response. Please advise.”

“Ah, the Fourth Estate has caught wind of
it,” the professor nodded as if it all made sense. “Can you find
the original communiqué?”

“What the hell is the Fourth Estate and what
did they catch wind of? Boss,” Dov whined his complaint, “Col’s
doing that to improve your vocabulary with a new word a day shit
and if he doesn’t understand, how the hell am I supposed to.”

Canaan, elbow on the table, massaged his
forehead with his fingers. He huffed a laugh. “I think he’s trying
to write in code. He’s saying the current victim was attacked in
the same way as the other one. Now the press is asking questions.”
He looked at Nardo. “How’d we miss this?”

Nardo appreciated the ‘we’, but knew it was
his responsibility. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he
spoke.

“There’s nothing here, my lord. They either
spoke in person or over the phone. I check police and coroner
reports regularly. We had a DBD three weeks ago, but Dov and Nico
got the bastard and the victim was badly decomposed by the time
they found him. I swear there was nothing that should have caught
my attention. And I promise you, a victim drained of blood would
have caught my attention. There’s probably a hard copy somewhere. A
paper copy,” he explained before either of the twins could ask.

“Shit, even I knew that one,” Dov
muttered.

“I would venture the speculation that they
wished to avoid public panic. They were hoping the original attack
was a singular incident and no further action need be taken.” The
professor finished packing his pipe and carefully returned the
leather pouch to the inside pocket of his jacket. “I don’t suppose
humans would take a possible vampire attack lightly.”

“I imagine most humans would write it off as
some insane killer simulating a vampire, but there are others who
would be more than willing to believe,” Nico said from his end of
the table. “The press will have a field day with this. Once it’s
out, there’ll be reporters crawling everywhere. It won’t make our
job any easier.”

“Any thoughts?” Canaan addressed the old
vampire who was staring off into the invisible distance.
“Otto?”

Otto shook his head to bring himself back to
the present. He ran his hand over his mouth. “This isn’t making any
sense. You have one attack at least a month ago, I assume it’s a
human and a female or the difference in sex would have been noted.
Then another, what, ten days ago and another tonight. What’s he
doing in the meantime? The Blood Lust is impossible to control
during those first few months, the thirst impossible to quench. You
remember what it was like, Canaan. I couldn’t have gone more than a
couple of days without feeding. How can this one be going weeks?
I’ve seen a few vampires in my time and as you boys like to say,
been there, done that, got my very own t-shirt. I’ve never seen or
heard of something like this. It doesn’t make sense.”

He ran his hand through hair that was now
completely grey though still as thick as a young man’s. The old man
was aging so fast. Nardo could see the difference in just the two
years he’d known the vampire. Turning sped up the aging process,
making it similar to that of human men. Otto was well along in
years when he was turned and would now die of old age much sooner
than he should. How old was this new vampire? How many years would
he have to wreak havoc unless he was caught?

“We need to get some sleep,” Canaan was
saying. “Nardo, I mean you as well. Share the pain, son. This isn’t
all on you. Tonight, after you’ve had some rest, you see if you can
find a pattern, a clue, anything about where the attacks occurred.
We need to think about where this guy is hiding and what he’s
drinking between kills. Dov, you and Col check with Eddie down at
the blood bank and see if he’s heard anything and if anyone comes
up with anything, anything at all, let me know immediately.”

Nardo had no intention of going to bed. He’d
be up all day if that’s what it took to find something, anything
for Canaan to go on. But first, he needed to see Joy. Having lived
her life in the human world, she was probably having a hard time
sleeping through the day.

He knocked quietly on her door and when there
was no answer, he opened it quietly to peek inside. Manon was
sitting in the chair in the corner with her index finger raised in
the air. Slowly she brought it to her lips warning him to be
silent. She rose with some effort and went to the bed where Hope
was sleeping with her feet on the pillow and her head at the foot
and Grace was curled with her head on Hope’s stomach. She roused
the younger women, made the same quieting gesture to them and
guided them toward the door.

Nardo held it for them while they stumbled
out into the hallway still half asleep. Manon was last out and she
paused to give his cheek an affectionate pat as she passed.

“Our Joy is a lost child,” she whispered,
“She needs someone stronger than she to bring her home.”

He took in the room with a glance; saw the
empty plates piled on the tray, the four empty wine bottles on the
dresser and the fifth, half full, on the nightstand. An empty box
of chocolates lay in the middle of the bed, the little brown papers
scattered over the spread except for the few crumpled on the table
by Manon’s chair.

Joy slept peacefully with her hands folded
over her stomach, fingers entwined and the pillows fanned out like
flower petals behind her head.

Nardo took the chair Manon had vacated and
watched the woman sleeping peacefully in the bed. She didn’t need
him here. It was obvious from the condition of the room she’d had
plenty of company and was well enough to participate in the
festivities. He ought to leave, return to his own lonely rooms in
the building next door or to the War Room, but he couldn’t. He
watched as she turned onto her side with her hands folded under her
cheek, her mouth slightly open and twitching occasionally at some
thought or dream. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever
seen.

He slumped down in the chair until his head
touched the back rest and extended his long legs full length in
front of him. Closing his eyes, he breathed in the scents of the
room. Above the smell of wine and food, over the aroma of rich,
dark chocolate and the sweet fragrance of woman, he caught the
scent of Joy. Red cinnamon candies, red-hots Grace called them and
he thought the name fitting. Sweet sugary spice with just enough
bite to make a man’s tongue take notice. He drew the scent in again
and closed his eyes.

There were demons out there and a vampire on
the loose and none of it mattered while he was here in this room.
The troubles would be there tonight when he awoke and would no
doubt be there for nights to come, but for this day, Nardo found
peace in the presence of Joy.

Chapter 14

JJ was awake long before she opened her eyes
and she was well aware that she wasn’t alone. Sometime during the
night… no, during the day… the other women had left and Nardo had
taken Manon’s place in the chair. She didn’t have to open her eyes
to know it was him. She just knew, though she did wonder why he was
there. Did they think she needed watching?

Over dinner and way too much wine, the other
women had seemed friendly and open. The question was why?

Grace was an odd combination of fun and
fierce. She laughed a lot and liked to tease, but you could hear
the love in her voice when she spoke about the people in her
‘family’ and how readily she defended them from anyone else’s
criticism. Hope, though more reserved, was no Mary Poppins. She
evidently left the housekeeping to Grace while she busied herself
with running what was quickly amounting to a multi-million dollar
enterprise. Manon was something of an enigma and JJ wondered if the
French had a word for steel magnolia. They were all so different
and yet all so… feminine.

She knew they were honest. One of the things
that had always given her an edge as a cop was being able to detect
a lie almost as soon as it left the lips. She didn’t know how she
did it and wished she’d had the gift when she was younger and
really needed it…

JJ frowned. Why had she needed it? She
reached for the memory, but as always, it eluded her grasp.
Pursuing the elusive thread would only bring about a massive
headache. She’d tried it a thousand times before. Four years of her
life had been swallowed by a black hole of amnesia and it wasn’t
coming back. She’d adjusted to it, took it one day at a time. John
had taught her that. But lately, the flashes of memory had become
more frequent and her reaction to them more pronounced; witness her
response to being carried in Nardo’s arms.

His name brought her attention back to the
slow breathing of the sleeping man across the room. His face was
long and narrow with high cheekbones, a long, slightly irregular
nose and wide mouth. It was a face that would harden and grow
craggy with age. The long dark lashes surrounding those tender
hazel eyes and full lower lip would keep it from looking cruel. He
wasn’t handsome in the conventional sense, but he was attractive
and when he smiled, he looked kind.

Someone knocked softly at the door and JJ
almost laughed when Nardo’s eyes snapped open and darted about the
room. He quickly recovered when he caught her staring and gave her
a wink.

“I meant to be gone before everyone was
awake,” he apologized, “I wouldn’t want them to think I was…”

JJ scratcher her itchy head and sniffed at
her underarm. “Don’t worry, they won’t,” she said, “You don’t look
that desperate. Come on in,” she called when the knock sounded
again.

Faith entered carrying a tray loaded with
eggs, pancakes, bacon, juice and a pot of coffee. She was followed
by a man in a dark brown turtleneck and a tweed jacket who smelled
like pipe tobacco. He had dark eyes and a long, slightly hooked
nose. His body looked like it was mostly arms and legs which made
him seem taller than he really was. His dark hair was slightly
mussed like someone who ran his hand through it regularly. He
looked both surprised and embarrassed.

“Oh. I do beg your pardon. We haven’t
interrupted anything, have we?” he asked as he watched Nardo lace
up his boots. “We can come back later.”

“No!” they both said together, “He/I was just
leaving.”

“I see, ah, er, or perhaps I don’t,” he said,
looking from one to the other. “In any event, Grace requested I
deliver your breakfast tray and I was waylaid in the hall by this
young lady who has apparently decided to attend to your waking
meal.” He nodded and smiled at Faith.

Nardo laughed at JJ’s look. “Joy, allow me to
introduce Broadbent and yes, he always talks that way. You get used
to it after a while. It’s one of the reasons we call him the
professor.” He stepped back as Faith scooted past. “This is new,”
he referred to Faith who was already tucking a napkin into the neck
of JJ’s gown.