Guardian's Joy #3 (41 page)

“Yeah, well here I am back from hell. You
don’t look too happy to see me and I’ve got to ask myself why.”

“She’s wondering what went wrong, JJ. She
wants to know why it didn’t work,” Hope said, coming from the
kitchen. Her knuckles whitened on the tray of mugs. “She’s the one
who tried to kill you, isn’t she?”

“That’s a lie!”

JJ would have doubted the accusation until
Marion denied it. The creepy feeling of a lie slithered up her
spine. “I should say thank you, Marion. If you hadn’t tried to
finish what the High Lord started, I wouldn’t be here now.” She
looked the woman up and down. “You certainly have come up in the
world. How’d you learn that wind thing? Or should I be asking who
you stole it from? Did you kill her, too?”

“You never deserved him,” Marion told her,
ignoring the questions. “You did nothing to earn it. You never
slaved or sacrificed the way the rest of us did. We all sensed your
power, but you refused to share it. Still, he had to have you, his
little half breed. You were supposed to bear his sons, continue his
line. You ruined everything and almost killed him. I was the one
who nursed him. I was the one who discovered the mirror and showed
him there was another way to reach our goals. The Nonveniae will
live on, if not through the Father then through his army. You’ll be
nothing but a brood mare for his men.” Her eyes strayed to the
mirror and then around the room.

“Are you saying the old bastard can’t have
kids?” JJ was tempted to pump her fist in the air and cheer.

“He doesn’t need you anymore. He has me.”

“That’s what you want, not what really is.”
Hope set the tray on the coffee table.

“You’re spoiling my fun, Hope. I thought I
was going to get to beat this shit out of her.” JJ picked up a mug
and wrinkled her nose. “Tea?”

Hope shrugged. “There wasn’t any coffee.” She
took a sip from her own mug. Her eyes widened and she choked.

“See? Tastes like crap, doesn’t it?”

“L-Look.” Hope pointed with her mug.

The mirror was shimmering, tiny ripples
floating across the surface. The ripples grew wider, stronger, no
longer on the surface of the glass, but becoming part of it. JJ
hurled her mug at the glass. It disappeared into the waves.

“Stop it! Stop it!”

Hope was shaking Marion, but JJ could see it
had no effect. The woman’s eyes were glazed and unseeing. Her pale
lips moved in a silent chant. JJ cocked her fist and hit her. Hard.
Marion didn’t wince, she didn’t flinch. She kept chanting. JJ drew
back her fist and hit her hard enough to break her jaw. She heard
the crack. Hope screamed. Marion’s lips kept moving.

A lamp flew past her ear. Hope screamed
again. JJ snapped her head around in time to see a small brown body
leap from the shimmering glass. Her hand came up and a streak of
blue flashed across the room. The demon squealed, its spindly arms
flung wide as it toppled forward. She looked around for Hope.

At the same time, a string of foul words
streamed from the dining room across the narrow entryway. Hope’s
obscenities were followed by a grunt and the shattering of
glass.

“See that? That’s your head, you fucking
bastard!”

JJ had no chance to enjoy the moment. She
felt another creature behind her lunge. She bent from the waist and
with a little help, used the demon’s momentum to carry it over her
shoulder.

She hissed when a claw sank into her
shoulder. “Son of a bitch.” Anger drove her booted foot downward
into the prone demon’s stomach. Off balance, she was unprepared for
the sudden twist of its body. Hind legs swept her off her feet and
she was suddenly on her back, one arm trapped beneath her, the
other at the demon’s throat and using all her strength to hold back
the snapping jaws. She could feel the blue flame tingling through
her fingertips, aching for release, but she was afraid of the
kickback. She could hear Hope engaged with another of the creatures
and knew no help could come from there nor was she sure Hope could
hold out alone. She only prayed she could end this before another
beast came through the mirror.

She squirmed beneath the demon finally
wedging her knee beneath its bulging gut. She heaved and groaned as
her knee sank into the soft flesh. The demon didn’t budge, but her
lower leg compressed the abdomen enough to pull her other leg in
and up. The use of both thighs gave her the power to raise her legs
and roll.

It wasn’t enough to get free. The thing
seemed to move in four directions at once. JJ fought to keep the
claws and teeth from finding a purchase. She heard Hope scream
Nico’s name from the other room, heard the door crash back on its
hinges and suddenly she was free. She rolled to her feet, blue
flame at the ready, but Nardo had already plunged his fist through
the demo’s chest.

“Goddammit, woman,” he snarled as he rose to
his feet. His fangs were fully extended and his face was hardened
in Battle Rage. “What the fuck did you think you were doing! I
ought to whup your ass.” He lunged for her.

He looked so angry and fierce that for a
moment she was afraid. She saw movement behind him and screamed,
“Down!”

Blue fire tore through the shoulder of his
jacket and struck the demon behind him. Nardo roared, pulled a long
knife from the sheath at his wrist and the demon’s head rolled up
against the baseboard.

JJ saw only a blur of motion, knew Nardo had
it covered and sprinted to the dining room, praying Hope would be
all right. She needn’t have worried. Nico held his mate in a
crushing embrace that might have injured a smaller woman. His mouth
covered hers as if he would devour her unless, of course, she
devoured him first. One pile of dust gave evidence to the first
demon killed and the second, with Nico’s knife beside it, was
already beginning to disintegrate.

Nardo’s arms slid around her and she turned
to him, remembered Marion and shoved him aside to run back to their
captive and the mirror.

“No!” she shouted and threw herself
forward.

Chapter
41

Marion, hands and legs still bound, was
sliding into the mirror. Her upper torso was gone in a gruesome
illusion of a body cut in half.

Without thinking, JJ threw herself at the
disappearing body and grabbed for the space where Marion’s waist
should have been. Her hand closed around a solid form and she tried
to brace her knees and pull, but instead found herself sucked into
the void beyond the mirror. She could no longer feel her physical
body. Pain laced through her arms and shoulders so excruciating
that she screamed, her voice joining Marion’s.

JJ tried to release her grip on Marion’s
waist, but had no way to know if she had succeeded. It didn’t seem
to matter. As hard as she fought to pull herself back from whatever
horror lay beyond, she was dragged forward. How much forward she
judged by the progress of agony moving steadily down her body. She
heard voices shouting both before and behind her, but they sounded
muffled and far away.

The darkness parted to reveal glowing eyes
and flashing teeth and then the indistinct face of a humanlike
being. The face became clearer, a woman not Marion, and she held
out her hands reaching for JJ. JJ grasped them in hopes of being
pulled from this unbearable pain, until the woman’s eyes came into
focus. Those eyes and the smile that joined them were the
embodiment of evil.

She knew what this woman wanted from her,
knew what she had to do to stop this, but didn’t know if she had
the strength. The pain was killing her, sapping her power,
devouring her ability to reason clearly.

On the other side of the mirror, Nardo and
Nico worked desperately to extricate JJ from the mirror. Each held
a booted foot and pulled with all their might. While their combined
strength was enough to halt her being completely enveloped by the
mirror, it wasn’t enough to pull her back through to this
world.

Nardo braced his foot against the mirror
frame which had become as solid and as immovable as the wall behind
it. He’d tried to dislodge it when he first saw JJ dive for the
other woman’s legs and Nico had tried again when Nardo shouted for
his help.

Nardo’s heart was pounding in his chest. He
was afraid their strength would tear Joy apart and kill her. As
that horrifying thought threatened to overwhelm his mind, another,
more terrifying, took its place. What if she was already dead?

“Can you feel her?” he called to Hope who
stood crying and wringing her hands behind them.

“Yes. Yes, but I can’t connect. It’s like a
mass of gray static.” Her voice quivered with panic as she
struggled to hold back a sob. “Nico, oh Nico, I don’t know what
more to do.”

“Call Manon. See if she has any ideas.”

Hope grabbed the phone from his pocket and
dialed immediately. The two Guardian’s struggled for a few more
minutes before Nico voiced what Nardo had feared to say aloud.

“I don’t know how much time we have or if we
can save her.”

“Let go,” Nardo told him, “Let go and I’ll
follow her through. I can’t let her go alone.”

“No!”

“Wait!” Hope clicked the phone shut and came
to stand near her mate. “I have to touch her.”

“No.” Nico’s vice was sharp, decisive. His
eyes pleaded with Nardo to understand. “I can’t risk losing her,
too.”

“He’s right, Hope, we can’t risk it. I’ll go
with Joy and if we can, we’ll be back and if we can’t…” He
shrugged. “We’ll be together and that’s all that matters to
me.”

“Nonsense,” Hope said and slid her fingers
through a tear in JJ’s jeans.
“Joy Justice, you look at
me.”

Could this be a trick? JJ knew the voice, but
refused to open her eyes.

“
It’s not a trick. It’s me. Open your
mind, not your eyes.”

How could this be? No words were spoken and
yet she understood what the ‘voice’ wanted.

“
Kind of like talking to Faith,
huh?”

JJ opened her mind. The blinding pain
immediately lessened to a pulsating throb as images of Nardo passed
through her mind.
No! Don’t let go! Not yet! I can do this. Need
time!

A giant yellow smiley face blossomed in her
mind.

JJ was vaguely aware of her hands clenched in
those of the woman beyond. Now that the pain had subsided, she
realized there was power there beyond the woman’s own. There was no
way she could break the hold. In fact, she now believed that her
resistance actually pulled her deeper into the unknown. She forced
herself to relax.

She needed Hope’s help, but when she tried to
convey the message, all she got back was a question mark. The
pounding rhythm of pain provided her solution.
SOS, ...---...,
and then she pictured an electrical tower along with the Danger –
High Voltage warning on an imaginary sign.

This time Hope’s answer was ‘thumbs
up’
.

“She’s going to use her power,” Hope told the
men, “But there’s going to be blowback. It’s happened before only
this time it’s going to be fierce. You two have to be ready to help
us. I’m not sure how powerful the shock will be.”

“No. I forbid it. This ‘blowback’ might kill
you. I won’t allow you to put yourself in such danger.” Nico’s
fangs peeked over his bottom lip. He refused to meet Nardo’s
eyes.

Hope gripped JJ’s leg more securely and used
her free hand to pat Nico’s cheek. She glanced at Nardo. “What
would you say if I asked the same of you, love? Would you abandon a
fellow Guardian because of my fear?” She smiled. “Of course you
wouldn’t. Now trust me as I trust you.”

“No.” Nardo echoed Nico’s objection. “Tell
her not to risk it. I’ll go with her. We’ll be together. We’ll be
all right as long as we’re together. You’ll have the mirror. We’ll
figure it out. Tell her. Show her. Do whatever the hell you do,
just get my message across. I love her.”

Hope smiled sadly. “Where she’s headed, a
Guardian couldn’t survive. If you want to be with her, this is your
only option. Trust her, Nardo, as Nico trusts me.”

Nardo swallowed hard, closed his eyes and
nodded his assent.

At Nico’s curt nod, Hope focused her eyes on
something in the mirror. Her face paled and her body began to
shake. At her nod, both men let go of JJ.

The room exploded with blue light and enough
energy to set their hair on end. Hope was thrown across the room
followed by a shower of glass. She landed against the sofa. Her
eyes flew open and she gasped. Nico was instantly at her side.

JJ was collapsed over the now empty frame of
the mirror, her forehead against the wall. Smoke rose from her
leather jacket and her white hair was singed with black. With
shaking hands, Nardo lifted her away from the frame mindful of the
possibility of jagged glass beneath her. He stripped the jacket
from her and cradled her against his chest, grateful beyond all
measure for the heartbeat matching his own. He closed his eyes and
prayed his thanks for this gift of Joy. His Joy.

“Hey,” she whispered hoarsely. She ran a
gentle finger down his cheek. “Guardians don’t cry.”

“Who says so?” He turned his head to kiss her
fingers. They tasted of sulfur and smelled of something vile. A
shiver ran through him at the thought of what had wanted her on the
other side of the mirror. “I was afraid I’d lost you,” he
whispered.

“Hmph.” She offered a weak smile. “Only the
good die young. Everyone knows that.”

“Then you are the exception to the rule,” he
said inches from her lips.

“Are you going to kiss me?”

“Before or after I whup your ass?”

“I’m not afraid of you, Guardian. You…” The
words caught in her throat and she wrapped her arms around his neck
burying her face against him. “I was afraid
for
you, afraid
you’d come after me, afraid of what would happen if you did.”