Page 44 of Custodian

“Well, Charlemagne? Not so smug now, are you? Your little custodian bitch isn’t here to save you,” Emmanuel’s mouth still gaped open and his cultured voice was a distressing parody of civility.

“Well, that isn’t strictly true,” Lark volunteered, smiling as he tapped his head. “Step back,” Lark cautioned his teammates.

Dex scrambled back along with Darius, Ivy, and Nikolai, just in time to witness a shockwave of power blast from Lark. Emmanuel looked like he had been hit by lightning – his entire body lit up and he went rigid, shuddering and seizing where he stood. When Lark staggered, Ivy caught him before he could fall to the ground, and Dex knew their only chance of channelling Max’s power was spent. Darius was unable to do it because he wasn’t a potentate, and although Nikolai was, he was not bound in Max’s Order. Luckily, Emmanuel appeared damaged enough that Dex felt a little bit of hope that they would make it out of there alive. But just as he took a step forward, sword raised, Emmanuel dropped his pretty-boy persona.

The being standing in front of him looked like a rotting corpse; his skin was beyond pale and was a sickly grey with ribbons of it literally hanging off. His long black hair was dank and oily and looked to be falling from his skull in clumps. He was beyond emaciated and even as Dex watched in morbid fascination, Emmanuel’s fingernails grew into two-inch claws, a thick yellow substance dripping from them. Dex gagged, knowing it was pus.

Emmanuel glared at them all but now seemed incapable of speech. Pounding on the door behind his back had the grotesque figure grinning maniacally. He pointed a bony finger at them, as if marking them for death, before he melted into the ground as nothing but mist and shadow. Dex didn’t have time to marvel at or fear what he had just witnessed, because he knew the thundering noise coming from beyond the door was the result of dozens of pissed-off chades.

“Nikolai? Tell me there’s another way out of this room,” Dex pleaded.

The Commander of the Rangers shook his head, “Sorry. This is a secure room. Only one way in or out.”

“Great,” Lark snorted, now sitting on his arse on the floor and looking very green around the gills.

Nikolai leaned back against the control desk, seemingly unconcerned, “Don’t worry. That door is enforced with the same material we use to make the chade shackles. They won’t get through.”

“Didn’t seem to matter to Emmanuel,” Darius pointed out, scythe gripped tightly in his fist.

Nikolai shrugged, “Yeah, well. He ain’t no normal chade is he? That guy is majorly fucked-up.”

Dex snorted, “No shit.”

“Besides, the cavalry is already here,” Nikolai pointed to the computer monitors and the dozens of rangers that were now pouring into the hallways. Nik pointed to a red button, “Distress call,” he explained.

Dex exhaled in relief. He was positive the five of them could do some serious damage to the chades. But not before they did some serious damage in return. So, instead of putting his old sword to the test straight away, he sat back and watched Nik’s rangers cut down the frenzied chades by half before joining the fray.

TWENTY-ONE

Axel made his way from Lark’s room after having spent the last couple of hours hanging out with the guy. Lark was impatient to get out of bed but Max insisted he still needed some more time to rest. His buddy was by no means as bad as he had been after the first time Max had channelled her powers through him, tapping into the Order bond and his unique abilities as a potentate. But given Lark had also received a nasty swipe from a chade, he was still feeling the lingering effects of the toxin in his system. Nikolai had also received a couple of good scratches but Max had been able to heal those before the ranger had fallen too ill. Although, Max had still insisted Nik stay with them so he could be nursed through his convalescence. The women of the house had cooed and petted the good-looking biker-pirate, and Nikolai had lapped it all up, merely grinning when the men growled at him.

The debacle at the chade encampment had scared them all, but at least they had their first real look at Emmanuel. When Axel had seen Emmanuel through Darius and Lark’s eyes, he had been terrified for his friends. Emmanuel had been nothing like any of them had been expecting – at first anyway. Axel could hardly believe the man with the cultured voice and spiffy clothes had then disintegrated into a creature from whence nightmares came. If it weren’t an insult to their little mascot, Axel would have called the filthy chade a zombie. That is exactly what he had looked like; the walking dead.

“For all intents and purposes, that’s what he is. His heart no longer beats, and although his brain still functions, it is nothing but a rotting mass of tissue inside his decaying skull.”

The cheery words came from the corner of the room and Axel squinted into the dim light, finally spotting Max huddled in the dark corner of the library. The fact that all of the lights were off and she was rubbing her forehead constantly with her fingers, alerted him to the headache she must have. A quick peek through the Order bond and he winced as he felt the pounding echo in his own cranium before Max muted the link. Instead of chastising her for squirrelling her pain away from them, he walked over to her and took her hand.

“Come on, lay down,” Axel directed, as he guided Max to the lounge, pushing her down flat.

“This is no time for sex, Axel.”

Max’s voice sounded serious and reprimanding, and he practically fell back on his arse in order to get away from her. “Max …” he began, only to blow out a breath when he saw the humour glinting in her eyes.Little witch, he thought, but was overwhelmingly relieved to see she could joke. Things couldn’t be that bad if Max was joking with him. “Funny.” He said, lifting her head off the cushion and sitting down, placing her head on his own knees instead. He began to rub her temples in small concentric circles, hoping to ease the ache. He knew his hands were always warm – his temperature always running a little hotter than normal people. It was an artefact of his association with his element; fire.

Max sighed and closed her eyes, accepting his help. Her mouth kicked up a fraction at the corners, “You should have seen your face.”

He snorted, “Well, I don’t want to see my face after Ryker pummels it into dust because he heard the words: you, me, and sex – in the same sentence.”

Max’s eyes popped open, “You’re not really afraid of him.”

Axel thought about that for a moment. No, he wasn’t really afraid of his Captain. But he did respect the hell out of the man and there was a time not too long ago when he was certainly cautious around him. One wrong word and the guy would go nuclear. Not that Axel had any right to talk – he had been exactly the same for a period of time too. In fact, Axel had thought he’d met a kindred spirit when he had stumbled upon Ryker four years ago. The only difference? Ryker had snarled and growled at everyone, threatening them with bodily harm if they got too close. As for himself, he used his wicked tongue to antagonise people, disguising his biting words and true pain as jokes and laughter. It had worked, for the most part. Most people couldn’t stand him long enough to get to know him. But his sharp tongue hadn’t bothered the scarred-up paladin, and Axel had unwittingly found himself a home.

“Of course I’m not afraid of him,” Axel responded to Max. “But my respect for our dear potentate’s temper is very healthy,” he added with a wink.

Max smiled again, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Clearly, she was still bothered by something despite her attempts for some comic relief. “What is it, Max? Is it the gang? Because they’re all okay, almost back to normal. So are Dave and all the chadens.”

Ryker had immediately contacted Knox and his sons, along with Caspian and his paladins, and asked them to fortify the hotel. They had been doing round the clock perimeter checks in the four days since Emmanuel had instigated the chade prison break. Although Emmanuel’s threat that he would be paying all the redeemed chades a visit had caused an initial influx of fear at the hotel, it had also had a surprisingly different consequence. The chadens were pissed off and were now closer than ever. They had all rallied around each other as well as their new leaders – Knox and Dex – and Axel knew they would fight to the death to stay whole and clean. None of them wanted to go back to what they were.

He realised Max hadn’t answered him and tweaked her on her nose, “Honey?”

---