Guardians of the Light (Book 1: Rebirth)

Chapter 17

Upon reading Ronin’s notes his vision of seeing the Order of Shadows using blood from humans as a temporary solution to raise The Darkness. Elder Theokritos sent Nicole on her very first mission outside the walls of the Circle. The last time Nicole had been on a field mission her twin brother Nico had been killed. While at first she was not happy about it, Nicole understood that the Elder would not just send any Guardian on this mission.

North New Haven was the toughest part of New Haven ruled by the Blood Exiles Clan Leader, who was ruthless and just let his Blood Seekers run wild threatening the human population there. They knew Riodarn was working with The Order of Shadows too raise The Darkness and providing them with human hosts.

While doing her research Nicole had come across an article in the New Haven Post about six unsolved missing person cases, this would attract human attention so Nicole would have to be careful when she traveled to North New Haven to have a look around the sights the humans had been taken from. If she could figure out Riodarn patterns, she might be able to stop him and save some human lives, cut off the supply to the Order of Shadows. Her first stop was at an old abandoned warehouse down by the pier, this is where the latest victim Melissa Jenkins had been taken from.

Reports stated Melissa was a recent single mother of two young boys who would now be motherless because of a senseless act; Melissa’s family would not have any closure either because the Order would make sure her body was deposed of, the police would never find it. In else the Guardians got to the Order’s Headquarters first before they used their dark magic to rid any trace of Melissa then maybe the family could have some closure. Nicole had been reading up information on Melissa, including hacking into the New Haven Police Departments Data Base, viewing files on their missing person report on Melissa, she had been flagged missing by a fellow student when she failed to show up for her classes at the local community college.

Melissa had been studying to get her Office Assistance Degree to better her and her two son’s lives. She had also been taking part time work to make extra cash as a Speedy driver. Speedy was a local independent driving service for New Haven, according to Melissa’s profile she had great rates and good reviews. Her last day she had received a pick up just outside the location of the old abandoned warehouse in North New Haven.

The Clan of vampires must have used the app as a way to lure victims to this location. Nicole would have to check if there was any connection between the Speedy services and the current six missing persons. There was not much located inside the warehouse, most of the roof had fallen apart years ago, derbies covered the floor of the building, making it hard for Nicole to search around for clues.

Having the witch light with her did help illuminate her way around, an orb fueled by magic; it floated a few inches’ in front of the person possessing it. Gifted to her from Elder Theokritos on her five years as Head of Guardian protection at The Circle and the three years out of those five spent under the service of the Elder as his personal protection Guardian. Nicole had been honoured when the Elder had chosen her out of so many other worthy Guardians but Elder Theokritos saw something in her, believed in her and her abilities, it was one of the main reasons she was out here now instead of being back at The Sanctuary with him. She was pulled away from her thoughts when the sound of footsteps echoed through out the empty building, she had been very careful not to be seen or followed here and yet the footsteps drew closer and closer to where she was.

A short distance away Nicole could see a pillar left standing from the original lay out of the building, the prefect place to lay low until who ever else was here passed. Making a quick decision before she was caught, she put out the witch light quickly running into the pitch black. Nicole was about half way towards the pillar when a bright light suddenly pointed onto her illuminating her presence.

Out in the black void came a voice, “Captain Noah Phillips of the New Haven Police Department. Stay where you are and don’t move, put up your hands where I can see them”. Nicole did as he commanded her too, even in the dark she could just make out that he had his gun drawn and his flashlight pointed at her. There was nowhere for Nicole to really run, plus she did not like the idea of being shot at if she did not do what she was being told to do.

There had been many times before this that Nicole had been shot at or injured and while Guardians were different from regular humans it still hurt like hell when it happened and the healing stage after. Once five minutes had passed, the man lowered his gun but still kept his flashlight on her, he could see she was unarmed and Nicole did not want to hurt this human. The man took another step closer to her, Nicole getting a better look at his face. Black hair cut short, blue eyes the colour of the sky, rounded face with a fine jawline, just enough of a bread to cover that jawline.

It was silly to think such things about a complete stranger and given the situation she should not be eyeing him up but Nicole could not help it, there was something about him, “I can see that you’re unarmed, but I’d like to know why you’re here. This place is abandoned and it is an active police crime scene. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t arrest you now for trespassing”.

Nicole could not tell him the real reason why she was here, she would have to think of a good lie to tell him, a believe able cover story to get her out of this mess in one piece. “I am a private investigator hired by the Jenkins family to get answers into the disappearance of their daughter Melissa. The company I work for was able to track her last Speedy pick up to this location and here I am. I can show you my papers”.

This was the simplest and fast cover story she could come up with on the spot, it would take nothing to phone up Headquarters tell them what happened and for them to be able to take care of the rest, making the Jenkins family believe this fake cover story. When Noah nodded his head, Nicole slowly pulled out a wallet sliding a blank card out she handed it to him, in bedded with magic, a mere human would see whatever the human wanted to see.

Noah reached for his phone dialing it in to check and make sure everything panned out, sliding his phone back into his pocket he gave Nicole back the card. “Everything checks out, your companies real and you’re who you say you are. You’re free to go if you wish or stick around and maybe we can both help each other out”. Nicole thought about it for a moment, “Lead the way Captain”; she spoke as she followed beside him as they continued to explore the rest of the building together.

Being this close to Noah sent chills down Nicole’s spine but in a good way, it was so hard to explain. When she returned to Headquarters, she was going to have to seek some clarity on the subject with Elder Theokritos. She was scared to think of what it might be as she had read stories about it in ancient Guardian text.

Both of them emerged from the entrance of the building having been both unsuccessful in finding any clues, she turned to face Noah he spoke first; “I guess this is where we part ways then. Good luck in your search, maybe we’ll cross paths again”, he went to start walking away when Nicole spoke stopping him in his tracks, “I have some information you might find helpful for your investigation, maybe we might be able to solve this together two heads are better than one I always say”, this put a smirk across his face followed by a nod turning back to face her. “I know a place not far from here, its small and a little run down but it’s got great food, what do you say?”.

She agreed to go with him and while she might not fully trust him now they both had a common goal. Nicole would still have her guard up around Noah until she got to know him better and build the trust between them. He had been right about the Diner, nothing like the diner’s in main New Haven, the coffee though made up for that. When they were settled into the booth and food ordered Nicole went into detail about what she knew about the missing people in North New Haven, leaving out the supernatural parts of course simply put she told Noah that she believed a cult was behind everything, it was half true, but the only truth he needed to hear.