Guardian by Dan Gleed Read Free Book Online Page A

guard and I remember scrabbling frantically to get past it and end my life.
    But there was something else going on in the clearing. Something I would never have guessed at or given any credence to, even if I had been told. An unseen world which, had I been able to sense it, might have brought the vile flavour of putrefaction and the stench of utter decay to my nostrils. But invisible, unknown, a shadow darker than the blackest night flickered suddenly backwards, away from me, the better to observe this final act of destruction. Now it watched in drooling expectation, revelling in the only genuine satisfaction left to it – the violent annihilation of a human being. Any human.
    For weeks, the demonic outcast from its own spiritual realm had ridden me, preternatural claws hooked into the flesh of my back, their pulsing grip goading me, an unsuspecting victim, whilst the slavering mouth whispered despair, self-loathing and selfish revenge directly into my fevered mind, well below the conscious level. Repulsive in its ugliness, rejected even by its own kind, the repellent, almost rat-like creature had been looking for a host in the right frame of mind. Preferably depressed or, better still, already despairing. And it had found me, helpless and hurting at the base of Cat Hill, a perfect target upon which to begin feeding like some loathsome parasite. Yet its eerie concentration, leaning forward in bloody expectation of the final downward plunge onto the trigger and the upward smashing of the bullet, caused it to miss the only warning of looming destruction it would ever get from its own universe.
    Even as the stick slid clear of the trigger guard, a shaft of pure, brilliant white light struck downwards, unseen by the natural world but spread in a great cone around me, and the tip of a dazzling sword arrested the stick’s forward thrust. And at the very edge of this lightning bolt, the solid blackness exploded in a ball of screaming fire, leathery limbs juddering suddenly outwards in writhing agony for a fraction of time, before dissolving to a rapidly thinning smear of oily smoke that drifted into nothingness.
    With a grim sense of satisfaction, the majestic angel who had simultaneously materialised at my side sheathed his long, glittering sword in a single, smooth movement. Totally unconcerned as to whether or not he was observed. For as with humanity, even more so in this spiritual world, inhabited by angels and prying demons, there was always a witness. And so it was, not far away, hidden deep in one of the shallow pools, something else watched intently. A low-ranking excrescence with the unlikely name of Altoid was trembling with the very real fear that close proximity to any angel tended to induce. But not so much fear that it prevented him from calculating how he might present this information so as to curry favour with his superiors. And it might have saved the underworld a deal of trouble if they had bothered to consider a word of his report.
    â€œStop!” As though from a great distance, I remember the clear command ringing in my head, but I sensed nothing, saw nothing. Dazed, I let the stick fall from near-lifeless fingers. And in that very act, with an awful clarity, the full force of what I was doing hit home. Death was looking me straight in the face and for a moment I stared right back before cringing away, the instance forever stamped into my soul. And with that confrontation, the driving, headlong rush to destruction leached away as swiftly as it had begun, no longer fed by my now obliterated and unseen adversary. And hard on the heels of reprieve came a mixture of utter, heartfelt relief, mixed with a heady dose of fright over what had so nearly been done. And in the moment of discovering I didn’t really want to die, I was overwhelmed by a great sorrow. Scalding grief over my actions, and deep remorse over the hurt that Roz, my Mother, my friends would undoubtedly have felt. And with the