Guardian by Sam Cheever Read Free Book Online

was working.
    I knelt down beside him and reached to touch his arm. As soon as our flesh connected he stopped moving and looked up at me with eyes that were still haunted by pain memory. He took a deep breath and closed them. “Remind me not to walk away from you again.”
    I grinned. Just like that control returned. I was back. I helped him to his feet and he stood before me for a moment, testing his limbs and shaking slightly. “That really sucked.”
    I felt kind of bad about that. But I still believed it had been necessary. If I hadn’t potioned him he’d be long gone and I’d be reduced to tracking him again. He was damn slippery for a human and I was tired of tracking him.
    An inhuman shriek came to us from the direction of the cave mouth. Ian’s head came up and he grabbed my hand. “It’s back. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
    “What is it?”
    Ian pulled me more deeply into the cave. “Harpy. A particularly foul one.”
    I frowned. “I thought they were extinct.”
    “That’s what the fairies wanted you to think. Unfortunately it isn’t true. It’s one of the reasons the Wood gives you the creeps. On some level you must have known they were here.”
    “They?”
    Behind us, the sound of wings filled the air and another shriek reverberated through the heavy, putrid smelling air. We started to run, stumbling over an assortment of stark white bones and rotting carcasses that were apparently being saved for later.
    Another shriek told us the harpy wasn’t all that far away.
    “We’re almost there." Ian assured me.
    Ahead of us, an answering shriek brought us to a dead stop. “Shit.” Ian muttered.
    “That doesn’t quite cover it.” I responded.
    We stood in a fairly tight passageway. Ahead of us I could see a dim light that told us the cave opened up into some type of cavern. Behind us the light was cut off suddenly, as a large, dark shape eclipsed it.
    Another shriek set our feet into motion. Unfortunately we were running away from certain death, and right into the arms of definite demise. But instinct had us by the throat. And it had us running from the devil we could see.
    Then the light at the end of the passageway in front of us closed off and we stopped, gasping for air. “Zeus’s eyeballs!” Ian screamed in frustration.
    A wild, incoherent warbling entered the passageway from both ends, growing increasingly more intense as the harpies moved in for the kill.
    We turned to stand back to back. I heard the thwuck of a sword leaving its scabbard as Ian readied his weapon of choice. I held my electric fork in front of me, wishing I’d thought to bring a sword. Or at least a long knife.
    In order for me to use my fork I’d have to get up real close and personal with the harpies. And that probably meant I’d be sliced to ribbons by their twelve inch long talons.
    That just sucked.
    “Use the dust!” I screamed at Ian.
    “It won’t work in here.”
    “I don’t have a sword, Ian.”
    Without taking his eyes from his own nightmare at the end of the passageway, Ian twisted a hand around my body. “Take this.”
    I looked down. His hand held a long knife that looked plenty deadly. Not quite as good as a sword, but used in conjunction with my weapon, it would work. “Thanks.”
    The harpies gave off dual shrieks and launched their attack, flying toward us at an impossible speed. I held the long knife in one hand and my weapon in the other and pressed against Ian, more from a need for some sense of security than anything else.
    With wings that spread sixteen to twenty feet in full flight, I wondered how the harpies could even fly in the small space. As they got close, I realized they weren’t exactly flying, but were using their wings to enhance their speed as they hopped toward us on huge clawed feet with long, knifelike talons.
    Ian and I stood back to back and waited. I was having trouble breathing and it wasn’t from running. My heart was pounding at a chest splitting level as I