Guardians: The Fallout Page 10

  Yes, it is a complete shock to come into contact with over a dozen tigers. And yes, I am kind of freaking out. But the thing that gets me isn’t the tiger/tree combo that goes on for miles. What gets me is that the tigers remain perfectly still, like well-trained circus animals.

  They lay on all four legs. They are so perfectly aligned, that from a certain angle, they could all disappear behind each other.

  “They look harmless,” Miku says.

  “So do you,” Rio cautions her.

  “Okay, I’ll go first. I’ll walk slowly and then Ameana will follow,” Marcus instructs.

  “Be careful,” Jay says.

  He takes one step towards the direction of the sidewalk and instantly each and every tiger stand up at full alert. They all turn and face Marcus. They stay put, but the low growls serve as a stern warning.

  “Okay, that won’t work,” he says as he takes a step back towards us.

  “How are we supposed to get in? What do they want us to do? Swim there?” I ask.

  Rio gets down to the ground and touches the rim of the pool.

  “There’s something written on this plaque” he calls out. We all get down to the ground for a better look. Miku reads the words printed on the plaque.

  “Friends stay dry,” she says.

  “Does that mean we shouldn’t try to swim up to the house?” I ask.

  “If the water is the only way, we have to get in it,” Jay says.

  “We can’t go in the water,” Rio counters.

  “Because of the words on the plaque?” Ameana asks.

  “Because of the sharks.”

  We all look at Rio like he’s crazy. Then we turn and take a closer look at the pool. And sure enough there are figures moving swiftly throughout the water. I catch a quick glimpse of their fins and jagged teeth.

  “They’re Megalodon Sharks,” Marcus says.

  “I read about them in class but they’re extinct,” I add.

  “She hired a Keeper,” Ameana says.

  “You know how much it would cost to hire a Keeper year-round?” Miku asks.

  “Arden can afford it,” Rio replies.

  “What’s a Keeper?”

  “A Keeper is an Angel whose job it is to collect and preserve things in nature that man is destroying. That way Omnis won’t have to recreate them. Most of the animals that humans think are extinct have just been pulled out of circulation by Keepers.”

  “So you’re saying Dinosaurs are still alive?”

  “Dinosaurs, Dodo birds, Mammoths; you name it and Keepers have them,” Jay says.

  “They have the power to fold the animal’s natural surroundings into the size of a foundation compact. Then they put them on the shelves and take them out when Omnis wants them. Or they rent them out to rich Angels for events.”

  “Think of it as Rent-a-Center for extinct animals,” Jay jokes.

  “Okay, so we definitely can’t go in the water,” Marcus says to himself.

  “No, but maybe we can go on the water,” I say to him.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I’m new to ‘All things Angel’ but what if the plaque doesn’t mean we have to stay dry? What if it means if we are friends, we won’t get wet.”

  “You mean we would walk on water?” Miku asks.

  “Well, is there a way for Arden to tell if we are friend or foe?” I ask.

  “Yeah, she would have to have an Inner Trimeter. It’s a special meter that doesn’t tell you if the being is Angel or demon. What it does is let you know if their intent is pure. But I don’t see one.”

  “What if it’s down there? And the only way to know if we are in fact friend or foe is for us to—”

  “--Walk over the water” Marcus concludes. He looks out into the vast pool and the sharks down below.

  “It’s worth a shot,” he says as he goes to step into the pool.

  “No!” Rio says.

  “What is it?”

  “I should go first. If Emmy’s wrong about this, all the sharks will come for you. But with my shield I can at least hold them off.”

  “He’s right,” Ameana adds.

  Marcus allows Rio to get ahead of him.

  Rio says a little prayer to himself. Then he steps right into the shark-infested pool.

  It is happening right in front of my eyes but I still can’t believe it. Rio is walking on water.

  Well, not exactly. Every step he takes, large pieces of glass come from the bottom of the pool and gather to form a walkway for him. It’s a glass bridge that’s forming right before my eyes.

  We follow Rio and not one of us speaks. It’s as if speaking would break the fragile bridge that is being formed. So as an unspoken rule, everyone shuts up.

  When we finally reach the end of the pool, the glass bridge lets us off in front of a large staircase.

  There are two large columns on either side of us. Each column has a black ribbon swirled around it. As we make our way up the steps, the black ribbons unravel before us.

  They swirl out and form into shadowlike human figures. All four of them stand before us.

  Their voices are singsong like. There are two male shadows and two females. They take turns speaking.

  “Hello, Guardians and human. Welcome to Voluptas.”

  “Here we permit Angels and Demons alike. Per our hostess’s request, we only have three rules.”

  “Rule one: This is a power-free zone. Please refrain from using them at all times.”

  “Rule two: Recording devices of any kind are strictly prohibited. Traveler Angels may enter only during off-duty hours.”

  “Rule Three: Please refrain from killing humans you did not bring with you.”

  Then in unison they all say, “Again, thank you, and welcome to Voluptas.”

  Then all four shadows become smoke again and wrap themselves around the columns.

  “Some of this stuff I’ve only read about in the Splash,” Marcus says.

  “They are Shadow Servants. There are many different types: Waiters, Maids, Butlers. The ones who just spoke are Shadow Greeters,” Miku explains.

  “You need crazy coats to buy them,” Jay says.

  “Arden can afford it. Her sister is a Taker and her dad’s an Original,” Rio says.

  “An original what?”

  “Her father is Gabriel.” Rio clarifies.

  “He’s an archangel?”

  “The Original Paras are called different things in different religions,” Marcus adds.

  “That’s gotta be cool. She’s famous even among you guys.”

  “Yeah, but she doesn’t do well with convention. As a matter of fact, she is the only Para who stays on earth for months at a time,” Miku says.

  “Why does she stay down here?”

  Ameana looks pointedly at Marcus and says, “Some of us just have a thing for humans. I myself can’t imagine why.”

  Marcus opens his mouth to say something but then Jay wisely interrupts.

  “C’mon, let’s go in.”

  The ivory double doors open into Voluptas, the house of Arden.

  ****************************

  The entire mansion must be soundproof. That is the only reason we did not hear the music when we were pulling up. The music is techno meets hip-hop. The baseline literally makes it impossible to have anything hanging on the wall.

  The whole mansion seems to have been built for one purpose: to party. There is no furniture, no windows and no way to make it across the room without bumping into a body.

  There are hundreds of partygoers. They are all dress in colorful clothing that barely covers them. Everything on them sparkles, from their heels to their makeup. They move and grind in tune with the music. It’s hard to tell who is dancing with whom because everyone is so close together.

  A girl with sequined short-shorts bumps into us. Her eye shadow is bright green and sparkling. As are her ruby-red lips.

  She can’t talk over the music, and so she mouths the words “
I’m sorry” with a sexy smile.

  The guys with us have a weird look on their faces. The kind of look where you see something you shouldn’t be seeing but you enjoy it nonetheless. I follow their gaze and I realize why they look like that.

  One of the girls across the room has on a black skintight glitter tee shirt with the words:

  “Angels suck. If you ask nicely.”

  The rest of us girls give the guys a cold look. They all suddenly find the floor very interesting and study it with their eyes.

  Dangling above us and throughout the great hall, are tan-colored, beach ball-sized paper lamps.

  When we move underneath one of them, the ball comes to life.

  What I thought were lamps are actually tan-colored Shadow Servants. I guess they are the waiters that Miku mentioned. They unravel themselves from the ball-shaped lamp and swirl down to us.

  “Coy?” They ask us as soon as their bare feet hit the ground.

  “What’s Coy?” I ask Jay.

  “It’s liquid euphoria,” he says.

  One of the Shadow Waiters says, “We have three flavors - Cash, Victory and Afterglow.”

  “Maybe later,” Marcus says.

  Sure, now The First Guardian is all business. Before he couldn’t take his eyes off the bump and grind girl with the trashy t-shirt.

  “We’re looking for Arden,” Ameana says.

  “Up the stairs and to the right,” one of them says. Then all four make their way back up to the ceiling and form the tan paper lamp once again.

  The strobe lights make it hard to follow the team as we head towards the stairs. Navigating toward the staircase gets even harder when a new song comes on that requires the partygoers to jump up and down every few seconds. It causes the Shadow waiters to shake as they dangle in the air. Every body part I can think of is bumping against us as we make our way.

  Jay has long since stopped trying to fight the desire to dance. He is moving his body back and forth in rhythm with the base. But, as into it as he is, he knows better than to stop as we are nowhere near the staircase.

  A guy next to me orders from one of the Shadow waitresses. She smiles then goes back to her position in the air.

  “Where’s the drink?” I ask Jay.

  He jesters for me to keep looking; Then three small perfume-like bottles make their way down to the dance floor. They cut through the air and go right to the customer supported by no more than a tan wave of smoke.

  Finally, we are able to get past the sea of partygoers and make our way up the sweeping “Gone with the Wind”-type staircase. Once we reach that point, the music dies down. It’s like they have soundproofed the staircase. I’m sure they did. Nothing surprises me anymore after the shark pool and tigers.

  When we get halfway to the top, we find twin bodybuilders standing in our way. They each have rippling muscles, golden tans and stern expressions.

  “May we help you?” they ask.

  “We need to see Arden” Marcus says.

  “The hostess is expecting you?” the other asks.

  “Yes, The Sage sent us.” Ameana adds.

  They confer with each other.

  “We were not notified. We cannot let you pass.”

  “We have no intention of leaving until we see her,” Marcus informs him.

  The two men whistle out into the crowd and a Shadow Servant in the shape of a butterfly lands on Marcus’ shoulder.

  Soon Marcus is on his knees panting. The team instantly goes on the defense but before any further action can be taken, we hear a girl call out from a level above us.

  “Call off your Shadow Goons.”

  The two men whistle again and the butterfly becomes a gray shadow and hangs on the far corner of the wall. That’s when I notice several of them discreetly hidden throughout the ceiling.

  “Guys, chill. They’re Guardians. Duh.” We only hear her voice but we can’t see her yet.

  Rio puts down his shield. The rest of the team pulls back but they are still on high alert.

  The bodybuilding twins let us pass. We get all the way to the top of stairs and find nothing there.

  “Where is she?” Rio asks.

  “Up here, sexy.” We look up and find a girl sitting high in the air on a glass chair that curves to shape her body.

  She is unlike anything I’ve come across.

  She is wearing square-shaped dark glasses with diamonds on the rims.

  She has platinum blonde hair down to her waist.

  She takes her sunglasses off and nibbles on the end of them.

  Instead of eye shadow, her eyelids are covered in blue sequins. Below her right cheek is a red and black tattoo of a pair of wings being set on fire.

  Her heart-shaped lips are marinating in sparkling nude color gloss.

  She wears a royal-blue body suit. The sides of which are see-through, giving the appearance that her outfit is held up with nothing.

  The shoulder pads of her outfit are pointed up, giving it kind of an alien garment feel. Her lovely shapely legs are accentuated by the nude stockings she wears. Royal-blue diamond stones form a whimsical pattern from her heel to her calves.

  She slides off the glass chair with the enthusiasm of a kid and comes down to us.

  She doesn’t have her wings out. But halfway though the fall, she seems to go in slow-motion.

  “Did she just slow gravity down?” I ask Miku.

  “Yup.”

  “That trick sure would have come in handy yesterday,” I say, almost to myself.

  She is taller than I thought because of the seven-inch glass platform shoes that she has on.

  She looks like a fashionable party girl from a different planet; she’s like Judy from The Jetsons but cooler.

  One thing is for sure: Arden doesn’t give a damn about what is or is not “in”. All of her choices, from her all diamond makeup to her glass shoes, say “I do what I want.”

  I kind of like that.

  There’s another thing I’m sure of: All the guys are gazing at her.

  “So, Moody, you just gonna stand there or give a girl a hug?” Arden asks Rio.

  “Moody?” I whisper to Miku as Rio hugs her.

  “Short for Mood ring. He only lets her call him that. I tried one time and he almost took my head off,” she explains.

  Then she sees Jay.

  “Hot chocolate, don’t just stand there.” She hugs him tightly.

  “What you been doin’?” she asks.

  “I’m waiting on you, mama. I see you got this game on lock. I’m just tryin’ to play my position. Tell me what I need to do to get in good.”

  “You can ‘get in’ anytime,” she says slyly.

  “You wrong for that,” Jay says clearly taken with the idea.

  She turns her attention to Marcus. She scans every single fiber of him. She takes him in like a meal she has not had in a long time. And from the looks of it, she just got a craving.

  “Hello, Marcus,” she says with the charm of a snake oil salesman.

  “Hello, Arden,” he says carefully.

  “Don’t just stand their First Guardian, come say hello. I won’t bite. If you don’t want me to.”

  Marcus quickly looks over at me, then at Ameana. He takes a step forward.

  “Come on…you can do it,” she says in a tone dripping with so much sexual innuendo, a condom is required just to listen in.

  Marcus walks slowly up to her and tries to hug her quickly. But that does not work. She wraps her arms around him and takes in his scent.

  She whispers something in his ear and he pulls back, looking bashful. He clears his throat as he backs away from her. I look on calmly. Or, so I thought, until Miku whispers in my ear.

  “Emmy, you’re hurting me,” Miku says. I look down to find that I have latched onto her hand. Not only that but I am squeezing the hell out of it.

  “You’re strong, you don’t even feel it,” I say to her.

  “Yes, but you’re radiating jealousy so strong, it’s
hurting Rio. In turn, he’s squeezing the heck out of me. ”

  “Sorry.”

  “Arden, you know the girls; Ameana and Miku.”

  She looks at Ameana’s sleek outfit.

  “Dior?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Nice.” Ameana smiles despite herself.

  Then she goes over to Miku.

  “Songstress of death. I’m a real fan.”

  “I try,” Miku says proudly.

  “And this is Emmy,” Marcus says.

  “The human,” Arden says, as she looks me over.

  Suddenly I’m wishing I had stayed home.

  She looks at me once again, and then turns to Marcus and says, “Really, Marcus?”

  “Excuse me?” I ask.

  “I didn’t know you were his type.”

  “None of us did,” Ameana says, right on cue.

  I really should have stayed home.

  “Oh human, don’t feel bad. I only meant that I didn’t know he had a thing for your kind. As it stands you’re kind of cute. Big eyes, nice smile, small frame… Okay, I get it,” she says as if she had just solved a child’s crossword puzzle.

  “Arden, we need to talk somewhere private,” Marcus says.

  “Sure, follow me.” She leads us up to the third floor. There we enter a ballroom of some kind.

  “We’ve scaled back the parties. They used to expand even up here, but hey, it’s a recession.”

  Once she closes the door, we no longer hear the music at all.

  “Now, you are here for the location of the Witness, right?”

  “Yeah, The Sage said you know where it is” Ameana adds.

  “Sage is such a pain in my ass,” she says.

  “Tell me about it,” Marcus adds.

  “You know he use to have a thing with Rahell? Yeah, they dated a little. Then my ‘holier-than-thou’ sister gave him up so he could focus on the mission. I mean how lame is that? You can go on a mission and still date. Well, look who I’m telling.”

  “Arden, we’re kind of in a rush,” Marcus says.

  “It’s my own fault. I never should have agreed to look after him. Witnesses are so boring. They never party. And they require food. Not fun. Not fun at all. Anyway, I was trying to be a good little Para like my sister and I agreed to look after him. Then I find out that he’s being hunted. I am not playing bodyguard. Not with these nails.”

  She shows us her hands they are manicured and lined in blue diamonds.