Amelia Elias - Guardian's League 2 - Outcast.pdf - BOOKS - SiriusBlack4

Outcast

Book Two of the Guardians’ League

Amelia Elias

Dedication

To my beautiful sons, my reason for everything. I love you.

Chapter One

The night was alive with the promise of battle.

Eli’s eyes narrowed as he chased the last of the Outcast band he’d been following for days down

the deserted street and into an alley. Bad move, he thought as the remaining pair of vampires

disappeared into the darkness between two tall government buildings. Apparently they didn’t know that

this alley went nowhere. Bad for you, good for me.

This blind alley meant cover for him to slay them and no route of escape from his relentless blades.

He’d forgotten about the underground parking garage. He cursed and put on a burst of speed,

chasing his enemies down the ramp. It would be too easy to lose them amidst the cars. He was tired of

the chase and ready for the kill.

He caught sight of one Outcast whipping around a corner and pursued as he drew one of his swords

from its hidden sheath beneath his long coat. When he sprinted around the corner, Eli skidded to a stop

in surprise. They’d led him straight into a trap.

How clever of them to try to outnumber him.

Instead of the pair of Outcasts he’d been chasing, he now faced five of the blood-thirsty villains. All

stood ready for battle at the back of the parking garage. The area around them was clear but for one red

car parked near the door to the fire stairs.

“Come to play, Slayer?” an Outcast asked smugly.

Eli swung his sword in a wide arc around his body and let a wicked grin spread across his face. This

might have posed a problem for anyone else, but it would take much more than five against one to

outnumber Eli. “Who’s first?” he asked tauntingly.

Five Outcasts would be a nice warm-up for the evening to come.

Three charged him at once and he engaged them in a flurry of shining steel. Oh, he could have

disabled them with bullets and finished them off when they were all lying on the ground as some Slayers

preferred, but it had been too long since he’d had a real challenge in a battle.

Yes, he was going to enjoy this.

But as he cut down the first snarling vampire, the situation suddenly went straight to hell. The heavy

door to the fire stairs swung open to reveal a young woman digging in her purse for her keys. Her dark

hair covered her face, preventing her from seeing the danger in her path.

“Get out of here!” Eli shouted as she approached, clearly intending to head for the red car.

Her head jerked up at his shout and she froze at the sight of the tall warrior crossing swords with

two snarling Outcasts.

“Run!” Eli yelled again.

The last thing he needed was a mortal in the middle of this, dividing his attention.

His warning cry had the unwanted side effect of alerting the other two Outcasts to the woman

standing frozen by the sight of the battle. Eli snarled out a curse as they converged on her before she

could do more than gasp in shock.

“We’ll just have a snack while you play with Franz and Pietr,” one laughed, dragging the woman

away from the fire stairs by her hair. She screamed and fought fiercely, earning a vicious punch to the

face. Even dazed, she still struggled and clawed at her captor, but he didn’t even seem to notice. “You

don’t mind, do you, Slayer?”

“Leave the woman out of this,” Eli demanded. “Fight me like a man, damn you.”

“But I’m not a man,” the Outcast sneered, laughing at the woman’s terror. “And neither are you.”

Eli ground his teeth but wasn’t surprised. There had been a time when taking a hostage would have

been unthinkable, but the concept of honor in battle had died long ago. Now it was the law of the jungle,

survival of the meanest, and it was time to stop playing with his prey and get serious. He whipped out his

second sword and attacked with single-minded intensity. The woman’s screams were suddenly cut off

and he knew the Outcast had bitten her.

“Save some for me, Caen,” his partner laughed, and Eli’s rage rose to dangerous heights.

Franz and Pietr fell before his furious onslaught and Eli turned to take out the other two before they

damaged this mortal beyond saving. The one who had taunted him, Caen, was crouched beside the red

car, fangs sunk deeply into the woman’s throat as she still fought weakly, and the second charged Eli with

his sword flying.

It was a futile gesture. Even with his lightning reflexes and exceptional skill with his weapons, the

Outcast was no match for Eli. No one was.

“Release her now and I will make your death quick,” Eli growled at the Outcast still feeding from the

woman as he drove his opponent back mercilessly.

Caen lifted his head and grinned, showing blood-stained fangs. “You object to me taking her

blood?” he asked with mock-chagrin. “Well, perhaps you’re right.” He paused, pretending to give the

matter serious thought. “I know what to do, Slayer. I’ll give it back!” Then he lifted his own wrist to his

mouth and bit. He pressed his bleeding wrist to the woman’s mouth, forcing his own blood down her

throat, completely ignoring Eli’s outraged roar.

Eli saw red. He slashed brutally at the Outcast he fought, cutting him down, and leapt toward the

pair crouched beside the car. He had to stop this travesty before the woman swallowed out of reflex.

It was the worst brutality a human could suffer and live, to be turned against her will.

It was already too late before he could intervene. Caen shoved the choking, gasping woman at Eli

and sprinted out of sight, laughing madly as he disappeared.

Eli barely caught her as she stumbled toward him. She fainted in his arms and he cursed in frustration

at the situation the Outcast had thrust them into. Outcasts rarely turned mortals because they had no use

for fledglings and no patience at all for teaching them what they needed to know to live in their new

world.

And no Slayer would abandon a mortal in need. The Guardians’ League and their Slayers were

dedicated to protecting the world from Outcasts. Eli couldn’t leave the poor woman here to bleed to

death on the filthy pavement, and the Outcast knew it. It had been a clever and cruel move made solely

to save Caen’s own life.

He swore again as he looked down at the unfortunate woman and healed the wound on her throat.

She wasn’t a fledgling yet, and unless he found someone to help her, the transition into her new life would

be horrible.

As much as he hated to let the Outcast go, he couldn’t take up his pursuit again until he’d seen to

her safety.

“This isn’t over,” he swore into the night, despising the cowardly Outcast who had stolen this

woman’s mortal life as thoughtlessly as he’d squash a bug. “You have earned yourself a death of such

pain it would curdle your blood to imagine it.”

He sighed and looked down at the limp woman in his arms. There was nothing to be done for it. He

would have to take her somewhere safe and find someone to both ease her through the Change and

teach her the rudiments of what a vampire needed to know to survive.

Only then could he take up the hunt again and exact revenge on Caen for this.

* * *

Eli stood in the foyer to Diego’s palatial home an hour later with the unfortunate woman in his arms.

Frustration threatened to choke him. “What do you mean, no?” he asked in a dark and deadly voice.

Diego didn’t flinch from his tone or his furious glare. “What do you think I mean? I can’t believe you

’d even ask me to take in a fledgling sired by an Outcast. No, Eli. Blood tells. I will not invite the enemy

into my refuge, nor teach an Outcast’s spawn how to survive. What are you thinking? Kill her now and

save some Slayer the trouble later!”

“She is an innocent bystander, not an enemy,” Eli said with a patience he did not feel. “He did this to

distract me and buy his escape, not because she desired the life of an Outcast. She needs your help, not

your condemnation.”

Diego shook his head again and stepped back. “I will not take the responsibility of a sire for her. I’m

a Slayer, not a nursemaid, Eli. Find someone else, someone not in the League.”

“It has to be someone in the League.”

Diego’s eyes narrowed. “Why, just in case she does turn out to have Outcast tendencies?” he

asked. When Eli didn’t deny it, he took another step back. “No, Eli, I won’t do it,” he repeated. “You’re

asking me to play sire to a fledgling not mine and still be ready to slay her if it becomes necessary. I’m

not that cold-blooded, damn it. Take her to Ronin or take her yourself it you won’t end it now.”

Eli opened his mouth for an angry retort, but the woman in his arms suddenly shuddered and

moaned. “The Change is starting,” he said as her pain echoed though his mind. “She needs help, Diego.”

Diego rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “Look, it’s going to be dawn soon,” he said in a

quieter voice, relenting a little as Eli had known he would. “You don’t have time to get back to your

place. I’ll let her stay here through the Change, all right? You can take her into the north wing, it’s empty.

But that’s all I’m doing, Eli,” he warned. “You help her through the Change now and decide what to do

with her tomorrow. She’s not staying here.”

Eli bit back a furious reply. “Fine.” Damn Diego for his stubborn attitude. Even when offering her

sanctuary he still refused to have anything to do with her. Asking again would be pointless. Diego wasn’t

going to take her in despite his offer of temporary refuge.

And Diego’s suggestion to find someone else was out of the question. There were only three

members of the Guardians’ League in the city besides himself—Diego, his mate, Sian, and Ronin. Eli had

long ago vowed never to sire a fledgling again and there was no way in hell he would even contemplate

giving one to Ronin—the man was completely uncontrollable. If Eli did take her there, when Ronin found

out the truth of her heritage he’d kill her without batting an eyelash even if she hadn’t done anything to

merit it. They all despised Outcasts, but Ronin hated them with a passion that bordered on obsession.

Eli couldn’t chance that. Too many innocents had already died because of him. He wouldn’t add this

woman to their number.

Diego was the best vampire for this job. Calm and implacable, he thought everything through and

rarely lost his temper. He was the perfect one to teach the fledgling about her new world and deal with

whatever temper fits or grief she threw his way when she found out what had been done to her. Sian was

both sympathetic enough to comfort the fledgling and strong enough to protect herself should this woman

Amelia Elias - Guardian's League 2 - Outcast.pdf

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