Guardians of the Gates - Part 1, The New Breed by Jeff Schanz (best short books to read .TXT) 📕

anyway. The vile he had used previously held a powerful sleep agent that needed only one good intake of breath to work. That one he kept on his wrist bracers. Though he was joking to her earlier about Batman, in reality, he wasn’t that far removed. He just wished he had Bruce Wayne’s bank account.

Jillian’s breathing was calm and even. She wasn’t under very deeply. Likely when she woke up, she’d still be in the same mental state as when she had fainted. Sebastian held an open vile in his hand that was an ammonium carbonate compound, which passed for “smelling salts,” but was a little milder. He waved it under Jillian’s nose and, within moments, she stirred. She scrunched up her face and squirmed on the couch. Sebastian returned his vile to its pouch and stepped back. He didn’t want to freak the woman out, but he did want to ask one or two questions before he “scrambled” her, which would be much easier with her eyes open.

“Uhhnnmm,” she grunted, rubbing her temples and scanning around with squinted eyes. She thought to herself, “Where am I? What’s going on?”

Sebastian concentrated to hear her thoughts clearly, but didn’t need to. She was the loudest thinker he’d ever encountered, perhaps the result of the extreme drama they just survived. He had listened to her unconscious ramblings all the way here, and she was still loud and clear in the apartment. Her mind wasn’t the only one Sebastian could hear. Virtually all the inhabitants of the apartment complex within close proximity to Sebastian could be heard in his head. Though no one was really up at this hour, sleepers’ thoughts and dreams were just as audible to him as people who were fully awake. But Jillian was just plain loud.

She stared at him for a moment. Then as the fog cleared in her brain, she startled into a tight ball on the couch.

“Hey!” she said in a near squeak. “Why are you in my flat?”

He smiled, trying not to be patronizing, though probably was anyway. “Well, I guess I could’ve left you lying there next to two dead people and let the police sort it out.”

“Right,” she said. “Right, ok, then. Well, um, thank you, Mister… Mister…?”

“Sebastian,” he repeated. He didn’t think he had accidentally scrambled her, so he was hoping this was just panic or shock.

“Yes, right, Sebastian, you told me that. Ok, then. Well, thank you, Sebastian, for bringing me home,” she pulled a pillow closer to her chest, “and saving my life, and all that. Very kind of you.” She was staring at the door and was trying very hard to not meet his eyes. He wasn’t sure if she knew not to, it was smart of her all the same.

“You’re welcome,” he said. He didn’t have time to hang around here, but also didn’t want to come across to the cute woman as some maniac if he could help it. He thought... I’m your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Except, I dress like Batman and act like Captain America, but definitely have the wallet of Spider-Man. “You gonna be ok?”

“Mm hmm, yes,” she said, quickly and nodding excessively. “I’m good. Quite well, just going to make some tea, read a little, and go to bed.” She thought, “Why on earth did I say tea? Now he’ll want some tea.”

“None for me, thanks,” he said. Her head tilted like a confused dog and he almost laughed. He had to find a little fun wherever he could, even at the expense of poor souls like this one. All in all, he kind of liked her though. Maybe that was why he was here. He could’ve injected a little “scrambled eggs” into her veins earlier instead of reviving her.

“Scrambled eggs” was a concoction his organization had made to initiate a short term memory loss. The effects didn’t last long, only enough to usually confuse or erase a prior incident. But he hated using the stuff. They said the chemicals were safe and it was just temporary effects, but he preferred the natural method, as if there was anything natural in his strange ability to stare into someone’s eyes and temporarily befuddle them. With either method, by the time he was far away, she’d remember it all as some weird dream.

She clutched at her pillow, kneading it with her fingers, continuing to stare anywhere but him.

“Forgive me, I was hoping I hadn’t scared you,” said Sebastian. “I figured that bad boy had scared you enough and I would make sure you were ok before I headed out,” he said, turning to examine the apartment.

Jillian noticed he had mentioned leaving. “Finally. Good,” she thought. “Yes, well, thank you. That was very kind.” She followed his gaze around the apartment. “Luckily the place is clean. And why exactly do I care what he thinks about my flat?”

Sebastian tried to soften his smirk. “Nice place.” It looked clean, minimalist, and probably saw nothing more exciting than an evening book read on the couch, or a TV show watched from the same couch. Poor girl. She was attractive enough, just cautious. Or occupied. Or something. No human mind, even this loud one, was crystal clear.

“Thank you,” she said. “And I do think you’re the only man in this city that’s seen it. My god, how terribly sad is that? And I still want him gone as soon as possible?”

Sebastian was grateful she couldn’t read his thoughts. He had a couple of fleeting notions that wouldn’t have been appropriate, and if he was a weaker man, they would’ve been all too easy to accomplish.

“I’m sorry,” he said, ‘I know you want me gone, and I promise I’ll get out of your hair in just a sec. But since this thing that attacked you was, shall we say, kind of a special thing, and since it’s sorta my job to take care of these special things, so they don’t hurt anyone else, hopefully, you won’t mind just a couple of questions before I go?”

“Um, ok. I guess so,” said Jillian. Apparently, what happened tonight was hitting her again. These realizations were coming in waves. Thoughts were racing around in her head, including the one that believed she was currently dreaming and needed to wake up. And on that note, she was wondering why she would want to kick this good-looking guy out of her flat if it was only a dream.

Sebastian read all her mind’s wanderings and tried to hide his amusement. If it was a dream, I wouldn’t be trying to leave. “Did you have any idea that thing was following you tonight?”

“No. And what was that thing? It looked so – so...”

“Let’s skip the complicated technical explanation and just call him Harry. Ok?”

She hesitated, but said in a faraway tone, “Alright.”

“Good. And if it makes you feel better, I think Harry was just looking for anyone to pass by at the right time and place.” Sebastian had no idea if that was the case, he just thought saying so might make her feel less threatened.

Jillian nodded. She seemed to have grown a little more detached and distant in the last minute. It was likely that the condition of shock was catching up to her.

“Ok. How did you first notice Harry?” he asked.

Continuing her faraway tone, she said, “Saw his eyes. Yellow. Quite creepy.” She turned to him. “You’re American?”

“Me? Yes, ma’am.”

“I like Americans.” She turned away to stare blankly at the floor.

Her thoughts were vague and quiet. She’s definitely going into shock.

“No other warning? No sounds or bad smells?” he continued.

She shook her head. “I smelled dog. Stinky wet kind of dog. That was you though, wasn’t it?”

“Umm, yes, it was. Sorry about that. It hides my scent so he can’t pick me up.”

She nodded, still staring at the floor.

“Have you heard of any other weird things like this happening in the city?”

She shook her head weakly. “Just some things you see in tabloids. But they’re silly, made-up stories most of the time, aren’t they?” It wasn’t a question, just a blank response.

Sebastian nodded, not really an answer. He noticed the clock on her wall and thought he should probably get going before anyone catches up to his movements.

Jillian was still talking. “I guess they’re not all silly stories, are they?” Her eyes and attention were distant and unfocused, like she was inebriated.

“No, I suppose not.” He thought he was done with the conversation, then remembered one more thing he wanted to ask. “Jillian? Did you recognize the face of the man that attacked you – after it turned back human?” It sounded weird coming out of his mouth, but he didn’t have a good way of asking.

She placed her finger on her mouth. Her glazed eyes continued to stare nowhere. “Hmmm. A little. He looks a bit like a man I work with.” She giggled drunkenly. “Except that man has a body.”

Her expression suddenly darkened, though in a clumsy way. She turned and blinked slowly, trying to focus on Sebastian’s face. “You killed the monster-man, didn’t you?”

“Uh, yes, ma’am. He attacked you and Frank. Remember?”

She nodded, keeping her eyes on Sebastian, acting like she couldn’t see clearly. Certainly, she thought she couldn’t. But her head was so drugged with shock trauma, it was hard for Sebastian to make out what was going on in there. “Are you a policeman, or one of those special agent, alien hunters like on Torchwood?”

Sebastian wasn’t familiar with Torchwood, but he got the idea that it was a sci-fi or fantasy TV show, and it wouldn’t hurt to play to her delusions at the moment.

“Sure, kinda like that,” he said, smiling slightly. He had planned to scramble her memory anyway, so why not tell her the worst kind of lie possible: the truth. “You see, I’m actually a field agent for an ancient organization called The Saints. We protect the world from things you’d call supernatural, but which are really entities created by what we call ‘rifts,’ which are tears between dimensions. These rifts can be anywhere in the world. Scary spirits, which we call ‘demons,’ can come out of rifts. Not all demons are bad, but most are. And when demons mix with a human or an animal, it can create strange creatures like the one you saw tonight. Most of those are usually bad too. If we find bad ones, we eliminate them, and you found a bad one tonight.”

There. Full disclosure. And even though I’m about to erase it from her mind, that honestly made me feel better for a second.

She scrunched up her face and looked wistful. “It got Frank. But you saved me.”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“You have pretty eyes.”

Sebastian had a well-intentioned response to that, but he saw that he could be quickly heading down a dangerous path, and the clock was most definitely not on his side if he stayed much longer. Someone would figure out who Jillian was and eventually investigate, and he would have a hard time explaining himself to authorities.

“Well, Jillian. I appreciate your time and I did promise to get out of your hair. So…”

“Would you like some tea?”

“No. No, thank you. So, let me just check to make sure you didn’t get any blood on you. Blood probably isn’t dangerous, but you never know what can happen from chemicals altered by dimensional radiation.” He had already checked her in the park, he just wanted to get her attention. He came over to her and lifted her chin with his hand.

“I just bought some chocolate biscuits,” she said, absently.

“I’m good. Look at me for a sec, let me check your eyes.”

She did. She had pretty eyes too. Brownish green. Good lord, if I wasn’t a gentleman, the things I could do, and no one would ever catch me. He tried to see behind her eyes. She stared at him directly now. The lock had worked.

“Oh, my,” she said, transfixed with his unnatural gaze. Her lips were trying to say what was in