Guardian (Sequel to Fearless)

Chapter Sixty Four

"What do you mean sick?"

"He poisons them," she explained. "Usually through medicine... something they'd regularly take like vitamins or pain herbs... they get targeted and dosed. The poison mimics the sickness of blood-lung. They steadily have the symptoms for an amount of time. It builds and builds with each dosage and then... and usually near the bottom of the bottle, there's one dose of paralytic poison. They go rigid and cold... their heart rate goes weak and slugs down to hardly anything. Their breaths are very few and far between... nearly impossible to tell they're even breathing because they're so still. " She grimaced. "Most people are fooled by it. The family takes the person to the baron's hired dead keepers for the custom closed-casket burial and then, once the poison wears off and they regain their movement and their senses, they've already been sold by the grave-keeper to the estate."

Zayn shivered. "That's... horrendous..."

"It's horribly brilliant. That's why they're never found... because no one ever looks for dead women."

"How do you know this?"

"Because he told us," she whispered. "It was after Cricket ran away. He told us if any of us ever tried what she did... he'd go after our families. He showed us what it did on Sunny. It was part of her... torture... after she tried to escape with Cricket."

"Do you have family? Family that he might pursue? You got away." Zayn was suddenly aware of her situation.

Elizabeth looked sad. "I don't know anymore. I used to have parents and a brother, but I haven't been home in twenty years." She brightened, if only a little. "But after this march, he'll never take another woman again. My family is safe."

"Will you go back to them?"

"I'd have to find them first," she replied. "They moved around a lot." Elizabeth played with a hem in her dress. "Unluckily for me, traveling takes coin and protection, and I have nothing to my name. Any opportunity I might've had to make something more of myself -to make a living- was taken away long ago. It's by sheer luck that your army camp has fostered me for so long."

Zayn made a spontaneous decision. "I'll help you find them."

"What?" Elizabeth finally looked up at him with wide eyes.

"You heard me," he decided. "After all this is over, I'll help you find them, if they're still out there. My job has me traveling... so travel with me. You'll never be without food or shelter. You'll never come to harm."

She looked nervous. "For what price?"

"No price." He shrugged. "Just... keep me company, I guess." He immediately bit his tongue. "Not that kind of company, of course. Just... talk to me."

The pretty woman cocked her head to the side. "That's it?"

"That's it. The world's done enough harm to you. Perhaps I can make up for some of that horror."

She looked touched. "I think you're the kindest man I've met. I think I'll go with you and hope you don't prove me wrong on that."

"That's good," he said, "I find it surprising that you find me trustworthy enough to go, especially because I am a man. I mean... not that you shouldn't. I just... I don't know what I'm trying to say." He put his head in his hands, and his foot in his mouth. "I'm too tired to really be functioning at this point, to be honest. Try not to listen to me too much."

"What choice do I have but to trust you?" she asked innocently. "You've got me this far without hurting me. If something happens on the road, and you turn out to be like all the rest of the men I've met... well, you can't do anything to me that hasn't been done a thousand times before. At least it'll be a change of scenery." Her lips twitched downward. "I've got nothing left to lose at this point, anyways."