Betrayal: Book 3 of the Guardians Saga

Ch. 9.2 Casualties

The Portal opened in a curtained off cubicle with an empty stretcher. Gabe laid Alex down gently while Rile ripped open the curtains.

Gabe stepped in front of a stout woman in green scrubs, stethoscope dangling around her neck. "Help her," he ordered and pointed to Alex.

"Please," Cale added. "Our sister was kidnapped by a deranged stalker. We found her like this."

"Have you checked in?" the woman bent over Alex. "Where's her ID bracelet?"

"Her name is Alex Godeaux." Gabe stroked her hair.

"I have a lot of questions for you," the woman said.

Gabe and his brothers ran for it.

****

The journey back to the Dr. Dewey's house was a silent one. Rile and Cale exchanged worried glances, but any attempts at communication with Gabe met with silence.

Gabe knocked on Dr. Dewey's door, but brushed past him without a word, not acknowledging his presence, much less his greeting. He walked into the living room and sat on the couch, staring at the wall.

Cale called Grange and briefed him. Mary brewed Earl Grey tea and served it to each of the brothers in matching green Tulane mugs. Then they all sat, silent. Everyone sipped their tea except Gabe.

"Doctor, I need your help," Gabe said at length, holding the untouched, and now cold, tea.

"Of course. What can I do for you?" Dr. Dewey asked.

"I need you to check on Alex in Charity hospital."

"Hospital? What happened?"

"Will you help or just ask questions?" Gabe stood up and handed a startled Mary his cup of tea.

Dr. Dewey stared at him, speechless.

Cale leaned over and told him, "I'll explain."

Gabe stood in the corner, arms crossed, staring out the window, as Cale told Dr. Dewey and Mary what happened.

"First, I'll file a missing person's report on Alex. I'll say she's my niece. Then I'll contact the hospital. Can you find one of her fake ID cards?"

"I know where the Alex Godeaux ID card is. That's the name I told the female human healer."

"Grange could help," Cale said tentatively, clacking his claws.

"Forget Grange," Gabe replied. "He used Alex for his own purposes."

***

Dr. Dewey wove his tale with skill to the police. He put Alex's disappearance over 24 hours ago, so the missing person report would be filed.

He added the detail of an abusive boyfriend named Morgan, hoping to prompt a search in hospitals.

After a he call, the brothers went back to their carriage house apartment and sat in their common room. Gabe claimed the couch, cleaning and oiling his sword over and over.

Cale sat in a side chair, fixing his eldest brother with a worried expression. The leather-bound tome the Portal Guardian had given him lay open in his lap, unread.

Rile slouched in his chair, face turned to the TV, but not watching it.

"Gabe, you've been cleaning your sword for two hours. It's immaculate," Cale said.

"No, it's not." Gabe held up the sword and twisted it back and forth for him to see. "It's covered with blood. Alex's blood."

The sword was almost wrenched from his hand, but his warrior's grasp gripped it reflexively.

"Stop torturing me!" Rile shouted, his own sword out, crossed with Gabe's. "Cleaning your sword when it's my fault. I led Alex into an ambush. Not only did I fail to protect her from Morgan, I let myself be ambushed by the bastard. I couldn't move but I could hear everything. By the Portal Guardian. Stop. Cleaning. Your. Sword."

"You failed only because your team leader and Clan Heir failed you. If your team had been with you, none of this would have happened." Gabe's sword clattered to the floor. "Your sword is clean. Only mine is bloody. Only mine." Gabe stalked into the bedroom.

Rile slammed out the back door.

"Alex, you have to live," Cale whispered to the empty room.

***

After an hour, Cale tracked Rile...all the way to Dr. Dewey's house. Cale knocked politely on the kitchen door. Mary opened the door with a smile.

"More tea? I made chamomile this time. It's calming."

"Is there extra strength for my brother?"

"I used strawberry napoleons on him as well." Mary stepped aside and gestured Cale inside.

Rile lifted up the pastry for inspection. "It helps the pain. Not as much as wine, but it's close."

"I've never had those," Cale took a seat at the kitchen table.

"Where is Gabe?" Mary lifted the rectangular pasty out of the decorated box and set it on a filigree china dessert plate. "I want him to have one as well. We Southern humans know comfort food, and you boys are in need of it."

"I'll fetch him." Cale popped up. "He's in our bedroom, but I doubt he's asleep."

"Darling boy," Mary said. "I'll pour you a cup while you're gone."

When Cale returned with Gabe, there were cups of tea and plates of napoleons for everyone set out at the table. They ate and listened while Mary explained some of the intricacies of knitting to ease the tension.

At length, Dr. Dewey announced, "I'm visiting Alex at Charity Hospital. At least I will try."

"I'm going as well," Gabe replied.

"What do you think you're going to do?" Rile stood up and blocked the kitchen door. "Waltz into a hospital and hope no one notices you? Your ability to disguise is far inferior to mine, you're freaked out, and even I don't plan to visit."

"I don't care. I have to know how she's doing."

"Let Dr. Dewey check on her by himself," Cale pleaded, his claws clicking so fast they were a blur. "He'll have a hard enough time convincing the staff to let him see her."

"Yes," Dr. Dewey said. "The NOPD hasn't contacted me yet, so I'll present myself as the distraught uncle searching for his lost niece. What was the name you gave them?"

"Alex Godeaux. She listed me as Gabe Godeaux, her fiancé when I was there, so I should gain access to her."

Dr. Dewey gazed at him with his kindest, calmest, professor's expression. "You did not file the police report, I did. If you are identified as her spouse, then you are the number one suspect for torturing her. You would not leave without a police escort to the station, I'm afraid."

"That makes no sense," Gabe replied. "As her 'spouse' as you humans call it, I would be her greatest protector."

"In the human world," Dr. Dewey stopped and fiddled with the pens in his pocket, his only nervous tic. "When a woman is beaten or murdered, the spouse is the prime suspect."

All three brothers stared in shock at him, mouths open, tea and pastries forgotten.

"Human men do suck, just like Alex always says," Rile said.

"Not all of us," Dr. Dewey demurred. At Rile's scoff, he added, "But unfortunately enough of us that the police investigate us first in a murder. I shall go alone, but return as quickly as possible with any news."

Gabe slumped in his chair in defeat.

*****

A/N

Enough description in this story?

Enough action and plot movement?

dedicated to reader author

greggerguy

His book "Her Terrifying Love" is a great teen horror novel. I can't read it at night! Please check it out if that's your sort of thing.