Chapter 147
“Now, Hunters can be killed by Vampires, of course, but that’s it. Though, they will die of old age eventually. And Vampires can be killed by Hunters and Guardians, but they cannot kill Guardians. If they could, that would defeat the purpose of Guardians.”
“Seems simple enough,” Jimmy said. “So why don’t you do this anymore?”
Peggy let out a loud sigh. “Because, I wanted to stay home with you guys. That and, I decided it wasn’t for me. There’s only so much carnage one person can experience in their life, in my opinion anyway.” Elliott could see that. It was strange to think of his mild mannered mother cutting the heads off of monsters, which was just one of the reasons why he couldn’t believe any of this was true. “They didn’t want me to leave, though, and if I’m honest, I haven’t spoken to Jordan or Janette since I quit six years ago. They told me to keep the phone in case I needed them, but… I haven’t used it. Jordan said some things I didn’t really appreciate….”
“Is that why he didn’t come in that day when we got here?” Jimmy asked.
“Yes. I was already wanting to quit, but he just kept trying to get me to go on one more mission, one more hunt. When I finally told him no, I wasn’t very nice about it.”
“And what about Janette?”
“She’s a distant cousin of mine. She wasn’t as hard on me as Jordan was, but…. It doesn’t matter. If you want me to call her, I will.”
“I’d just like to see how the phone works,” Jimmy said, still as enthusiastic as he had been at the beginning of all of this.
“I have a question,” Elliott said, his cynical voice cutting through his brother’s jubilance. “How does this work exactly? Why am I a Guardian and Janette’s a Hunter? And Frank’s just a regular ol’ human?”
“Good question,” Peggy said, nodding, like she’d meant to include that. “It’s passed down through your family lines. Your mother’s family is descendent from Guardians. She could’ve Transformed into a Guardian if she’d wanted to, but she decided not to. Her father also decided he didn’t want to be part of this world. His mom was a Guardian.”
“Was? So did a Hunter kill her?” Jimmy asked, and Elliott was glad for the question.
“No, actually, I think she is still alive,” Peggy replied. “But a lot of Guardians get so tired of the life after a while, they disappear, not wanting to be found. A lot of them go to islands in the Caribbean Ocean.”
“So, my great-grandma is a pirate in the Caribbean?” Elliott asked, sarcastically.
“I didn’t say she was a pirate.” Peggy smacked him in the leg. “I could’ve hit you a lot harder than that if I wanted to. Being a Guardian makes me be able to run faster, jump higher, hit harder than humans.” Frank was nodding his head at that.
“No offense, Mom, but I’ve seen you run, and you run like any other girl I know,” Jimmy chuckled. If nothing else, it was nice to hear Jimmy laugh again.
“Oh, really?” Peggy got up, and in a split second, she leapt over the coffee table and took off. She was moving so quickly, Elliott’s eyes could hardly adjust. In the blink of an eye, she was back sitting with them on the couch, a smug look on her face.
“Whoa! How did you do that?” Jimmy asked.
“I told you. I’m stronger and faster than you can imagine.” She settled back into the couch, not even breathing heavy, with a content sigh, like she was glad to have gotten that out of her system.
“And… we’ll be able to do that, too?” Elliott asked.
“Yes, if you choose to Transform. But I want you to think long and hard about it because this type of life isn’t for everyone. You, especially. You have young children to think about.”
“I know for sure I’m going to do it,” Jimmy said. “When can I?”
“I told you, you have to be seventeen before whatever it is inside of your blood activates so that you can Transform. And then, there are a couple of ways it can happen. If you happen to encounter a Vampire, that will often trigger it. There’s also an injection they can give you, which is what I did.”
“Does it hurt?” Jimmy asked. “I hate shots.”
“It can hurt--sometimes. There’s a very good Healer who works for the team now who has been working on making it less painful.”
“What about if you see a Vampire? Does that method hurt?” Jimmy was full of questions.
“It just depends. Everyone is different,” Peggy explained.
“And that wouldn’t work until I was seventeen? What if I saw one before then?”
“That would be very dangerous.” Peggy looked at him sternly. “That’s why I am telling you this now, so that you don’t go messing around looking for them. Chances are, whatever the two of you saw in the woods was either just passing through or the other LIGHTS team members—that’s what we call the Hunters and Guardians after the training facility everyone goes to, the Lincoln International Guardian and Hunter Training Station—have already figured it out and destroyed them. There are a few Hunters and Guardians who operate out of this area. I’m sure Janette already knows about the creatures you saw, but we can let her know.”
“And where does she live?” Elliott asked, thinking it was about the sanest question to ask of the ones Jimmy hadn’t thought of yet.
“In Kansas City. That’s where the headquarters is. There are other bases around the globe, but Jordan and Janette operate out of there.” Peggy gave him a small smile.
Before anyone could ask anything else, the house phone rang. Frank started to get up to answer it, but Peggy waved him off and headed to the kitchen. Elliott looked at the photo album and shook his head. This day definitely didn’t turn out the way he thought it would.
“Elliott, that was Nancy,” Peggy said, coming back into the living room. “She said she’d like for you to pick her up from her folks’ house now.”
“Okay. I guess I’ll have to see the fancy phone some other time.” He looked at Jimmy. “Stay out of trouble, kid.”
“I will,” Jimmy replied, but he had a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
He stood and hugged his mom. “Thanks for telling me, Mom,” he said, though he wasn’t sure if it was really a good thing or not. Whether or not he believed her was one thing, but the idea that it could be true made his life even more complicated.
Peggy hugged him back. “Just a couple of quick things. You cannot tell anyone about this. It’s called the Clandestine Ternion—which essentially means the secret three. You can’t tell anyone what you know about Vampires, Hunters, and Guardians, including Nancy at this point. Maybe later if you decided to Transform, you can tell her then.” That wasn’t a problem since the last thing he wanted was to go home and tell his pregnant wife that he could turn into some sort of creature with superpowers. She’d have his stuff packed and out the door in five minutes flat, bulging belly or not.
“And the other thing is, you have to decide whether or not you’re going to go through with this before your twenty-second birthday. If you don’t Transform by then, for some reason, there’s a good chance you never will be able to.”
Elliott nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He stooped to hug his dad goodbye and headed for the door. Once behind the wheel, he couldn’t help but shake his head. All of this sounded so absolutely ridiculous, and yet, there was no doubt he’d seen something in those woods. And Peggy had just proven she was far faster than any human he had ever seen in his life.
There really was no time to think about any of that right now, however. He had a pregnant wife and a toddler to think about. He shifted into drive and spun his car around, heading back into town, back into reality, and as far away from the Clandestine Ternion as he could get.
