Chapter 30

Granger sat behind his desk, quietly poring over some papers by lamplight. The rest of the hotel was as busy as ever. At the sound of footsteps outside of his door, Granger looked up, but when they passed by, his eyes went back to the documents.

He was on edge, anxious. His teeth chomped down on the end of his pipe, but it wasn’t lit. Christian watched him from the shadows outside of his office window, waiting for the perfect time. He didn’t want Granger to die anxious. He wanted the bastard to be completely relaxed, not to see it coming at all, the way he’d been when Brandy had stabbed him, carrying out orders for this son of a bitch.

The majority of the dozen or so Hunters and Guardians that had stayed loyal to Granger were out looking for Morris and a couple of others who’d agreed to help Jess. So far, they hadn’t caught up to them from what Christian could tell, or else, they would’ve turned back by now. Morris was from Pennsylvania, so he didn’t have a lot of friends out here who would help him, but he was smart. He’d find a way to hide. Jess had filled him in that no one had been told that Christian was dead, only that he was missing. That was good because he wanted to keep knowledge of the existence of the Blue Moon Portal as limited as possible.

The three of Granger’s men that had stayed behind to protect him, two Hunters and a Guardian, were patrolling the hotel, looking for any signs that Jess or one of the others had returned to the establishment in an attempt to end Granger. They were walking around outside in a predictable pattern. It wouldn’t take long at all to take them out of the picture, if Christian chose to do that. He couldn’t kill any of them, and neither he nor Jess could kill the Hunters, but they could be incapacitated. His hope was that they would realize their error as soon as Granger was dead, but then, they had likely helped with Brandy’s execution, in which case, they deserved to be dead, too. Maybe he’d let Jess kill the Guardian and take the Hunters down to the Vampires in the basement--once Granger was taken care of.

A storm was brewing on the horizon, which seemed fitting. Lightning lit the clouds, splintering down behind the distant trees; a rumble shook the hotel. The lone Guardian, Tyler, made his pass around Granger’s office. It would be three minutes before Lyle came around again, followed about four minutes later by Jane. Now was as good a time as ever to end this.

He wanted Granger to see him. He wanted to see the fear in the man’s eyes when he realized he’d screwed up. He wanted to see the terror behind his irises when it registered that he was about to meet his demise.

Moving with the speed and intensity only someone of his kind could do, Christian threw up the window behind Granger and passed through, putting it down silently. For now, Jess would stay outside. When he needed him, his friend would be there. At the moment, he wanted to see Granger face-to-face. Alone.

The boss sensed someone was standing behind him before he turned his fat head to look. He took a deep breath, his exhale catching slightly as nerves bubbled up inside of him, and then he gazed over his shoulder, as if he knew there was no cause for alarm. It wasn’t until he was facing forward again that it registered that something was very wrong.

The second turn was much, much slower. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was agape when he turned to double-check what his mind had told him he’d seen. This time, he did not turn back around. Instead, he stared into the shadows where Christian standing just to further confuse him, and gawked at the man he’d ordered butchered.

“What’s the matter, Granger? Out of clever remarks to make?” Christian asked, his voice nothing but a growl.

“You… you can’t be here,” the Guardian said, swiveling his chair around and pushing it backward. It hit the desk and went no further. “You’re… dead.”

“Better look again,” Christian replied, taking a measured step forward. “For someone who’s dead… I seem to be awfully alive.”

“But… that’s impossible!” Granger stammered. “I know you were dead! I saw the body myself!”

“And yet… here I am.” Christian shrugged and took a few more steps closer. He knew that Lyle would be by momentarily. Granger knew it, too. His eyes went to the window.

Christian took the split second distraction as an opportunity to launch himself across the room at the other Guardian, utilizing the rope he’d brought and moving so quickly, he was able to loop it around the pudgy man, keeping him from getting out of the chair. He twisted the rope tight with one hand while preventing Granger from screaming with his other hand. It would’ve been kinder to shove something in the bastard’s mouth, but ramming his fist into the side of his jaw hard enough to pop the mandible out of its socket was more pleasurable. Granger squealed, his head dropping back as Christian made short work of attaching him to the chair. Now that he wasn’t going anywhere, it would be safer to secure his mouth. He took a dirty bandana from his pocket, one he’d raked through fresh horse manure on his way in, and tied it around Granger’s mouth, being sure his lips were parted so he could get as much out of the experience as possible.

Once again the prisoner attempted to eke out some sort of noise out, but that wasn’t happening. Not now. If the others came in to the office to check on him or peered through the windows, they might be able to attempt a rescue, but Christian would incapacitate all three of them as well, and anyone else stupid enough to interfere.

“Did you order Brandy’s death?” Christian asked, spinning the man around in the chair and staring him in the eye.

He couldn’t verbally answer, but then he didn’t have to. Christian saw the answer in his eyes. He had. Granger had had her killed. Because of him. He swallowed back his anger and then rammed his knee down hard between Granger’s legs. This time, a groan did manage to escape from his throat. Sweat dotted his forehead and his face turned bright red. Christian wanted to pull his blade from his pocket already, not to shove it into his chest. That would come later. But to saw his manhood off while he sat there and watched.

He didn’t do it, though. He had questions, and he wanted answers. “What about her brother?” This time, Granger’s eyes told him something else. Confusion. Could it be true that Brandy had made up a little brother in an effort to convince herself that she had to do what Granger said? Had she decided killing Christian was the only way she could live, so she’d had to make up a convincing story to ease his pain and make herself feel better?

It didn’t matter. He forgave her. He’d forgiven her the moment he’d looked into her eyes. Now that she was gone, it was all the more easy for him to do so. It was also time to end this man once and for all.

Knowing that Jess was at the ready, he gestured for the Hunter to come in. The window didn’t open yet, though, and a few seconds after he’d made his move, Christian heard footsteps outside. He spun Granger around so it looked like he was still hard at work to the unobservant eye, and then stepped back out of view of the windows. Lyle kept walking, and eventually the footsteps faded. A moment later, the window flew open, and Jess was there.

Once again, Christian turned the chair. When Granger recognized there was a Hunter present, tears formed in his eyes. He shook his head, and the noises coming from his mouth seemed to be the word, “Please.”

“It’s too late for all that,” Christian said. He drew the knife from his pocket. “I want you to feel exactly the same sensation I felt when I was stabbed to death, Bossman. Only, instead of being stabbed by the one person in the world you love more than anyone else, you’ll be taken out by two people who could’ve worked for you for many years, two people you could’ve won over if you’d shown any sort of leadership skills whatsoever, you selfish bastard.”

The blade wasn’t quite as long as the one Brandy had used, but it would do. Jess wrapped his hand around the hilt, and the two of them thrust the knife forward together, plunging it into Granger’s chest near the spot where Christian had been stabbed.

The man couldn’t scream because his mouth was full of horse shit and bandana, but he whimpered, a gurgling noise forming in his throat as tears filled his eyes and then began to pour out. A crimson spot began to form on his dark suit jacket, spreading almost as slowly as the tears that ran down his face.

Christian took a step back and folded his arms while Jess turned around, not wanting to watch. The Guardian couldn’t get enough of the scene before him, though. Just as he’d taken in every curve of Brandy’s body, every movement, every twitch of her lips, his eyes were glued on Hal Granger now. He wanted to watch each drop of blood pour out of the bastard, staining the expensive oriental rug beneath his chair.

It didn’t take long. That was too bad. Christian had hoped to have the satisfaction of watching Granger die for several minutes, maybe even an hour, but it only took five or ten minutes for his head to droop to the side. A few minutes after that, Christian stepped forward and felt for a pulse. Finding none, he decided his work here was done. It was time to tell the others.

He didn’t get a chance to walk out of the office and let the three piss poor security guards know their boss was dead. Before he had a chance to move toward the window, the door to Granger’s office flew open and another Hunter came rushing in.

Wess Lackland took in the scene quickly and immediately opened fire on Christian, expecting to take the Guardian down with his bullets the same way a human would fall. He was a Hunter, after all, and he should be capable of killing a Guardian with no problem. The bullets stung as they made contact with Christian’s skin, but they did not sink in. Instead, they bounced off, the same way the bullet Wess was spraying Jess with bounced away because a Hunter could not kill another Hunter.

“What the hell?” Wess asked, looking at his gun and then at Christian. “I thought you was already dead.”

“You thought wrong,” Christian said, coming around the table and closing the distance between them so quickly Wess had no time to react.

Christian pulled the gun from the Hunter’s hand and smacked him upside the head with it, hard. Blood streamed down the side of Wess’s face, and his hat fell to the floor. “That’s for being an asshole,” he said, tossing the gun at him. “Now, Granger’s dead. You can either decide to keep being an asshole, or get up off of the ground and start doing your job, which is supposed to be to help people. Did you take Brandy down to the Vampires or was that some other shit head?”

Wess held a hand to the side of his face, blood spurting through his fingers. “No, that was Granger himself. Said he wanted to be the one to watch her die and know he did that.”

Christian swallowed hard, not sure if he could believe him. Jess was there now, his hand on his shoulder. “Let it go, Christian. Come on. We need to go.”

Deciding his friend was right, it would be best if he left all of this behind, Christian nodded. “I need to get my belongings from my room.”

“I got the picture of your family, the letters from your mom, and your books already. You got something else?” Jess asked, not letting go of him.

Deciding that was all there was to fetch from the room in the attic, Christian shook his head. The memories he’d made there, those were ingrained in his mind so deep, he’d never lose those. No one could take those from him, not even Granger.

With nothing more for him in San Francisco, Christian decided it was time to head back east. He needed to find Jordan Findley and let the Guardian Leader know he was at his service, no matter what that entailed. That man, from what he understood, was a leader, a good man, someone who cared about the people who worked for him, even if he hadn’t seen Christian’s value yet. Christian should’ve never come here to begin with, but if he hadn’t, he never would’ve met Brandy, and meeting her had been worth it--even if it had killed him.