Guardians of Eden: Book Four of the Vampire University Series

GUARDIANS OF EDEN

Book Four in the Vampire University Series

VJ Erickson

Copyright © 2014 by VJ Erickson

Smashwords Edition

All Rights Reserved

CHAPTER ONE

Eric could not make any sense of what he was experiencing. He had expected the weather to get cooler with the onset of autumn, but that did not explain the piercing chill he felt in the air. Even considering that the sun was hanging low in the sky, the temperature felt more like early winter than early fall.

Looking around, he found himself surrounded by houses, but they were unlike anything he had seen in New York. Instead of brick and siding, these houses were all stone and stucco, and not even in the nicer neighborhoods of Long Island had he seen yards this large. It reminded him of the California suburbs he had seen on TV sitcoms, and yet the backdrop to this quiet town was not anything like what he had seen on TV. All along the horizon, the frigid sky was framed with towering snow-capped mountains, looming large enough that the neighborhood where he stood appeared to be nestled right at their feet.

He did not know where he was, but he knew that he wasn’t anywhere near home. These mountains were nothing like the Appalachian mountains he was familiar with. With their gentle slopes and dense greenery, those mountains seemed more like rolling hills compared to the rocky monoliths surrounding this mystery town.

Since returning to Eden Island, Eric had not experienced the gaps in his memory that had plagued him when he was homeless. He had invented dozens of reasons for these temporary lapses in awareness—heat, hunger, and recovering from vampirism being the explanations he found most persuasive—and though none felt completely satisfying, he had come to believe that whatever had been happening to him was over and in the past. He had left all those problems, and the strange voice in his head that came with them, back in Manhattan. Or at least that’s what he thought. This place he found himself in couldn’t have been more different than Manhattan, and yet here he was without a single memory of how he had arrived here.

The other unexpected discovery was the only thing (or person, in this case) around him that he actually recognized. Hannah was laid out on the ground beside him, unconscious but clearly breathing. The breathing itself was odd. Of course vampires could breathe—they could talk, which requires exhaling, after all—but it wasn’t an automatic or even necessary body function for the undead, and it was not something you often saw them doing in their sleep. Chalking that detail up to the least of today’s mysteries, Eric instead focused on the more important question of why they were here together in the first place. He wasn’t sure whether he should be comforted that there was at least one familiar thing to be found in this unfamiliar place, or if he should dread that he was stranded somewhere unknown with someone who hated his guts.

He looked around for any clue to figuring out where he was. Even though the houses appeared to be Californian, the cold weather seemed to suggest otherwise. Though if he was honest with himself, he had to admit that he didn’t really know anything about the weather on the west coast. Regardless, he was pretty sure, though not entirely, that they didn’t have mountains like this in California. He didn’t even know if there were mountains like this in the United States. For all he knew, these could be the Alps or the Himalayas or something. Scanning the street, he spotted a pair of street signs at an intersection. One read 500 South, the other 300 West. They were in English, which at least ruled out all the foreign mountain ranges he knew of, but the generic street names did not offer him many clues beyond that. Cold weather, massive mountains, generic street names in English… his best guess at the moment was that they were in Canada, although that was a stab in the dark.

He knelt over Hannah. She was just the sort of know-it-all who could probably immediately identify where they were, although he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know badly enough to have to listen to her tell him. He considered for a moment just leaving her there. He knew that when she woke up she would find some way to blame this all on him. Though, to be fair, it wasn’t an entirely unreasonable accusation given his history. And because he couldn’t remember how he had gotten there in the first place, he had nothing to offer as an alibi.

Regardless of whether she would prove to be useful or a nuisance, Eric wondered if it would even be wrong to leave her. Just because he happened to find himself in the middle of who-knows-where with someone he knew didn’t mean that he had any obligations to that person. It was not like he brought her here himself. Besides, he reminded himself, Hannah was tough. She had gotten by just fine without his help before he came along—before he was born even. And, unlike him, she was a vampire. If anything, he was the one who would need help getting home, but he didn’t want any from her.

She began to stir, waking from her sleep. If Eric was going to leave her, he needed to go now, but he found himself frozen in place. Whether from the shock of finding himself stranded in an unknown place or from simply being tired of always running away from things, he decided, for once, to stay.

Oh… Ooh…Ohooh… she moaned, rubbing her forehead. With the noises she was making, one would think that she had suffered some great injury, though there was no sign of it. He would expect that from her, though. It all seemed appropriately theatrical for Hannah.

Hey there, he said.

Hannah jolted upright in alarm and scooted back several feet on the sidewalk. She appeared to be at least as surprised to see Eric as he had been to see her, and she refused to take her eyes off him. She did not yet appear to have taken notice of their surroundings.

You, she said, eyes narrowing in suspicion. Why are you here?

Here? he replied. That’s a good question. Where is here?

Don’t play games with me. ‘Here’ is over my unconscious body. What happened? Where’s Taylor?

Eric sighed. Are you even capable of looking at me without thinking of Taylor anymore?

I’m not capable of looking at anybody without thinking of her. It’s called being a friend. You should try it. She rose to her feet slowly, a little wobbly, and lurched back a few more steps away from Eric.

Super great friendship advice for obsessive stalkers, Hannah. Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind once I figure out how to get home.

Home? What are you…? Oh. Eric could see that their predicament was suddenly dawning on Hannah. Given the look of surprise on her face, he could tell that she had not expected to wake up in a chilly mountain town either.

See? I don’t know where ‘here’ is, he said. And I don’t know how we got here, either. So you can chill out with your accusing tone. Despite what you think, I am not the source of every problem in your life.

Only most of them, Hannah muttered. And here is Utah, in case you’re curious. It’s a state. In America? You might have heard of it if you’d ever read a book in your life.

I know what Utah is. Sorry if I can’t identify states by standing in the middle of random suburbs. They didn’t teach us that in my geography class.

Whatever.

"Wait, how did you know where we are? It’s not like you learned it in school, either. I bet they hadn’t even invented school yet when you were a kid.

Funny. I went to school. And I may not be older than public education, but I’ve been around long enough to know things.

Around Utah?

Just around. So you don’t know how we got here, then.

Nope. I’m as surprised as you are.

I’m sure. Forgive me if I’m reluctant to presume that you’re innocent. What’s the last thing you remember?

I was at your dorm. You were there, remember? Giving me grief for existing.

Yes, existing. Because that’s the extent of your crimes.

You can cut me a break, you know. I was going to leave you unconscious. But I didn’t, because I’m a nice guy.

My hero, Hannah said dryly.

I’m just trying to do the right thing here.

There’s a plot twist. Well, good luck with that. I’m going back to Eden Island.

Wait! What about me?

Hannah just glared at him.

How am I supposed to get back? he asked.

How does anybody get from one place to the other? Hitchhike. Take a bus. Book a flight. Get abducted by aliens. I don’t care. You’re not my problem.

I can’t afford transportation all the way back to New York. Besides, I wouldn’t even know where to start. I didn’t wake up this morning planning on a cross-country road trip starting from the opposite end of the country.

And that is my problem how? Call your brother. Get him to enthrall a travel agent or something. You do have your cellphone, don’t you?

Eric had been so disoriented by his new surroundings that he hadn’t even thought to check. The GPS on it would certainly have answered the question of where he was quickly enough. He checked his pocket and was relieved to find his phone and keys. Another pat of his back pocket confirmed that his wallet was where he left it as well, and he was both relieved and mystified to discover that whoever had dragged them to the other side of the country at least had the courtesy to leave them with their personal possessions.

He unlocked his phone and noticed that the battery charge was almost full. The phone had been on when he first pulled it out of his pocket, and it struck him as odd that it had maintained a full charge all the way from New York to Utah, regardless of what route they took. Being abducted without having his possessions stolen seemed oddly fortuitous given his recent string of bad luck, but for the abductor to also leave him with a full cellphone battery went beyond lucky to downright implausible. Though perhaps it was no more implausible than waking up in a random Utah suburb next to Hannah, he supposed.

Setting aside the unexplained charge on his battery, he decided to open the map app to get a better sense of his bearings. The app’s location marker defaulted to the last location where he had used the app, the dorms on Eden Island, but when he tried to update it to the current location nothing happened. He closed the map app and opened the browser instead. He had no luck there either; the browser displayed a white screen with a message that it could not connect to the internet. A glance at the top of the home screen confirmed that he was not getting any wireless signal, not even the slow kind. It struck Eric as odd that he couldn’t get even a roaming analog signal in the middle of a suburban neighborhood, but he guessed that perhaps Utah had different wireless frequencies than the east coast. But that was just another in a string of uninformed guesses. He really had no idea.

Eric looked up from his phone. Hannah apparently had no interest in waiting for him to figure it out; she had already disappeared. He suddenly felt the impact of being alone, and he realized that even though there was no love lost between them, having a familiar face in an unfamiliar place had provided some small amount of comfort.

He reminded himself that he had survived much worse. If he could make it as a homeless person on the streets of Manhattan, surely there was nothing about Midwestern suburbia that should faze him. Pushing aside his doubts, he began to weigh his options. While he could wait to see if Hannah was planning on showing up again, he was pretty sure that was unlikely. He was on his own. He scanned the houses around him, and he knew that the obvious solution was staring right at him. If anyone knew their way around Utah, it would be the residents.

It might have seemed like a small thing to knock on a stranger’s door and ask for help, but the notion made Eric deeply uncomfortable. He hated relying on others and having to admit that he needed help. That, and he was generally distrustful of others—a byproduct of a long line of unreliable adult figures in his life combined with having lived in a big city where people tended to keep to themselves and ignore their neighbors.

In other circumstances, his general mistrust of others would have been enough excuse for him to turn away and wander around whatever town he was in until he got cell service or found a pay phone. Never mind that he had no idea if payphones were a thing that still existed in suburbs. They were hard enough to find even in New York these days.

The houses all looked similar; the same few models repeated up and down the street with only variations in paint color to set them apart. One home looked about as inviting as the next, so he settled on the one closest to him and walked up to the front door. He could hear the sounds of children playing loudly inside. He paused for a moment to swallow his pride and then knocked on the door.

The door opened quickly, as if someone had been on the other side waiting for his knock, and it caught Eric momentarily off guard.

Hello. A perfectly unintimidating middle-aged woman with a friendly smile greeted him.

Uh… hi. I hate to bother you, but… a loud crash followed by the shrieks and giggles of children could be heard in the background. The woman in the doorway did not even flinch. But, uh… he continued, I can’t seem to get any cell service out here.

Any what, hon? Sell services? That doesn’t ring a bell. I don’t think we have any of those around here. Would you like to check our phonebook?

Eric found that to be an odd response. Did they somehow manage to miss out on cellphones in Utah? he wondered. That would explain the lack of service, at least.

Um, no, he said. That’s okay. I know the number. My phone just doesn’t work.

Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Well, come on in, then.

Thank you.

She led Eric down the hall to the kitchen, and Eric couldn’t help but notice as they passed the living room that there were enough children in there to fill a small daycare. He couldn’t identify the cause of the crash he had heard, or rather, he couldn’t isolate the one cause from the many possibilities. Furniture was toppled everywhere, and toys and books were strewn about. It looked like a tornado had just passed through.

The woman leading him down the hall did not even spare the children a glance, however. Apparently, Eric determined, that was the normal state of things in the home. They reached the kitchen, and the woman pointed to a phone hanging on the wall with a long coiled cord dangling from it.

Oh wow. I haven’t seen one of those since I was a kid, said Eric.

Really? You don’t have a phone at your house? I thought you said it wasn’t working.

I haven’t seen one that isn’t cordless, I mean.

Oh, you must have one of those standalone phones with the antennas like in the movies. No wonder it isn’t working. Never did understand why they have to keep making technology more complicated when it already works perfectly fine as is.

Uh, right. Like in the movies. And everywhere else in the country besides Utah, thought Eric.

Oh, I don’t really trust the things. What’s to stop someone from buying the same phone and listening in? Plus all those invisible waves? It’s bad enough we’re cooking our food with microwaves now.

Was Utah really this backwards? Eric wondered. Oh, ha ha, said