Guardian (Sequel to Fearless)

Chapter Thirty Six

A/N -- Hey, song fits the chapter! Been saving it! Also, second chapter in like two days. I get on my rolls, ya'll.

The house was cleared quickly, every room searched and accounted for. Aside from all the corpses outside, there was no presence of anyone else there. Dane and Azabela were both gone. Just gone. Hench was gone in a different sense --she walked out of the empty house completely different than Iris had ever seen her. Her muscles trembled and her humanity was all but gone. She was on a murder path. She was a bull in a room of red.

"Where is Azabela?" she screamed without reserve, and the guttural sound of her voice ripped through the area, shuddering everyone's bones. "Where the fuck is my son?! " The next moment had her war-hammer in her hands. With two volatile swings, she slammed it as hard as she could into the tree beside her. All just watched as it cracked a considerable dent in the surface, and leaves fell everywhere around her in protest.

Hench stalked around to where the dog's corpses lay and used a boot to stomp on one of them. The might of her leg rendered a large cloud of dust and a brief explosion of scarlet. Her fists just clenched and the vein in her forehead throbbed so fiercely it might have busted. Beating a dead hound wasn't enough though. There was nothing in the world that would sate her temper besides finding those responsible and ripping their fucking heads off.

Hench said nothing else --she was too angry to vocalize anything right now. She just stormed off on foot out into the woods.

"What is going on here?" Zayn said after a minute. He was terrified of the woman, and it showed. Everyone was.

A sick feeling hit Iris's stomach as she realized that Azabela and Dane were in danger, but that feeling was interrupted almost immediately by her mentor.

Hench could be heard screaming something now, from out within the trees. The words were unintelligible. She was yelling and calling out so fast that nothing was making sense. Iris had never heard someone so angry. The rogue just turned to Zayn to find him staring that direction equally dumbfounded.

"Iris," Kayde said, drawing everyone's attention. He acted quickly, on rationality and realization that they didn't have much time at all. "Iris, you have to calm her down. We need Hench."

"You want me to calm her down?" Iris asked, incredulous. "Kayde, that's her family. She has every right to be angry."

"Listen to me." Kayde went and grabbed her shoulder. "She does have every right to be angry, but if the baron's men have Hench's family... we all need to gather our wits and act fast. They are in danger now. If Hench really wants a chance at saving them, she can't be blazing a warpath through the woods. She needs to keep her head and save her energy for when we find who did this." Kayde sighed. "Go and bring her back. Calm her down so she doesn't hurt anyone, Iris. That includes herself. You are literally the only person that can."

"Kayde, I don't know if she's thinking straight right now," Iris said.

"She's not," Kayde replied, speaking quickly. "So go help her. Iris, I don't care if you've completed the trials... you're a guardian. You're a protector. So go be one and remember that Hench never took on anyone as a trainee but you. That means something. Out of everyone that's ever come to the sanctuary... she chose you. Something about you speaks right to her heart; I can see it. She chose you for a reason. She loves you, and she would never hurt you. Go bring her back so that she can help us bring her family home. Go confront her and bring her to her senses."

Iris took the words immediately to heart and nodded, but otherwise, didn't say anything. She whirled around and took off into the woods after her raging mentor.