A year ago my father had finally told me about his past, about his mission, about the reason he’d been such a harsh taskmaster to his sons. He believed that his time was up a long time ago, his life miraculously returned, all so he could prepare one of his sons for something vital. He’d known something bad was coming for most of his life, the end of the world, he’d called it, and he’d done his best to make us ready. One of us had to die to save the world. The events since I’d joined MHI had confirmed to him that I was the one the mysterious Others had been waiting for. He’d told me that when that certain symbol began to appear, the time had come. The rest of his story was on a letter, sealed in an envelope, and locked in a safe, left there after I’d refused to read it. Dad sincerely believed that once I knew the whole story his life would end.

That was one hell of a burden to put on a son.

“Naw. Probably not. Just me worrying about stuff is all.”

“Your dad has been calling a lot lately.”

“He’s trying to get me to come for a friendly visit. We both know he’s going to ambush me somehow, trying to get me to ‘man up’ so he can get all self-righteous and die a proper martyr. Then I’m supposed to go all kamikaze on something to save the world again. I don’t think so…You know what pisses me off? He got shot in the head once and that makes him the expert? I do this for a living.”

Julie chuckled. “You know, most couples in their first year of marriage are talking about things like whether they should buy a house—”

“Which is why I married a chick who already owned a sweet mansion.”

My attempt at levity failed. “—Or if they should start having kids.”

That was a sad subject for us. I looked back at the city. “Yeah, well…” As long as Julie bore the Guardian’s mark, we were scared to even think about the possibility. We didn’t know exactly what they had done to her, besides keep her alive a few times when she should’ve died, but to what purpose? We knew so little about the Guardian, and the only other person we’d ever met with her same curse, the man that had shared it with her in fact, had been instantly skinned alive by a minor Old One when it had taken that power away. We didn’t dare risk passing that on to a child. “Hell. I don’t know. I just wanted to get some sleep.”