The Guardian (8 page)

She stood there for a moment trying to
regain control of herself as she had processed what she had just
done. “My lady, are you alright,” asked her good friend Vitaliy as
he approached her. She put out her hand motioning for him to stop
replying, “Looks like I have some changes going on,” she looked up
at her close friend and continued, “I think we need to keep this a
secret from the others. If the elder ancients hear that I am now
showing signs they will kill us all and I am still centuries away
from being as strong as one of them.” He friend clasping his mouth
with his hand contemplating what would happen stated, “Of course
mam, I shall tell the others that we have caught a spy and that
this section of the castle is off limits to all.” She signaled for
him to go on his way. As soon as he was out of ear shot she tumbled
to the grown in disbelief of what just happened. Not just the
sudden appearance of power, but how she had no control over herself
and she did not like this at all. It dawned on her that as soon as
John was able to she needed to start training with him to let him
understand how strong a young ancient was, so that he would be more
prepared for the original ancients when they came. She was still
convinced that he stood a better chance than she.

Vitaliy went down and gathered the coven
into the main hall and began to explain the treachery that had just
occurred,” My coven, we have all been betrayed by the rat, sneak,
and not lastly the snake, Drakus; our fair lady and faithful leader
caught him in an act of espionage this early evening.” He paused
for a moment to look out upon the flock and gauge the temperature
of the crowd and started back with,” My brethren and sisters we
have been betrayed, deceived, and forsaken by one if not more in
our coven. I full you not when I tell you how dangerous this could
be for our family here. If one of the other covens have placed a
spy within our community, that means we must be some sort of threat
to another coven; this means we are already in a war that we had no
prior notice to.” Vitaliy clenched his fists together at his side
and cracked his neck by turning it as far right as he could,” I
know all of you are too young to know what a war between covens is
like. In these wars an entire coven is always wiped out. If anyone
is left it is those used for sexual trophy pieces and usually they
do not get to live much longer than their novelty to the
captor.”

The entire coven was at disbelief when they
heard this, but knowing Vitaliy was not a man to mince untrue words
they headed them very heavily. The coven whispered amongst
themselves as Vitaliy paced the alter, which the two thrones sat
upon trying to think of a way to weed out any other snakes among
them. He picked up the great sword that hung from the wall, behind
the thrones, on an elegantly made hanger of iron. With the sword in
his one hand he began to speak in a voice that sounded as if it was
from the depths of hell not his normal aristocratic style, “ANY
OTHER RATS AMONGST US, WILL SUFFER A WORSE FATE THEN THE LAST IF
YOU DO NOT STEP UP NOW! NOW, YOU WOULD BE SENT TO YOUR EMPLOYER
WITH A MESSAGE FROM ME! THIS IS A ONE TIME OFFER AND ONLY GOOD FOR
THE NEXT FEW MOMENTS.” He looked around to see if anyone looked
shaken any more than the rest, since he knew this was a way that
they had never seen him. No one seemed out of place or of guilty
conscience. He tapped the blade of the sword off of his left palm
and divulged,” We will be under lockdown for the unknown near
future. No one, absolutely no one leaves this castle or
communicates with the outside world until I have time to interview
every last one of you,” now the demon sound and power from his
voice came back into full swing to finish with,” ANY ONE CAUGHT
TRYING TO BREAK THIS LOCK DOWN WILL HAVE A SLOW, SEEMINGLY NEVER
ENDING DEATH! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!” He could see the whole room
shake in fear. Everyone understood that these words were not to be
taken lightly. He calmly placed the sword back upon its resting
place and said in a calm voice as he was going out the double
camber door, “If anyone suspects anything, come see me.”

Adela sat on the bottom edge of her bed with
one of her many diaries upon her lap; she was looking at notes that
her beloved had written her all those years ago. She had huge
regrets of not being more careful with protecting him until he had
grown stronger. She now feared for her coven knowing that if a spy
was amongst them, one of the other covens already had her young
family in their crosshairs. She was frightened knowing that her new
found strengths were not enough to stop one of the older ancients,
but enough to cause them to eradicate her entire coven and that is
without counting the fact that they had a new guardian. She knew
that this was their last chance of freeing themselves from the
ancients and they would not suffer a second guardian from her coven
gladly. Her heart was heavier than it had ever been for she was
worried about her dear Galechka and how she would feel if she would
lose her guardian the same way as Adela did. She knew not what to
do, because her whole coven was in grave danger.

Waking this evening was not easy, John heard
his alarm, but just wanted to lay with this woman that he was
falling in love with. Slapping the alarm, he quickly rolls up under
the covers placing his head on her perfectly sculpted stomach, her
piercing in her navel and looking down to see all that seemed made
in heaven, he wrapped his arm around her and said, I don’t want
to.” She laughed a sweet loving laugh and pulled him up onto her so
they saying,” Come on I ‘ll help you wake up,” she pulled him so
they were face to face looking deep into each other’s eyes; He
thought to himself I will never find someone I love as much as her.
Knowing at this moment that he could only find solace in her. As
they kissed she opened herself to him in more ways than one. This
at the moment was magic to her and him, but in the same heart beat
was a nightmare to her. Opening herself up to loving someone was a
huge fear of hers, in this moment she felt none of these fears as
they made love, but later is bothered her deeply.

After they had already been out of bed, a
gentle rapping came upon the door; it was apparent enough that it
was the knocking of a feminine touch. Galechka had her suspicions
on whom it might be, so she went to the door to no elude it was
Vixen. Galechka not liking this flee bag anyways took a strong
stance with her hand upon her hip and said, “It is not yet his time
for training.” Vixen smiled and replied, “Well that is perfect,
because we are not training today. I was asked to tell you to bring
him to our main fire ring other the hill. We are celebrating
tonight and we want him to take place in the ceremony,” she rose
her eyebrows at Galechka as she spoke,” Since he has been training
with us, we want to make him one of the pack.” Galechka
interjected,” What do you mean?” “We have the same suppressors and
are enslaved by the same group as your coven, since we are
preparing him for battle against them; we want to celebrate with
him before. You understand, right?” Galechka was a bit surprised by
this and retorted, “I hadn’t thought of it like that.” Vixen
reminded her, “Bring some blood bags for yourself; we do not keep
that sort of thing on stock.”

Galechka and John headed through the woods
towards the wolves main fire ring. This was the place that they had
all of their celebrations and ceremonies for the pack. Galechka
pointed out the carvings in the stones as they passed each one.
John was astounded by the art work these were and deeply impressed
by Galechka’s knowledge of how they were they records of this packs
legacy. She explained to him that unlike the other covens, Adela
did not try to kill off of enslave the pack, but created a truce
and friendship with the pack leader ages ago. She said at times
Adela would refer to the pack as the coven’s brethren and extended
family. She went on to explain how in some areas the vampires hunt
down any werewolf and dispatch death on sight. They soon could see
the glowing of the huge fire in the distance and hear the wolves
some in human form and some in wolf celebrating loudly.

As the two approached the fire they
witnessed they pack mostly in human form dancing some sort of
tribal type dance around the fire, while a few in wolf form howled
into the moon lit night in due timing with the music. There were
rhythmic drums and native stringed Slavic instruments; the stringed
instruments placed a powerful, but joyful melody along with the
rhythm of the percussion instruments. This was a tight pack, you
could see how everyone knew what the other was going to do and
react accordingly, never missing a beat or miss stepping a
step.

Bernandas motioned the two to come sit by
him with, with his enormous monstrous sized arms. He patted his
hands on the log next to him for them to take a place. Reaching
over to his right he grabbed two large glasses of wine and handed
one to each of them,” My friends and my pack,” Bernandas exclaimed
in a loud, happy, and cheerful voice,” We are here to celebrate a
new brother in arms today. He may not be wolf or vampire,” he
sniffed the air and then sniffed at John,” O.K. O.K., he smells a
bit more like a wolf than a vamp,” the whole pack erupted into
laughter,” no no, all joking a side I am glad to welcome this man
into our pack as a part of the pack, as an alley to us and my
dearest friend Adela; I trust her beliefs and chooses more than any
others. We have hidden in the shadows and lived in fear for long
enough; I am hoping that this man can do what Adela believes.” He
raised his class into the air and the rest of the pack including
Galechka and John, “A toast to our newest family member and his
life companion, may they both have a rich long life together!” The
pack all in unison proclaimed. “Here! Here!” and slammed back their
glasses of wine.

Bernandas slapped John on the back and
guided him away from the pack whispering,” We need to talk boy;
motion for your girl to come with us.” They headed over to a
clearing in the trees where some stumps of trees seemed to double
as chairs and Bernandas took a seat on one of them. This monster of
a man looked like an adult trying to sit in a kid’s chair. As the
two took a seat facing him, he began to speak,” What I am about to
tell you is forbidden knowledge among the vampires and not really
spoken too much amongst the wolf packs.” The serious tone in his
voice ran shivers into both of their souls. He sat for a moment and
gathered his thoughts,” I do not know how to word this to you
without scaring you to death, nor do I want you to not understand
the danger that you two are both in.” The two glanced at each other
understanding that they were about to get grave news and reached
out for each other’s hands. He continued,” A guardian has never
lived long after the ancients catch wind of his existence. You see
the last guardian known to any of us belonged to Adela and she
suffered his loss very badly. You see a guardian and his vampire
have a bond and the name is almost inane, because it is the
guardian that belongs to the vampire and not the other way
around.”

Galechka clenched down on John’s hand trying
to draw his attention onto her. She looked at him in a way
suggesting we could leave this place and everyone in it; just the
two of us escaping to some far off place, but then she had a
different look, a look of we will do this together. Bernandas was
saying,” The information is not so clear about your race, because
if the knowledge was spoken, the speaker would suffer the pain of
death. This silenced the few that had the knowledge of this. You
need to know that as far as I know, no guardian has ever fared well
against and ancient, but it is rumored that in due time one will
gain the power needed to destroy an ancient vampire.” Bernandas
reached out and put a hand on each one of their knees to let them
understand he was being serious and sincere, before going back into
his speech,” Adela and I are both convinced of this, due to how
quickly the ancients freak out and dispense of a guardian every
time they hear of one. This action shows that they have some reason
to believe these legends to be true. There are other rumors of one
guardian that killed three ancients, before one of the three elder
ancients ripped his spine from his body. The elder ancients is
something that the other vampires never discuss, because it is also
forbidden information, most laugh it off as a fairly tell. I
believe they might exist and stay hidden behind the ancients that
we all know about.”

They were interrupted by Vixen,” I
am sorry sir, but I bring news from the coven; it seems that Adela
has caught a spy and want us to be on the alert.” Bernandas patted
her on the thigh and replied with a wink,” I am sure we would be
better at sniffing out an intruder amongst our ranks. So run along
and tell the pack to keep their noses to the ground.” As soon as
Vixen was out of earshot Bernandas ripped back into his blood
curdling story,” You see what Adela has failed to divulge in her
story to you is that how they always savagely kill the guardian. I
am not telling a ghost story or over exaggerating this to spook
you, but rather I am afraid playing it down not to scare you away,
but I feel you need to be forewarned about the horrendous ways that
the ancients always kill your kind.” He placed his mammoth hand
upon Johns should gripping it firmly,” These words do not carry the
weight that they need to and I do not know how to, because through
the years I have seen so much death, rampage and cruelty that I
fear I too have become desensitized. They always seem to torture
the guardian as he dying. Adela had to watch her guardian’s heart
be slowly extracted out through the back of his rib cage. He gave
himself over to them to save Adela who was their captive. She said:
he placed himself on his knees in between her and Baldemar, always
a cruel German bastard, reached through Alex’s back and grasped his
heart while looking dead into Adela’s eyes to not only see, but
enjoy all the misery that she was enduring as he slowly twisted,
squeezed, dug his nails into Alex’s heart as he at a snail’s pace
pulling back out through the hole he had made in his back. I was
there chained to the wall watching the torment in both these twos
eyes. I could see the raw, pure, unbridled evil in Baldemar’s eyes
as his twisted, sick, and dark soul relished every bitter second of
despair that he was inflicting on this couple,” John and Galechka
held each other’s hands even tighter after hearing of Baldemar’s
ungodly act on Adela and her lover,” his eyes were consumed in
lustful pleasure as he raised John’s still beating heart in front
of his mouth and took a huge bite out of it and spat it out,
dropping the rest of it on the floor like an old dirty rag and then
crushed it under his foot and dug his heal into it before walking
away. Some say he left Adela alive due to his infatuation with her,
but myself and others believe it is to see her suffer and droop
over and over again.”