The Guardian Read online

  On the other end of the castle Galechka was in her room feeling odd in a disturbing way. She felt as if the walls were caving in and that she was losing control. She felt love, anger, fear and confusion all at the same time. She did not know what was going on and was stark raving disturbed that she could not control her emotions. She hated him, loved him, wanted to kill him, wanted to make love to him and had no idea what was causing these emotions. She had only saved his life once and had no clue of why she was drawn to that place on that night on the other side of the planet. Why was she felling these emotions? This was the first time in her life that she had ever felt this way about anyone. Looking in her mirror, fussing with her hair, reaching over and cranking up her radio; she was trying anything she could to not think about him.

  Walking through the streets of Lithuania John found himself in a strange state of being; He felt stronger, more energetic, and in love not knowing what was causing these feelings. All he could do was to think about the girl that saved him. How her eyes were different than any other that he had seen. Not just the fact they were sometimes blue and sometimes green, but the fact that she had a different look behind them. She was a mystery and enigma that maybe know man could ever figure out. All he could dream about was to meet this mystery woman and try to win her heart. Feeling foolish and embarrassed about his fantasy about a woman that was not a real woman; who never existed in the first place and only existed in his mind. Still, it sent a smile onto his face and put a skip into his step.

  The Pub

  When John cut around a familiar corner he noticed the Pub that he had seen in his dreams. The very club that this haunting woman went into to collect a payment he believed. This rattled John’s nerves, because it was 100% like what he seen in his dream and he soundly felt a strong feeling that she could feel his presence. At this moment Galechka felt his presence. She wondered: How could this be? She was overcome with so many emotions that she did not know what to do. She closed her eyes just for a moment and it was as if she was looking at The Pub through his eyes, much like he had done through her eyes in his sleep.

  Galechka quickly grabbed her keys off of her dresser and made way to her car as quickly as she could. She did not know why, but she felt as though he was in grave danger. The tires to her car spun wildly from the raw power of her engine; small white stones from the castles drive way sprayed up into the air from her tires. Her car burned black marks onto the road as she reached it catching everyone’s attention that was with in the castle. No one had ever seen her leave this way and Adela already knew that Galechka was headed to her Guardian. It sent a smile onto Adela’s face knowing that soon Galechka was going to have the strength to lead the coven out of the control of the other covens. Adela being the youngest of the ancients had to abide to their every demand, for she could not protect her coven from their strength. Her clan would no longer be enslaved by the others and she would see revenge for what happened to her Guardian.

  John sat down at the end of the bar in the far corner, trying to allow the locals to realize that he was from out of town. He knew it was best to avoid problems in a country that he had no idea how to speak the language. He motioned to the bar keep that he needed assistance and the keep a huge 260 pound beast with hairy knuckles was the responding party to John signal. John looked at the man once he made it down to him and said,” Beer.” The keep looked at him for a moment grunted and went to the tap and took a long glass feeing it with a ton of foam in it. “Here that $5 now,” the keep demanded from John. John reached into his pocket and pulled out a bunch of funny looking paper money and said,” How much from this?” The keep reached out and took a few different pieces. “You need to learn money from here, others will rob you.” John nodded his head to the giant of a man in front of him.

  An hour had gone by and John had figured out which of strangely colored notes he needed to pay for each drink. He had knocked back more than a few by this point. Some of the locals were looking in his direction and whispering amongst each other. John was wondering if he was just being paranoid or were they speaking about him. He was dreading any conflict that was all he needed at this point. Two of the three men started to make their way towards him while whispering to each other as the third was stretching his neck trying to see what was going on. John had a bad feeling about this and was trying to seem unconcerned. One of them bent down and spoke, “Where you from?” John to a moment and replied, “America.” Both men looked at each other and snickered a drunken snicker. “Why pig you here?” the one man said abruptly. “John figuring well here we go laughed and said, “Having a beer having a lot of beer.” The one man grabbed a hold of John by the shoulder trying to rip him off of his stool being surprised by how nibble John was. He had not only managed to catch his balance, but rolled his shoulder stepping back so that the attacker was standing face to face with John at an arm’s length, grabbing the attacker’s hand with the hand from the opposite arm so that he could not remove it from his shoulder. John winked at the man and took his left leg swinging around while he grabs the man’s elbow of the arm locked to John’s shoulder with his free hand. Pushing the man’s elbow towards the owner’s head quickly starting a hundred and eighty degree turn as soon as the man was off balance, he pushed the man to the ground by torqueing his elbow forcing him to the ground. Everyone is looking and John still has the man’s hand attached to his shoulder being trapped by John’s hand he left up on the pressure of the man’s elbow allowing the man to stand slightly. As soon as the man thought he was going to stand John rolled his hand over the man’s elbow forcing him back down onto his knees. John repeated this a few times before forcing the man completely to the ground saying, “Stop!” The other man charged towards John and John quickly forced the man to stand and used this man as a projectile into the second attacker.

  Everyone in the bar was looking at what had just happened and others started to stand up from their tables, taking turns looking at each other and in John’s direction. John was thinking to himself: Damn it, how do I get into trouble on my first day in town. Various men from different tables started to make their way towards John. Some were cracking their knuckles, but all had the intent of harm in their eyes. John was stepping backwards realizing that there was no way out of this. The first man lunged at John with a knife and he side stepped and used his hand to guide the knife away while taking a hold of the man’s wrist coming around the back of the man forcing his arm from behind the man’s shoulder until his elbow met the man’s chin. In one swift movement John went down onto his one knee forcing the man into a strange back bend and used his knee away from the attackers elbow using the hand on the wrist of the attacker to use his knee as a lever against the elbow forcing the man to drop the knife. John stood up and kicked the guy in the face, getting ready for the next attacker. The man rolled onto his side grabbing his elbow in extreme pain it seems John used enough force on it to cause actual damage; this is not as John was taught. One after another men attacked him and he would rather put them to the ground or use the attacker’s body as a projectile into another attacker. John was feeling different as this battle kept going a strange strength was coming over him and a feeling that the girl in his dreams was coming.

  A white flash of light came before his eyes; it was a response to the blinding force of the blow he had just taken from behind. A man had picked up a chair and slammed John in the back of the head with it smashing it to pieces. John turned around completely engulfed in rage he hit the man left, right, left and then and upper hook to the bottom of the man’s chin sending him flying off his feet and into the wall that was over 5 feet behind him. John was not himself, feeling power he had never felt before and not knowing what to think. He spun around and began to beat on the attacks throwing them like they were nothing until the bar keep came out from around the bar and picked John up off his feet by his neck. The bar keep’s eyes had changed yellow and John hit him in the throat. The bar man let him go and John quickly with no hesitation ran h
is right arm up and in between the bar keeps legs standing up and spinning lifting him up of his feet and grabbing him by his collar slammed him head first into the ground. He felt someone else grab his should, but this time it was different he could feel a strange feeling of power being transferred to the other person. Galechka could also feel this strange surge of electricity going between him. He knew it was she and she knew it was him, suddenly John lost conscience.

  Galechka quickly reacting using her vampire strength flung him up onto her shoulder before he could hit the ground. She stood fully erect with John laying limp on her shoulder, helpless and completely at her whim. “What the hell happened here!” she demanded. The bar keep up on one knee with his hand resting on it looked at her, panting with blood dripping from his skull,” some of the men attacked him, ”panting a little more,” before I knew it, they all attacked him and he was ripping the place apart with them. What is he, he out powered me.” Galechka tapping the toes of her shoes in a sign of impatience, “Are you telling me, a wolf could not handle a simple human?” Wiping his face with his hand out of frustration he replied, “Human my ass! No human his size could pick me up and slam me to the ground like that.” Galechka looked in disbelief he is but a mere human. Clean this up. And did any one notice anything?” The bar keep standing to his feet, “No, nothing no one.” Galechka headed towards the door with the almost lifeless body draped over her shoulder. She took care in placing him in her passenger seat. She was so angry, as she drove back to the castle. The anger over whelmed her: What was he doing here? How did he find her? This was her life and how does he keep ending up in it. Knowing she loved him deep down it angered her she needed to be a free person with on one to hold her down. Little did she know: The man in the seat next to her would give everything he had including his life for her.

  The Guest

  The main doors of the castle slammed open with the wind gusting through the entrance way of the old castle. The wind smelled of the Baltic Sea that was only a stone’s throw away from the castle. Several on lookers were shocked to see Galechka caring what seemed to be a lifeless body through the door and up one side of the stair case the spiraled down on both sides of great room attached to the entrance way. This connected the end of the hallway to the second floor that had a hand rail that allowed you to look down onto the elegant and old stone floors of the great room. The room was for the most part a circular room and each floor was over fifteen feet and the walls were all stone. This room had only two stories and the ceiling had old wooden trusses running across it that in turn had what seemed to be an ancient chandelier that had the candles replaced with lights.

  Galechka not knowing what to do took the John into her room and laid him down on her bed. Carefully, to placing his head softly on the pillow trying not to cause any damage to him that he had already caused to himself. She already knew that the castle was a buzz about her human that she had drugged in, in the middle of the night. She sat at the far corner of the bed looking at him, with her palm resting over her mouth and nose thinking: What do I do with you? The others will want to kill you and I cannot allow that. Why do I want to protect you? She looked up at the ceiling of her room looking past the canopy on her bed that was draped in white cotton, wishing she knew what to do. She inched her way towards him, lightly caressing his face with her small hands. “How did you slam a wolf of his size? Please tell me why you are here,” she said softly.

  She heard a rapping at the door before seeing Adela open the door seeming to float in without needing to take any steps. She moved so eloquently that it was as if she never took a step under her long dresses. “The boys are all worked up over your little guest,” Adela seemed happy as she was softly speaking,” They said you brought your food home tonight.” Galechka leaned her head looking at Adela with a look as to say: What can I do. Adela ran her hand through Galechka’s hair trying to calm her;” We have much to speak of young one. You did the right thing and there is much I need to tell you.” Galechka looked up at her and said,” Adela I do not know why this man haunts me.” Adela laughed slightly,” He is going to drive you nuts my dear. He will love you more than he loves anything else including himself. You will not understand for a while,” Adela now smiling and rolling her eyes as she held Galechka’s head in her chest,” You make him stronger and better. I know you and you are a free spirit and you need to understand that he will always want to protect you.” Galechka pulling back from Adela trying to compose herself, “What do you mean protect me? Almost died again, this is the second time I saved him.” Adela walked towards John laid on the bed and sat down beside him,” You will need to take care of him, while he gains strength. He will have moments like this, when he will use up all his strength and then he will get stronger. He is what we use to call a Guardian and speaking of one is forbidden. You see there used to be a few of them, they were rare, but each one belonged to a vampire like a life mate. They are born to belong to a vampire and when they meet the Guardian starts to gain strength. Sometimes the vampire it belongs to gains strength too. The ancients ordered them all killed in fear that as the guardian would gain strength it might be able to kill an ancient. My guardian was the last one known of.” Galechka looked puzzled by this,” What do you mean? Are you saying he is my guardian? No one has ever or will ever control me!” Adela not surprised by the defiant stance that Galechka took stood up from John and looked sternly began to speak,” He is yours and the name is just the name, because they will do anything it takes to guard your life. If a guardian’s vampire dies, he dies pretty shortly after of a broken heart. Each one has different attributes and strengths a lot like we do. You need to protect him when he is week and push him to grow. My dear I believed this whole time that he was going to be drawn to you.”

  A knock at the door came and Adela said, “Come in Vitaliy.”

  Vitaliy came through the door looking at the body sprawled out on the bed, “So, is that what I think that is my lady?” Adela winked at her faithful servant and winked,” Yes, it is my dear friend.” Vitaliy clasped his hands together and paused for a moment, “So, you’re telling our little Galechka has her own guardian?” “I am right here in the room you know, “barked Galechka,”Why are you two so happy about this?” Adela motioned for Vitaliy to tell her why,” My dear child we have been waiting for a long time to be out from under the thumb of the other covens,” raising his hand to point at John on the bed with a long velvet coat that was trimmed in lace and the cuffs and had silver cuff links, “A guardian is the only thing that can give us a chance to takeout the ancients and give us real freedom.” Adela butted in, “They have always feared the guardians and that is why they were hunted to extinction, until now; my dear your instincts took you across the ocean to save him and his brought him back to you. Do you not believe that this is something bigger than you can understand?” The young female vampire had confusion in her eyes as she looked down upon the man that had fell across her path once again, wondering what to do about this. Adela spoke up,” We have pressing issues and will leave you alone with him. Be kind to him.”

  After the two stepped out into the hallway they began to speak in an ancient tongue that none of the younger vampires knew to avoid them knowing what was being said.” Adela, are you sure? Are you sure we can trust him with her?” “My old friend, are you afraid that she will feed on him, or turn him?” “My lady I know that we step upon glass in order not to offend her. We are so careful not to enrage her anger, we both know she is different and has her moments.” Adela sighed and took a moment,” She is different, but the connection is undeniable between them. She will probably rip his heart a lot with her confusing enchanting ways, but he will grow stronger; in turn his guardian devotion to her will drive her mad, but they will grow stronger together.” Adela spun around in front of Vitaliy placing one hand on his shoulder and one on his cheek patting his face softly, whispering: “My old friend you need to trust me, because I alone know what the bond is like.” Vitaliy smiled slightly
and replied, “Yes, I remember how you and yours were,” laughing softly, “You two were a great team. Adela I hope you realize that we do have cause for concern with Drakus’s concerns. I heard them talking about using their connections to take out a younger coven that was out of control and using their humans as the weapon. The spoke of saying the coven were zombies caused by some unknown drug. My lady they decided against it this time, but with them having this on the plate we are all in a far more dangerous place than we believed.” Adela did not look at all surprised and nodded with her hand cupped over her mouth as she thought, “I believed this much could come to be, meaning his arrival is perfect timing. We need to train him as fast and quick as we can before they realize we have what they fear the most.” Vitaliy’s eyes looking to his ladies in order for her to see that he was with her, “Of course my lady. How will we handle the training?” Adela with an evil smile upon her beautiful soft pink lips whispered:” We will use the wolves to train him. Crawl will be his trainer.” Vitaliy looked confused, “Why?” “Because they are for sure never to warn the others of his existence, before we can get him up to strength. We will then use our best hunters to train him, “she sighed, “I pray that time is on our side, before they find out about him and come hunting.”