The Guardian

by J. L McFadden

  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.”

  Wolf up

  After hearing the story the night before John realized that he was in for more than he originally thought, he glanced other at his beloved Galechka and decided he was not going to leave her down; before she had woke he had already left, leaving a note explaining to her that he got an early start on his run. She was terrified at this, because Adela had warned her not to leave him alone while he was still in his weaker state of being. She was dammed, because the sun was still up and she was trapped inside, while he was in utter danger.

  John was running through the path that Vixen had led him through time after time trying to make better time than he had done in the past. A strange feeling was coming over him and he was confused about it, was he in danger, was it Galechka’s feeling of fright he was feeling or both.

  It was just at the beginning of dusk as John was midway through the course for the second time this day and he could swear he felt eyes burning down on him. An explosion of wood from a log that had been heaved at the stone in front of John caused him to slide to a halting stop and spin around to see a monstrous fully turned werewolf standing behind him with fangs bared, drool dripping from his unbelievably huge mouth, and a hellish growl coming with every breath it took. John was taking steps towards his back trying not to trip over anything, with these thoughts running through his head as his heart felt like it was going to explode within his heart: I thought the wolves were here to train me not kill me; could this one belong to an ancient? John reached down to his side and took a large branch in hand, having a dishearten feeling that this weapon was a poor choose as he screamed, “Come on you ugly mother fucker!” The werewolf charged at John and he side stepped the stampeding monster and smashed the branch off of its skull, to John’s despair the branch shattered and seemed to have no effect at all on the creature from hell that stood in front of him.

  The behemthic beast stood before John, panting having a look not of just rage, but something saying: what the hell is wrong with you fight me. Again the beast came at John this time grabbing him by the throat and slamming him to the ground, leaving the ground to rumble and shake from the impact that John’s body had inflicted upon the ground. John’s eyes first turned a yellowish color and having a pupil shape similar to that of the werewolf’s eyes and then turned a bright, bright jade green that seemed to illuminate. The beast shook its head at the site of his eyes changing giving John the split second he needed to role his left arm in a circular patter around the back of the wolf’s arm to the front striking the front of its wrist freeing John from its grasp as he grabbed its wrist with crushing power as he not only kicked himself up and onto his feet, but placed his other hand onto the back of the wolf’s upper arm and slid it down towards the elbow forcing the wolf onto its stomach as John stood above it with one hand controlling the beast with its elbow and wrist allowing the animal to start to get back up on its feet only deluding it so he could slam it down smashing it into the earth. John could hear bones and tendons cracking and snapping under this move that he had placed it under. This was to be short lived, the wolf grunted and growled and despite all the pain it was in forced its self to pull bit by bit with its free arm and then suddenly with an unprecedented amount of power hit the ground with its free hand launching the
beast and John into the air. As soon as the wolf’s feet were planted on the ground it spun around grabbing John with its free hand and slammed John back into the ground again, this time it had a firm grip on John’s chest and around his neck, due to the massive size of its hands.

  Being dusk Galechka was now free to leave without harm from the sun and its unforgiving beams that would fry her to a crisp in a matter of moments; she ran in the direction that her heart told her that John was. She moved as quickly as she could, she felt as if he was in grave danger. As she came around the corner of the one path she was horrified by the sight that was before her: John being under the grasp of a werewolf that was the largest she had ever seen. As she ran towards him she felt someone take her off her feet by pulling her shoulders back and down towards the ground. She quickly spun to her feet to see Vixen standing before her. “Stop,” Vixen exclaimed,” he was out here alone and Bernandas decided to put him through the paces. Shh, John needs to believe that this is real.” Vixen took Galechka by the hand and led her to a place where they could watch without John’s knowledge.

  John this time clenched the monsters wrists with a quick twist of his hip using his feet to jettison himself around and outside the animal again torqueing and twisting on the wrist as he came to his feet and then kicking the fanged beast straight in the face on all the might he could muster sending the monster’s head swaying in the opposite direction from the impact of the blast. As soon as its head started to float back to the left he blasted it again with his foot, but this time going with the spin of kick and slamming his elbow into the neck of the stunned werewolf and followed through with stepping back and smashing his fists bottom into the same spot closing it as it impacted to cause even more brute force into the blow; the beast seeming to be overwhelmed melted into the ground. John again kicked the beast in the head driving the heel of his foot rolling the toes back towards his own head to ensure an ample amount of force smashing the beasts head into the ground and sending dust and dirt flying from out from under the ravenous monster. Without any warning the monster blindsided him with blast from behind knocking him to the grown; both of them spun to their feet, a fiery of blows were exchanged between the two. John landing and taking some very powerful blows to each other, he was doing his best to stay away from the razor sharp, drool dipped teeth that this wolf had snarled at him.

  Galechka was terrified at seeing the man she loved go from holding his own in the fight to losing more and more ground in the fight; John was really starting to get his ass handed to him in this all out brawl he was in with big and ugly.

  Galechka grabbed a hold of Vixens hand and said," I know what to do; you gave to hurt me, really hurt me."

  Vixen was looking at Galechka like she had gone mad, "Galechka are you sure?" She questioned.

  Galechka shook her head in conformation, Vixen was taken back and then remembered about the connection between these two, so Vixen grabbed a fist full of hair as close to the scalp as she could and twisted it hard enough to inflict pain. You could see something happening with John, somehow he seemed to gain strength and speed and began to beat the wolf back more and more as he could feel his lovers pain. Bernandas could see John’s eyes start to illuminate even more than before and it seemed as though he could feel John’s life energy growing with every blow that was delivered.

  “You see we are connected: if he feels I am in danger he exerts more power in order to save me.” Galechka mentioned to Vixen.

  “I see, I see and cannot believe my eyes. This has to be what Bernandas was describing as: The love bond. I thought the old man was just telling stories.”

  “I am just worried, because no one is sure how much he can really handle. Adela told me: that all at once, whatever was too much usually can kill them.”

  All the sudden John felt himself being transported in another direction and had no control. That was until he closed his eyes and let his instincts take over; he could now feel the hand on his forehead and in by some miracle he now gained control grabbing the unseen attacker by the throat and pinning him to the ground as the attacker had planned to do to him, they slid several feet on the ground leaving a huge cloud of dust. As it began to settle you could see him on one knee holding down what seemed to be Vitaliy.

  “It’s good to see that the wolves have been training you well,” Vitaliy using his hands to knock the dust away from his face,” Good lord boy are you going to let me up or am I going to have to show you what I really can do?”

  “First you should explain to me how I did that.”

  With an uncontrollable laughter Vitaliy said,” That is your inner Guardian taking over. I home to see more and more of this; now you we have to start training with me,” Still laughing as John helped him to his feet,” It seems as though you have given Bernandas enough of a beating.”

  “That’s Bernandas?”

  Has John turned around he could see Bernandas was in the mist of changing back into a human and looked pretty sore. John looked puzzled for the moment, the girls were now coming out of the bush and Galechka wrapped her arms around him and kissed him following up with saying,” Good job sweetie.” She bopped him on his nose with her hand playfully.

  “No time for celebrating son,” said Bernandas as he was shaking his head,” What I you just experienced from me is nothing compared to an ancestor.”

  “You’re right”, agreed Vitaliy,” and we do not have much time I fear, we have found a spy at the castle; we have no idea who knows what outside of our castle.”

  “Worse yet, we do not know who it is that may or may not know about him,” proclaimed Bernandas.

  “I know guys, I know we need to train harder,” John told them as he reached down for Galechka’s hand,” I want to be sure I can protect her.” He confessed as he used his free hand to caress her face and look deep into her eyes.

  She knew he would do anything for her and would give his own life for hers. There were parts of her that felt nervous, because he loved her so much. Other parts fearing being with one person for the rest of her life, but her heart told her that she loved him. Sadly, she was unsure which feeling was stronger and was sometimes angry at him for this. She did not want to feel trapped into a relationship with anyone. Sometimes she felt resentment and hatred and did not know why. She did her best to council these feelings from everyone.

  Unforeseen Troubles

  He could feel the tension growing as they were getting closer and closer to the place that they were staying; he could not figure out what was wrong and/or what he had done. He asked she and she replied back,” Whoever I am with should know what I want when I want it.”

  “That is not possible that two people know what each other need all the time, even with our bond.”

  “Anyone I am with needs to know what I am feeling, what I want, what I need or they are not the right one for me.”

  “That only happens in really bad romance novels; even the good ones show some sort of conflict between people, which is what makes it interesting.”

  She did not utter another word and just ignored him as she blasted her music in her head phones. The night was running out and John wanted to make amends with her somehow some way and was troubled by the way she all the sudden blew him off. One minute holding and hugging him, being playful, and now she was cold and dismissive of him and anything between them. What had caused this?

  While she was sleeping he went out and collected flowers, doing his best to pick out only the best; it was very important to him that she liked what he brought her. She meant the world to him. He hurried back and gave her the flowers hoping she would be responsive and she sat down and spoke with him and told him she was afraid that no one would accept them in this world. Who cares if people accept us is what he was thinking. Did his best to let her know that he loved her and it did not matter what others thought. She was questioning it like a 12 year old child.

  A gently, but creepy knocking was coming from the old wooden door; creepy was not the wor
st, it followed by tapping of someone’s hardened finger nails an even and haunting rhythm, waiting impatiently for the door to be answered. John slowly and hesitantly opened the door, fearing what might behind. It was Vitaliy and he had the look of utter and complete avidity on his face.

  “Let’s go, no time to be wasting we need to train, train, and train some more. We have little time I fear,” exclaimed Vitaliy has he was once again tapping his thumb off the tip of each finger, which was his usual posture for when he was delivering a message that he felt need not be said.

  “OK, I will grab my things and get Galechka.”

  “Not today, leave the girl to her own things; I do not need anyone distracting you.”

  “But,” as soon as John got this word out of his mouth, cut him off with,” No buts, she stays that is it! Now move your ass!”

  Reluctantly, he grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair and headed towards the door, pausing at the door for a breath moment just long enough to say,” I’ll be back as soon as we are done train.”

  Galina callously stated back,” No need to hurry, I need time to myself.”