The Guardian

by J. L McFadden

  “Come on baby don’t be like that.”

  He reached out for her as he pleaded and she just pulled her shoulder away as soon as he touched it and said something rude in Russian; John not taking the hint tried for a few moments before going out to the kitchen a lone and eating.

  John was deeply disturbed with how quickly she had these mood swings, not knowing how to react to them at all. When he went back in she curled up with him and allowed him to hold her, but was not allowing anything else that night. She would signal this by wearing her under wear to bed. John knew as soon as she put them on in bed it meant hands off.

  Day Two of Adela’s Boot Camp

  When John got to the training grounds Adela was already waiting with her back to him, except to day she was prepared differently, her long jet black hair was tied back into a pony tail, she was dressed in latex shorts, sports top, and sneakers this time. She turned around while tapping her right fingers on her cheek looking John up and down to see if he looked up to what she wanted to do today.

  “Hope you’re ready, because today I am going to hit you harder and faster than you have ever experienced.” Proclaimed Adela; with a wink after wards.

  Left him wondering: if she was being playful, or really flirty with him. He wasn’t the person he remembered at the castle, before she was sweet, but very serious and not one to play around or flirt at all. He was at a loss for what to make of this.

  “I just hope you brought your A game!” He shouted back at her.

  “Feeling cocky today I see.”

  “No more than usual.”

  “Let’s see you put your money where your mouth is.” She laughed playfully as she said this.

  Galechka was getting pissed seeing this from the woods, she had found a little place that she could spy without anyone noticing that she was anywhere around. She could feel her blood boil as Adela flirted with John. Who was this woman? Her character did not match Adela at all. Galechka was astounded and shocked, after being close to Adela for so long, she had never seen this side of her. Was this always there or something the change brought on. Galechka always pictured the ancients maturing more at the time of change not regressing into a teenager’s state of mind.

  John stamped his foot into the ground a few times and cracked his neck trying to get ready for what was about to happen. He was taken by surprise when he seen Adela start to do warm up stretches and motioned for him to do the same, “Can’t have you down and out from training do to you pulling something.”

  John was thinking: What the hell? When did vampires need to stretch? John was getting kind of turned on by watching her stretch in front of him with her back turned to him. God was her body perfect; he could not take his eyes off of his rump. He loved Galechka, but every man looks a little. What he had no clue was how pissed off Galechka was as she sat in the bushes watching this go on. What she didn’t know is it made him think of her stretching and doing a back bend in just her underwear and bra in front of him; it had actually invoked memories of her stretching in front of him.

  With her fingers she motioned to John to come her way. She waited until he was only about ten feet away and ran towards him, John had no idea what was coming as she jumped with both feet in the air and imploding onto his hardened abs launching him through the air and leaving him to slide on his ass about twenty feet. John jumped to his feet shaking it off as he ran towards her, this time she also charged and as she jumped he fell back and slid underneath her, spinning around to face her same as she did to him with his hands planted on the ground preparing to move in any direction he needed with great force and speed.

  She smiled and laughed as she smacked the ground with her right hand,” Ata boy John!” She shouted to him before her next charge keeping herself low to the ground this time. John charged back, but this time he leaped after her and in midair spun around and grabbed her by the torso and as soon as his feet hit the ground did a back bend slamming her off the ground even as his feet were skidding across the earth. Reaching her hands up over her head used them to propel John over her and rolled onto her feet swinging at him repeatedly as he landed and tried to block the incoming attack from her. He mostly blocked and then hunkering around like a boxer rammed his rib cage into hers pushing her back giving him space and time to react and try to get some hits in as well.

  You could see in both their eyes they were loving the moment, this was fun for both of them. Now John was moving quicker bobbing and ducking jabbing and hitting more like a boxer; when John was young his friends’ dad, a Navy silver gloves boxer, spent a lot of time working with the boys that were his closest friends. She was kicking and hitting him and with a smirk on her face. The speed at which they were moving would be hard for a human to follow even just watching it.

  Galechka was getting angrier and angrier watching this; she was convinced that Adela was flirting with her man. She was thinking: I should just leave him here and see how he does without me. He is the lucky one.

  Galechka always had high thoughts of herself even though it was always someone else that gave her whatever she had. When she was a human she lived off of her parents never earning a cent and always having her hand out for more from her parents, and as a vampire Adela had always took care of her. Now that she had a man that loved her she was too spoilt to see what she had and did not understand the worth of his love.

  The battle got more and more feverish and the attacks from Adela became more and more intense. There were times when they were snapping trees in half by slamming each other or tossing each other into them. It had really begun to look like a battle field and not a forest training ground. Both of them were pushing more and more, Adela was curious to how much he could handle until she stepped over the mark. She grabbed him by the shoulders facing him head on and flung herself over him while keeping a hold and as soon as her feet touched down she dropped down to her knees and hurled him towards the trees sending him crashing into on snapping the tree in half.

  Both of the girls hearts stopped for a moment as they seen him lay there in a crumpled and broken state covered in chunks of wood. They both seemed to bolt for him at the same time Galechka being shockingly faster and slid the last few feet on her knees lifting his head up onto her lap.

  “Baby boy, baby boy please open your eyes.” Galechka cried as she held him.

  “My god, Galechka I am sorry I thought he could handle it.”

  Adela was now on her knees facing John and looking at Galechka fall apart at her man that seemed by all matters dead. Galechka sobbed and cried begging him to come back to her. Adela was hoping he was just knocked out and at the same time was trying to comfort Galechka for she all too well under stood the feeling of losing the one that you love. Galechka was shaking him from time to time even begging to the spirits for him to come back to her. She looked up at Adela with pure hate and anger,” I thought you were going to be careful with him.”

  “Oh sweetie, I didn’t mean to; you need to understand I thought he could handle it.”

  As Galechka was getting ready to spit some words of venom, she felt him take a breath, “Oh god, he is alive, she proclaimed as she tried to be as loving and intensive as she could with him with tear drops falling down onto him. He reached up to wipe the tears away trying to calm her down.

  With desperation of trying to catch his breath he asked,” Did anyone get the plate number of the truck that hit me?”

  Galechka slapped him and said,” You’re not funny, not at all.”

  Coughing and laughing slightly he began to sit up trying to face her he caressed her face and said,” I love you too much to leave you angel lips.”

  This caused her to blush and start to kiss him over and hold him in her arms. She could tell he was not all there yet; she knew he was still dazed from being knocked out. Adela was rubbing his back and patted Galechka on her hand looking at her with eyes that said: I am so sorry; I did not mean to hurt him. Galechka took Adela’s hand a held it for a second.

  “
So how many more times are you going to have to knock me out to make sure I am not going to die?” He asked.

  Adela shook her head,” You might be a little sick in the head, but you are right, we do need to do this.”

  “Oh god, “Galechka proclaimed,” could we just call it a day already?”

  Adela nodded her head and shock John’s head with her hand being playful and said,” Yeah, I think you need to get him home and see what is broken.”

  John cracked his back and shook his head from side to side with his hands covering his eyes with his hands; you could hear his back cracking as he came to his feet with Galechka’s help. It was clear that this boy was still dazed and everyone soon came to realize how much damage they had done to the forest; trees were snapped and broken like tooth picks everywhere. It truly looked like a tornado had ripped through the forest.

  Adela and Galechka helped him along with him on each one of their shoulders as they headed back towards the house that he and she was staying in for the last few weeks. No one said a word until they were almost back to their door.

  “You know Galechka, we do not have much time left to prepare him? We need to get back to the castle before rumors start to flare that I have abandoned the castle.”

  “Can’t you go back and we keep training him?”

  “No, my girl he has become far too much for them to work with; if it was not for my new ancient powers, I would have little more to show him as well.”

  “So when are we going home?” Galechka questioned Adela.

  “We have a week more and I need to see what I can get out of him and myself as well.”

  “So, you have no idea of what you are capable as well?”

  “Not a single idea my dear; it feels great though knowing that I have so much to explore in myself, but scares me that I do not have enough to protect the coven.”

  Adela was clearly bothered by the soon to be fate of her coven. You could see it in her eyes at times and see how it weighed on her shoulders. Galechka was more worried about the beatings John was taking and how much farther could they push him, without killing him or maiming him. She just wanted to get him home and fixed up for the next morning.

  “You know Galechka on the next night, I want you there, I am going to push him and I think you can help out; you two need to work on your connection and figure out how to activate his strengths more.”

  “Do you really believe that I have such and influence on him?”

  “I know I did on my guardian and he has proven to gain strength when he feels you are in need; for all we know, you might be able to feel when he has had enough and allow us to save his life.”

  Galechka took these words to heart, because she knew that he was able to feel when she was in danger, but would she be able to do the same. As they arrived to the door step Adela held the door so that Galechka could get him in without bumping him around too much. Adela waved and was on her way. Galechka helped him into the shower helping him strip out of his torn and tattered clothing, being disgusted and concerned about his wounds; she knew that the bruises and abrasions would be gone before the sun set, but it still broke her heart to know he was doing this to himself night after night just to protect her.

  *****

  John woke up still a little stiff and sore from the night before; he was surprised to hear quiet laughter coming from the kitchen area, it was Galechka and Adela laughing like teenage girls. Wait, I guess Adela is now a teenager again is what came to mind. As he walked to the Kitchen Galechka placed and her cup and put out her arms for him to come to her.

  “My poor baby,” she exclaimed,” Adela you are such a bully.”

  “Oh please, are you joking he is our one shot at this.”

  “Why does it seem like it might be you who is the only hope.”

  Galechka pulled him close kissing him as he grunted in pain; she could tell the last match had pushed him a bit far. Honestly, she was worried about Adela accidently killing him. She noticed that Adela seemed to be gaining strength in her abilities even faster than her beloved John. She kissed him on the head before continuing with,” Adela, please be more careful with him.”

  “Do you believe the ancients are going to be easy on him?” Adela questioned before she began to sip her cup of tea, eloquently holding the cup in both hands like a princess.

  John took notice that everything in Adela’s persona screamed royalty. She omitted a type of royal energy that was somewhat majestic even in her new younger form you could not just see it in her posture, her mannerisms, her charm, but also her aura omitted an unreal amount of not just royal energy, but a undeniable heretical energy that suggests her family was a very powerful family for years.

  “No, but Adela if you kill him,” Galechka said with a cracking voices, but Adela cut her off before she could finish with,” My god, one minute you hate him, the next you cry at me that I might kill him; it is you who are more likely to cause his death than anyone with your mistreatment of him other your own insecurities.”

  Before anyone could get another word in wise, Adela sat her cup down and stood up primping her clothing before walking towards the door. And spinning around to proclaim, “You Galechka need to stop with your nonsense and embrace what you have with him. I know what you are afraid of and the younger girls at the coven should not be a worry to you, let alone what they might think.” Adela was half way out the door when she paused to stare,” John get some rest, you have only been out for a couple of hours and we need to step up our training at the crack of dusk.”

  John was more intent on giving Galechka all of his attention than getting any sleep; he pulled her close to kiss her and she kissed him back, but he could feel that her mind was someplace else. Her kiss and touch was off and he had a feeling that Adela’s words had put her in a cross mood. John often wished people would stop making comments that set her into these moods that he always was the one that suffered not the others.

  ******

  John awoke to Galechka kneading at his chest almost like a cat while she was sitting up with a look on her face like she really needed to have a word with him. This worried him, because some of her needed talks were not so good for him. Rubbing his eyes trying to collect his thoughts as he sat up and stretched out a bit and asked, “Baby doll, what is wrong?”

  “I am worried about today, Adela wants to push you even harder and I am worried that she might kill you.”

  You could see it in her eyes that she was not joking around at all about this statement. She was nervous and it was easy to see that she had been fusing about it for a long time already. Her nails were clearly chewed on from her worrying.

  Galechka sat up and wrapped both her hands around his one upper are before saying,” Please think of me and try to survive. She said: Your strength comes from me so we need to figure out how to open it up.” She patted John on the shoulder with a look that she said something that was going to change the world. Moments like this worried him about her, because it was like she was only half in reality.

  “Ok, I’ll think about you when I am fighting.” He responded trying to settle her nerves.

  On the way to the training grounds she seemed to get even more nervous than she had been before. He tried his best to calm her nerves by holding her and pausing every once in a while to kiss her, caress her and to tell her everything was going to be alright. She wondered how he could be so calm about the whole ordeal as she was scared to death about his life, about his life not her own.

  Adela was already there and you could see her walking around and it appeared that she was thinking of how she should not only star out, but like she was trying to plan out the whole training, before they ever began.

  “Adela!” John shouted,” Are you planning my demise today,” he said jokingly; he was not expecting to get hit by Galechka for his comment.

  He could tell that Galechka was perturbed by his comment and not to push it any further he clenched onto her hand and lipped,” I love you and I promise:
Nothing will happen to me today.” She lipped back,” You better not get hurt.”

  “I am trying to figure out how to get you to open up your gift a bit more. So, I am going to have Galechka standing off to the side, hoping she will at times figure out how to get you to open up.”