Guardian Of Fate (Fate Series)

by Kentowski, L. J.

  Silently, I asked my reflection what this latest dream might be telling me. For the past few months, I was making plans to go to the very place my subconscious carried me. Did it mean I was on the right track? Or were my actions of late now dictating my subconscious? For years, I’d only dreamt of Hunter, and then one day he appeared in my life. But even that felt like a dream to me now.

  “Stop it!” I screamed at the mirror. “Get over him… it… and move on.” Throwing the towel into the sink, I yanked open the door and walked face-first into a chin.

  “Owww… Damn it!” I cried, backing up into the bathroom. “Caleb, what the hell are you doing lurking outside the bathroom door?”

  “I wasn’t lurking,” he said rubbing his chin. “I heard you get up and go into the bathroom, and then I heard you yelling.” Concern came over his face. “Who were you yelling at, Cassie?”

  Holding my forehead, which took the brunt of the impact, I looked at it in the mirror. I didn’t really care whether a bruise formed or not, the bathroom just seemed a little too small at the moment. I was looking for something to make me feel less claustrophobic.

  Caleb came closer. I kept my composure in front of the sink, despite wanting to jump out of my skin and hightail it out of there. He was the only one that could help me with my plan, so I needed to keep him around. But when he raised his hand toward my face, I instantly flashed back to his rough touch months ago, and flinched away from his fingers. He held my gaze, but withdrew his hand. The look in his eyes told me he understood, although I didn’t miss the sadness and regret that accompanied it.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said quietly as he turned to leave the bathroom. “That’s not me anymore. When are you going to realize that?”

  “Look, it’s going to take me a while, Caleb,” I said, pleading my case. “I mean, it wasn’t that long ago you were trying to take my soul to Hell and make me your love slav—,” I had to slap my hand over my mouth. I didn’t mean for the harsh words to slip out. I realized now how everything that happened those months ago was because he was someone different. No longer a demon, and most likely changed by my own blood, which now ran through his veins, he was a Guardian once again.

  He swung around, stopping me mid-stride in the middle of the hallway. Leaning close, he grabbed my upper arm and whispered, “My soul status has changed, Cassie. You’re the only demon here, but I’ve decided to overlook that. Maybe you can try and overlook what I used to be. And, by the way, I’m still working toward making you my love slave.”

  His green eyes, recently changed from their “demon blue” stared at me while he waited for me to say… What? That I’d consent to become his love slave? No freaking way.

  I pulled away from his grasp as I moved past him and out of the hallway. Nora’s room was too close. I was afraid our banter would wake her before I had the chance to map out my plan to Caleb. He followed me into the kitchen. As I got a glass from the cupboard, I said, “Look, if I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t have allowed you to stay here while we figure all of this out. It’s just hard for me to see you as a Guardian after everything we experienced. But I’m getting better.” I moved to fill my glass with water and purposely brushed against him near the sink. It was a feeble attempt to show him I could still stand to be close to him. “And for the record, I don’t like what I am anymore than you can endure thinking about what you used to be, so maybe in the future you could spare me the reminder.”

  “Deal,” he said, leaning against the counter. “So, now that we’ve established once again who we are, will you tell me what you were doing yelling at yourself in the bathroom at two in the morning?”

  Holding the glass in my hand, I leaned against the breakfast bar, blankly staring. I shook it just enough that the water swirled around inside. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to tell him. This man, who deceived me once before, hooking me with his good looks, kindness, and charm. He was a Seeker then, whose sole purpose was to turn me into one of Hell’s newest residents. As the last descendent of a high-ranking angel, I was a pretty hot commodity to the Underworld, so Caleb stood to climb substantially in the ranks if he claimed the turn. He was the epitome of evil, using my friends and family as bait to lure me into his trap. And he would have succeeded if I hadn’t been half-demon already, another fact I’d only recently learned, along with my angel ancestry.

  Thankfully, Caleb had since transformed back into a Guardian. He believed it was from tasting my blood the last time we fought. Could it be possible that my blood, being half angel, was strong enough to transform the demons from Hell? Could their lost souls be redeemed by what flowed through my veins? With no proof he was right, I nevertheless desperately wanted to believe it because my plan depended on it. There was a chance, however, this was all some trumped-up scheme to lure me into Hell, and very possible that Caleb was performing his greatest role. For now, I’d have to just take the chance.

  “I had a vision.”

  “A Guardian vision?” He looked confused. “Why are you still here?”

  “It wasn’t that kind of vision. This one was about me, specifically, me looking for Hell. I’ve had these dreams for the last few months and they’re driving me crazy. Lately, when I wake up, I feel like I’m running out of time.” I set my glass on the counter and got up close to him, determination in my eyes, as well as my tone. “I have to go to Hell, Caleb. Soon. You have to tell me how to get in, so I can get my dad.”

  “Have you had dreams like this before? About you? About Hell?”

  “No… well, not about Hell directly, but I dreamt about Hunter…” It was hard for me to think about him, even after so many months. I saw Caleb’s face fall after hearing his name. I knew it pained him to hear it almost as much as it did me to say it, only for a different reason. “I dreamt about him, and eventually you, before you came after me.”

  He looked thoughtful for a minute, then his face turned angry. “If you knew what would happen, why did you sleep with him?”

  Hunter was another Seeker assigned to steal my soul. Although his mission failed, he did manage to claim my heart. I’m still not quite sure how it happened, but I fell in love with him, and I think he fell in love with me as well. At least, that’s what he told me when our hearts bonded, along with our bodies. In the end, however, he betrayed me by not telling me that my father was still alive and being tortured in Hell. After becoming intimate with me, he allowed me to continue to believe that my father was a Guardian, when he was, and always had been a Seeker. My own mother, another Guardian, didn’t even know. We discovered that fact together before Hunter was returned to Hell by the king of the Underworld. He was sentenced to an eternity of torture for abandoning his mission to turn me, not to mention sleeping with me, which was treason in the highest order to them. Ironically, he and my father held the same fate.

  I didn’t want to think about what happened to Hunter, it was too painful. Not because I regretted it, but because my feelings for him were still so strong. I wanted to hate him for deceiving me; God knows I did when I first found out; but for the last few months, it wasn’t his lies that haunted my thoughts. It was the way he risked everything for me, the way he rebelled against everything he was to ensure that I kept my soul — regardless of its purity. Although I’ll never be able to forget his deceit, I have learned to accept it. There was no rulebook for our love, especially for those who weren’t supposed to ever experience it. Now it was too late for me to tell him I understood everything, and the only way I could bear the painful knowledge that he was being tortured, was to keep my mind on my own mission.

  I lifted my chin and looked into Caleb’s accusing eyes. “Not that it’s any of your business, but these visions don’t work like that. I didn’t know Hunter was a demon, just like I didn’t know you were when we first met. The dreams are cryptic, and they never spelled out that you both would turn out to be liars.”

  “The difference being that you chose to be with him instead of me.”

 
“No, Caleb. The difference being that Hunter tried to save me from Hell, while you did everything in your power to drag me there,” I argued through gritted teeth.

  Standing opposite each other in the kitchen, caught in our silent standoff, we glared at each other for our own reasons, both knowing nothing more needed to be said. We had become so used to preying on each other’s weaknesses, knowing exactly how to hurt one another, the accusations now flew easily. It would take more than the few months we’d already spent together to completely ignore the fact that we were originally trying to kill each other. At least for me.

  “Yeah, well, he’s still in Hell,” Caleb said. He closed the space between us and braced his hands on the counter behind me, jailing me between them, adding, “But I’m here.”

  All I could do was watch as his face came down, stopping inches from mine. The Seekers were familiar with the use of seduction to lure the Guardians in. The power of attraction they held was undeniable and extremely hard to resist. Caleb still retained the beauty and charm that molded him into the sensuous weapon that originally attracted me to him. And during the last few months, he hadn’t shown even an ounce of his previously evil self. But it wasn’t any of Caleb’s qualities that now attracted me, it was the position we were in that caused me to slowly close my eyes, and savor the body heat radiating from him. Behind closed lids, I pictured a time when Hunter and I were in the same position. I could feel his fingertips brush my face, trailing down my neck. My pulse quickened as I felt his breath against my skin.

  “Cassie…” he whispered.

  The way he said my name should have been enough to shake me out of my reverie, as Hunter would never call me that. With him, it was always “Cassandra,” and coming from his lips, it never ceased to tantalize my skin, as if his hands were caressing my entire body. But I didn’t want the memory to stop. God forgive me, I wanted to shut my eyes against the reality of it all and pretend it was Hunter’s lips now pressed against mine. So I did. I moaned when the hot tongue found its way into my mouth and sank into the arms that wrapped around me.

  His solid body felt so familiar against me, I didn’t notice his lips had abandoned mine, allowing me to breathe in his sweet, woodsy scent. It was another thing that should have reminded me it wasn’t Hunter whose arms I felt around me, but I was too lost to care. Until I heard Caleb’s breathy whisper, “Cassie, open your eyes. See me. I want you to know it’s me you’re with right now.”

  I tried to do as he said. I knew I should, but I didn’t want my illusion to end. I didn’t want to see the hurt in his eyes when he realized where I really had been. There were moments when I knew what was actually happening, and I can’t say I hated the feelings they evoked. I was still very attracted to Caleb. Maybe I could pull it off. Maybe he wouldn’t know.

  I opened my eyes and instantly saw his face fall. He dropped his arms from me, turned, and stepped away. I reached out and put my hand on his arm in an effort to comfort him. It was all I could do, since I couldn’t seem to find anything to say that would justify what happened.

  “I’m not going to do this, Cassie.”

  “Caleb it’s not you, I shouldn—,”

  “No, I mean I’m not going to help you get into Hell.”

  “What?” I yelled as I forced him around to face me. “You promised!”

  “I promised to help you get your father, but I can see you’re still longing for Hunter, and I don’t want you anywhere near him. I’m sorry. The deal’s off.”

  “You can’t do this, Caleb! You’re my only hope of saving my father! I can’t do this without you.”

  “And I won’t let you either,” he said defiantly. “Not only won’t I help you, but I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you don’t get to Hell any other way. I’ll call on the Elders if it comes down to it.”

  The Elders were a group of top-ranking angels who oversaw everything the Guardians did, and the very ones who gave the Guardians their powers to begin with. I, however, had a special tie with the Elders, two of them anyway. Hadraniel and Anael were my ancestors. Their angelic blood ran through my veins and I was the last of their line. Recently, Hadraniel clearly explained to me that if I ever showed any demonic tendencies, they’d not only disown me as one of their own and lift any protection they previously provided me, but would also consider me a direct enemy of the angels. They already knew my father had been turned, and I was created with the bloodlines of both angel and demon; but they promised to watch over me as one of their own, unless I decided not to be.

  “You can’t do this! Over what? Your jealousy?” I glared at him with anger and incredulity.

  He moved in closer, steeled in his reserve. I backed up into the counter again, but refused to break eye contact. “I’ll do whatever I have to in order to keep you away from that demon. Do you understand me? I won’t let him have you. Not ever again.”

  He wasn’t going to budge. I knew that. I could see it. I could feel it. But I still intended to save my father. I never planned to seek out Hunter. Not really, but I left my options open to it. It was always in the back of my mind. Who was I kidding? It was in the forefront of my mind all the time. But right now I’d have to let it go for my father. He was what mattered most now.

  “Okay, I’ll do whatever you say, Caleb. I give you my word,” I said flatly.

  He studied my face, most likely looking for the loophole he thought I might have held in reserve for myself, but there was none. “You’ll stay away from Hunter?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Alright,” he said, reaching up to caress my cheek. I flinched, trying to keep my emotions in check.

  “I wish you could see how great we’d be together, Cassie. Maybe in time, you’ll finally realize I’m much better for you than he is. In the meantime, let’s put together our plan.”

  “And what plan would that be?” Nora’s voice coming from behind me made me jump.

  Busted.

  Want to read Seeker Of Fate, Book Two in the Fate Series?

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  About the Author

  L. J. Kentowski lives with her son, husband, and their lovable Great Dane, Sully, in Wisconsin. She enjoys spending time with her family, reading great books, and transforming nightly into Urban Fantasy Writer, lingering in worlds full of angels, demons, and the in-betweens.

  She is the author of Guardian Of Fate and Seeker Of Fate, Books one and two in the Fate Series. Book three, Angel Of Fate is in the works and due out late 2014.

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