The Wardens Boxed Set

by Heather D Glidewell

  “Dawn!” Kim rushed to me as soon as she saw me and gave me a hug.

  “Hey,” I said, hoping I wasn’t coming over as unfriendly. I was not a morning person.

  “Shawn came and saw me last night and had a talk with me and my parents. We’re here to do as we are needed. Your mom said that we are going to be staying with Adam’s dad for a bit.”

  She was way too perky for that hour in the morning. I just looked at her with glazed eyes and nodded. My mother appeared next to us.

  “Dawn, I’d like you meet Tiffany and Kaleb Love, Kim’s parents.”

  My mother directed my attention to a tall middle-aged man and his equally tall wife. Both had wild blue eyes and black hair, which seemed a bit off since Kim’s eyes were green and her hair was blonde. I could sense something about them, something strong and powerful. Then my stomach rumbled with hunger and I looked at them in apology.

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, holding out my hand to first Kim’s father then her mother. “Excuse me, I must eat something before we leave.”

  I didn’t like coming across as impolite, but I just couldn’t deal with people at five in the morning. I should have been sleeping, not being polite to water elements.

  “Got a call from Nadine,” Adam said walking in from outside. “Hey, Kim.”

  He seemed quite relaxed, as if this was just a normal morning for him. Nothing ever seemed to faze him.

  “Hey, Adam,” said Kim.

  Adam ignored her as he concentrated upon the phone in his hands. “She said she stopped by the townhouse last night. Nothing out of the ordinary happened but she found it odd that I wasn’t there.” He looked at me and smiled. He looked well this morning.

  “Well, I’m glad nothing attacked her,” I said, opening the refrigerator door and grabbing a handful of grapes. My mother had stocked the fridge. that was for sure.

  “Yeah, me too. Maybe they learned their lesson with you,” he joked.

  I tossed a grape in my mouth but thought it best not to say anything to that.

  “Did you sleep alright?” he asked, coming closer.

  “Sure. I just don’t do well being woken up before the rooster,” I muttered as my mother motioned for us to get going.

  “I’ll be back in a few days to check on everything,” she told the others. “I’ll send a trainer as soon as we find one. If you need anything just call the number on the fridge. Nothing should find you here. However, if something does show up, don’t leave the house,” she instructed as she pushed me and Adam out the door.

  Kim and her parents walked us out to the front porch and waved at us as we got in the car. Adam was closing the trunk when his father came racing out of the house.

  “Son!” he yelled, throwing his arms around Adam. “Be careful.”

  Adam nodded.

  “You come back to me, now. You hear?” Adam’s dad looked worried. Then again, so would I have been if I knew my eighteen-year-old son was being sent off to war.

  I got in the Escalade and shut the door, trying not to hear the rest of their conversation. This was something that was between him and his father. My mother put her hand on mine.

  “You ready for this?” she asked, looking serious.

  “As ready as I’m going to be. How long is the drive?”

  “An hour or two,” she answered as Adam got in, his eyes watering.

  “You crying?” I asked looking at him in the passenger mirror.

  “No, there’s just a lot of pollen in the air,” he lied. “It’s really messing with my allergies.”

  I knew he was scared, but didn’t want me to know just how much.

  “So, Adam, what’s your weapon of choice?” my mother asked, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

  “If I say words, will you laugh at me?” he joked.

  “I have so much I can’t wait to show you,” my mother promised him, sounding excited.

  “I have so much I want to learn,” he replied.

  He sounded cheerful enough but when I looked in the mirror he appeared morose.

  “Will I have a bed to fall into when we get there?” I asked.

  “Nope, as soon as we get there you have training,” my mother told me. “We are a few days away from the resurrection and you have to get your part right.”

  I grumbled and put my earbuds in my ears, sulking. I knew it was something that I had to do but I would have been happier if she had told me I could get a few more hours of sleep beforehand.

  I must have passed out somewhere between the farmhouse and our destination because when I woke up we were pulling into the driveway of a large white house surrounded by open land.

  “Could you find a house further in the woods? How many acres does it have?” I asked, glancing at my mother as she navigated down the drive.

  “Two hundred. Enough to hide away in, and enough room for those that join us.”

  She brought the car to a stop behind a black Corvette that I assumed instinctively was my father’s.

  “I was expecting the country but I wasn’t expecting this,” I said, fumbling to get my stuff together. I looked in the back seat and saw that Adam was passed out, snoring softly.

  “He fell asleep right just after you did,” my mother told me when she noticed me staring at him.

  I touched Adam’s leg and his eyes shot open.

  “We’re here,” I said.

  His jaw dropped. “Is this house like the other?” he asked.

  “Yes, it’s protected,” my mother answered as we got out and unloaded our bags.

  When we walked inside I nearly fell over. The place was magnificent! I could tell that my father had had a lot to do with the planning of the house. It wasn’t dissimilar to the house he had in Dallas, from the marble entryway to the crystal chandeliers. The doors were dark mahogany and the whole place smelled of fresh flowers.

  “Dawn!” My father emerged beaming from one of the rooms to the right of the entry. He put his arms around me and held me close.

  “Dad.”

  “You ready for this?” he asked, pushing my hair back from my face.

  “Of course she’s ready for this,” Helen said over his shoulder. “She’s ready for anything. I mean, look at her.”

  “Hey, Helen,” I said as she grabbed my hand and pulled me away from my father.

  “We have a lot to do,” she told me. “Minerva is out back waiting for you.”

  She led me from the room, leaving my parents to catch up out of earshot.

  We went out the back door and into the yard, where Minerva and Shawn were throwing fireballs back and forth. It was amazing to see. The white eyes of Minerva were locked on the black eyes of Shawn, and they seemed to be in perfect harmony. I watched for a second as Minerva’s hands shot a perfect white fire ball at Shawn and he miraculously caught it, turning the color from white to red. Then they both seemed to feel my presence and their eyes instantly turned back to normal as they came toward us.

  The beautiful blonde girl smiled at me and held out her hand. The moment she touched me the power in her radiated through my body and I felt my skin crawl. The force she emitted must have pissed off the dark side of me, which was telling me to back up.

  “Nice to see you again,” she said.

  “Yeah.” I nodded at my brother as he took his place beside Helen.

  “Okay,” said Minerva, “let me see what you have. Try to focus only on the white light. The dark light will do much the same but for earth to function correctly you need the white.”

  She stepped back and I closed my eyes. Nothing happened at first. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t get the prickle to come. Then I raised an image in my head of Wesley and the bitch he had run off with. All I had to do was think of it and I burst into flames. I heard Minerva gasp behind me. Then I felt my feet lift from the ground and the sparks begin to fly. When I was done and had lowered myself to the grass I got a round of applause from the peanut
gallery.

  “Well, that was interesting, to say the least,” Minerva said, looking at my brother.

  “Told you she was full of fire.”

  Shawn motioned for me to come and sit at the table on the back porch.

  “I wasn’t expecting that,” Minerva said, sitting down next to me. “I must admit it makes my job a lot easier.”

  “What’s the problem, then?” I asked, looking at the house.

  “Well, I told you to only bring the white.” She looked at Shawn then back at me. “You brought both.”

  I shrugged. “I find it hard to fixate on just one side. I keep having them split. The white comes from one side, the dark from the other. Makes me wonder what will happen if I mix them together.” It was good to discuss such things with fellow fire elementals.

  “If I didn’t know what you were I would find it rather frightening,” Minerva confessed. “Your eyes are amazing, too.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, frowning. I had seen them in reflection only once, the day that we ran into Xic in the school hallway. I hadn’t thought about them since.

  “One is black and one is white. However, they are on the opposite side to the power from your hands. It’s not like you are split in half; it’s like you are cross-sectioned somehow. And then there’s your ability to levitate.” She shook her head. “I suppose that makes up for the fact you are flightless.”

  “Blame my parents for that one,” I mumbled.

  “Because her mother and my father were stripped and put on Earth, Dawn was born without wings,” Shawn explained as he lounged in his chair. “From what I’ve heard, she can earn them. I just don’t know how an angel earns her wings.”

  “I suppose we should invest in some bells,” Minerva said, joking.

  Shawn and I looked at her, confused.

  “The movie?” she said. “You know… every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings.” We were still lost. “God, your parents really did shelter you,” she mumbled.

  Minerva finally had the idea for me to only call the power to one hand instead of both. I tried it, but every time I tried to call just the white I still had the same outcome. I was becoming increasingly frustrated as I’d been able to do it the last time I needed it, when the demons stormed my school with their guns blazing.

  After hours of constant fireballs and direction I was worn out to the point that all I could do was fizzle. Minerva cut our lesson off there, telling me that I needed to replenish my core. I staggered into the enclosed porch and fell into a hammock. It creaked for a second and then started to swing nicely. I was drained.

  Chapter Twenty-Six: All Good Things Must End

  “Your mom is awesome!” Adam said, plopping down in a chair next to the hammock I was lying in.

  “What did you learn today?” I asked, yawning and looking at him.

  He flinched as I looked at him. “Dawn, are you okay? Your eyes are gray,” he said, reaching out to touch my face.

  “I’m spent,” I admitted. “No more fire is coming from these fingertips today,” I said, wiggling my fingers above my head.

  “Your mom showed me how to sword-fight!” Adam burst out, excited. “It was like the movies. I wore one of those awesome face masks and a white padded jumper. I learned all kinds of amazing shit.” He leaned back in the chair.

  “Are you going to think it amazing when you have to use it for real?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know. I guess it depends on who I am using it on.” He jumped up. “I’m hungry. Are you hungry?” He reached for my hand.

  “Yeah, I could eat,” I said, grabbing it and letting him help me to my feet.

  We went to the kitchen, whispering back and forth about all the things that we could eat right then. My mother was sitting at the table with her head in her hands. She clearly had something on her mind.

  “What’s up, Mom?” I asked as Adam opened the fridge and started to rummage through the contents.

  “I had a missed call from Edmund.” She looked up at me and I could see it was serious.

  “What’s happened?” I asked, sitting down at the table. I didn’t think I could be any more drained.

  “He hasn’t found them. But he’s still looking.” She touched my hand. “And we will find them eventually.”

  “What with Wesley and Aaron both missing I think I should have just stayed single,” I groaned as I smacked the table with my forehead.

  “You still have me,” said Adam as he popped a cherry tomato into his mouth. “Can I make a sandwich, Mrs. Peterson?”

  “Of course, Adam. I’m sure you worked up an appetite.”

  “Awesome. Dawn, you want one?” He asked, looking at me. I nodded but kept my eyes on my mother.

  “How does someone just fall off the face of the Earth?” I asked, my throat tightening.

  “I don’t know. It makes me wonder who gave them the heads-up.” She sighed. “Have no fear. Edmund will find something out.” She tried to look optimistic, but I knew she was just trying to make me feel better. “So what did you learn today?”

  “That I’m too balanced.”

  She laughed. “I could have told them that. You are the perfect balance between me and your father.”

  “How did I manage to tip things in one direction or the other before?” I complained. “I mean, I found it easy enough to use one or the other. Now I find I can only use them both together. And my eyes... have you seen my eyes?”

  “One question at time,” said my mother, chuckling. “Okay, as for you managing things before, I think you weren’t as balanced then as you are now. I mean, you saved those kids in school and the night before Wesley ran off. I think in a way your body balanced itself out based on both the good and the bad happening in your life. As for your eyes, yes, I noticed them the other night. I thought to myself that you were absolutely beautiful.” She touched my face and I blushed. I had to admit I rather liked them myself.

  “You think it’s going to take me a while before I can do this protection flame thing?” I asked as Adam put a plate with a sandwich on it in front of me.

  “From what I understand, in a way you’ve already done it.” She gave me a mom-knows-all look. So Shawn had run his mouth off about the other night.

  “That was by accident,” I stammered. “This one has to be for real. I mean, I have to only use the light fire; I can’t summon the dark.” I avoided her look. I hated it when she pulled the mom look on me.

  “You’ll do fine once you figure out how to control one half of your body.” She squeezed my hand and got up. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to take a nap. Did Adam tell you he’s a natural with an epee?”

  “With a what?” I asked.

  She rested her hands on Adam’s shoulders. “A fencing sword.” She grinned and mussed up his hair. “Tomorrow we’ll work on some more moves. I may have you moved up to a broadsword by the end of the week.”

  “You hear that? I have talent,” Adam said, sitting up straight and tapping his own chest. “For once I’m good at something other than choir.”

  “Don’t let your head get too big,” I warned. “I hear a broadsword isn’t that easy to master.”

  We ate in silence for a moment.

  “So they haven’t found Aaron yet?” Adam asked, looking at me.

  “Not a trace.” I put my sandwich down. “You’d think it would be easy to locate three mortals, even in a world full of mortals.” I wasn’t sure if that made sense even to me.

  “Yeah… that would be like finding a demon in a house full of demons,” he replied, raising an eyebrow. “But I know what you mean. I’m sure the big scary vampire will find him one way or another.”

  “I know you’re right but I would much rather it be sooner than later,” I said with my mouth full. “This is a really good sandwich by the way.”

  “Your mom buys only the best meat and cheese, apparently.” He shook his head. “All my dad gets is bologn
a.”

  “You getting your strength back?” I asked as he finished his last bite.

  “Yup. I feel a hundred percent better.”

  “Good, because we’ve got our homework to do tonight. Got to keep the mama happy. Otherwise she’s not so angelic.” I intended it as much as a warning as a joke, how he took it was up to him.

  Mom had set us up in neighboring rooms connected by a single door. Apparently, the room I was staying in would have been my nursery, which made sense because the walls were pink. If only they knew how much I now hated pink... They had changed the bed for a brand new double bed with a dark mahogany headboard and fluffy black sheets. I had a feeling it wasn’t my mother who had picked this out. It must have been hard on her to change this room. She never got to use it when I was born since they left Harrisville before I was born. Such a beautiful house to live in for such a short time.

  I tried to focus on my schoolwork. Next door I heard Adam struggling with his Physics homework until my mother offered to help him out. It was surprising to me that she had never taken up teaching. I thought she would have found that it worked better in God’s graces than serving as a humble counselor for a local church. They were still working on it when I emailed my completed assignment and sat back to relax. I saw my eyes were slowly turning brown again. I still couldn't force any flames from my fingers, but I knew that the more I built up my stamina the longer I would be able to hold the fire.

  ***

  We steadily grew closer and closer to the time set for Krista’s resurrection. The tension in the house increased, but I was still not able to call only the white flame and kept mixing the dark flame with it. When I got frustrated there were casualties. First I set a chair on fire, then a table, then the whole back porch. Next it was Shawn’s shirt, Minerva’s dress and, finally, the back yard itself, which ended up with a huge burnt circle of grass in its middle. Dad said that he could turn it into a fire pit.

  I felt like an infant learning to walk. The few times I did something right everyone cheered. The moment it went wrong I was put in time out. Adam worked vigorously with my mother, learning the arts of swordsmanship, archery and shooting. He had an impeccable aim, which got my father’s attention. I guessed that all those hours playing Halo hadn’t been such a waste of time as I had presumed. He looked happy, too. In fact, he looked like he was having the time of his life, not that Adam was ever depressed or sad. He just always had an aura to him that was neutral. He didn’t care what you did to him: as long as it made you happy it made him happy. Which was why it was so easy for people to walk all over him. If they had seen all this, however, they might have thought twice before treating him so offhandedly.