The Wardens Boxed Set

by Heather D Glidewell

  “My name is Annabelle and this is my boyfriend Shane. We both come from a complex in Iowa where we lived with others of our kind in peace.” She had a deep feminine voice that held a maturity that was far beyond her age. “The Army that invaded our complex was an off-branch of the Army based in New Mexico led by a dark-haired demon and a small pale woman with blonde hair. They slaughtered our families before our eyes for not joining their legion, but Shane and I both got away.” She looked at the boy who was still observing the ground, his hands stuffed safely in his pockets.

  “We grew up on the stories of origins,” he said slowly, looking toward the crowd. “We knew of the first flame, the first rain, the first harvest, and the first breeze. We knew that the shards of both darkness and light were kept in the cores of those that had both demon and angel blood in their veins.” He sighed, it was obvious he was not comfortable speaking to a group.

  “When we declined to join the Army they put a knife to Shane’s throat and told me that they would kill him.” Annabelle laughed softly. “They had no idea of the power that he possessed. As soon as he teleported I was able to take two rocks and smash in the head of the blonde girl. From there we ran, leaving her body in his father’s living room. We didn’t stick around to see what happened with the corpse, we assume the dark-haired boy found her lifeless body.”

  “We walked for many days and nights, sleeping only when we felt we were safe.” Shane broke in. “We had to make sure that none of them followed us. We looked for anyone who was like us but found nobody along the roads.” Shane’s voice faded as his bottom lip began to quiver. Losing his family had taken a toll on him and even in the few sacred moments I had enjoyed his company I had seen just how torn he was.

  “When we got here we were greeted by Angelina and her daughter. We have been here ever since,” Annabelle said, looking at me, her eyes sparkling.

  “We pledge our allegiance to the allied force. Where the wardens go we will follow. Our lives are in their debt, if there is anything that we can do for them we will do it,” Shane said finally, taking one hand out of his pocket and grasping on to Annabelle’s. His pain was tearing through me and in that moment, I felt my heart skip a beat.

  “Our coven was attacked by the same dark-haired boy.” A tall man in the back spoke. He was the leader of a coven of pureblood vampires that the Army had sought out to destroy due to their lack of hybrid blood lines. “We were able to take out half of his forces before he got the best of us. When we fled there were only twelve of the one hundred and twenty vampires I cared for left.”

  “Same here!” cried a young shifter. “They threatened to kill all those that did not join their forces. None of our group bent to their will and when we arrived there were only twenty of us left.”

  “This Queen must be destroyed!” The warlocks screamed above the others. “Either we are being slaughtered because we are pure, or because we cannot transform the way that our experimental parents wanted us to.”

  “Not to mention the carriers. Many of us had no clue what we carried within our blood—we did not know that we were protectors of the Earth itself. None of us realized just how important we are. They know that the more of us they destroy the closer they get to achieving the goal of ending the wardens,” said a tall woman who had come to us revealing she could manipulate water.

  “When do we get our chance to take her out?” asked a young warlock sitting in the front row.

  “We are not at full power,” my mother interjected, standing up. “We still have yet to bring the fourth forward.”

  “Why does it matter if we have her? We have the other three and from what all of us have seen they are quite powerful,” asked a female voice from somewhere in the back.

  “When we find the fourth, the girls will be at full power. They will be able to lead as well as train. We will be able to figure out a plan,” my mother answered, her bottom lip quivering.

  “When do you plan on removing the Harbinger?” asked another voice with an unknown face.

  “As soon as we have more warriors. I am only sitting at six,” my father chimed in, standing next to my mother.

  “Why are the angels and demons so quiet, why won’t they decide to fight with us?” The questions were starting to get out of hand. I couldn’t keep up with everything that was being said.

  “I’m sure they have their own defenses formed. The only way that Heaven and Hell will be invaded is if they are successful in ridding the world of the wardens and their corresponding carriers,” my father said, putting his arm around my mother. She was becoming overwhelmed by the amount of honesty that was beaming from the camp. She looked unsteady.

  “I hate to break the question and answer portion of this evening up but we have a situation that the girls need to handle,” Shawn interrupted, his eyes black as night. “There is a presence in Harrisville, a lost soul searching for something. We need them to retrieve it.”

  The crowd went quiet as the three of us got up from our seats and began to walk toward the back of the crowd. I grumbled to myself. This would figure. Right when we were getting into the good stuff it was time to be called off for crowd control.

  “Be careful,” Adam said, squeezing my hand as I pushed by him.

  “No fear. I will see you shortly,” I said, giving him a smile.

  Chapter Two: Tricky Tricky

  “Why do we always have to find the damn creatures searching for rescue?” Helen asked as she drove the SUV toward downtown Harrisville. “I mean, it’s bad enough we are out in the middle of nowhere, let alone these things coming into town itself. It scares the people.” Helen wasn’t much for the search and rescue missions. Not that I blamed her; I would have preferred the whole seek and destroy method myself.

  “The place is hidden. They wouldn’t know where to look in the first place. All they know is that the stories said that the Wardens were here,” Krista said sweetly.

  The girl never sounded forlorn or angry. She always saw things positively. I admit it got annoying at times but then I would look at her and realize she’d been dead for eighteen years. If I was resurrected I would probably find the good in everything too.

  “I know you are right,” Helen said flatly. “That doesn’t mean that I want you to remind me how right you are.” She pulled the SUV to the side of the road and got out.

  “HELP!” The voice was shrill and coming from our left. We took off running till we came up beside an old station wagon. A woman was in the back seat holding on to a bleeding young man.

  “What happened?” I asked since I was the first one to the car. I might not have had wings but I was blessed with the ability of speed, a new development might I add.

  “We were attacked,” the woman cried, her violet eyes shimmering in the moonlight. This alone was enough of an indication to tell me that they were weres or a shifter of some sort. I had learned from the many allies that you can tell a creature by their eyes.

  “What attacked you?” I asked, lighting a flame in my hand to get a better look at the boy.

  “A dark man, he shot my boy.” She wept as I searched for the wound. I groaned when I found it. A clean shot through the torso.

  “Silver?” I asked her, and her eyes widened. She recognized that I had noticed her eyes and she blinked several times.

  “I don’t know what it was,” she stammered. One would think the fact I had flames licking the flesh on my hand would speak that I wasn’t human. Still she seemed shocked that I had figured out what she and the young man were.

  “All right. How old is he?” I asked, trying to figure out what was going on. The other two had arrived and were watching me curiously.

  “Fifteen,” she cried. The boy gave out a whimper, he was in so much pain.

  “Helen, can you drive this woman to the house and have my mother take a look at the boy’s wounds? Get his mom some food—they look like they haven’t eaten in days,” I said, looking at the brunette behind me. She g
ave me a sour face but when the boy cried out again she raced around to the driver’s side of the car and got in. I looked back at the woman holding on to her son. “She’s going to get you help. I will be along shortly.” I gave her a weak smile and blew the flames out on my hand. Getting out of the back seat, I looked at Krista.

  “Let’s do a perimeter check. The boy’s wounds are fresh,” I suggested as she nodded at me.

  Helen took off like a bat out of hell, taking the small family to a safe house where they would be cared for and mended. I opened my senses to the world around us. I could smell the sulfur in the air but chose to ignore it. The odor was not offensive, nor was it what I was looking for. It merely meant that a demon had been in the area and just recently left the location. I knew John’s smell and this was not his.

  “Do you smell that?” Krista said, looking back at me.

  “Yeah. It’s nothing,” I lied.

  She knew little of her demon bloodline. She was still too young and lacked proper training when she passed. She was not balanced and if we didn’t get her balanced soon it had potential of killing her again.

  “What are we looking for?” she asked me sweetly.

  “I don’t know. If one of Miranda’s henchmen were here they would have made it known.” I sniffed the air again.

  “What do you think it was?” she asked me, her eyes trying to read my face.

  “A hunter maybe. The boy was hurt pretty bad, but the shot was clean through,” I sighed, until I heard the screaming. “What the Hell!” I groaned loudly and took off running in the direction of the sound. I heard Krista’s wings unfold and I knew she had taken to the skies.

  We reached the screams in no time and found a young girl holding on to an older man’s body. He was still breathing but his leg had a huge chunk taken out of it. She started yelling the moment I came into view.

  “Help me!” Her voice cracked. I was at her side within seconds and on my knees looking at the man’s leg.

  “What happened?” I asked the hysterical girl.

  “Did you see it?” she asked. Her eyes were puffy.

  “See what?” I asked, pulling my phone from my pocket.

  “The dog that bit my father?” she said, her voice cracking.

  “No, I didn’t. I just heard you screaming.” I tried to hide the disappointment in my voice. So the mother must have bitten the man after he had shot her son. I hated jumping to conclusions but it was the most logical one I could think of. The other scenario was that her son had bit the farmer and ran off after the man decided to protect himself. The bite was deep and he was losing a tremendous amount of blood.

  “He needs help. I think he’s dying,” she said, panicking and running her hand over the older man’s hair.

  I could hear the sirens in the distance. Someone had already called the authorities. That took a load off my back, I hated dealing with the dispatchers.

  “Did you call an ambulance?” I asked her as she looked around frantically.

  “No,” she said simply. That’s when Krista made an appearance behind me. The girl jumped when she saw Krista’s face.

  “Do I know you?” the girl asked, looking up at the blonde.

  “No, I don’t believe you do,” said Krista, eyeing the girl suspiciously. “I called the ambulance,” Krista said, not taking her eyes from the girl. Tension was filling the air between the two.

  “But how did you know we needed one?” the girl asked her.

  “I saw your father from the road and I thought you needed some help.” Krista started twitching. She thought that she was doing well and now she was starting to have second thoughts, I could tell by the pain in her eyes.

  “It’s going to be OK, Daddy. They have help coming,” the girl said, giving her father a squeeze.

  The paramedics jumped out and loaded the bleeding man into the back of the ambulance as the girl came around to talk to us.

  “Thank you,” she said, hugging me and then Krista. “I am grateful for your help.”

  I watched as she carefully got into the back of the ambulance and turned to look at us one last time. She looked odd for a second as a huge smile spread across her lips as her eyes turned jet black. We had been deceived, this had to be the demon I smelled in town. She shut the doors with a bang and the ambulance took off, Krista and I running after it, screaming.

  “What the Hell was that?” I asked, looking at Krista.

  “I don’t know … I knew I had seen her before.” She smacked herself on the forehead.

  “How could you have seen her?” I asked, putting my hands on my hips. There was nothing we could do short of following the ambulance. It was in our best interests to head back to camp and explain to my parents what had happened on that dirt road.

  “She was with me.” Krista sniffed and looked around.

  “With you where?” I asked her slowly, my eyes shifting from her to the flashing sirens.

  “The day I was taken. She was with me,” she said. Her eyes looked extremely sad all of a sudden.

  “I didn’t see her.” I recalled the vivid memory of seeing through Krista’s eyes. I didn’t remember anyone else being with her. Then again, that part of her memory had been so choppy I was shocked she was able to remember anything at all.

  “She was taken too.” Krista bit her lip. “He must have given her to Miranda. She was just a human then.”

  “Great,” I groaned, running my fingers through my hair.

  “I’m sorry.” She bowed her head and sniffed.

  “It’s not your fault. I just don’t know if we should follow. I mean you saw it, right?” I asked, pacing.

  “Yeah, I saw it,” she said softly.

  “Shit!” I screamed. “Let’s get back to camp, see what mom wants us to do,” I said, patting her on the shoulder.

  “OK.” She said miserably. I could tell that she felt horrible about not knowing the girl until the last minute. I couldn’t hold it against her; it was eighteen years ago for Christ’s sake.

  Chapter Three: Back Off

  We got back to the house and pulled Helen aside. She didn’t seem shocked by the revelation that we threw at her. In fact, we pretty much had to stop her from tearing off into the night on the hunt for an ambulance with a demon inside. After some coaxing, we convinced her that we needed to get with my parents in hopes of coming up with a plan.

  We found them sitting at the kitchen table talking. They looked up, smiling oblivious to the terrors that had occurred that night, once they saw our faces, their smiles fell and a look of concern took over. My mother had taken the boy in and dressed his wounds, even given the mother a change of clothes and a warm meal. I felt grateful that I had fulfilled my promise to the family but I hated telling my mother the theory I had over what had just happened. They took the story line by line and didn’t bat an eyelid at the stunning conclusion.

  “So you think that, when the man shot the boy, the mother bit the man and a demon came in for his soul?” my mother asked, trying to make sense of it.

  “It’s not too far-fetched,” my father said, pointing at me. “Quite a few times in the past I would hunt the hunters. Sooner or later something was going to get them, they are resilient but they don’t live forever. Either a vampire or a were would leave their meal behind to die. Someone has to accept the soul.”

  “That’s what Reapers are for,” my mother pointed out.

  “Reapers appear when a person is dying or will be dying. Half the time they don’t even know when it will happen. If there is no Reaper then there is no reaped soul,” my dad said as my mother raised an eyebrow.

  “You demons sure did things weird.” My mother shook her head at him.

  “You know it’s funny, we said the same things about you.” He laughed and patted her on the shoulders.

  “What do you want us to do?” I asked, getting annoyed by their job comparisons.

  “There is nothing we can do, honey.” My fath
er shook his head. “You did the right thing not getting involved. Coming between a demon and its meal is not the best idea.”

  “You make it sound like you suck their souls straight from their body,” I said, making a disgusted face.

  “Well in a way we do.” He gave me that chilling smirk that made my skin crawl.

  “I really could have gone without that image,” I grimaced.

  “What? You did it.” He grinned at me again and raised his eyebrows at the same time.

  “When?” I demanded, tapping my right foot in annoyance.

  “The night you killed the were-vamp.” He laughed, rolling his eyes to the back of his head.

  “Huh?” I could remember feeling more power but I didn’t bend over my prey and suck the life from them like I was the Chupakabra.

  “You absorbed its soul and power.” My father looked hysterical at this point, like he was revealing a really big demon secret.

  “Oh god, that’s what that was,” I whined, feeling icky all over.

  He nodded at me and my mother looked at him, appalled. I believe that she would have been fine without knowing that as well. My father was still acting odd until my mother slapped his arm and he popped out of it. Sometimes I think he gets caught up in his demon ways and he forgets that he plays a human on Earth.

  “So we just wait and see if she comes back?” Krista chimed in. She had been quiet this whole time, biting her nails and mumbling to herself.

  “You know I would find this hunt quite fun. If you would trust us enough to make the right decisions,” Helen said. She pouted, crossing her arms across her chest.

  Out of the three of us, Helen was the biggest risk-taker. She had come out to humans, saved lives, freed souls from savage beasts as well as provided food and care for those in other countries. When it came down to it, Helen was the only one that truly knew what being a Warden was.