The Guardian's Keeper (The Guardian Trilogy, Book 1) (14 page)

They cantered across t
he field side by side in the morning light until they reached the far side of the fields. There Nikoli pulled in front of Claire and slowed his horse to a walk. He began down a narrow dark path that cut into the forest. Claire followed as her pulse quickened.

“Relax, lovely,”
Nikoli called over his shoulder. “It’s daytime, you’re safe. It may be dark in here but it’s not dark enough for vampires.”

Claire gripped her reins tightly and followed Nikoli on. She trusted this man completely- if he said she was safe, she was safe. She
would follow him anywhere.

A few hours later the forest lightened up and Claire heard running wa
ter.

“There’s a river up ahead,” Nikoli announced. “
We’ll stop and give the horses a quick break.” Claire nodded to show she had heard him.

A few minutes l
ater they came to a wide river. Nikoli stopped and dismounted and Claire followed his lead. They led the horses down the shallow banks to the river’s edge for a drink. Nikoli’s horse led him downstream a bit as it followed the tender grass shoots growing on the river’s edge. He walked with his horse, his back to Claire. Claire smiled to herself as she remembered their last words of the evening together. She had finally told Nikoli she loved him too.

Lost in thought Claire didn’t hear someone sneak up behind her. A s
trong arm grabbed her around the waist while a cold blade pushed against her neck. The stranger spoke to her in a language she didn’t understand.

“
English,” she wheezed against the knife blade on her throat.

“
Stay still and you’ll get to live,” a rough voice growled in her ear. As the stranger held her his comrade came into view. He stood in front of Claire with an ugly smile on his face as he reached out and stroked her curls. With a sneer he snaked his hand down to her chest and squeezed her breast.

“
Ah, an American. Quite a treat,” he snarled.

Claire
silently willed Nikoli to turn around. He was farther downstream now as he allowed his horse to graze, unaware of Claire’s situation.

“
Let’s see what the Mister’s got on him before we have our fun with this one,” the man behind her suggested to his cohort. He kept his grasp on Claire as his partner turned around and crept towards Nikoli.

Claire watched in horror as the man withdrew his blade only feet
away from Nikoli. He raised up his arm, getting ready to strike.

Claire tensed
and her captor growled “Stay quiet now, Missus, don’t matter to us if you’re dead or alive but alive would be more fun for us.”

Claire nodded her head ever so slightly to show
she understood the threat.

Just as the second man was about to spring upon Nikoli he moved. One minute Nikoli was standing with his back to them, the next his would-be assailant lay dead on the ground. The
holt of his blade stuck out of his ear as blood sputtered out of the fatal wound. Before Claire’s assailant could fully register what had just happened Nikoli stood before them, his hands out, palms up.

“Come now,” he spoke to the bandit. “
Let her go and you can leave here alive.”

The bandit tightened his grip on Claire as he pressed the knife blade
further against her throat. Claire felt heat on her neck as a thin line of blood formed where the blade had broken her skin.

“Stay back!” the bandit yelled to Nikoli. “
Keep your distance or I’ll slit her throat right now!” he threatened.

Claire could hear the panic in
his voice.The tables had turned on him and he knew it.

Nikoli grinned as his eyes flashed red and hi
s fangs grew out.

“What the hell?” t
he bandit managed before Nikoli snapped his neck in one swift move too fast for Claire to see.

She fell to the ground, cupping the slit on her neck. Nikoli dropped beside her and pulled her hand away to look at her wound.
His fangs had receded, his eyes their deep brown again. Once he saw it was only a small slit he cradled Claire in his arms and covered her with kisses.

“
Claire, oh Claire, if I lost you…..” his voice broke off in a stifled sob. Claire held him tight as the adrenaline surging through her lessened.

“
I’m okay, I’m okay,” she repeated over and over as she tried to soothe Nikoli.

“I should have sensed them!” Nikoli berated himself. “
I should have heard them, or smelled them or….”

Claire interrupted him. “
You did, you did before that man had a chance to stab you. It’s okay, we’re both okay,” she soothed.

“
It’s not okay!” Nikoli pounded his fist into his palm in frustration. “I should have known they were there before they ever got their hands on you! With the noise and wind off the river I didn’t have a clue until they had you!” He rose suddenly.

Nikoli began unpacking Claire’s saddlebags, transferring the contents to his saddle. He took
her horse’s bridle off and tucked it into a now saddle empty bag. With a yell he smacked the horse on its rump, sending it careening back down the path they had come from.

“What are you doing?”
Claire yelled. Her horse was gone.

Nikoli turned to her, his eyes
blazing. “We ride together now. We’re not taking any more chances. The Fang is too important.” His eyes softened. “You are too important.” He held out his hand and Claire took it. “Come on, from here on out you ride with me.”

Chapter 19

Claire sat in front of Nikoli on his mount. They traveled onward, stopping once more to rest the horse again and numero
us times to check the map.

“
We should arrive at Renka’s Camp soon,” Nikoli commented as he checked the map at a fork in the path. Claire was glad to hear it. They had been riding all day and she was getting stiff from her time in the saddle.

Nikoli ruffled
her hair and kissed her neck. “I can’t wait to get there and get you into a tent, lovely,” he joked, nibbling on her earlobe.

Claire playfully swatted him
away. “We’ll never get there if you start that up.”

Something f
lew over Claire’s head and thunked into the tree beside them. Nikoli tensed as he examined the arrow that had sailed over their heads by only a few inches. He looked at the fletching on the arrow and broke into a wide grin.

“
Up to your old tricks again, Anya?” he called to the treetops.

Down the path a ways a woman dropped out of the tree and landed in a graceful crouc
h.

“
Still too slow, eh, Nikoli?” she called to him in a heavily accented voice. She straightened up and sauntered over to Nikoli and Claire. She wore a ruffled blouse laced up the front with leather and calfskin leggings. Her feet were bare and on her back she wore a quiver of handmade arrows. Her dark brown hair was tied back with a length of suede and her silver hoop earrings flashed in the sunlight filtering through the trees.

Nikoli slid of the horse to meet her. She embraced him in a tight hug as she watched Claire suspiciously over his shoulder
. Her green eyes narrowed.

“Great,”
Claire muttered to herself. “Here we go again.”

“Claire,”
Nikoli called to her. “Come meet Anya.”

Claire si
ghed to herself and dismounted.

“Hello, I’m Claire.” S
he offered the wild woman her hand and smiled sweetly.

Anya looked her up and down slowly, then broke into a huge grin and pulled Claire into a ti
ght embrace as she had Nikoli. “Welcome, Claire, to our home. It is good you are here.”

Claire was taken aback. She loo
ked at Nikoli quizzically.

“
Anya here is the great-granddaughter of Renka. The last time I saw her she was no higher than my knee and already shooting birds out of the sky with her bow.”

Anya shrugged.
“Is no big deal. I practice since I could walk. I better than the men in my Camp, they hate it,” she added with a grin. “You will follow me to Camp. Renka sent me to watch for you, is good you here finally. You come with me.”

Nikoli and Claire mounted their horse again and follow
ed the barefooted Anya through a maze of off-shooting paths. Anya moved lithely, full of grace and at ease in the forest.

Claire leaned back to whisper in Nikoli’s ea
r. “Is she one of you exes?”

Nikoli chuckled. “
No, my Keeper, the last time I saw her she was only 3 or 4.”

Claire felt foolish. It wasn’t really her business who Nikoli had a romantic relationship with in the past
. If she had been paying attention she could have figured out for herself there had been nothing between Nikoli and this woman. She had to learn to tamp down her inner green eyed monster.

Eventually they came to a large clearing encircled by huge pine
s. Within the clearing lay the Gypsy Camp. Claire gasped out loud. The Camp was like nothing she’d ever seen.

Large covered wagons with solid dome tops and little entryway doors
dotted the Campground. Interspersed among the wagons were fabric tents which children darted in and out of, laughing and playing. Many small cooking fires smoldered through the Camp as women stirred soups and stews in cast iron pots. Some of the menfolk clustered down at one end of the Camp where they cleaned small animal carcasses. Laundry swayed in the breeze on lines between the wagons and chickens ran free everywhere. A small flock of sheep and goats were held in a crudely made pen in the middle of the chaos. Horses were tied here and there. It felt like Claire had stepped back in time.

“Follow me,”
Anya commanded as she led them down the sandy hill to the Camp site. As they approached she let out a shrill loud cry, almost like a bird call of some sort. A similar call from within the Camp cut through the din of the caravan.

“
Is good, they know you here now,” Anya commented. “You get off horse here, not good to disrespect Renka, ride beast into circle.” Anya stood expectantly as Nikoli and Claire dismounted. Anya continued onward as Nikoli led their horse with one hand and held Claire’s hand tight in the other.

Anya walked into the
encampment a few paces and then stopped. “You tie horse here,” she told Nikoli as she pointed to a pole. Nikoli did as she asked. Anya gestured for them to hurry up. They followed her, continuing deeper into the Camp until they came to a caravan painted a brilliant red with gold trim.

“
Renka is here, you wait and I bring her,” Anya ordered.

Nikoli nodded as Anya entered the little caravan. Claire suddenly felt very nervous- they had come all this way to meet this Renka, this woman with the answers. What w
ould those answers be?

Chapter 20

The little caravan door opened as a tiny old woman stepped out. She was hunched over and of indiscrimina
te age. All Claire could tell about her is that she was old, very old. Despite her frail appearance she had an air of authority about her. She walked with a hand carved wooden cane and wore heaps of brilliant jewelry.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs she spat into the dust and looked at it for a moment before turning to Nikoli and firing off a few rapid sentences in a language Claire did not recognize. Nikoli laughed out loud a
nd bowed low to the woman.

“
She says she sees you have a good heart, she can tell it in her spittle,” Nikoli chuckled to Claire, straightening out. “She also says a good girl like you does not belong with a louse like me that does not show a Queen proper respect.”

Claire was flabbergasted. Was she supposed to curtsey or something? How was she supposed to act around
this strange old witch?

The old woman straightened her posture as best she could to look directly at Claire. She made rapid motions with her hands around Claire while mumbling in her native tongue. Claire stood perfectly still, int
rigued by the whole scene.

Nikoli chuckled again a
nd shook his head disapprovingly. “Now she’s casting spells to ward off the evil that rides with you.” He paused. “The evil she refers to, of course, is me.”

Claire huffed, offended. Who did this
woman think she was? “Excuse me!” Claire began, gently grabbing the woman’s hand mid-motion. “I don’t need any spells to protect me from Nikoli, thank you very much.”

The woman looked at Claire’s
hand upon hers in disbelief then smiled a toothless grin. Claire released her.

‘Claire,” she said in a rusty tone. “
You have the spirit that is needed for this task- the spirit of a fighter. So why do you lay down with the dead one?” She cast a scornful look at Nikoli.

Claire gasped in shock as did Anya.
“Who I ‘lay with’ is of no concern of yours,” she snapped angrily.