The Guardian's Keeper (The Guardian Trilogy, Book 1) (19 page)

Claire nodded thoughtfully and began weaving her way carefully through the grove. Pick the best one? Which one was ‘best’?
She inspected each flower carefully as she passed it but nothing struck her as any different from the others. Then she spied it, a few feet away. This Zeita flower was slightly larger than all the others, with larger blooms. The colors were so bright it almost hurt to look at it. Claire reached down to its base and gingerly snapped off the stalk. She carefully deposited it in her suede bag for Renka.

“Got it!
” she called cheerfully to her companions as she came back to them.

“
Now we ride for the cabin,” Garridan announced. He pulled the beaten map out of his pocket and inspected it then looked up at the sky to judge the time. “If we make good time we can arrive an hour or so before sunset.”

Nikoli frowned. “
That doesn’t give us much time. Let’s get going.” He set off down the trail with Claire behind him. The group made their way back to the horses and mounted up with Garridan in the lead again.

Chapter 25

As soon as the trail allowed it the group made good time, urging their horses onward at a trot as they tried to beat the descending sun. They arrived at the rustic
one room cabin shortly before the sunset as Garridan predicted.

With little time to spare before
the sun went down the group got to work preparing the cabin for the night. Nikoli collected firewood while Garridan set to work getting a blaze going in the fireplace. Anya and Claire settled the horses in a small shack behind the cabin. They unpacked the saddle bags and brought the remaining food back to the cabin for dinner.

Anya wrinkled her nose in distaste when she entered the cabin.
‘Is dirty in here.’ She complained.

Garridan glanced up from the
burn pile he was building from twigs and leaves. “Almost no one ever uses this place, it’s been empty for years. You girls could put yourself to good use and make it bearable for the night.” He looked to Claire expectantly.

Claire sighed. She had no intention of taking orders from Garridan but he was right. The cabin was dirty after such a long time of neglect. Since they were going to stay the night they might as well tidy up as best they could. She poked around the cabin until she found a small
straw broom behind the open front door. She swept as Anya dusted off the table and chairs. She could feel Garridan watching her intently but she refused to acknowledge him. Nikoli popped in and out with firewood. Anya found some old blankets in a chest and took them outside to shake them out.

Nikoli came in with one last armload of wood.
“C’mon Anya,” he called to her. ‘The sun is setting, you need to get in here.” He dropped his load of wood and grabbed a bucket full of water by the front door. “Wash water.” He grinned at Claire. ‘I found a stream nearby.’

Garridan snorted and got
up from the fireplace. A small blaze grew there and gave off enough light to negate the fading sunlight outside.

Anya came back in
with her armloads of blankets. “We need to cover windows,” she told Claire and tossed her a worn old towel.

Claire and Anya busied themselves covering up
the small windows of the cabin. Nikoli found some spare nails and helped them tack the old towels up. Claire felt better knowing no Myrmidons could watch them while they slept.

“
They really can’t get in here?” she asked Nikoli.

He kissed h
er brow and smoothed her hair. “No, lovely, they haven’t been invited in, and they probably won’t even know where to find us.”

Claire sighed with relie
f. “You really think so?”

“
They will probably visit the Camp again, but Renka can protect her people. Even if they did figure out where we are, we’ll be in the cabin, they can’t reach you tonight.” He kissed her softly on the lips. Claire melted inside. Why did Anya and Garridan have to accompany them on this trip? She’d give anything for another night in front of the fire like the night they spent at Akos and Firenze’s cottage, just the two of them.

Garrid
an cleared his throat noisily. “So who’s going to make us dinner?” He raised an eyebrow at Claire.

“I will.’
Anya volunteered. Garridan sulked. He clearly felt Claire should be taking care of him, not his cousin.

A bit later the four of them sat down at the table to eat the canned meat and beans Anya had heated up over the fire.
Claire felt unsettled and on edge with the night’s arrival. She suspected her companions felt the same way as everyone said little and seemed preoccupied during dinner.

Once they had finished eating Claire set about working to heat up the wash water Nikoli had brought in.
Nikoli slid up behind her and hugged her close as she stood waiting for the water to heat over the fire. Claire smiled and brought her hand up to caress his face.

“That’s disgusting,”
Garridan commented from his chair. “He’s not even human, and you touch him like that. He is a dead thing, you know.”

Anya spoke to him sharply in their language but Garridan ignored her and continued to stare at Nikoli with unconcealed hate. Nikoli looked at him
calmly and kept his arms around Claire.

Claire scowled at Garridan. “
He may not be human, but he’s more of a man than you’ll ever be. I’ll never be with you, get that through your thick skull.” She turned back to face the fire.

Garridan’s chair scraped against the wood floor as he rose slowly and
marched over to the fireplace. “You would be wise to show respect when you speak to me,” he hissed at Claire.

Claire th
rew her head back and laughed. “Respect? You call how you treat Nikoli and I respectful? You are an empty man with a small mind and I will speak to you however I wish to as long as you continue to disrespect us. Who I am with is none of your concern as it will never be you. Even if I was not with Nikoli, I had never even met Nikoli, I would never be with a man like you.”

Garridan moved to strike Claire
across the face but Nikoli was too fast. Before Claire could even register what was happening Nikoli let go of her and pinned Garridan against the cabin wall. He lifted Garridan clear off the floor with one hand. Nikoli’s eyes gleamed dangerously red. Garridan choked and sputtered and tried to kick loose from Nikoli’s grasp to no avail.

“
You will never, ever raise a hand to Claire,” Nikoli declared menacingly. “If I even think you might harm her, I will kill you where you stand. Not only will you not touch her, if you cannot contain that foul tongue of yours in our presence I will yank it out of your head myself. Do we have an understanding here?” he demanded as he shook Garridan for emphasis.

Garridan nodded mutely.
Nikoli released his grasp without warning and Garridan fell to floor, sucking in huge breaths of precious air. Nikoli smiled gently at Claire.

“
You all right, my Keeper?” he asked cautiously.

Claire nodded mutely at him as well. She knew Nikoli said he would protect her, keep her safe but she was taken aback to see the lengths he would go to in order to do so. She wasn’t upset with him, just shocked. In the past he had always replied to Garridan’
s insults only with words. When he saw Claire in physical danger he was willing even to move against Renka’s pet.

Anya had stood quietly observing the whole situation until now. She brought some water to Garridan but patted Nikoli’s arm as she walked by. Her message was clear- she wasn’t taking sides in the matte
r and she wasn’t mad at Nikoli.

“
I think,” she said quietly, turning to Nikoli and Claire, “we sleep on this side of room, you sleep on other side. We go to bed now, we ride out early to go back to Camp.” She looked solemnly at Nikoli. Claire felt sympathy for her- she didn’t want trouble, she just wanted to make it through the night and get back to Camp when travel was safe. Anya spread a blanket out on the far side of the cabin and helped Garridan lie down. He wouldn’t even look at Nikoli or Claire.

Nikoli nodded and collected some of the blankets Anya
had found. He spread a few of the thicker ones in front of the fireplace and gave them a pat, inviting Claire to join him.

“
It’s not a bearskin rug and the company is more than I’d like, but it’ll have to do for now,” he said.

Claire gave him a small smile and joined him down on their makeshift bed. She settled in against his chest with a sigh as he stroked
her hair in the firelight.

“
I love you, my Keeper. I would do anything for you,” Nikoli whispered as he gazed at her contentedly.

“
I love you too, my Guardian. And you’ve already done enough, thank you- I bet poor Garridan can barely talk after what you did to him.” She smiled softly.

“
Good. I prefer not to hear him for a bit. He has nothing of value to say so far,” Nikoli joked as he kissed the top of her head.

Anya said something to Nikoli in her language
and Nikoli replied briefly.

‘Sleep now, lovely,” he whispered. “
Anya’s right- we have a long day ahead of us again tomorrow and we all need our rest.”

Claire sighed happily and curled up against Nikoli’s broad chest, safe in his arms. Tomorrow they’d ride back to
Camp, destroy the Fang with Renka’s help, and be free to return home and build their lives together.

Ch
apter 26

Claire was jostled out of her deep sleep by a violent coughing fit. The cabin was filled with smoke so thick she could barely see across the room. One corner of the cabin was on fire, the flames just starting to lick up the walls.

“Anya!”
she screamed as she scrambled to her feet to reach her friend on that side of that cabin. Nikoli snapped awake and grabbed her arm.

“
Wait by the door, Claire, I’ve got them.” In a second he was over to Anya and Garridan to help them away from the fire.

The four of them stood by the front door as t
hey watched the far cabin wall burst into flame.

“We can’t stay in here,”
Nikoli said quietly. He consulted his watch. “Sunrise in an hour, we can do this.” He looked steadfastly at Claire. “We get the horses and head back towards Camp. We keep moving, we’ll be okay.” He caressed Claire’s face. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“
Claire, follow right behind me and stay close. Anya and Garridan will be behind you, let’s get those horses and get out of here.”

Nikoli threw open the cabin door and stopped just for a second to look for an
y threat lurking. Seeing none, he motioned for the others to follow him out into the night.

Claire sucked in the cool night air as her pulse pounded. She followed Nikoli as he quickly headed around the cabin’s corner to get to the horses out back- and smacked right into his broad back
when he stopped short.

Nikoli lunged forward and knocked over the
Myrmidon blocking their path. Claire broke out into a cold sweat, unable to move as she watched Nikoli and the Myrmidon rolling on the ground, both snarling and trying to rip apart the other.

“Come on.”
Anya broke Claire’s trance of terror by grabbing her hand and trying to pull her around the dueling vampires only feet away. Claire resisted her.

“Nikoli…”

“Nikoli will catch up with us! Let’s go, we’ve got to get the Fang out of here!”               Garridan swooped up Claire from behind and threw her over his shoulder. Claire didn’t even protest as he sped off towards the horses. She was too busy watching Nikoli and the Myrmidon try to kill each other from her vantage point over Garridan’s shoulder. Their vampire battle predominantly moved too fast for the human eye to see, but the few seconds when they did slow down a bit showed them both covered in gouges and bleeding profusely. Currently there was no obvious forerunner in the fight.

Anya ran
behind them but stopped and readied her bow when she spied another Myrmidon approaching them from the side. Garridan saw her stop but continued sprinting towards the small shed out back to get to the horses. He halted suddenly, lowered Claire to the ground as he took out his large hunting knife.

“They lit the shed up too,”
Claire whispered. The Myrmidons had not only set the cabin on fire to flush them out into the night, they had started a fire in the shed too. The horses were nowhere to be found. The Myrmidons had effectively destroyed their safe house and their means of escape.

The terror Claire felt was suddenly replaced with white hot rage. These
Myrmidons had killed her entire family and destroyed her home all in the name of resurrecting Stavros. Sunrise was coming fast- if she could survive until sunrise she could destroy Stavros for good and end this all.

“Give me a blade!”
she yelled to Garridan with her palm out. He looked surprised by her demand but complied and handed her one of his smaller hunting knives. The noise from the burning cabin and shed was deafening as the structures became fully ablaze but the light cast by the fires gave them lots of visibility as they looked for anymore Myrmidons about.