“Wait, let me explain.” Dana said, trying to catch up to the long-legged Claire as she parted the crowd, her face clouded, her throat tight with emotion and tears threatening to overflow.
“No, no, no!” the station master shouted in his crisp uniform and waved his arms as she tried to go around a turnstile the wrong way.
His hat was slightly askew and he was having a bad day. More people were pouring into his country than ever before. Too many. There was no place to put them. It seemed like everyone in Europe wanted pay their respects to King Karsten and see the new king crowned. They were already overcrowded from all of the people attending the Animalia Festival, all the hotels were at capacity and rude strangers from all over the world kept pouring in. The local residents were renting out sleeping space on their living room floor for hundreds of Euro’s a night. The crowds had been nonstop all day, he had given directions and helped find lost luggage until his voice was hoarse and now these two rich nitwits were messing up the flow of traffic, causing confusion in his otherwise somewhat orderly station. They had designer clothes and designer hair and designer sunglasses that probably cost more than he made all week. Money didn’t give you carte blanche to break the rules and he was going to set them straight; he didn’t care where they came from or what their family name was.
“Madame!” he nearly shouted and cut in front of them, his hand up, his face angry. “Theez iz NOT ze path…”
His words choked off when his eyes fell to the ancient emerald necklace around her neck. The delicate bears head set in gold that had been in the royal family for generations, a gift from the King of Prussia. He looked to her tear-filled eyes and lost whatever words he’d been about to say. He didn’t know who she was, he didn’t recognize her from any of the pictures that had been in the papers recently but she had to be part of the family. A niece, cousin or granddaughter, perhaps. A princess, for sure.
“I’m sorry, sir.” Dana said, struggling up behind her with her suitcase in tow. “We got confused. We’re not trying to cause trouble.”
The man stuttered an apology in French through his thick, bushy mustache and raised his hand, shouted to a couple of harried porters. Dana couldn’t see over the heads of the crowd but thought he was calling the police over.
“It’s okay, we weren’t trying to cause trouble, we’re leaving now,” she said and grabbed Claire by the arm.
“You’re going to get us thrown in jail,” she whispered, “please, I’ll explain, let’s just get out of here for now.”
“Madame!” the attendant said, aghast and smacked Dana’s hand. One simply did not grab a princess in such a way. Where did her Grace find such an uncouth handmaiden? And where was the rest of her entourage? He yelled something else at the porters, speaking rapid fire French and snapped his fingers. They dropped the luggage they were carrying and ran over as the crowd turned to look. Had they heard right? Had the station master said the princess was here? Which one? She was in the terminal? Cameras came out and the angry yells at the porters who’d tossed their bags changed to surprised smiles on the family from Slovakia. They would have a story to tell when they got home.
“Oh, jeeze,” Dana whispered. “We’re in trouble now.”
The young men snatched the bags from their hands as the Station Master waved away the crowd, proclaiming loudly in a language they didn’t understand and parting the people to make a path for them.
“Hey, careful with that!” Dana scolded the man with her luggage. She was starting to get angry, this was no way to treat a tourist. Were they going to spend the night in jail for going the wrong way in a busy station? What kind of country was this place? And why had that man smacked her hand? Claire still hadn’t said a word and looked miserable, on the verge of tears again. They were making her feel like a criminal the way everyone was pointing and taking their pictures.
“Sir,” Dana tried again, nearly running to keep up with the stout little man shooing everyone out of the way. “We weren’t trying to cause trouble, we got confused with the rush of people. We’re not used to being in crowds, we’re from a tiny little place.”
“Of course you are not,” he said huffily, his English barely understandable, addressing her like the inept servant he assumed she was, “You should have let us known you were arriving on the train, we would have had made arrangements. We could have had your car waiting.”
“I didn’t know that was a thing.” Dana said, more confused than ever.
“Of course you didn’t,” the man said dismissively as he approached the line of taxi’s and limousines. “And now it is up to me to rectify your incompetence.”
Dana was too shocked to say anything and Claire was like a walking zombie, simply following along and doing what she was told.
She couldn’t believe Dana had brought her here, to his home. What was she thinking, they were going to go up and knock on his door, introduce herself to his wife? Anger and sorrow and longing raged inside her and she tried to blank her mind. Somehow she’d gotten them in trouble but she wasn’t sure why. The funny little man spoke with such a harsh accent she could barely understand. They were being hurried off the property but it was better than being hurried off to jail. She’d stay the night but they were taking the first train out in the morning. Meanwhile, Dana could take care of everything. She wouldn’t help her one little bit and when they got to the hotel, she was going to give her a piece of her mind.
The station master opened the door to the first limo in line as the driver hurried over, a sign in his hand for the Wernenstien Family. After a rapid fire exchange between them the driver’s eyes got wide, he handed the man his sign and nearly ran to open the trunk for their luggage.
“Where are you staying?” he asked Dana.
“Um, I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it,” she answered, still confused at the strange turn of events.
“Oh Mon Dieu!” he exclaimed. “You should be fired.”
“He will take you to the palace, your Grace,” he said to Claire and bowed as he closed the door.
“Wait, what?” Dana said but the car was already pulling smoothly away from the curb.
“Did he say palace?” Claire asked.
“Did he just call you Your Grace?” Dana asked.
“He said you should be fired.” Claire said, still upset but couldn’t help herself and started giggling.
“Well, that wasn’t very nice,” she answered, but couldn’t help but to laugh herself. “Oh, look. There’s champagne.”
“Where is he taking us?” Claire wondered as she looked around the roomy leather interior. “This country is so weird.”
“To the palace hotel, my lady.” Dana said, imitating the station master and poured them drinks. “I guess he was in a hurry to get rid of us. We do look like fancy folk in our new clothes. Maybe he thought you were a movie star or something.”
“You’re not off the hook.” Claire said “I’m still mad at you. I can’t believe you brought me here.”
Dana handed her a glass of champagne and said “Okay, listen. I’ll tell you everything.”
She took a bracing swallow of the bubbly, took a deep breath and spit it all out.
“James isn’t married, he’s not a professor, he’s a prince and his uncle just got killed and he’s the new king, or he’s going to be after the funeral and they crown him and he really, really does like you because I just know it and I think he told you he had a wife because somebody had just murdered the king and he didn’t want you to be in any kind of danger and you’re too stubborn to come after him so I sold his car and took the money and now we’re here so you might as well make the best of it and see him because I think he would be soooo happy to see you.”
She took a breath, threw back the rest of her drink and poured herself another.
“I think that’s everything,” she said to Claire’s wide eyes and mouth in a perfect O, “I’m sorry for lying, Claire but I know you. You wouldn’t have come over here if I hadn’t tricked
you, you would have waited for him to make the first move. But he’ll be a king in a few days and running a country. He could never come back to pretend he was a teacher. You would both be miserable for the rest of your lives if you didn’t at least try. You would always look back and wonder.”
“He doesn’t have a wife?”
“No.” Dana said. “He has duties and they came to get him so he could do those duties. This is his city, his people, his country. A king is forever, he’ll never be out of office.”
“He could have told me.” Claire said, still trying to wrap her head around everything.
“Men are dumb.” Dana said. “He probably thought he was protecting you or some other chivalrous nonsense.”
Claire touched the pendant around her neck and her eyes got big.
“He’s taking us to the palace! They think I’m part of the family!” she exclaimed and held up the emerald bear head. “James gave me this, he said it had been in the family forever. I thought he meant it was his grandma’s or something, not a royal heirloom.”
“Well, that’s not so bad.” Dana said. “We’ll be able to find him easily enough.”
“NO!” Claire said, aghast. “There will be questions. Gossip. What will people say if they find out that he… that we…”
She broke off, scooted to the front of the limo and rapped on the divider separating them from the driver.
“We can’t go to the palace,” she said. “Can you take us to a hotel?”
There were no rooms available anywhere in the city but the driver knew of a bed and breakfast at the edge of the black forest an hour out of town.
“An old gypsy woman runs a rambling lodge out there,” he said, “she usually caters to the hikers and climbers but there was a decree issued by the government, no one is allowed in the woods until they find and eliminate some rabid animals. It seems they’ve killed some people but don’t you worry. The hostel will be safe enough.”
6
Fight
The guard stopped the Jeep at the foot of the trail that wound up through the black forest to the base of the mountain. They climbed out and set a steady pace, jogging up the path towards the rest of the guards and guardians that had an unnaturally cornered in a cave.
“The deaths of my people fall on you.” James said “There will be a reckoning when this is over.”
“No. It falls on your King and the Council.” Dimitri said. “They wouldn’t see reason, they forced us into desperate measures.”
“You wolves can’t just do what you want! People died. People got hurt!” James replied, his anger growing at the insolence.
“My people are dying every day because of your council’s incompetence.” Dimitri shot back. “You know nothing. You’re not even a member, when was the last time you even sat in on a Guardians meeting?”
“I don’t have to.” James said. “They have everything under control.”
“No, they don’t.” Dimitri replied. “They are old, weak and useless. They are set in their ways and refuse to acknowledge the danger of an open portal in my country because they are too tired to fight and don’t care if my people die. What have you done to help? What have you done with your life? I see you in the papers, I see you going to parties on yachts, dancing at star studded galas, posing with your Ferrari. You’re a rich, spoiled brat who has never suffered a day of hardship.”
“We don’t shift into bloodthirsty savages who kill for sport.” James shot back. “We can control our changes. We’ve worked hard over the centuries and built a society, not remained as monsters so we’re allowed a little luxury.”
“You think we chose to be wolves?” Dimitri asked. “Do you know how many centuries it’s been since werewolves roamed the forests searching for prey? Your kind have shunned us since the beginning and hunted us since the middle ages, nearly into extinction. Your kind hasn’t allowed us a seat at the council even though it’s been three hundred years since a wilding.”
James grew up hearing the stories of the wolves from his Uncle Karsten, of how they were mindless killing machines that couldn’t control themselves, especially when the moon was full. He hadn’t thought much of them, had accepted the tales as truth. Everyone believed them.
“You know why there has been only a rare few werewolf attacks in hundreds of years?” Dimitri continued as they wound their way up the path. “Because we had to implement a method of control before you hunted us down and killed us all. You glorify yourselves in books and stories and movies. Vampire hunters. Werewolf killers. Always you hide your animal side and pretend the cunning human part of you is the righteous hunter, the mighty warrior. Becoming a werewolf isn’t a choice, it’s who we are. It’s how we’re born. Unlike the witches and warlocks, the far seers or fortune tellers or even you lions and bears, our change can bring madness. Our change can get us killed by the ones we love. It is the way we have chosen and it is the way things must be. Do you know anything at all about us?”
James didn’t answer as they hurried up the trail and Dimitri took it as a no.
“Puberty brings about the first shift into our animal form and we don’t know what it will be until it happens. We can choose to mate when we are sixteen. That is what brings the change. When a boy becomes a man. When a girl becomes a woman. For your kind, for the bears and big cats, it’s different. Your change comes when your markings begin to appear. Once they are fully realized, they put you inside the portal and this forces the final change although it isn’t necessary. This is your custom, full of pomp and circumstance. When you face your ancient enemies, your distant relatives, the change is instant. Your body remembers and shifts on instinct. Our change is raw and often bloody.”
“How do you know so much about us?” James asked. “Stig tell you everything?”
“Some.” Dimitri said. “Your secrets aren’t very secret among our kind.”
“So what are your secret rituals?” he asked in anger. “You get laid, turn into a wolf then celebrate by eating a baby?”
“No. We get laid and shift and if we’re not in complete control, if the animal form doesn’t allow for the human consciousness, we are culled. That is why some of our kind choose to remain celibate their entire lives.”
James almost stopped running. He couldn’t imagine going to his wedding bed knowing he might be killed before the night was over.
“We had a fragile peace earlier this century, there were even talks of us joining the council of Guardians again but then the human wars happened. We were behind the iron curtain for so many years you forgot about us, then your king wouldn’t help us and now we are cleaning up the demons coming through in our lands. We’re doing the job the Guardians are supposed to be doing but aren’t because you have grown old, weak and pathetic with your trappings of wealth and ceremonial displays of power. You hide your duality, barely know how to use it and try to control your ability to transform. You fear your power, you don’t embrace it as we do.”
James said nothing but seethed inside. He wanted to lash out, tell the wolf man his kind were too savage to live in the modern world, that they should have been eliminated centuries ago but the Russian was right. Just because the world was kinder and gentler than it once was, the creatures beyond the portal weren’t. They were just as vicious and wild as they ever were. They hungered to butcher the men and violate the women. They had always been that way, the ancient texts told of untamed times when giants roamed the earth and all manner of unclean offspring nearly destroyed the struggling remnants of humanity.
Maybe Isabella had been right but for the wrong reasons. He was weak and cowardly. He used sex and a dominating woman to control his urges to shift into a barely tamed beast. The council had urged restraint, it was the way of the Guardians. You didn’t shift unless you were needed to do battle with the creatures from the other side. A good Guardian would never transform to his animal form unless the portal was breached. It was shameful in the council’s eyes. It meant you were not in control and succumbed to
the animal urges. Now, running with this wild man who embraced his animal half, he was starting to doubt the Council’s wisdom. Dimitri hungered for battle, he’d fought and killed demons in the mountains of his homeland. He knew how to destroy them.
James was afraid. His only encounter with them had been when he was thrust through the portal for his rite of passage. He had run away from them, fought a few small ones no larger than dogs and even those had left scars on him. He came back through boasting and bloodied and had buried the terror deep inside him. The door was sealed. It was guarded. He would never have to face the demons again. Or so he thought.
Two of the council members were in the ramshackle old woodsman’s hut deep in the forest. The doctors were tending to their wounds, stitching up jagged gashes when James and Dimitri stepped into the room.
“It’s about time.” Pallerson said, anger and pain in his voice. “What kept you?”
James glanced around at the blood-stained guards and the two guardians who looked like they’d been chewed up and spit out.
“Where’s Scrimson and Frank?” he asked, fearing the worst.
“At the mouth of the cave. They’re keeping the beast inside.” Councilman Tolley answered “It’s the last of them, the strongest I’ve ever seen. It can’t get out but we can’t get in to kill it, either.”
“My countrymen?” Dimitri asked “Did you find any of them?”
“Yes but the hell spawn found them first.” Pallerson said. “They were easily tracked once the unclean had the scent. Nothing smells like shifter blood.”
They followed the overgrown path up the mountain trail to the entrance of a cave a half mile away. Scrimson was pacing, guarding the hole in the rocks, his massive lion form impressive in the mid-day light filtering through the trees. His tawny coat was streaked with red and the slashes on his shoulder and haunch seeped blood.
Heart of the Guardians: Adoring Destiny Page 4