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

by Raven, T. R.

  “There is no one for me but you,” she promised Nikoli.

  He kissed her hard in response then pulled back to smooth her raven curls that had come unbound during their ride. “When we get somewhere proper, I can’t wait to show you how much I’ve missed you,” he declared, his voice full of promise of things to come. “We need to get going again. The sooner we get to Akos and Firenze’s place, the safer we’ll be. No more Myrmidons to worry about, but there are still other vampires out here too.”

  They rode onward, pushing their exhausted horses as much as they dared. The miles sped by until finally they approached the fields bordering the cottage. Nikoli slowed his horse to a walk and Claire followed suit.

  “The cottage is dark.” He frowned. “I expected they would be back by now.”

  Claire giggled. “I wouldn’t mind having the place to ourselves again.”

  Nikoli smiled back at her over his shoulder. “Come on, we’re almost there. There should be some firewood left inside, I’ll get the fire going.”

  They rode the horses at a walk to let them cool down after their hard day’s work. The breeze ruffled the hay in the fields and the stars shone brightly overhead. Claire sighed with contentment. She could not believe her Nikoli was back at her side.

  They dismounted in front of the cottage and Nikoli tied their horses to the post out front as Claire unsaddled them. Together they entered the quiet, dark cottage. Nikoli removed a lighter from his pocket and used its meager light to find a nearby candle.

  “Something’s wrong,” he said quietly. “You stay here, don’t go outside, I’ll get another candle.” Nikoli lit a second candle he found on the hearth and gave it to Claire. “I’ll be right back, just stay here while I take a look around.” Claire nodded.

  There was a faint odor in the air, one she could not place, but it was unpleasant. The cottage hadn’t smelled like that when they had been there not so long ago.

  Nikoli left Claire to look about the cottage. Nothing seemed amiss at first but his sensitive vampire nose picked up the stench of death that hung in the air. He found Firenze behind the kitchen counter, her dead eyes staring at the ceiling, her throat torn out. Nikoli bit his lip. From the looks of her body she had been dead a few days as bloating and discoloration had set in. With a sigh Nikoli leaned down to close her eyes with his fingers.

  “Goodbye, my friend,” he whispered softly. “Claire?” he called.

  ‘Still here.” Claire called from the entryway.

  Nikoli wanted to find Akos before letting Claire know what he had found. “I’m just going to check upstairs, then I’ll be right back. Don’t move,” he called to her.

  “Okay! I’m not going anywhere.”

  Nikoli climbed the narrow steps to the upper level of the cottage. There wasn’t much up there, just a small bathroom straight ahead and a bedroom on each side of the narrow hallway. The smell of death was worse up here.

  The first bedroom was filled with bloodstains on the wood floor and splattered on the walls. Nikoli’s stomach dropped. Akos would not have survived such an attack. Nikoli looked into the second bedroom and found it to be untouched, no sign of Akos. He finally found Akos slumped in the corner behind the bathroom door.

  Nikoli grimaced as he worked carefully to dislodge Akos’ corpse from behind the door. He was in far worse shape than his wife, with multiple gouges from vampire teeth all over his body. Nikoli laid the body on the floor and went to find a sheet to cover him up with.

  A heart stopping scream from Claire propelled Nikoli down the narrow stairs two at a time. She was gone, the front door wide open. Nikoli rushed out of the cottage into the night, following the sounds of her shrieks.

  “Claire!” he yelled as he charged behind the cottage towards the back edge of the forest. Even in the dark he could see Claire as she scrambled up a nearby tree. Below her a form grabbed at her as she swung up and climbed as high up the tree as she dared.

  “Nikoli!” she screamed when she saw him there.

  The figure at the base of the tree spun towards Nikoli then turned its attention back to Claire. It strained to reach her, clicking its teeth violently, but couldn’t seem to figure out how to climb the tree to reach her.

  Nikoli thought quickly. Moving at vampire speed he grabbed the axe from the woodpile on the edge of the forest and returned to help Claire. Swinging it with all his might he lodged the axe into the creature’s head. It fell to the ground twitching and then lay still. Nikoli dislodged the axe from its head with a grunt.

  Claire came cautiously down from the tree. “What the hell was that?!” she asked Nikoli, visibly shaken as she hugged her arms around herself.

  Nikoli didn’t answer her but instead began carefully inspecting Claire’s body. “Did it bite you anywhere, even a little bite?” he demanded.

  “No. I was waiting for you downstairs and there was this weird noise coming from the kitchen and then this awful guttural moaning started. I saw that, that thing, coming for me and I screamed and ran outside. Was- was that a zombie, Nikoli, a real zombie? I mean, vampires exist, I never would have believed it before you came along, and now a gross woman that looked like she’s been dead a while wanted to eat me.” She shuddered violently.

  Nikoli ran his fingers through his hair as he struggled to gather his thoughts. “That was Firenze, well, her body anyways.”

  “Her throat was ripped out. You mentioned before that her daughter was a vampire…do you think she-”

  “No,” Nikoli insisted. “Their daughter would never harm them. I suspect the Myrmidons killed them both. They knew we had been here and wanted to punish them for helping us.”

  “But why would they invite the Myrmidons into their cottage? Unless it was someone they knew, someone they trusted?”

  Nikoli nodded in agreement. “I think you’re right. Someone they knew came to the door after dark, and they invited them in automatically to be polite. The Myrmidon must have attacked Firenze in the kitchen when Akos went upstairs for something, then he was trapped up there.” Nikoli’s eyes widened in fear. “Come on!” he grabbed Claire’s hand and hurriedly pulled her back to the cottage, grabbing the axe off the ground.

  “Nikoli, what-”

  “Quiet, lovely, this isn’t done yet,” he told her as they approached the open cottage door. “Stay right behind me now.”

  Claire did as she was told, staying right behind Nikoli as he did a sweep of the first floor before heading upstairs. Both bedroom doors were closed and the bathroom door open as he had left them.

  Nikoli cursed under his breath. “Don’t move, stay right here,” he instructed Claire. She complied as he opened first one bedroom door, then the other. He lowered the axe with a look of frustration.

  “What?” Claire asked. “What is it?”

  “Akos,” Nikoli explained. “I found him dead in the bathroom and I moved his body so I could cover it up.”

  “So where is it now?” Claire asked nervously.

  Nikoli sighed. “Up and moving, like his dead wife.”

  “How could two corpses just get back up again? We’re talking zombies here, aren’t we?” Claire dreaded the answer to her question. Nikoli remained silent, lost in thought. Claire waited patiently for an answer. None came.

  “Come on.” Nikoli grabbed her hand again and led her back outside, the axe still in his free hand. “We need to find Akos- he couldn’t have gotten too far.”

  Claire followed him silently. She was terrified but she trusted Nikoli completely. She knew he would explain what was going on when he could.

  He moved with great urgency, around one side of the house to the other. When he found nothing he stood on the edge of the fields, listening intently for something Claire could not hear. Unsatisfied he led Claire to the edge of the forest and again stood silently, listening intently for something he did not hear. He grew visibly agitated.

  Claire could stand it no longer. “Nikoli, what are you doing? What’s going on here?”

 
Nikoli grimaced. “Akos, Firenze…I touched them both after they were dead.” Claire regarded him blankly, waiting for more. “Don’t you see? Me, I’m back from the dead because of Circe the necromancer. I’m me again, but I’m not…right. If I touch the dead they come back to life.”

  Claire gasped. It made sense now. Her back-from-the-dead boyfriend was now raising the dead accidentally.

  Nikoli groaned. “Yes, they’re zombies, Claire. Flesh seeking zombies. Any of the living they bite will turn as well. That’s why Firenze was after you but ignored me- vampires don’t attract zombies as humans do, she didn’t want me.” He studied the forest again. “Akos, or what used to be Akos, is gone now. I don’t hear him, I don’t smell him. He must have gotten out of the house while we were dealing with Firenze.” He ran his hands down his face in frustration. “He’s a zombie on the loose, Claire, and if we don’t find and destroy him, he’ll infect others.”

  Nikoli turned up to the stars shining in the inky sky. “Circe,” he screamed, “what have you done?!”

  About the Author

  T.R.Raven lives in a quiet town in southern NH with her family, a herd of pugs, and two uppity cats. Her hobbies include watching bad TV court shows and fretting over the inevitable zombie apocalypse. If you asked her local librarian what kind of stuff she tends to check out for her personal reading you’d probably hear “Too many zombie books, lots of paranormal novels, and a smathering of financial books here and there.”

  Please feel free to contact the author at TRRaven@hotmail.com. Find her on Facebook as TR Raven or on her website, www.trraven.webs.com.

  Watch for The Guardian’s Curse (The Guardian Trilogy, Book 2), on February 8, 2013!