“She missed you,” Jo said.
“I know. I was gone.” I was taken. I came back and everything had changed. I’m the reason Krieger is acting like a monster and everyone is so afraid. I’m the cause of all this bloodshed and heartache. I’m to blame.
“She understood. We’d talk for hours about what you were doing and seeing in Italy. She was so excited about the wedding.”
“I’m so sorry. For being an awful friend. I should have been there for Martha. She should have been living at Stoke instead of by herself.”
“It’s not your fault.” Jo took her hand. “She’ll get better and we can fuss over her and give her the best Christmas ever.”
A bright red light lit up on the board above Martha’s head. Then a long high pitched beeping noise started. “You need to leave.” The nurse jumped up from her seat and hit a button on the wall behind the bed, making the noise stop. “Go.”
Jo pulled her out of the room. They watched helplessly through the window into the room until the nurse pulled the drape so they couldn’t see inside. A doctor followed by three nurses ran down the hall and rushed inside.
I won’t let you die. Lily walked up to Lucien. “You could save her.”
He pulled her closer to him and spoke softly, “No, my little mermaid, I cannot.”
“Yes.” Lily grabbed his arm, trying to pull him towards the room. “Your blood. Just a drop or two and she’ll be fine. Do it for me,” she pleaded.
“Blood? What’s she talking about?” Jo looked from Lily to Liam.
“Haven’t you told her?” Lily asked, and instantly wanted to strangle herself. Of course she didn’t know.
“You need to get control of yourself.” Lucien put a hand on each of her shoulders and leaned down so he could speak into her ear.
She tossed her head. “I need you to save Martha,” she said two levels too loud. “Why won’t you do that?”
Around them she could see the humans watching, their eyes anxious and afraid like steers going to slaughter, unable to look away as the drama unfolded between the small woman and the fierce looking man. “Please.” She placed her hands on either side of Lucien’s face and whispered, “I know you love me. I’ll leave Krieger for you. He’d let me, if I told him I didn’t love him anymore.” It felt like her insides were being shredded by glass to say it, but she did, she was desperate to save Martha. “Do this for me. Save her for me.”
The doctor was standing in the doorway, his face fixed. “We did everything we could,” he said, detached. “The damage to her heart was too extensive. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“No, no, no!” Lily started towards the doctor until Lucien pulled her into an embrace.
“You could have saved her.” Lily’s hands dropped to her sides, lifeless. “I should have told her, told her that I loved her.”
“She knew.” Lucien lifted her in his arms and carried her into a waiting room two doors down. “Get out,” he snarled at the people inside, who didn’t argue and scurried away.
“Lily.” He sat with her pressed to his chest. “My blood would not have saved her.”
Jo came in with Liam following at her heels. “What were you ranting about?” she asked.
“Nothing. She’s gone now. It doesn’t matter.”
Jo grabbed a tissue from the box on the table in the room and blew her nose. “I think she knew.”
Lily looked up. “Knew what?”
“Knew she wasn’t going to make it,” Jo said between sobs. “When I found her she said to tell you she loved you. And she told me the same. She kept telling me her mother was calling her home.”
Krieger swept into the room too fast, too ferociously. Jo’s face showed horror and grief as she stared at him.
“What you said.” Jo backed away from Liam. “You are all different, aren’t you?”
“Jo, please, baby, now is not the time.” Liam, clearly worried about the king’s presence, pulled her into his arms.
“You need to tell her,” Lily said to Liam. Her voice sounded lifeless and not like her own. She stood up from Lucien’s lap and smoothed down the front of her dress with her hands. “I’ll take care of the paperwork.” She didn’t look at Krieger. She kept her head down and walked back to the room where Martha lay.
The nurses were unhooking Martha from the machines and quietly left the room as she entered. She sat down on the bed and pulled the blanket off Martha’s face. It was like a trapdoor had opened up and taken her away. One moment she was living, the next dead, and now all that was left was the body.
“I’m sorry you were alone. You should have been at Stoke, with me.” Lily held the hand that had nurtured her. “I’ll take care of Jo. I know you’d want that. You needn’t worry about us anymore.” Martha’s hand wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t warm either. “I love you.”
She felt a breeze move through her hair and looked up to see Krieger standing by the doorway. “Tell me you didn’t trance Jo.”
“No. Liam is responsible for her.”
“Will you punish him?”
“No.”
“Was it worth it?”
Krieger said nothing.
“The reason you couldn’t be bothered to come here with me.”
“The Brotherhood is no more.”
Well, that was something. “Martha wanted to be cremated. She always said burying her old bones would be a waste.” Lily brushed the hair back from Martha’s face. “I’ll contact Reverend Shay to handle the ceremony.”
Krieger moved behind her in between blinks and placed his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry I was harsh with you.”
“Would you have saved her if you’d been here?” It had to be asked.
“No, her heart was too damaged. It would not have worked as you think.”
Lily nodded. “We can’t go on like this. I need time alone. Time to think.” She waited for him to argue, but he only squeezed her shoulder gently. “I know to you I was gone for many months, but for me it was only a few hours. I can’t reconcile the man I left and the man you are now.” How callous she sounded.
“I am the same. It is the lack of the bond.”
That was a part of it, but not all. The time she’d spent with her father had altered her as well. But she didn’t have the will to argue with him.
He leaned down and kissed her shoulder. She needed to be comforted by the man she loved, and no matter what he’d done, or what she must do, she loved Krieger. “I’m sitting here thinking she’ll wake up. That this is all a bad dream.” She let him hold her while she cried. Would the tears ever stop? “I meant what I said; I need some time, alone, away from you and the mountain.”
“No.”
“Why wasn’t the Ancient watching over her?” Would he have given Martha his blood?
“The sun,” he responded, and gently traced with his finger around the iron bracelet. “He’s in California. It seems more Ancients are awakening.”
So they heard the call as she did? It wasn’t a voice, or any type of noise, but a feeling deep in her gut that something wanted her close. She’d felt it the night she’d returned to Krieger. “Let me go.” She looked up at him. “Alone. Without Lucien, or Liam, or the vantors. Just for a few weeks. To clear my head. To ease the tension of your subjects.” Who wish I were gone. “You said yourself that the Brotherhood is no more.”
He didn’t immediately respond. She bit her lip to keep herself from pressing him further.
“I have a house in Big Sur.”
And there it was. Even in death Martha had helped her. Lily would leave the man she loved in order to protect him.
“Two weeks,” he continued. “That is all the time I’ll give you. The Ancient can stay with you, along with guards.”
She touched the golden book hidden away in her pocket. “Promise me you won’t hurt her?” She looked at him. “Jo, you won’t do anything to her.”
He started to say something then stopped. “If she wishes it, I’ll make sure she is welcom
ed into the community.”
“Thank you. Now please go.” Before I lose my nerve and wrap my arms around you and never let you go. “I need to be alone with Martha.”
“My love, she is gone.”
My love, how will I live without you? She choked back the tears. “I know, but I need a little more time with her.”
When she looked up he was back beside the door with his hand placed over his heart. She’d break down and run into his arms if she didn’t look away. She’d hurt him the most, but she was too raw with pain to care and continued her silent vigil. After a while, Jo came and sat with her while they waited for the funeral home to come for Martha’s body.
Three days later, Jo and Lily sprinkled Martha’s ashes into the stream that ran through Waverly. Martha used to tell them stories about the little stream that flowed into the Shenandoah River and how the waters would make their way out into the mighty Atlantic Ocean. That Shenandoah was an Indian word meaning beautiful daughters of the stars. In Martha’s will she’d specified exactly where along the stream she wanted them to say their goodbyes. She’d walked along these shores with the love of her life, George, who’d been killed in war. How many had said their goodbyes here? Walking in the glory of this place, perhaps for the last time, with the ones they loved? Seeing them off to the Civil War, the American Revolutionary War, the Indian wars. Did Martha and George walk beside them now? Were their spirits together in death as they’d not been in life?
“Do you believe in ghosts?” Jo asked.
“Maybe.”
“It feels like anything is possible now with everything I know.”
More than you know. “I ordered a bench,” Lily said.” I thought we could place it on the bank, maybe plant some flowers around it, so we could sit with her. A marker of sorts.”
“Martha would like that.” Jo knelt down and picked up a grayish stone smoothed from years of being tumbled and submerged in the water. “I wish Reverend Shay had been here to say a few words.”
“A family emergency or something,” Lily explained.
They walked along the shore following Martha’s ashes until they came to a rocky bend where the ashes dispersed. In no time at all the last remnants of Martha were gone.
“Should we have saved some for the mantle or something?”
Lily had been focusing on the water. “What?”
“Martha,” Jo prompted.
“Oh, no, she wouldn’t have liked that, being trapped. This is better. Now she’s free.”
Reluctantly, they walked away from the water and down the path to what had been Martha’s home.
“How long will you be away?” Jo asked.
“Just two weeks.” Lily wrapped her coat tighter around her.
“I never understood why Liam wouldn’t make love to me. I knew he loved me, but he always pushed me away, saying there were things about him I needed to know first.”
“He’s a decent man.” Lily spoke the truth.
“I finally meet a great guy and he turns out to be a werewolf.”
“Nobody’s perfect.”
Jo laughed. “He’s explaining everything to me. It’s going to take some time for things to sink in.”
“It will.” The path opened up and Martha’s home was ahead with Liam and Krieger standing on her porch.
“I don’t want you to go.”
“It’s something I need to do.” I can’t endanger the ones I love any longer.
“Did he keep you from telling us?” Jo asked.
“No, it wasn’t his fault, it was mine.” She remembered telling Krieger how she wanted to know ‘the truth of things’. Not realizing what a hard mistress the truth could be when trying to protect the ones you love.
“You didn’t trust us?”
She took Jo’s hand, squeezing it hard. “I do. I thought I was doing the right thing by shielding the two of you from this world.”
Wasn’t Krieger in his own way trying to do the exact same thing, shield her from danger? Her heart seized with love for him. For the man who’d stood at the bottom of her stairs and taken her hand, and given her his love and protection.
“Promise me you’ll be back before Christmas.” Jo’s eyes welled up with tears.
“Yes, I promise. Now go on, Liam looks lonely up there.”
“Yeah, he’s lost without me.”
She watched Jo run into Liam’s embrace. I should do the same. I’m hurting him. True to his word, Krieger kept his distance, only offering support and giving her the space she’d requested. He placed his hand over his heart and her resolve almost crumbled, she had to reach out her hand to the vehicle to steady herself. She covered her own heart and smiled at him before turning and sliding into the backseat of the Suburban.
“I’m ready,” she said to her driver.
Anson
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” Audrey was twisting her long red hair into a high ponytail.
The last thing Anson wanted to do today was go on a movie set with Audrey. He’d gone with her once and only lasted two hours before he begged off. No, it was not something he would do again. He much preferred to stay in their rented house in Big Sur while she worked on the vampire movie.
“You’re going to read, aren’t you?” She shifted her weight onto one hip.
“I might go for a swim, too.” He’d become fascinated with Shakespeare and bought all his works. He planned on reading The Winter’s Tale later in the day.
Audrey became serious. “Don’t swim here. The tides are strong, it’s dangerous.”
That she, a fragile little human, was so worried about his wellbeing touched his heart. “I promise to be waiting for you when you walk back through that door.”
She pouted but came over and gave him a leisurely kiss until the doorbell rang, and she reluctantly pulled away.
“That will be my driver.” She grabbed her script off the table. “I’ll be back around six.”
He walked her to the door and watched her wave goodbye through the back window of the car.
Less than five minutes later he flew off the balcony and dove into the wild waters of the Pacific Ocean, swimming until he could just make out the coastline. When he tired, he floated on his back letting the ocean current take him. He’d been ignoring the pangs of hunger for two days. It would not do; he needed to feed. Reaching out with his sense of smell, he searched for the tastiest human.
There was the faintest bit of a scent, fragile like a spider’s web rent apart by a strong breeze. He lost it and swam, trying to catch it again. He despaired, the winds were too high today. Perhaps she’d been on a ship or in a car or was a continent away and a rogue wind had brought her scent here just to tempt him.
Maybe he was hallucinating, for what he’d sensed was the delicate scent of the Lynea. Had he finally found her? Looking up into the sky he saw the sun had passed its peak. Frustrated and angry, he dove down to the depths and swam along the floor of the Pacific Ocean, only coming back to the surface when his limbs were numb with fatigue.
When he resurfaced the homes hugging the cliffs were sparkling with electric lights. Audrey would be worried that he wasn’t home, but he couldn’t leave, not yet, not until he reached out once more to see if he could find the delicious ghost scent. This time it assailed his senses, heady and ripe and full of life. A mature Lynea was near. He rose out of the water, pursuing the trail to a mammoth home secreted into the side of a cliff. And there, after so long, he, the last guardian, had found her. For standing on the balcony glowing under the moonlit sky with the sea air whipping her hair about her face and pressing her gown against her body was the goddess he’d despaired of never finding, his Lynea.
Acknowledgements
To George, my muse, my friend, my husband, the love of my life
To Trevor, so proud of you
To my parents, you nurtured my love of reading and inquisitive mind
To Candice, editor extraordinaire, thank you for all the hard work you’ve put
into my stories
To Giblet, who takes me on the best walks and never tires of listening to my story conundrums
To my readers
Rebecca Trogner
Rebecca Trogner lives in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia, and frequently crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains that were the inspiration for Krieger’s home. She lives with her husband and stepson, and ‘the best little doggie in the world’, a rescue dog named Giblet. To find out more about the author visit www.rebeccatrogner.com.
Other books by Rebecca G. Trogner:
The Last Keeper’s Daughter
Table of Contents
Title page
Lily
Krieger
The Guardian Rises
Merlin
Lily
Lucien
Krieger
Merlin
To be named Anson
Krieger
Hunter
Lily
Merlin
Anson
Lucien
Hunter
Krieger
Merlin
Hunter
Lily
Hunter
Lily
Merlin
Anson
Krieger
Hunter / Merlin
Lily
Hunter
Krieger
Hunter / Merlin
Lily
Hunter
Lucien
Anson
Lily
Anson
Acknowledgements
Rebecca Trogner
Other books by Rebecca G. Trogner:
The Last Guardian Rises (The Last Keeper's Daughter) Page 31