A Dark Guardian

by Donna Grant

  “Was Mina at the Druid ruins as she claimed or was it she who attacked Theresa?”

  “What does your instinct tell you?”

  Hugh paced the small tower. “It tells me that it is Mina who controls the creature.”

  “But, you don’t want to consider that. Is it so hard to go out on a limb and believe her?”

  Hugh spun around and looked into the glowing blue eyes of Aimery. “Aye, it is hard to believe. After everything I have done and witnessed, all I have is my instinct to rely on.”

  “That does put you in a bit of a fix,” Aimery said nonchalantly.

  “Why won’t you just tell me what I want to know?”

  “Because I have been ordered not to.”

  Hugh laughed. “And who ordered that?”

  “Me.”

  Only once had Hugh seen the exquisite Fae Queen, Rufina. He had been stunned speechless by her splendor, and even now he couldn’t string two words together. She had the same glowing blue eyes of Aimery, a trait of a Fae, as well as the long golden blonde hair, but it was the simple perfection of everything about her that made her so beautiful it hurt to look at her.

  “’Tis no wonder you don’t allow mortals to see you,” Hugh grumbled and turned away from her so he could think again.

  She laughed, the sound twinkling like little bells. “You always were a flatterer.”

  He rolled his eyes and glanced at Aimery. “Is she always like this?”

  Aimery shook his head. “She’s in a good mood, my friend. If I were you, I would take advantage of that.”

  Hugh sighed and gathered his thoughts before he faced Rufina. “Can you tell me if Mina is speaking true or not?”

  “Let me ask you something,” Rufina said and threw her long, loose hair over her shoulder. “Do you care for this mortal?”

  “If I didn’t care about them I wouldn’t risk my life to kill the creatures terrorizing them.”

  She smiled, her full, red lips turning up seductively. “I know what happened A DARK GUARDIAN

  Donna Grant

  84

  between you and Mina in the tunnel. You wanted her, Hugh. ‘Tis been many years since you have found a woman who stirs you as Mina does.”

  “Enough,” he said and ran his hand down his face. “I hate that you cannot answer a simple question.”

  “You didn’t answer mine either,” she pointed out.

  “That doesn’t give you the right to pry into my private life.”

  She raised a perfectly arched blonde brow. “You are a warrior for the Fae. You and your men are the only things that keep this world living. I pry into your lives to make sure everything is as it should be.”

  “Just tell me if Mina is lying,” he said, his voice resigned.

  “Nay. That you will have to determine on your own.”

  He had just about had enough. He turned to Aimery. “Then tell me why my arrows or sword does not kill the creature.”

  “What?” Aimery and Rufina asked together.

  Hugh laughed and raised his eyes to the ceiling. “I thought you were all knowing.”

  “Don’t press your luck,” Aimery warned as he pushed off from the wall. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier about the creature?”

  Hugh shrugged. “Like I said, I thought you knew.”

  Long, slender fingers with each nail the same length and shape, wrapped around his wrist. “Do you have any idea how many people roam the realms?” Rufina asked.

  “Do you even know how many realms there are?”

  “Nay.”

  “If we opened our minds to everyone out there we would go insane. It isn’t unless we focus that we know what is going on at any given time.”

  He narrowed his eyes as he saw the concern pulling at Rufina’s face. He slid a glance to Aimery and saw him pacing. “The fact this creature cannot be killed is something you haven’t encountered before?”

  Rufina shook her head and walked to the tower door. “We knew that the creatures were becoming stronger and lasting longer with each of their deaths, but I had hoped this day was farther off.”

  This isn’t what he needed to hear right now. “What day are you speaking of?”

  She turned her shimmering blue eyes to him. “I think ‘tis time we told you what you’ve been fighting for.”

  * * * *

  Hugh walked into Mina’s chamber and found Gabriel alone. “How is she?”

  “She woke briefly, but I gave her another draught to keep away the pain while she heals. She will sleep the rest of tonight.”

  “Good. Did she say how she was attacked?”

  “She doesn’t remember anything.”

  Hugh nodded. “Where’s Cole?”

  “Following

  Theresa.”

  Just then the door to Mina’s chamber flew open, and Theresa stood there with her eyes wide. “I was just in the dungeon. Why isn’t Mina there? Have you allowed her to A DARK GUARDIAN

  Donna Grant

  85

  escape?”

  Hugh took a step toward Theresa as both Cole and Bernard walked up behind her.

  “We haven’t allowed her to escape.”

  Theresa’s eyes moved beyond him to Gabriel and the bed. Her already wide eyes nearly bulged with indignation. “How dare you,” she screamed and ran toward the bed.

  Hugh caught her in time and held her as she clawed and kicked him.

  “She tried to kill me,” Theresa shrieked. “She wants me dead, and she’ll stop at nothing until she succeeds.”

  “She was attacked herself,” Hugh said.

  Theresa continued to fight and shriek, and it took both Cole and Bernard helping Hugh to subdue her.

  Hugh took her face in his hands. “Enough!”

  “I don’t understand why you can’t see it,” she said as the tears spilled from her eyes.

  Hugh straightened and sighed. “Bernard, I think it might be best if you took your sister to her chamber. Did you get everyone inside their homes?”

  “Aye,” Bernard answered as he dragged Theresa to the door.

  Once Bernard and Theresa left, Hugh turned to his men. “We need to talk. I had a visit from Aimery and Rufina today.”

  “The queen?” Cole asked, stunned. “I only met her once, when I agreed to become a warrior.”

  “Me as well,” Gabriel added.

  Hugh found himself staring at Mina as he recalled his conversation with the Fae.

  “They have no idea how to kill the creature.”

  “Well, that isn’t good,” Cole said and sat in the chair beside Mina’s bed.

  Gabriel rubbed his chin. “They didn’t give you any hints either?”

  “Nay. In fact, they were both very worried. It seems that they knew this day would come, but they hadn’t expected it this soon.”

  Cole blew air out of his mouth. “What does that mean for us?”

  “It means it is up to us to kill this creature.”

  “If it can be killed,” Gabriel said.

  Cole studied Hugh for a moment. “There is more.”

  Hugh nodded. “’Tis the beginning of the end of this realm.”

  A DARK GUARDIAN

  Donna Grant

  86

  A DARK GUARDIAN

  Donna Grant

  87

  Chapter Fifteen

  “The beginning of the end?” Cole repeated. “What is Rufina referring to?”

  “It seems,” Hugh said, “that the creatures are becoming immune to anything we have to kill them. The first sign was how they leaped from this time to nine hundreds years from now.”

  “So, even if we manage to kill this one, the creatures will continue to evolve,”

  Gabriel said.

  “Exactly. Whoever is releasing them is growing in power and giving that power to the creatures.”

  Cole snorted. “And the Fae can’t help us?”

  “Nay.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” Gabriel asked.

  “They
aren’t sure what needs to be done. The realm of earth has always been open to them because they once roamed here, but the other realms are as closed to them as the Fae world is to us.”

  “There has to be some way to stop these creatures and the people controlling them,” Cole stated.

  “There is. We just have to find it.”

  Gabriel sighed. “Aimery told us long ago that it was someone from another realm using people from earth to bring forth the creatures.”

  Hugh stared at Gabriel for a moment as he recalled that conversation with Aimery. “And I bet that if we find that blue stone Mina had we could begin to solve this puzzle.”

  “Mina said she didn’t have the stone,” Gabriel said.

  “It has to be in this castle somewhere, especially if she brought it here and it disappeared.”

  He turned to Cole to find him staring at the bed. He followed Cole’s gaze to find Mina staring at him. “You are supposed to be sleeping,” he said.

  “How can I sleep with Theresa yelling?”

  He walked to the bed and reached for her hand, but she flinched away from him.

  The pain that caused bothered him more than he cared to admit or show.

  “Tell me where you put the stone when you first brought it to the castle?”

  She laughed dryly. “Why? You won’t believe anything I say anyway. I’ve told you I don’t have the stone, that I don’t know who put it in my chamber after it had been stolen.”

  “If you truly are innocent, then you won’t let what is between us stand in the way of seeing you proven right.”

  She tried to sit up and cried out when she put her arm down. Hugh reached to help her, but she jerked away from him so hard that she fell off the bed. He stared A DARK GUARDIAN

  Donna Grant

  88

  helpless as Gabriel rushed to her side and helped her back onto the bed.

  “Mina?” he said and peered closely at her.

  She turned her blue-green eyes to him. Where they had been filled with laughter and arousal only hours before, they were lifeless now. There were many things he was ashamed of and things he wished he could take back, but what he wanted most of all was the light back in her eyes.

  “All my life I have had to deal with the tongue lashings from Bernard and Theresa and being ignored by my parents and the people of this castle,” she said. “Then you came. You give me my brother back and made me see things I had missed before.”

  She stopped and looked down at her hands. “Then you gave me the one thing I have always wanted.” She raised her gaze to him. “You paid attention to me. You gave me hope. Then promptly took it away. I see no reason to help you when I cannot count on your assistance.”

  He took a step back as the impact of her words hit him. “I did not take away your hope.”

  “Forgive me,” she said and laughed. “I foolishly thought that if anyone would have seen my innocence it would be you. I foolishly thought that after our night in the tunnel that you had seen my innocence. I hadn’t realized that you could use people like you do.”

  His throat tightened as if a noose was around him. “I want to believe you are innocent, but you won’t give me proof that you are.”

  Her eyes flared with anger. “You want proof? The day Theresa was attacked I was in the ruins speaking with Aimery.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

  She turned away from him and slid down under the covers. “It is too much to want someone to believe me?”

  * * * *

  Mina flexed her hand and bit her lip from grimacing.

  “Don’t rush it,” Gabriel said. “Let’s take a look at it, shall we?”

  She held out her arm as he sat on the bed and unwrapped the bandage. The skin around the wounds was tinged with green, but it was now pink as well.

  “They are healing nicely.”

  “Aye,” she said and gazed at the three slashes that went the length of her forearm.

  She raised her eyes when she felt Gabriel staring at her.

  “Things could be worse than having scars,” he said.

  “You mean like having people think you are controlling a creature that is killing them?”

  He sighed as he rubbed more cream on her wounds. “I don’t know what happened between you and Hugh, but I can tell you in all the years we have been hunting these evil, vile monsters, he has never been wrong about who is controlling them.”

  “I’ve

  already

  heard

  that bit of news.”

  “There is a first time for everything though.” He smiled and began to put on a new bandage.

  She returned his smile. “Hugh doesn’t believe me about Aimery does he?”

  A DARK GUARDIAN

  Donna Grant

  89

  Gabriel shrugged. “I haven’t spoken to him about it since he left this morning.”

  She glanced to her window and saw the sun lowering. “I can’t believe I slept all day. Did the creature come last night?”

  “Aye,” Gabriel murmured. “Despite the villagers being inside their homes, the creature was still able to get to them.”

  “How many did it kill?”

  “Nearly a dozen and destroyed several cottages as well as some cattle and sheep.”

  She leaned her head back and sighed. “It doesn’t matter what we do, it always manages to kill.”

  “You won’t be leaving this chamber tonight,” Gabriel warned.

  “I know. I can’t hold the dagger, and I’m too weak to run. What is the plan for tonight?”

  Again Gabriel shrugged.

  She chuckled. “So, Hugh asked that you not tell me.”

  “Something like that.”

  The door to her chamber opened, and Hugh filled the space. “Gabriel, I need to speak with Mina alone.”

  Without a backward glance at her, Gabriel left the chamber. She wanted to call him back, but she knew he wouldn’t return. Instead, she took a deep breath and looked to Hugh.

  “Why didn’t you tell me of Aimery before?”

  “I already told you. I wanted you to believe me because I asked you to.”

  “I don’t do things that way. I have to have proof.”

  “Then ask Aimery. He’ll tell you.”

  The silence followed that made her apprehension grow.

  “I

  have.”

  She swallowed nervously. “And what did he say?”

  “He won’t deny or agree to being with you.”

  She began to laugh hysterically. “This is just wonderful. I finally tell you the one thing that can prove where I was, and then Aimery won’t confirm it. So, where does that leave us?”

  “I don’t know,” he said and sighed heavily.

  She looked at him then and saw the lines of worry around his eyes. “Whether you believe it or not, I would tell you where I put the blue stone if I had it.”

  “But you don’t?” he asked.

  “Nay.”

  He looked away from her and up at the ceiling as though contemplating a great strategy. “I lost track of how many years I’ve led these men after these creatures. I’ve killed so many of the evil things that I lost count.” He lowered his head and walked to the bed.

  “I don’t even know how old I am anymore. I have relied on my instincts as the only known source as we traveled through different times. Without trusting those instincts I am lost.”

  She lowered her eyes, not able to hold his questioning gaze. “Exactly were where A DARK GUARDIAN

  Donna Grant

  90

  you born?”

  “South England not far from London in the year 1011.”

  She digested his words and the surprise that followed them. Then she raised her gaze to him. “If I were another person I would say that you are daft. But I believe you.

  Why can’t you believe me?”

  “Because the facts point to you.”

  She sighed. “How can I prove m
y innocence?”

  “Help me find the blue stone and the person controlling the creature.”

  “What if I am that person? Aren’t you afraid I’ll attack you?”

  He snorted. “You could try, but believe me when I tell say that you won’t be able to.”

  She didn’t know how to answer him.