The Guardian (2 page)

“Good, now back up to me and put your hands behind
your back.”

Cassie shook her head. No, there was no way she was
going to set herself up that way.

“Do it now.” The man’s voice
deepened,
and his eyes grew even darker.

“Okay.” Despite this man’s eerie ability to make her
do as he willed, she could hear her rapid pulse pounding in her ears. She felt
her hands trembling violently as she put them behind her back involuntarily.
She looked over at Marcy, who was looking at her with pure terror in her
eyes.
  

From the corner of her eye she saw him grab the twine
off of the counter. He wrapped it around her wrists tying her hands firmly
behind her back. “Now be a good girl and do not run off. I have a treat for
you, if you behave and do as I say.” His lips were right up against her ear.
“There will be some pain at first, but if you are a very good girl, I will ease
your suffering with pleasure.”

Shock had Cassie frozen in her spot. Her terror
increased, making it hard for her to think clearly. The urge to run was
becoming uncontrollable. She felt her muscles twitching with the urge to flee, but
however, she remained standing where he had commanded her to stay.

“Hello again,” the man said to Marcy. “I didn’t think
I would ever see you after last time. You have a lot of nerve coming back here.
Did you think I wouldn’t make good on my promise?”

Marcy stared back at him in fear and confusion. “I
have never seen you before.”

“Oh, don’t play innocent with me, bitch, especially
after all the harm you caused us.”

Cassie watched while wondering what he was talking
about. Marcy knew him? She tried to back away slowly. Cassie noticed that with
his attention focused on Marcy, she was regaining her ability to move.

He turned his black gaze on her. “I am going to deal
with your friend here,
then
I will be back for you. I
meant it when I said to be a good girl and not run away.
 
While I am not in the mood to chase my prey
this evening I want to do it later, after I deal with her.” His looked her up
and down, then licked his lips. “Yes, I am in the mood to chase my prey
tonight.”

Cassie felt sick with revulsion at his implication.
Still she had a desire to obey him. What was wrong with her? She should be
saving Marcy, who seemed just as paralyzed as she was, or running for help.
Instead she stood there, like a moron.

“Good, now your friend and I are going to take care of
some unfinished business. There is no one around here to help you.” The man
pulled Marcy into the living room.

“Please let me go, I don’t know you. I have never seen
you before.” Marcy begged while struggling to get free.

She watched the man's shadow crouch over Marcy. “Liar,”
he whispered as he wrapped his hands around her throat. “I told you I would
kill you if you ever came back here again. Did you think I was not serious,
bitch?”

As Cassie watched Marcy trying in vain to fight him
off, horror filled Cassie and her breathing came in sobs. How could she just
stand here?
 
She looked around the
kitchen for anything to cut the twine free and saw a knife on the floor. She
bent her knees to lower herself to the floor, and fell over, landing on her
hip. She clenched her teeth to keep herself quiet. She tried to get the knife,
but it was out of reach. She scooted over closer to it and picked it up, only
to drop it. She managed to pick it up again but frustratingly dropped it once
more. She was getting nowhere with the knife. She could not sit here and watch
without helping Marcy. Maybe he was lying and there were some other campers out
there. Maybe they were not far. If she ran and found them, perhaps she could
get some help before it was too late for Marcy, as she would surely be killed
if she just stood there doing nothing. Now that the
wolfman's
attention was elsewhere, Cassie found she could think clearly, and knew she had
to escape.

Marcy drew a deep, rasping breath, and let out a
scream. “Run Cassie. Run!”

Even if she could move, how could she run out on her
like this? It was the coward’s way out.

“Cassie, run!” Marcy screamed again.

She heard a loud slap. “Shut up, bitch. Cassie, I told
you to stay there. Be a good girl and listen to me.”

Cassie felt the urge to obey again. What the hell was
wrong with her? That man was going to kill her best friend, and she was just
standing here, doing nothing.

“Run, Cassie.
Oh God.”

“Your God won’t save you.” The man laughed.

Cassie shook her head feeling the urge to obey him
lifting. She knew she had to make a decision. Her hands were tied behind her
back so she couldn’t attack him. Her only option was to run. If he killed
Marcy, then staying here would not save her. The only chance she had was
running. The cold truth was he would kill them both. They had seen him, and he
had the look of a killer in his eyes. Cassie made up her mind in the same
instant that Marcy again screamed for her to run. She ran out of the kitchen
door into the black darkness of the woods. She fought the urge to go back and
sit down, but the further away she fled the less she felt compelled to go back,
so she ran faster. Her legs were still numb and it felt like she was hardly
moving, and having her hands tied behind her back made it even harder to run.
She kept tripping over unseen branches in the woods. “Help me!” she screamed.
“Help!
Help!”

She heard a piercing howl of animal rage come from
their cabin, but no screaming from Marcy.

“Oh my God.”
She cried. Part
of her knew Marcy was gone. Maybe her running had distracted him and he left
Marcy alive to chase her.

Fighting the urge to scream, she ran. She could hear
him following her, but she didn’t want him to hear exactly where she was. She
hoped she would come across another camper soon, and that she was heading
towards the road and, not away from it.

She heard tree branches breaking and panting behind
her. She heard the wolf howling. It was so close now. She knew he was gaining
on her. She let out a frightened whimper. She gave up the trying to hide
because he knew exactly where she was.

“Help me. Someone, please help,” she screamed as
loudly as she could. If there were any neighbors around, she hoped they would
hear her cries.

She tripped once more over a tree root and landed hard
knocking the wind out of her as she hit her face hard on a rock. Stars flashed
in her vision from the impact. Trying to shake off the stunning hit she rolled
to her knees to get back up on her feet, and something solid hit her. It
snarled viciously as its massive weight covered her. She could not take a deep
enough
breath
to scream. It snarled again. This was it.
She was going to die now. She closed her eyes and waited for the end to come.

Chapter
Two

Michael Sinclair sniffed the chilled mountain air.
Even in the middle of August the night air had
a crispness
to it. He had not come out on patrol with his protectors in a while. It was
good to get out and hunt, as well as patrol. The wolves in the patrol had far
better sense of smell than he did, but his sense of hearing was superior to
theirs.

The mountain was far too quiet tonight though. Most of
the wildlife around here was used to their scent and didn’t hide, but something
had spooked them. Perhaps there were humans in the woods. They would need to
keep watch. Sometimes it was innocent humans, sometimes more.

One of the gifts
Ilithyia
gave him in exchange for being a guardian to shifters was the ability to
understand animals’ emotions. He could not hear their thoughts, but he sensed
their feelings. Right now they were frightened and hiding. It could be illegal
poachers hunting, and if that were the case Michael would hand them over to the
shifter territory’s protector, Cole. He not only enforced shifter law, but
human as well.
 

Screams just barely audible made his senses come alive
even more. He stopped concentrating so he could make out the direction and
distance better. He heard it again. It was a female screaming for help, and she
sounded like she was terrified. Michael picked up his handheld radio.
 
“Cole, I am on the west side of the highway.
There is trouble here.” Michael ran towards the screaming, not sure if the
predator was human or shifter.

****

Cassie was flipped in the air, landing on her back.
She braced for terrible pain to shoot up her arms. It didn’t hurt like she
thought it would, but the wolf was right on top of her. The wolf stared into
her eyes while its body pinned her.
 
She
saw the long, pointed fangs as it hovered over her. She screamed, unable to
form a coherent thought knowing it was about to kill her. No matter how hard
she tried, though, she could not look away from the black eyes, or move to save
herself. With a growl it sank its teeth into her shoulder. She let out an
agonized cry of pain.
It hurts,
she
thought as she continued to cry. The wolf did not shake its head like an animal
did when it was killing its prey, but his teeth stayed embedded deep in her
flesh. It was burning her skin where the teeth were embedded. She tried to move
so she could try to buck the wolf off of her. Even though it had broken eye
contact with her, the animal pinned her in place while keeping his teeth sunk
into her shoulder.
 
Why is he just sitting on me like this?
She tried bucking her hips
to get the wolf off of her, but it only caused more pain into the bite wound.

Finally the wolf let go for a moment. Cassie used the
freedom to turn to roll away, but the wolf used one of its massive paws to stop
her once she was on her side. It bit down again on the side of her stomach,
holding her pinned while its teeth remained sunk into her flesh. She screamed
until her voice broke. It burned not only where he bit her, but it was spreading
throughout her body as well. The agony made it hard to think.
I wish it would just kill me.
It did not
even seem to be mauling her as much as sinking his teeth into her body.

A shrieking roar rang out in the night air. The wolf
jumped, landing next to her with its ears pricked forward. Another snarl that
sounded like a large cat rang out. Cassie let out a relieved breath, thankful
to have the wolf off of her. The giant cat may have come to fight over who
would get to eat her.

Cassie rolled away from the wolf, sobbing. Being on
the ground seemed to stretch the twine binding her wrists. She painfully pulled
at the twine holding her wrists together, while sitting up. It chafed her skin
to move her wrists and work the twine loose. While crying hiccupping sobs from
pain and fright she continued to try to work her hands free. The wolf paid no
attention to her. Its eyes and ears were focused in the area she heard the cat
roar. She froze, stilling her hands, just as a large, wild cat prowled into the
clearing. She saw its eyes gleaming in the moonlight.

The wolf and the massive wild cat collided not far
from her. The snarling as they fought was deafening. For a moment she watched
in stunned shock. The wolf yelped then broke out of the fight. It ran out of
the reach of the wild cat.

The cat regarded her for a moment before chasing the
wolf. Realizing she was just standing there instead of getting free she pulled
her arm as hard as she could. She was just barely able to get her hand free and
pull the twine off of her other hand.

Cassie held her side as she ran back towards the
cabin. The door was open letting light spill out into the black night. She
stumbled into the cabin and found Marcy. Her eyes stared sightlessly up at the
ceiling. “Marcy,” Cassie whispered looking into Marcy’s eyes. There was no life
left there. Her throat was ripped out, and with the amount of blood Cassie saw
around Marcy’s abdomen, she was sure there was no way she could have survived
those injuries. Grief overtook her as she grabbed Marcy’s hand and pulled it up
to her cheek.
“Oh Marcy.”
 

She felt the bile rising in her throat as her only
warning. She jumped up to her feet, and ran to the toilet to empty the contents
of her stomach, but the vomiting was bringing fresh pain to her bite wounds.
Every time she moved she felt the burning pain flare.
 
There was nothing she could do about it right
now. She wiped her mouth on the towel and walked back out, but seeing Marcy
again washed fresh grief over her bringing fresh tears. With blurry eyes, she
picked up her cell phone and dialed 911.

As soon as the operator picked up Cassie sobbed into
the phone. “I need help. An animal attacked us. My friend is dead.” Her
shoulder and side burned with fiery pain as she held the phone to her ear.

 
“What? Calm down.
I can’t understand you,” the operator yelled, trying to break through her panic.

The voice on the phone calmed her enough she could
speak clearly. She repeated her statement to the operator.

“Where are you?” the operator asked while typing.

Cassie told her the address of the cabin then jumped
when she heard more animal sounds. They were still fighting and getting closer.
“I have to go.” She looked around the cabin fearfully. She knew they were not
just animals. That wolf had turned into a man. He had killed her best friend,
and attacked her as well. Somehow she didn’t think he was trying to kill her
though. That big cat was the only thing that had saved her.

“Listen, no do not leave. I have the sheriff and
several deputies very close to you.”

The door banged against the wall, and Cassie jumped
putting her hand over her mouth to muffle her scream. She accidently dropped
her phone as she heard something approaching the door she had stupidly left
open. She picked up her phone to see it was dead. She tried turning it on, but
nothing happened. Something was right outside their cabin now. Cassie dropped
the phone, turned before running towards the back of the cabin to the only
bedroom where she and Marcy had slept. A fresh wave of guilt and loss hit her.
She pulled the slider open and ran out the
door .
There was a small railing surrounding the wooden deck. She lifted her arms to
climb over clenching her teeth at the searing pain. It was now a steady
excruciating pain, instead of an intermittent one. She barely made it over the
railing, running into the woods, which she hoped was towards town.

While running she was careful to stay quiet. She knew
there were animals in the woods.
They’re
not really animals though. They are something more. This is a dream, it just
can’t be real. Animals do not turn into people.
She heard snarling and
slowed her pace. She came to a stop and stood in place, stunned. In a clearing
ahead she could see the wolf fighting the large cat again. It was some sort of
wild cat, a huge one.
No, not a cat, a cougar, a huge one.

The cougar bit down hard, and the wolf howled in pain.
Cassie crouched further down in a bush, wincing at the pain from the branches
rubbing her wounds. The evening was growing colder. She shivered from fear and
cold, but still she did not dare come out of her hiding place. The bush had a
strong pine odor to it, stronger than the trees, and she really hoped that kept
the animals from smelling her. She felt safer surrounded by soft pine needles
than out in the open. Carefully, so she wouldn’t make a sound, she changed to a
more comfortable position, crossing her arms over her chest to hold in her body
heat.

The air shimmered, and the wolf was a man again. He
fell to his knees in front of the cougar. “You won’t listen to me. You already
cast me out of my home and away from my people. There is nothing more you can
do to me, Michael.”

Cassie blinked, not believing what she was seeing. The
cougar shimmered and blurred. For a moment he was both a cat and a man before
changing fully into a man, a huge man. He had brown hair in the moonlight, and she
could clearly see he had huge muscles since he also did not have a stitch of
clothing on. “You are attacking humans, Lucas.
Again.
You know the punishment this time. Cole just told me what you did in the
Hewitts
’ cabin.”

“So? You are a pompous ass, Michael.” Lucas snarled
and lunged at Michael. Cassie sat watching with wide-eyed horror as the two men
snarled while pummeling each other. They both changed into animals once again.
In the moonlight Cassie could see how powerful, yet beautiful, the cougar was.
He had sleek golden fur, and she thought she caught startling green eyes for a
moment. Maybe it was just her imagination due to the trauma she was suffering.
She remembered that one short moment the cougar looked at her. In that moment
she felt safe, and she knew he was there to help her. He was not fighting for
the right to have her, but to save her. They roared, startling Cassie. They
snarled and shrieked while fighting their bloody battle. Cassie covered her
ears at the deafening clamor of the two animals. With a yelp of pain the wolf
changed back into a man. He knelt in front of the cougar the wolf had called
Michael, panting and holding his hands up over his head.

Michael
blurred,
his cougar
and human forms coexisting for a moment before his human form materialized, and
stood over the other man. “I do not enjoy this, Lucas.”

“Then don’t, Michael. How can you do this to me? I am
one of you. I am protecting shifters the same as you are.”

“We are nothing alike.” Michael’s face twisted in
disgust. “You have
a darkness
in your soul that you
need to purge. You have refused to learn from your last punishment. I have no
choice but to cast a death decree on you.” Michael raised his hands over Lucas.

Lucas howled like an enraged wolf. The rage Cassie saw
on his face was frightening. “You do not understand what I lost. You and your
fucking judgment care nothing for what I was trying to protect my shifters
from. It was only a human, a fucking worthless human.”

Michael’s face grew angry. “Did you honestly think
myself
or
Ilithyia
would turn a
blind eye to that? Humans are not fodder for your anger. They are beings that
Ilithyia
cares for just as much as shifters.”

Lucas raised his face to the moon. It was twisted in
pain and rage. “
Ilithyia
, I have wandered alone and
in pain for five years due to your curse. You know full well why I killed those
humans.” He yelled into the night.

Cassie almost forgot the throbbing pain in her
shoulder and side. Her eyes widened in astonishment as she watched the larger
man raise his hands over Lucas.

Michael started to glow, light gathered in his raised
hands as he held them over Lucas.
 
“Lucas,
my beloved guardian, I selected you to protect life, not harm it. I do know that
your intention was to protect shifters, but you cannot harm or kill all you see
as a threat. It pains me to condemn you to more suffering, my child, but I
cannot allow you to harm innocents, whether they
be
shifter or human. You must be banished once again.” Michael’s voice had a
feminine tone to it as he spoke, and Cassie thought she could see the image of
a beautiful woman with black hair, dark eyes, large breasts and curvy hips
superimposed over Michael.

Lucas was cowering on the ground as if he expected a
blow at any moment.

 
“
Ilithyia
, I am begging you. Have mercy on me. I had every
right to kill her. You know the pain I have been through.”

“She is gone, Lucas. She rejected my death decree and
has set her own punishment. You will be banished from us until such a time as
you prove redemption to our Goddess.
While you are banished
shifters and magic folk will shun you.”

“How can you do this to me again? Does everything we
have been through mean nothing to you?” Lucas yelled.

“Lucas, I have not done this to you. You have done
this to yourself. You harmed humans under your protection.
Under
my protection.
 
That woman did
nothing to you, and you killed her.”

 
“She was not
innocent! She harms shifters. You are too soft to even realize who she is. You
do not fucking care.” Lucas tuned to look at Michael, “You have no idea what
the hell if feels like.”

Michael cut him off “She was innocent, Lucas. She
harmed no one, and you killed her.”

“You are blinded by your own self-righteousness. I
know what and who I saw.” Lucas's fist clenched as he yelled in rage. He jumped
suddenly, attacking Michael again.