Darkness Rising: Cursed Guardians

Prophecy

Cass's mother and I helped her back up the stairs and back into bed. Her mom bent down and kissed her forehead the motioned me to follow her into the hallway. Telling Cass I would be right back I followed out the door. 

"I can't begin to thank you enough for saving my daughter. She is my only child and my heir. I meant what I said about being in your debt. You have the protection of pixies." As she spoke I observed how regal she appeared even in her armor. The word heir caught my attention. 

"Your heir?"

"Yes I am the queen of the pixies."

"Wow. So she's a princess. Never would have guessed but then who ever did her cloaking spell did an impeccable job because I couldn't detect her otherness either. You really don't owe me anything, besides I had some help."

"My word stands. I must go. You will look after her? She seems to trust you, bringing you here, you are very important."

"I'll do my best to look after her but Cass is Cass. She has a tendency to do as she pleases as I'm sure you know."

With a curt nod she turned and began to decend the stairs. I returned to the room to catch Cass trying to get back into bed before I caught her eavesdropping. Not quick enough.

"Hear anything interesting? Your majesty?" I asked with a small grin. I knew she'd be listening. That's just Cass.

Huffing and puffing she shot me a deadly look as a climbed into bed next to her. "Don't start with the royalty crap. I don't acknowledge it." sticking her chin in the air in a very defiant manner. Oh I'm gonna have fun with this.

"I'll let you slide for now but we do need to talk about some stuff."

"I know." she said looking slightly guilty. "Can I ask something first. What did you mean when you told my mom you had help saving me?"

"I'm not sure how much you remember but right before you went flying into the brick wall the demon and vampire got distracted like they heard something."

She thought a moment then nodded. "Well what they heard turned out to be another vampire. At first I though he was there with them, just showed up late to the fight. He jumped down from the roof of the club and went straight for you. I assumed he was going to hurt so I started screaming at him to back the f**k off but I think he was looking to see if you were okay. Next thing I knew he was between us and the other two and screaming at me to get you the hell out of there." She was looking both freaked out and confused as I told her what had happened.

With an almost pained expression she said "So your telling me that another vampire showed up, expressed "Concern" for me, and gave us the opportunity to escape?"

"Yup. Oh and he had a sinful British accent. Very sexy." I grinned. " So since there is obviously way more going on then some random attack so start explaining Lucy."

Sighing she settled on her side and motioned me to do the same. "This is gonna take a little explaining but it should answer a lot of the questions you must have." I laid back and looked at her attentively. "When all things were created there was no good and evil all things existed in harmony; humans, fey, weres, everyone co-existed without issue. It was foretold that this peace would not last a great betrayal would shift the peace that was into chaos. As a result the magical creatures would be forever separated from the humans. It was also foretold that because of this evil the magicals would fight each other, some choosing the evil over all else. Eventually the prophecy came to pass and true evil was born. No one knows the who or why only that it happened. Suddenly the magical creatures were persecuted and shunned by the humans forcing the magicals to go into hiding and create cloaks to disguise their true forms. They broke away into their own races. As time passed the humans turned us into legends and myths, forgetting who and what we truly were and the relationship we had with them. All the while the evil spread as foretold and war broke out among us. We have been fighting this battle for millenias." She paused and gave me a moment. I remembered parts of this story from my mother telling it to me as a child. This was some crazy s**t but I knew in my gut it was true. Worse I knew somehow I was involved. Peachy.

"Continue." I said.

Taking a deep breath she went on "Over the years we've moved all over the world with agents of this evil following our every move. We've never been able to find out any information about who or what this evil is or where it's home base is. Years ago this house was purchased and is our home base.

"So what does all of this have to do with me? You said I was supposed to be here. To help?" This is what I needed to understand.

She flushed. "As I said I have vision but they are extremely limited. A flash here or a few images there. I've seen you countless times always fight beside us."

"Who is us, exactly? And we seriously need to talk about what your definition of a house is!" I was really, really curious to know who these people were and what this place was.

She bit her bottom lip. Typical Cass sign of trying to work her way out of taking about this. "Full disclosure girlfriend. Your ass owes me that much." She was so not getting out of this.

"Oh fine." she huffed. "We" she waived her hands in the air in a circle indicating the "house" are the warriors for good. There are members of all the magical races. Don't laugh. There are houses like this all over the world. Our house is a little different though." She stopped hesitating.

"Different how? 

Silence.

"Cass..."

"Well. If you haven't guessed by now Draco is in charge. He's kind of the leader...of everyone who's fighting on our side. Like I said there are members of every race here with two exceptions no drainers and no witches except Calista. I don't know why so don't ask. The thing about our house is that a great deal of the people here are Dracos family as in blood family. You met Abigale and Kaeleb his brother and sister, but there are lots of others. Multiple generations. Makes people going out on missions seriously intense."

I thought this over for a few minutes while Cass studied my face. "So how do you think I can help you. I'm just a non practicing witch and half fury. What do I possibly have that could help?" In my gut I knew the answer but really was hoping for a different one. Again with the bottom lip biting. I poked her shoulder where there was no wound.

"Okay! I think...well I'm pretty sure that you're supposed to help us in the magical witch sense. What do you think about all of this?" She looked at me pensively.

"It's really weird. I knew something was going to happen to you if you came to the club. I always know, always trust the feelings. When I brought you here, even though I was met with hostility, I knew this was where I was supposed to be. Just like I know every word of what you say is true. It freaks me out because I can feel the hostility towards me, the leariness but in spite of that I feel I'm where I'm supposed to be. More importantly I feel safe. I barely feel safe in my own home and only slightly more when the hunters are under the same roof as me. But here in the deep, dark, spooky, haunted woods among at least one being who despises me because of my heritage I feel safe. I've officially lost my mind." Every word was true and it freaked me out.

"We will sort this all out. The hardest part will be convincing Draco to allow the magic. He's not a fan of witches as you pointed out but he'll come around." I nodded. After a few minutes Cass nodded off. I turned onto my back and stared at the ceiling. I heard the door open and looked over to see Draco standing in the door. He crooked his head at me motioning to come out to the hallway. I slid out of bed and followed him out.

"How is she?" he asked, barely looking at me. Oh this was going to be so fun with the witch hater.

"Healing well. All of the wounds seem to have closed. We talked for a while before she dozed off. Why did you decide not to kill me?" Conversations like these are like bandaids. Rip them off and get them over with. Apparently my comment got his attention because he looked at me straight in the face.

"You're meant to be here, Cass said so."

"You didn't know that when I went into the office." I said flatly examining his face.

He seemed to flinch at my gaze but continued to look at me. "True but she told you to bring her here which means she has great trust in you. I trust Cassady. She wouldn't have brought you here if you weren't meant to be here. When she burst into the office she confirmed that. She is the reason your life was spared." He looked away. 

I knew he was holding back but I also knew not to press him. I could tell it was hard for him to talk with me. I reached up and swiped the corner of his mouth were there was a smudge. He flinched. Looking at my finger I smirked and licked it. I think he visibly gulped and his body may have jerked. "Glad you like my cooking." He turned to go with a frown.

"Thank you." I said and he turned back to me. "For sparing my life. And I'm sorry."

Cocking his head he said "For what?"

"For whatever the witch did to you." The flash appeared behind him again and was gone as quick as it came. With that I went back into the room with Cass, laid down beside her, and went to sleep