Heart of the Guardians: Adoring Destiny Read online

  Heart of the Guardians

  Adoring Destiny

  Adrianna Adore

  Contents

  Meeting Destiny Summary

  1. Coming Home

  2. Claire

  3. Guile

  4. Misconceptions

  5. Arriving in Europe

  6. Fight

  7. Meeting

  8. Truths

  9. Knowledge

  10. Preparations

  11. A Night on the Town

  12. Becoming

  Afterword

  Meeting Destiny Summary

  Here is a brief synopsis of the beginning of the tale, I know it’s been a few months since the first book in the trilogy was released. In Meeting Destiny, we learn that Stephan James Von Galador was running from his troubles and hiding out, teaching history in a small college in Washington state. He was a prince who didn’t want to be king, a playboy who never felt right being one. He was also a shifter from an ancient line of Guardians whose duties were guarding the portal to keep demons and other unsavory creatures from coming through. His duties didn’t amount to much since the opening was sealed and he had a lot of free time on his hands. There is family strife, he was caught up in a scandal and to everyone’s relief, he left Galador to teach as a visiting professor. He had no intentions of doing anything other than that. A quiet life to consider his options, no pressure from the outside world, a carefully crafted new identity to hide from everything and everyone.

  But then he met Claire.

  A student half his age.

  The animal magnetism between them was unbearable and uncontainable. For the first time, James thought he’d found true love, true happiness and she felt the same. His idyllic life was shattered when his most trusted friend and advisor arrived unannounced to retrieve him, to take him back to his country. They needed him. The king had been murdered, the other heir to the throne was missing and the portal had been breached.

  James left everything behind, broke if off with Claire in a text message and hurried back to his duties. He couldn’t involve her in his troubles.

  Now we pick up as he arrives in Galador some twelve hours and nearly as many time zones away.

  1

  Coming Home

  The papers had it wrong, of course, but there had been a leak. Someone had talked and now everyone knew the king was dead. Investigators were at the palace, it was being treated as a crime scene and that didn’t happen for a natural death. The king had been murdered. The press were already asking where the successor was? Where was Stephen James von Galador? Was he off gallivanting around with another starlet or model? Why hadn’t he made an appearance? Where was his younger cousin, the second in line to the throne? Where was Stigmund Verner?

  “Are you ready?” Frank asked as he straightened James’ necktie and gave him a final nod of approval. “They can be Jackals. I know you don’t like being in the spotlight but just say a few words, answer a few questions, let them know everything is going to be fine and I’ll hustle you away after a minute or two.”

  James nodded, took a deep breath and opened the door of the Gulfstream. He hurried down the passenger stairs to the click and whirr of cameras and shouted questions, stepped up to the podium on the tarmac and adjusted the microphone.

  “We mourn the loss of our king.” He said “My uncle Karsten was a good man, an honest statesman and a faithful servant to his people.”

  He spoke a few more minutes, assured the duchy everything would be fine, the killers would be caught and justice would be served. When he finished his prepared remarks, the shouted questions came from all sides. He answered a few, yes there would be a public funeral procession, yes he would assume the duties as the monarch and be crowned, no he hadn’t spoken with Stigmund. The tarmac got quiet when a reporter asked if the rumors were true that the reason it took him so long to return to the kingdom was that he’d been in the company of a group of beautiful women on a yacht. James stared at the man who finally dropped his eyes in shame. The film they showed on the news cast that evening showed the future king with a thunderous look on his face, glaring angrily at the insipid tabloid reporter.

  A piece of the lectern broke off in his white knuckled grip as Frank hurried up and rushed him away to a waiting car.

  The palace was controlled chaos and the first thing he did was meet with the gathered servants and staff. Some wept openly when they saw him, they had loved the king and most had helped raise little Jamie after his parents died as he scurried the vast estate. The gendarme detective had a few questions but it was mostly perfunctory. They knew he’d been out of the country and teaching as an honorary professor for a term. Frank had left out some of the details of how that appointment came about but it was easily verified. When he was finished, the chief of the Galador police extended his condolences, dismissed the others in the room and got down to business. Captain Schmidt was past retirement age, his hair a solid silver, his mustache walrus like.

  Not many people knew of the portal, most of the shifters in the world had no idea it existed. The old detective had learned of it some fifty years earlier when he’d been assigned to a grisly series of murders and the culprit had been a werewolf gone mad. He still bore the scars but a young, brash Karsten, the man who would become the king, saved him at the last moment. He was sworn to secrecy, they became friends and he kept his silence about the ancient portal. The Duchy had more than its fair share of strange occurrences over the years and Schmidt had helped turn the unexplainable mysteries into something more mundane with careful manipulation of the occasional crime scene. The world didn’t need to know about vampires and werewolves, shape shifters and skin walkers, witches and wizards and all manner of unearthly and unnatural creatures. The Guardians had kept them in check, kept the portal closed and sealed so no new monsters could escape. Up until now, anyway.

  “Frank told you of the other deaths? He tell you there was a breach? The portal was opened?” He asked.

  “Yes.” James said “As I understand it, the guards were both killed, as was my Uncle and two men of the council when they ran down to help.”

  “Correct.” Schmidt said “Frank carried the king’s body up to his rooms before he called me, nobody else needed to know about the portal or the other deaths.”

  He pulled out his notebook to read the cryptic scribblings. “The wolves did it. Six of their bodies were found outside the guard room, a lot of blood from other creatures and chunks of flesh and hair from two different bears. Your uncle, of course was one of them but we think the second was your cousin, Stigmund. He’s missing, hasn’t been seen since the occurrence and he was known to have associated with the wolf clan.”

  James started to protest but the detective held up a hand.

  “I’m not saying he plotted to kill the king although it’s not out of the realm of possibility, everyone knew he wanted the throne. Your uncle wasn’t supposed to be down in the crypts, just the two men guarding the portal entrance. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, for the moment, but the fact that he’s disappeared is suspect. I believe Stigmund snuck the wolves in to the portal room for whatever reason and things didn’t go as planned. The king and the other two guardians showed up in their animal forms and tore through them. Those that survived escaped the same way they came in, the path was easy enough to follow from the blood splatter. So, I’m looking for an injured Stigmund and three more wounded wolf shifters. We’re monitoring the hospitals, of course. If anyone shows up with bites or claw wounds, we’ll have questions for them.”

  “They won’t go to a hospital.” James said. “They’ll use a healer or a medicine woman.”

  “Proba
bly.” Schmidt said and closed the notebook. “but that’s where we stand. Do you know of any place Stigmund might go to get patched up? Any hideaways he might run to?”

  James shook his head.

  “Not really. He’s a few years younger and we drifted apart once we became teenagers. I haven’t seen him except at state dinners or formal gatherings in years.”

  Schmidt grimaced and stood to leave.

  “Let me know if you need anything from us.” He said. “I have to get to the coroner and make sure he doesn’t get too nosey about the cause of death. This would have been so much simpler if the press hadn’t found out, we could have said it was a heart attack or something.”

  “If I get any new information on their whereabouts, I’ll let you know so you can handle it,” he added, “but they’re probably already out of the country.”

  “Thanks, detective” James said and shook his hand. “We’ll be hunting for them too. They’ll be dealt with.”

  “The Council has gathered.” Frank told James quietly. “They await you in the great room.”

  The police captain nodded a grim goodbye and fell in behind one of the staff to show him out.

  James and Frank hurried through the echoing corridors, their fine Italian shoes clicking on marble as they went deeper into the building, past the government offices and tourist areas and through the ornate double doors that led to the private quarters. The castle was vast and had always been there in one form or another, the same as the little independent kingdom. It hadn’t always been called Galador but the Guardians had always kept watch at the portal. The truth of the portal and the history of the first Guardians was lost in a fire that took place two thousand years ago. The Romans had heard rumors of uncountable riches hidden deep in the caves of an unnamed mountain. It was only guarded by a small sect of men who had devoted their lives to keeping the treasure for themselves. A legion of soldiers had searched for years and when they finally discovered the village and the stronghold they didn’t hesitate to attack. Many had died during the search but hundreds of men hungry for what had eluded them for so long were savage in their assault. They butchered the families working in the fields and set fire to everything that would burn. Only a few survived and told wild unbelievable tales of wolves and bears and lions coming to the defense of the people. For a thousand years the endless black forest was avoided and unmapped. Those who entered usually didn’t come back out. “Here there be Tygers” was written on the maps and for many centuries the forest was uncharted.

  James smelled him as soon as he walked through the mahogany door of the great room. The aged council members were standing on one end of paneled room, talking quietly among themselves. At the other end, a stranger stood by the massive stone fireplace with a glass of bourbon in his hand. He was young, tall and angular with a mass of dark unruly hair. He hadn’t bothered to put on a suit or even clean clothes. He wore riding leathers and a denim vest, fingerless motorcycle gloves still on his hands. James snarled and covered the distance instantly but the biker turned to face him, a growl parting his own lips.

  “What are you doing here, dog?” James said “Your kind aren’t welcome.”

  “You have no dominion over me.” The man said, showing lengthening teeth. “You’re not the king.”

  “Yet.” James growled and fur started sprouting as his face elongated, his own bear fangs hungry to kill.

  “Stop it.” Frank said and stepped between them. “Dimitri is here under my protection.”

  “You have no right.” James said, barely in control, barely keeping enough of his human form to speak. “You don’t make the rules.”

  “Neither do you.” Frank said, unfazed. “You’re not the king.”

  “He came all the way from Russia.” One of the wizened old council members said. “His kind have a keen sense of smell, he claims he can track the unnaturals. We should at least hear what he has to say.”

  “His kind killed the king.” James said, not believing his ears. “I don’t want to hear anything a dog says, it’s all lies.”

  “Not all Werewolves are human hunters.” The man growled.

  “But all human hunters are werewolves.” James spat back in anger.

  “Enough!” another council member bellowed, his long beard quivering in annoyance. “You’re acting like children. Pull in your claws, both of you. The emissary will be allowed to speak.”

  The two stared daggers at each other. Menace and rage radiated from the half men but Frank was between them and that, more than anything, caused James to take a step back and turn away. The fool wasn’t wearing armor, he would have been shredded if they had attacked, an angry bear and a half mad hell hound would have ripped right through him to get at each other.

  With the two hostiles sitting at opposite ends of the table, the eldest of the council members, the interim ruler, finally brought calm to the room and they told James what they knew about the occurrences of the past few days.

  Security had been lax. It had been more than forty years since the portal had been breached and the new high security vault doors had been installed. The two men standing watch had been playing cards. They were easily overpowered and killed by the group who had snuck in. The alarm system had been bypassed and none of the doors had been forced open. They had taken their time and picked the locks on each one.

  “Or Stigmund led them in and had unlocked them himself.” Councilman Pallerson added.

  “Or Stigmund led them in.” Scrimson grudgingly agreed, then continued. “The invaders had power tools and a safe cracker and managed to release the locks on the vault door. Once the portal was open, they had no need for him anymore and killed him along with the guards. We can only assume the King was wandering the castle and smelled them. He hasn’t been sleeping well lately and tends to do that. Instead of calling for all of the Guardians, he only took two of our number. They caught the intruders and the portal was opened, either accidentally, or on purpose. There was a fierce, bloody battle but the King and the Guardians were overpowered by the hell spawn and the werewolves. We know Stigmund was there, chunks of his silvery black fur were found.”

  “It was him who killed the King.” Pallerson insisted. “No wolf or demon would have stood a chance.”

  “Probably.” Scrimson added. “He escaped with the rest. If we capture him alive, we’ll get to the truth of it.”

  “Do we know how many, or what kinds, of creatures came through the portal?” James asked.

  “No.” Scrimson said. “They disabled the security system. The video goes blank before they started breaking in. There are a number of tracks in the blood pools, some humanish, some not. All of them chased after the fleeing survivors.”

  The palace didn’t have much security. The ceremonial guards were mostly for the tourists and the small cadre that kept watch on the portal didn’t patrol the grounds. Once the unnatural things from the other world were past the walls of the garden, they could be anywhere.

  “I don’t get it.” James finally said, turning his anger to Dimitri. “Why? Why do you want to open the portal? There is nothing but death and destruction inside. Why is your kind so intent on watching the world burn.”

  “Let me tell you a different version of that story.” Dimitri said, and leaned back in his chair unperturbed.

  “We don’t need to hear your lies.” Pallerson snapped, his teeth bared. “We never should have granted you an audience, Get out. Leave Galador and never darken our door again.”

  “While you still can.” Someone growled.

  The other council members voiced similar opinions, fangs started to elongate but Dimitri wasn’t bothered by their hate. He poured himself another two fingers of whiskey and ignored their threats.

  “If it please the council” Frank said from his position standing near James, “we should hear what he has to say. It is why I asked him to come.”

  “They came to find the opening of another portal.” Dimitri said over their raised voices and all eyes
turned to him.

  “That’s impossible.” Elder Scrimson said. “There is only one entrance.”

  “No.” Dimitri said and leaned forward on the table, his leather creaking in the silence. “There have always been more. The one you guard is the only one accessible. The only one not completely hidden deep under mountains that wiser men than you buried, killed everyone who knew of its existence and then sealed themselves inside so the secret would die with them.”

  “Fairy tales and lies.” James said.

  “Truth.” Dimitri countered. “Your records were lost in the fires. Ours weren’t. We have been petitioning the King for years to allow us entry in your portal. We have been denied and ignored.”

  “Of course you were.” Pallerson spat. “The world doesn’t need your kind to open another gateway to hell.”

  “It’s already open!” Dimitri said, anger in his voice. “It’s been open, the unnatural are slipping through and we can’t find it! The abominable yeti kill our mountain climbers, the kol-kol eat our swimmers and dark creatures haunt our forests. We don’t know where the breach is but they are butchering the people in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia. We hunt them, we kill them but they keep coming up from cracks in the mountains. We need to find it from the other side so we can reseal it. Your King has denied us.”

  The council members looked to each other, the oldest and wisest of the guardians, thousands of years of generational knowledge between them but this was something new. Why hadn’t they heard of this?

  “We weren’t aware you kept records.” Scrimson finally said.

  “Because you spent all of your time hunting and killing us.” Dimitri replied but there was no anger in his voice, he was stating facts. “It’s true, many of my kind are mindless predators when they change. Many shift into shapes no larger than a wolf, there isn’t room for the human side of brain, only animal. Those of us that survived your purges have kept the writings safe.”