Chapter 8

(Damon)

By the time Kieran and I make our way to my home, it is already too late, my mother is seated at the edge of my bed sobbing with Arabella consoling her, before it is even said, I know she’s gone.

Rushing towards my mum, I pull her into my arms, “we’ll find her mum, I promise, that’s my mate and I won’t let her go that easily.”

Letting my wolf have free reign, I sniff through the room for her scent, my wolf growling at me as if telling me there’s something I’m missing, I’m half way out of the room when I see it, there’s a red line on the ground, it’s glowing slightly, like its purpose is to direct me somewhere, could this be leading to Carlisle? Had she made this as a way to track her? My wolf growled in agreement.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she’d left a way for me to find her and I would not disappoint her, “I’ll be back mum, I know a way to find her, don’t leave the house, it’s still not safe out, I’ll leave a few of my men behind.”

“Okay son. Bring her back home safely.”

“I will. Kieran, let’s go, get the men to bring the cars around, this might be a long journey, we’ll need the strength we’ll exhaust from running in our wolf forms to fight when we find Luna.”

“Okay Alpha.”

•

•

(Carlisle)

“Mum?” I draw closer to her, to get another whiff of her scent, “are you really my mum?”

Blinking tears away from her eyes, she stretches her arms for me to come into, “yes, I am.”

Choking on a sob, I savor the sound of her voice, my mum is right here, I have a mother and she is alive. “You are my mum, oh God, I thought you’d be dead, all these years, I thought I didn’t have a mother anymore.”

She shakes away tears, “no, no, you do, I’m here my princess.” Wrapping my hands around her and sobbing into her chest, I choke on all the things I want to say, all the things I’ve always wanted to say suddenly skip my mind.

“Why did you leave? So early too, I needed my mother. Why did you leave?

“We’ll talk about this privately, I promise. For now, you must compose yourself, you are a princess, you cannot be seen as weak.”

She cleans her faces and stretches her hands to my face to clean my tears too, smiling at me in reassurance and turning to face the people who have now gathered in twos and threes, as if waiting for us to say something, my mother cleans her throat, “my people, guardians, this is my daughter, Carlisle. Born from a Fae father and a guardian mother, a princess on both ends. Now she is here, it is time for the revolution to begin.”

As she finishes her speech, the throne room is quiet for a few seconds before loud cheers go up and the people begin chanting in a language I cannot understand, they all seem to be glowing, emitting a golden light, I look towards my mother and the light from her is both golden and white, I am still lost in my observation, when I start feeling my heart racing faster, I look down at my hands and find that I am glowing too, “ahh! What’s going on? What’s this light?”

My mother smiles at me, “breathe child, that is the light of a guardian, that is our pride.”

“Our? Who are we?”

“Patience child, all in due time.”

Sitting straighter on her throne, she begins to address the other white haired people scattered around the room, “my people, this is my daughter, your princess. I have waited for this for so long, now that she is here, I can now be rest assured that the prophecy of doom has been stalled.”

There’s silence in the throne room for a few seconds and I can practically feel the air drop before everyone begins to bow and chant in words I cannot decipher, my mother gets up from her throne and stands besides me, holding my hands and squeezing it with a bright smile on her face, “welcome home my princess.”

••••

A few minutes later, my mum directs me towards a room, I gasp as we step in, the room is wide and I’m immediately stunned by how beautiful the colors are. Painted a subtle color of lilac, with gold and silver designs on the corner pieces.

There’s a poster bed in the middle, fit for a king, it reminds me of my father’s room back in the fae kingdom. At the thought of my father, I bite back tears, as if she can read my thoughts, my mother comes forward to give me a hug, I try to stifle my tears but the moment my mum pats my back, I lose the fight and start bawling.

“There, there, that’s enough now, it’ll all be fine little one.”

“Mum, why’d you leave me?” As I ask, I feel her arms tighten around me and she sighs shakily, pulling myself away from the hug, I wait for her answer.

Pulling me towards the bed, she finally answers, “We need to sit down, this will be a long conversation. Whatever you hear, do not hate your father too much.”

“Hate my father? What did he do?”

“Patience child, I’ll get there. First I have to tell you about our people. The guardians are the protectors and like our name indicates, the guardians of the supernatural realm. We are night walkers, or we used to be, before we struck a deal with the witches that had them making daylight bracelets for us. The guardians are vampires but we all possess special powers that are mostly passed down from one blood line of a guardian to another.”

“Vampires? I’ve never craved blood and I walk under the sun.”

My mother smiles and pats my cheek, “You are under the protection of Fae magic, a half-Lin, you cannot possess everything we possess or shall I say, you cannot inherit every of our weaknesses and your guardian blood has not been awoken.”

“Awoken? How do I awaken blood that is already flowing in me?”

“You are so inquisitive, just like me. A thousand years ago, during a war between the wolves and other supernaturals, the Fae and guardians helped the wolves and it was decided that a child born from either a Fae or a guardian would be mated with another supernatural to even the balance that had been shifted during the war but another prophecy came out of the superior powers that a child born from Fae and guardian would possess, your father heard it and sort to find a guardian to lay with. I was young and I had no knowledge of the prophecy, I fell in love with the Fae king who was always visiting my people and the first time I laid with him, I got pregnant for you. After my people found out I was with child, I heard the prophecy, your father fought to keep me away from my people, hiding me in a room in the castle, hoping I would have no choice but to birth you and care for you but he did not know that a guardian child can only have their powers awoken by another guardian.”

“So you left.”

“Believe me, dear one, it broke my heart to leave you, so early at that but I feared the damage your father would cause if he had control over such power, especially to my people. We are a small group, we haven’t dwindled from existence only because we are almost immortal. I had to fix my mistakes.”

“Was I a mistake?”

“No love, that’s not what I meant to say. You were not a mistake but laying with your father was. The two weeks that I spent nursing you were the best 14 days of my entire life and I have been alive for a while but lying with your father endangered our kind. We were almost extinct because we had lost too many in the wars protecting other supernatural beings and we couldn’t afford to lose one. If your father had been allowed to gain control over your powers, it would have been chaos, he would have burnt everything to the ground and I could not allow that.”

“Why didn’t you take me with you?” I ask the question that has been on the tip of my tongue since she started this story, I watch her face fall as she struggles to hold in tears.

“I wanted to but I couldn’t put you in harm's way, my escape was not guaranteed, running with a child, we would have had no chance and I knew your father would not hurt you. He valued you too much and to his belief, he had lost use for me, so he wouldn’t come after me without you.”

“Did he try?”

“Yes, he did send a few men after me but I was able to find my way out of the barrier and call my people for help. You have to understand, the guardians hold the laws of secrecy and privacy very highly, for thousands of years, we have survived this way, our survival is what enables the survival of other supernaturals.”

“So what are you saying? The guardians are gods or something?” I asked incredulously.

“No, not gods. You can call us messengers of the gods or Angels, we are here to keep the balance between the supernaturals.”

“Okay so what powers do we have? How do we harness it? This is the land of the trolls, where do the guardians reside?”

“Slow down child. One at a time. The guardian’s abode is underground, should the witches ever renege on their promise to help us walk in the light, we took precautions to protect ourselves by building our home base underground. We struck a partnership with the trolls because as blood feeders, it is easy for us to snoop out pray, so we help them feed, with our powers, we help them grow food and keep their homes intact and in return they let us stay in their land until we have to return to ours.”

“What happens if we are suddenly attacked and there’s no plan to move out beforehand? And we get trapped?”

My mother smiles and kisses me forehead before she replies, shocking me out of my skin, “Teleportation.”