Kindred Series Book One: Rose's Thorns

Prologue

Prologue

Times have changed in many ways as the years have come and gone. Seasons as fleeting as the sun and moon in the day, just as life both begins and ends. Time has long erased the truth of the olden days, when dragons flew in the skies and the fairies walked amongst men. Vampires and shapeshifters put to myth and ones darkest nightmares believed to be just that, nothing more than a bad dream in the night. All but forgotten are the warriors of old, those who protected humanity from the Kindred said to be myth now that have roamed the nights for so many years. The warriors, the Rose Guardians who were human but more, all but lost in the past. Few remember their story, creatures who were bred of human blood but also carried within their veins the blood of all Kindred in equal parts. Many moons ago they were many and protected those who were unable to protect themselves from the Kin that sought to harm humans and other Kin alike. Guardian men and woman alike had three rules in which they followed to the strictest degree:

To protect all humans/Kindred alike from the threats of those who wished to cause unrest in the lands.

To uphold all laws passed by the Kindred Council to ensure peace and control.

To only mate amongst other Guardians so as to keep the bloodline strong.

Each Guardian was trained from childhood of these rules and trained in the ways of the fiercest combat techniques so that the new generation would be ready to fight as their parents and grandparents before. One however, broke the third rule. She fell in love with a man who was not a Guardian and as their love progressed she came to carry the man's child. Outraged the Rose Council demanded the child be exiled along with the mother, stripped of their title as Guardians. The man who had sired the child, angered by the council's choice to leave his love and newborn daughter in exile, cast a spell over the entire bloodline to damn them all. One would not think being only able to bear female children would be a curse but to the Guardians it truly was, leaving the woman with no choice but to turn to human males for mates in order to continue bringing forth new generations of guardians, but the bloodline began to dwindle. The angered male had left a way to break the curse with his love, but with her death the memory of that was long lost and so the Guardians slowly fell into ruin till only two remained. Only two to carry on the blood and legacy that had started so great.