Guardians of the Light (Book 1: Rebirth)

Chapter 18

Days had passed since Ronin had been cursed and yet no one knew what is was or how to cure it. Each passing days the black poison spread to new parts of his body and all Lillian could do was sit there and watch it happen. When the Guardian Healers had given up trying, several Witch Healers from the Royal House of Delacroix came to the Headquarters to offer their knowledge, yet even they could not explain what was happening to Ronin.

Lillian felt helpless that it was somehow her fault all of this had happened, Sara tried to tell her otherwise, that it had been the Warlocks who had tricked her that Lillian could not have known they were using her as bait to set a trap for Ronin. Weeks seemed to blend as Lillian did everything she could to force her mind to focus on other things, by week three she could not stand it anymore nothing could stop her mind from constantly thinking about Ronin.

Therefore, she spent that rest of her time glued to his bedside never leaving him no matter what. Sara did everything in her power to support Lillian during her down time, she had never seen Lillian this close to someone before but it all made sense now that the history behind Lillian and Ronin had been reveled to her.

Sara could not image living a life that was a lie and not being able to remember the person you loved. Sara had never met anyone in her life that she shared a deep connection with, something so powerful that Lillian and Ronin shared. Maybe one day she would find someone for her, in the mean time since she was not much help with the current situation she dived right into her studies and training with James.

If the whispers were true that the Elders believed there was a war coming Sara wanted to make sure she was ready and able to do her part in the fight, it was the least she could do she could not just sit around and do nothing. James had shared Sara’s views on the coming weeks ahead, he wanted to prepare her for the worst, he hoped it would not come to that but the way the senior Guardians were talking everyone feared the worst James might have had years of training over Sara but he didn’t feel any more ready for a fight.

He hated the fact that he didn’t have Ronin here to guide him through this difficult time, his Guardian had been almost like an older brother figure to him, James was not ready to not have him in his life after Ronin had been a constant figure since their fateful meeting all those years ago.

In between training Sara, James would make sure to visit Ronin hoping for an update only to find out nothing had changed. James had tried to get Lillian to go get some rest James would stand watch over Ronin for a few hours but the Guardian had refused.

Therefore, between him and Sara, they agreed to take turns going down to the Infirmary and making sure Lillian was all right and properly taken care of. No one had been able to convince her to leave Ronin’s side, Master Thaddeus and Elder Theokritos had no luck changing the strong willed Guardian’s mind.

During downtime, James and Sara had been working on a side project digging deep into their families past looking for some type of connection to the supernatural world they had been thrown into. Like Guardians, there were many times Children of the Light came from backgrounds with some members being a Guardian or even a Child of the Light in the past. So far they hadn’t found any but both of them remained in high spirits, it was just another thing they could use as a distraction from everything else going on. Guardian Nicole was on a top-secret mission assigned to her by Elder Theokritos himself so she was not around to help with preparations or her normal duty as Guardian protection for the Elder. In her absence, Nicole had tasked her second in command Guardian Willard to take over all her duties.

Elder Theokritos spent most of his days in his chambers resting, the Elder had grown weaker as the months had gone by, none of his fellow younger Elders knew why but many of the older Elders feared that with The Darkness trying to raise again, its evil presence was draining the life force from the Elder. With Elder Theokritos not being able to help, everything fell on Master Thaddeus shoulders to prepare for the worst to come.

It was all hands on deck at this point; he was sending messages to different Guardian Headquarters all over the world, trying to see if there was movement anywhere else and to warn the fellow Guardians of a threat that could rise at any moment. Next was to send word to the Order’s allies including Elias’s Clan and Vincent’s Pack, if a war did happen the Guardians were going too need all the help they could get.

If the creatures of The Darkness learned of their Masters rising, it would not take long for them to mobilize straight to New Haven to join their Masters side. Elias confirmed that his Clan would bare arms if the Guardians called upon them, without a second thought Vincent agreed to the same terms.

Guardian Headquarters had been built as a strong hold against all types of attacks, hidden defense measures lined the whole building, and they would be ready for anything that came their way. Lastly Master Thaddeus stock pilled Guardian weapons at both the Headquarters and The Circle, divided the Guardians stationed at both. They were the two most important buildings to the Guardian culture. If the Guardian Headquarters fell from attack, the Circle was their last, final line of defense, if both happened to fall there would be nowhere else for them to go, and all the knowledge would be lost forever.

No one wanted to think such things would happen but even still, they had to be aware of how bad the situation could get if The Darkness did rise once more. Exhaustion had set in by the fourth day of Lillian being awake around the clock; she had been worried that if she fell asleep, something happened to Ronin, and she was not there she would never forgive herself. Nevertheless, she had not been able to fight off her body any longer finally giving up the fight and falling asleep at his bedside. She drifted into old memories of when she had first met Ronin during Guardian recruitment.

That stupid smug grin on his face, how he had been so confident that he was going to become this great Guardian she had defiantly hated his guts at first meeting and thought he was a total jerk but she remembered the time he had shown up at her chambers looking scared after having his first ever vision.

The rest of the night Lillian had spent comforting him, seeing a different side of him completely, it was in that moment she felt their soulmate bond between them. Lillian jolted out of her sleep, not knowing what had caused it, rubbing her eyes and yawning as she looked over at Ronin and felt her heart stop, the blood draining from her face. Lillian quickly leapt from her chair racing to his side, “Ronin!” she shouted tears flooding down her face, his body ice cold no signs of life at all. “Please Ronin wake up!”, she shouted again shaking him harder, Lillian sobbed as she felt her knees go weak and she crashed to the floor.

She did not notice that Ronin had sat up, head turned in her direction, rubbing the tears away from her eyes, “Ronin?” she whispered silently. Suddenly Ronin’s eyes opened black eyes staring back at her; there was a long pause before a smirk spread across his face.

A deep rumble came from Ronin’s mouth that was not his, “The Guardian you know as Ronin is no more”, the voice sent chills down Lillian’s spine. Frozen to the spot she could not do anything as the thing that now had Ronin’s body moved off the bed and vanished into a haze of black mist, leaving Lilian alone to cry out before she passed out.

Thunder rolled outside, lighting cracked across the night sky and a sinister laugh echoed across the town…

The Darkness had risen.

The End.