Shadow Guardians: The Beast
Chapter 16

The sky was scorched by dark clouds of crimson and orange. Embers drifted about, and the strong smell of brimstone burned Katherine’s nostrils. Fear had a chokehold on her throat as she forced her feet to move forward on the ground. Even the sand was fiery, torched. The corpses of trees stood here and there, and peculiar twisted shapes extended into the air like massive claws. They seemed to be made of some stone resembling cooled magma. The air was thick and hot. The place seemed deserted, but she had the feeling she was being watched. There were many canyons, twists and turns, mountains that seemed alive with fire, and open plains that seemed to stretch on for miles into no man’s land.

She carefully stepped forward, not knowing in which direction to go. Somehow her mind registered that this was a dream because she didn’t own the set of purple silk pajamas she was in. And she distinctly remembered being in bed with a very handsome vampire next to her. But her heart pounded still, with the sense that terrifying evil prowled nearby. She clutched at the long-sleeved satin top and wished she had a cross hanging around her neck for some reason. Her feet hit something slick, cold, and hard. When she looked down, a scream became stuck in her throat. Skulls, bones, ribcages—the field before her was suddenly littered with them. There was no place she could walk on clear sand.

Katherine became aware of the sounds of shrieks and yelps, but she couldn’t identify where they were. The ghastly sounds chilled her to the bone, despite the hot, humid atmosphere.

Instinct told her to look up. She slowly lifted her chin. Above her was a churning, clawing black mass of creatures that belonged in a horror movie. Hundreds…thousands. They were coming closer to her, some peeling out of the bunch and letting out deafening screeches with empty black eyes and long gaping mouths like something out of Scream. But she couldn’t scream, nor could she move. Because she had frozen over with dread. She had no idea where they came from. They just seemed to materialize out of thin air.

Then came a sound so beautiful and terrifying—high notes that shook the very earth beneath her feet. She had no idea how her ears could stand it. The whole world shook around her at the decibels that angelic voice reached, which put every opera singer on earth to shame. The voice of a woman, an angel, singing in some ancient language she couldn’t understand. She turned her head, and sure as she was breathing, there she was, massive white wings graciously keeping her in the sky, right next to the swirling cloud of monsters. That voice of hers rose high above their shrieking and shattered the horrors apart.

She wore a flowy white dress that came down to her calves, and seemed almost wisp-like in the air. She was barefoot and had long locks of honey-blonde hair that came to the small of her back. Her skin glowed, and her face seemed slightly round.

With the horde decimated, she took ground, her powerful wings blowing hot air all over Katherine. Her eyes were extraordinary. There was an electric blue circle around the green iris, almost like she had one big iris and a smaller one over it.

She made a cutting gesture with her hand at her throat.

“You can’t talk?”

“No,” even her whisper created an earthquake, and Katherine nearly stumbled off balance.

“Those things were demons, weren’t they?” Katherine asked.

She nodded.

“What’s your name?”

She wrote in the air, a trail of fire following her fingertip. Etheria.

The scene changed abruptly. Chaos broke out, with an onslaught of dark armies approaching on land and in the sky. There was a massive, dark wall with formidable gates that she couldn’t see the end of in either direction. Hard, desperate pounding on the other side of them. Someone wanted to come in. A spew of lava flow erupted just feet in front of her, but curiously, it didn’t burn her. Out of the molten storm crawled something that looked like a demon, but her instincts very clearly told her he wasn’t one. It was in the shape of a man, and all of him was moving molten rock except the eyes and the mouth, which seemed like the very belly of a volcano. Two massive wings extended themselves fully.

His name came to her without him ever saying it. Fyre. He flew right at her, and before she could retreat, his palm landed on her heart, and she screamed as his molten hand branded something into her skin.

“Open the gates!” He yelled at her.

Katherine bolted up in bed with a scream of agony. Every light in the room instantly came to life.

The next thing she knew, she was in Magnus’ arms. “Katherine! Wake up,”

He pulled the sheets around her body and held her until she stopped trembling. She felt a burning, stinging sensation on her chest. She knew it was just the aftereffects of the dream.

“I’m okay,” she said, pulling away, and he reluctantly let her go. His eyes instantly went down to her chest, and something in his expression told her he wasn’t looking at her boobs. She frowned and looked down. Dread settled in her.

“Oh…gods...”

“Yeah, that’s about right,” Magnus added.

On the center of her chest was a symbol branded into her skin, essentially a cross, but the top was rounded and the other three ends were flared out.

“What is that?” she asked, pushing aside the dread that there was a very real element to the dream she just had.

“It’s an Egyptian ankh, a symbol of life and protection,” he paused, “and also the symbol for key in our archaic chronicles." He tilted his head at her and rubbed her shoulder. She was still very shaken, maybe even more so now. “Mind telling me what you were dreaming about?”

She sucked in breath. Then she recited the whole thing to him. After that, he seemed to be thinking. She waited with bated breath for him to tell her that she was now cursed or something.

“I know Fyre and Etheria,” he finally said. “I’ve fought alongside Fyre before. He’s very old—much older than me. And Etheria, she fights singly in the fourth dimension of the Abyss, which sounds like where you’ve been.”

“I was in hell?” Her voice hitched.

“Many humans get pulled into the Abyss when they’re asleep. It’s when they’re most vulnerable. That’s why there’s a whole fleet of angels dedicated just to taking care of dreamers.”

Her skin crawled. “How do you know what it’s like? Have you been there?”

He smiled lightly. “For a long time.”

“To fight, right? What was it like?”

He sighed. “At first it was stimulating. I was revved up on anger and resentment, but by the end of the ninetieth year, it grew tiring.”

Her eyes bulged. She couldn’t imagine spending a night there, much less ninety years. “So,” she gulped, then sniffed because suddenly her nose was runny. “What’s this key-thing mean?”

“I have no idea. I’ll have to see if I can replace something in our historic chronicles.”

“But it wasn’t a demon that gave me this mark, right?”

He shook his head. “Fyre is an angel, same as Etheria.”

She sniffed again, but still she felt wetness on her upper lip and felt embarrassed, but Magnus’ expression told her it wasn’t mucus like she thought it was. She wiped her nose with her hand and stopped breathing when she saw the blood. The blood dripped from her nose onto the sheets. She watched her hand begin to shake and her vision become blurry.

“Oh gods!” escaped her mouth on a sob. A rolling surge of nausea suddenly came to life in her belly. She felt like passing out, and her throat went to work.

She was swept up, and somehow the toilet ended up in front of her. Her stomach heaved, and she threw up, stomach contents mixing with blood. She heard water running and felt a hand stroking gently up her back while another held back her hair. Her stomach contracted, and she vomited again, blood running out of her nose like it was a dripping faucet. When it stopped, she felt a cool cloth being brought to her face.

Despair snuggled up all around her, and she wept at the hopelessness of it all. Except it wasn’t really that forlorn, was it? She had a choice… But oh, how she wished she could see what the future held.

“Katherine, you need to lay down.”

“So I can choke on my own blood,” she said hoarsely.

“This may sound strange, but it’ll actually keep your energy level up if you swallow it back.”

“Right, because I’m half vampire.”

“Yeah, something like that.” Magnus helped her up, brought another cloth to her nose, and pinched it shut. He flushed and brought her back to the bedroom, helping her lay back on the bed on her back. He dressed himself in a robe. It had to be around 10 a.m. now.

“I wish I had some of that nasal spray the doctor gave me.” She murmured. She swallowed constantly, but she curiously found that he was right. Swallowing her own blood lifted the weariness that followed the sickness. And she was crazy for thinking this, but it tasted good.

He sat next to her on the bed. When he placed the back of his hand on her forehead, he felt she had a fever. “It’s not necessary. It’ll stop on its own in a few minutes.”

“What if you’re wrong about me, Magnus?” She said, leaning her head lightly into his touch. “What if I’m just a dying human?”

He smiled lightly. “You don’t smell human.”

“I’m afraid I’ll die and leave you alone.”

“I know.”

“You’re not scared of that?”

“No. Surely Creation can’t hate me so much that it would take away the love of my life twice.” When she frowned, he added, “I know Ophelia told you about Ramona. I’m sorry I didn’t do it first. I suppose I didn’t think it mattered. It happened four centuries ago. But I’m glad you know.”

She blinked fast. Did he just call her the love of his life? She didn’t think that she was even worthy of the title. No man had ever spoken to her that way, much less looked at her in the way he did, with so much reverence. She drew the sheets tighter around herself, then realized her nose had stopped bleeding just like he said it would. He came around and got back into the bed next to her, gathering her into his arms.

“I want to go out later, into the sun. Maybe me and one of the servants could go out to buy clothing later.”

He still had reservations about allowing her to leave the house, but it wasn’t fair to want to keep her locked in it either. And besides, the servants do errands for them all the time. She was safer during the day outside than she would be at night. “Alright, but sleep first. Gather your energy again.”

She snuggled into him. Then she thought of what Ophelia had told her, that vampire males only bond with a single female. It was the kind of love she never thought she’d ever touch in her life. She thought of the fact that they drank from their mates. They gave and took everything from one another, right down to the very life that flowed in their veins. Such was the power of their bond. It was a dream she wanted to live. “Magnus,” she whispered.

“Hmm?”

“You know, you’re the first guy that’s ever called me the love of his life?”

He stroked her hair. Just before she dozed off to sleep, she heard him say, “And I’ll be the last.”