Heart of the Guardians: Adoring Destiny by Adrianna Adore (best big ereader .TXT) 📗

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