Guardian of the Sacred Fire Ch. 07-08

This part does have a sex scene in it. As i have stated before, this isn't really an erotica novel. Thank you to all those commenting and voting. I know this story can get a bit cliche. Over the years i have re-read it and i roll my eyes. I was just going to file 13 it before i gave it this last chance. Thank you all again.

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Chapter Seven: Sentinel

We ate dinner together in the kitchen and went to the parlor to see Midael. He was looking at the amulets closely back to front.

"You found them buried at the bottom of the pond?" he asked.

"Yes." Adrian answered.

"They were amulets for lovers. One representing fire and the other water. Complete opposites they void each other. I don't sense a spell or curse on them, and being as you have already touched them with no harm I believe they are safe. You know the rule. What you find you keep." He said.

"Well being as we both found them, why don't you take one." He said and went to clasp the ruby one around my neck.

"I like you in red." He whispered in my ear.

Extreme heat flushed to my cheeks and I turned my face away. I couldn't help but blush. I admit, red was the best color that complimented my hair and skin color. I helped him with the sapphire and I swore I seen Midael roll his eyes and smile.

"So I am to name you Sentinel today Anna." Midael said. "I think I will change my mind at it being Oriel."

"The golden one." Adrian whispered to me.

"I see you two have a bond that cannot be broken now. So Adrian, you will be named Anastasia's Sentinel."

"Bond, sir?" Adrian asked.

"Young love." Midael answered with a smile. "Do you accept?" he asked the both of us.

We looked at each other and nodded.

"Say the oath Adrian, make it complete, so that way nothing can break the bond."

Adrian got in front of me and went to his knees.

"I, Adrian Hayyel vow to you Anastasia Hallow, known as Vesta, to protect you all of my days. To help guide you down the path of righteousness, I give you my sword, my life, my very essence until the last breath leaves my body."

"Repeat these words Anna. I Vesta accept your vow."

I repeated the words and he kissed my hand. I felt power between us now. Not feelings of mutual attraction, but power. I saw our aura's meld together at our hands. For an instant I glowed a blue and he red.

"Your souls are now intertwined until your deaths." Midael said. "Now go get some rest Anna, we have a long day tomorrow."

I nodded and Adrian got to his feet. "Let me walk you to your room." He said and took my hand.

We came to my door and I was suddenly depressed. The day ended too soon for me. He smiled down at me. He was at least 6'4. 2 inches from being a foot taller than me. I stared up into his jade green eyes and smiled back. "Well goodnight then." He said.

"Oh." I said and looked down. "Goodnight." I opened my bedroom door. Please just kiss me. Just a little kiss? Why was I acting like a little girl with a childhood crush? I went into my bedroom as he walked away. I shut the door behind me and leaned against it. I was happy and sad at the same time. Hoorah for being a woman! A quiet knock came to the door and I opened it. Adrian's lips were suddenly on mine. He picked me up by my ass and I wrapped my legs around him. He pressed his lips hard against mine and I opened my mouth for him. The heat from him was overwhelming. Now this, I didn't want to end.

He made his way to my bed and sat me down. "I've been wanting to do that all day." He said. "But I want to do this the right way. Guardians and their Sentinels are usually lovers if you haven't noticed. To complete the bond, they have to become one, not only with their power, but with mind and body."

I instantly got what he meant and I blushed again. Wow, he was good at doing that to me.

"But like I said, I want to do this the right way. I don't want to have sex just because we have to. I want to court you, woo you, whatever you want to call it. I would like to take you on dates, even though around here is limited and Midael doesn't want you to go out yet until you are ready."

"Well then, we will just have to improvise." I said and smiled.

He went to his knees in front of me again and wrapped his arms around me and laid his head on my lap. Usually being this close to a guy I was nervous. I was until he said the oath. Now I felt at peace when he touched me. He looked up at me and I brushed his hair behind his ears. He kissed me again and stood up.

"Get some rest Anna. Midael is right; his training is long and hard."

I nodded and stood up with him. "Shower first. I always shower before bed." I said and headed to my bathroom.

"I wish I could join you." He said with a smile.

"Only you are stopping yourself." I answered. Way to go Anna, sound like a slut.

"Is that an offer or permission?" he asked.

"Both." I said and went to the bathroom and left the door open. I turned the water on and stripped out of my clothing. A blush stayed on my cheeks as I got under the hot shower. I put shampoo in my hair and washed the silt and algae out of it.

I was rinsing out the conditioner when I felt cold air. I opened my eyes and Adrian stood there, his own version of a blush made his face glow.

"You are even more beautiful than I imagined." He said. He tilted his head back under a different shower head and water dripped down his body. I watched it trail down until I reached his hips. I couldn't help but look. I don't care who you are, you can't help but look at a man's package. It was like amazement to women. Our genitals were mostly inside. My eyes widened with how big he was. He did have a semi going on but even not all the way hard he was huge. I had to fight myself from physically cringing from just the thought of sex with him. I slowly brought my gaze back to his eyes. Thank god his head was still tilted back and his eyes closed. I would be so embarrassed if he caught me looking at him. I grabbed my body wash and opened it.

"Allow me." Adrian said and took it from me. He placed some in his hands and lathered it.

"I do have-." His hands started massaging my back and I shut up. His fingers found knotted muscles from my training with Permaz. I kicked my loofah away. His fingers slid around to my stomach. I felt him hesitate but continued on when I didn't stop him. He massaged my breasts tenderly, his touch gentle. He pulled me against him as his fingers trailed lower, no longer covered in soap. His fingers dipped between my legs and I gasped. I could feel him completely hard now against my lower back.

He spun me around and his lips locked on mine again and the kiss was ravenous compared to his touch.

"Do you want to wait?" he asked after breaking the kiss.

I shook my head side to side and a wild smile came to his lips. He lifted me up by my butt and I wrapped my legs around him like earlier. I heard him open the body wash. He was rubbing soap on himself. Which was a good thing, water is not a lubricant at all. He lowered me down to the tip of him. He worked his way inside me and I cried out. When I reached the base of him he let out a low moan. I looked up into his face and his eyes were closed. We were suddenly against the wall and he was slowly moving in and out of me. His lips were on mine as he ate my moans as he moved faster. I was already close as he continued on. His fingers dug into my hips making each thrust faster and harder. I cried out and bit into his shoulder at my orgasm to quiet my screams. He thrust once more and I felt him release. Power flared between us once more as our auras completely melded. I released my teeth and I relaxed against his chest. We were both breathing hard. I could hear his heart thundering. He pulled out of me and it made me moan again. He lowered me to my feet and I looked up at him. He was watching me.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked.

"Quite the opposite." I said, my legs shaking in agreement.

He smiled then. It lit up his entire face. "Why would you have hurt me?"

"Well, I've had women complain."

"I will admit I was a little scared at first, but god, it felt good." I said.

We dried off and he joined me in my bed. He held me close and I laid my head on his chest. His heartbeat lulling me to sleep. His fingers were trailing up and down my back as dreams took me.

Adrian and I were swimming again. He was splashing me and suddenly was pulled under into the murky water.

"Adrian that isn't funny." I called out.

The water started turning red around me. I dived under and all I could see was red. I swam down and found his hand. I tried pulling him up but something grabbed my legs and began to pull me under farther. I kicked free and swam to the surface with him. I pulled him onto shore and his chest was slashed open. Blood was freely flowing and I cried out his name. He wasn't breathing. I found my shirt next to me and placed it over the wounds and I started CPR. His heart wasn't beating. Tears streamed down my face as I futilely tried to bring him back. His jade eyes stared out lifeless. I heard laughing all around me.

I gasped awake. I was still in Adrian's arms. I could hear him breathing and his heart beating. I sat up and my hands felt odd. I looked at them and through the moonlight coming into the room I noticed they were covered in a dark thick substance. I got up without touching anything and went to the bathroom. I clicked on the light with my elbow and screamed. My hands were covered in blood along with my torso. Adrian came in and grabbed a towel. My chest had claw marks on it. How he didn't have blood on him I didn't know. He pressed the towel to my chest and turned the water on in the sink.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I had a bad dream and I woke up like this." I told him.

Midael came into the bathroom and took the towel from my chest. I had totally forgotten we were naked. He started talking in another language and I knew he was cussing. In other languages you could always tell when someone was cussing. He put the towel back on the gashes. He grabbed a robe from behind the door and wrapped it around me and lifted me up. He carried me out of the room and toward a part of the mansion I had never went to. The blood was soaking through the towel. I was getting dizzy.

Adrian was running behind us as we came to a medical ward. The air felt heavy with power. I was cold and shivering by the time I was put on a gurney.

"Anna I'm going to put you to sleep now." Adrian said. I understood him but everything was becoming incoherent. Their voices became fuzzy as I felt the pressure of a needle in my arms. It didn't hurt, nothing hurt now. I felt at peace. For the second time in my life I was dying. This time I wasn't ready, I wasn't dying for someone I loved.

I felt really tired.

"Count to ten Anna." Adrian said over me.

"1...2...3...4." That was as far as I got.

Adrian

I looked down at Anna. Her blood was seeping through the towel at an alarming rate. I prepped her right arm to put an IV in and cleaned it. I was unaware of Midael. My attention was on getting her better. Since the first moment I had saw her come in lifeless to my hospital I felt the urge to protect her. I still didn't know how she had survived without enough blood to oxygenate her brain. I remembered the look on the vampire's face. A face of pure agony while he himself was covered in blood. At first I thought it was hers and I was so ready to kill him. I wish I would have. Vampires weren't alive, they shouldn't be walking around like they were.

Midael poured water on the gashes and I hissed at the jagged edges. It didn't take but a few seconds before new blood poured out of the surface.

"He got a vein." I said and began to move the skin thanking God for anesthesia. When I found the opened vein he handed me a cauterizing gun. It wasn't actually a gun, it was a device that got the tip super heated to close wounds. I put it to each side of the vein and the bleeding became minimal. He poured water again and handed me a rounded needle and stitching thread. I began to stitch muscle first. So much damage done and there wasn't anything I could have done to protect her.

"How did this happen?" I asked.

"It was probably Memuneh the Dispenser of Dreams."

"Why?"

"Who knows. He could have stopped her heart but didn't. He was toying with her."

"How do you know all of this?" I asked and glanced up at him. He untied the sash that held his robe shut and the same marks were on his chest. Jagged scars from the right collar bone to under the left pectoral muscle. I hoped I could get the scarring to a minimal. Most women hated scars and especially where it was she would probably never wear a low cut shirt again.

I thought of our day together swimming in the pond. How embarrassed I was at first but to hear her heart pound at seeing me made it better. She was extremely slow underwater and to just hold her hand as we got the chest made my own heart thunder. I swore to protect her until she was needed as Vesta and I couldn't even do that on day one. It really made me feel shitty about myself.

"I'm going to send for her vampire. Memuneh fears them for some reason and won't attack if he is around." Midael said quietly as he held her skin together so I could close it.

"You think that's the best idea?" I asked not looking at him.

"I do."

"You're the boss man." I said as I finished on the last gash. With the extra speed being a lycanthrope I was done in half the time of a regular doctor. Twenty minutes had only passed since I woke to her terrified screams. I didn't think I could move that fast.

I grabbed a rag and poured distilled water on it to clean the wounds. Midael had already left to wash up. He had carried her here and blood was on his chest and hands. I pulled a sheet up over her chest to cover her and went to the washroom with Midael. I had completely forgotten about being naked. Being a lycanthrope we preferred it that way. It was easier to transform. It took a lot of energy to phase with clothes on and keep them intact. I just recently figured out how to do it.

Midael handed me a towel and I wrapped it around my waist and went to the sink. I washed the blood off my hands and wrists and scrubbed while just staring into space. I tried not to think about the woman in the next room. She was the savior of us all and none of the others seemed to realize it. I had three years with her before He came. It was shut a short time that made my heart ache even more. I knew it was the bond of being her Sentinel that made me love her. But Midael had said earlier we had "young love" whatever that meant. Maybe it could have had been the start of something. I knew if we had met on different terms I wouldn't have given her a second glance. She was human and humans died too easily at our hands. It wasn't because I didn't find her attractive. She was what I had always wanted in a woman. Not the girls today that tried to be a size zero or had more plastic in them than a Barbie, Anna was real.

I shut the water off and headed toward my room for clothes. I first checked on her to make sure she was still sleeping. The anesthesia would soon wear off and she would need something for pain. I needed to be there for that. The only other one that knew anything about medicine was Midael. I was picky with the anesthesia. You had to be careful how much you gave someone. Too much and they would never wake up and too little would barely have an effect. She was human, she was too easy to kill. A couple more cc's of a medicine and she could die of an overdose. I wish she were something more than human so I wouldn't have to worry so much.

I reached my room and I put my head on the door for a minute just to get a hold of myself. I flexed my hands into fists a couple of times to get a hold of the rage that was building inside. I didn't want to shift, I needed to be there and if I were to shift I would be stuck in that form for a few hours. If I came right back I would be too exhausted to be any good for anyone. I turned the door knob and went into my room. I chose the green room because it reminded me of forests. I went to my dresser and pulled out clothes. I didn't really see what I was grabbing. I put on the shirt and shorts and went to my bathroom. Anna had the nice bathroom. I just had a regular tub and shower like back home. I brushed my teeth quickly when a knock came to my door.

Midael poked his head in. "She's waking up." He said.

I followed after him quickly, wanting to be there before she fully woke up. She would be in a lot of pain. I reached the medical ward at fast jog. She was moving her head and small moans came from her. I felt horrible. I went to the large medicine cabinet and pulled out the small bottle of morphine. I grabbed a needle and syringe and filled it.

Anna

I woke in extreme pain. It hurt to breathe, to move, to exist. My chest felt like someone had shredded it apart. Oh wait. Someone did. I tried lifting my head to look but couldn't manage. The anesthesia was still working in my veins. Adrian moved into my view and put something in the I.V. in my hand. It burned at first.

"Its morphine. It will help with the pain." He said. He kissed my lips and I went off to sleep again. I liked drugged sleeps. They were dreamless. Just a black void of nothingness until you woke.

Chapter Eight: Burn

The next time I was actually coherent I woke in my room. I felt power surrounding it and something beating at trying to get in. The thought scared me. Something was trying to get in and kill me in my sleep. I came to the sudden realization that this wasn't all fun and games. That the devil really was going to rise and try to take over the world, and I was the general of the army that was supposed to stop him. I started doing the thing I hated the most and cried as the realization of it all came crashing down on me. I sat up in my bed and brought my knees up to me. Shockingly there was no pain. I cried until there were no more tears left.

Somewhere in the midst of crying Adrian had came into the room and held me. He didn't say a word at all, just held me.

"You're not alone." He said after I had gone quiet.

"When it comes down to it, facing Lucifel, somehow I think I'm going to be facing him alone." I said bitterly.

"There is someone here to see you." He told me and stood up.

Azrael came into the room and it brought a smile to my face. The fact that he lied to me wasn't even on my mind. I was just happy to see him.

"Hey doll face." He said and crawled into the bed beside me and hugged me gently. "Heard you got some new battle scars."

I unbuttoned the night shirt and showed him the scars. The stitches were gone.

"Adrian how long have I been out?"

"A couple days. You needed time to recuperate physically and mentally." He answered and went to the door. There was a look of hurt on his face as he looked at Azrael in the bed next to me.

"I'll bring you some food." He said and left.

"So where did this come from?" Azrael said and lifted the amulet around my neck.

"Adrian and I found them at the bottom of a pond during training."

"So training now involves swimming?" he asked.

"I've missed you." I said changing the topic.

"And I have missed you." He said and put his hand on my cheek in a light caress.

My heart pounded yet again. It always seemed to do that when I was around Azrael. Little butterflies appeared in my stomach as his lips lightly touched mine.

"And doll face?" I asked and looked up at him with a smile. "Since when did I become doll face?"

"Just a term of endearment." He said and smiled back.

"How long can you stay?" I asked.

"As long as you need me here. They came and got me the day after the attack. The animal wouldn't leave you alone. He was constantly hovering over you."

"He is a doctor."