The Guardian's Keeper (The Guardian Trilogy, Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

in disdain, “I’ll finish the story.”
    Claire nodded her head, eager to hear what happened next and how it p ertained to her.
    “ Nikolai gorged himself on Agacio’s blood until he passed out. Kind of like a drunkard passing out from too much drink, except his passing out was his body’s self-defense so it could heal itself. He had undergone so much trauma and damage. When he came to again in the dark, two whole nights later, he looked upon the deceased Agacio and wept with shame and grief, horrified he had killed him, horrified even more he had not stayed awake to return the favor in kind and let Agacio drink his blood so that he may have turned vampire rather than perished. As he wept a blinding light flashed through the room. Nikolai cowered, thinking dawn had caught him unprepared and it was then end for him after all. When he realized he had not perished and turned to dust, he slowly opened his eyes and rose up. There before him stood the Goddess Circe in all her glory.” Joyce glanced out the window and Claire automatically followed her gaze. Dawn was upon them now, its first weak rays chasing away the night’s blackness.
    “You’ll be ok, in the light?” Claire asked Nikoli with genuine concern.
    Nikoli was visibly taken aback by her sudden kindness to him. “Yes, I did my injection in the barn; the co-mingled blood will counteract the sun’s effects on me for a full day. I have to re-inject myself before dawn every day if I want to walk in the light,” he explained. “Joyce, finish up. Claire needs to understand what this all means, then we all must rest. We have a long trip in front of us.”
    “ Yes, Nikoli, you’re right. Circe appeared in the cave to Nikolai, who was wracked with grief about killing Agacio unintentionally. Circe calmed him, explaining he could make it up to Agacio, he had an important job ahead of him. She opened her palm and there lay Stavros’ Fangs. She told him that while Stavros was dead for now and his corpse was to be burned, his skull would remain and could not be destroyed. The only way to bring him back once his body had been burned was to place a Fang back into its spot in the jawbone. To even touch a Fang to its original position would be to rise Stavros up from his grave. He would regenerate and start his reign of terror anew if a Fang ever found its way back to its place.”
    Claire interr upted, addressing Nikoli. “The Fangs? Is that the Fang you were asking me about?” Nikoli nodded in response, his eyes alight with joy Claire was not only listening but catching on quickly. Claire offered a small smile in return then turned her attention back to Joyce so she could continue. She couldn’t continue to look at Nikoli, his intense gaze at her just then had given her butterflies in her stomach.
    “ Circe informed Nikolai that she would destroy one of the Fangs herself. She had the magic to do so, to obliterate it completely, but- she would only destroy one Fang. The other she handed to Nikolai, and told him that it was the responsibility of the humans and vampires to work together to safeguard the second Fang. Circe warned him that Stavros’ essence still had sway over his offspring and-”
    “Wait a minute here, ” Claire interrupted again, her mind working overtime. “Stavros had kids? A family?”
    N ikoli jumped in to answer her. “No, not in the traditional sense. Joyce is referring to his vampire offspring, the humans he had fed on then turned into vampires. Most vampires are reluctant to turn another, more vampires means more competition for resources, more chance of being discovered. As he demonstrated when he attacked the Greek nomads and became infected with what you would call Gypsy blood, Stavros was prone to self-destructive behavior with little thought to the consequences. In his few decades as a vampire he had already turned a few dozen humans vampire, whereas as most vampires won’t turn a human even once a century.”
    “ So how could he