Chapter 1

1400 Carpathian Mountains

"I can hear them screaming." My voice was soft, but anger and fury burned behind my eyes. I couldn't stand this. The Turks were slaughtering everything in this land, we had to do something.

"We have our orders Cressida, we have to return." Marcus was resting on his brown stallion with a grim expression on his face, his armour glinted in the evening light. My leather and steel plated armour was itching my skin, I couldn't just sit here.

"I wont hear them cry for help and watch this land burn when I know I can do something." I hissed.

I shouldn't really snap at him, he was my right hand man, he stood by me, he felt the same way, but he had trouble breaking the rules.

"The Court have decreed, even Vlad has pulled away from the alliance. I believe he is following the saying 'keep thyself to thyself'. It is no longer our business or our duty to help the humans or Carpathians."

I sighed and even Marcus and the men with us looked grim. My black mare was crow hopping under me, she knew there was a war going on and she wanted to take action. I patted her mane soothingly.

"Honour, duty or neither, it is our humane right to aid them."

"We're not human Cressida. Lets go home, your daughter is probably missing you."

The thought of my three year old daughter brought a stab to my heart. She was so young and smart, so beautiful. "There are children as young and younger than my daughter, screaming right now for help as they die. I would not leave my daughter anymore than I would one of them. Either you follow me or I go alone. Decide." I threw the last word at the twenty men in our group. They had been following me for years, under my command. But still maybe this would break us and I'd have to stand on my own.

Most of the men chuckled, drew their swords and lowered the visors on their helmets.

"You're not getting rid of us that easy Cressida." Caern said in a gruff voice. The others cheered in agreement, gearing themselves ready for battle.

I smiled and drew my visor down on my peaked helmet, the only thing the Turks would see before their death would be the carved demons face on my helmet as I slaughtered them.

"Kill the Turks, save as many as you can. Split up into groups of two, meet back up at the village to the east of here, cover as much ground as possible."

Within moments we were moving through the forests with silent, deadly stealth. We didn't even have to ask who went with who, the groups were decided years ago, Marcus was always with me. The first group of Turks we came across were thinking about where to start digging, my arrows pierced their skulls before they even looked up, Marcus rode ahead on his horse, I heard a scream and his mental shout.

I caught up in time to see him kill two Turks with his blade, the other one was crawling to a dugout pit where I could see a blistering arm, I could hear the woman's screams from beneath the earth, her mates mental cry as he tried to find strength against the high beating sun. With anger and fear beating at my heart I swung off my horse and landed on the Turks back I stabbed through his back to his heart with my hidden blade, as he fell to the side I started to help Marcus fill in the pit quickly with the crude metal shovels the Turks had been using.

We didn't answer any of the calls verbally, didn't let anyone see us, kept our helmets down so if they did they only saw carved metal. We were breaking the rules, but we had to help, we were warriors and protectors, we couldn't watch people get murdered and do nothing.

The sun sank faster as we worked, many times we were too late and only killed the Turks for revenge, but there were a few times when we got there in time, they were either dug up and we were able to get them to shelter or put them back in the ground. The clouds gathered and I could hear the Carpathians rising early, seeking refuge and retaliating. My heart skipped a beat when we came to the village.

Smoke and flames everywhere. Women, men and children screaming, some were hung by ropes and pikes. The Turks were all over the village and they were torturing people, locking them in blazing buildings, raping women and children, carving them up like a dinner, skinning them, branding them. Every torture imaginable. I had seen monsters in my life, as bad and worse than the vampire, but this was humanity on the line of being demons. Fire blazed in my soul.

"Spill their blood. Save the ones you can and give mercy to those you cant. Slay the Turks and traitors and we shall be gone before the Carpathians come. Go." I sent the message to all of my men as they arrived, the message winged through the air verbally and mentally, reaching each and every one of them, linking us together. I was moving with one intent. To kill. Blood coloured my vision and the deaths became a blur as I fired my arrows and sliced my blades. I saved the ones I could, but I was disappointed I couldn't save more.

We managed to save less than half the village by the time we left. We were ravaged by their cries and screams, they were alive but they were the ones who'd have to deal with the aftermath. Like us, when the Court's got hold of us there would be hell to pay for helping people not of the Alliance.

I was kneeling with Marcus at my right, shock. The Court was not happy. Yet they couldn't fully condemn us, it was our duty after all to protect and save people, no matter what species or race they were from. They had taken our armour and weapons, my men stood lined up along the far wall, the cave was dull with the flickering of a few candles. Three men and two women sat on a stone throne in front of us, they were said to be the strongest of us, the oldest and power fullest. Still, all we knew came from books, the books were normally written by the people who won wars anyway. I didn't believe everything I read.

"You broke a rule, Cressida. That is not like you, or you Marcus." Lesil said as she flicked her long red hair around her curvaceous body, her satin red dress delicately composed. Not a wrinkle in sight, not on any of them.

"Me and my men took a vow to save any life, that will forever apply to everyone. That is the example I set for my daughter and her daughters and theirs and so on for eternity. I will not regret my decision even if you disagree with it."

I met their eyes, they all understood, except one.

"We are here to govern, to ensure we survive, Vlad foresaw the plight of his people, and of other races, they all knew change was coming, instead of asking for our help they wished to deal with it themselves. We shall honour their decision and stay out of their business. You will place us all in danger with your actions, you will kill your men, innocent good working men, who have given their lives for you and others over time without hesitation. If you continue to be reckless, perhaps your child is not safe in your care, we will take Sarintha away from you to protect her." Vulcar's words scraped across my ears, his threat to my daughter was loud and clear. His inky black hair and sharp features reminded me of how malicious he could be.

I hissed and climbed to my feet, seeing red again. Marcus jumped up to restrain me.

"Vulcar, you have every right to be angry at us, but if you ever threaten my wife with the abduction of our daughter, or any threat to my family ever again, I will not hesitate in retaliating." Marcus soothed me, whispering in my mind to help me gain control.

"I agree." Lesil said with a glare at Vulcar. "You do not threaten a mother by taking away her child, what did you expect? You sent our Guardians into a land where war is raging, of course they are going to intervene, that is nature. Just as it is nature if the races diminish from this earth. It would not be the first time it has happened. But that is the way it is."

I acknowledged her help by bowing my head, I took Marcus's hand gratefully and smiled at him from the corner of my eye.

"True, but many of the races have withdrawn requesting we no longer aide them and they no longer aide us. Cressida, Marcus, Guardians, I am afraid to avoid a political or species war we will have to leave them to their own devices, we will not enter their lands or intervene unless absolutely necessary." Alta said as he swept his brown hair out of his face, his light green eyes warm and wise.

I knew he was right, but being a Guardian wasn't something you chose, you were born into it, the need to protect and save everything and everyone ingrained on your very soul. We would have to learn to ignore some cries for help it appeared.

"Still, the Carpathians are dangerous. They are constantly on the verge of turning vampire, the female population is depleting and they are a threat. It is obviously a clear sign that they will not return to Court or be privy to the Alliance. Nature will erase them and we will no longer have to deal with them and their personal demons." Vulcar spat on the floor, he always did have a problem with the Carpathians, as much as I was curious about that, it wasn't my place to know. But I had befriended the Carpathians, I would defend them verbally if not physically.

"Say what you will, Vulcar. But we have our own demons to deal with, or do you forget our origins? We are not the saints of the earth. We also have special talents and skills granted to our people like the Carpathians. We are cousin races. Marissa had visions, like Vlad, she foresaw an alliance, a strong bond being made with the Carpathians in the future. It would not be easy she said, and many trials awaited us and them. But a link shall be made and our two races joined."

The Carpathians would thrive, they would come back from the brink of extinction because I knew they were strong enough. Just like the other races out there, just because we had an Alliance and were united, didn't mean we were in control of everything.

"If I remember correctly, she also said that bond would be made by one of your family line, a daughter of yours in the future. A bond made in blood, a bonding of souls. That sounds very much like a Carpathian ritual, of Lifemates." He hissed the word and spat on the floor again. "It is impossible for our species to join, our blood would kill each other on a cellular level, and it would bring great pain to our race. I believe that the females of your future family will need to be monitored, protected, guarded by us. We do not have Lifemates. We have our Fated. The Carpathians have no right to steal our woman to salvage themselves."

That left the cave silent, everyone was contemplating what he had said. In a way it was true, our men and women were like the Carpathian's Lifemates, we had tried to exchange blood before in the past for healing and the result had been death for both participants. Our people were Fated and bound in this life and the next, we found each other and worked together, we could not work without the other and slowly we perish if one is slain. But I still did not like Vulcar's suggestion of monitoring my future family. He was up to something, but I couldn't argue what because I did not know what it was. I needed to find a way to protect my daughters and theirs, even the Carpathians.

Marcus squeezed my hand, he had a bad feeling about this as well.

The man on the end with deep brown skin and braided black hair clinging to his back, tapped the tribal tattoos on his arms in contemplation. "We will have to discuss this situation at another time when we all gather. For now we shall adjourn." Diego locked his eyes with me and nodded slightly, he didn't like where Vulcar was going with this either. But only time would tell how bad things were really.