Cursed Hearts

Cursed Hearts

The Guardian Heart Crystal Series Book 8

Amy Blankenship

Copyright © 2010 Amy Blankenship

English Edition Published by Amy Blankenship

Second Edition Published by TekTime

All rights reserved.

Chapter 1 “Sacrifice”

The guardian brothers gathered around the remains of the maiden statue. Even wounded and bloody, they were still a sight to behold. Their translucent wings spanned out behind them like the angels of legend, but the deadly weapons they’d just used to beat back the rain of demons told of their true nature. The guardians were more dangerous and lethal than the demons could ever hope to be.

They are the protectors of The Heart of Time… the time portal that is the link between the demon world and all the human ones. Time and space separate the worlds so no one can cross without the use of the sacred portal. The guardians had never expected to turn their power against what they’d been born to protect.

The winds of change had started three years ago when the maiden statue suddenly began to glow, revealing the fact that the human priestess had been reborn on the other side of The Heart of Time. Hyakuhei, once the most powerful guardian, now lord of the demons, had attacked, sending his demonic minions into a frenzy as they tried to get to the portal… trying to get to the priestess on the other side.

The guardians knew why Hyakuhei had attacked with such passionate fury, but the dark guardian’s reason didn’t matter… they couldn’t allow it. Their intense war raged for three long years, never stopping, weakening both sides of the conflict… until today. Hyakuhei had released the most cunning of the demons, banding them together with the weaker ones to fight with a vengeance.

Sending the army of evil to overrun the guardians in sheer number, Hyakuhei had spread his dark shadowy wings, calling forth his ultimate power to destabilize the barrier and escape into the human realm. It’d happened so fast that the guardians didn’t even know how many demons had slipped through the barrier with him and the only way to stop more from following had been to destroy The Heart of Time.

Now the guardians were at a crossroads. Hyakuhei and the demons would be free to stalk the priestess within the human realm, because with the time portal destroyed… the guardians couldn’t reach her.

“We shouldn’t have done that,” Toya growled, glaring at the pile of rubble from where he knelt on the ground. Loss of blood had sapped his energy but not his anger. He’d sent all the power he could through the time portal an instant behind Hyakuhei. He only hoped he had wounded the demon lord in the process. “Hyakuhei will hunt her!”

“She’s just a baby. Three years old and powerless against them.” The sadness in Kamui's voice was thick as his eyes glittered with tears. He tried to wipe the evidence away but only succeeded in leaving a smear of blood across his cheek. “What if the demons find her before he does?”

“She won’t stand a chance against them.” Kotaro closed his ice blue eyes in denial. “She doesn’t have anyone there that can protect her from demons… or from Hyakuhei.”

Shinbe’s amethyst wings vanished as he wrapped his arm around the gash across his ribs. He would heal, but it would do no good. “We may have stopped the rest of the demons from entering her world… but in truth, we have lost it all if he claims her.”

Kyou was the only one still standing at his full height, but only because he chose to ignore his own wounds in light of the dilemma that they were now facing. “It is not over.” His voice was devoid of the anguish that plagued his brothers.

“What are you talking about?” Toya hissed as he stumbled to his feet. “The time portal’s destroyed. We can’t save her.” His silver wings vanished in a flurry of feathers, making way for his anger.

“There is a way… but the price is high,” Kyou informed them.

“There is no price too high,” Kamui spoke what the others were thinking. His hands were now fisted at his sides and his eyes determined.

Kyou’s long silver hair fluttered in the breeze as he turned his golden eyes to lock them with Kamui's. “Would you die for her?”

“If it would save her and her world,” was Kamui's instant reply as he took a step forward. “Then it would be but a small sacrifice.”

“Just tell us what we have to do,” Toya demanded. “Our lives already belong to her… If it takes blood then we will bleed.”

Kyou looked from one guardian to the next seeing they were all in agreement. “If we die in this realm, then we will appear in hers… but there is a cost for such an act. Our powers as guardians will be cut in half, and our wings are the price of payment because they will be the power that carries us across time and space.”

“Will we be together?” Shinbe had the forethought to ask.

“We are brothers and that will never change. We will not be reborn… but slip through the veil of time as we are. To the mortals, we will appear only around the ages of seventeen to nineteen, but our immortality will keep us from aging. The power of the descent will give us a life as if we have always been there among them… near her. The priestess is innocent in the realm of humans… she will have no power until she comes of age.”

Shinbe tightened his grip on his staff as he looked out at the bloody battlefield that surrounded them. “We’ve been attacked by powerful demons many times, and yet we live. Just how does a guardian go about getting himself killed?”

The faintest hint of a smile possessed Kyou’s lips as he answered. “It takes a guardian to kill a guardian.”

“If we are going to do this, then we might as well make it a test of strength,” Kotaro insisted trying to push away the horror of killing one's brother.

Shinbe nodded, understanding what Kotaro was trying to do. “We have always wondered who among us is the strongest.”

Kamui's glittering eyes turned black and the ebony color quickly spread out across his wings as if eating the stardust that glittered there in multi-hued flecks. The instant Kamui came into his true power; it became a fight to the death.

Within moments, Toya was the last one standing. He dropped to his knees from the pain of what he’d just done, and what he yet had to do. No one had thought about the truest sacrifice that was to be made.

“To be with you,” his voice was only a whisper as he kept the rest of his thoughts deep within him. Taking his twin daggers in a tight grip, he plunged them into his own heart. The last of his power activated the sacred daggers as the ice quickly spread out from his heart… followed by the flames.

Chapter 2 “A Voice from the Past”

15 years later…

Kyoko paused in front of the office door not wanting to go in. She’d been at the all girls’ boarding school as far back as she could remember and being called to Mrs. Crap’s office had never been a good thing. It gave the words ‘Oh Crap’ a new meaning.

“Come in Hogo.” Even muted from the other room, the female voice seemed harsh and unyielding, the kind that basically grated on people’s nerves.

Kyoko flinched wondering how the hell the old lady even knew she was standing there. She took a second to glance around her, looking for the secret spy camera she had never found then shrugged and opened the door.

Seeing that the head mistress was not alone in the office, Kyoko shifted from one foot to the other wondering what she’d done to get in trouble this time. Since the school was in the middle of nowhere and there were no males allowed on the premises, she’d never been in the same room with the opposite sex and instantly looked away from him.

“Take a seat Miss Hogo, we have much to discuss.” Mrs. Crap said with all the snootiness she could. Even she seemed to be rattled that her righteous school had been invaded by a man. “This is Mr. Sennin, a lawyer who has been in charge of your family’s estate since you were placed here at our school. He has brought to my attention that his job is now finished and all rights of the estate revert back to you as of midnight tonight.”

Kyoko blinked several times in confusion. Her family’s what? She’d always been told that she was a ward of the school and assumed that meant she was an orphan. Her birthday was tomorrow but… Kyoko flinched from her thoughts when Mrs. Crap suddenly stood and headed for the door of the office.

The old woman’s back was stiff as a board and her heels clicked loudly on the hardwood floors of the office. She looked down her nose past the annoying glasses that hung from the end of it. “I will leave Mr. Sennin to explain the rest.” The door closed with a resounding boom, leaving Kyoko and the man alone within the office.

“May I call you Kyoko?” Mr. Sennin asked politely. Personally, he was glad the old heifer had left them alone.

His voice was aged and rough but soft and sweet at the same time, making Kyoko finally raise her emerald eyes to meet his. He was dressed in a business suit like a lawyer, but his smile belonged to someone’s grandpa because that smile reached all the way to his twinkling gray eyes. She nodded, needing a moment to find her voice.

“You know my family?” Kyoko asked the one question she thought she’d never get an answer to.

“I knew them very well. Your grandfather was my best friend.” He sighed as he took Mrs. Crap’s chair and pulled it around the desk next to Kyoko’s. “Your grandfather brought you to me when you were only three years old with very explicit instructions and a will. He was killed in a freak accident only a couple hours after leaving my law firm.”

The old man took a deep breath as if the memory still hurt him deeply, then he started to explain. “Your grandpa came to me in confidence. He told me that everyone in your family was in danger. Your parents had just died under strange circumstances and he feared for your life… afraid you would be next I suppose.”

He fidgeted as if struggling to explain. “You see… your mother and father were found in your family’s living room, seemingly mauled to death by some kind of animal.” His eyes darkened at the memory. “But there was never any evidence found of animals having been within the house.”

Mr. Sennin frowned, “When the police arrived, they searched for your younger brother Tama, but he’d disappeared without a trace. You were with your grandfather at the county fair during the time of your parent’s death. But when the investigators had searched the house; it was your room that had the most damage done to it. That’s when your grandfather brought you to my office.”

“They’re all gone?” Kyoko felt like she was caught in the headlights… finding out she did have a family and knowing she’d lost them all within the same breath. “No one has ever told me any of this. They just always said that I was a ward of the school. I’ve never even been allowed off campus.” She blinked wondering if she might’ve been better off not knowing.

Mr. Sennin nodded, “My instructions were to send you to a secluded boarding school as far away as I could find from your family’s home, then not to have any form of contact with you until your seventeenth birthday. I’ve always sent the school fees by way of an off shore account so they could not be traced.”

He looked around the room feeling regret for her isolation. “The only reason I picked this place was because the ground here is sacred… blessed by the monks who live in the monastery right up the mountain. Their ancestry and traditions are the oldest in the world… and the most powerful. I also asked that you never be allowed off school grounds. You see, your grandfather, he was convinced that if you weren’t hidden away somewhere… that the demons would find you.”

Kyoko flinched in surprise. “Demons?” That was her secret and she’d never told anyone. Her roommates always asked her about her nightmares when she would wake up screaming, but she would simply tell them she didn’t remember the dreams. She cast her eyes down not wanting him to see the fear within them.

He cleared his throat wondering if he’d said too much and quickly turned to his paperwork as if he could stack it even neater then it already was. “Put it this way, I trusted your grandfather just as much as he trusted me.”

Kyoko tried to block out the visions that were trying to form in her mind. The mental family portrait that she had secretly harbored in her heart was now covered in blood. Blinking the vision away until all she could see was the kind man that had spoken to bluntly she asked, “What happens at midnight tonight? Mrs. Crap said…”

“Mrs. Crap,” Mr. Sennin laughed then cleared his throat. “You have to admit that the name fits her.” He shared a grin with her then placed his folder of paperwork on the desk in front of Kyoko. “There’s a rather large house and an even larger sum of money that reverts back to you tonight at midnight. You may stay here as long as you like, or you can return home to the place you were born and finish out your senior year of high school.”

Kyoko’s lips parted and her emerald eyes had grown bigger as he spoke. “I have a house?”

He looked a little sheepish as he answered, “Yes. It’s on the edge of town and the land behind it is yours as far as the eye can see. It even has a heated in ground swimming pool within the flower gardens behind the house that you can’t see from the road. You’ll have all the privacy you could ever want.”

Seeing her bite her lower lip, he tried to ease her fears. “The house is not in the middle of nowhere like this place is. There is a huge house directly across the road and there’s always lots of cars coming and going. I’ve noticed because my wife and I have gone to your house once a month to clean it for the last fifteen years. We even recently stocked it in case you decide to come home.”

A slow smile spread across Kyoko’s lips as she reached for the one thing she’d always wanted. Inside the folder was a picture of a big house with a well-manicured flower garden and a long driveway. Home… she had a home, a place where her family had once lived and been happy.

Looking back up at Mr. Sennin, she smiled once more and gave him her answer. “When can we leave?”

*****

Kyoko stood on the front lawn looking up at the house where Mr. Sennin said she once lived with her family. The house was two stories, solid white, with huge columns holding up the roof of the front porch that went all the way across the front of the house. She had been standing there for almost ten minutes just taking it all in, but the sun was quickly setting and she focused her attention on the front door.

She’d been so nervous leaving the girls' school and taking a plane across the ocean, but now that she was home, a quiet serenity had settled over her. Mr. Sennin had been a lot of help sending her luggage ahead of her and having his wife deliver it to the house. He’d even had her school records sent to the high school in town so that tomorrow all she would have to do was show up for class.

Seeing headlights move across the front of the house, Kyoko looked over her shoulder at the residence across the small two-lane road. The house was about the same size as hers, but different. Every light in the other house was on and with so many cars in the driveway… it looked full of life. Both were set close to the road with nothing but land around them as far as the eye could see. It was like they were the only ones out here on the edge of the forest and mountains.

The headlights in question were actually a jeep that came to a screeching halt almost in the front doorway of the other house. She heard grinding gears before seeing the door of the jeep open. Swinging back around, she realized how lonely this house really was.

Hearing the jeep door slam, she took off up the steps with the key and had the door shut protectively behind her before she even got the light on. For some reason, she wasn’t ready to meet the neighbors with their happy family and normal life. Flicking the light switch on, Kyoko released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

*****

Toya jerked the jeep into park and climbed out looking back at the house across the road. He could have sworn he’d just seen someone standing in the front yard. A dark eyebrow rose under his bangs as light appeared in the front room. He leaned against the jeep wondering who was in the Hogo house.

“Did you get the pizza?”

Toya nearly jumped out of his skin when Kamui spoke from less than a foot behind him. “Damn it Kamui! One day I’m gonna take your head off before I realize it’s you sneaking up on me like that.”

Kamui smirked, “Wasn’t killing me once enough for you?” His stardust colored eyes lit up seeing the pizza boxes scattered across the back seat. Knowing Toya’s driving, it was a wonder they’d even survived the trip. Picking them up, Kamui started back toward the house only to realize Toya hadn’t moved.

Following Toya’s line of vision, he looked across the street not seeing any cars in the driveway. He barely acknowledged the fact that a faint light could be seen downstairs. “The old lady was over there earlier today, probably just cleaning it again. I guess she forgot to turn the light off.” Kamui shrugged. “You coming?”

“What are you, my babysitter?” Toya gave the halfhearted insult not even bothering to look at him.

“Nope, but I am the pizza guru and I say if you don’t hurry, you won’t get any.” Kamui took off laughing when he heard Toya’s growl.

Toya waited until he was alone in the driveway before he started toward the Hogo estate. He’d been in the house many times over the last fifteen years looking for clues as to where the priestess had disappeared. When they’d first come into the human realm and entered the house, the guardians thought they were too late. They quickly realized the priestess had not been among the dead. They could still feel her life force within this realm and the demons were still hunting for her as well.

In the first memory Toya had of this house, there’d been ambulances and cop cars everywhere. The mother and father were dead, and the children and grandfather were missing. Without revealing themselves to the humans, the guardians had waited and watched. As soon as the house was empty, they entered it… smelling the evil scent the demons had left in their wake.

A couple of days later, the body of the grandfather was found with his neck broken. The coroner’s office ruled it an accident but the brothers knew better. The old man was clutching a scroll that Shinbe removed from the scene before calling 911. Shinbe was also the one to decipher the scroll. The old man had snuck back onto the property and been in the middle of trying to make the house and land consecrated ground to ward off demons when he’d been killed.

The demons never strayed far from this area and over time, the humans caught on enough to think that the town was haunted. The feds had even sent their paranormal and extraterrestrial investigators many times thinking maybe it was an alien invasion. But they were usually a little too late to find the evidence. Toya and his brothers would try to get there first, to kill the demons or to at least cover it up.

For fifteen years the guardians had lived in the house across from this one and blended in with the rest of humanity as best they could. Kamui even became quite the computer geek to keep the government from red flagging them. No one ever asked how five young men had an endless supply of money and a huge house on the edge of town.

Toya stayed in the shadows as he stepped around to the back of the house. Glancing over at the pool, he noted it had recently been reopened. His gaze narrowed on the crystal clear water seeing a red hue slide through the liquid as if reaching for him. Narrowing his golden eyes, he took a step back from it.

The creepy vision disappeared as he watched the steam rising off the heated water and he tried to shake off the feeling that he’d just stepped on his own grave.

He shrugged off the possibility that someone could’ve sold the house. If it had ever gone up for sale, the guardians would have been the first to know and they would have bought it. Besides, if some stranger had secretly bought the place, the fact that the house is haunted would quickly get rid of the new owners… or at least it would be haunted if it needed to be. He and his brothers would make sure of that.

Toya held his hand over the lock on the sliding glass door and heard a soft click. Slipping inside, he closed it behind him and stood listening. The house was so silent at first that he thought he’d been mistaken, but then he heard a soft voice coming from the living room. Following the sound, he stopped near the shadowed doorway.

There was a girl standing in front of the cold fireplace and she was looking above it at the wall. Toya glanced up seeing the huge family portrait that had always been there. It was of a man with silver hair, almost like Kyou’s. But this man’s hair was shorter, coming only to his shoulders. His face seemed very young, but there was a look in his eyes that held wisdom beyond that of a mere human.

The muscle in Toya's jaw jumped knowing the man was mortal… very human, and very powerful in his own right. This man had once been called a wizard… just not in this lifetime. Now they just call them scientists and physicists. Torsion fields and worm holes were never meant to be tampered with by humans. His appearance hadn’t changed no matter how many times he and his family was reborn into the world.

Toya’s gaze moved to the beautiful auburn-haired woman cuddled up next to him. She was holding a toddler in her arms while the father had a small girl with auburn hair sitting in his lap. The children couldn’t have been more than a year apart in age. Toya had come here so many times… staring at the picture. He was sure all the guardians had.

The little girl’s eyes sparkled like emeralds even in the muted color of the photo. She had her father’s eyes. Her lips were pouted as if the photographer had just told her to be still and a pretty blush colored her cheeks.

“I’m home Momma… Papa,” Kyoko reached out and touched the elegant wood that framed the picture. Her sight lingered on her little brother as she tried to put his face to memory. “Tama.”

Tama’s eyes were the same color as hers, even though in the picture some of the baby blue hadn’t yet faded… but she could tell their true color. He was smiling like he had just done something wonderful… so full of life. Mr. Sennin said Tama had vanished when her parents were killed. Could he still be out there somewhere?

“I wish you were here with me Tama. It would be nice to know at least one person at school tomorrow.”

Toya forgot to breathe as he reached out and gripped the door frame to steady his suddenly weak knees. He took a quick step back, deeper into the shadows as the girl turned full circle to look around the room. When her emerald eyes caught the light… the breath he’d been holding rushed out of him as if he had been punched in the stomach.

She had long auburn hair, and at that moment her lips were once again in a state of melancholy. His golden eyes trailed down her school uniform, the likes he had only seen in catholic high school movies. The skirt was short, reminding him of a cheerleader’s uniform followed by long shapely legs. She’d unbuttoned the shirt enough that Toya knew the nuns would not have approved.

He had seen her before… on the other side of the heart of time. The maiden statue that held the time portal in her hands… this girl mimicked the stone, born into flesh and blood. He’d found the priestess and she was breathtaking. He closed his eyes to the phantom memory of kissing her… it wasn’t his memory to keep.

Kyoko bit her bottom lip feeling frightened now that she was out here in the world without Mrs. Crap and all her rules. Maybe it was because this was her first time for everything. “Come on Kyoko,” She said out loud to break the thundering silence as she picked up her suitcase. “If you want to be ready for school tomorrow, then you’d better go find a bedroom and unpack.”

Toya stood there a few moments longer… relearning how to breathe.

*****

In the foothills, miles behind the Hogo house, a tremor could be felt as the scent of the priestess was carried across the land by the October wind. Blood red eyes flashed open and the claws of demons could be heard scraping against stone walls as they reached for her.

Endless caverns and tunnels had long ago been dug out by those same claws. Tunnels that had slowly been shaped into elaborate hallways lit by torchlight from stone sconces. Carvings of demonic victories decorated almost every surface while the natural quartz rock in the ground added a glittering luster to the otherwise dark and dreary surroundings.

The large caverns were transformed into separate rooms containing bedrooms, bathing rooms and even what would have been thought to be a throne room with a chair carved from slick black rock. More quartz stone was inlaid in the walls of the rooms, reflecting the dim light of the torches and amplifying it. Semi-precious stones had also been found to inlay in the walls while long curtains of silk and brocade hung from the ceilings… procured by unknown means.

It was a castle built underground to protect a very precious thing, even more precious than the stones in the walls.

Within the bowels of the caverns, in one of the bedrooms, emerald green eyes were shadowed by curiosity as they quickly glanced up at the silk-covered ceiling, wondering what had agitated the demons. Feeling the still air stir beside his bed, he looked to find the man who’d raised him from a baby and given him everything he had ever wanted… even the power to control demons.

‘Hyakuhei, have the guardians found us?’ Tama asked almost looking forward to the fight. Being a teenager was hard enough for a normal boy… and Tama was nowhere near normal.

The corners of Hyakuhei’s lips curved ever so slightly into the hint of a smile. Everything within him stilled as he inhaled. “It is the scent of the priestess that has rattled the demons tonight… I do believe she has come home.”

Tama’s eyes lit up with dark excitement. ‘My sister has finally come back to us?’ He threw his senses outward, trying to feel her by using the power Hyakuhei had shared with him. He inhaled deeply, tasting the sweetness in the air but he could also taste the power of the guardians nearby.

If they had just let Hyakuhei go to his sister in peace, then none of this would have happened. They’re evil creatures… thinking they’re better than the demons. It was the guardian’s fault that the demons went after his family when they’d first come into this world.

On their arrival, the demons had run free… killing him and his parents because Hyakuhei had been injured the second Toya had shattered The Heart of Time. That injury had cost the demon lord control over the demons for a little while.

Hyakuhei had still been inside the time portal when it was shattered… causing his corporeal body to turn into that of a shade in order not to be destroyed. Had the guardians not done that, then Hyakuhei would’ve remained in control of the demons. Neither Tama… nor his mom and dad would have been killed.

Hyakuhei had found him lying in his crib. The demons hadn’t damaged his body like they did his parents, but he was dead just the same. Remembering how much the priestess had loved her little brother in the past… Hyakuhei used his remaining strength to become whole enough to breathe some of his life force into him, reviving the soul that had not yet left the body.

All this time, he and his savior remained hidden from the guardians, waiting on Kyoko to return. Over the past years, Hyakuhei slowly regained some of his strength but it still drained him when he used that energy to turn his body from a shade back into flesh and blood. As soon as that store of power was spent, he would return to being a shade. The only advantage of being a shade was that he could spy on the guardians… even be in the same room with them and they would never know it.

Many times when Tama was a child, he’d silently asked Hyakuhei why they didn’t send the demons to attack the guardians. He had simply replied, “There is no need for war when there is nothing yet to fight for.” Since Hyakuhei had used his life force to bring him back to life, not only could they communicate through a mental link but Tama could also see the shadows of Hyakuhei’s memories from his point of view… feel his feelings. He knew Hyakuhei was right to wait.

Tama remembered the stories Hyakuhei had told him about his sister. Tales of the human girl who’d accidentally stepped through the time portal so long ago… bringing an entire village of humans with her into the demon realm. Hyakuhei and his twin brother Tadamichi had stopped the demons from killing Kyoko and the humans who suddenly found themselves within the massive demon realm.

While under their protection, Hyakuhei had fallen in love with her and given her the power to be his priestess… the power to cross between worlds so she could come back to him. In a jealous rage, his twin brother Tadamichi had stolen her from him and thrust her back into her own dimension, sealing the portal between worlds. It had been a malicious act full of jealousy over the priestess.