A Guardian's Possession. Amy Blankenship

      

      A Guardian’s Possession

      The Guardian Heart Crystal Series Book 5

      Amy Blankenship, RK Melton

      Copyright © 2009 Amy Blankenship

      English Edition Published by Amy Blankenship

      Second Edition Published by TekTime

      All rights reserved.

      The Legend of the Heart of Time

      The worlds may change… but true legends never fade.

      Darkness and light have constantly battled since the beginning of time. Worlds are formed and crushed beneath the feet of their creators, yet the ongoing need for good and evil have never been in question. However, sometimes a new element is thrown into the mix… the one thing that both sides want but only one can have.

      Paradoxical in nature, the Guardian Heart Crystal is the one constant that both sides have always striven to attain. The crystalline stone has the power to create and destroy the known universe, yet can end all suffering and strife in the same breath. Some say the crystal has a mind of its own… others say the gods are behind it all.

      Each time the crystal has appeared, its guardians have always been ready to defend it from all who would use it selfishly. The identities of these guardians remain unchanged and they love with the same ferocity regardless of the world or time.

      One girl stands in the center of these ancient guardians and is the object of their affections. She holds within her the power of the crystal itself. This is the bearer of the crystal and the source of its power. The lines often blur, and guarding the crystal slowly changes into guarding the priestess from the other guardians.

      This is the wine from which the heart of darkness drinks. It is the opportunity to make the guardians of the crystal weak and susceptible to attack. The darkness craves the power of the crystal and also the girl as a man would crave a woman.

      Within every one of these dimensions and realities you will find a secret garden known as The Heart of Time. There, a statue of a young human priestess kneels. She is surrounded by an age-old magic that keeps her secret treasure hidden and well preserved. The maiden’s hands are outstretched as if waiting for something precious to be placed in them.

      Legend says that she is waiting for the powerful stone known as The Guardian Heart Crystal to return to her.

      Only the Guardians know of the true secrets behind the statue and how it came into existence. Before the five brothers drew their first breath their ancestors, Tadamichi, and his twin brother, Hyakuhei, protected The Heart of Time during its darkest history. For centuries, the twins protected the seal that kept the human world from overlapping within the demon realm. This task was sacred and the lives of the humans as well as demons had to be kept safe and secret from the other.

      Unexpectedly, during their reign, a small band of humans accidentally crossed over into the demon world because of the sacred crystal. During a time of turmoil, its powers caused a rip in the seal that had separated the dimensions. The leader of the human group and Tadamichi had quickly become allies, making a pact to close the rip in the seal and keep the two worlds locked away from each other forever.

      But during that time, Hyakuhei and Tadamichi had both fallen in love with the daughter of the human leader.

      Against Hyakuhei’s wishes, the rip had been repaired by Tadamichi and the girl’s father. The strength of the seal had been increased tenfold, separating the dangerous love triangle forever. Hyakuhei’s heart was shattered… Even his own blood brother, Tadamichi had betrayed him by making sure he and the priestess were separated by eternity.

      Love can turn into the most wicked of things once it is lost. Hyakuhei’s broken heart turned to malicious anger and jealousy causing a battle between the twin brothers, ending Tadamichi’s life and splitting their immortal souls. Those slivers of immortality created five new guardians to take guardianship over the seal and protect it from Hyakuhei, who had joined the demons within the evil realm.

      Imprisoned within the darkness he had become, Hyakuhei cast out all thought of protecting The Heart of Time… instead, he turned his energy toward banishing the seal completely. His long midnight locks, reaching past his knees and a face belonging only to the most seductive, belied the true evil hidden within his angelic appearance.

      As the war begins between the forces of light and dark, a blinding blue light is emitted from the sanctified statue signaling that the young priestess has been reborn and the crystal has resurfaced on the other side.

      As the guardians are drawn to her and become her protectors, the battle between good and evil truly begins. Hence the entrance into another world where darkness is dominant within the world of light.

      This is one of their many epic adventures…

      Chapter 1 “Feathers of Midnight”

      Dark feathers left a path in the night sky as Hyakuhei flew within the raging storm he had created… his anger forming the core of it. Lightning and thunder mimicked his mood as the rain hid the truth of his torment. His ultimate power was to thrive on the authority of the demons he battled then took inside his being… but he had not expected it to backfire in such a way as this.

      His target had been an easy demon to overcome and consume into the void that was his soul. But the sprite had hidden a piece of the shattered guardian heart crystal deep within its mind. That power allowed the dream demon to survive within him and it was now trying to get its revenge.

      Hyakuhei’s black eyes became a shade darker as he wondered if that had not been the demon’s true intent all along… to break him from the inside. The lowly dream demon thought to give him… nightmares! In his rage, Hyakuhei had mistakenly taken the dream sprite into his body to silence it forever… only for it to torment him now from within.

      The demon had unchecked power Hyakuhei had not expected. It held within it the ability to see the true past that even he had not been aware of. Things that had happened in another time and place… alternate realities. With such a power, Hyakuhei should have known it possessed one of the sacred crystal’s talismans.

      Now the demon chose to torment him with visions when he closed his eyes to the world around him… sleep had now become a place of trickery.

      The unwanted memories left his blood heated to a painful degree by creating a longing in him that he had forgotten… a craving for the auburn haired priestess that would forever elude him. The hunger he had felt was unbearable now, a reminder of ultimate betrayal from the last place he ever expected it… love becomes something evil once it has been taken away from you.

      Ebony hair obscured his angelic face as he screamed out in fury. “How dare you show me the past when there is nothing I can do to change it!” The sound of his voice was lost within the thunder that resounded around him. It thundered deafeningly in response to his anguish, almost taunting him to continue. Lightning flashed, illuminating his face briefly, bringing his beautiful features to stark reality.

      He had awakened but an hour ago to the night sweats that accompanied dreams of her. He’d once held her… touched her. His ebony eyes narrowed in anger. She had let him love her and she didn’t even remember. That alone was far more painful than the dreams, yet even now they had their own lives that fate had once again intertwined.

      The recurring dreams never finished… the ending always eluding him, making him want to see and feel more of the bittersweet tormenting tale. The most evil vengeful thing the dream sprite could have ever done was make him want her again. He’d supposedly moved beyond it, embracing the creature he’d become in her name. Even now he dared not confront it for fear of losing himself to the suffering of his own soul.

      Hyakuhei felt his anger ebbing as he listened to the mischievously whispered voices within him. The countless evil entities contained by him, demons that willingly did his bidding, converged on the dream sprite… fighting an inner battle