The
story behind the Guardian Legacy
The
Guardians’ background is a blend of various mythologies and Judeo-Christian
beliefs. Before I started writing Awakened, I came across the kris dagger, an
Indonesian weapon believed to be forged from an element from the heavens and
one from the earth. The Indonesians/Malaysians believed that the kris has a
spirit attached to it, which could be good or bad. When owned by an evil
person, the dagger does evil things, but it does good things when owned by a
good person. The kris could protect the wielder from an attack or warn them if
there was going to be harmed.
The Kris Dagger became my Excalibur. I wanted a young man to wield it and even started plotting it from his POV, but I kept hearing a girl’s voice in my head—an outsider, someone who wasn’t part of the in-crowd. Intrigued, I decided to listen to the girl. Who was she? What was her story?
To do that, I needed to know her background, her people. She had to be special, have the right to wield the dagger. I chose the fallen angel who taught humans the art of war—Azazel. Fallen angels had children with humans-Nephilim, so it was easy to come up the Guardians’ lineage from there, making my heroine part angel and part human. Weaving in the powers of the fallen angels—from the ability to teleport, clairvoyance, see into the future, control all elements (air, fire, water and earth), manipulate what people see and felt, and change shape into other beings—made everything come together.
Excerpt
“Come
on, Lil,” a female voice urged.
“I think she’s coming around,” a male voice said.
I lifted my eyelids. At least I thought I did. There was nothing but blinding
whiteness. I strained until the blue sky and faces inked in. Unfamiliar faces.
Two women and one man. Their eyes were filled with concern as they stared down
at me. Beside them were familiar faces—Bran, Grampa and Aunt Janelle, Kim,
Izzy, Remy, Sykes and Kylie, but they began to fade.
“No, don’t leave me,” I cried out and reached out for them.
“Not so fast,” one of the unfamiliar women warned and pressed my shoulder
down. “You had a nasty fall.”
I struggled against her hand and sat up. Black dots appeared in my eyes and a
sharp pain radiated from the back of my head. I closed my eyes until the
dizziness passed, then raised a trembling hand to my head. There was a huge
bump the size of an egg, and my skull felt like someone was hammering it with a
blunt object.
Squinting, my gaze moved from her to the other woman, then the man. They all
wore black pants and matching shirts, a uniform of some kind, and had daggers
in sheaths strapped around their waist and their thighs. I’d never seen them
before in my life, yet they watched me with such concern.
I inched away from them and noticed I wasn’t dressed like them. I wore a bikini
and was lying down on a towel. Frowning, I took in our surroundings. We were on
a grassy patch by a pond in the middle of a forest. The trees were so tall and
curved in such a way that was unnatural. It was like they deliberately curved
to block the skyline or hide the pond.
Why couldn’t I remember where I was or how I got here? What was my name?
My gaze moved back to the woman squatting beside me. I wondered whether to ask
her these questions, but survival instinct stopped me even though I didn’t feel
any negative vibes from her.
I scooted backward and realized my grip was around a dagger. Intrigued, I
studied it. It had a clear, wavy blade and green stones on its gilded hilt.
Seeing the dagger switched on something inside my pounding head. Memories of
places and people rushed back—I saw myself entering a booth in an arena, where
a familiar man with red hair called me his daughter; attempting to escape a
dark-haired woman who claimed to be my half-sister; a huge black man with soft
brown eyes helping me, and another with short-cropped blond hair swearing
allegiance to me…
If my head wasn’t pounding, I would have laughed with triumph. My name was Lil
Falcon. I was a Psi Cardinal Guardian within the Northeast Sector, and I hunted
demons.
My hand shot up and everything in her house lifted off the ground, including
her TV console. Her eyes widened. I wiggled my finger and tiny bolts of
lightning zipped between the bobbing things.
“You see, my friends here are pure Guardians. I, on the other hand, have demon
blood in my veins and a massive headache that’s refused to go away, so you do
not want to mess with me. Those three children Izzy healed can easily become
ill again like that.” I snapped my fingers. Everything came back down with
thuds, a few missing their places and crashing to the floor. “Then I can do
things to your head that you’ll beg me to kill you.”
Mrs. Watts swallowed, his gaze swinging from me to my friends. “Can she…?”
“Oh yes,” Sykes said, grinning.
“Don’t encourage her,” Kim snapped. “She’s not herself.”
I glanced at Kim and chuckled. “Actually, Kim, I am.” Turning, I studied Mrs.
Watts. “So what is it going to be, Mrs. Watts? One sick child or four?”
She swallowed.
“You’re wasting our time, Mrs. Watts,” I snapped.
“That’s enough, Lil,” Bran said.
Mrs. Watts looked at him with relief.
“Don’t look at him. He’s not going to help you.”
“Lil!”
I glared at Bran and for one brief moment, my sight blurred until all I saw was
a shadow where his face had been. Dizziness washed over me again. His thoughts,
along with the others’, crashed into my psyche, but they were jumbled and
didn’t make sense. My knees gave away.
I’ve got you, Bran telepathed me just as he pulled me against his
chest. You are okay.
Calmness settled on my mind as his psi energy blended with mine. Cool hands
touched my forehead and voices echoed in my head as though filtered by a mist.
“She’s burning up,” someone said in a distorted voice.
“We’ll finish here, then take her home,” another added.
My vision and hearing cleared. The headache was slow to react.
“She’ll be fine,” Bran reassured them.
“She fainted, Bran,” Kim insisted.
“And her eyes glowed just like they did on the island,” Izzy added.
“I’m fine,” I finally spoke, but my eyes stayed locked with Bran’s. I tried to
disengage our energies but he wouldn’t let me. I could have pushed him out of
my head, but I might have ended up hurting him. I wiggled, hoping physical
distance would do the trick, but he refused to let me go. You can’t do
this.
Says who?
You’re sharing a burden that’s not yours, I insisted. You’ll
get my headache and mess up your powers.
So what? You and I are mated for better and for worse.
I frowned. We are?
Yes, so sit back and let me take care of you.
Reasoning with him was getting me nowhere. It was time to lay on the guilt. You
are draining my energy, something you swore you’d never do.
He grinned. Nice try. When we are done here, I’m taking you home,
where you’ll stay until your powers stabilize. He severed the
link. Can you take care of Mrs. Watts’ memories without turning her
into Mrs. Hyde again?
I rolled my eyes, but at the back of my mind I kept hearing “Mated”. When?
Another lost memory?
x
