********
The first rays of dawn filtering through the balcony windows roused Cara from her slumber. She stretched luxuriously beneath the silk sheets, still feeling faint echoes of the cosmic power that coursed through her dreams. Glancing to her side, she found the space where Michael had lay beside her now empty.
"Oh it was only a dream" she thought.
Rising, she was unsurprised to find Simon standing watch outside the bedroom doors as always. His immense vampire form was deceptively relaxed, ears pricked attentively at any sounds within. At her appearance, he dipped his shaggy head in greeting.
"Good morning, Simon. Thank you for standing guard while I sleep," Cara said, reaching out to scratch beneath his chin. Simon leaned into the contact, rumbling deep in his chest. Though a fearsome predator , he was ever gentle in her presence.
When she withdrew her hand, Simon tilted his head questioningly toward the stairs. His heightened senses had no doubt detected Michael's absence already. Cara smiled. "Have no fear, I am well rested. Now, where has our noble vampire king disappeared to?"
Rather than answering verbally as was his wont, Simon turned and began pacing slowly down the corridor. Cara took the hint and followed, intuition whispering she was about to receive an answer of sorts.
She trailed the lupine guardian down grand spiraling staircases still lined with fading tapestries from centuries past, through wide halls empty but for the whisper of dust on marble. All was eerily still and vacant of life within the usually bustling citadel.
At last Simon led her from one of the antiquated side exits, into a secluded courtyard overgrown with creeping ivy. And there, bathed in golden dawnlight, she found Michael.
He knelt amongst the flowering grasses, head bowed as if in prayer or deepest contemplation. At their approach, his eyes flickered open to reveal irises like molten silver in the lowlight. An eternity of knowledge and sorrow lingered in their metallic depths.
"You are awakened, little human?. I trust you rested well?" Michael said softly, rising in a single fluid motion. His hands came up to gently cup Cara's face, thumb caressing her cheek in a feather-light caress.
Leaning into his embrace, Cara peered up at him searchingly. "I did. But it seems much has passed in the world while I dreamed. What troubles you so, that you must seek solace in solitude at daybreak?"
Michael sighed wearily, steering her toward a crumbling stone bench half swallowed in ivy. They sat, and he began to explain all that had transpired in her absence. "Some witches have conspired against me and seek war against my family"
His words eventually trailed off into pensive silence. Cara knew he shouldered the protection his family and all of his kind as a sworn duty, and losses weighed heavy onsuch ancient shoulders. Reaching over, she took his hand in both of hers and grasped it tightly.
"What is she up to this time" Michael thought.
"You are not alone in this fight, I'm a part of you now, even if I don't know what I am for now"
Michael smiled , a small fragile thing but no less radiant for its rarity. Leaning in, he pressed his brow to hers in a chaste yet lingering gesture of intimacy. He then whispered.
"You speak boldly, but yet ignorant of what you are putting into
Come, let us have something to eat while the sun yet shines."
Hand in hand, Cara and Michael rose. Behind them, Simon follows.
******************
Few minutes later as the crimson sun dipped below the mountains, Cara sat upon a grassy knoll within the walled citadel gardens, gazing pensively off into the gathering dusk. Though protected within these ancient walls, her thoughts strayed to those forces lurking in shadow beyond her sight. She could clearly remember the past events that landed her under Michaels watch.
What motives drove such powerful entities to observe her so? She knew full well the constant threats that plagued her immortals guardians' world. Were these unknown interlopers merely watchful, or did more sinister intent lie in wait?
Sensing the calm and, ever-faithful Simon padded over to nuzzle her hand comfortingly. She smiled, and thanked him taking solace in his strong yet gentle presence. Whatever storms may come again, her stalwart protectors would weather them at her side, she was relieved.
Abruptly Simon's head snapped up, ears pricked, as he could sense the presence of an unwanted visitor. Cara's breath caught at the pridator menace vibrating through his stance, eyes trained on the high garden walls as if sensing an encroaching darkness.
Thunderous footsteps approached, shaking the very flagstones. Then, with a deafening crash, the heavy iron-bound gates were thrust inward on their hinges, clanging harshly against stone.
Silhouetted against the bloodied sky beyond stood an immense, hulking form, a primal raging aura seeming to ripple the air about his muscular frame. Eyes like molten amber blazed with barely bridled fury, fixed unwaveringly upon Cara with an intensity that sent a chill through her soul.
She immediately stood behind Simon who was prepared to attack if the wolf makes an attempt of any kind of attack.
Tyler. His haunting visage was seared into her memory from their fated first encounter. Now that memory was superimposed over raw, steaming wrath threatening to drown all reason.
With a wild snarl he stormed forward, and Simon snarled a challenge, leaping between the alpha and Cara with hackles raised in open threat. But Tyler seemed not to even register the vampire warning, gaze locked with primal obsession upon the celestial alone.
"You..." he growled, a rumble from the deep place of nightmares. "You dared risk your filthy life to challenge me?."
Simon was unmoved instead he was ready to Tyler, even if he knew he wasn't going to win the fight.
"It is my duty to watch over this territory, including her." Simon said adjusting his position in a battle form.
Typer lip curled back in a fangs-bared sneer. "Duty you say? Then I will consider you dying as a duty!"
Before further confrontation could eruprate, Simon snarled and lunged, seeking to drive the enraged alpha off through force. But Tyler countered with unholy speed, seizing the the vampire by the scruff and flinging him bodily aside with a pained yelp.
Cara's calm wavered, magic stirring to her call in pale threads around clenched fists. But Tyler was barely contained fury made flesh, unevolved by eons of restraint.
With a howl like the cries of the damned, Tyler shook in a massive beast that tore free of mortal flesh.
The fearless Simon stood up with lightning speed, baring fangs and claws bunching to leap at the intruder threatening both his charge and the little human. Tyler massive hanging jaw snapped, hackles bristled, thunderous paws pawed the very earth in preparation to clash.
Within the walls, preternatural senses alerted the citadel's ruler. With inhuman speed Michael burst from the keep, drawn by primal instinct to defend his borders against invading forces. Taking in the scene with a single piercing scan, fangs lashing out in a chilling snarl.
"Hold, wolf! Your quarrel is not with him, but I. Come, and I will grant your challenge - if you can beat me, then the girl is yours." Silver eyes blazed a challenge, coaxing the beserker alpha to redirect his fury solely upon the vampire king's inhuman might.
With a howl like the damned, Tyler surged forth to answer that challenge in kind.
"Tonight I challenge you to a duel in the Louisiana bayou!"
Tyler made his final statement before vanishing out of sight.
Michael stared at both the frightened cara and the angry Simon before making his way back in to the courtyard.