A Guardian's Tale: The Remnant King

By Nicole Palomino

Ariella and Keeper have enjoyed a year of peace. That is until Michael and Skyler return from Greece and a poorly timed unrest in the remnant world begins. There are whispers of the Remnant King returning and a old war beginning all over again just when the pureblood race was starting to trust the remnants amongst them.

This is the 2nd story in the Guardian's Tale Series.
This book contains adult language and sexual content.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312546806

Book preview

A Guardian's Tale: The Remnant King

A Guardian’s Tale:

The Remnant King

By Nicole Palomino

For

My own personal Keeper.

Prologue

I looked down at his sleeping face.  His eyes moved under his heavy dark brown eyelashes to his dreams.  There was something exciting happening in them.  He was flexing his broad muscles, and the corner of his lip turned up to a smile.

His hair was short and dark brunette almost black when it was dry but if he put on any product it looked jet black.  He had sexy pouty lips that were always soft and ready to kiss.  He, like all purebloods, was beautiful.  His forearm had the house crest of Brighton a predominantly European bloodline. 

It was our one year anniversary and it had been the most beautiful year of my six hundred and twenty nine year old life.  We spent our time doing what every happy couple does we took care of each other, we protected each other, and we made a name for ourselves.

We both used to hunt a weaker line of our kind we called remnants but now we provide a safe haven for them.  We have connected the worlds of pureblood and remnant.  Keeper did most of the work I just stood at his side and smiled.

When I meet him I thought he was a young immortal who went remnant after his council allowed his mortal lover to die, but he had turned into so much more.  He was changing the world of immortals everywhere, I was just lucky enough to belong to him.

I kissed his sleeping lips and he smiled with eyes still closed.  Woman are you ever going to let me sleep, he joked smiling and chuckling under the words.  I laid my head on his chest and squeezed him.

No, I replied.  I thought I was with a strong stud of a man who could handle my desires.  My words were fast and sarcastic he made a joking groaning sound and wrapped his arms around me. 

It’s our anniversary and I want to celebrate, I teased him the man that was literally a quarter my age. 

Why is today our anniversary we met today you didn’t move in until what two three days later?

Oh so the first time we laid together didn’t count as special or important, I teased kissing him again.

Ha, he opened his eyes that illuminated gold.  You know I seem to remember this amazingly sexy guardian dancing into my club and having her way with me on my couch on that day. Are you sure that was you?

Don’t make me go get a sword, I reply the words a clear threat.  He grabbed my face and kissed me hard and playfully the stubble on his face poking me.

No little guardian there is no need for violence, he put his hands up as if to say I surrender.  You know I’m a lover not a fighter.

Keeper was a lover but he was also a fighter.  He was the most important kind the kind that with a single thought could freeze you in place or pull you to pieces.  In the year I had known him he had only used the talent a few times and only once on a person.  It was an event we tried not to talk about.  He asked me once if I wanted to talk about it I told him no and that was that.

A lover, I sighed, Well I must meet this woman you give all your affections to because, he rolled me over laughing at my absurdity not letting me finish the statement.

That is a foul idea, he kissed me. You are my only woman.

You need to remind me why I put up with you, I smiled and bit his lip he groaned and pulled back his face full of regret.

Nope, you just have to wait till after the party, he got off of me laughing and rolled off the bed and walked naked to his dresser.  His beautiful body was completely naked as he tended to sleep in that manner. 

Our room was modern all furniture that he picked out before I came into his life but I liked it all and had simple needs so I felt no need to change anything.  The bed was a platform bed low to the ground and the furniture was all black and steel.  I did pick out the giant comforter but that’s because bedding has always been my favorite thing.

He rubbed his head and yawned while he dug through his underwear drawer.  He looked back at me now sitting up naked with one leg out from under the comforter.  I’m so damn lucky, he smiled at me.

Not too bad for your biggest mistake, I laughed reminding him what he called me over and over again when wisdom dictated that taking me in his arms meant possible death.  We both had our games with each other that one year in didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon. 

He smiled still sleepy but he forced himself to function early today.  He was no longer a remnant so the daylight didn’t bother him anymore but staying up all night and running a bar that was a cover for something so much more to him made him a daytime sleeper.  Well when I allowed it.  But today was his worst day of the week it was Thursday afternoon which meant a liquor delivery and our remnant friends wouldn’t be functioning for a while now.

It was this Thursday fifty two weeks ago that my council sent me into his bar looking for Michael’s blood.  It would prove to be the worst mission and the best in my almost six hundred and thirty years.  I tried to not think of it, I tried to block it out thinking about it brought nightmares to our bedroom. It lead to nights were Keeper would leave me thinking I was asleep and he would go watch the even on his laptop.

We tried to be the same and as months went on the events got to be less frequent.  It was good for me because every time I had to relive the event I had to remind myself that it wasn’t Michael.

He left me on the bed he would shower and get ready early so he could cook for everyone and by everyone I mean me and Jez.  Jez was my brother and my closest ally we shared the same maker and he shared our home with us now.  He did a lot of the cleaning and spent his time in front of the television and hanging out at the club.

I had proven to be a horrible housemate to Keeper I must admit.  I attempted to wash his clothes for him once about six months ago.  I gathered up his darks which I had seen people separate their clothes before and put them in his energy efficient front load washer.  I filled opened the detergent dispenser and put the Gain in and then some fabric softener and then the bleach, the non-color safe kind.  Needless to say I am no longer allowed to do the laundry.

My talents laid at the bar Miguel and Keeper had turned me into a great bar tender, or at least a passible one.  I didn’t actually like making the drinks but I loved the socializing.  I loved talking to mortals and dancing with my friends.  Everyone knew who I was everyone knew I was Keeper’s girl.

I laid looking up at the ceiling listening to him shower the smell of coconut drifted to me and the sound of my brother stirring in his room down the hall filled my ears.  I was happy for the first time in forever I had a reason to be happy.

When the shower stopped I saw him emerge naked from it rubbing his hair and walking into the closet he whistled softly, he was up to something every time he was up to something he whistled I don’t know why a nervous tick I guess.

What are you doing, I asked playfully still naked in our bed.

Nothing, he replied, Just getting you out your present but you have to get out of the bed before you can have it.

Seriously, I whined not wanting to leave the mattress knowing that I wouldn’t be able to trick him back into the bed.  This time when I saw him he was zipping on his pants and had a deep blue button up shirt hanging on his body.  No way was I going to get him back in the bed anyways.

I got up not as brave as him with a throw blanket around me and half skipped to him.  Fine you win, I kissed his cheek playfully.  He smiled down at me he was always smiling at me now even if I bleached his clothes.  Well, I slid my open palm on his stomach and ran it around to his back making my sexiest face.  He was unmoved in his determination to start the day.

Really, he asked rolling his eyes at me playfully and took my hands in his.  It’s in the closet, he kissed my fingers that had rubbed him just seconds ago like he was in agony.

Oh Keeper approved presents, I smiled taking my hands from him and enjoying his lack of satisfaction.  I ran into the large walk-in closet that was designated as his mine was on one side of the garden tub his was on the other.

Oh Keeper, I gasped it was a dress I wanted two weeks ago we had went shopping and I saw it  was over two thousand dollars so I refused to buy it.  It was black lace over a little black silk dress that was just long enough to cover my body.  It reminded me a lot of my original lace dress that I had worn when Keeper took me out for the first time.

You looked amazing in it, he sighed from the doorway.

Yeah but it was too much, I said.

No, he shook his head at me I met his eyes, it’s not enough.

I touched it.  It was beautiful I turned and kissed him he was so wonderful.  How I lived and called myself happy before him was beyond me.  He made me feel mortal and young.

I got you something, I smiled at him and ran to my closet It’s not as nice as your present. I explained a little sadly.

You are a present, he kissed my forehead when he stepped in my closet.

I handed him a box he sighed and opened it.  Inside was an Id bracelet that said in large letters Nathaniel and under it in little letters it read, my Keeper.  He smiled a soft glowing smile that told me he loved it.

I took it from him and locked the clasp around his right wrist.  Is that your way of saying I get you another year?

No, I kissed him and hugged him with my arms under his shirt feeling ever muscle move under my touch.  It’s my way of saying you get to have me all the years you want me.

What man wouldn’t want you, he sighed fighting the urge to have his way with me on the sink that was three feet away.  I could think of one but I didn’t say anything.  Speaking his name on that day would be catastrophic. 

Apparently you, I gasped smiling at him in a teasing manner.  He made his oh hell no face and picked be up his lips on mine, my legs around his waist.   

His hands ripped away the throw blanket and his hands found my body. I kissed him and pulled him to me his completely unwrapped present.  No, he pulled back a stern look on his face and kissed my nose.  I have to go to work, he laughed at me. 

What, I smiled completely guilty of trying to have my way with him. 

Get ready, put on that beautiful dress and get your cute little ass in that BMW and meet me at the club, he ordered smiling at me.

Fine, but you aren’t very nice to me.

He smiled at me and kissed me again, I have to go now I’m already late you’ll have to feed yourself woman and no that doesn’t mean Arby’s or Waffle House.

Oh, I exclaimed excitedly, Red Lobster.

I’m going to go broke woman, he smiled.  Between feeding you and clothing you and your brother I’m going to end up homeless.

Oh no, where would we put the bed, I exclaimed with my hand over my mouth.

Ha well good thing you don’t mind rain or alley ways. He left as I threw a brush in his direction.  We loved each other and enjoyed each other’s contact but we also loved the people around us.  Keeper’s love for that bar never waned just like my love for the cell phone that connected me to my guardian family. 

I hopped down to bathe, and the shower was hot and felt amazing. I loved this house and its instant hot water.  In the tower I never took really long showers with the ten gallon hot water heater the apartment had.  In fact Keeper made everything about this house not like our little apartments.

Once I was done bathing I looked at myself in the mirror I looked different younger happier than I did a year ago.  My hair was layered and long and I radiated happiness.  Keeper walked in on me cutting my own hair and almost died exclaiming that we can afford a salon.  It was there that I had a little blond woven into the auburn and had the first different haircut I had had in over four hundred years.

Keeper rarely ever said no to anything I ever asked for or even implied I liked.  Mentioning a dice game I learned in my village resulted in a weeklong trip to Vegas in which my brother had to keep using his talents to get me in the casino because I had forgotten my ID.  If he did say no it actually meant no not right now.  The one exception being both laundry and cooking, he was serious about those.

He asked only a few things of me one of which was to always be careful and to always tell him the truth.  So I do both those things to appease him he cooked a god awful wine sauce once I told him I liked it he knew I lied instantly.  He cooked it every night for a week until I finally admitted I hated it.  He set down his fork and looked at me and said, How am I to make you happy if you lie about something as silly as pasta sauce?  

It was then that I understood him, my Keeper.  His happiness was solely dependent on mine.  There was certainly one thing I was not short on in those days and that was happiness.  Some people couldn’t sleep because they were depressed I couldn’t sleep because I didn’t want to close my eyes.

I dried out my hair on my side of the counter and put on my makeup and then there was the dress.  I pulled it on and adjusted it.  It was beautiful the black lace that slit all the way up the perfect amount of black silk over my body and the black sleeves that were off the shoulder, I looked like a proper remnant.

I was famous as a remnant murderer dispatched at the will of the council.  Then at that time I was more famous for being the guardian who fell in love with a ruined pureblood who also happened to heal both him and me our remnant eyes gone never to return. 

One night Miguel was mixing drinks and I slammed the shot gulping it all gone.  Keeper was no more than three feet from me he tried to stop it but I was playing with him and I honestly don’t know what I thought.  Then I realized it was full of blood my eyes didn’t change the addiction didn’t return.

Cersea went digging for information it was then that we learned our remnant selves had to feed from a living source to become remnant again.  She also discovered that there was no record of a returned remnant ever turning back to a remnant.

I left the bathroom after putting on some strappy heals and glided down the stairs.  Jez was downstairs sitting on the couch watching a movie.  Hey sister, he looked over his shoulder at me he was already dressed wearing tan pants and a sky blue polo shirt with a long sleeved white tee shirt under it.  He looked good he was simply the manly version of me.

Brother zip me, I turned and lifted my hair up for him to zip the very top of the dress.

Damn woman, he replied as he zipped the back.  Keeper’s a lucky bastard.

He bought it, I said rushing to the entry table looking for my wallet and keys.  It’s an anniversary present.

Of course, he looked down upon Keeper paying for everything in the house but I refused to go in the tower to the accounting department and withdraw my money.  Keeper had plenty of money he paid his staff extremely well and his bar was packed on the weekends. 

I work at the bar for nothing brother he takes care of everything else for me it’s not like I don’t earn anything, I looked in the mirror and put on a hoop earring. 

It’s not the money, he crossed his arms.  It’s the fact that it’s been a year and you still haven’t been back to the tower, not even for your money.

I stopped before I put in the other hoop and looked into his reflection’s eyes and answered as honestly as I could, I get nightmares when I think about it, I’m not ready yet.

I would go with you Keeper would too, I looked away and put in the other hoop as he approached me and put his hands on my shoulders.  "Sarah’s dead, Michael is gone, Joanah and Paris are running the tower and the warriors would love to see you.