Moonlight

Chapter 18 (Guardians)

Malum quickly pulled me behind him. "Grace stay behind me and don't move. Do exactly as I say. Understand?" He said in an extremely urgent and serious tone.

I nodded my head but did not say anything. Malum wasn't looking for a response. He was too focused on whatever had just happened outside.
The smoke was still bellowing into the room and I started coughing. Damn asthma. Malum took notice of my coughing fit and snapped his fingers. All of the smoke instantly vanished from the room. Thank goodness for his magic.

"We need to leave. Now." He took my hand and started pulling me forward to the nearby door. He opened it for me and we were then facing the stairway. I didn't know where he was taking us, but it didn't matter. As long as he and I were together, everything would be fine. He would protect me.

I have never really considered myself as helpless or the cliche damsel in distress. I can hold my own. No one needs to stand up and fight for me, but somehow this situation made me feel different. I was afraid and I am positive Malum could feel that. Explosions weren't something that happened in Walpole.

"Malum, where are we going?" I asked quietly.
At first he didn't respond. He was so focused on leading me down the stairway.

"I have a few ideas, but first we need to go outside. I am not sure what is out there so please, Grace, do as I ask. Please-for me."

"I will."

He turned around and smiled at me. "Thank you my love." He said while brushing my hair back out of my face.

Just then, another loud explosion happened, this time shattering the walls we were near. Malum instantly wrapped his body around me and a purple cloud of smoke engulfed us. The debris didn't hit us. Thank goodness.

I smelled something burning-most likely the house had caught fire. Malum then let out a low growl. "What the hell is happening?"

He snapped his fingers and we teleported away. I closed my eyes and held my breath. This was still going to take time to get used to. A few moments later I felt Malum's lips brush my forehead.

"Open your eyes darling. The teleportation is over."

My eyes opened and I looked around. The house behind us was on fire. Walls were slowly collapsing in. Thank goodness we got out when we did. When I turned back around, what I saw shocked me more than the burning house.

Two giant stone statues were standing a few yards away from us. They were massive-at least ten feet tall. They reminded me of the statues of the vikings of old, carved out with armor on their bodies. One of the stone giants held a long ax in its hand. The other had two giant swords. What the hell was going on?

Malum pushed me behind him again. I wrapped my hands around his waist and I could feel how tense his body was. There was still a low growl coming from him, something was terribly wrong.

"Malum what the hell is happening? What are those?" I asked urgently.

"Those are Guardians. They are from the realm I told you about earlier. The realm of Oblivion. They guard that realm and protect it from any possible danger. Nothing has happened in thousands of years. Oblivion has always been left alone. Why they are here on Earth, I have no clue."

Guardians and different realms? This was all beginning to make my head hurt. If these things are meant to protect Malum's realm, then why were they here attacking us?

"Even if you don't know why they are here on Earth, why would they be attacking us? You would think protectors of something don't attack unless they are provoked, this doesn't make sense."

Malum turned his head back towards me and looked at me. His golden eyes were gone, replaced by the coal black eyes I had seen before. Something was very wrong.