Misty Hayes - Shield & Shade

Ascended Guardians Series

BOOK ONE

MISTY HAYES

Copyright Misty Hayes 2021

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be altered, reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including but not limited to scanning, duplicating, uploading, hosting, distributing, or reselling, without the express permission of the publisher, except in the case of reasonable quotations in features such as reviews, interviews, and other non-commercial uses currently permitted by copyright law.

Disclaimer:

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, places, or events is completely coincidental. The products and names of companies and/or commercial items listed in this work of fiction belong to their respective owners and are not affiliated with the author in any way.

Shield & Shade: Guardians Ascended Series: Book One by Misty Hayes

Table of Contents

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night,

and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.

Sun Tzu

Volume One: The Outcasts

Volume Two: The Watchers

Volume Three: Tree of Souls

For the dreamers. The survivors. The brave souls fighting their own personal battles. You are not alone.

Id gotten lost when I was five years old. Just up and wandered out of our unlocked house during the night. A mistake my parents still blamed themselves for. But our household was a full one, and it could have been any of my older siblings whod left the door open and unlocked.

A mistake that haunted our family, even to this dayten years later.

There was a patch of wooded area within a mile of my housenot enough acreage to call it a forest but big enough to call it home to coyotes, the occasional bobcat, deer, and snakes. And it was where Id ended up. I shuddered, thinking about a five-year-old drifting through the woods alone at night.

No wonder I had nightmares.

Those few days were a massive blank in my life. My lost time. I didnt remember anything except for the frightening visions that assaulted me in the middle of the night.

Nighttime. The time when my bad dreams rose up, unwanted and unbidden, like stomach acid in the throat, to assault me. My heart would burn. My lungs would clog. And my mind would race. It happened often. Even when falling asleep with the light on. Id tried sleep aids, playing white noise in the background, and deep breathing, falling asleep with earbuds in, listening to music, but nothing ever stopped the dark visions from creeping back in.

They were always the same: I was trapped in a dark, cramped space, terrified and blind. I couldnt breathe. The air was too thin. There would be a flash of red, like fur, or hair, or blood and then sharp, feral teeth snappinga wild animal attacking meeyes flashing with eyeshine, and Id wake up panting and sweating, my own blankets smothering me, holding me hostage.

Tonight was no different.

I woke, sitting up ramrod straight in bed, with a cold hand pressed to my forehead.

Shh, shh, shh, Zo. Im here. It was only a bad dream. Youre okay.

I blinked, my vision sliding in and out of focus, gulping in a lungful of air, willing myself to fully wake up out of the foggy haze, the last of the flashes passing across the backs of my eyelids. Dark eyes. Red hair. Sharp teeth.

You were screaming again.

My mother. She was sitting next to me.

Youre awake, Zo.

I could see her worried and strained face in the soft golden glow coming from my bedside table lamp. The creases around her eyes had deepened. She looked so much older and more fragile, and for a second, I felt bad that Id woken her up. And then her smile returned, and she was sitting back, her facial features softening. It was one of the only times Id ever let her comfort mewhen I was half out of my mind from the lingering aftereffects of a vivid nightmare.

I was fifteen, too old for being coddled or tucked into bed, and yet I was still terrified of being left aloneto be sucked back into those chilling nightmares all over again. Taken. Drifting into the scary black void, feeling helpless and afraid.

How bad was it this time? my mom asked. Her voice was soft and low. You need anything?

I shook my head as I raked a hand through my hair, sweeping it off my damp forehead. Im okay. Thanks.

I felt the full weight of her concerned gaze on me. Do you want to talk about it? Was it the same nightmare?

When she tried to slip her hand into mine, I pulled away, feigning an apologetic grimace. I just wanted to go to sleep. I wanted to forget about the debilitating fear and solitude. I didnt want her to psychoanalyze me. I didnt want anything from her. This was her fault.

I thought I saw a flash of hurt cross her face as I tried to explain. Its just late. Im going to try and get some sleep. Its nothing new the same thing over and over again. A strange creature and a flash of red hair, like fur Ill be fine. Now that Im awake, I know its silly its nothing.

Those words sounded hollow in my own ears.

She didnt quite look convinced, and I could tell she wasnt going to drop it. After a second, she cast her eyes down and pressed her lips into two thin lines, seemingly thinking. If you do ever want to talk about it about that night

Im good. I let out an angry breath of air. That was all wed ever done: talk about it. I dont want to talk about it anymore. And with that, I rolled over and left her sitting on the side of my bed.

On most days, Alastair Iszler found the forest an extremely calming place. Peaceful. Serene. Perfect. The birds above him would normally be chittering to one another as he sprinted by, out on his morning run. The squirrels would already have been winding their way around tree limbs, acorns pelting down from above.

Today, though, the woods felt ominous. Too quiet. There were no animals, or insects, or even wind. A heavy fog clung to everything. A warped fairy tale. The entire land placed in a deep sleeplike an enchantment. Every living thing affected by it but him. This odd feeling was what gave Alastair pause. He couldnt see more than ten feet in front of him in any direction. It was eerie, and the sun hadnt yet started to rise to burn the fog away.

As soon as hed raced to the crest of a steep hill, he halted, winded and perturbed, a nagging feeling hitting him right in the pit of his stomach. Foreboding. Something was wrong. Trail running was usually meditation for his soul. Not this morning.

A niggling intuition at the back of his mind told him to be on guard. There was still a little over ten kilometers left to go on this route, but now he was only thinking about turning around and going home. The top of his scalp prickleda feeling he got when he was being watched.

Alastair had learned to listen to his intuition after over a hundred and fifty years worth of fighting experience. He used to be a preternatural creaturea vampireand he possessed over twenty different black belts in various martial arts to prove this skill.

Alastair had a PhD in heightened awareness.

He took in a few deep breaths, the smell of pine and earth strong in his nostrils, and something else: Sulfur.

Alastair had been around enough weird in his life to recognize that portentous feeling immediately.