Young Guardian Trilogy by Lady Adellandra Dratianos (the lemonade war series .TXT) 📖

friends. Luna told me many things about my family; including the fact Shannon Ryan was my cousin. Luna and I grew close, like twins should, but not for long.
Shannon was at it again. Whom I thought was my cousin would betray me, turning all I’d known as the perfect life around. I wasn’t the only one to go, though. Derrick and Luna had to go, too. They had families, I didn’t know mine, and even Shane “Shadow” Morehouse, Luna’s boyfriend, was sad to see us go. We were thrown out on our own, once again, into the cruel world.
I was escorted by another agent, a junior doctor named Loraine “Love Joy” Joyce to the awaiting limo. Adam Landry, the chauffeur, wouldn’t meet my eyes as he drove. I had the feeling he knew this was going to happen, but kept quiet about it.
He dropped me off in Hill View, Michigan. I was lost, alone, and afraid. The only comfort I’d had was of my love for Derrick, the Dream Realm and my Companion best friend Katherine. Before we’d left, I promised Derrick my love eternal and to visit in his dreams anytime he needed me. Katherine warned me the first time I tried to visit him, it wasn’t meant to be. I couldn’t leave to meet him, and that hurt me. She knew it too, I could tell, but she vowed never to tell me anything that would hurt me.
The first actual day was torment. I was left searching for my lost family, only for it to become too dark and cold. Finding a spot in an alley, I cried hurt and scared tears. I was quickly asleep in the fetal position. When I awoke the first morning, I heard a train in the distance. Stretching, I stood up and began my search once again, only to be hit over the head.
The world around me went black, and I fell to the ground.
When I awoke, I was groggy, and my head ached. I wanted to reach up and feel the bump left behind, but found my hands tied behind me. What was going on? I thought. What a stupid question.
I heard the only voice that still menaced my thoughts all these years away from her. Mrs. Gertrude was as mean as ever, not really caring for anything but herself. After a grueling verbal match of wits, I was sent to be her little slave, taking care of six little girls.
I was only there for a few days before the tiniest, nicknamed “Tart” began to have nightmares. Orthos was chasing her, and she was scared. I awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of her tears. A quick flash of my own past ran through my mind, when I would wake with tears in my eyes from the beatings. I wouldn’t want any of the children I was looking after to relive the same agony.
With that in mind, I ran to comfort her. The other girls woke up, too. With determination, I wanted them to go to the Dream Realm to escape. I called my forces, taking from my own hellish past to heal them in the present. They would be my Oracle Children – those chosen by me to help in the fight.
Being the Young Guardian, I found I could do much more. I took control over many things, and recruiting so-called “Crusaders” to do it was one of them. After giving them each a special bracelet, I ran off during the night. I promised to visit them in their dreams every night I could, and I was again on my way.
I was walking once again when I thought I heard someone calling my name. I turned to see a woman, running up to hug me. Who was this woman? Was she my mother? My mind said, “YES!” but both my heart and Katherine told me no. Not wanting to live another day on the streets, I didn’t complain. Immediately, I became someone I wasn’t: Bonnie Marie Parker. I was sure I wasn’t her, for our names were different. I wasn’t complaining, and neither was Katherine.
The Parker Mansion was enormous, bigger than any place I’d ever seen before. Just looking at it, I began to get a premonition of love to come. Some black-haired stranger with gray eyes would threaten to take my heart away from Derrick. The black-haired stranger was adopted, I could sense it, and his ‘sister’ Caroline was a snob, always wanting to be the center of attention. I didn’t say anything to Mother Parker, though. I was escorted to my room up the stairs by a very lonely, deaf butler. He was kind and hard working, I could tell that by the looks of him. I sensed all this from just once glance at the place!
His name is – was – Mark Grey. For the next several months, he began to love me in ways Derrick had. He was my best friend, my confidante, and my protector. We did a lot of things together, and soon, forgetting about Derrick for a while, I began to fall in love with him. I never told him about Derrick, but I did tell him about my secret: Mystic Magic. My eyes hold the power, I told him, and silver-blue was the color of an Earthbound Mystic. He understood, not as much at first, but quickly got into it.
Later that month, I ran into Aaron for the first time in years. Something in my gut told me to stop at the nearest party store. Within moments, another premonition came in my mind. Aaron was here, somewhere, I just had to pay attention. I found him sifting through the magazines, and yelled out his name. I could tell with my empathic powers my best friend was troubled, but I put that thought away in my mind to greet him. He was as cute as ever, and just as funny. Growing up, he and I always got along great. We were best friends. When I left before having our daughter, he wouldn’t even look at me with his sad eyes. Now, five years later, I reunited with him, and he was all smiles.
I took him to the Parker Mansion, explaining all that I’d grown to know and control about my power. I thought he’d say it was weird, but he proved me wrong. When Aaron and Mark met, Mark was jealous of him. I tried to explain to Mark that Aaron and I were only best friends and that we grew up together, but he wouldn’t listen. In Mark’s mind, I’d betrayed him. I took Aaron home that evening, telling him I’d keep in touch. Mark never spoke to me again that night, so I cried myself to sleep.
Horror struck twice. First, when I’d confronted Sabrina in my sleep, I woke up lethargically. Mark did the perfect thing by calling for an ambulance. I tried to stay awake, to see what was going on, but found I couldn’t. I was whisked away to the Sisters’ Mystic Palace in the Dream Realm. When I did wake up, I was still groggy from all the medications in my system, but able to see and speak to Mark, who sat beside the hospital bed.
During this, his love for me grew, and mine began to fade. My love of Derrick was still in my heart and mind, but I never told Mark about Derrick. I couldn’t hurt him that way.
Three days later, I was home again, as if nothing happened. Somehow, the subject turned to the Sisters, Enchantra and Challandra. Mark had never met them, to my knowledge, so I didn’t know how he knew them. He explained what happened while I was in the hospital. He was taken to the Dream Realm and met Enchantra, who reminded him of two Companion personas he’d had in his mind. One was named Wolf Stargazer, who I knew was Katherine’s lost canine love. Wolf was Banished to Mark for being in love with Katherine, living in a dark world of hate. The other persona called himself Psycho, the more playful part of Mark he was afraid to explore. Half of me was skeptic, so I asked to talk to one of them.
Mark brought out Wolf, and I brought out Katherine.
That was a grave mistake.
When I switched places with my feline friend, I was taken by Damian, Sabrina’s brother, to his Dark Tower dungeons. I never knew how much time passed, and cried constantly in my mind for hope and home. I called for Derrick, Luna, Aaron, and Mark, hoping they’d hear my messages and come to rescue me. Only one time was I able to return home, but not for long. Using what little secret power I’d had left in me, I went home to greet my friends. The four of them were gathered around me, worried. I told them what was going on, and what they had to do to rescue me. I felt weaker than ever, so I faded back, letting Katherine wake up in my body. The switch was still effective, thank goodness. It wasn’t too long before they rescued me, with Wolf beside Katherine. Derrick, Aaron, Luna, Mark, and I woke up in our bodies in the Outer Realm. In my mind, that adventure was over, but the horror was only beginning.
The five of us stayed in the Parker Mansion together for two weeks. Caroline and Mother Parker were gone on a business trip, and I’d given the butlers and maids a much-needed vacation, so we had the house to ourselves. During breakfast one morning, Mark had hid upstairs, still sleeping. In my mind, I could tell he was sad. As Luna helped Derrick and Aaron clean up, I wanted to know what was going on. Mark had dreamed about me, leaving him to go with Luna, never to see me again.
He was right. I was going to leave. To my surprise, I was whisked away to meet my parents, brothers, and sisters, not far from the Rich District, where the Parker Mansion stood. As I packed my bag, my heart began to break. Thinking it would cheer me up, I let Mark help me pack. He gave me a dream-catcher necklace so I wouldn’t forget him. Somehow, I never could. Not even when Sabrina and her new Earthbound Warriors later killed him in the Dream Realm.
The leader of the Earthbound Warriors was the tiniest of my Oracles, Tart. Somehow, Sabrina had taken the charms I gave them and turned them evil. Sabrina had also had Caroline and Mrs. Gertrude under an evil spell. In the Hill View Cemetery, all the Crusaders met with her. Katherine, Wolf, Kitten’s Claw, and Kit’s beau, Toby Snow, who were all Earthbound with four Sisterhood Amulets, joined us. Derrick, Aaron, Mark, Luna, and even Shane “Shadow,” Shannon, and Shannon’s boyfriend, Nick McNathaniels were prepared for battle.
Unfortunately, Sabrina did an awful thing. She reminded Nick of the death of his father in the Dream Realm Wars. Shannon tells me from that point on, anytime she tried to use her Magic around him, he would literally begin to fall deeper and deeper into a depression. Not even she was able to get him out of it.
Sabrina made me choose among the three guys I’d cared about in my life – Aaron, Derrick, and Mark. She froze them, taunting them to the point of my own madness. I wouldn’t let her get to me, though, and called out a chant to get my Oracles back on my side after the battle. Sabrina wasn’t through, yet. She transported us, minus Shannon and Nick, to the Dream Realm’s Lava Lake, where our adventure started. With magic and hatred bubbling in my soul, the