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

alone with my sons. Kelly was usually with Bradley and her new best friends from the Academy-turned-Elementary School. Life was beginning to turn to its normal routine, with Mother and Anna checking up on us every now and then. Kevin began to come over for his nephews more often, which I loved. I liked having an older brother, joking around and being the basic life of the party. Soon, Kevin and I became close. Aimee and Aaron were soon busy with working and finishing their own education. Aimee had decided to take a day-care class through Ray County Public Schools. Aaron took a job with Father Reading in my own Father’s department – Computer Repair. I never knew Aaron had it in him.
This made me watch Bradley after the kids got out of school each day. I picked them up every day, taking them home while the twins rode in the back. Sometimes, in the Jeep Cherokee I’d had from the Parkers, I’d give Cara Richardson, Josh Stevenson, Kirsten Farthay, and Samantha West all rides home. Each set of parents were at first mean to me, but learned to trust me after a while, and I became the main car-pool driver.
Each PTA Meeting I went to, I treated it as a chance for the city to get to know me. By know, all the parents knew Kelly and Bradley, and found them both adorable. Derrick had made new friends with the department who were also parents to some of the Elementary School kids. I even found out an old friend of mine, Cindy Carmichael – Cool Cat from the System – was now living in Hill View with her husband and son. To think, she’d never said a word about either one.
The week of the twins’ (and Caleb’s) birthdays was the busiest. All the Crusaders were gathering for the party. I had invited Caroline Parker, but she declined, saying she had too much to do. Cindy brought over her husband Carl, and son Richard, who became fast friends with Bradley and Josh. Soon, more kids than adults were there, each spending the night in separate bedrooms. I allowed Kelly to have a slumber party the night of her twin step-brothers’ and cousin’s birthday party. The boys, Bradley, Richard, and Josh, found and played video games all night, so they were out of the way.
The night of the party, I was surprised by a few visitors.
Ding Dong. The doorbell rang, and I left Aimee’s side to answer it.
When I opened the door, I found the Earthbound versions of O’Dell, Max, Enchantra, Challandra, Sibylline, Jezebel, Kat, Kit, Wolf, Toby, Panther, Marie, and the three Young Companions, Celine, Destiny, and Tiger White.
“May we join you for the celebration?” Lord O’Dell grinned, coming inside.
“Certainly, O’Dell.” I told him. “Come in, Provincians. My home is now your own.”
“How generous.” Jezebel teased me, kissing my cheek.
“It is a very festive occasion.” Enchantra announced, once finding the twins in the living-room with the party. She picked up Andrew. “Hello, Young Andrew James.”
He smiled, giving her a bear hug.
“Where’s Protector Derrick?” Marie asked me.
I grinned. “Marie...” I warned her.
“My apologies.” Marie corrected herself, remembering my rule.
“Derrick is in the den, watching hockey with the other guys.” I told her. “Even one of Kelly’s friends, Kirsten Farthay, is with them.”
“She is the ultimate tomboy.” Katherine said. She picked up Mark-Antony. “Young Mark, I presume?”
Mark-Antony responded by giving her raspberries.
Celine giggled. “He is silly, Mommy.”
Katherine set him back down on the floor.
“Good thing his brother is more mature.” Enchantra smiled, setting Andrew down next to him.
“Speaking of brothers,” I announced, seeing Kevin from the corner of my eye. “Here comes mine, now.”
“My Lords and Ladies?” Kevin asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Same as you, I suppose.” Challandra said. “We came for the celebration of Young Guardian’s sons’ first birthday.”
Kevin smiled. “Yeah, I’m here for that, too.” He turned to me. “Are you going to help Mother out in the kitchen, or do I have to do that for you, too?”
“I’ll be there in a moment, Kevin, relax.” I told him. He left me and I turned back to my Mystic guests.
“We cannot stay long.” Challandra replied.
“We only came to wish them a happy birthday.” O’Dell replied.
“A full Earthly Sun Cycle is quite exciting for a Young Mystic Child.” Sibylline said with a grin.
I nodded. “Well, feel free to do whatever you wish to do. As I said, my home is yours.”
Soon, after the party died down some, O’Dell, Max and the Sisters left. All the Companions, minus Katherine, Wolf, and Celine, had gone back to the Dream Realm with them.
I fed the twins not soon after, with help from Celine and Kelly. Everyone else had found it was time to leave as well. This left just the Crusaders and their children at our house. We sat quietly; talking about how life was getting back to normal, about everything we’d gone through and learned, and about how time had flown.
Kelly was now eight, Bradley nine, Aaron, Aimee, Luna, and I were already twenty-one, Derrick was twenty-two, and Shane was twenty-three. We were grown up, adults ourselves, living our own lives aside from our families.
Aaron’s and my conversation about one of the twins’ moving a ball to himself ran through my mind, and I began to think just how much power my sons would have.
I was watching as Kelly and Celine played with them on the floor. That’s when I saw it.
Andrew pointed to his favorite Teddy Bear and made it come to him.
I looked to his brother. Mark-Antony closed his eyes, opening them again when a toy truck appeared in his hands.
“Did you see that?” I whispered, and all other conversation stopped.
“What?” Aimee asked.
I pointed to Andrew, and then said. “That. What he just did?”
Aaron smiled. “Our non-believer bears witness to the remarkable account of power.”
“Shut up, Aaron.” I scolded him. “Kelly, honey, did you do that?”
She shook her head. “No, Momma. Neither did Celine.”
“Young Andrew did it on his own.” Celine nodded.
I looked to Katherine, then to Derrick. “Do you think?”
“Not yet, Ariana.” Katherine said.
“They are still too young to know.” Wolf told me.
I sighed. “I guess you’re right, guys.”
Derrick took my hand and squeezed it. “Cheer up, Love. They’ll grow up normally, without others judging them because they’re different from anybody else.”
I didn’t want that. I wanted to be able to teach my sons all they had to know about the Magic.
Katherine and Wolf were right, though. They were too young. It wasn’t time for them to learn, yet. They would soon be able to learn and grow, magical powers and all.
Being their mother and the Young Guardian, I would be there to teach them.
I grinned at the Crusaders. All grown up, raising children and living their lives without having to Crusade to the Dream Realm.
Almost two years had passed since I married Derrick in California. A year ago, I’d had the twins, and moved into my own home with my extended family. In all that time, I’m surprised Orthos and his own evil-minded children hadn’t interfered with my life. The Dark Magic hadn’t reared its ugly head into my thoughts, and I’m grateful for everything I’ve earned and have is my own at last. My Dream-self told its own tale, and the simple life’s visions began to repeat themselves in my head, reminding me of my destiny.
In the year to come, being the Earthbound Young Guardian of the Dream Realm was going to become that much harder. I was scared shiftless.
BOOK TWO: TO CHANT OR NOT TO CHANT...

Part One:
New Neighbors

Prologue:
Enemies in the Neighborhood

Not everything was perfect for me back then. As the days wore on, so did my life and my foreboding thoughts of evil to come.
Within a month of PTA meetings each week, I began to be respected as any other parent. I learned most of the parents were from the Rich District, Derrick’s own neighborhood. I was introduced to so many people, and invited to so many parties in no time. Every invitation from a parent brought me empathic feelings of them feeling sorry for me.
I didn’t want that. I wasn’t about to demand respect, not yet anyway. I was the youngest mother there, being I was only twenty-one. Those who had met Kelly thought she was my younger sister, and not my own daughter. Those innocently trying to get to know me saw and commented on how adult I really was. How grown up I’d become in my young age? They’d ask, almost impressed. To be a mother to three beautiful children and still keep my sanity and health amazed them all.
The one thing that bothered me was whenever someone mentioned the Whiteheads to Derrick. Each time, he’d quickly change the subject, as if wanting to avoid it entirely. Quick empathic visions of avoidance over some terrible secret always came to me from him, leaving me guessing. My loving husband knew something about the Whiteheads, whoever they were. I wanted to find out what.
After dinner one night, as Kelly helped clean up the twins and Derrick helped wash the dishes, I heard the doorbell ring.
“That’s probably Alicia again.” I told him. She and I had been spending more and more time together, with her telling me stories of my mother and aunt in college. “I’ll get it.”
I exited the kitchen drying my hands on a dishtowel, which I set on the kitchen table.
Right away, foreboding thoughts entered my mind, and visions clouded my sight.
I saw a girl, like myself, in my mind, with an evil look on her face.
Shaking out of the vision before I reached the front door, I took a deep breath, calming my now racing heart. When I opened it, I saw her.
She had short blond hair, bobbed under her ears. The woman was tall, and I noticed the bright blue eyes right away. By her demeanor, I could tell she was rich. She smelled of expensive perfume, and had around her neck and ears matching diamonds that shimmered in the light.
It was the girl in my mind, the one with the evil smirk on her face.
“May I help you?” I asked her.
She shoved by me, a little girl following her. “Come along, Veronica. Don’t dawdle.”
“Excuse me, but may I help you?” I asked again, a little impatient. The woman continued to ignore me.
“I’m looking for Derrick Reading.” She said simply.
The little girl Veronica, with her brown curls in pig-tails, hung behind her, sucking her thumb.
“He’s busy at the moment.” I said, a hint of hatred already seething on my lips. “What can I do for you?”
She sat herself down on the couch. “I’ll wait. Thank you.”
She was rude, but polite about it. I didn’t understand her.
I sighed, heading to the kitchen to see if Derrick was finished, yet. We met each other halfway.
“Well, the dishes are done, the twins are playing in the yard, and Kelly and Bradley are watching them.” Derrick said with a smile.
“Someone’s here to see you, dear.” I told him.
He looked confused.
“She’s in the living room.” I replied.
Derrick’s eyes perked, afraid. “‘She?’”
He walked into the living room and noticed her short blond head peeking out of our couch. He let a gasp. “What’s she doing here?”
“Who is that?” I whispered.
He ignored me now, heading to the woman and the girl.
“Adrienne, how are you?” Derrick cleared his throat to say.
Adrienne? Who was that?
I followed, interested.
Adrienne