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

parents now?”
Tiffany pointed to my driveway. Parked, I saw my Aunt Sharon smiling at me. I waved.
“You’ve been adopted by Sharon?” I asked. Even better.
“Yeah, and we’re learning the coolest stuff.” Tart replied.
“Unfortunately,” Tiffany began, once seeing Tart’s face turn dark. “We’re still having nightmares.”
Oh no. Not again.
I looked to Tart, who was biting her lip. “Has Orthos been bothering you again?”
She shook her head. “No, but Damian is.”
Even worse than Orthos. I recalled the Crusade, and when I fought him. Damian had fallen for me, with Sabrina using that to her advantage. He captured me, claiming me as his own, but not for long. The Crusaders rescued me, taking me home. He’s a seductive creep, and I wanted nothing to do with him. I didn’t want my precious girls to have anything to do with him now, either.
“Girls, I want you to promise me something.”
The looked up at me. Tart had a tear in her eye.
“Don’t fall in love with him. If you do, you’ll be caught in his trap.”
“What will he do to us?” Tiffany asked.
“All he wants is your power, and your souls to fight against the Crusaders in the Dominionite Army.”
Aunt Sharon honked her horn and I waved back.
“Promise me.” I made them look into my eyes.
“We promise,” They chorused.
“We’ll keep in touch, okay?” I asked them. “It was great to see you again.”
They hugged me and were on their way. There was a hint of Dark Magic still hovering in my soul over the Dream Merchant.
I could do nothing about it.

The next day, I let Derrick watch the boys while I searched on my own.
“Be careful, okay Love?” Derrick warned me, kissing my cheek as I headed out the door.
“I will.” I promised, and was on my way.
I drove all over town, using my Empathy to guide me. As I turned on Catz Avenue, I drew closer to the mysterious mansion across the street from the Richardsons. Since we moved in, and Kelly had made a friend out of Cara Richardson, that spooky mansion has teased my curiosity.
Speaking of the Richardsons, I stopped in their driveway and went up to the door. Craig himself answered.
“Hey, Ariana, what’s up?” He asked.
My gaze was to the mansion. Something was drawing me to it.
“Do you happen to know anything about that mansion?” I asked him.
“Besides the fact it’s creepy, very little.” Craig announced. “Come on in.”
I stood at the kitchen sink when I stepped inside, staring across the street.
“You’re hooked, aren’t you?” He teased.
I nodded. “Yeah, and my sensors are going haywire.” I told him, finally looking at him. “Do you know the story behind it?”
“There are a lot of them.”
“What’s one of them?” I asked, my gaze returning to the mansion.
“As far as I know, there were a pair of fraternal twins. Their names were Jeremiah and Jesemiah. When their parents died, they were separated. No one knows what happened, but it’s said Jesemiah and Jeremiah both haunt that place.” Craig explained. “Why are you so up on the Catz Mansion, Ariana?”
I looked him straight in the eye. “I have a feeling my daughter’s in there.”
“You can go look if you want.” He told me.
“Want to join me?” I asked.
He put his hands up. “No way. I’m spooked over that place. I’ll stay here and watch you, if you feel you’re not going to be safe.”
I’m a Mystic; I’m always safe.
I agreed and headed across the street.
The front door was half-open, which scared me when it moved. I walk in cautiously, noticing the visions of a ghost family.
There are two children, a boy and a girl, playing a card game together at a table. The woman above them, I can sense is their mother, pouring a pitcher of something into a pair of glasses for them. The male hunched over a desk full of papers is writing by lantern-light.
To my surprise, the girl noticed I was standing there, and waved to me.
I waved back and they disappeared.
That was spooky. My sensors were definitely working, because I thought I saw the girl again in the back of the room. I walked closer to her without thinking, noticing she’s older now than at first.
The girl takes my hand, leading me to the barn in the backyard.
The door of the barn is also half-open, so I step inside. I hear children playing, but there wasn’t anyone else there.
I notice an echo of an aura from the corner. The girl let go of my hand to show me her cut wrists. Echoes of dried blood shone on them as she held a glowing-burgundy necklace in her hands. Why did she commit suicide?
The girl goes to the corner, laying herself on the hay before disappearing.
I gasped for air. What was going on, and why did that girl bring me here?
I began to sense something in the upper-bunk by the rafters. Kelly’s aura trace was there, but I knew she wasn’t there now.
Oh, Goddess Bless, what’s going on?
Could this be a sign of hell to come? Or is this what Andrew James sent to Sara?
Is it a plea for help from the ghost-family and Kelly?
I began to get dizzy, so I headed home.
“Hey, are you okay?” Craig asked as I headed to my Jeep.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I assured him.
“Can I drive you home?” He asked.
“How are you going to get back?”
“I have legs.” He replied. “I can walk. Besides, I don’t think you should be driving right now.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked him.
He paused. “Call it a feeling.”
I hopped in the front passenger seat, immediately falling asleep.
Somehow, my mind was exhausted from the Catz Mansion.

I woke in the Dream Realm, at Lord Guardian O’Dell’s own Chambers.
I saw him by the pond in back and called him.
“Young Guardian!” O’Dell cried, turning from his Unicorn shape to a human male. He hugged me. “What brings you to my Chambers?”
“I just had a weird vision.” I told him about the ghost-girl and her family.
He grinned when I was finished. “Only Grey Areans can do that.”
“What’s a Grey Arean?” I’d never heard of it until now.
“That’s where my brother Max reins with Sister Jezebel, remember?”
I shook my head, not remembering.
“Ah, you do not.” O’Dell’s smile turned serious. “The Grey Area is the place where old Dominionites learn to be good again. Max has given them another chance at life. Find him and tell him what you have seen. He can help you.”
“That sounds good, my Lord.” I told him. “Where would I find Max, so I can tell him about my vision?”
“Look around you.” He began. “See how everything has color here?”
“Yes.”
“Well, the Grey Area has none. It is dull and old. The life has not yet been colored in, if you know what I mean.” O’Dell grinned. “Go where there is no color, and you shall find him there.”
I bowed. “Thank you, My Lord Guardian.”
I took flight, going to the Grey Area for the first time. O’Dell was right; there wasn’t any actual color here. It sure lived up to its name, in both sight and sense. I could sense the emptiness around me, all void of feeling and life.
I didn’t like it, soon becoming scared.
“Lord Maximaniac! Queen Jezebel!” I called their names as I descended. I reached the ground, looking into the eyes of a few souls.
They were dark and hollow.
How were they turning good, I wondered, if they were still dark inside?
I spotted Maximaniac in the crowd at the pavilion. He was in his human-male form, with dark blue and grey Magics surrounding him. Maximaniac was just as I’d known him Earthbound, looking like a joker from the Renaissance.
“Young Guardian, wonderful to see you again.” Maximaniac replied, kissing my hand as I bowed. “How do you like my Realm?”
“I just got here, but everything around me feels hollow.” I told him. “O’Dell explained old Dominionites would get a second chance with you here. I look into their eyes and see nothing. What does that mean?”
“They have not yet proven themselves worthy of life.” Maximaniac told me.
“Doesn’t everything deserve to live?” I asked him.
“They only know of being Dominionite Warriors, if you recall.” Maximaniac said. “Old habits must die in order for a new life to begin for them.”
I nodded my head. “That’s not what I came for, my Lord Maximaniac.”
“Please, call me Max.”
I wasn’t about to argue, so I told him what I’d witnessed.
He laughed when I finished. “Ah, you speak of the infamous Catz twins themselves. The girl is Jesemiah and her brother Jeremiah.”
“What happened to them? I know they died, but why does the family haunt the place?”
“That house has been in their family for many generations.” Max told me. He pat me on the back. “Why do I not let them tell you their story themselves?”
“Where can I find them?” I asked.
“Think of your world, and where you saw them.” He said. “That is where you will find them here.”
I didn’t understand right away.
He waved his hands and I disappeared, reappearing in front of a house resembling the Catz Mansion in the Outer Realm. One slight difference: it was newly built.
“‘Ello there!” I heard someone behind me cry. I turned to see two images, a boy and a girl. The boy waved at me, smiling.
The girl had ebony-black hair down to her waist, pulled in pig-tails, so it might have been longer. She had royal black eyes and a tender expression. She was holding the hand of a boy who looked like her. He had his hair cut short, also with black eyes and a kind expression. They looked about sixteen, maybe seventeen. I couldn’t tell. They were wearing old-style clothes, as if jumping out of the Pioneer days. As they came up to me, I could faintly see the wrists of the little girl.
This had to be the Catz twins, Jeremiah and Jesemiah.
“Hi, what’s your name?” Jeremiah asked me.
“I’m the Young Guardian of the Dream Realm.” I told them.
Did they know of me? I wondered.
Jesemiah bowed. “Finally, we meet in person.”
“What had you done, sister?”
“I went home, meeting her.” Jesemiah told him.
“Why did you show yourself? I could have been spooked out and ran off.” I told her.
“I knew you would not.” She supplied. “You are a Mystic; one who holds Magic in their eyes. You are powerful in your own way.”
“Dare you tell her?” Jeremiah interrupted.
“Of course. She is trustworthy.” Jesemiah replied. She turned back to me. “Before our deaths, we were Pagan. Now, we have to gain our power back.”
“How are you going to do that?” I asked. “What do I have to do with it?”
“Lord Maximaniac has given us a chance to become powerful again.” Jeremiah replied. “He has faith in us, knowing of our Earthbound lives, and deaths.”
“He is sad they were not honorable, but understands.” Jesemiah said.
“How did you die?”
Each twin looked at the other, then to me. Jeremiah started.
“We were torn from each other when our parents died. I grew up wondering where my sister was. I later found her in our own house, in the barn.”
“I had the only thing taken away from me I had cherished – my family.” Jesemiah continued. “I had but one possession left from my childhood; an amulet that had been handed down from many generations before me.