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Cursed Hearts

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The guardian brothers are very possessive immortals when it comes to protecting Kyoko from Hyakuhei, from demons, even from herself. But when does it go too far? If the brothers knew they had to kill each other just to be near her, would they do it? If it would allow them to love her, then they would do it in a heartbeat. Will their death be enough to keep Kyoko from the demon lord, Hyakuhei, who has loved her for all of eternity? Sometimes even blood is not enough when Kyoko doesn’t play by the rules of their Cursed Hearts.

PUBLISHER: TEKTIME

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Chapter 1
Second Edition Published by TekTime All rights reserved. Chapter 1 “Sacrifice” The guardian brothers gathered around the remains of the maiden statue. Even wounded and bloody, they were still a sight to behold. Their translucent wings spanned out behind them like the angels of legend, but the deadly weapons they’d just used to beat back the rain of demons told of their true nature. The guardians were more dangerous and lethal than the demons could ever hope to be. They are the protectors of The Heart of Time… the time portal that is the link between the demon world and all the human ones. Time and space separate the worlds so no one can cross without the use of the sacred portal. The guardians had never expected to turn their power against what they’d been born to protect. The winds of change had started three years ago when the maiden statue suddenly began to glow, revealing the fact that the human priestess had been reborn on the other side of The Heart of Time. Hyakuhei, once the most powerful guardian, now lord of the demons, had attacked, sending his demonic minions into a frenzy as they tried to get to the portal… trying to get to the priestess on the other side. The guardians knew why Hyakuhei had attacked with such passionate fury, but the dark guardian’s reason didn’t matter… they couldn’t allow it. Their intense war raged for three long years, never stopping, weakening both sides of the conflict… until today. Hyakuhei had released the most cunning of the demons, banding them together with the weaker ones to fight with a vengeance. Sending the army of evil to overrun the guardians in sheer number, Hyakuhei had spread his dark shadowy wings, calling forth his ultimate power to destabilize the barrier and escape into the human realm. It’d happened so fast that the guardians didn’t even know how many demons had slipped through the barrier with him and the only way to stop more from following had been to destroy The Heart of Time. Now the guardians were at a crossroads. Hyakuhei and the demons would be free to stalk the priestess within the human realm, because with the time portal destroyed… the guardians couldn’t reach her. “We shouldn’t have done that,” Toya growled, glaring at the pile of rubble from where he knelt on the ground. Loss of blood had sapped his energy but not his anger. He’d sent all the power he could through the time portal an instant behind Hyakuhei. He only hoped he had wounded the demon lord in the process. “Hyakuhei will hunt her!” “She’s just a baby. Three years old and powerless against them.” The sadness in Kamui's voice was thick as his eyes glittered with tears. He tried to wipe the evidence away but only succeeded in leaving a smear of blood across his cheek. “What if the demons find her before he does?” “She won’t stand a chance against them.” Kotaro closed his ice blue eyes in denial. “She doesn’t have anyone there that can protect her from demons… or from Hyakuhei.” Shinbe’s amethyst wings vanished as he wrapped his arm around the gash across his ribs. He would heal, but it would do no good. “We may have stopped the rest of the demons from entering her world… but in truth, we have lost it all if he claims her.” Kyou was the only one still standing at his full height, but only because he chose to ignore his own wounds in light of the dilemma that they were now facing. “It is not over.” His voice was devoid of the anguish that plagued his brothers. “What are you talking about?” Toya hissed as he stumbled to his feet. “The time portal’s destroyed. We can’t save her.” His silver wings vanished in a flurry of feathers, making way for his anger. “There is a way… but the price is high,” Kyou informed them. “There is no price too high,” Kamui spoke what the others were thinking. His hands were now fisted at his sides and his eyes determined. Kyou’s long silver hair fluttered in the breeze as he turned his golden eyes to lock them with Kamui's. “Would you die for her?” “If it would save her and her world,” was Kamui's instant reply as he took a step forward. “Then it would be but a small sacrifice.” “Just tell us what we have to do,” Toya demanded. “Our lives already belong to her… If it takes blood then we will bleed.” Kyou looked from one guardian to the next seeing they were all in agreement. “If we die in this realm, then we will appear in hers… but there is a cost for such an act. Our powers as guardians will be cut in half, and our wings are the price of payment because they will be the power that carries us across time and space.” “Will we be together?” Shinbe had the forethought to ask. “We are brothers and that will never change. We will not be reborn… but slip through the veil of time as we are. To the mortals, we will appear only around the ages of seventeen to nineteen, but our immortality will keep us from aging. The power of the descent will give us a life as if we have always been there among them… near her. The priestess is innocent in the realm of humans… she will have no power until she comes of age.” Shinbe tightened his grip on his staff as he looked out at the bloody battlefield that surrounded them. “We’ve been attacked by powerful demons many times, and yet we live. Just how does a guardian go about getting himself killed?” The faintest hint of a smile possessed Kyou’s lips as he answered. “It takes a guardian to kill a guardian.” “If we are going to do this, then we might as well make it a test of strength,” Kotaro insisted trying to push away the horror of killing one's brother. Shinbe nodded, understanding what Kotaro was trying to do. “We have always wondered who among us is the strongest.” Kamui's glittering eyes turned black and the ebony color quickly spread out across his wings as if eating the stardust that glittered there in multi-hued flecks. The instant Kamui came into his true power; it became a fight to the death. Within moments, Toya was the last one standing. He dropped to his knees from the pain of what he’d just done, and what he yet had to do. No one had thought about the truest sacrifice that was to be made. “To be with you,” his voice was only a whisper as he kept the rest of his thoughts deep within him. Taking his twin daggers in a tight grip, he plunged them into his own heart. The last of his power activated the sacred daggers as the ice quickly spread out from his heart… followed by the flames. Chapter 2 “A Voice from the Past” 15 years later… Kyoko paused in front of the office door not wanting to go in. She’d been at the all girls’ boarding school as far back as she could remember and being called to Mrs. Crap’s office had never been a good thing. It gave the words ‘Oh Crap’ a new meaning. “Come in Hogo.” Even muted from the other room, the female voice seemed harsh and unyielding, the kind that basically grated on people’s nerves. Kyoko flinched wondering how the hell the old lady even knew she was standing there. She took a second to glance around her, looking for the secret spy camera she had never found then shrugged and opened the door. Seeing that the head mistress was not alone in the office, Kyoko shifted from one foot to the other wondering what she’d done to get in trouble this time. Since the school was in the middle of nowhere and there were no males allowed on the premises, she’d never been in the same room with the opposite s*x and instantly looked away from him. “Take a seat Miss Hogo, we have much to discuss.” Mrs. Crap said with all the snootiness she could. Even she seemed to be rattled that her righteous school had been invaded by a man. “This is Mr. Sennin, a lawyer who has been in charge of your family’s estate since you were placed here at our school. He has brought to my attention that his job is now finished and all rights of the estate revert back to you as of midnight tonight.” Kyoko blinked several times in confusion. Her family’s what? She’d always been told that she was a ward of the school and assumed that meant she was an orphan. Her birthday was tomorrow but… Kyoko flinched from her thoughts when Mrs. Crap suddenly stood and headed for the door of the office. The old woman’s back was stiff as a board and her heels clicked loudly on the hardwood floors of the office. She looked down her nose past the annoying glasses that hung from the end of it. “I will leave Mr. Sennin to explain the rest.” The door closed with a resounding boom, leaving Kyoko and the man alone within the office. “May I call you Kyoko?” Mr. Sennin asked politely. Personally, he was glad the old heifer had left them alone. His voice was aged and rough but soft and sweet at the same time, making Kyoko finally raise her emerald eyes to meet his. He was dressed in a business suit like a lawyer, but his smile belonged to someone’s grandpa because that smile reached all the way to his twinkling gray eyes. She nodded, needing a moment to find her voice. “You know my family?” Kyoko asked the one question she thought she’d never get an answer to. “I knew them very well. Your grandfather was my best friend.” He sighed as he took Mrs. Crap’s chair and pulled it around the desk next to Kyoko’s. “Your grandfather brought you to me when you were only three years old with very explicit instructions and a will. He was killed in a freak accident only a couple hours after leaving my law firm.” The old man took a deep breath as if the memory still hurt him deeply, then he started to explain. “Your grandpa came to me in confidence. He told me that everyone in your family was in danger. Your parents had just died under strange circumstances and he feared for your life… afraid you would be next I suppose.” He fidgeted as if struggling to explain. “You see… your mother and father were found in your family’s living room, seemingly mauled to death by some kind of animal.” His eyes darkened at the memory. “But there was never any evidence found of animals having been within the house.” Mr. Sennin frowned, “When the police arrived, they searched for your younger brother Tama, but he’d disappeared without a trace. You were with your grandfather at the county fair during the time of your parent’s death. But when the investigators had searched the house; it was your room that had the most damage done to it. That’s when your grandfather brought you to my office.” “They’re all gone?” Kyoko felt like she was caught in the headlights… finding out she did have a family and knowing she’d lost them all within the same breath. “No one has ever told me any of this. They just always said that I was a ward of the school. I’ve never even been allowed off campus.” She blinked wondering if she might’ve been better off not knowing. Mr. Sennin nodded, “My instructions were to send you to a secluded boarding school as far away as I could find from your family’s home, then not to have any form of contact with you until your seventeenth birthday. I’ve always sent the school fees by way of an off shore account so they could not be traced.” He looked around the room feeling regret for her isolation. “The only reason I picked this place was because the ground here is sacred… blessed by the monks who live in the monastery right up the mountain. Their ancestry and traditions are the oldest in the world… and the most powerful. I also asked that you never be allowed off school grounds. You see, your grandfather, he was convinced that if you weren’t hidden away somewhere… that the demons would find you.” Kyoko flinched in surprise. “Demons?” That was her secret and she’d never told anyone. Her roommates always asked her about her nightmares when she would wake up screaming, but she would simply tell them she didn’t remember the dreams. She cast her eyes down not wanting him to see the fear within them. He cleared his throat wondering if he’d said too much and quickly turned to his paperwork as if he could stack it even neater then it already was. “Put it this way, I trusted your grandfather just as much as he trusted me.”

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