Tethered to the World: A Phantom Touched Novel

by Brutger, Stacey

  He finally nodded toward her hand, then lifted a brow in challenge.

  Taking a deep breath, she turned to square off with the wall, set her feet one behind the other as she would when facing an opponent, then drew back her arm.

  “Concentrate where you want the blade to go. Imagine it already in the wall.”

  Logan spoke softly, his words sinking into her consciousness. Blowing out her breath, she swung and released the blade.

  To her shock, the tip hit the board. It wobbled precariously, then began to droop, then clattered to the floor. She winced and turned, only to find him holding out another knife.

  “Again.”

  This one was different. The whole knife was made of metal, the blade flat, and when she accepted the knife, it was heavier than she expected, the metal sleek and smooth to her touch.

  Annora took up her stance again, concentrated on what she wanted the knife to do, then drew back and released the blade in a smooth move.

  To her shock, the blade thwacked heavily into the board right next to his. She couldn’t help but smile as she turned toward him. “I did it!”

  There was a slight smile on his face as he turned and went back to making food. “Not until you can hit the same spot consistently. Get the blade and do it again.”

  To her surprise, she was able to land the next five out of six throws. Unfortunately, it took a bit more effort to be able to land them in the same spot. After thirty minutes, she was able to get them within six inches of each other, but it wasn’t good enough. If her uncle came at her, she needed to be able to hit him square, before he had a chance to get his hands on her. She’d only get one shot, two at the most, before he would be on her.

  “Food.”

  She was so focused on sinking the next knife that she jumped when Logan spoke, and the blade ricocheted off the wall and pinged noisily to the ground.

  While he turned away with a laugh, Annora stood frozen in place as she struggled to force air into her lungs and fight the panic at the way he managed to sneak up on her. By the time she got herself under control, the rest of the group was already seated, and watching her like she was some weird science experiment they weren’t sure was going to knife them or smile or both.

  She ducked her head, swallowing hard as she approached them, struggling not to run like her instincts urged her to do. She carefully seated herself in the place they left for her, not sure how to react. She recalled the small stash of cash in her bag, and glanced at Logan.

  “I’ll leave some money on the counter for my share.” She ignored the way her stomach growled at the sheer mass of food spread out on the table and took a small portion of each dish.

  She hadn’t realized the rest of the guys stopped eating to watch.

  “Hand me your plate.” Mason’s voice was low and dangerous, something in it startling her into dropping her spoon. It was all she could do not to ghost out on them, the darkness around her swirling like dust.

  Logan set aside his fifth beer, then casually reached over and handed her plate to Mason. The troll then proceeded to pile her plate so high with food that some of the vegetables began to slide off the edge. He then carefully set it in front of her, ducking his head down until they were eye to eye.

  “Food is covered by the university. You will eat when you’re hungry.”

  Then he stopped talking but continued to stare at her expectantly. Only when she reached for her fork did he lean back and give her space.

  For the remainder of the meal he watched her like a hawk, the rest of the group observing the exchange in silence. She kept her head lowered, but after the first few bites, she shoved thoughts of them out of her mind and just ate.

  She plowed through the meal like it had been her first since she escaped from her uncle. Tastes exploded in her mouth, so different from the still-frozen pizza and TV dinners her uncle usually tossed at her.

  When she scraped her plate clean and glanced up, she froze.

  Everyone was watching her, none of them had even taken a bite.

  “What the hell happened to you?”

  Chapter Six

  Camden spoke barely above a whisper, rage thickening his voice. His skin rippled, a pattern seeming to imprint across it, before the design gradually smoothed out, his question landing like the lash of a whip across her back.

  Annora stiffened, then slowly pushed back her chair, conscious of how far away the door was behind her. “I’ll answer you if you can even tell me my name.”

  He opened his mouth, then closed it again, a slew of expressions crossing his face. “He called you Greenwood, but that’s not your name.”

  She shook her head. “It’s Annora.”

  She stood, then took her plate to the sink to rinse it off, not bothering to look at them. “When you want to discuss the case, call me. Unless you want to discuss your problems with a complete stranger—like what’s wrong with the team—my private life will remain just that…private.”

  Not giving them the chance to question her, she rounded the counter, picked up her discarded pack and smiled brightly at them. “Which one of you wants to show me to my room?”

  * * *

  Xander was the one who directed her to her room. They bypassed the second floor, heading directly toward another set of stairs. They were steeper, narrower, and she hesitated at the bottom. When her bag rattled, one of the ferrets stuck his head out, looked around the space, then leapt to the floor and darted up the steps.

  Telling her it was safe.

  The confined space wasn’t like the subterranean prison where she spent the past ten years of her life. She took a deep, bracing breath, held it in her lungs and placed her foot on the bottom step, then followed the ferrets’ lead and charged up the stairs, not letting her mind think.

  At the top, she stopped short, and her breath exploded out of her when she saw the rest of the attic space.

  Two half walls ran along the floor, stretching a few feet into the room to keep people from falling down the stairs. The walls and ceilings were exposed beams, but the room was one giant space, almost the full size of the house. Natural light filled the room, and the bay windows overlooking the backyard were spaced every few feet apart. The stained-glass windows in the front of the house were smaller octagons, large enough to give her a small view of the yard. North and south both had long, rectangular windows running the length of the room. They were high enough to give her privacy, but large enough to brighten the space.

  Even better—no doors to lock her in.

  The far side of the room had a large, built-in closet, while the opposite corner revealed a partially unfinished bathroom.

  “The room is a work in progress, but you’ll be able to see from all directions. And the bathroom works,” Xander spoke from behind her.

  “This is perfect.” Annora whirled to find him watching her. “How did you know tight spaces are difficult for me?”

  “I recognize the symptoms.” He glanced back toward the stairs, as if he wished he was anywhere but there. She couldn’t help but wonder if she’d taken the room he was building for himself. “I’ll bring up a mattress so you don’t have to sleep on the floor.”

  Annora watched him disappear, and she dropped her bag, only to hear a squeak of protest. “Sorry!” She bent and quickly zipped open the top…and discovered the other ferret seemed to have made a little bed out her clothes. When she tipped the bag on its side, empty candy wrappers and chip bags spilled out.

  When the ferret lumbered out, he was covered with bright orange cheese dust, a slight waddle to his walk. Annora dug into the bag, and found her entire stash of food gone. “Dude! That was supposed to be our reserve in case of emergencies.”

  Both ferrets scrambled to gather in front of her, sat up on their hind feet, and pawed the air as if begging for forgiveness. She snorted a laugh at their antics. As one, they turned toward the stairway, and only then did she hear the footsteps and banging.

  She edged toward the stairs to see
Xander struggling with a queen-sized mattress. She quickly backed away when he turned and began to pull the monstrosity through the too-small space using sheer brute force.

  After he finished manhandling the mattress up the stairs, he tucked the mattress under his arm and set it beneath the middle window as if it weighed no more than a piece of bread.

  “Thank you. I—”

  “I’ll bring you some sheets.” Then he stepped around her and headed back down. When he was gone, she sat on the bed, then leaned back…and saw the open sky through the skylight in the ceiling.

  The scent of the sea swirled around her, and she gradually relaxed back onto the bed. When boots sounded on the stairs, she just waved a hand. “You can just set the sheets down. I’ll get to them later.”

  Instead of answering, the bed next to her bounced, and she sat up to see Logan had flopped on the mattress next to her, yet another beer in his hand. “What are you doing?”

  “We have patrols tonight, which means we need to go over the case file before we leave.” But he made no move to go.

  “What do you really want?” She watched as he slowly pulled his attention away from the skylight, his blue gaze the color of frost as it landed on her. He vaguely smelled of beer, the drink putting a flush into his cheeks.

  “Greenwood didn’t tell you everything.” He sat up, swigging the beer until it was gone, then he gazed at his feet. “Most teams are either all female or male. The only time the groupings cross over is when the directors believe they’ve found the perfect match.”

  Annora didn’t understand what he was trying to say. “Explain.”

  When he glanced up at her, she wished he hadn’t. Something about the intensity in his gaze made her scramble to her feet. Whenever anyone looked at her that way, it always ended up badly for her. Logan ran a hand over the top of his hair, flipping it out of his face as he gazed up at her.

  “When a perfect match is made, the members of the team become connected.” He rolled the empty beer bottle between his palms as he stared at her expectantly.

  “Connected?” She shook her head and backed up another step. Something about the way he said it, something about the way he was gazing at her, made her feel more than a little unsettled.

  Everyone she’d ever become connected to died.

  “Pack grá.” Logan got to his feet slowly, never once taking his gaze off her. Though he was shorter than the rest of the group, he still towered over her smaller five-foot frame. He scanned her face, then shook his head. “You don’t even know what that means, do you?”

  Annora cursed her lack of knowledge, feeling like she was missing something important. “Pack is family.”

  He coughed into his fist, choking on a sudden breath of air he sucked in. “Pack does mean family, but pack grá is closer than family.” He began pacing, running a nervous hand over his head again. “Shit, you really don’t know.”

  “Just spit it out.” She didn’t like the way he was beating around the bush.

  He whirled and came to a stop in front of her, exasperation etched on his face. “Are you as innocent as you seem?”

  She blinked at him, then her mouth dropped open. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “Wait!” But the two ferrets ran out in front of him, tripping him up, allowing her time to escape. The bottle he held slipped and thunked to the floor.

  She quickly dodged back when he reached for her, then her shoe slipped on the top step, and she began to teeter and fall backwards. Logan lunged forward, horror etched on his face, but it was much too late to catch her. Instead of letting her drop, he dove after her and wrapped his arms around her, twisting them midair to protect her.

  “Son of a bitch!” Xander dropped the sheets he was carrying and charged up the stairs to catch them.

  Not in time.

  Shifters were tough, but they weren’t indestructible. Without conscious thought, the darkness exploded out of her. And they fell through the wooden stairs, then landed with a heavy thump on a stack of boxes as she took form again.

  Under her, Logan grunted, his grip tightening around her. The place was completely dark, the air thin, and she realized they were in a tiny room somewhere. Trapped. Just when she was about to lose her shit, a door behind her was thrown open, allowing a slash of light to fall across the cramped space.

  As she struggled to wrestle herself free, arms wrapped around her waist from behind, and she was wrenched backwards.

  Before she had time to panic at being restrained, she was hauled to her feet and released, large hands frantically running over her, searching for injuries. She stood in shock as Xander slowly straightened, then rubbed a hand along his jaw. “What the hell happened?”

  Then he whirled away from her, reached back into the closet beneath the stairs, and hauled out Logan, slamming the redhead against the wall, his feet dangling a foot off the floor. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

  “She needs to be told the truth!” Logan threw up his arms, knocking away Xander’s grip on his throat. He stumbled as he landed on his feet, then flicked a glance at her. “She should have a choice.”

  “She does have a choice.” Camden stormed down the hall toward them. “That’s why she’s here as a trial.”

  Logan gave a bitter laugh. “I don’t give a fuck about the trial. She’s our perfect match.” He glanced at her then, his face tightening in worry. “If you get too close to us, you can bind us to you. You’d become our pack grá—our mate. You’d be stuck with us forever.”

  Her mouth dropped open, and she turned to stare at them, sputtering, “What?”

  For a second a thrill of excitement sent her spirits soaring—the chance to belong, the possibility of finding love—then horror slammed into her as reality settled over her…when her uncle discovered them, they would be forced to endure the torture with her.

  They would be used as a weapon against her.

  Or worse, they would discover the truth about her and either cast her aside or use her the same way as her uncle, nothing more than a slave to do their bidding. Her mother warned her about love, said her kind fell in love hard and fast, but Annora thought that shit was just fairytale nonsense.

  But what if it wasn’t?

  She stepped away from them, her back slamming against the wall behind her. “Look, I—”

  Camden snorted at her reaction. “Don’t look so panicked. You’re the only one who does the binding. You’re the only one with a choice.”

  Annora recoiled, her head smacking the wall smartly. “I would never force you to do anything. Even if I knew how, I would never bind anyone to me.”

  She would never put anyone through the hell of her life.

  Mason lumbered toward them, edging in front of her slightly, stepping between her and his team, and addressed them. “She was brought here to learn from us. We have an assignment for the first time in weeks, and we also have patrols tonight. Give her time to process what she’s learning.”

  Camden pinched the bridge of his nose, releasing a heavy sigh. “You’re right. Gather your gear and head out.” He glanced at her, his expression shuttered. “You’ll come with me and explain what happened here.”

  Chapter Seven

  Annora stood outside the house, watching Mason and Logan walk away with a pang of regret. She’d much rather be with them then heading out with Camden and Xander. The guys were dressed in formfitting black uniforms. While they were intimidating as hell, she couldn’t help but admit they were also in phenomenal shape.

  “Come.” Camden didn’t wait after he gave the order, simply headed in the opposite direction.

  She quickly fell into step next to Xander. Neither man spoke while they searched the grounds.

  “What exactly do you patrol? I thought a school full of supernaturals would be the last place anyone would try to infiltrate. What would they hope to gain?”

  Xander glanced at her, but it was Camden who spoke. “The humans who go to this school are loyal to us. They get a
free ride in exchange for their sworn oath to help supernaturals in the outside world. Most humans when they learn about us are not so…accepting. Our job is to keep the humans on campus safe and prevent the truth from spreading and poisoning the outside world.”

  From her limited time on the internet, when she obeyed her uncle and he granted her certain privileges, she knew supernaturals were believed to be myths and legends. She had no idea there were so many of them.

  “How do you know who’s a friend or enemy?” To her, everyone was a threat. Being on constant guard was exhausting, but necessary if she wanted to survive. While instinct said she could trust these men, they were also keeping secrets from her. Until she knew more, she had to remain on guard.

  “Unless they’re pack, everyone is an enemy.” Camden gave her a serious look, and she couldn’t help wonder if he ever smiled. “We’re allies in a bigger war. While we work together to keep our secret from the outsiders, the different species contain many smaller packs, each subject to allegiance to their own kind. If a pack see a weakness within their own ranks, they won’t hesitate to attack.”

  Annora glanced between the two men. “I don’t understand. None of the guys on your team are the same species, but you’re pack.”

  Tension tightened Camden’s shoulders. “Our species are extremely rare, so while we’re at school we’re considered our own group. There aren’t enough of us to form a separate pack. Attendance is very strict. Only the best of each pack is allowed to attend. And after our training is over, we’re expected to go back to our families.”

  And they obviously didn’t like the idea of disbanding.

  As they followed the outer perimeter of the school, she noticed that very few students actually lingered outside. She was glad when they pulled away from the tree line—something about not being able to see into the darkness left her unsettled.

  The men moved in and out of the shadows like they were old friends, and she did her best to duplicate their movements without relying on her gift.