by Ford, Lizzy
Why hadn’t she called the police? Because she found him attractive? Because he spoke complete nonsense about being a psychic?
Because he proved he had some unique gift and pulled a memory from her mind?
She covered her face with her hands, exhausted from the night before and stressed about the Shadowman. Whatever was going on, there was some supernatural influence. It was impossible for her to ignore.
It centered on a fallen guardian angel that happened to be assigned to her. The only person who might help was Nathan, a man who made her pulse soar and who scared her with his intensity.
The phone on her desk rang, jarring her from her thoughts. One button was lit up, indicating it was Linda. She pushed the speakerphone button.
“Kaylee,” Linda said. “Your eight o’clock is here.”
“Send them back,” she replied blandly. She tucked a curl behind her ear then glanced at her calendar.
She didn’t have an eight o’clock today.
Kaylee stood, dread in her stomach. She didn’t know who was going to walk through her door, but she wasn’t expecting the tall, attractive brunette. Was she slipping? Should she know she had an appointment this morning?
Game face, Kaylee. She circled the desk and offered her hand.
“I’m Kaylee, Mr. Harrison’s assistant,” she said.
“Maggy,” said the brunette, shaking her hand. “I’m a colleague of Nathan Smith.”
Kaylee froze for a split second but managed to keep the forced smile on her face. She motioned to the chair in front of her desk. Nathan didn’t seem like someone who sent a messenger or someone else to do his job. Her gaze lingered on the door for a moment before she crossed to it. Leaning out, Kaylee spotted Nathan a few feet away.
He stood in the hallway, facing her door. If he was surprised she thought to look for him, he didn’t show it. His steady gaze made her stomach flutter before a familiar streak of fear replaced it.
“You might as well come in,” she told him in a clipped tone then spun and returned to her desk. “What do you want?” This she addressed at Maggy while Nathan walked in and sat.
“I think Nathan briefed you on who … what we are,” Maggy started.
“Supernatural caseworkers,” Kaylee replied. “Like I believe that.”
“Whatever you believe, you are no doubt aware of Shadowman,” Maggy said smoothly. “You probably sense that he’s evil, and he’s probably following you everywhere you go.”
“Something like that.”
“Look, believe it or not, we’re here to help.”
“How?”
“We know Shadowman is anchored by you, and we want to get rid of him.”
“Sounds good. How do you plan to do that?”
Maggy glanced at Nathan, who was silent.
Kaylee waited, the knot in her stomach twisting harder.
“It’s difficult. When a guardian angel is assigned to a human, he stays with the human until death, upon which he’s released to return to the Other Side,” Maggy explained. “We have a risky proposal for you.”
“We want to render you lifeless. With your permission, of course,” said Nathan, his handsome features calm and his muscular frame relaxed in the chair across from her.
“You’re asking if you can murder me?” Kaylee wasn’t certain she heard him right.
“It’s only temporary.”
Was her luck that bad that the most handsome man who ever set foot in her office wanted to murder her? True, Nathan wasn’t exactly normal. He was involved in some strange supernatural stuff she didn’t think existed before last week. He hadn’t seemed like a psycho before today, though.
“How long is temporary?” she asked, wracking her brain to try to make sense of his surreal request.
“Five minutes. Maybe ten. It shouldn’t be painful,” he replied smoothly.
“Shouldn’t be,” she repeated. “I think I’m going to have to decline. Respectfully, of course.” Her last words were laced with sarcasm. “I don’t feel like being dead today.”
“Do you realize what’s at stake here?” Maggy asked, leaning forward.
“I have no clue, and I don’t care. Now, if you’ll get out of my office, I’d appreciate it.” Kaylee rose to emphasize that the meeting was over.
“Kaylee, we wouldn’t ask this if it wasn’t important. I’ll make it as painless as possible. We just need to send Shadowman to Hell, before he hurts people,” Nathan said, mirroring her movement.
“Does this sound ape shit crazy to you at all?” Kaylee asked, crossing her arms. “You want to kill me, Nathan! You never did explain why you kidnapped Amira, the girl in a high profile murder case.”
“Here’s an idea. Come with us. I’ll explain everything,” he offered.
“Here’s a better idea,” she snapped. “Get out.”
“I’ll let you two work this out,” Maggy said and stepped into the hallway.
Nathan didn’t budge.
Kaylee glared up at him, inches away. She wanted to push him but was afraid to break the fragile plane between them. Would she care what he convinced her to do, if her senses were intoxicated by the feel of his muscular chest and his scent, or worse – if she was enveloped in his calming heat? His magnetism was uncanny, a combination of his alluring scent and utterly masculine presence that touched the feminine woman she hid beneath blocky business suits and a sharp wit.
He’d had more than one chance to hurt her and hadn’t. In fact, he’d used his strange magic powers to heal her the night he kidnapped Amira and again in his townhouse. But that didn’t mean she’d trust him, not with this level of craziness.
“Let’s talk,” he said.
“No!” Kaylee retorted. “I want you to take yourself and this supernatural shit out of my life!”
“That’s not gonna happen anytime soon,” he replied. “Kaylee, think about this.” He touched her arms lightly, and warmth swept through her.
She pushed his hands away. He caught them easily, and the warmth spread, easing her tension.
Involuntarily relaxing, she struggled to hang onto her anger.
“You’re a smart girl.”
This time, she didn’t try to shake him off but sighed. Like a hot bath after a stressful day, whatever he did felt too good.
“The alternative is that Maggy just murders you once and for all,” he added. “We wanted to give you a chance.”
“Do you have any idea how ridiculous this sounds?” she demanded, the edge in her voice melting with her muscles.
As if sensing her anger abating, Nathan moved closer. His dark eyes searched her face, and she found herself recalling the strength of his body when he’d held her, kissed her, in the parking lot of the police station. The spicy-sweet scent and soft-looking cashmere sweater made her want to lean against him and experience him with all her senses.
No matter how nice his touch was, there was no way she’d ever trust him. She believed in facts, what she knew or could research. Nathan was an enigma unlike any mystery she’d ever run across, filled with more questions than answers.
“I do,” he replied. “The truth is simple: if I don’t get rid of Shadowman, he’ll hurt people, and my people will hurt you to take him out.”
She shivered.
“Five to ten minutes. It’s the max you’ll be dead. Promise,” he said. “Maggy and I can help bring you back, and modern medicine will do the rest.”
The severity of what he asked sank in. What alarmed her more – that she was considering it or that she hadn’t thrown him out of her office yet?
She moved away from Nathan’s touch. “I should’ve called the police the minute I saw Amira.”
“But you didn’t. Some part of you knows what I’m saying is true or at least, you’re smart enough to know you need to fear Shadowman. What you don’t know is that you’re relatively safe from him,” he continued. “He has to keep you alive to keep himself alive. If he feels you’re threatened, however, he can always grab you and hid
e you somewhere where even I can’t find you.”
Kaylee listened. She wished she could block his words and how true they felt.
“Why does Amira keep trying to kill me? Because of Shadowman?” she asked.
“Yeah and she’s not the only one. There’s a vigilante group called 3G that’s got you in their sites. They have this thing with the greater good. It’s annoying, actually.” By the note in Nathan’s voice, he was thinking about something more than her situation.
“3G?” she echoed. “I’ve heard of them. I thought they were a club, though. They were the ones who hired Mike to defend their owner in court about the murder Amira witnessed.”
“Really.” Nathan didn’t appear pleased. “So that’s how they found you.”
“Nathan, why did you decide to try to help me, even though me living means Shadowman is an issue?”
Nathan smiled faintly. “You feel what’s between us.” He took a slow step towards her.
“Um, that would be nothing,” she replied, retreating. The steadiness of his gaze did things to her that she desperately wanted to ignore. Her heels bumped the wall of her tiny office.
“Really? Because I can read auras, and yours tells me something different.” He stopped, toe-to-toe with her.
Kaylee squeezed her hands into fists, resisting the instinctive urge to touch the soft shirt and feel the heat of his body. She didn’t know who or what Nathan really was, but he had an effect on her that left her breathing too fast and trying to hard to keep her thoughts together. His touch was like a drug she wanted more of and his scent so rich and subtle, she found herself trying to breathe in more of him. She almost didn’t mind how overly confident he was or the way he seemed to see through her, when she was more comfortable hiding herself behind the crappy job and her family name.
The walls of her office trembled suddenly. She looked up as dust drifted down from the fixtures overhead.
Nathan’s attention left her. Tilting his head to the side, he appeared to be listening for a moment. He snapped out of it and took her arm, puling her towards the hallway.
“We gotta go,” he said. “Is there a back exit to the building?”
“What? Yes, of course.”
“Go straight out the back. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t stop for anything. Got it?” he asked. The urgency in his tone alarmed her.
“Okay,” she murmured.
The sound of something crashing through the glass front of the building jarred her. She tried to peer around him, but he kept her in place.
“Run. Now,” he added, pushing her down the hallway opposite the sounds from the lobby.
Kaylee hesitated briefly. It’s one way to get away from these lunatics. She turned and ran, grateful she thought to wear flats today instead of heels. She nearly bowled over the janitor who ventured out of the break room to see what the noise up front was about.
The floor shook, and Kaylee pitched into the wall that was equally shaky. She balanced herself and pushed off, her pace slowing to a wobbly walk. Someone took her arm to steady her.
“I told you to run.” Nathan’s words were accompanied by a grunt. The ground bucked beneath them, throwing him against the wall and her into his arms. They tightened around her, and her breath caught at the sudden heat of his hard frame and his scent.
For a moment, they were caught in the strange stillness between them. The world around them shook, and they were the calm at the center of a storm. She listened to his steady breathing while his warm energy worked its way through her. Her eyes drifted down his face to settle on his full lips. Their soft plushness – combined with his heat – making their way down her body would make for a wicked experience. She knew from their first kiss that he knew how to use his mouth.
She had no reason to trust him. Why was she so turned on every time they were together?
“Not so easy, is it?” she challenged, needing a distraction from the sensations in her body.
“This way is better,” he agreed. “Though it might get us both killed.” With reluctance she could see, he released her and took her hand, starting down the hallway once more.
Kaylee didn’t fight him this time, not about to be trapped in the collapsing building. His reflexes were borderline otherworldly, catching, steadying and guiding her without so much as a glance back.
At last, they reached the exit. Someone had the forethought to prop open the door, and the building’s employees were scattered across the back parking lot.
Kaylee slowed, but Nathan tugged her forward. They made their way through the parking lot before he stopped. He released her hand. She breathed deeply to catch her breath and faced the building. It was collapsing in on itself. Her eyes went to the neighboring office, and she looked twice.
“What kind of earthquake takes out one building on an entire block?” she asked.
“One that’s targeting a certain human anchoring the Shadowman to earth.”
She faced Nathan, who was just tucking his phone into his pocket.
His sharpened attention went to the building.
“At the risk of killing you?” she asked.
“I can’t die,” he replied. “This was 3G. Apparently, they know who you are now.”
“What do you mean you can’t die?”
“I’ll explain another time. Let’s get you somewhere safe first.”
The cement sidewalk leading from the building to the parking lot began to crack and shake.
Nathan took her arm again and hurried her away, towards the alley leading to the side street. Someone screamed behind them, and she twisted to see.
Shadowman. He stood at the end of the alley, back to her and featureless face towards the scene she’d just fled.
An unusual shadow spread across the deteriorated building, following the path of the cracks of the cement into the parking lot and pooling at Shadowman’s feet a few yards from her. People were balancing themselves against vehicles as the ground shook.
Kaylee wrenched away from Nathan, disturbed to see the presence that had been watching her since she got to work this morning. She feared what it might do and feared more confronting it.
As before, in the mental health center, Shadowman acted too quickly for her to register what exactly he did. One moment, the building and parking lot up to the alley were dark, like a cloud passing over the sun.
The next, they were simply gone. Swallowed in a silent, instant sinkhole that engulfed the building and parking lot in a blink of her eye. No one had a chance to scream. The world before her went eerily quiet. Her breathing was the loudest sound she heard.
Horror filled her.
“Come on,” Nathan’s voice was low. He touched her arm.
“What happened to them?” she whispered, yanking away. Her eyes were on Shadowman.
The creature turned, his large, faceless form unnerving. She’d thought his threat extended only to locking her in her apartment. But maybe Nathan was right. Maybe Shadowman was worse than any nightmare or horror flick she’d ever seen.
And he was connected to her. Able to periodically access her mind and her thoughts and memories.
Which meant Shadowman didn’t do this alone. She did this, too.
“What did you do?” she demanded of him.
“Protected you.” The voice was airy, gravelly and inhuman.
She couldn’t tell what he was looking at, if he even had the ability to see anything without eyes. He faced her, but he didn’t seem interested in her. Without knowing how, she innately understood his next target was Nathan.
Shadowman stepped forward.
“No,” she said, moving with him. “No.”
He shifted directions, automatically moving around her. He paused when he reached Nathan and spoke words too low for her to hear.
Nathan didn’t back away from the creature his size and responded in the same tone.
Shadowman walked on, his form morphing and blending with the shadows of the alley, until he disappeared completely.
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br /> But he was still there. She felt it.
Numbed by the event she just witnessed, Kaylee returned her attention to the silent parking lot. She walked to the edge of the gaping hole and peered into it. It was too deep for her to see the bottom, which meant it was too deep for anyone to climb out of.
“Nathan,” she whispered.
“Don’t,” he said. He took her arm and pulled her away from the scene. Tipping her chin up, he met her gaze. “Listen to me, Kaylee.”
She struggled to focus. Her cheeks felt wet, and her stomach was so tight, she wanted to vomit.
“Focus on me. Stop fighting the energy,” he said. “Deep breath.”
Nathan’s heat was trying to calm her. Kaylee tried to obey but her chest was too tight. Nathan’s energy gained a foothold and pried the vise from her chest. Her silent panic began to release her.
“Good,” he said softly. “We need to get you out of here.”
“All those people …” she murmured.
“Save the breakdown for later, okay?”
She swallowed hard and nodded, aware that whatever had caused the building to collapse initially was still after her. The last thing she wanted was to let Shadowman handle her danger.
“Let’s go.” Nathan’s palm skimmed down her arm to take her hand. He started away.
Kaylee went, forcing her mind away from the idea that everyone she’d worked with for the past four years was lying in the bottom of a hole. Shadowman trailed her, invisible but ever-present.
She blindly followed Nathan for a few blocks until she tripped. He caught her before she could fall. The motion yanked her from her stupor, and she looked around.
“You okay?” Nathan asked. He was concerned and wary, his gaze darting from her to their surroundings.
Kaylee gazed up at him, uncertain how to respond. She’d just witnessed the murder of an untold number of people, the deaths of whom occurred because Shadowman didn’t want anyone threatening his anchor to this world.
But if he’d been with her throughout her entire life, why hadn’t he ever done anything like this? Or had he, and she never noticed?