Guild of Truth 02 - Shield from the Heart

by Mary K. Norris

  Shield from the Heart

  Mary K. Norris

  Avon, Massachusetts

  This edition published by Crimson Romance

  an imprint of F+W Media, Inc.

  10151 Carver Road, Suite 200

  Blue Ash, Ohio 45242

  www.crimsonromance.com

  Copyright © 2012 by Mary K. Norris ISBN 10: 1-4405-6187-7

  ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-6187-0

  eISBN 10: 1-4405-6188-5

  eISBN 13: 978-1-44056188-7

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.

  Cover art © 123rf.com

  To my Mom and Dad.

  You guys never stop believing in me. You always support me no matter what.

  Words cannot express how much I love you. Thank you!

  Contents

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Acknowledgments

  A quick thank you to all my family and friends that continue to believe in me. I’d also like to thank everyone at Crimson Romance for helping me make this book the best that it can be.

  Chapter 1

  Here comes the pain.

  Footsteps echoed down the hall to stop outside Merrick’s cell door. He tried to roll his shoulders to ease the ache in his joints but there was limited mobility with his arms tied behind his back. His fingers were just starting to lose feeling, which meant he probably had a couple more days like this before they untied him. His hands were always well and truly numb when they released him. The better to keep him incapacitated. After all, he wasn’t much of a threat if he couldn’t feel his hands to throw a fist.

  At least they’d cut back on the drugs.

  The door clicked as the lock was disengaged. Stale cologne wafted in to override the scent of Pine-Sol. In walked Vander Donahughe.

  Merrick blew at the black hair that hung in front of his face to get a better view. Captivity made it a little difficult to keep up with his barber cuts.

  As his hair fell to the sides of his face he knew he hadn’t imagined it. Vander Donahughe looked different. Older. Wrinkles stood out along his mouth and eyes. His forehead had permanent creases and his hair was more than eighty percent silver.

  Two assistants followed him into the room.

  No. Not assistants. Merrick recognized the woman who liked to fondle him. Regina. No last name given. Average height, mid-thirties with brown hair and fake blue contacts. The bulky man who stood at her side was someone Merrick had never seen before. The most likely scenario? The man was there as hired muscle.

  That was peculiar. Vander wasn’t following his regular MO.

  “Merrick Haskell.” Vander shook out a sheet of paper in front of him as the muscle man pulled him up a chair. “Age: thirty. Current occupation: private investigator. And I must say you have quite an impressive success rate.”

  “Buttering me up isn’t going to do you any good,” said Merrick.

  Vander acted as if he’d never even spoken. “Most would look at that success rate and find it curious, myself included. Tell me, Merrick, how is it that you manage to find all those missing people?”

  Vander’s dark eyes probed at his blank expression as if trying to glean all the information he wanted from Merrick’s face.

  Merrick didn’t give him an inch. “I’m really good at my job.”

  Vander leaned back in his chair. Comfortable as could be. Merrick ground his teeth.

  “And all the reports from your fellow detectives that you used to work with … ?” He scanned the paper until he came across what he wanted. “They talk about eccentricities, like your never ending need to contaminate a scene by touching everything possible. Any reason for that?”

  Merrick stared straight ahead.

  “I’m really trying to help you, Mr. Haskell. I want you to join the Kratos Guild. You see, I’m looking for something.”

  Despite his current predicament, he found himself staring Vander in the eye. “Who are you looking for?”

  “It’s not a who, it’s a what. And what I’m looking for is an old employee’s journal that contains some valuable information.”

  “Then why don’t you ask the employee?”

  Vander gave a forced smile. “I’m afraid he’s not very chatty. He’s in a coma. Has been for some time.”

  Merrick returned to staring at the wall. “Sorry, can’t help you.”

  Vander grabbed the front of Merrick’s chair and pulled it toward him. Merrick’s body flew forward but his tied hands stopped him short. The jarring in his shoulders had him gritting his teeth.

  “Don’t lie to me.” Vander kept him tilted forward on the two front legs of his chair. “I know you have an ability. An ability that allows you to gain some kind of information from an object after someone’s touched it.”

  “No idea what you’re talking about,” Merrick lied through his teeth. “There’s no such thing as powers.”

  His chair rocked as he was forced back. Vander’s hands grabbed his face.

  And here it comes.

  Pain erupted throughout his whole body. Fire burned through his veins, eating him from the inside out. He refused to shut his eyes and instead stared down the root of his hatred. His heart raced in his chest as if it could outrun the agony. His neck prickled as anger boiled beneath the vicious pull of Vander’s power. His muscles started to weaken from the energy drain —

  Vander stopped.

  Merrick gasped for air.

  The blackness that usually danced at the edge of his vision didn’t come.

  Vander had held back.

  During Merrick’s other interrogations he’d been drained until the point where his muscles were screaming, his heart fluttering like a caged bird, his vision spotting.

  Something had changed since those days. And Merrick had a pretty good idea what. Vander was on the run.

  “Trying to keep a disguise, eh Vander?”

  The way Vander’s face darkened let Merrick know he’d hit the nail right on the head. While Merrick might verbally reject the idea of powers existing, he knew otherwise. Vander’s ability allowed him to suck the very life out of a person and somehow manipulate that energy to keep himself young. If he was holding back then he was trying to keep the aged appearance he currently wore. That probably had something to do with the fact that Vander’s illegal kidnapping and cage fighting had been alerted to the police. He’d had to evacuate his last facility. Merrick had no idea where he’d been held and he certainly had no idea where he was now. But either way, Vander had to watch his back. Eventually he’d screw up and Merrick would be right there to get
out of this hell hole.

  Vander’s hands returned to his face, his fingers digging into the bone of Merrick’s jaw.

  If Merrick swung his head fast enough he’d be able to take one of those digits and rip it off with nothing but his teeth.

  The opportunity was more than tempting.

  “I can feel the difference in your energy,” said Vander. “I know you have power and it’s only a matter of time before I find out what it is.”

  Merrick’s repressed anger started to surface. The back of his neck tingled.

  Vander thought he could manhandle him? Thought he could buddy up or buy him off after kidnapping him and torturing him for months?

  Screw this fucker.

  Merrick thrust his head forward with everything he had. The scent of copper burst into the air. He hoped like hell it was Vander’s blood and not his own.

  His hair obscured his view but he could hear Regina cry out as she went to Vander’s side. The muscle man’s beefy arm came around his neck in a choke hold.

  “Drug him,” Vander snarled as he wiped blood from his lip.

  Merrick smirked.

  Vander shoved the bloody sleeve he’d used to mop up his face right in front of Merrick. “You think this symbolizes a win for you? We’ll see how gutsy you are after we pull the nails right out of your fingertips.”

  Merrick’s vision went red. He struggled anew as Regina came over with a syringe.

  Vander pushed the sleeve into his cheek, smearing the blood there. “Enjoy your feeble smell of victory.”

  But Merrick hardly heard him.

  Vander’s clothes … the impression in the fabric …

  His own power reared up, and the vision bombarded him before he could stop it.

  A woman with dark brown hair stared up at him with disgust. But why? She was his. His Cali. His soul mate. She was the one that would set him free. He leaned in to kiss her. If she didn’t see that she was his then he’d make her. Her long, slender hands pushed uselessly against him. She was a fighter. He admired that about her …

  Merrick jerked himself back to the present, bile rising in the back of his throat at what he’d seen through Vander’s eyes.

  That woman … Cali. Merrick had seen her before. The night Vander’s corporation had been searched and busted. Vander had fled and Merrick had been transferred, but that woman had been there, staring at him through the cell window along with … the blonde one.

  Those green eyes and that blonde hair haunted him in his dreams. He remembered the night of chaos, sitting in his cell waiting for his next visit when the feeling of being watched had him lifting his head and finding her there, watching him. Something had passed between them. Something instant. And he had no idea what it was.

  A deep warmth spread through his chest and he had no idea if it was the drug Regina had administered or not.

  His vision swam. Regina’s hand trailed down his neck and chest until it rested on his inner thigh. She leaned into him, her breasts brushing along his shoulder. The sickly sweet scent of cherries surrounded Merrick. “Until tomorrow,” she promised.

  Chapter 2

  There was no escaping him.

  Everywhere Sydney looked, he was there.

  The prisoner she’d left behind in the Kratos building.

  The ice blue eyes of the Husky she was tending stared at her as if he knew the thoughts his eyes triggered inside of her. Sydney carefully leaned away to jot a few remaining notes into the dog’s portfolio.

  Andrew, the Husky’s owner, clutched his hands nervously. “Well, Doc? Is Shovel going to be all right?”

  Shovel was going to be just fine. Andrew was a hypochondriac when it came to his dog’s health. “Shovel’s in perfect health, nothing to worry about here. He probably started sneezing uncontrollably because he sniffed the wrong plant in your backyard.” She closed the folder and stretched out her hand to pat Shovel on the head.

  Those ice blue eyes watched her. The burning sensation in her chest intensified.

  She pulled her hand back.

  “Well, take care. Remember, Shovel is due for his shots next month.”

  She got to her feet.

  Andrew frowned.

  Never in her career had she hustled one of her patients out without first chit chatting about their lives. Her parents would be horrified, but she had something else to take care of. Those eyes, so much like the ones that had seared her soul, were a reminder that she had a plan to finish formulating.

  Back in her office she logged into her computer and pulled up the copied database from the Kratos computer system that she’d taken from Joel.

  It had been a little over three months since the location in Orange County had been shut down. With the exposure of Vander Donahughe’s illegal dealings, the entire Kratos Corporation was supposed to crumble and fall. But the large conglomerate had only shut down the one location and while that was supposed to lead to the release of all those captured within, Sydney knew first hand that that wasn’t the case.

  Vander had been able to get a few of his captives out, her mystery man being one of them. The guilt over that had never truly left her, but it was another deeper fear inside her that urged her toward finding their new location. The fear that her mystery man was her destined Mirror Mate — a soul mate that, once bonded with her, would increase her individual power.

  She shook her head.

  It wasn’t possible.

  She clicked on a file folder a little too forcefully.

  All she needed to do was find the new location, free the man she’d seen all those months ago, and then her conscience would be clear. She’d be able to celebrate her three year anniversary with Joel without a doubt that he was the man for her.

  It was time to take action.

  “Come on,” she mumbled to her computer as she searched for any address that could be used as an alternative facility.

  The harsh clatter of metal hitting the floor made her jump.

  “Sorry.” Cali Crazar stood in the doorway to her office, two paint cans resting at her feet. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “Liar.”

  Cali shrugged. “Not my fault you were too absorbed in your computer. What are you looking at?”

  “Nothing.” Sydney tried to minimize the window but Cali was too fast.

  Darn her and her long legs.

  Cali had all the makings of a runway model: tall, lean build with dark hair and dark eyes. She was twenty-five, nearly two months older than Sydney. However, with her height, most days Cali made Sydney feel like a child when she stood next to her.

  “The Kratos database?”

  “Like I said.” Sydney exited the window. “Nothing.”

  Cali leaned against her desk, arms crossed. “That’s not nothing. What are you expecting to find?”

  As if she didn’t know. Cali had been there when they’d found the man with eyes like ice. She’d been there when Sydney had gone to the hospital in hopes of finding him among the other rescuees. But Cali wanted her to say it out loud.

  Sydney had a sneaking suspicion that Cali might know what Sydney was too afraid to voice.

  Cali had found her Mirror Mate all those months ago in Sydney’s best friend, Felix. He’d been sent to rescue Cali from Vander Donahughe — who, at the time, had believed Cali to be his soul mate.

  “Well?” Cali prodded. “You were trying to find where they might be keeping him, weren’t you?”

  Sydney avoided her eyes, her heart speeding up.

  Her office grew quiet, the faintest ba-bump, ba-bump filling the air.

  It sounded in time with her heartbeat.

  Sydney shot her Shield up.

  The sound cut off instantly.

  She whirled on Cali. “Don’t do that.”

  Cali narrowed her eyes. “If you’d tell me the truth I wouldn’t have to use my powers as a lie detector.”

  Cali was their guild’s Silencer, someone with the ability to manipulate sound, and ever since she be
came full-forced she’d been experimenting with her powers like crazy — her most recent breakthrough being she could determine if a person was lying by how fast their heart beat.

  “Everyone is worried about you, Sydney,” Cali continued. “You’ve been acting different for months now. And don’t think I don’t know why. What I don’t know is why you’re so obsessed with finding him.”

  Sydney dropped her Shield, the prickling at the back of her neck fading with her powers. “I’m not obsessed. I feel guilty. Every time I remember that we had a chance to free him and didn’t, it eats at me. We thought he’d be safe with the cops on their way, but all we did was condemn him to more time with Vander. I feel it’s my duty to find him.”

  Cali gave her a look that said she didn’t one hundred percent trust her answer. “Duty? That’s all you feel?”

  “Yes.”

  No.

  “I’m trying not to let it get to me but after so long with no results … ”

  “It wears on you,” Cali finished for her. “I get it. But don’t worry, Joel’s continually hacking into the system to find new information so it’s only a matter of time. Now let’s finish painting this room, shall we?”

  As well as being a Silencer, Cali was also an amazingly talented artist. She was hard pressed for a job so Sydney had hired her to repaint the office. They both knew it was a waste of her skill but it was the only way Sydney could help her without giving her money outright. Cali wouldn’t have accepted it any other way.

  • • •

  Joel burst into Sydney’s office. “I got something.”

  Sydney and Cali both looked up from their work.

  “What’d you get?” Cali asked as Joel came around Sydney’s desk, his midnight blue eyes sparkling.

  “I’ve been keeping tabs on all the e-mails that have been going back and forth to the different Kratos Companies. I have a system in place to alert me if there is any form of address going through the message and today there was a red flag.” Joel gave Sydney a quick kiss in greeting.

  She hardly felt it.

  “You have a new address?” she asked.