Scarred Protector (Midworlder Trilogy Book 2)

by Mundy, Maggie

  “Charles. It’s so nice to see you again. It’s been too long.”

  Evie glanced across the room. The person who had spoken filled the door way. He had to be six feet tall and heavily muscled. His voice sounded educated, deep, and powerful. How the heck did she get that from a few words? He wore a suit and made her think of a rugged James Bond, but his face looked like it was etched with pain. Was he on her side? She hoped so because Charles with the fucking gold teeth gave her the creeps.

  “Heath. Can’t say I’m surprised it’s you. So what do we do? Chop her in half and keep the spoils. I can’t sense any remnant of an Angelic here. It makes her fair game, and I got here first.”

  Evie tried to move, but her body seemed to have turned into a statue and wouldn’t budge, yet again. Charles stood behind her and wrapped his arm around her waist pulling her against him. The bastard was hard and the thought terrified her. From what he had said before, she knew exactly what he would do if she couldn’t get away. To be raped had always been a fear after what had happened to Mum. All the self-defense classes she’d taken when she was young were useless now when she couldn’t move.

  Heath edged closer, so he was directly in front of her and faced off against Charles. “I can’t sense any Demonic remnants either, so I suggest we fight for her. If you’re not too scared to take me on. I believe the rhetoric about your exploits are a figment of your own imagination.”

  Charles laughed. The door to the room was opened again and the nurse walked in. Charles relinquished his grip and she could move.

  “The paperwork is ready for you to sign Ms. Withers. Are you all right? I didn’t realize anyone else had come in. Can I help you, gentlemen?”

  Evie almost ran over to the nurse’s side, eager to get out of the room and away from these guys. If they wanted to fight, then they could carry on without her.

  The one called Heath walked over. “We are friends and we’re just here to see if we could help, but we will leave now and you will forget we were here.”

  The nurse gave him a big beaming smile.

  “Oh, that’s nice. Come on then, and we will get those papers done.”

  Evie walked over to the nurses’ station to sign the papers and gripped the counter, not sure her legs would hold her up. She peered back at the room she had just left, and it was empty. She had a strong urge to ask the nurse to call security but didn’t know why. She shook her head, signed the papers, then handed them back to the nurse.

  “Was there someone else in the room with me?” she asked the nurse, who glanced at her like she had lost the plot.

  “No. You were in there on your own. Why?”

  “I just thought someone else was here.” Dad’s death must be affecting her, because she was sure two men had been in the room, but the nurse wouldn’t lie.

  “Sometimes people think they can feel a presence of those they’ve just lost. Do you have someone who can be with you at home?”

  “You’re probably right. I’ll call my friend when I get home.” That was a lie. She didn’t have anyone to call, but this place was freaking her out now Dad was no longer here. At home she would be safe and wouldn’t have to touch anyone or see their demons and angels.

  As she headed out of the hospital, she passed a security guy and almost gave in to the need to have him come along to her car, but didn’t want to risk him touching her and seeing things. She rummaged in her bag and found her parking ticket. The stupid machine kept rejecting her note because it was crumpled. It was silly and unimportant in the scheme of things, but it made holding back the tears and the loss of Dad even worse.

  All she wanted was to get out of here. Eventually it took her money after she kicked it and hurt her toes. Next time, she would buy steel-toe-capped boots. Thank God, the lift was empty. She crossed her fingers and hoped no one else would come in. Her head kept throbbing as if she had forgotten something. Dad was gone and she felt lost. She had signed the papers so why was she thinking she should be doing something else. The thought seemed just out of reach.

  The doors opened and she saw a flash of light and reckoned they were going to have a thunderstorm. Her life was gloomy like the weather around her. The ramp went to the top level, and her car was at the far end. Her keys were in the bottom of her huge shoulder bag. She could hear them jingling away with all the knickknacks hanging off them, but still couldn’t find them in the dark. When she finally pulled them from her bag, she was shoved forward and fell to her knees on the ground, and her keys landed about six feet away. Fear gripped her whole body as she went cold. She was going to be attacked, and she hadn’t even heard anyone.

  Someone was next to her. Her heart pounded as a scream left her throat. She wished there was some mace in her bag, as she tried to scramble toward her keys. She just wanted to get to her car and out of here fast. There was the security guard below, and he could come sort it out. Her hand grabbed for her keys, but someone gripped onto her leg and yanked her back.

  “Oh, no you don’t. You’re the prize and you’re staying here until we decide who gets you.”

  Evie turned around and repeatedly kicked up at his groin. She reckoned one had made contact with the guy’s privates from the way he groaned. To be honest, she wished she’d been wearing stilettos so she could’ve punctured his balls. He was still holding onto her other leg, and threw her across the roof, so her head connected with one of the guardrails. He had thrown her like she was a rag doll. Her 140 pounds seemed to have been nothing to him. The back of her head thumped in agony, and she tried to lift her hand to check whether she was bleeding. She couldn’t move. What the hell, had he paralyzed her? None of her body would work.

  Another guy turned up as if from nowhere and lunged at her attacker. All she could do was lay there and watch the fight unfold before her. Maybe she would die this night, just like Dad, then the angels and demons could do whatever the hell they liked.

  The two men seemed to have forgotten about her for a moment while they attacked each other. They moved like they were Kung Fu experts. In fact, they moved so fast their limbs blurred. The light wasn’t very good, but she could tell one was tall and blond, and the other was tall and dark. They both wore suits, yet they were fighting like hooligans. Her muddled brain remembered what the blond guy had said before he had thrown her. She was the prize. What the fuck did that mean?

  Her fingers were starting to get pins and needles, and so were her toes. Thank God, she wasn’t paralyzed. She tried to move but just fell over onto her side, so the cold concrete connected with her face. The world seemed strange viewed from this angle, as the two men fought close by. For a moment, it all seemed too hard and she just wanted to close her eyes and sleep, and hope everything would be okay when she woke up. Or maybe she would just never wake up. She shut her eyes, but could still hear the grunts and groans of the two fighters. Her stomach turned, and she thought she might vomit. Could she sink any lower than to be lying in her own chuck while two thugs waited to attack her.

  She opened her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to hold down the panic. Her bag was about four feet away, and her keys just beyond. Inch by inch, she started to pull her body across the ground. Raindrops started to plop on her face. As if things weren’t bad enough already, now she was going to be soaked to the skin. Her arms and legs were starting to work, but every movement was exhausting, like she had just had a bout of the flu.

  She clutched her bag in her hand and crawled toward her keys. The rain was turning to hail, and her breath caught as she started to shiver. She collapsed for a second to the ground to get her breath back while she clutched her keys in her hand. The car was nearby, so she crawled on her hands and knees to it and used the door handle to pull herself up. Her legs were like jelly and wouldn’t hold her up for long, but she had to get away from these two crazy guys. Her numb fingers pressed the button on the key to open the car,
as she took a deep breath to stop the dizziness from overwhelming her.

  Evie never made it inside the car, as one of the men hit her back. She turned to see the blond one leering at her, then his hand came up and slapped her across the face. The force threw her sideways toward the railing of the car-park roof.

  With another thump to her head, it all came back to her. His name was Charles, and the other one was called Heath. They had been in her father’s room, and they both had said they wanted her. Evie tried to remember what else they said, as her foot slipped, so she lost her balance and tipped sideways off the roof. Evie reached out, frantically, her arms flailing as she tried to get a hold on the guard rail. Her fingers gripped the metal, but it was slippery from the rain, and she couldn’t hold on for long. Through the gap in the railings, she could see the fight progress. Heath turned and caught Charles in the middle of his back with a kick. Charles collapsed to the ground and wasn’t moving. She hoped he was dead.

  Tears streamed down her face, as her fingers slipped and started to lose their grip. Peering down, it was at least six levels to the ground. She could see someone down there, so she called out, but there was a crack of thunder at that very moment, and her voice was swallowed up by the sound. The security guard chatted to the man below and walked back into the building. They just wanted to get away from the rain, but she wanted to live. She had thought about dying so many times to be rid of the horror of the twisted darkness haunting her mind, but now that she was going to die, she wanted to live. To live and know what it was like to be happy. Fuck it, everyone deserved that.

  The hail pelted her face as she looked up, and the water blended with her tears. With her last bit of strength she tried to hold on, but her fingers lost their grip. The struggles of the past few years would be all over soon. A scream left her throat to be lost in the air while lightning cracked above. She waited for the thud and oblivion, but she never hit the ground. Arms caught her and scooped her up like she weighed nothing. Heath’s face was close to hers, and a sense of calm washed over her, preventing another scream from leaving her throat. What the fuck was happening, and more importantly, how had he caught her? As another blaze of lightning flashed overhead, she saw the reason for her unexpected rescue. He had wings. Huge, bloody glorious wings, outspread and illuminated for a second by the lightning. Before her brain could register what was happening, a bolt of energy shot through her body.

  She was pretty sure they had just been struck by lightning and should be dead. Instead, everything seemed to stand still, and all that existed anywhere in the universe was the two of them holding onto each other in anguish. In this stranger called Heath’s arms, she felt peace for the first time in years. She tried to look up at his face to see if she could read what was happening to him, but before she could, the heat wafted over her and she passed out.

  Chapter 2

  Fall to Earth

  Heath’s wings erupted from his back instantly. Then he swooped down from the car-park roof and caught Evie in his arms before she hit the ground. A fall from that height would have killed her, and he refused to lose another person. It had been hundreds of years since he had last lost someone, and it wasn’t happening now. Not on his watch, nor in his area.

  Lightning cracked through the sky and his whole body tingled as if he was absorbing the power when he grabbed her. For a moment, he wasn’t sure whether the energy was coming from her or from around them as they hovered. It didn’t matter for now. Charles would be out of action and paralyzed from the waist down, but it wouldn’t last for long. He needed to get Evie over to Pergor and find her a guardian before anymore Demonic Midworlders showed up. Fighting one, he could deal with, but fighting a group of them would incapacitate him for too long.

  Something else was up, too. For some reason messages were not getting through to his enclave. Help wouldn’t be coming anytime soon. The last thing he said to his people was that he had received a message from an Angelic about to pass over, and that she had found a human in distress. If he had known the distress was because the human didn’t have a guardian he would have brought a whole crew with him to protect her.

  There were a lot of questions he needed to ask this woman. That wasn’t going to happen anytime soon since she had just passed out. He wasn’t sure whether it was a result of being caught by a man with wings or the sudden burst of energy. As he peered at her, he reckoned he could see little sparks of energy all around her. It made her glow like a light bulb. His own body still tingled from the burst. He could recover from being hit by lightning, but he wasn’t sure how a human would cope with it.

  Of course, she might have passed out because most humans don’t usually have this sort of thing happen to them. He had picked up from her mind that she had just lost her father. To be coping with such grief and the attack from Charles made him admire this woman’s tenacity. She had brought a smile to his face when he had seen her boot connect with Charles’ groin.

  He stopped ascending into the sky and hovered, allowing himself a moment of reflection as he gazed down at her face. What was going on here? She cradled against his chest, and he had to admit he liked the sensation. He didn’t touch people unless he had to, and had forgotten what it felt like to have a human pressed against him. It brought out the protectiveness in him.

  He reached up and touched her cheek with his fingertips. The glow was gone from around her body, but the tingle still remained. She felt warm—too warm—as if she was running a fever. He moved his hand away, surprised at himself. He rarely let his emotions show, and yet he felt drawn to this strange woman with the wet and bedraggled fuzzy hair. It must have been the jolt of lightning affecting him. She looked so vulnerable, and yet he had seen her to be tough against Charles. She hadn’t known what she was taking on, but she had fought well. He didn’t know her, but he liked her feistiness. It was irrelevant. He needed to stop these pointless contemplations and concentrate on saving her.

  The other people in Pergor to whom he would ask questions were never keen to give answers, but answers were what he needed. He had seen what the people from his Homeworld were like this past year. His friend Ridge, in America, had found his life partner but had struggled to get any information from Pergor. Their outpost between Earth and home used to be a place of solace but these days distrust was the word he would use to describe it. When Ridge had gone to Pergor with Nicole, no responses had been forthcoming and they had even attacked her or had been willing to let her to die. In that instance, her Angelic guardian had been removed by Sayell, a Demonic Midworlder. How the hell did Evie end up without a guardian at all? It didn’t make sense. How long had she been like that? He had to assume Charles had been as surprised as him or he would have brought his own backup as well. More questions.

  Thunder roared around him when he opened his mind to form the conduit to Pergor. Then the lightning and thunder became faint as the sky grew dark and starless around them. He would not let anyone hurt her. He would die protecting her if he had to. After all, dying would be a relief from this existence of coping with the failure of the past.

  “What the fuck is happening?” Evie yelled.

  Heath peered down, and even in the darkness he could see she was wide-eyed as she struggled to get away and pushed against his chest. There was no tranquil female in his arms now. Where she thought she was going was beyond him as they were high above the ground. To be honest, he couldn’t blame her for freaking out. He had to consider what to say next. At this close range he could try to convince her to hand over her thoughts to him, but he had a feeling she would not be willing to do that after everything she had seen so far.

  “We’re leaving Earth to go somewhere to get you a guardian angel,” he said, flapping his wings as the stars started to disappear around them. He hovered in the space between worlds, not yet able to make contact with Pergor. Then the pain started to build in his temple, as the connection tried to
form.

  She thumped his chest as she wriggled and yelled. “If a guardian angel is what I’ve seen on people for years, I don’t want one. Half of them are dark creatures waiting to kill whatever they see, and the other half look like self-serving pixies, so get stuffed and take me home. I just want to be left alone.”

  What she said just added more questions to the list. “Evie. There’s nowhere for you to go. You can’t stay here between the worlds, and I won’t let you go back or you’ll be found again by Charles and his associates. I offer the only alternative.” She huffed but stopped wriggling. He changed his mind and considered she was more annoyed than scared. “I want to reassure you I’m not associated with those dark guardians.”

  “You sure? You look pretty dark to me. If I have to choose, I’ll go with a pixie angel like Dad had. Will it keep that creep Charles away from me?”

  “I will certainly try to get you an Angelic guardian, and no, Charles won’t be able to touch you then. You have to trust me while I take you to a place not of this world. I know it’s a lot to ask after what has happened, but you should give your mind over to me.”

  “You can take me wherever you want, as I don’t seem to have much choice. Go for it, but I’m not giving my mind over to anyone. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to be in there anyway. You lot think you’re dark and yet you don’t know anything,” Evie mumbled, as she shook her head as if to rid herself of a buzzing bee. “If you knew my life you wouldn’t even be suggesting going anywhere near my mind.”