by D. N. Leo
His father had worked until the day he died to prevent this from happening. If this meant his death, he was fine with it. Everyone had to die someday. But his father had called this his duty—and he had said that he could deny it.
But what kind of duty? And if he had to go somewhere, what about his family here? And what about Madeline? She hadn’t answered him when he’d asked if she would stay with him or go back to New York. He hadn’t had a chance to explain to her that he had never meant to lie to her or hurt her in any way.
The icy water was pulling him with incredible speed, freezing every blood cell of whatever blood he had left in his body. He saw a large clump of tree branches floating in the water. The force of the water was going to slam him into the tree branches, impaling his body on those giant claws. Ciaran used every ounce of his leftover strength and flipped his body sideways before he hit the branches.
The blow was like an explosion in his brain. He remained still for a moment, and then began to follow the tangle of tree branches to the bank of the creek. He slumped to the ground, trying to catch his breath and shivering with the cold. Then he felt a movement in front of him, and when he looked up, the group of men-like things from the bridge were surrounding him.
One of them spoke, “We’re here to help you and mark your entry.” Its voice was surprisingly human.
“Entry to what?” Ciaran’s vision started to blur with his fatigue.
“Entry to the realm of righteousness and fulfilling your duty.”
“Stop the bullshit. Who wants me? For what and where?”
Silence.
Ciaran chuckled. He wanted to laugh heartily but didn’t have the energy to do so. In front of him stood a bunch of advanced artificial creatures with hardwired brains. His questions hadn’t been previously programmed, so there was no way they could give him an answer.
“We are here to help you and mark your entry,” the robot repeated.
“No. I reject your request.” Ciaran used language that he speculated the robot would understand. “Go back to your commander and request him to contact me directly.”
The eyes of the robot flashed as if processing the information. “We are here to help you and mark your entry,” it repeated again.
Shit. This is their one-off mission. Ciaran turned to run but only made a couple of steps before he was surrounded. He felt a puncture at the back of his neck, and the world went black.
41
With Tadgh trailing behind, Madeline ran in the dark, the bitter winter breeze slapping at her face and crawling under her skin. It might not be the chill but the fear of losing Ciaran that was clawing at her heart. She wanted one last chance to tell him she understood him, and that she was forever in his debt for going after her and protecting her at Fosse Way.
The moment the basket with four-week-old Madeline had landed in front of a random house, she’d had no protection from either those who had created her or those who raised her. Her soul was damaged. The thought that she was unwanted, and that she had been a mistake in this world had created a void in her that had never been filled.
Until, that is, she’d felt Ciaran’s arms wrapped around her shoulders, protecting her from the bullets at Fosse Way. But it wasn’t his heroic action that moved her. It was his genuine intent to protect her.
The man trusted no one. But in his most vulnerable moment during his rage, a flaw he wouldn’t reveal to anyone, he had reached out to her. When their fingers had linked, when their hands were joined, she found the connection she had always longed for.
He filled her void. And somehow, she thought she filled his.
They approached the bridge, and the scene tore at her heart. Ciaran’s car was severely smashed, crashed into the side of the bridge. But it hadn’t gone over into the water. There were smear of blood, pools of red, and skid marks of larger vehicles. It looked like a war zone. But there was no sign of Ciaran.
Her heart thundered, and her blood boiled with fear. The winter air didn’t seem cold anymore.
Where is he?
Tadgh was saying something, but she couldn’t hear him. If her psychic ability was real and of any use, she needed it to work right now. But the signal was only strong if it was sent both ways. She could track him, but it might take forever, and it might not be accurate at all.
Help me, Ciaran, where are you? All you have to do is to think about me. Please!
And then it came. A flock of blue dots flashing at her from down the creek. She charged toward them as if her life depended on it.
There he was. Madeline saw the shape of his body sprawled on the ground. She trampled tree branches, rocks, and whatever poor wild animals were in her way. She hurried toward his body and knelt down. From the ground, Ciaran smiled up at her.
“Thank you for thinking of me. I couldn’t do it without you,” Madeline said to him while tears rolled down her face. She brushed the hair from his face. He was shivering, soaking wet, and there was blood everywhere.
She took her jacket off, but Tadgh pushed her aside. “Your jacket is just for show, Madeline.” Tadgh took his thick coat off and wrapped it around Ciaran. “You’ve done a good job locking Mon Ciel down, Ciaran. Now we have no car, no chopper, and no men. Are you okay to stay here by yourself, Madeline? I’ll run back to get more men to help carry him back.”
“I can walk,” Ciaran said weakly.
“Walk, my ass.”
Ciaran tried to sit up, but he flopped back down and passed out.
“I rest my case,” Tadgh mumbled and stood up to leave. Then they saw Mon Ciel’s shield flash up in a brilliant blue light and turn off.
“Holy fu—,” Tadgh muttered. “How you do that, Mother?” he asked the air.
The helicopter dispatched from Mon Ciel and, in a short moment, the search light swept over the spot where they were waiting.
42
She couldn’t restrain herself. She flew to the bed and panted a hard kiss on Ciaran’s cheek as soon as he opened his smoky gray eyes. He smiled at her. They heard a protesting moan from the corner of the room.
“He’s jealous.” Madeline grinned. “Come here!” She patted her hand on the bed next to Ciaran. From the corner of the room, the puppy darted forward and leaped onto the bed.
“This is TJ,” Madeline said.
“TJ?” Ciaran asked, ignoring the dog sitting on the bed with his pink tongue poking out and his tail waving frantically.
“It’s for traffic jam. Isn’t it how you got him?”
“I didn’t get him. He picked me because my car was the best looking one in the line.”
“Is that right, TJ?” Madeline asked.
TJ lowered his head and snuggled against Ciaran’s hip.
“Lily couldn’t take care of him. She and her husband have a small apartment and are planning to have a family. So if you don’t take TJ in, he really will have to go to the pound.”
“I’ll ask Laurent.”
TJ gave Ciaran his most pathetic puppy look.
“Come on, if the magnificent Mon Ciel can’t accommodate a puppy, how can it accommodate me and my friend Jo?”
“Laurent’s place is more appropriate. She has a yard and she loves . . . Wait, what did you just say?”
“I wondered whether Mon Ciel has room for me and Jo. I talked to her just a few hours ago. She’s on her way to the London headquarters, and Lindsay will take her here.”
Ciaran sat up. “TJ, I’ll build you a doghouse, find you a girlfriend, and make sure you have plenty to eat for the rest of your natural dog life. Now, get out of the room—and close the door behind you.”
TJ kept his puppy eyes fixed on Ciaran.
“That’s all I can give you for now.”
TJ licked Ciaran’s hand then hopped off the bed and exited the room.
Ciaran held Madeline’s hand and played with her long fingers. She interlocked her fingers with his.
“How long was I out?”
“Long enough. You’re not in pain now, are yo
u?”
Ciaran shook his head. “No. We make top of the line painkillers.” He lifted his blanket and looked at his body—he was wearing nothing but bandages. Then he chuckled when he saw the smug look on Madeline’s face.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help it.”
“Not fair,” Ciaran said and pulled Madeline into his arms.
“I don’t want to squash your injuries.”
“I’ll risk it.” He kissed her.
“Seriously, Ciaran. You have cracked and bruised ribs, three gashes on your legs, one on your right arm, and one on your back. I highly suggest that you limit the number of bullets you take in your left shoulder. Next time, switch to the other side.”
“Thanks for the suggestion.”
“Now, you might want to tell me how you seem to have left a war zone behind you on the bridge. How many men did you have to fight off to sustain the amount of injuries you’ve got, and among those you killed, was Stefan included?”
Ciaran winced when reality hit him, along with all of the issues he now had to confront.
“Stefan got away. And I didn’t kill any men. There were two groups—one helped Stefan, and the other helped me. They canceled each other out.”
“The group that helped you, are they the ones who gave you the tattoo?”
Ciaran frowned. Madeline peeled off a bandage on his left forearm, revealing a small tattoo of a crucifix.
The image glared back at Ciaran, another reminder of a brutal reality. Ciaran sat, leaning against the headboard. “Juliette and I shared a passion for alchemy. After we were married, she moved in here and started to work on a lot of alchemy-based medical formulas. Mother never trusted her. She said Juliette married me for reasons other than love.”
Madeline laid her head on Ciaran’s chest and kept their hands linked. He kissed her hair and stroked her back with his free hand.
“You loved her.” She made a mental note but didn’t realize that she had spoken out loud.
Ciaran nodded. He tilted Madeline’s face up and looked into her eyes. “Yes, I love her and I always will.”
“How did she die?”
“She was working on an important formula. She was confident, and I was young, foolish, and ambitious. She tested the formula on herself, and I didn’t stop her. It didn’t work. She died in my arms.” His voice was hollow with the pain from the haunting past.
Madeline shifted and pushed Ciaran down to his pillow, kissing him lightly. “It wasn’t your fault.” She hoped her sultry voice melted into his mind and would have some soothing effect.
“It’s a longer story than I care to tell. But she wouldn’t have died if it wasn’t for me. The most painful part was that Mother got the information that Juliette had taken a secret formula from our family and had hidden it in an artifact, a crucifix. I don’t know where Mother got that information, but at the time, I didn’t want to know—or believe it.”
Ciaran tried to sit up, but Madeline held him down firmly.
“We scanned the house anyway and found nothing.” Ciaran sighed and closed his eyes. “I later found a copy of our secret formula in the lab—that’s the living proof of an attempt to duplicate it. My mother had been right all along. I never told her about what I’d found. But she always, despite the lack of evidence, believed that Juliette had an agenda in marrying me.”
“And you love them both.”
“What Juliette and I had was love, Madeline. I can’t lie to you about that . . .”
Madeline covered his mouth with hers. She loved a man who knew how to love. If there wasn’t any more room for love in his heart, then the current companionship they shared would be enough for her. . . Or maybe not. That last thought stopped her kiss and pulled a tear from her eye. It fell onto Ciaran’s lips.
He swapped their positions so that she was beneath him. He gazed into her big brown eyes and rubbed his thumb at the dimple on her left cheek. “What I found in you is more important than the passionate love people have in their twenties. I don’t know what you expect or look for in a relationship, but if the love that I had for Juliette is what you want, then I don’t have that left in me.”
Madeline tried to sit up, but Ciaran held her down firmly. He wiped a tear that escaped from her eye. “I can’t speak for you. But let me be very selfish by telling you this. What I found in you is a missing part of me that I never thought I would find again. A part of me that I didn’t even know I had lost. When I lost it, I simply didn’t exist anymore. But now that part makes me whole. You make me whole.”
She pulled him down to the bed so they lay face to face and traced her fingers along his jawline. “I’ve never been important to anyone.”
“Then you start now.” Ciaran pulled her toward him and devoured her lips. “Be a part of my life. Let me explore you.” The sound came from deep in his throat. The words, the tone, and the meaning flew deliciously into her ears and into her soul as he whispered them. She reached up, kissing his throat, and at the same time, she yanked off her blouse.
He pleasured her jaw with small kisses, working his way down to her throat and then to her breasts. Her hands fumbled with the button of her pants, and she gasped and clawed at the bed sheet for purchase as he pulled them off in one swift move. His mouth assaulted her without mercy.
She hadn’t been touched like this.
Hadn’t been loved like this.
And hadn’t been needed like this.
By anyone.
Every move he made was full of thought, care, love, and desire.
She was more than a woman. She was the one he needed.
And she was the one who reciprocated.
She flipped him over so she was on top of him. And what she had received from him, she gave back. And more.
More.
She locked her hands with his.
She was drunk in his pleasure as he did hers.
They moved in rhythm, in sync with their hearts and their minds. They took each other to another place that only they knew.
Their secret place.
A long while later, Madeline nuzzled in Ciaran’s arms, looking at the deep color of the feature wall and the elegant detail of the furniture in the room. She didn’t want to stir as she might wake him. She loved to watch him sleep, to hear his heartbeat, and to feel the virility seeping out of his skin.
How long would this last? Hell, she didn’t care. At the moment, she was on top of the world.
Ciaran’s phone buzzed. She ignored it, but it had wakened Ciaran.
Damn!
Ciaran opened his eyes groggily and grabbed the phone. “Lindsay?” Ciaran’s eyes switched to full alert mode instantly. He then grabbed the remote control and pointed it at the wall. The “wall” pulled up, revealing a gigantic screen.
On the screen was breaking news about Detective Adamson who had been killed in his own apartment.
Madeline’s phone buzzed. She jumped off the bed and grabbed it.
“Jo?” Madeline gasped and held up the screen of her phone for Ciaran to see. There was no caller ID.
Ciaran shook his head. “It’s not Jo. It’s Stefan.”
A SHADE OF MIND
A SHADE OF MIND
by D.N Leo
RANDOM PSYCHIC
FOREVER MORTAL
ELUSIVE BEINGS
IMPERFECT DIVINE
>>>SERIES HOME PAGE<<<
Afterword
Thank you for reading.
If you enjoyed reading Random Psychic, I would appreciate it if you would help others enjoy this book, too.
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Random Psychic
A Shade of Mind
Book 1
Copyright © 2017 by D.N. Leo, all rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual business or persons is purely coincidental.
Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent from the author is strictly prohibited.
I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read my work. Please consider leaving a review wherever you purchased the book, and refer the book to your friends.
Fire at Crossroad - Shadow Hunter Prequel
Synopsis
When dark magic descends, and super technology fails, power rises from the heart.
As the commander in charge of the Super Artificial Intelligence program in Eudaiz, a universe far from Earth, Lyla has it all. Beauty. Intelligence. Power. She has never failed a mission, until she detects a shadow in the main frame system.
The shadow is built on elusive magical power and human emotions—neither of which she has training for or first-hand experience with.
Combining with the force of dark energy, the shadow is on a mission to not only destroy the legacy her father has built but also kill millions of citizens across the multiverse. It will invade and enslave universes—Earth included.
Time is not on her side. But if she fights now, she will be on her own.