Bound by Revenge (Guardian Series)

Bound by Revenge

By Jennifer
Thibeault

©2012 by
Jennifer
Thibeault

All rights reserved

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means without prior written permission of the author or publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Kindle Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

The following is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, to factual events or to businesses is coincidental and unintentional. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

Cover Design: Linda Boulanger

Interior Layout: Linda Boulanger/Jennifer McMurrain

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Prologue

Bradley crouched up against the wall in the shadow of the two story medical facility in upstate New York, waiting. The demons were inside already. The group had been stationed here for about six months now. It was an in depth assignment. More so than normal. There was a lot at stake with this one.

And it was all about to come to a head. Bradley felt the charge in the air and he knew this was going to be the best time to scope out the potential candidates. He was always looking to build his team of immortals and time and time again two names popped up in his research. Samantha and Vance, two immortals on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Samantha was an unusually powerful angel who’d spent her long existence as a source of goodness on earth, while Vance was a carefree demon who stirred up trouble wherever he went. They were two sides to the same coin and their dynamic when working on the same assignment was impossible to overlook.

The slam of a car door snapped Bradley to attention. He stood up and slid his back tight up against the wall and turned his head to face the walkway up to the front entrance.

There were two sets of footsteps pounding up the walkway, just as he had anticipated. Samantha was the first one to come into his range of sight. He’d never met the angel before. But his particular skill allowed him to feel the energy of other immortals, helping him identify others of his kind to build his team with the strongest immortals and to protect humanity by identifying all immortals in the vicinity.

The statuesque beauty was followed closely by a young man around the age of thirty.

“Hurry up, Matt. You know we can’t miss this appointment.” She grabbed the man by the wrist and playfully tugged him up to her side before picking up her pace and almost jogging through the front door.

Bradley waited another few seconds after the door smoothly rested back in place before stepping away from his post and heading inside.

The hallway was bustling with humans. Medical staff mingled with patients and support staff as Bradley breezed by the group following in the direction that the angel headed, the direction that led directly to the pulsing energy of the two demons on the second floor.

When he reached the top of the steps he zoned in on the room that encased the group. A lone white lab coat hung over the side of one of the chairs that speckled the side of the hall and Bradley swept it up and threw it on as he zeroed in on his targets.

With a deep breath, Bradley’s face transformed from his own to the spitting image of the face on the ID card that hung off the side pocket of his lucky find coat. He glanced down at the identification to read the name before knocking lightly on the door and grabbing the clipboard from the plastic slot hanging on the wall next to the room.

“Come in.” The man’s voice called from inside the room.

The heavy door swung open quickly after a light push to reveal the odd group inside.

An elderly man lay across the starch white bed in a vaguely responsive way. He was hooked up to more machinery than anyone should ever have to face and his eyes blinked slowly, revealing the only outward demonstration of life. But the machinery continued its steady rhythm of beeps and hisses in its solitary role of keeping the human’s body functioning to sustain life.

“Good afternoon, I’m Dr. Harmon. I’m covering this floor for the day.” Bradley stepped forward and addressed the man by the bed.

“Oh, yeah, OK. I’m Matt. This is my dad.” He motioned toward the man lying on the bed. “I thought Dr. Eli was going to come here for this.”

Matt shoved his hands in his pockets, leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes.

“He had a family emergency, so I came in to take care of all his appointments.” Bradley had spoken with the man the day before, or angel to be more specific.

It was Dr. Ian Eli’s job to force the young Matthew into making a decision that would not only change his life but also the lives of everyone else in town or potentially farther. But Ian knew when to step aside and the second Bradley voiced his interest in taking his place, he handed over the assignment and went about his other duties at the hospital.

“Alright, what do you recommend?” Matt sighed and looked up at Samantha who was standing directly to his side with one hand on his shoulder for support.

“It’s not up to me, honey. You know that. Only you can make this decision.” Sam curled her fingers tighter into Matt’s shirt and shot a glance across the bed at the other two occupants of the room.

“You know what you have to do.” The petite blonde held her head up high and challenged Matt. “You can’t very well leave him like this. Plus, think about what we talked about before. Just think about it.”

Bradley shifted his weight and turned to focus on the two demons. The tiny blonde looked harmless enough but there was not hope for her. She was pure evil. And somehow, Vance was able to look past that and continue to work with her. Vance turned to stare at Morgan, as the room fell silent.

Bradley tapped his hand against his leg in an attempt to break the palpable tension in the small sterile room. “I’m not sure you’ve made your decision yet.” Bradley took a step back towards the door. “I’m going to give you a few more minutes to discuss this with your friends but when I come back, I need to have an answer.” He turned and strode out of the room to wait in the hallway to let the others have a final shot at influencing the boy.

“What are you taking about Morgan?” Sam clenched her jaw so tight her whole body went rigid in response. “Did you cross a line here?”

“Sam, Sam, Sam. Would I ever do anything like that?” Morgan waved her hand in front of her face as though dispelling the thought.

“Yeah, yeah you would.” Sam shook her head. How could she be expected to get her job done when the demon refused to play by the rules? Morgan knew she was only supposed to influence the humans subtly. Be there for them to toss ideas at, coerce them into a certain lifestyle. She was never supposed to give them a direct line to the goal. The humans had to come up with their choices on their own.

“You both need to shut up.” Vance commanded and Morgan leaned over to rest her head on his chest. “You need to let Matt figure this out.”

“You don’t own me, pretty boy.” Sam jutted out her chin in defiance. “I need to know what’s going on.”

“Come on you guys.” Matt stood up to look at across the bed at Vance and Morgan. “You’re my best friends. I need you to get along with my girl.”

Matt wrapped his arm around Sam’s waist and pulled her in for a passionate kiss, emphasizing his point.

When he finally released her, Sam looked over at the demons. Vance had turned his head and was staring at the wall and Morgan was clutching tightly to his shirt.

“Then
you
tell me, honey.” Sam stroked Matt’s short brown hair.

“It’s nothing to worry about, really. We were just having a conversation about my dad’s business. It’s not something that I wanna go into. I think that I’d rather just close down the project and sell the facility.”

Morgan’s face bent up into a satisfied smile.

“You think that or Morgan suggested it?” Sam used all her strength to remain calm. There was no point scaring Matt this far into the mission. But she had to be sure.

“We were just hanging out while Vance was off with some little chicklet and somehow my dad’s estate came up. She knows that I’m not interested in being responsible for the business, never mind all the people who work there. I was thinking that I didn’t really have a choice but to keep it going. But she showed me how easy it was to get out. She even called this guy who wants to take over, bring his own people in and turn it into something else.”

“I can’t believe this.” Sam spit the words at Morgan across the bed. “This is a new low, even for you.”

“Not really. You just don’t see everything that I do. You’d be pretty surprised.”