Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) (10 page)

This was magic that took me months to learn, but
since the staff was a huge aspect of my power, Hunt insisted that I learn to
conceal it. If I didn’t see him do it with his own staff myself, I wouldn’t
have believed it was possible. There was still a lot more that he and Vincent
were able to do that wasn’t taught at the university.

My staff appeared in my hand and the magic joined
with mine. It felt like I was using a limb that I forgot I had. The wood was
oak with sigils all over it. Although I carved the sigils with specific
intentions, they tended to randomly change on their own. At the top of the
staff was a clear crystal with a dark red spot in the center. The wood wrapped
around the root of the crystal and almost looked as if the crystal was fused
into the wood.

The wizard’s eyes widened in shock and he dispersed
into shadow again. It took me a few seconds to realize he was gone for good.
“Seriously? Are all of the shadow walkers wimps? Henry, let up a bit; I want
him to answer my question.”

The wizard Henry was mauling screamed again as he was
pushed into a sitting position and I heard the sound of bones in his shoulder
cracking.

“Why were you here to kill Luana?” As I asked the
question, I filtered my magic through the staff before it took control of his
mind.

He still fought my power, but the distraction of pain
and the power of my staff were apparently too much for him. “The woman doesn’t
mean anything to us.” He screamed again as Henry tightened his grip. “It’s the…
it’s the infant!”

“Why are you trying to kill an unborn baby?”

“Because of his future. His destiny is to stop the
Shadow Master from defeating his greatest enemy.” And then he vanished.

A few seconds later, Henry became visible and
shifted. “I thought it was going to take a lot more work than that.”

“I did, too. I don’t think they were expecting anyone
to stand in their way. Also, magic in Dothra is controlled by emotion, like
anger, so it will probably take them a while to get used to it.”

“Isn’t that like magic here?”

“Not quite. How would Luana’s baby stop the shadow
man from killing Langril? If he is here for long enough for her son to grow up
and fight, we’re pretty screwed.”

“What are you talking about?” Luana asked.

Matheus held her, but he was glaring at Henry. I
noticed he wouldn’t even look at me. “Have you two found a good family to adopt
the baby yet?” I asked, making sure my tone told them there was only one
possible answer I would accept.

When Henry finally realized what his parents had put
Scott through, he came very close to killing Luana. Right before he could,
Matheus told him she was pregnant. Since they had no interest in raising
another child, they planned to sell the baby to the highest bidder. Although I
had used my magic on them to make them look for a loving family to adopt the
baby, I knew my power was limited by time, distance, or both.

From their expressions, I could tell that’s exactly
what happened. “Medical bills are expensive and I’m ruining my body to carry
this little fleabag. If I’m not going to make money on it, I should have just
aborted it.”

I was about to use my magic on them again when Henry
cleared his throat. I opened a link between myself and him instead.

“
They’re just going to keep fighting it and the
baby is going to get hurt. I would rather they profit from the child’s life
than lose it altogether
.” He addressed his mother. “Eat healthy food and
don’t drink, smoke, or do any activity that could cause harm to the baby.”
Luana opened her mouth, but Henry went on. “Do this, and I will buy him from
you.”

“Five thousand,” she said automatically.

“Six thousand,” Matheus corrected.

“Fine,” Henry said. “I know a hundred paranormals
that would make a better parent than you. Even Hunt’s orphanage would be a
better place to raise a child.”

“We don’t care what you do to it as long as your
money is good,” Luana said. “Are they going to come back?”

“Probably,” I answered. “They think your son is going
to be their master’s enemy. We might need to move you to the university for the
baby’s safety.”

“The dungeon should be plenty safe,” Henry suggested.

“I’m not staying in a dungeon like some peasant.”

“We can take care of ourselves and our seven grand,”
Matheus said.

Henry narrowed his eyes, obviously catching Matheus’s
slip. “We will check in to make sure you’re taking care of him. And I want to
see sonograms.”

“Whatever. It’s a girl anyway, not a boy.”

We made it back home and
found Scott sitting on my bed. Henry immediately picked his son up. “Sorry I
had to leave you on your own for a while, Kitten.”

“It’s okay, Daddy, I know you had to work.”

Henry checked his watch. “It’s early, but we might as
well get to work.” He picked up Scott. “What do you want for breakfast?”

“Hot chocolate.”

“Okay.”

Henry started to walk out. “He can’t just have hot
chocolate for breakfast. Hot chocolate isn’t healthy,” I said.

“Milk, eggs, toast, and sausage, then.”

“Okay,” Scott said easily. The kid never argued.

Although I really wanted to work on Scott’s case, I
knew Darwin was taking care of that. I grabbed my jacket, wallet, and phone,
then went out to the living room. I nearly tripped over a toy in the hallway.
Henry was already fixing breakfast.

“I’m heading to the office,” I said. “Did you see
where I put my laptop?” I pushed Scott’s jacket and toys off the coffee table,
but it wasn’t there. Henry really enjoyed getting toys and games for his son.
Even though a lot of it was overcompensation, I didn’t think it would hurt the
kid, especially since most of it was educational. Scott was still learning what
he liked.

“I put it in the hallway closet.”

I opened the closet and saw it on the shelf above the
hanger bar. Then I just sighed when I realized why Henry had put it up; there
was multi-colored finger paint all over it. When I shut the door and turned,
Henry was right behind me. “I should have put it up before I took my shower, so
this is my fault.”

“It’s not anyone’s fault. We need to talk, though.”

“I understand. You invited me to work for you, not
move myself and my son into your home.”

“It’s not that. He’s a great kid and you are
excellent to work with, but I’m not a family man. I’m not even a roommate man,
and spending months at the university is getting a bit too much for me. Even
when I was married to Regina, I fought her for months to keep my own place, and
when I did let her move in, she was rarely home. After this last semester, if
we live that long, I’m going to start looking for a new place. I still want to
work with you, and Darwin if he’s available, but I need more personal space.”

“The last thing I want to do is chase you out of your
apartment.”

“Seriously, I don’t mind. I don’t need a place this
big and I like knowing you and Kitten are in a safe neighborhood.” The events
over the last few days also proved that I needed to separate my personal life
from my work life, which was getting hard to do when work kept endangering my
friends.

“Wait on the decision until you graduate. I’m pretty
sure Vincent is going to ask you to be on the council.”

“I have no interest in being on the wizard council.”

“According to Darwin, they might be doing away with
the wizard part altogether and making it the paranormal council.”

“The fae are going to
hate
that. I doubt the
shifters are going to roll with it either. Anyway, I need to get back on
Julia’s case.”

“The coffee is almost ready.”

“I’ll get one at the office.”

“Alright. I’ll meet you there after dropping
Scott---”

“Don’t worry about it,” I interrupted. “You two
should have a family day.”

Henry’s top priority was his son, which was exactly
how it should be. Unfortunately, I predicted there would be many more problems
before we discovered exactly what happened to him. Until we figured it out, I
really didn’t think Henry should leave Scott alone again.

*          *          *

As I drove to my office, I considered what I learned
about Krechea, which wasn’t much. Hunt, Vincent, and I were assuming Krechea
would be fighting tooth and claw for the keys, but there had to be a reason why
he wanted them. Langril knew.
It would help tremendously if the bastard had
told me what Krechea was after
. How was I supposed to stop someone when I
didn’t know what he wanted?

He fought so hard to get the key for a reason.
Maybe
it wasn’t the key but the world he was after. Some pure vampires had made it to
Dothra, so he knew about them. Could he have known this key led to the vampire
world
? But if he just came to Earth to get the key from me…

No, that’s not right. He wouldn’t be that stupid
.
If he wanted to defeat me, he had the perfect opportunity to when he was in
Dothra with Astrid. Langril said Krechea wanted to kill him more than getting
the key, Felicity said Krechea wanted the keys so that he could kill Langril,
and Janus had said that if Krechea got any of the keys for himself, Earth would
be destroyed. The question was, could I trust any of these people?

I understood why Krechea wanted to kill Langril;
Langril was a bastard. He was also one of my favorite professors at
Quintessence, and I didn’t know whether that said something about me or the
school.

Several times, I had to focus completely on driving,
because along with backed up traffic, there were mass power outages, numerous
detours, and drivers who were just plain being idiots. Throughout most of the
drive, I felt the same presence that had kept me awake at Stephen’s coven.

As soon as I pulled into my parking spot, I saw Julia
standing in front of my office. It wasn’t even sunrise yet. “Is everything
okay?” I asked when I reached her. I unlocked the door and held it open for
her.

“Yes, I just didn’t want to stay at the motel any
longer.”

“Sorry I had to leave you for longer than I’d
planned. Are you hungry? We should go to the diner.”

“I’m not hungry. Can you just find out my husband’s
name? I’m sure he’s going insane.” When she sat down in the seat in front of
her desk, I sat down in my chair and opened my laptop.

“I know you’re anxious, Julia, but I’m afraid it
isn’t going to be easy.”

Since there was a record of the accident and not of
her stay in the hospital, I knew whoever tried to get rid of them was not as
tech-savvy as Marcus, but they did have some skill. The biggest problem in
finding her husband was that there were no records of her visitors.

“Since the hospital had your name, he should have
been contacted when you woke. Unfortunately, the only accident that matched
your description happened two years ago.”

The blood drained from her face. “Maybe… maybe he did
visit me and he just hasn’t in the last week because he was busy.”

“Maybe, but it also looks like your hospital records
were tampered with.”

“So my car accident wasn’t an accident?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t want you spending any more
time at the motel. That’s why I was worried when I saw you here.”

“I didn’t sense anyone watching me or anything.”

“I’m going to do some searching. Are you sure you’re
not hungry?”

“The motel had free breakfast.” I opened up the
web-browser and she noticed my laptop. “Oh, how old is the little one?”

“He’s five. Do you remember anything since?” I
searched Google Images for “Julia Emerson” and scrolled through the pictures.

“Nothing. Did he run out of paper?”

“I don’t know; he was with his father. Henry has
pretty much all the artistic talents and I think Scott is going to be just like
him.” I opened Facebook and searched for her name again, and still didn’t find
anyone who looked like her.

“Oh… you’re… I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were…”

After a moment, I looked up at her. “Huh? You didn’t
realize I was what?”

“Involved.”

“I’m not.” Her cheeks reddened and I suddenly got it.
“Oh, no. Scott isn’t my son and Henry isn’t my partner. I mean, he is my
partner, but only in a job sense, and he’s new. Let’s just focus on your case.”

“Sorry.”

I studied her closely. Some women wore a pound of
makeup, whether it was to enhance the features they liked or to hide the ones
they didn’t. I didn’t care for it at all because I’d seen what happened when
they got all sweaty, but that was just my own personal opinion. Some women wore
natural-looking makeup, which I definitely preferred. “Where did you get your
makeup?” I asked.

“I’m not wearing any.”

Although I had seen some witches with a little
makeup, I had never once seen a shifter, fae, or vampire wearing it. Since it
was a fast way to spot a paranormal, I learned to see the difference. “You have
eye shadow on. Hospitals don’t put makeup on you.”

“No, I haven’t put any makeup on since I woke up.”

I wasn’t convinced, but she didn’t have a reason to
lie to me. Either way, I had a hunch. I searched Linkedin to see if she had a
profile. “There we go. You’re a secretary. That might be why I didn’t find a
Facebook page; you wouldn’t want your work and social life mixing.”

“A secretary? That’s so boring.”

I laughed as I searched for the address of the
company. “I know some secretaries who save their boss’s life every day.” I also
knew that too many secretaries overheard something they shouldn’t. “I’m going
to check on this place; it’s not far. I think it might be best if you stay
here.”

“Why?”

My instincts were telling me not to take her to the
company. “I don’t know the whole situation and it would be better to do this my
way.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and groaned when I remembered that I
had killed it. Instead, I reached out for Henry’s mind. “
I need you to come
down to the office to watch over a client
.”

“
Do I need to drop Scott off at your mother’s
?”

“
That’s up to you. I don’t expect her to be
attacked; I just don’t want her to be alone
.”

“
Alright. I’ll be there in ten minutes
.”

“
See you then
.” I shut down my laptop. “Henry
works for me and he’s going to come and stay with you while I check out the
company.” Ten minutes later, I started to get concerned. I connected with
Henry’s mind again. “
Are you almost here
?”

“
Sorry. I tried to call you, but I guess you
killed your phone again. Kitten couldn’t find his shoes. We’re heading out the
door now
.”

“
Okay, I’m going to go. I should be done in a few
hours. I’m also going to pick up another phone
.” I assured Julia that Henry
would arrive soon and described him to her. Ten minutes later, I was pulling
into the parking lot of the law firm where Julia Emerson worked.

It was a very simple place, both inside and out, with
a small, dimly lit reception area. The entrance was barely wider than a hallway
with benches on both sides and a heavy wooden desk at the end. Behind the desk
was a young woman with bottle-blond hair, heavy makeup, and a scowl. She was
chatting on the phone as I walked up to the desk.

“Hang on,” she said after a few minutes. She looked
up at me and popped her gum. “Yeah? You got an appointment?”

“Yes,” I lied.

She glanced at her computer with disdain. “Name?”

“Devon Sanders.”

She pulled out the keyboard tray and started to type
something. I put my hands on the counter and focused on fire. Visualizing heat
was easy after all the practice I had lighting candles and torches at
Quintessence. It wasn’t a flame I was going for this time, though.

The woman grunted and smacked the monitor. “Piece of
shit computer ain’t working. When’s your appointment?”

“My appointment is at eight.”

“It’s seven-fifty-eight.”

“That’s two minutes from now.”

She paused to do the math in her mind. “Okay, well,
Mr. Emerson ain’t in yet, so yur gonna have’ta wait.”

“Yes, I expected as much.” I sat down to wait.
Mr.
Emerson
?
So did Julia work for her husband
? There were other
possibilities, but this was the simplest one. After about ten minutes, the
woman hung up the phone and I approached her desk. “It’s now way past my
appointment. Is he in?”

“I’ll check.” She pushed a button on the phone and
put it to her ear. “Yeah, a Mr. Sanders here to see you. Yeah, he’s got an
appointment. I told you about it, you just weren’t listening.” She popped her
gum again and looked up at me. “What’cha need him for?”

“A client of mine was in a car accident.”

She nodded. “Insurance crap,” she said to her boss
before hanging up. “He said go on in.” She pointed down a hallway to the right.

In the hallway, there was a door to the left, which
led to a bathroom, and two doors on the right. The first door on the right
opened into a small kitchen, while the second opened into a decent-sized
office. The carpet was light brown, as were the walls. A work desk that had its
fair share of dents was across the room with a middle-aged man sitting behind
it. The bookshelf to my right was crammed with dusty law books that had
obviously not been touched in months. I suspected that Mr. Emerson got a lot
more use out of the wide-screen TV to my left.

“Mr. Sanders, I apologize for my secretary’s… antics.
How can I help you today?”

Mr. Emerson had graying, receding, ash-blond hair
with hazel eyes. His blue suit was well-worn and his hands had print stains
from resting on newspaper pages. There was no wedding ring or even a tan line
from one. On his desk were a stack of files in an organizer, a cup of pens, a
name plaque, and a picture of him and Julia.

He had a picture but he didn’t still wear the ring?
“That’s a lovely wife you have there.”

“Yes, she is. Ms. Kent said you needed to see me
about insurance.”

“Actually, it’s about a car accident. More
specifically, it’s about your wife’s car accident.”

His eyes widened until I thought they’d pop out, and
then he stood fast enough that his chair hit the wall. “What do you know about
that?” His polite tone had changed to a hiss of suspicion.

I ignored his aggression. “Do you know anyone who
would want to kill your wife?”