Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) (2 page)

“What’s wrong?”
And why does that name sound so
familiar
?

“That was two years ago, but other than that,
everything about her condition is missing.”

“Missing as in the staff was struck with a critical
fit of laziness and forgot to update their records?”

“No, missing as in wiped on purpose.”

Figures
. I lowered the phone. “Does the name
Julia Emerson mean anything to you?” I asked. She shook her head. I put the
phone back to my ear, thought about it, and lowered it again. “How did you find
me?”

“Oh…” she quickly pulled a folded note out of her
pocket. “This is the only thing I had on me.” She unfolded it and laid it on my
desk. On it was an old phone number and my office address.

I put the phone back to my ear and asked which
hospital. Fortunately, I had a contact at the hospital she had been admitted to.
“Do you have any information about her husband?”

“Nothing. I even checked her out. No criminal
activity or even a citation. There’s nothing to find about her.”

“Who paid for her hospital bills?”

“That’s also missing.”

“Thanks for your help, Darwin. If you’re working
something involving a theft, call Henry and get his input.”

“Ha ha, theft… that’s funny. You’re funny, bro. I’ll
talk to you later.” He hung up.

I set my phone down. The hit-and-run could have been
an accident, but no one erased hospital records on accident. Furthermore, I
remembered where I recognized her name from. She had called me up and asked for
an appointment, which she never showed for. That was a few months before I ever
started at Quintessence.

Her dress was clean since the hospital had probably
washed it, but if they found the note, why would they put it with her dress and
not her wallet? The piece of paper wasn’t even a business card and the phone
number hadn’t worked in a long time, so I was surprised the hospital didn’t
throw it away.
Maybe someone took her wallet and didn’t think anything of
the note
.

“I need to go to the hospital and check something
out, but I can’t do that until six. I have a kid at home, so I can’t let you
stay with me. I’ll check you into a hotel room and get back with you in the
morning.”

“So you can help me?” she asked, hopeful.

“Definitely.” My phone rang and Henry’s name popped
up on the screen, so I answered it.

“Why did Darwin just call me and ask questions about
the response time of the NYPD to the alarm systems of different
establishments?”

“How would you know that? You don’t live in New
York.”

“That is what I told him. He said you directed him to
me.”

“What establishments?”

“Veterinary clinics and zoos.”

My phone beeped softly. “Hang on.” I put him on hold
and answered the incoming call. “Hello?”

“Whatever you do, if Darwin calls you, don’t tell him
anything.”

“Hi, Maseré. What’s he up to this time?” Maseré
Mason, Darwin’s father, was the strongest alpha wolf shifter in North America,
yet no one would know it from his parenting techniques. He adored Darwin and
treated the young shifter like a frail doll. I knew a lot of it stemmed from
guilt over Darwin’s inability to be touched.

Any other father probably would have forced Darwin to
be independent. Up until recently, Darwin had been unable to shift, and despite
the unconditional love Maseré shoved down his throat, he was afraid his father
would drive him off if his wolf was revealed. Unlike Darwin, who was extremely
peaceful, his wolf was an alpha just as dominant as Maseré’s.

Personally, I thought there couldn’t have been a
better parent for Darwin in the world. Instead of trying to make Darwin into a
proper pack member, Maseré encouraged Darwin to be himself. No one had a mind
quite like Darwin’s and Maseré never asked for anything else.

He was, however, a little overprotective.

“I have no idea, other than that he’s out for
revenge.”

“Well, I definitely won’t tell him anything I don’t
know about the NYPD. Got to go.” I hung up before he could argue and put Henry
back on. “He’s looking for revenge.”

“I will help him then. Goodbye.”

“Yep. Bye.” I put my phone down. “Sorry. I have crazy
friends.” We started for the door when my phone rang again. With a sigh, I
opened the door for her. “My car is unlocked. I’ll be just a second.”

She went outside with a nod and I grabbed my phone. I
recognized the number. “Hey, Dev,” Marcus said brightly.

When Marcus was sixteen, he witnessed his father kill
his mother and police failed to protect him. I took him in until I graduated
and between my instincts and his computer skills, we didn’t have any problem.
He got enough temp jobs to feed his electronics addiction and once he was of
legal age, he started his own private security business.

Then, while I was attending my fourth semester at
Quintessence, he tracked me down and discovered the paranormal world. Soon
after, he was shot by his father, Simon Sinclair, and the only way he could be
saved was to be turned into a vampire.

“Hi. Everything okay?” I heard hushed speaking in the
background. “Are you with Darwin?”

“Oh, yeah, we’re just… you know… hanging out. Playing
an RPG on the comp---” I heard someone hit him and whisper something. “No… not
on the computer. On the phone. We’re playing an RPG on our cell phones.”

“You both suck at lying. What do you need?” I looked
out the glass front door to see Julia sitting safely in the passenger seat of
my car.

“I just wanted to let you know that someone is on
your tail. I haven’t been able to find out who because they screw up my tech.”

“Did you bug my office?”

“Of course not. I bugged your car.”

“I told you my magic would interfere.”

“Yeah, but everyone has a pattern of interference.
Just trust me; someone with magic is following you. If I’m not off, at least
three someones.” He was definitely thriving as a vampire, but he was still very
paranoid. Although Maseré took Sinclair into custody and promised Marcus would
never hear about the man again, Marcus had spent too much of his life looking
over his shoulder to get over it quickly.

“Alright. I’ll keep an eye out. Just make sure Darwin
doesn’t get in trouble,” I said. When he scoffed, I sighed. “
Caught
.
Make sure he doesn’t get
caught
.”

“Can do. Thanks, Dev. Laters.” He hung up.

I put the phone in its harness, stepped outside,
locked up, and got in the car. Ten minutes later, I pulled into a motel. “Is
this okay?” I asked.

She looked down at her hands. “I don’t have any
money.”

“I knew that. You left your wallet at home when you
went out. Sit tight and don’t talk to anyone.”

“You think someone might be trying to hurt me?” she
asked.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry. Lock the door.” I
took my keys, got out, and went into the office.

*          *          *

The first thing I saw when I shut my apartment door
behind me were big, weepy, amber eyes. Scott was standing in the corner,
silently begging me to save him. “What did you do?”

“I went out into the hall and shifted.”

“Oh, that’s bad, Kitten. Did you get five or six
years in time out?”

“Five minutes because I’m five.”

“You got off easy. You’d better turn around and do it
before your dad gives you more time,” I said. As if realizing what he was
doing, he jerked around to face the wall. I went to the kitchen, where Henry
was standing by the fridge with his head on the counter. There was a shredded
parenting book all over the floor. “I don’t know how well those work on shifter
kids.”

“He’s been in there for an hour,” he said, standing
up straight and facing me. His expression was more distraught than Scott’s.
“The book says not to let him out until he’s done the full time facing the
corner.”

“Have you tried modifying it? Maybe give him ten
minutes but let him face any way he wants. Does he know why what he did was
wrong?”

“The book says to make him tell me what he did
wrong.”

“He told me he went outside and shifted, so he knows
what
he did. Does he know
why
it was wrong? You took him out of the ‘wild’ of
the human world and he spent months running around free at the university. In
less than three months, he’s going to go back into the paranormal environment.”

“He must know why he can’t shift around humans.”

“These parenting books are just suggestions and
guidelines based on human psychology. You know how he thinks more than anyone,
but you can’t reach him unless he knows why what he did was wrong. I would make
sure if I were you.”

“You have a case?” Henry asked, turning his attention
to the noodles he was preparing on the stove for Scott’s lunch.

“Looks like it. A woman named Julia Emerson came to
the office this morning wanting help. She was involved in a car accident two
years ago and woke up in the hospital four days ago with amnesia. Since then,
she remembered having an argument with her husband and trying to drive to his
workplace.”

“And you suspect foul play?” he asked.

“How did you know?”

“Because you have her name, so the only way you
wouldn’t know everything you need to know about her already is if her files
were removed.”

“I think you’re going to be perfect for the job,” I
said. I looked over to see Scott with his face against the wall. He was also
tapping rhythmically with his hand on the back of his neck. “I’m going to the
hospital to see if anyone remembers anything. It looks like she might have been
in a coma for two years. I’m glad to get back to human cases. Do you want to
come?”

“Not this time.” He didn’t want to leave Scott twice
in one day. “Unless you think you’ll need help.”

“No, I got it. I’m pretty sure it’s been five
minutes.”

“You can come out now, Kitten,” Henry said. The
five-year-old didn’t move; he just kept tapping the back of his neck.

“Did Darwin ever get back to you with the records the
Foxes took?” After Luana and Matheus took Scott from Henry, they dropped the
baby off at an orphanage and tricked Henry into believing he killed his own
wife. Since this wasn’t the first time they convinced him that he killed
someone and that his jaguar was out of control, he agreed to stay away from his
son for the baby’s safety. Only when he got Scott back did he realize how bad
the child’s situation had been.

Joshua and Janet Fox did numerous experiments on
Scott, somehow knowing he was a paranormal. How much they knew, how they got
their information, what they did exactly, and why they did it was still
unknown.

When Scott had hurt his arm at the university because
he was running in the hall and ran over an ice patch, Darwin and I took him to
the infirmary. He took one look at the medical equipment and exam table and started
screaming. The only one who could calm him was Henry.

“No, not yet. It looks like they were notoriously bad
at computers, so they kept everything on paper, and their records were almost
entirely destroyed in a fire set on purpose right before they were busted. We
may never know.”

There was a way to find out; I had offered several
times to induce a vision to show me what he went through, but Darwin insisted
that was the worst thing I could do, considering the experiments were designed
for a paranormal.

“Well, you know what to do to help him get better.”

His eyes widened slightly as if I said something
completely insane. “You met Matheus and Luanna. I have no idea how to comfort
him.”

“Of course you do; do the opposite of everything they
did. Just hug him, compliment him, and tell him how important he is to you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Tell him you love him even when he does things that
are wrong and always tell him when you’re proud of him. And when in doubt, call
Maseré.”

*          *          *

I almost decided not to go to the hospital after
watching the news. One of the main roads between my apartment and the hospital
had collapsed for no apparent reason. There was also an increase in the number
of car crashes, either because people witnessed strange lights or a cluster of
four or five cars would suddenly stall out in the middle of the road.

Instead, I just told Henry to call me if the
situation got more serious or if they figured out what exactly was going on. As
I stepped off the stairwell onto the first floor, a trashcan started wobbling.
I reached out and stopped it with my hand instinctively. The only reasonable
conclusion was that some critter had crawled inside before Kate brought it in
from the alley. Cautiously, expecting a scared animal to jump out, I lifted the
lid.

It was empty.

And then the lights started blinking out.
“Seriously?” I asked aloud. Nothing answered me back, so I replaced the lid and
left.

The traffic was backed up, but I didn’t see anything
particularly wrong. At half past six, I arrived at the hospital and parked in
the visitor lot. I would have called, but my phones had been fried, smashed,
submerged in water, and taken into evidence dozens of times in the past five
years. Needless to say, I lost a lot of numbers.

On the way in, I paused, sensing that I was being
watched. Of course, I was in a public place, so I was bound to be seen. I
figured I was just being paranoid after what Marcus said.

There were a number of people sitting in the waiting
room, but nobody looked terribly rushed. I didn’t recognize any of the nurses
behind the desk. “Can I help you?” one of the nurses asked.

“Is Karen Greenfield working tonight?” I knew she
was, it was just more polite to ask. Since I never read the woman’s mind, I
couldn’t track her.

“Yes, but she can’t have personal visits.”