Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) (3 page)

“It’s not personal. I’m a private investigator.”

“Is she in trouble?”

“No, she’s not, but I can’t discuss cases openly.” It
was a lie; while I wasn’t a cop and could talk to whoever I wanted, I still
valued discretion.

“Devon?” I turned to see Karen.

She was a young woman with dark brown hair pulled
back into a messy ponytail and chocolate-colored eyes. She was thin, since she
lived primarily on coffee and bagels and was only off her feet when she slept.

Before I could say anything, she moved to hug me. I
jumped back and put out my hands to stop her. “Wait, wait.” She did, and her
expression changed from happy to despondent. I pointed to her scrubs, which had
vomit down the front.

“Oh, right,” she said, laughing. “It’s good to see
you, Devon. Follow me.”

“Are you still with Pinocchio?”

She snorted. “I don’t know what your problem with
Pinajé is.”

My problem was that Pinajé was fae and never told his
girlfriend. At the time I met him, I was able to tell what he was, but I
avoided paranormals. Furthermore, his reckless behavior was what made it so
difficult to solve her case. I thought it was his tribe that was stalking her,
when it was actually her human high school sweetheart. Pinajé’s family was more
progressive than I had taken them for and they were okay with Karen being in
the family.

I followed her to the locker room and waited outside
while she changed. “How can I help you?” she asked when she came out.

“A woman named Julia Emerson woke up here four days
ago. She is approximately five-six, a hundred and fifteen pounds, blond, and
blue-eyed. She also has amnesia and has possibly been in a coma for the past
two years. Her records were deleted.”

She frowned at me. “I’m not going to ask how you know
that last part. I don’t recognize the name, but the only person who woke from a
coma in the last week here was a burn victim. His coma was medically induced
and he doesn’t fit your description. We have six people in long-term comas, but
none of them match, either.”

“Have you noticed anyone strange hanging around any
of the patients?”

“No. If her records were removed, it’s probably
because someone didn’t want her to be identified and it’s probably an inside
job. Now, I just work here, so I have nothing else I can tell you. Let me page
Dr. Yu, who can tell you anything about our coma patients. Even if she was
listed as a Jane Doe, Dr. Yu can tell you if we’ve had anyone matching that
description.”

“Great.” Before I could say anything else, my phone
rang. We both turned away from each other and I answered my phone. “This is
Sanders,” I said when I answered it.

“Devon Sanders?”

“Yes.” I frowned at the concern in the young woman’s
voice.

“This is the Rhode Island Hospital. Your wife was
admitted to the emergency room with---”

“I don’t have a wife. I have a mother, though.”

“It’s Regina Sanders. Is she not your---”

“No, she’s not my wife and her name isn’t Sanders.
I’ll be there in thirty seconds.” I hung up and turned to Karen, who was just
finishing typing something into her phone. “My ex has just been admitted.”

She took me back to the front desk and got the room
number without incident. The woman who had talked to me earlier gave me a dirty
look, but she didn’t say anything. Although I was probably not supposed to be
allowed to see her, I was still her emergency contact and she apparently told
them I was her husband.

“You’re going to have to act a lot more afraid than
that,” she whispered as soon as we were in the elevator.

“What?”

“You look like you’re going in there to kill someone.
If anyone asks, just tell them you’re here to see your wife and you need to
look like you love her. She was attacked and they don’t know who did it, so
someone is going to call security if you don’t stop glaring.”

“This is my worried face when I’m thinking of
Regina.”

“Well, brush up on your acting skills, then, because
that’s not going to cut it.”

I closed my eyes and thought of Amelia. Darwin’s
fiancée was naïve and demure to a fault and no one could be angry with her. I
realized then that my fists were clenched and deliberately relaxed the tension
in my hands, arms shoulders, and face. The lights flickered right before the
elevator jolted and stopped. “Are you kidding?”

The emergency light was red.

“I don’t… this must be just a quick loss of power.
Someone will already be coming to fix this,” Karen said.

I pressed my ear to the wall and released my magic. I
felt people all around us for about ten seconds before I pulled back and vowed
to never do that in a hospital again for the rest of my life. The misery,
anger, pain, and panic were too strong and prevented me from getting anything
on anyone in particular. “The other elevator is stopped as well, but there’s no
one on it.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’m an investigator. No one is worried about us at
the moment, but someone will realize the elevators aren’t working soon. I think
this is to stall us.”

“That’s a very paranoid assumption. Does this happen
to you a lot?”

“This is mundane.” My phone rang for what felt like
the hundredth time since I got back to work. “Give me a minute. This is
Sanders.”

“Haven’t you heard of something called ‘caller ID’?”

Although I hadn’t checked the name on the phone
before answering, I recognized the irritated alpha’s voice. “Yes, Maseré, I
have. Did you need something? I don’t know anything about whatever Darwin is up
to.”

“I had Jefferson, one of my pack members, keep an eye
on Regina after Gale targeted her in case she figured out something about the
paranormal world. She was just attacked by an unknown wizard. Jefferson was
able to save her, but I thought you should know.”

“I appreciate you letting me know. I’m stuck in an
elevator about twenty feet away from her.”

“I’ll make a call and have you out in a few minutes.”

“Thanks.” I hung up and put my phone away. “They’ll
fix the elevators soon.”

“Oh,” Karen said sadly.

“What’s that ‘oh’ for?”

She shrugged. “Well, the first time I met you, you
were shooting out someone’s tires. Then, when I was kidnapped, you came in with
high-tech weapons and a laser cutter thing. I was kind of hoping for some more
James Bond moves.”

I laughed. “You like danger too much. It’s not fun
running into a drug lord or stumbling into the middle of a gang war on my way
to get coffee.” That was why I had a coffee machine in my office and apartment.

A moment later, the light flickered back on and the
elevator started moving again. When the door opened, I recognized the wolf
shifter as one of the two who arrested me when Regina went missing.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a real arrest and I wasn’t a suspect.

“How did you get here so fast?” he asked. He was a
tall, thin man with immaculate blond hair and a too-thin face.

“I was here already. What’s her condition?”

“Ms. Paris is stable.” He glanced worriedly at Karen
before leading us to the room. He obviously wanted to tell me what happened,
but Karen didn’t know anything about the paranormal world.

The room was private and there wasn’t a mark on
Regina, who was asleep on the bed. Karen picked up the chart. “They said she
was attacked, but this says she had a heart attack.”

“Karen, can you give us a minute?” I asked. She
frowned doubtfully, but turned and left. “What happened?”

“A wizard appeared out of nowhere and shot a burst of
energy at her. I attacked him, but before I could get a good bite, he
vanished.”

“Let me guess; he vanished into a shadow-like form.”

He nodded. “I had to do CPR, but I got her heart
started again before the ambulance arrived. As strong as that wizard was, I
think she got off easy. I don’t believe it was meant to kill her.”

“Why were you with her?”

He grimaced. “Well, it was my night off. We were…” he
looked away, “having dinner at my place.”

“You’re dating?”

“You’ve been divorced for---”

“I’m not angry,” I interrupted. It was entirely
possible that Regina had changed her ways and was ready to commit herself to
one man. Or it would be if it was anyone but her. “Just be careful.”

I felt an odd sensation and ignored Jefferson’s
response. Darwin was able to force open a mental link between us and even use
my magic through me due to his intelligence and uncanny understanding of magic.
Henry was rarely able to create a connection, but I could sense him trying. I
opened my mind to him and my vision instantly changed.

His sight was much like my gargoyle’s in that his
vision was based on movement and could see light differently than humans. I
could feel in his mind that he was unable to move and very worried about Scott,
who was sitting on the couch. Henry was in the living room, frozen, as someone
searched my apartment.

The attack on Regina was a trap.

I wasn’t the only one who saw this, however. My
familiar was constantly aware of me, and I saw him appear in front of Henry. My
vision changed to see through the gargoyle’s eyes and, unlike Henry, he could
see the essence of the Dothra wizard. It looked like a person covered in wisps
of black smoke.

Instinctively, I summoned up the deepest anger I
could draw upon, formed it like I would fire, and struck. Red lightning hit the
wizard and he vanished. He had escaped, but only barely. He was gravely
injured.

That was when my mind returned to my body and I found
myself sitting in the chair beside Regina’s bed. The shifter looked both sick
and terrified. “It was a trap to get me away from my apartment,” I said,
standing.

“Your eyes turned white and you started emitting some
kind of red electricity. Is that normal for wizards?”

“Don’t worry. I need to go. Stay with her, take care
of her, let me know if you need help.”

“So you’re okay with me and her?”

“Absolutely. Good luck.”

*          *          *

Twenty minutes later, I unlocked my door and entered
my apartment. Henry and Scott were both sitting on the couch, Henry with a mug
of coffee and Scott with hot cocoa, and neither of them were talking. “Are you
both okay?” I asked.

“We’re good, Uncle Devon,” Scott said. “Rocky showed
up and unstuck us.”

All wizards had a familiar, but few had one as strong
as mine. Hunt’s familiar was Rosin Flagstone, a powerful wolf shifter from the
same world Henry’s mother was from, and Krechea had some other kind of person
or shifter as a familiar, but those were the only cases I had seen where the
familiar was more than an animal until I called mine.

My gargoyle saved my heart from a vicious curse
within minutes of our bonding. Supposedly, I had a lot more powers left to be
discovered, but I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to discover them.

Henry patted Scott’s head. “Let Devon name his
familiar.”

“Can I name my familiar Rocky?” Scott asked.

“Shifters don’t get familiars, Kitten.”

He frowned from his father to me. “Can I be a wizard,
too?”

Henry’s eyes widened and he looked at me for an
answer. I opened a link between us. “
I’ll talk to Hunt
.”

“The wizard went into your room, but I couldn’t
follow him, so I don’t know if he took anything. At the time, I was preoccupied
with worry over Scott. He was probably after you.”

“No, it was his intention to get me out of the way;
he attacked Regina. He didn’t kill her, though. He could have killed you two
and her. It’s odd.”

“Why did he go after Regina instead of someone who
actually means something to you?”

“Maybe because she was my wife. Maybe he thought I
still love her. I don’t think this wizard knows anything about me.” I went to
my room to see that everything was exactly as I had left it.

Henry followed. “The wizard appeared out of the
shadows, so he was surely one of Krechea’s shadow walkers. Why would he get you
out of the way and search your room?”

“Either he wanted to find out something about me or
he wanted something I have.” Fortunately, I kept nothing important here; I kept
my magic books and items in a secret compartment in the morgue of Quintessence.

Well, all but my most powerful magical tool.

“I might know what he was after, and he didn’t get
it.” I never toyed around with my wizard’s staff, and I damn sure wouldn’t
leave it where it could be stolen.

*          *          *

Astrid wore a red leather top that showed more skin
than it covered, including her midriff, and emphasized her very well-formed
breasts. Her pants were black leather, as were her spike-heeled boots. Her hair
was in one long braid over her left shoulder and her eyes were almost glowing
green.

We were back in the main room of the Dothra castle,
where Vincent had stopped me from trying to save her. This felt more like a
dream than a vision.

I pushed her against the cage gently. “You’re coming
home with me.”

“What about the tower?” she asked.

“Let me worry about the tower.” I kissed her. It was
great, comfortable, and lacking all at once. Astrid was everything I ever
wanted, and everything I ever hated. I would save her because she needed to be
saved, not because I wanted her for myself.

“What is it you want?” she asked, pulling away.

“What do you mean?”

“What do you want more than anything? What’s most
important to you?”

When I took the key to one of the four doors in the
tower, I had to sacrifice what was most important to me. I still hadn’t found
out what it was, but I thought it was being able to save Astrid. “You,” I said
instead of what went through my mind. Why I said that, I couldn’t be sure, but
my instincts warned me not to say anything else.