Guild of Truth 02 - Shield from the Heart Read online

  “Well?” Sydney prodded gently.

  He opened his mouth, ready to tell her that it didn’t really matter what the case was about. But instead he found himself telling her the truth. “The case is about a missing girl, Sandy MacGregor, age fourteen. She was taken from her home one day after school while she waited alone for her mom to get off work.”

  He could see the gears working in her head and he kept going before he lost his nerve. “I’m going to solve Sandy’s case. Her mom deserves peace of mind. Even if it comes four months late.” He only hoped she was still living in Anaheim, that she didn’t get up and leave when Merrick failed to find her daughter.

  “Because you never got peace of mind?” Sydney asked softly.

  He flinched. She rested her hand on his arm, the connection felt all the way to his soul. They locked eyes. “It’s because of your sister, isn’t it?”

  The question was like a punch to the gut.

  “That’s why you didn’t say anything when I asked about her picture. At first I thought maybe you just had a falling out but that’s not it, is it? She went missing?”

  He couldn’t stand the look in her eyes. “I wasn’t there for her when I should have been. We were supposed to walk home from school together but I stayed after. I told her I’d catch up, only I never did.”

  His guilt ate at him. He’d done such a good job at burying it, and now he was ripping the wound wide open. He should have kept his mouth shut. He should have —

  “My little brother died of cancer.”

  Merrick blinked.

  Sydney was no longer looking at him. She was studying a stain on the floor. “I was his older sister, I was supposed to protect him from everything, but I wasn’t able to shield him from disease. I had to witness him wasting away, unable to help him, unable to do anything but watch.”

  Merrick’s chest swelled with emotion. Here they were, nearly two halves to the same whole.

  His body acted on instinct. He wrenched her into his lap and fused their mouths together. Sydney clung to him desperately.

  He kissed her hard and deep. Warmth burst from his chest, chasing away the lingering cold. She wiggled against his growing erection. Arousal spiked through him.

  The back of his neck prickled once.

  His hand hesitated, hovering between her shoulder blades. Not quite touching her sweater. But he wanted to. He wanted to know what she was thinking, what she was feeling.

  He wanted to know if she thought they were Mirror Mates like he did.

  Dammit, but he wanted to know.

  His hand drew closer.

  He froze less than an inch away from her.

  But what if his plan backfired? What if all he saw was her thoughts about him not being good enough for her, not being what she wanted for the long run? Could he deal with seeing that?

  He doubted there was a single mean thought in Sydney’s head. But did he want to risk it?

  You know better than most the evil that lurks within all human beings. Do you really want to see Sydney’s?

  He pulled away from her, frustration building.

  For once in his fucking life he’d like to be able to touch a woman and not fear her thoughts about him.

  “What is it?” Worried green eyes stared back at him, her entire face nothing but open.

  It was on the tip of his tongue to ask her. Are we Mirror Mates? Was he really going to buy into the whole soul mate thing? Did he want her to be his?

  Yes.

  Soft footfalls came from outside Steve’s office door.

  “Steve’s back.” His voice came out gruff.

  There was a brief flash of hurt in her expression as she extracted herself from his lap. He wanted to grab her wrist and erase any pain he’d caused her but the door handle turned.

  Steve came back in holding another box. “This is the last of it.” He dropped the container with a loud thwack.

  Merrick found the MacGregor case and tucked it under his arm. “Thanks,” he said to Steve. “I’ll stop by another time to get the rest of it, if that’s okay?”

  Steve stared at the mess on his desk with disdain. “Yeah, fine.” He waved Merrick out.

  Merrick held the door open for Sydney as they made their way toward the front. He could hear the whispers as he passed the desks of his old co-workers. This was definitely something he didn’t miss. He took Sydney’s advice and didn’t let the hushed voices get to him.

  The front door came into sight and Merrick held the folder out to allow Sydney to precede him.

  The file was snatched from his outstretched hand.

  His eyes traveled from the hand holding his file to the arm it was attached to, then the body, and finally the head. Benjamin.

  Cock sucking bastard.

  Benjamin had been a co-worker, like Russell, who didn’t mind opening his big mouth to piss Merrick off.

  “Ben.” Merrick forced the name through clenched teeth. Just looking at the man had his temper rising and the back of his neck tickling.

  Ben flipped through the case with no regard to the notes he scattered along the floor.

  “Hey,” Sydney protested. “Watch what you’re doing.”

  Ben cast Sydney a fleeting look. “I thought you’d flown the coop, Haskell.” He returned his gaze to Merrick, smirking as he watched Merrick crouch down on the floor to pick up the papers Ben had dropped.

  When he finished collecting the notes, Merrick rose to his full height and felt some satisfaction as he was able to stare down his nose at Ben. “I had a family emergency,” he told him. “As you can see I’m back now.”

  Ben’s lips twisted into some hideous rendition of a smile. “And we’re so happy to hear that. Our number one crime solver is back in Anaheim. Who wouldn’t be ecstatic?” Ben looked through the case one more time. “This isn’t a new file. What are you playing at now, Haskell?”

  Merrick held his hand out. “I’m not playing at anything. I’m not here to take your cases. That’s one of my old ones. I need to tie off a few loose ends and would appreciate it if you’d give it back.” Before I pound your fucking face in.

  “You think you’re so much better than us, don’t you?” Ben held the folder out. “Nothing here is engaging enough so you fall back on your old cases, is that it? Why not just spit in our faces?”

  The idea was more than tempting.

  Merrick reached for the folder but Ben dropped it before he could close his fingers around it. The file fell to the floor, paperwork flying everywhere.

  “Nice catch,” Ben sneered.

  Merrick saw red. He grabbed Ben by the collar of his shirt.

  Sydney jumped in to intervene. Other officers froze in what they were doing.

  Merrick barely noticed. He was no longer in his own head. He was in Ben’s.

  Ben was wearing the same shirt, the collar undone as he lay over Sally the receptionist, his pants down around his ankles. Sally’s skirt was hiked up as Ben pounded into her, grunting with the effort.

  Merrick stumbled back, gagging. He felt dirty from the inside out. Everyone stared at him like he was a freak.

  Let them stare.

  He kept his gaze level with Ben as he asked, “Does your wife know you’re sleeping with Sally?”

  If he’d thought the office was quiet before, it was nothing compared to the death silence that followed his question.

  Ben’s face turned purple. “You fucking bastard.” His arm pulled back for a punch. “If you say one fucking word I’ll kill you.”

  The stillness was broken and two nearby officers jumped in before Ben could do anything stupid like punch Merrick.

  Merrick didn’t wait around to see what became of Ben. He stormed out of there.

  Sydney practically ran to keep up with him. “Are you all right?” she asked when he burst through the front doors out into the autumn breeze.

  He inhaled deeply, the scent of car exhaust mingling with the smell of fast food. “Far from it, I’m afraid.” He paced back a
nd forth, hands clenched.

  “You want me to take that before you ruin the papers inside?” she pointed to his tightened fist where he was crumpling the MacGregor case.

  He swore and thrust it out to her.

  She gently took it from him, her fingers brushing his experimentally. He pulled back. “Merrick … ” she said.

  He shook his head. “Just stop. This has nothing to do with that case or my sister. This is just me being pissed off at that fucking asshole, Benjamin.” Who was nothing but a rat bastard that cheated on his wife.

  He paced for a few more minutes, waiting for his head to clear. Sydney hefted herself up on the small hideous blocks that were used as decoration. She kicked her legs like a little kid as she waited for him to cool down.

  He exhaled heavily, his anger leaving him. Sydney didn’t want to spend her time with some anger crazed psycho. He needed to rein in his temper. What the hell had he expected when he came back to the station? Flowers and rainbows? He had been prepared for this kind of shit.

  You simply underestimated how easily it was for them to get under your skin.

  “I’m sorry.” He leaned against the cement block next to her.

  She continued to kick her feet. “No worries. It must be hard having to deal with everything that you … ” she waved her hand, “ … see. Did you see that man sleeping with another woman?”

  Merrick barely repressed a repulsed shiver. “I was in his head while he was fuc — uh, sleeping with the receptionist.”

  She glanced back at the building. “You must have hated it here.”

  He snorted. That was an understatement.

  A companionable silence fell over them.

  Merrick kept replaying her words. How he hated it at the station. Somehow it sparked his memory of them in the hospital and how she’d hated it there. That’s when it clicked.

  “That’s why you hate hospitals,” he mumbled to himself.

  At his side Sydney stopped kicking her feet.

  He waited patiently until she raised her gaze to meet his. “It’s because of your brother, isn’t it?”

  He thought he caught a glimpse of vulnerable fear within the emerald green of her eyes. “I’ve never told anyone about my brother before,” she confessed. “Not Felix, or Cali, or even … ” she drifted off.

  “Joel,” he finished for her.

  She nodded miserably. “I don’t know if Niella knows — with her you can never tell what she has Dreamed or not. Most of the time she doesn’t share.”

  He felt humbled that she’d confided in him. More than that. He was honored, privileged —

  His chest swelled with emotion.

  He wanted to be the one she confided in. He wanted to know all about her fears and failures and successes. He wanted to be that steady rock in her life that she clung to in times of need.

  “I won’t tell anyone,” he said softly. Then he did something he hadn’t done since his sister had gone missing. He held his hand out, pinky extended. “I pinky promise.”

  The smile she gave him warmed a deep part of himself that he’d thought long dead. Her pinky curled around his. “I won’t tell anyone about your sister,” she promised back.

  He held her pinky longer than customary.

  Her face flushed.

  “You ready to get out of here?” he asked, getting to his feet.

  They started to make their way to her car when Merrick froze.

  Sydney picked up on his posture immediately. “What is it?”

  The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and not in the regular powers manifesting kind of way. “I think someone’s watching us.”

  Chapter 14

  Sydney’s mind instantly flew to Regina.

  She’d found them!

  The only problem was that Sydney didn’t see anyone.

  “Are you sure?” she asked Merrick. He was scanning the parking lot like a trained assassin. She could tell that he wanted to answer in the affirmative but there was no one out there.

  The air in her lungs froze.

  She knew better than anyone that just because you couldn’t see someone didn’t mean they weren’t out there.

  The back of her neck tingled and she threw her Shield up.

  Across the street leaning against a beat-up building, the kid Sydney could only guess to be Jente appeared. She’d never actually seen Jente but Cali had described him to her a couple of times.

  Tan skin? Young looking?

  Check.

  Black hair cut in a fantasy/anime sort of style?

  Check.

  She couldn’t see from this distance but she was pretty sure that if she looked into his eyes she’d find one gray and one green. Cali said it was one of his most defining features.

  Merrick zeroed in on him like a hawk.

  It took Jente a couple of seconds before he noticed Merrick’s stare. At first he simply stared back, then his posture stiffened. He pulled away from the wall he’d been lazing against as if realizing that he was no longer invisible.

  She could all but hear the word his lips spoke. Shit.

  He took off like a shot.

  Merrick sprinted across the parking lot.

  “Hey!” Sydney ran after him but with his longer legs he easily pulled ahead. Ten feet. Twenty. She was losing him. She had no idea how big of an area she could Shield. If Jente got out of range he’d be able to turn invisible again and they’d lose him for sure.

  She pushed her legs as fast as they’d go. Her lungs were already burning.

  Merrick disappeared down a residential street.

  She wanted to call after him but she could barely get enough air as it was. She followed Merrick into the small neighborhood. He was already halfway down the block. Jente was nowhere in sight.

  Merrick reached another corner. A large black van was parked near the curb. He raced past. An arm shot out knocking Merrick right in the side of the head. He stumbled.

  Jente emerged from behind the cover of the van. He bounced on the balls of his feet like a boxer ready for action.

  Merrick rubbed his jaw.

  Sydney forced her stupid little legs to move faster. She grabbed her ribs as a side ache shot pain throughout her whole body.

  Jente took another swing. Merrick stepped back dodging the blow.

  Jente threw another, dropped into a crouch and aimed for Merrick’s ankles.

  Merrick barely caught himself.

  Jente was fast. He also appeared to be a trained fighter. He carried himself with a certain kind of grace as he circled Merrick looking for any kind of weak spot. He feigned a punch. Merrick fell for it and got clipped in the jaw. Again.

  Merrick threw a quick one-two at Jente. He danced out of the way and shot out with an uppercut.

  Merrick caught his wrist and pulled him in close, locking his arms around his chest.

  Jente struggled.

  Merrick closed his eyes. They opened a few seconds later, locking with Sydney’s. “Drop your powers. I need to get a reading off of him.”

  Jente’s sunglasses had been discarded during his fight with Merrick so Sydney could see his green and gray eyes widen. “Oh, fuck no.”

  Sydney dropped her Shield.

  Jente jammed his elbow into Merrick’s ribs.

  Merrick’s hold broke.

  Jente kicked back, forcing Merrick further from him.

  Sydney ran to Merrick’s side.

  Jente went invisible.

  “Let him go,” Merrick said just before she pulled her Shield. He rubbed right beneath his sternum.

  “Are you okay?”

  Merrick wasn’t paying her any attention. His gaze was off in the distance where she could barely make out the sound of running footsteps.

  “Did you get anything from him?” she asked.

  Merrick shook his head. “That kid has got a lot of issues. All the impressions I got from his shirt were mixed up in a jumbled mess. There might have been something there for us to use but I’ll have to wait
for all the sensation overload to settle down before I can take a look through it all, so to speak.”

  “You can do that?” she asked as they made their way back to the station.

  He shrugged. “It’s different with each person, but with that guy,” he jerked his thumb in the direction Jente took off, “it’s kind of like watching a movie in fast forward. I was bombarded with a whole bunch of images so I have no idea what I’ve seen but later I’ll suddenly remember something that stood out. Make sense?”

  “Kind of.” She pulled her cell out.

  “Who’re you calling?”

  “Cali. The guy that just attacked you is named Jente. We all thought he’d gone with Vander when he took off but I guess not.” She held her phone up to her ear.

  Cali answered on the fourth ring, out of breath. “What?”

  Sydney frowned. “Is something wrong?”

  “Huh? No. Was there something you needed, Sydney?”

  “I wanted to let you know that we just ran into Jente.”

  There was a few seconds silence. “What did he want?”

  “No idea. Merrick felt someone watching him and when I used my powers he appeared across the street.”

  “Which means Vander knows exactly where you guys are.”

  A chill went down Sydney’s spine. Did that mean it was only a matter of time before Regina came to take Merrick back? They hadn’t even started to look for Kevin’s journal. She really hoped Merrick would find something pertaining to them in all those impressions he picked up from Jente. They needed to know what Vander was up to.

  “Cali!” Felix’s voice echoed through the phone.

  “I see it,” she shouted back. There was a crash followed by colorful cursing. “Look, I got to go, Sydney. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Wait.” Sydney threw her hand out even though there was no way Cali would see it. “I need to talk to Felix about Kevin and Collette.”

  There was another crash and more cursing. “I’ll have him call you.” Cali hung up on her.

  Sydney pulled the phone away and stared at the screen. What the heck was going on over there? She hoped it was nothing serious.

  Felix liked to joke that their little vigilante super guild helped rescue animals but she didn’t think he’d ever take on the task if it was presented to him. Maybe Niella had had a Dream about some animal and Felix decided to do something about it.