Guild of Truth 01 - Silent as the Grave

by Mary K. Norris

  She clutched her phone to try and stop the shaking in her hands. “I would never steal from them.” She enunciated each word slowly, but the rage she felt still crept through.

  Jared didn’t even acknowledge her words. “The cops want you to come in for questioning.”

  Her entire body shook.

  No!

  She wanted to scream and rant. She’d done everything right from that moment on in her life. She didn’t want to see those looks again. The ones people gave those beneath them when they pitied them and their poor existence. She didn’t want to see the disappointment in her family’s eyes. She’d done nothing wrong.

  “Cali? Did you hear me?”

  “I want to give my own statement of what happened.”

  She could feel his surprise through the phone. He and Garnet had already made their minds up about her. And it stung.

  She inhaled deeply and caught the scent of fresh bread and sea salt.

  Felix.

  Could he hear what her brother had said?

  Why do you even care what he thinks about you?

  She didn’t know why. She just did.

  There was shuffling on the other side of the line and then Jared came back on. “The police want you to come in tomorrow to give your statement.”

  “I didn’t steal from Mom and Dad,” she said again. “You’re making assumptions you have no right to make, Jared.” And based on his reaction and Garnet’s, the police were sure to follow in their footsteps. Great. Tomorrow was going to be hell.

  They hung up shortly after that.

  Cali took some deep breaths. It didn’t help.

  Her back grew warm. Her heart sped up. “Are you okay?” Felix asked from behind her.

  She turned around and dropped her head when she couldn’t stand the compassion she saw in his gaze. She wanted so badly to rest her forehead against his chest, to feel those strong arms around her.

  “My family thinks I’m a drug addict.” She might as well get it out there in the open.

  His hands slid along her arms comfortingly. Up and down, up and down. She shivered. He was really making her no touching rule difficult right about then. “Looks like they don’t know you all that well,” he said.

  A harsh laugh escaped her. “And you do?” she couldn’t help but retort. She knocked his hands away to stare him in the face. “I may not know the significance of the mirror part of your weird little ‘mirror mate’ word, but I sure as hell know what the word mate means. I also know I’ve been called that a couple of times today. Now, I don’t know what you want from me, but I don’t owe you anything. I saved your ass when I took out that woman, Collette. You’re indebted to me.” She held up her hand, index finger extended. “That’s one.”

  A smirked tugged at his lips. “We’re keeping score now?”

  “I don’t like to owe anyone.”

  The smirk bloomed into a grin. “And my coming in and rescuing you from your parents’ doesn’t count as anything?”

  “All you did was warn me. Not to mention it doesn’t even give me much to go by. A man is after me — wow, that really narrows it down.”

  He shrugged. “Well, now all you have to do is stay away from men. I gotta say I’m not arguing with that.”

  The look he gave her sent a jolt right down to her toes. Her breasts tingled, the heat between her legs spreading.

  Why did he have to look at her like that?

  She stepped back from him. He stepped forward. “You do realize that would include you, right?”

  She took a step back. He stepped forward. Back, forward, back, forward.

  Her back hit a cement pillar.

  His eyes sparked when she couldn’t retreat. He leaned into her. “I’m the exception. That weird little phrase we like to use, Mirror Mate? It means exactly what it sounds like.”

  He was so close it was suffocating. Her body was on high alert as they stood there, at a standstill now, neither one moving.

  She cleared her suddenly dry throat, trying to ignore the throbbing of her entire body. “You’re really going to make this awkward for me, aren’t you?”

  The tension between them was palpable.

  His grin was all rogue. “As awkward as I possibly can.” He braced his weight on the palms of his hands, one on either side of her head, trapping her.

  “You’re certainly doing a good job of it,” she said breathlessly.

  Chapter 5

  Felix’s entire body was tense, his cock hard. Shit, but he’d never had this kind of reaction to a woman before. They both stood there, trapped, neither making the first move. Cali’s onyx eyes watched him warily as if she didn’t know whether to bolt or stay. Her chest rose and fell with her heavy breathing, her lips parted ever so slightly, as if inviting him to taste her.

  He couldn’t take it. He wanted her. Needed her.

  He dipped his head to capture her mouth. She gasped but didn’t pull away. Her hands grasped his hips, her grip like steel.

  He kept his hands firmly planted against the cement behind her. He didn’t trust himself to let them wander. Instead he surrendered himself to the tantalizing feel of her lips molding to his. They were soft and pliant and tasted like spearmint lip balm. His tongue snaked out to tease them. Her fingers dug into the flesh at his sides. Fire scorched his veins. He wanted to take her up against the wall, wanted to feel her sex clamping tight and hot around his aching cock.

  He ran his tongue along the seam of her mouth again, coaxing her to open for him. He couldn’t get enough of her. He wanted more. She hesitated, but when he nipped her with his teeth she drew in a ragged breath, and he slid his tongue inside.

  She arched against him, her breasts just barely grazing his chest. He moaned, but the blood in his veins must have been roaring too loudly because he didn’t even hear it.

  Her tongue stole out to stroke against his, and his body went rock solid. He growled in animalistic desire. But again he heard nothing.

  There was a gentle push on his hips, and Cali pulled her lips from his. Her eyes were fogged, her lips red, and she licked them as if to savor the flavor of his kiss.

  His cock twitched as he imagined all the uses for those beautiful lips and tongue. He curled his fingers into the cement pillar. Lust clouded his mind and all he could think of was her. Her scent. Her taste. He dipped his head back in for another sample.

  Her grip on his hips tightened to keep him away, though the effort was only half-hearted. But it was the sudden panic in her eyes that stopped him.

  “What is it?” he tried to ask, but nothing came out.

  Cold flooded his body.

  He opened his mouth to speak. Again there was nothing. Understanding dawned. Cali was using her powers.

  And by the looks of it, she had no idea how, and was terrified.

  He knew that fear. Had felt it many times, only this time she wouldn’t be alone as he’d been.

  He gripped her shoulders as much to comfort her as to draw her attention back from where she was staring down at her own body as if it wasn’t hers.

  “It’s okay,” he mouthed. “I’m staying right here.”

  She nodded shakily.

  He took a moment to think.

  How the hell was he supposed to help her when they didn’t have the same powers?

  He kneaded her shoulders absently until something clicked. It was only a hunch but it was all he had.

  He removed his hands from her shoulders and brought them to rest atop hers where they gripped his hips like a lifeline.

  “What are you doing?” she mouthed.

  Any other time he would have found her reluctance to release him amusing.

  “Trust me.”

  He pulled her hands from him and let them drop by her sides.

  She gave him a funny look. “What was the point of that?”

  Had it worked? He didn’t feel any different, but then again, he never felt anything when Sydney used her powers either. “It was just a theory,” he said.
/>
  His eyes widened.

  “I made noise.” He looked down at himself, amazed she was able to take all sound from him.

  Her arms waved. “Why am I still silent?”

  Panic was starting to set in. He reached out to grab her and stopped himself short. If he touched her again, her powers would leak over to him.

  “Don’t panic. Getting control of your powers is the hardest thing to deal with.” He wracked his mind for some kind of instruction to give her, trying to remember back to those first cursed weeks when he’d discovered his power and had been abandoned and ridiculed by his “friends.” When nothing helpful surfaced he went with his gut. “When your power first manifests, it’s usually brought on by strong emotion.” He bit back a smile at what must have triggered them. “Do you have a weird prickling at the back of your neck?” It was the only common symptom that he knew of.

  Cali nodded.

  Should he try what he’d done with Sydney all those years ago when they’d found out about her ability? It was worth a shot. “I need you to try and relax.”

  She gave him a dead stare. Are you serious? it said.

  His lip twitched. “Close your eyes and picture yourself releasing all the tension in your body. Trust me. Just … let … go.”

  She eyed him balefully for a moment as if to convey that if he was pulling her leg she’d amputate his. Finally she closed her eyes.

  He waited, watching as she inhaled, held it, and slowly let it out.

  A few cars sped by and still she kept her eyes closed. “Did it work?” she whispered.

  He threw his head back and laughed. “I can honestly say with some confidence that it did.”

  She punched him in the arm. “You jerk. That was not a laughing matter. I was terrified.”

  He rubbed his arm. “So does that count, then?” He held up a finger much like she had earlier. “That was one.”

  Her eyes flashed with the challenge. She raised her chin, not saying anything, and he took it to mean that he had indeed evened out her little scoreboard. But he was far from finished with it.

  “How’d you know what to do?” she asked after a few more cars pass by.

  He stepped back to give her some room, his shoulder rising in a careless half shrug. “That’s the only thing that seemed to work for me.”

  “When did you first learn about your … ” She faltered. “Your, uh, ability?”

  It was not a time he liked to remember, but it looked as if she was opening up to the idea of having powers, so he’d do what he could to help her. “I was twenty-one. It was after finals. I went out with a bunch of my buddies and we got drunk. We were leaving when one of them made the offhand comment about my current girlfriend at the time being a whore. I got pissed, there were angry words exchanged. I wanted to fight.” He shook his head at his idiocy. He should have left it. Maybe then he’d never have lost his friends. “Jeremy kept blowing me off. He went to get into his car, and I remember wishing his car would vanish so he couldn’t leave without me knocking in a few of his teeth. There was this strange sensation at the back of my neck.” He placed his hand there absently, as if he could still feel that first time. “I was too angry to notice it, and when I raged at Jeremy again, waving my arms at him … His car just disappeared.”

  “Did they know it was you?”

  He exhaled. “Yeah, they were so freaked that they came after me. They ran me back into the bar we’d been drinking at calling me a freak, and when they couldn’t get to me inside, they smashed my Jeep to bits.”

  “Fucking bastards,” she whispered.

  That about summed them up. He’d known those guys for years, and all it took was one night to ruin the very foundation of their friendship.

  “Were you too new to your powers to bring that guy’s car back?”

  He gave a humorless laugh. The question was always inevitable when it came to his powers, and the answer always left a bitter taste in his mouth. “Once I Erase something, I can’t bring it back.”

  He waited for the shock.

  Check.

  He waited for the horror.

  Nothing.

  He kept waiting.

  It never came.

  Cali leaned her head back against the cement column, exposing the long expanse of her neck. Felix’s gut clenched.

  “Well, shit,” she said. “I guess there’s no denying it, I really am a — what did you call me, a Silencer?” She shook her head in disbelief. “It makes me sound like some kind of deadly assassination weapon. That’s gotta be a plus, right?”

  Sydney poked her head out the front door. “Are you guys still alive out here?”

  Felix frowned. “We’ll be in shortly.”

  “All right, but you’d think that if someone was looking for Cali that keeping her on the side of the road where anyone driving by could see her would be a bad thing.” Sydney dipped back into the clinic.

  Felix groaned and ran a hand through his hair. He knew Sydney was right but damned if he didn’t want to steal a few more moments alone with Cali. “Come on,” he beckoned. “We better get inside before we get reprimanded again.” He winked at her.

  She gave him an amused expression and he took it as progress. At least she wasn’t running away from him. He went to put his hand on the small of her back as she passed him and she jumped out of his reach.

  He sighed. At least she wasn’t running far, he amended.

  Sydney had been busy cleaning while they’d been outside. The lobby was swept, the chairs put back into a neat order, and the lights inside the patient rooms were off.

  Everyone was waiting for them.

  “We need to figure out what we should do with Cali,” Sydney said as soon as they were both inside. “It’s not safe for her to go home. I’m guessing if they found her parent’s house then they’ll be able to find where she’s living just as easily.”

  Cali walked over to the chairs on the opposite side of the lobby, no doubt trying to put space between them. He let her go. “She can stay with me,” he said.

  Cali stiffened in her seat. “No.” The rest of the group eyed her at the immediate response. She shifted uncomfortably. “I mean, no … thank you. Can’t I stay here?” She gave the lobby the once-over and barely managed to hide her revulsion.

  Felix wanted to call her out on it, but he didn’t have to. Joel beat him to it.

  “You want to stay here?”

  The comment earned him a hard elbow to the ribs.

  “There’s a futon in my office,” Sydney said.

  “She can’t stay here alone.” If she didn’t want to stay at his house that was fine, but she couldn’t remain at the vet’s all by herself.

  Cali crossed her arms. “No one followed us.”

  “It doesn’t matter. If they have a Dreamer — ”

  “If they have a Dreamer,” Niella cut Felix off, “then she’s screwed no matter where she goes. But I doubt that they have a full-forced Dreamer, so let the woman stay where she wants and someone drive me home already. Syd?”

  “I don’t have a car,” she said forlornly.

  “What happened to your car?” Joel’s hands tightened around her waist in concern.

  Felix braced himself as Sydney pinned him with a look. “Felix Erased it.”

  Joel’s jaw bulged. “He what?”

  He held his hands out in peace. “Syd blocked herself in when she parked in the driveway. It was the only way to get rid of any evidence so whoever Collette was working for couldn’t trace her.”

  Joel’s anger eased at the mention of protecting Sydney, just like he knew it would. One obstacle avoided. Now he had bigger problems to overcome, like getting Cali to quit being so bull-headed.

  “There’s too much risk if you stay here alone, Cali. It’s not safe.”

  She weighed his words, but all hope of her coming home with him was blown out of the water when Sydney decided to open her mouth. “If you’re worried about Cali then I can always stay at your place, Felix. Yo
u live closest to the clinic, and if anything happens, she can call. As soon as I’m within range I can Shield the place.”

  “No.” He and Joel spoke up at the same time.

  Niella rolled her eyes and dropped her head back.

  “What do you mean ‘no’?” Sydney asked Joel.

  He looked at her as if the answer should be obvious. “I don’t want you staying the night there alone.”

  Felix cut short the retort he had ready. He and Sydney had been friends for years. Well before she met Joel. However, Joel was the over-protective type, and he couldn’t begrudge the guy’s not wanting his girlfriend to spend the night at another man’s home, no matter how ridiculous the idea of him and Sydney getting together sounded. He checked his temper. “She’s not staying at my house,” he said, making sure to convey that to Sydney. She could be just as stubborn as Cali was turning out to be. “If Cali wants to stay here then I think Syd should too. That way she can Shield if anything happens.”

  “I don’t need a babysitter,” Cali spoke up from her seat in the corner.

  “Agreed.” Niella seconded the comment.

  Felix didn’t appreciate her interference.

  Sydney instantly adopted the role of mediator. “How about I stay here until Cali gets settled, and then I’ll crash at your place?” She turned to Joel. “We’ll all crash at Felix’s place.”

  “I’m sure as hell not crashing there,” Niella muttered.

  Felix ran his hand through his hair. He didn’t want any of them crashing at his place. Yet, his fate was sealed when Cali gave a cross between a nod and a shrug in accordance.

  Of course she’d agree. It wasn’t her home that was about to be invaded.

  Chapter 6

  “You’ll love it. Tom’s pizza is the best.” Sydney continued to gush as she led Cali out of the vet and two shops over to the little pizzeria. Felix, Joel, and Niella had left in the Hummer, leaving Cali alone with the very talkative and energetic Sydney.

  “You really don’t have to stay with me,” Cali told her for what was perhaps the fifth time.

  “Nonsense.” Sydney brushed her comment off as she had all the others. “I promised Felix I’d get you settled, and I will.”