The Thorn Chronicles-Books 1-4: Kissed, Destroyed, Secrets, and Lies

by Kimberly Loth

  They stopped in front of us, grabbed chairs from a nearby table, and sat at the edge of our booth. The diner, which had been buzzing with conversation, suddenly went quiet.

  “I’m Brad, and I know you’re a Guardian.” At least he didn’t beat around the bush. I immediately liked him.

  Puck paused for a half second. “You know it’s not a good idea to discuss Guardian details in front of those who are not, like my sister, for example.” He pointed at me. I took a sip of my shake to make it look like I was uninterested in the conversation.

  Brad laughed. “Kid, you’ve got a lot to learn about how I run my town. First rule is no shields. The second is no secrets. Everyone in town knows what we are because we are constantly using our powers. You have a shield. You either drop it or get out of town.”

  I watched for Puck’s reaction. He hated not being in control, but he had to allow Brad to think he was in charge, at least for now. After a few seconds I felt Puck’s power, raw and strong. I knew he still held a few shields up. He had to. If he didn’t, everyone would know exactly what he was.

  Brad tensed, then smiled. “Wow, brother, you’re pretty strong. If you’re interested, we’d love to have you stay. Your pretty sister too.”

  There was no way there were no secrets in town if the guy couldn’t tell girls could be Shades. I was positive the girl next to him was one of us, which meant she was keeping a damn big secret from him and from everyone else. I’d bet my entire art collection that there was more than one Shade here, too.

  Time to provoke her.

  I flipped my hair back and touched Brad on the wrist.

  “That sounds so amazing. Of course I knew Puck was a Guardian, but he only influences me when I’m sad. It must be so incredible to feel it all the time.” I leaned forward a little and I knew I had his attention. “I’ve kissed many of Puck’s friends but none have let their shields down much, I imagine it’s better this way.”

  Brad grinned and moved his face so that it was within a few inches of mine.

  “It is much better this way,” he whispered, his voice low and husky.

  An electric current zapped my hands and I knew I’d made my point. I jumped back and raised my eyebrows at the girl who was staring daggers at me. Brad cocked his head and opened his mouth to say something, but I spoke first.

  “But you have a girlfriend, so I guess I’ll have to find out from someone else,” I said. I reached out my hand to the girl. “I’m Sunday, I don’t believe you introduced yourself.”

  She didn’t take my hand as she glared at me. “I’m Faith.”

  “Well, Faith, I need to use the ladies room. Can you show me where it is?”

  “It’s in the corner.” She pointed toward the back.

  I stood up and looked at her expectantly, trying to show that I was not going without her.

  Brad tapped her on the knee. “Why don’t you show her?”

  Faith stood up reluctantly and I followed her to the back. She pointed to the door and said, “See, there it is.” She turned to go back to the table but I grabbed her hand and dragged her into the bathroom with me.

  “You’re a Shade,” I said without hesitation.

  She crossed her arms and leaned against the sink. “I’m a what?”

  “A Shade, you know, like a Guardian.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  I should’ve known she wouldn’t reveal herself right away. I dropped a couple of my shields and directed my power towards her.

  Someone pushed on the door but Faith shut it and threw the lock. Whoever was on the other side jiggled the door.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  I grinned. “You know exactly what that was. Now are you going to admit what you are?”

  She sank down on the floor next to the door, which continued to jiggle. After another thirty seconds or so whoever was on the other side gave up.

  “How’d you know?” she asked.

  “I provoked you with Brad. You zapped me.”

  She stood up and got in my face. “That was so stupid. Do you have any idea what he would’ve done if he found out?”

  I took a step back. “Nope, no idea. Care to enlighten me?”

  She shook her head. “He can’t find out. Does your brother know what you are?”

  “Of course. But I still have to keep my power shielded from other people. How’d you learn to shield?”

  She dropped her shoulders and I knew I’d won.

  “There were a few guys who knew about us. They trained the older women in the camp years ago, then those women passed that knowledge on to the rest of us. When new women show up we keep a close eye on them for their power to manifest. You won’t tell Brad, will you?”

  I shook my head. “But I’d like to meet with all of you. I belong to a group of Shades who want to allow women to exercise their powers freely. I’d like to invite you all to join us.”

  Her eyes widened. “All of us?”

  “Whoever wants to come. It’s up to you.”

  She nodded. “I want to, but I think you’ll find that most of the women will not.”

  I grinned at her. “You look like you’re pretty cozy with Brad.”

  She shivered. “That’s for my own safety. I wasn’t upset back there because I was afraid that he’d kiss you, I was more concerned that he’d drop me. I can’t afford for that to happen. As long as I’m with Brad, his friends don’t try to come after me.”

  “But these are Guardians. They’re the good guys.”

  She sniffed. “Yeah, right. Let me put it this way. Don’t stray too far from your brother, or you may find yourself in someone’s bed not knowing how you got there.”

  My insides squirmed. These rogue Guardian groups were just as bad as the Destroyers. Puck needed to straighten them out.

  Faith spoke again. “Listen, the boys will all want to meet with your brother. He’s more powerful than most of the guys here, including Brad. We’ll meet then. For now, we should get back. They might be wondering what’s up.”

  We found the boys deep in conversation. Puck’s power still vibrated stronger than anyone else’s. Brad stood up as soon as we approached.

  “Well Puck, we’ll see you tonight at seven at the town hall. For now, feel free to explore. There is a park out past the school. You can’t miss it. Come on, Faith. I’ve got to go notify the guys.”

  “We gonna follow them?” I asked as soon as they cleared the door.

  Puck shook his head. “I’m meeting with them later, I’m not sure following them would do any good. Let’s get outta here though, I’m suffocating in all this energy.”

  As soon as we got into the car I felt all of his shields go back up.

  “Don’t like leaving your power hanging out there?” I grinned at him.

  He shivered. “I feel very vulnerable when my shields are down.”

  “Me too.”

  “What’d you learn from Faith?” Puck asked. I scrambled for a second as my brain raced through our conversation to find something I could share with Puck.

  “Only that there is some freaky stuff going on with the guys here. Faith doesn’t feel safe. That’s why she clings to Brad so tightly.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not exactly sure, but she said to stay close to you or I’d end up in bed with someone without even realizing what happened to me.”

  Puck frowned. “That doesn’t sound good. I don’t want to put you in danger, but do you mind if we find out what she means?”

  “You mean you want to use me as bait?”

  “Well, yeah. You make it sound so bad.”

  I grinned. “I’m totally up for it. I want to practice my skills anyway.”

  “I don’t plan on letting it get that far. I’ll be close by and I promise you won’t end up in anyone’s bed.” He looked at his watch. “We’ve got almost five hours to kill. Let’s go take a walk in that park Brad mentioned and see if we can find some more Guardians.”
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  The park was on the edge of town. In spite of being right in the middle of the desert, the park was green. It had walking trails and there were several people milling about. An old couple sat on a bench, holding hands. A group of teenage boys were playing basketball.

  “I’m going to go watch the game. You want to stay here? If we are going to find out what is so dangerous, I have to be on my own,” I said.

  He nodded. “I’m going to keep a close eye on you. If you leave my sight, I’m coming after you.”

  “Of course.”

  When I stepped out of the car I was immediately assaulted by raw power. It was so warm and homey; I wanted to get lost in it. I could see the appeal of living here.

  I sat on a bench about ten feet from the court and watched the game. They were utterly polite to each other. It was strange to see a game where no one argued or fouled anyone.

  After a few minutes, two guys walked off the court and wandered toward me. This was what I was waiting for. I pretended not to notice.

  They were extremely good looking, both blonde. One had spikey hair and the other had shaggy locks. They sat on the bench, one on each side of me.

  “I’m Vince,” said the guy with spikey hair. He slung his arm around the back of the bench and I had an inkling of unease, but it was immediately overpowered by a feeling of warmth and desire. I wanted this boy more than I wanted anything else. I leaned into him.

  “I’m Sunday.”

  He ran his finger along my chin. I stared at his lips, wondering what it would be like to kiss those luscious things. He dipped his head and whispered in my ear.

  “This isn’t very private, Sunday, why don’t we take a walk? My house is only about five minutes from here.”

  I nodded. He wrapped his arm tight around my waist and we started walking down the trail. I noticed the shaggy-haired boy following us, but he stayed back a few feet. My brain was trying to make sense of this strange situation, but that was overshadowed by my desire for Vince. My thoughts were fleeting but the absolute desire was there. I laid my head on his shoulder.

  Footsteps ran up behind me and someone grabbed my hand.

  “Where’re you going?” Puck demanded.

  I couldn’t find the words to answer him.

  “She’s coming for a little walk with me. Is that a crime?” Vince let go of me and put himself in between Puck and me.

  The other boy came and stood next to me. He didn’t say anything but my feelings for Vince grew stronger than ever.

  “Puck, chill, I’ll be back in a little bit.” I reached for Vince’s hand and leaned into him.

  Confusion crossed Puck’s face and he looked at both boys. Then it was like a light bulb went off in his head and his face twisted into an ugly scowl. Before I knew what was happening, Puck’s fist connected with Vince’s nose and blood burst everywhere.

  Those strange feelings of desire disappeared. Vince howled, but he didn’t fight back. He certainly hadn’t been expecting this. Puck grabbed my arm and dragged me back toward the car.

  I struggled to process what had happened. When Vince was around I wanted him more than I have ever wanted anything. But after Puck punched him I suddenly had no desire for him whatsoever. Sure he was nice looking, but so were all the Minor Guardians at Alejandro’s place. Truthfully, both Jordan and Wyatt were more attractive than Vince.

  “Do you understand what was going on back there?” Puck whispered.

  I shook my arm out of his grip, anger setting in. “I’m going back. He deserves to have the snot beat out of him. His little buddy too. They work together to lure girls into bed, don’t they?”

  “That’s exactly what they do. But you aren’t going anywhere near them. We need to keep a low profile.”

  I crossed my arms and looked at him. “Yeah, and that’s why you punched him in the nose.”

  Puck shrugged. “I overreacted. Well, not really, but if I was thinking clearly, I wouldn’t have punched him. Brad’s going to be angry and I was trying to avoid that.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, they all deserve to have their nuts ripped off.”

  Puck laughed. “You may be right. They’ve totally perverted the Guardian power. This stops now. How were all the previous Master Guardians so blind to these secret groups? This is absurd.”

  We climbed into the car. I clenched my fists, still seething with anger. “How did I allow myself to be wooed by them? I should’ve fought back.”

  “You weren’t quite sure what to expect. Next time you’ll be better prepared.”

  “Are you still going to meet with them tonight?”

  Puck nodded. “I want you to come with me. I don’t want you alone out here.”

  “Actually, I’m going to meet with Faith. I want to know what these girls are going through. I’ll wait for you to come get me and I won’t go off on my own. Though if another guy tries to coerce me into his bed, I’ll be ready for it and he won’t know what hit him.”

  Puck snorted. “And exactly what are you going to do to him?”

  “You forget I have a power that you don’t. I can take his away, and that sleazy bastard deserves to have it removed.”

  I paused for a second.

  “Then I’m going to rip his nuts off.”

  I expected at least a grin from Puck after that, but he frowned and went quiet.

  “What?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “I just realized that I have absolutely no recourse. Guardians manage themselves and we cooperate, even to the point of willingly giving up our positions when someone with stronger power comes along.” He grinned. “You know, I very nearly gave Naomi the Master Guardian position a few years ago. She’s stronger than I am. But she refused.”

  I laughed. “That sounds like Naomi.”

  “I have no idea how I’m going to get these guys to stop.”

  “You’ll figure it out, you always do.”

  Puck and I drove around to try to gauge how many people actually lived in town. There were about fifty houses. If each house had three to four people, then there were about two hundred people. Totally manageable. At least we hoped so.

  We ate dinner at the same café and waited for Brad and Faith to come get us. Brad glared at Puck when he walked in.

  “You punched one of my Guardians. That’s not allowed in my town.” He got right in Puck’s face, but Puck didn’t flinch.

  “Your Guardian tried to seduce my sister. Where I come from, that’s not allowed.”

  Brad grinned and backed off. “Brother, you are mistaken. In this town, we aim to make the girls happy. Your sister would’ve been well taken care of. Why did you deprive her of that?”

  My vision blurred and I very nearly punched him myself, but Puck put his hand over my fist and sent me the sound of waves and the taste of vanilla ice cream. My head cleared and I realized that I needed to focus on helping the girls get out of here.

  “Faith, I trust you’ll take good care of Sunday. Meet us back here about ten,” said Brad.

  Faith nodded and took my hand. As soon as we were outside, she hissed, “I warned you to stay away from them. How could you be so foolish?”

  I shrugged. “Puck wanted to see what would happen.”

  She shook her head. “Brad’s onto you guys. He knows you’re not just stopping by.”

  “He’s right. But let’s go talk to the girls. We’ve got to get you all out of here.”

  We walked over to the elementary school, which was really only a few classrooms and a cafeteria. The cafeteria was packed.

  “How many women are here?”

  “About three hundred.”

  Whoa, that was way more than Puck and I estimated. Where did they all live?

  “Are they all Shades?”

  She nodded. “Except the ones that just arrived. There are only a handful of them, but they have been taught to watch out for their power to manifest.”

  We stood in the front of the cafeteria and I felt every woman’s eyes trained on me.
It was dead quiet. I looked around and realized I didn’t know what to say to them. Faith said they wouldn’t want to leave town. How could I convince them they would be better off with me?

  Faith spoke first. “I know many of you enjoy living here but I feel like we are trapped in a situation we can’t escape, because of the boys’ influence on us. Every night we are at risk. I don’t know how many times I’ve ended up sleeping with someone that I didn’t mean or want to. I know all of you have too. Sunday here wants to help us. Listen to her.”

  I’d never talked to a group this large before. My voice shook a little bit as I began.

  “I belong to a group of female Shades who are going to change how we are viewed by both Guardians and Destroyers. We want the ability to practice out in the open and we want to train any female Shades we find. Right now, I know you all can shield, but I expect many of you have other abilities as well. If you want to learn them, then I’d ask that you please come with me.”

  I sat down as murmurs broke out around the room. That speech totally sucked, but I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Plus I didn’t think Naomi was prepared for a group of three hundred. Not that any of them would be going with me after a stupid speech like that.

  I supposed I could influence them to accept me, but I wanted this to be their choice. After a few minutes, one girl raised her hand.

  “What kind of powers do we have?” she asked.

  “Well, everyone is pretty unique but most of us can heal.”

  “Yeah, right,” said another girl. She sat near the back of the room with her arms crossed.

  “Are you saying your Guardians have never healed you?”

  Faith shook her head. “No, all they do is coerce us to get into bed with them. They know how to make us feel warm and fuzzy, but that’s about it.”

  I rolled my eyes. This was ridiculous.

  “Does anyone have a bad scratch or burn or even a scar they no longer want?”

  The first girl, the one who asked the question, stood up. She lifted her pant leg to reveal a long ugly scar across her calf.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Eva.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “I fell when I was a kid. It’s not a big deal, but I wouldn’t mind getting rid of it.”