Guild of Truth 01 - Silent as the Grave (6 page)

“Cali?” Jared asked, bringing her attention back to him. “Hello? Are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” she bit out.

Felix drew closer, her body hyperaware of his location.

“I’m fine,” she forced out of her clenched teeth.

“Where are you?”

“I’m … with a friend.”

“Cali … ” He sounded conflicted. “Your car was parked outside Mom and Dad’s. There were strange people inside when Garnet and I dropped by to pick up the mail for them — ”

She cut him off. “Pick up the mail for them? Why’d you have to do that?”

A moment of silence. “Didn’t you know? Mom and Dad went on vacation a week ago.”

Her mouth gaped. “No. Why didn’t anyone tell me?” She really shouldn’t have been all that surprised. The distance between her and her family wasn’t some small gap that could be bridged with a quick phone call. She’d gone months without speaking to them. She hadn’t wanted to. She had to prove she could make it on her own first. She had to show them her passion wasn’t a waste of time and effort. That she wasn’t the screw up they thought she’d be.

“Cali, you haven’t contacted any of us in months,” Jared said, as if he were explaining something to a small child. “You moved out and then fell off the radar. We had no idea what you were up to or what you were getting involved with.”

Getting involved with?

“What — ?”

But he cut her off as if she hadn’t even spoken. “If you were in trouble, why didn’t you come to any of us? We thought you’d gotten over this, but apparently we were wrong. Now they know where Mom and Dad live. I guess we should count ourselves lucky they weren’t home, but I mean
seriously,
Cali?”

She couldn’t take it anymore. “Just what do you think happened?” He thought she’d planned this? Had known about it?

There was an exacerbated sigh from the other end of the phone. “Drugs, Cali. That’s what I think happened. You got pulled into the wrong crowd again. By the looks of those guys I’d say they were after money.” She could practically see his head shaking, “And you brought them to Mom and Dad’s. Why? Were you going to ask for money? Were you going to steal from them?”

Cali’s cheeks flushed with a combination of embarrassment, anger, and shame. She clamped her mouth shut, afraid of what she might yell at him. All those years ago, and that was still all they saw? A druggie? She’d never been one. She’d been a dumb seventeen year old who’d made the wrong choice in a boyfriend and had been left to the cops at an under-aged party when she’d been drunk, high, and given the date-rape drug.

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.

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.