Blessed (17 page)

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Eliana glared at Linda's back across the store. The redheaded bitch sat talking into her cell phone as she filled out forms at the manager's desk. It was cold and raining outside, so Eliana was stuck inside. Much to her and Linda's mutual disgust. One of the other employees told her that she’d overheard Linda telling one of the owners that Eliana had a bad attitude and that Linda suspected her of stealing from the registers. Eliana was furious, but couldn't go off accusing Linda without ratting out the other employee. Linda would deny it, and it would reinforce the rumors she was difficult to work with. Eliana silently fumed while she dusted and restocked row after row of ribbon.

As she was thinking of the different ways she hoped Linda would be fired, she jerked to a stop and glanced at her hand. The ring Jack had given her was pure black, showing a Destruction Chosen was nearby. Keeping still, she slowly lifted her head and tried to look casually around the store. A young woman was attempting to keep her toddler under control while she paid for a wreath and some silk flowers. Probably not her. Another middle-aged woman in a tweed skirt was sorting through a rack of art prints. She didn't seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary, but Eliana made sure to memorize her face. She was glad she had her shields locked down tight; hopefully her training with Aiden would pay off and they would never notice she was here.

Her hand trembled slightly as she put a spool of white silk ribbon into its rack. What would she do if one of them recognized her and tried to hurt her? She could shield, but what good would it do if they knew karate? A man's voice from behind her startled her, and she let out shriek and dropped the box she was holding. A few spools of ribbon raced across the floor.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” he said apologetically as he helped her retrieve the ribbon. He was an older gentleman with soft blue eyes and a cheerful smile. “I didn't mean to startle you. I was wondering if you knew where they keep the wood glue?”

She apologized and showed him the correct aisle. Easing open the door, she ducked into the women's bathroom and checked the stalls before calling Aiden. After rapidly, and a tad frantically, explaining to him what was going on, Aiden told her he was on his way. He wanted her to hide in the bathroom until he arrived, but she wasn't going to give Linda an excuse to fire her. Who knew what lies Linda would make up about what she was doing in here? Potential Chosen or not, she needed this job.

Looking into her eyes in the cloudy mirror she thought,
Colleen Shay did not raise her daughter to hide in a bathroom like a scared rabbit. Now go put on your big girl panties and get out there before Linda decides to come looking for you.
She took a few minutes to compose herself, splashed some cold water on her face, and sucked in a deep breath before exiting the bathroom.

The ring on her finger remained a steady black, and she tried not to stare at it. As she made her way back to the ribbon stand, she saw the radioactive red glow of Linda's hair going into the storage and receiving room. Well, at least she didn't have to worry about Linda yelling at her for spilling all the ribbon or taking a long bathroom break.

Standing with the box of ribbons in her arms, she noticed the middle-aged woman in the tweed skirt was still looking through the art prints. Heart hammering, she turned so it didn't look as though she was watching her, but she could see the woman's reflection in the metal stand of the ribbon display. The minutes ticked by, and the store got progressively quieter while the rain poured outside. People didn't want to leave the warmth of their cars and homes to run through its icy blast to buy some crochet supplies and the store rapidly emptied.

Her shoulders got tighter and tighter as the woman in tweed stayed at the bin looking through the pictures for at least the tenth time. She started to murmur something, and Eliana noticed she had a hands-free cell phone device in one ear. Maybe she was talking to someone and wasn't paying attention to what she was looking at. Or maybe she was telling her superiors about Eliana and was arranging a hit squad of magically trained chinchillas to come kill her.

Using humor as a refuge, as she often did in times of stress, she imagined what a ninja chinchilla would look like. Maybe it would be a samurai chinchilla with a little kimono. Would they be trained in martial arts or just how to use guns, and how would one make a gun small enough for a chinchilla?

The sound of screeching tires made her whip her head around as two big black trucks with the words Temple Guard Tactical on the side slid to a stop in front of the store. Her jaw dropped as the woman in tweed opened her coat to show a badge and jerked out her gun yelling, “This is the Temple Guard, everyone ON THE GROUND NOW!”

Eliana stood there with her jaw hanging open for a minute until the gun swung in her direction. She dropped the box of ribbons and lay flat on her stomach, her heart thundering as a stinging sweat broke out all over her body in a hard surge of adrenaline. A couple more spools of ribbon spun past her head, unraveling as they went.

Well, at least I won't have to hear Linda complain about the ribbon, I'll blame it on the Temple Guard.

Fifteen minutes later, she found herself sitting alone in the break room waiting to be interrogated. The ring on her finger no longer burned black, instead reds and oranges swirled across the surface of the stone. She clasped her hands in her lap and tried to keep as still as possible. Through the open door, the woman in tweed gestured toward her and talked to a man with Temple Guard emblazoned on the back of his body armor. He still wore his helmet with the visor down, but he was massive. The Guards had surged through the store with pounding feet then out into the rainy garden center and around the back. Obviously, whatever they had been looking for was not here, and the general mood she was picking up from the Guards was one of anger.

She resisted the urge to fidget as the guard came in and closed the door behind him. The conversations outside the room were muted as he approached her at the table. He was a big man, not extremely tall, but heavily muscled. His broad shoulders seemed huge in his uniform, and his hands were callused and scarred. He reached under his chin and removed his helmet, setting it on the table that held the old microwave and the World War II era coffeepot.

The first thing she noticed was that he had his black hair shaved into a tight military cut against his tanned skin. The second thing she noticed was his eyes, an amazing teal blue surrounded with thick black lashes that a woman would kill for. With its high cheekbones and square jaw, his face was masculine, but softened by the most sensual lips she had ever seen on a man. Currently his full lips were thinned in anger, anger directed at her.

He sat in the folding chair next to her and placed a thin stack of papers on the table between them. From what she could tell by glancing at them, they were invoices for the store.

“Ms. Shay, I'm Captain Devon King of Mentu's Temple Guard,” he said in a deep voice. “Let's cut the shit now and save us both time. I know you're working with the woman calling herself Linda Brant. I want you to tell me where she is and what her plans are, and I want the information right now.”

She gawked at him, at a loss for words. “W-w-what?” she stuttered out.

Devon gave an impressive growl and leaned forward. He was a physically intimidating man as he clenched his hands into fits on his thighs and she shrank back from him as much as she could in the chair. “Your name is all over the invoices for the fertilizer, Ms. Shay. You signed for them and managed to hide the extra orders Linda made from the owners.” She gaped at him, and he continued with a sneer. “We have a handwritten note from Linda, addressed to you, which we found in the manager's office telling you to keep to the outside cashier's booth. Is that so you could direct the trucks to come when no one was looking?” His low voice rumbled out the last words in a scary growl.

She continued to stare at him, dumbstruck. What the hell was he talking about? What did fertilizer have to do with anything? And, most importantly, where was Aiden? She gathered herself enough to say, “I have no idea what you're talking about, but I've never signed for any orders. That's a manager's job, and I'm not a manager. I'm a cashier!”

Devon leaned in ever closer, invading her personal space now. “Don't think the dumb coed routine is going to save you, Ms. Shay. Linda, or whatever her real name is, left you high and dry holding the bag. Cut your losses now and tell us what we want to know, and you may be able to get a deal with the DA.”

“I don’t know anything.”

His jaw clenched and the menace rolling off of him made her desperate to confess something, anything, just to get him to leave her alone.

The microphone on his jacket squawked as a woman said, “Captain King, a man named Aiden Klemenson is out front demanding to see you. He says it's important.”

Never taking his bright teal eyes from her face, he said, “Show him in and tell him I'll be with him in a moment.”

She’d opened her mouth to say she knew Aiden when Devon leaned into her. She stiffened with shock as the smell of dark spices and sandalwood filled her senses.
He's a Chosen,
she thought for a brief moment before his energy overwhelmed her, trying to crack her shields. His eyes grew wide, and fury filled her.

Here she was, trying to survive attacks by Destruction Chosen, pass school, and earn enough money at her job to save for rent, and this asshole, who wouldn't listen to her, was trying to force the truth out of her with magic. As her shield cracked the tiniest bit, it caused her real pain; a sharp slice burned across her chest. With white-hot anger making her bare her teeth, she used both hands and pushed Devon back with all her might.

To her horror, he sailed out of his chair and hit the back wall with a thump that rattled the windows and made the coffeepot fall off the table with a crash. Devon stood and shook his head, muttering, “flowers and candy” as hands pounded on the door and voices asked what was going on. He stared at her before limping over to the door and opening it, stepping outside.

She groaned and rested her head on the table. She was done for sure now. She had assaulted a Temple Guard. Even if he was a pushy, stubborn bully of a Chosen, she had punched him across the room. How she had done that she had no idea. The guy had to weigh at least two hundred pounds, way beyond her ability to move with a push. She had enough time to imagine having to call her mother from jail before Devon came back in the room with Aiden.

To her embarrassment, she found herself crying at the sight of Aiden. It had been such a shitty day, and finally here was the one person who would understand and help her. With a concerned look, he came over and hugged her. “Hey now, it's okay. Stop crying, honey,” he soothed as he ran his hands down the hair over her back.

That only made her cry harder, and a chagrined looking Devon handed her a wad of napkins from the coffee station with an uncomfortable look.

“For a Mentor, you're doing a pretty crappy job of protecting her, Aiden,” Devon said while he swept up the shards of the coffeepot and dumped them in the trash.

Aiden growled and moved between Eliana and Devon. “How was I supposed to know a Destro Chosen was here? When I came to visit her, Linda—or whatever her real name is—wasn’t here. I never caught a glimpse of her, and her shielding was strong enough that I couldn't sense her either. Do you think I would let my student come to harm?”

Devon gave him an up-and-down look and said with a smirk, “I think you've spent too much time in the academic world, Aiden. I think you're getting soft. Or maybe you would rather let your student take the hits so you can stay safe behind your mommy's skirt. Maybe I should take over for you, show Eliana what being a Chosen really means. She certainly fights better than you. Managed to knock me on my ass.”

Aiden began to chant something in a low and complicated language, and the energy shivered over her shields like a stroke of ice. She jumped and placed a restraining hand on his chest, pretty sure that whatever was about to happen would be bad. “Okay, you accomplished your goal, Devon. I'm not crying anymore. But I'm getting pissed off at you again, so unless you want to go for round two with me, please tell us what's going on.”

Glaring at Devon, Aiden shivered as he released the energy. A small puff of cold air evaporated from his hands. What the hell was that?

Not taking his eyes off Devon, Aiden said, “How did you know he was bluffing?”

She stared at him in confusion. “Well, he wasn't shielding himself, and I can smell him all over the room. If he was seriously provoking you into a fight, he would have shielded himself, right?”

Aiden didn't say anything as they took their seats. Devon popped his head out of the door to relay some instructions and came back in. When he went to sit next to Eliana, Aiden pulled her chair closer to him with a low noise that sounded almost like a growl rumbling from him.

Devon shrugged off his bulletproof vest and set it on the table with a heavy thump. He rolled his powerful shoulders and cracked his neck to the left and right. Underneath the jacket, he wore a tight black T-shirt and on his muscled right bicep was a tattoo of Egyptian hieroglyphs flanking the stylized head of a bull.

Rubbing his eyes, Devon explained to them that this store had come to the attention of the police because of the massive quantities of fertilizer being ordered. This fertilizer could be used to make bombs, so they’d sent in an undercover to try to check it out. After an early investigation into the place, they decided Linda was the one doing the ordering, but it appeared as if she had help. Linda had forged Eliana's signature onto the delivery receipt of the trucks of fertilizer, and she used a copy of Eliana's employee ID to check in during the times of the deliveries. Now they were in a bind. Linda was out in the world doing who knew what with all those chemicals, and their best lead had turned out to be a dead end.

Devon turned to her with an accusing look. “You could have told me who you were. You didn't need to try to blow me through the wall and into the parking lot to prove your point.”