Bound by Revenge (Guardian Series) (20 page)

“A friend of the family.” She finally answered. It was the best description of Morgan that she could come up with, even though she knew full well the property didn’t actually belong to Morgan. “She said that I could use the guest house whenever I wanted.”

“Cool.” Tom looked Deanna up and down with a feral intensity.

Deanna stopped the car, shifted it into park and pulled the key out of the ignition.

“Alright, we’re here. Let’s go inside.”

Tom practically raced her to the door.

“You can’t get in without me. You shouldn’t be so impatient.” She yelled to him as she selected the right key from her ring to unlock the door. She would have liked to put this off just a little longer, now that she was getting attached to Tom. But there was nothing else she could do at this point. Everyone knew she was here. There would be no way to get the two of them back out.

As soon as Tom stepped over the threshold, Marius slid out from behind the door.

“Who the hell are you?” Tom blurted out when he saw the large man pop out of the darkness.

“Don’t you worry about that.” He snarled and grabbed hold of Tom to drag him to the wooden chair in the middle of the room.

Tom struggled against the man, as panic rose up in his chest. “Run Deanna.” Tom screamed as he bucked against the restraint.

“Be careful with him, Marius. He’s not like the others. He’s still human.” The authoritative voice came across the room, from none other than Deanna.

Tom couldn’t believe it. She directed the man with power. This was no chance meeting. All of it had been a trap. Too bad he realized it too late.

Completely dejected, he lost all of his fight. He allowed Marius to tie him to the chair, hands behind his back and legs tied to the legs of the chair.

I was such an idiot
, Tom thought to himself. To think that such a miracle of perfection would just show up in his life without any terrible consequences was the worst mistake he could have made.

“I always knew you were too soft for this.” Marius growled at Deanna as she closed the gap between them. “Why don’t you just go home and let us take it from here.”

“Fuck you. I’m twice the soldier you’ll ever be.” She challenged him and looked behind her at Aron who had just joined them from the back of the van. “I got him here didn’t I?”

Tom had seen enough movies to know that this dissention was a good sign. As long as he could keep them fighting with each other, his chances for survival were a lot better. And as much as he hated her for tricking him, he knew that Deanna was his best ally in the room. Her sweet and gentle touch couldn’t have been faked. He knew she actually liked him, at least a little.

“Is this a ransom thing?” He asked. It seemed like the most likely situation, considering the kind of money that his father had.

The one they called Marius actually laughed. It was a strange vision, to see such an angry man taking pleasure in his words.

Marius leaned down and placed his palms on Tom’s shoulders as he stared him directly in the eyes. He smiled when he saw Tom’s reaction.

“What the hell are you?” Tom screamed and rocked the chair back and forth, trying to escape.

Tom had nightmares all his life. He spent full nights fighting against these creatures. He’d thought it was a figment of his imagination, probably the result of watching too many horror movies or eating too close to bedtime but if his dreams were any reflection of reality, he knew what kind of danger he’d be in and he knew that no amount of money could help.

The main theme of all his dreams was always a terrible, blood filled battle. He fought alongside of his family, against these creatures. They were human in form, but with eyes like an animal and they were stronger than anyone he’d seen and had no qualms about causing complete destruction. If they were real, he needed to get home and warn his family. He had to prepare them for this.

Marius drew his fist back, planning on knocking the boy out. Deanna grabbed hold of his wrist to stop him.

“Let me.” She whispered to her big brother, desperate for him to let her step in.

Deanna stood directly in front of Tom and backhanded him, leaving Tom stunned as he looked up at her beautiful face. Turning his head, he spit the blood that pooled in his mouth on the floor at Marius’ feet and splattered a few drops on Marius bright white Nike’s.

“That’s the girl I’d hoped to see.” Marius’ neck twitched as he laughed and patted Deanna on her back as congratulations. “I’m going back to the main house to wait for the others. Behave.”

Marius pointed at Aron and turned his hand up and curled his pointer finger inward directing Aron to join him at the main house. Aron mumbled something to himself before his shoulders sank down and he tagged along with his big brother to leave Deanna alone with her prisoner.

“Something’s not right.” Bradley mused, as the others regrouped. “They shouldn’t have given up so easily.”

“Easily?” Alex choked, still rubbing his neck to relieve the pain. “They left because we were kicking their asses.”

“Yea. Maybe they just didn’t know how good we’d be.” Abby added.

It was Vance that brought them all back down.

“Morgan’s definitely up to something. I’d know the look she gave me anywhere. She did this for a reason and it wasn’t just because she wanted to spend a little time with us.” He looked around the room at the ruins.

“We have a lot more to worry about than I thought. I think this proves that the leanthans
have
teamed up with the demons that’ve been causing trouble in the area.” Bradley sighed. “Normally the two groups don’t interact. The leanthans hate the demons more than any other group, since they were their ancient relatives that disowned them.” Bradley nodded at Vance to give him the chance to share what he knew about Morgan.

“Morgan’s extremely dangerous.” Vance began. “She’s telekinetic, like me. Not only can she move objects, but she can also teleport herself within a small range. So, if she had wanted to, she would have gotten away from both of you without any effort.” He looked over at Sam with wide eyes that seemed to be apologizing for being the one to deliver the news.

“Well then, what’s really going on?” Abby asked in deflated tone.

Before Vance had the time to come up with any ideas, the phone in his jacket pocket rang. He crossed the room, grabbed the jacket off the back of the chair he was sitting in before the interruption, which somehow had managed to stay upright, and pulled the phone out.

He recognized the number immediately. It was Morgan. Laying his finger against his lip, he silenced the group before flipping open the phone and putting it on speaker.

“What are you up to Morgan?” He asked as soon as he heard her breathing on the other end.

“What a way to greet your former friend.” Morgan paused. Vance ground his teeth as he waited for her to continue. “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

“Not a chance. I know you well enough to know something’s going on, so save us both a little time and spill it.” Vance held tightly to the chair causing the veins in his arms to pop-up as they forced the blood down to his hands.

“You wanna tell your new girl how well you know me? Or should I?” Morgan toyed with him. Vance looked over at the hurt expression on Sam’s face as she realized there was more of a past between the two than he would ever have mentioned on his own.

“You bitch. What is this?” Sam responded to Morgan’s prodding. “You may have had him before but he’s with me now. And we’re gonna destroy you.” The tears welled up in Sam’s eyes. She wiped them away as soon as they broke free from their pools.

“Well that’s no way to get on my good side, little girl. I thought you needed some information from me.” Morgan’s innocent voice lilted.

Alex pulled Sam back away from the phone so Vance could continue. Sam would have been able to pull herself free with ease if she tried. But they all needed to know what Morgan had up her sleeve.

“Enough. Morgan, tell me what you’re up to.” Vance demanded, losing his patience with her games.

“Oh, alright. You’re no fun anymore, Vancey. I just thought you might want to check on the youngest boy.” With that simple instruction, she hung up.

Bradley snatched the phone out of Vance’s hand and dialed Tom’s cell. After four rings it went to voicemail. “Hi this is Tom. Leave a message and I’ll call you back.” Bradley hung up the phone and dropped it back in Vance’s hand.

“You need to find your brother.” Abby could see the panic in her father’s eyes as he spoke, though the words were clear and steady. If she didn’t know him so well, she would have described him as calm.

“Alex, Vance, I want you to go to the house, see if you can find anything. Abby, take Sam and go to Trevor’s. Maybe he’ll be there.”

Not wanting to lose any valuable time, the two groups took off to try to find the boy who meant so much to the family.

Morgan relaxed in her bedroom, enjoying the moment of peace before the chaos would begin again. The fire crackled in front of her as she lay back in the chaise. Eric stood over her, rubbing her shoulders more like a masseur than a lover.

She couldn’t believe how quickly Vance turned his back on her. How willing he was to become a guardian and leave her behind. The two had been together off and on for the past hundred years.

The relationship wasn’t serious but that was simply because that’s not something that demons did. Any type of relationship was for alliances or sex. And Vance had always been her ally. So naturally, sex came hand in hand.

Morgan had always used sex to get her way. Manipulating men, convincing them to work for her, help her. Anything she wanted.

But with Vance it was different. It was never a means to an end, but rather, she enjoyed Vance, the sensation of his skin against hers, the taste of his kiss, his scent. And she had thought it was the same for him.

She knew that he took many lovers. All demons did. Anywhere he went, there seemed to be some young tramp in tow. It never bothered her because she knew that he’d be back when the flavor of the week lost its appeal.

That was, until now. He’d never hold her in his strong arms again. He’d turned on her. But worse, he’d fallen for her enemy. For the woman that should be his enemy, too.

Morgan could have never imagined Vance and Sam together. They had always worked on different sides.

Despite their mutual goal, demons and angels never got along. They were opposites in every way. Demons lived life loud, partying, causing chaos, and being bad influences on humans wherever they went. Angels were the good guys. They provided sage advice like work hard, everything in moderation, and other loads of crap along those lines.

The two of them just didn’t make any sense together.

Morgan felt betrayed. Vance had turned his back on everything they stood for. And she was going to make him and his little girlfriend pay. 

Chapter Fourteen

Alex opened the front door of the Andrean family home. Not quite the normal setup for a single dad and his son, Bradley and Tom lived in the penthouse apartment that took up the top two floors of the building that housed Andrean Consultants. Bradley had thought that considering his frequent “business” trips, it would be safer to have his son live in a building with around the clock security guards at the front.

The guards had proved less than effective today. Not a single inquiry had been made regarding the ruckus on the third floor during their altercation. Had Bradley called down for assistance, they would have sent someone up, but the guards wouldn’t have stood a chance against Morgan or the leanthans. With no reason to drag security in, the guardians never bothered to mention the intruders to their human protectors.