Guild of Truth 01 - Silent as the Grave (3 page)

She kept the phone above her head to keep it from getting crushed between them. She squirmed against him but only succeeded in pressing her body closer to the hard planes of his.

Heat pooled low in her gut.

She brought the phone close to her face and hit the 1.

“I said stop.” One of his arms snaked out from under her, giving a showy wave, and just like that the phone
vanished
.

“Holy shit.”

Cali stared at her hand, waiting for the phone to reappear. It didn’t. Her shock started to diminish as the realization that Felix was still atop her sank in, his tall, powerful body pressing hers into the material of the sofa.

He was a magician.

It was the only explanation her mind could come up with.

“How — ?”

Her mouth went dry as her eyes bored into his oceanic ones. The prickling on her neck increased as all sound seemed to fade from existence except theirs. Her breathing was loud and harsh, and she could’ve sworn she heard the pounding of Felix’s heart like thunder.

A look of awe came over him as his gaze fell to her lips. She licked them instinctively but they continued to tingle. “What’s your name?” he asked her.

In the strange stillness of the house, his words reverberated in her ears louder than normal.

She found her own gaze dropping to his mouth and forced her eyes back up to his. They met with a spark.

“Cali Crazar,” her traitorous mouth spoke.

A boyish grin tugged at his mouth. “Cali.” He seemed to test her name on his tongue. “Cali from
Cali
-fornia.”

She glared daggers at him and he laughed.

“How did you make the phone disappear? Are you a magician?” A murderous magician, she tried to remind herself.
Don’t forget you still have no idea who this man is.
But she couldn’t dispute the fact that if he wanted to hurt her he would have done it by now.

Amusement sparkled in his eyes. His thumb reached out and brushed her lips. Her heart pounded against her ribs, her nipples hardening where they were pushed against his firm chest. “No, I’m most definitely
not
a magician.”

She didn’t believe him. He had to be. Phones didn’t simply vanish, and dimly in the recesses of her mind she recalled that there had been no sign of the dead body in the hallway when she’d gone for the phone.

Strangest. Day. Ever.

Felix’s head dipped close to hers.

Alarms shot through her brain.

Pull away. Spit in his face. Do something!

She couldn’t, even if she wanted to. Something inside her simply responded to him. She couldn’t resist. She’d wanted him as soon as she’d laid eyes on him, and that want frightened her.

The warmth of his lips ghosted over hers. Heat rolled through her body.

The front door burst open.

In the silence of the house the crash sounded like an explosion. Cali winced as pain tore through her ear-drums.

Above her, Felix’s face contorted with agony. Like a picture returning to focus, regular white noise flooded the room. Felix rolled off her.

She went to sit up but the room started to spin. She lay back down. She was tired, as if she’d expended a large amount of energy in only a few seconds. She turned her head. It was about the only thing she could still do. Two bulking men in black flanked a thin, regal-looking woman with delicately waved hair.

She spotted Cali instantly, her grayish-blue eyes holding no emotion. “Get the girl.”

Cali’s jaw clenched. She was
not
a girl. She was twenty-four and lived on her own. Sort of.

Her temper was short-lived as the two men started into the living room. They lacked any sort of grace as they lumbered toward her.

And where the hell was her knight in shining armor?

Gone, she decided. She swallowed the sudden stab of disappointment. Fine. She didn’t need that murderous bastard anyway.

The shorter one reached her first. He took hold of her right ankle, giving her an opportunity to gather her strength and kick out with her left leg. She nailed him in the face, but it was like hitting a brick wall for all the good it did.

My strength is obviously lacking today.

Now with a bloody nose and a pissed expression, the man nodded to his partner. “Take her arms.”

Panic started to set in. If they took hold of her arms, there’d be no way she could squirm from their holds. She needed to get up. What had zapped her energy?

The taller of the thugs came at her with a grim determination. Cali balled her fists, prepared to go out fighting.

She never got a chance.

Felix sprang from the archway that connected the living room to another section of the kitchen. One of her father’s bookends rested in his hand, and he slammed it down right at the base of the man’s skull. The thug went down with a groan.

He didn’t release the bookend, but eyed the man who was holding her ankle. Felix radiated protectiveness, and Cali tried not to stare. But it was damn hard not to. He was like some pissed guardian angel. Dark, slightly curled hair fell into those beautiful eyes that glittered against the bronze of his skin. His five o’clock shadow added an edge to his appearance, and he looked even taller from her vantage point on the couch, his wide shoulders and well-muscled frame taking up what felt like all the space in the room. Her body clenched in response.

“Felix?”

Cali’s attention was ripped from Felix at the sound of the lilting feminine voice.

The woman stared transfixed at Felix. His face held the exact same confusion. “Collette?”

Too many expressions crossed his face for Cali to read any of them, so she summed it up to something like
motherfucker
.

There was history here between them. She could all but feel it. Her stomach lurched as if she’d swallowed something vile.

Felix’s fingers tightened around her father’s bookend. “What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.

“I could ask you the very same question. You weren’t scripted into this performance.” Those blue-grey eyes speared Cali right through the chest before settling back to Felix. “I’m simply following orders. So tell me, Felix, what exactly are you doing here?” She looked positively eager to hear the answer.

Felix didn’t budge an inch.

His silence only made the curl to Collette’s lip grow. “Protecting your interests perhaps?”

His knuckles went white around her father’s bookend but still he didn’t answer.

Collette’s second assessment of Cali was done with narrowed eyes. She was searching for something, but what that was, Cali had no clue. “No bother then. What the hell are you waiting for?” she snapped at the man holding Cali’s ankle.

The thug’s fingers tightened instantly.

Cali winced as he dug into her bone.

Felix took a step toward them, voice fierce. “Don’t.”

Collette turned on him like he was nothing more than an annoying gnat. “You never did learn your place.” She gave a dismissive wave of her hand.

White cloth appeared out of nowhere like a nest of angry snakes. With a snap like thunder, Felix was encased and dropped to the floor.

Cali blinked.

What. The. Hell?

Fear gripped her. She searched desperately for Felix over the coffee table but the thug at her feet gave a pull on her ankle, causing her to slide halfway across the sofa toward him. A startled gasp escaped her. She grabbed blindly for the sides of the couch while at the same time she kept an eye trained on Collette. Her mind stuttered to try to make sense of what was going on around her. What the hell had Collette done? How could she possibly have done it?

Felix picked himself up off the floor, not a trace of the white cloth in sight. “And where exactly was my place, Collette? At your side like some lackey?” He paused. “Like Kevin?”

Rage flooded Collette’s face, a truly terrifying expression that held a pinch of madness.

Her fingers turned to claws, and she lunged for Felix’s throat.

His eyes widened in genuine surprise, and for a moment he looked at a loss for what to do.

Cali tried to call out to him, but another pull at her ankle had her collapsing back on the couch. She lost sight of them. Her focus turned to the man who was reeling her in like so much fish. He leered down at her with a sardonic smile, enjoying her poor attempts at rebellion.
Bastard.
She felt like kicking him in the face again. But she knew that wouldn’t work. Instead she eyed the hand around her ankle. Taking a gamble that he wouldn’t catch her intent and move his hand, she brought her left leg up and drove the heel of her foot as hard as she could toward her own ankle.

He didn’t react fast enough, and the thick heel of her shoe smashed into the top of his hand. His fingers shot open like she’d pulled a release lever. Cali turned on her side to grab the large picture book of castles that her mother kept on the coffee table. With two hands, she swung for all she was worth and smacked her attacker across the side of his face. The hit disoriented him. His hands shot out as if to grab something but they met with nothing. The sudden shift in his weight caused him to overcompensate, and he went down. The side of his head met the edge of the sharp coffee table.

She stared down at him. “Shit,” she breathed. She’d never knocked anyone out before.

A strangled cry of frustration had her rearing up. Collette stumbled back from Felix who was engaging three — four? — men.

Cali blinked, not quite able to follow what was happening. For every step the men around Felix took toward him, he took one back and waved his hand.
Poof!
They were gone. Stranger still was when he didn’t react fast enough and the men that hadn’t vanished yet threw a punch. A punch that never landed as their hands seemed to shimmer out of existence and pass right through him.

A few feet away Collette was breathing heavily.

Her eyes locked with Cali’s.

“You.” She threw an arm up and those twisted white strips of cloth came barreling at her.

She’d like to say that she jumped back in time, or that she put up a fight, but in reality her body froze. Froze like a fucking deer in the headlights.

The cloths brushed her face, the lightest of touches, before they shimmered and faded from view.

Collette snarled something but Felix was advancing on her. “You’re too tired, Collette.” He dodged a blow that wouldn’t have landed anyway and waved his hand. “All this is pointless. Your Illusions are failing.”

“Shut up.” She threw her arm out. Blood bloomed on the side of Felix’s arm. A dagger stuck out from the wall behind him, still vibrating. “You don’t know anything, Felix.” It was her turn to advance on him. “But I’m hoping soon you will.”

Cali shuddered at the look Collette shot her way. But it was that look that undid whatever kept her frozen to the floor. She might have been caught unaware before, but she was damned if she was going to get carted off by this psycho bitch without putting up a fight.

“Is she important to you? Is that why you are here?” Collette’s eyes didn’t leave Cali, though her words were aimed at Felix. “There’s something more to this scene. I can feel it.”

The white binding cloth shot out again, and this time Cali was ready for it. She hurled herself over the back of the sofa. The impact of the cloth hitting reverberated down the back of the couch. Again Cali shuddered. How much force could Collette generate to have cloth hit with that much of an impact?

She wasn’t going to wait around and find out. She eyed the archway that led into the kitchen. If she could make it in there without getting detected, she could slip out the back door.

Mom and Dad …

She couldn’t leave them, but she couldn’t very well help them in her position, either. Gritting her teeth, she got down on all fours and slowly crawled her way out from behind the couch.

The tingle at the back of her neck started again. Her vision blackened around the edges but she shook it back and exhaled, all the while willing her body to absolute silence.

Felix was keeping Collette occupied. Cali pulled her gaze away from them. Her headache was bad enough; she didn’t need to make it worse by trying to make sense of the scene going on around her.

She made it into the kitchen without incident, but it wasn’t until she was on the tile floor that she noticed it.

She wasn’t making a sound.

Her mind had to be playing tricks on her. She placed her hand flat on the cold tile and pulled up. There was no sound of suction, no whisper of skin coming off a surface, only silence.

The tingling at the back of her neck intensified, and she rolled her head to try to ease the tension but it did little good.

O-kay …

She pushed any thoughts about what was happening out of her head and got to her feet.

Deal later. Right now you need to focus. Mom and Dad —

Were gone.

She cursed. And in her sudden haste to get to the area where they had last been, she couldn’t remember if she’d heard the word come out of her mouth or not.

She took in the yellow kitchen, the white marble, and the flowery curtains, searching for any sign that her parents had regained consciousness and then left. But wouldn’t they have heard what was going on in the living room? Wouldn’t they have intervened if they’d seen her?

Her mind was a jumbled mess.

She raced to the back door, her hand on the handle when a pained grunt came from the front of the house.

Felix.

Her chest constricted. She couldn’t leave him.

She flew to the kitchen sink, yanking open drawers.

Even if she had no idea who he was or how the hell he’d become entangled in this gigantic mess that was her life, he’d done nothing to warrant being injured.

Her dad had always wanted to keep a gun in the house for protection, but her mother was squeamish. She had insisted on a Taser instead, and Dad, ever dutiful, went out and got her one.

Cali found it in the very back of the kitchen junk drawer. It was fully loaded and ready. She ran through the kitchen, bypassing the hallway that led to the front, and went through the third entrance of the kitchen that connected with the dining room. The dining room opened up to the hallway and front door, the bottom floor of the house connecting in one large circle with a central hallway, putting her directly behind Collette. Her head kept darting to the sofa, no doubt thinking Cali was still hiding behind the couch.