Revealed

Evernight Publishing ®

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright©
2016 April Zyon

 
ISBN: 978-1-77233-700-6

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Editor: Jessica Ruth

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RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or
distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
 
No part of this book may be used or
reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters,
and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

REVEALED

Warriors of Light, 2

April
Zyon

Copyright
© 2016

Prologue

“How is she
today, Doctor?” the middle-aged woman asked as she poised on the edge of the
chair before the large, scarred, oak desk. The perfection of her looks—the
perfectly lined in lips, the youthful breasts and slim waist—all spoke of a
woman who’d never had to worry about money, never had to work a day in her
life. She was pampered, and the way she spoke to others conveyed that message
as well.

“She is still in
a slightly comatose state. She hasn’t spoken since she checked herself in here.
If not for the nurses caring for her and making sure she eats and showers, she
would more than likely have ceased functioning by now.” This was his polite way
of telling Mrs. Jensen-Worthington IV that her daughter would be dead if not
for him and the staff that she paid so handsomely.

“Is there
anything at all you can do for her? Anything to jump her out of this bout of
silliness she’s experiencing? For just a little while?” Her ruby-red lips
pursed invitingly on her porcelain white, heavily made-up face. “Please?” She
fluttered her false eyelashes even as she leaned forward to show a lovely view
of her twenty-grand upgraded breasts. “I would be so very grateful,” she purred
as she ran a long, red nail across the chain at her neck, again pulling
attention to her chest.

Clearing his
throat, the man shook his head, his eyes riveted for only a few additional
moments. After all, who could blame him? “Mrs. Jensen-Worthington.” At her
narrowed gaze—a nonverbal reminder to call her Helena—he started again.
“Helena. As much as I would love to be able to tell you I have found a perfect
cure for her, I can’t. What she’s suffering from is what I would usually term
severe shock and post-traumatic stress. But we both know that nothing serious,
stressful, or upsetting has ever happened to Riley.”

He watched the woman sit back,
his
gaze narrowing this time. “Or is
there something that I’m missing?”

Schooling her
features, she shook her head and smiled. “No, no, of course not. I just worry
for my one and only child. Surely, you can understand?”

What the doctor
understood was that Helena had about two billion reasons to want her daughter
out of the asylum. However, none of them would do the older woman any good
until Riley was ready to break free of the madness that gripped her. It was
odd, however, he thought to himself, that there were times Riley seemed
completely lucid and if he didn’t know better he would swear she was putting on
a show for one and all.

“I need for
Riley to come out of this nonsensical tantrum that she’s throwing before the
next board meeting.” Gloves were now off as Helena stood. “If she’s not
standing before them, fully competent, they will liquidate her daddy’s company
and put all the money from her portion of the company into charity, as per
Riley’s own silly will. I can’t believe she had that thing drawn up. They’re
going to declare her incompetent and sell so that they can all make a profit
from what shares they all own.”
She
huffed. “I still don’t know why dearest Jasper didn’t leave
me
the business instead of that poor
child. She never has been right in the mind, if you understand my meaning?”

Oh, he
understood all right. He understood that she was about to lose a very large
source of income as the overseer of her daughter’s trust fund and business
shares. He also understood that the members of the board must have realized she
would never allow her daughter out if she could help it. And apparently,
“dearest Jasper” didn’t leave her a single red penny thanks to the prenuptial she
had signed, if the rumor mill was to be believed.

“How is your
second husband getting along? Mr. Worthington?” Harold Worthington IV was also
a very wealthy man, was older than dirt and suffering from dementia and hadn’t
demanded a prenuptial agreement before he wed the grieving widow, according to
the court cases that his relatives had against the woman. The doctor suspected
she was more than willing to knock the old man off—if his friends wouldn’t cry
foul of the old buzzard’s death.

Waving a
dismissive hand in the air, she shrugged. “Harry’s fine. He’s with his golf
buddies now. Not that they play golf, mind you. They just sit in the country
club’s den, discussing things gone by. He’s perfectly wonderful in demanding to
pay for Riley’s care and is very grateful to you.”

Now he
understood the bonuses for Riley’s personal care team with their last quarter’s
fees and could tell that it didn’t sit right with mommy dearest. “Does it
bother you that your second husband absolutely adores your daughter as well as
you?”

The doctor heard
her growl in reaction. “Of course it does. She’s not even pretty.” Then she
caught herself. In a more demure tone, she added, “She’s known Harold for many
years. They have much in common. It’s good they get along.”

He would have snorted
if he didn’t think it would offend her, but he knew it would. Riley Jensen
could be called many things. However, “not even pretty” wasn’t one of them. She
was like a small faerie brought to life. She had the bluest eyes he had ever
seen, curling, blonde hair that gave her an angelic look, and a body that women
like Helena Jensen-Worthington IV paid insane sums of money to obtain—yet
always fell short of the real thing.

Looking at his
watch, the doctor smiled. “If you will excuse me, please, Mrs. Jensen-Worthington?
I have rounds to make and then a recital for my daughter tonight.” Standing, he
offered his hand to her. “As always, it’s been a pleasure,” he murmured, then
pressed a kiss onto the top of her hand, more because she expected it than a
true desire to.

“Of course, Doctor. Thank you
for taking time to see me today.” Helena floated toward the door, always giving
him her
best side
to look at.

“Would you like
to see Riley?” he asked, even though he knew the answer.

“No, no. I
simply couldn’t bear seeing my baby girl like she is. Get her well, Doctor.
Quickly, please.” She moved out of the office and down the hall, her perfume in
her wake like the scent of an animal warning of danger.

The nurse shook
her head and looked up at him. “No wonder Riley is a basket case. I would be,
too, if I had that viper for a mother.”

The corners of
his lips turned up, and he shook his head. “I don’t know where Riley gets her
kindness and simplistic values from. She’s a truly amazing young woman, from
all that I’ve read of her. Too bad her mother is as she is.” He sighed. “Please
cancel any meetings I have tonight. Amanda has a recital. I’ll see you
tomorrow, Penny.” He packed up his laptop, then grabbed his hat and jacket,
heading out for the day.

Chapter One

Crazy. They all
thought she was as crazy as a loon and more than half as stupid. She wasn’t.
Riley knew that she wasn’t stupid … knew that she wasn’t crazy either.

Safe. She was
safe here. She was warm and had food and wonderful drugs to keep her from
thinking too deeply about the things she saw when she looked too far into the
shadows. She was perfectly fine with them thinking she was crazy, because as
long as they thought so, she got to stay in this nice, safe, white, padded room
with the doors locked securely on her side. Oh, yes, crazy was good.

Coming out of
her thoughts a bit, Riley looked at the screen that took up a corner in the
common room of the institute she had holed herself up in for months and felt
fear frizzle her nerves. She bit her lower lip as she watched the scene play
out before her. It wasn’t right. She tilted her head, questioning everything
that was on the screen. It made her sick, actually. She was happy to see the
image change to something else. The news story about a sinkhole in Montana was
skewed. It didn’t happen the way the newscasters said it did. Why would they
lie? Why not tell people the truth of what was really going on in their world?

She leaned back
and sighed. There was so much danger outside these walls. She was safe here.
Once more, she realized that she was in the right for having hidden away as she
had. For a brief moment Riley allowed herself to think of her childhood, of her
father. She had been so happy when he had been alive. He had done everything in
his power to ensure that she was happy and protected from her mother. She’d
realized after only a few years that her mother was incapable of love. No, that
the woman was devoid of emotion unless it dealt directly with her happiness and
joy. When her father died it had been the saddest day of Riley’s life. She’d
lost everything when her father died, but her mother seemed to bask in the
adoration of the people who sought to give them comfort from the loss.

She turned when
she heard Delta, one of the few other women in the facility. “Hello, D.” She
spoke very softly because Delta didn’t like loud noises.

“Hello, Riley
Jensen. Your aura is off today.”

“I’m not
sleeping well.” Delta was an odd one, and for the crazy woman to say something
about auras was hilarious.

“You need to
sleep better, because he’s coming. When he comes, you have to be ready.”

“No one will
come for me.” Riley frowned.

“That’s what you
think. He’ll be here soon, and you have to be ready. If you aren’t, then bad
things will happen.”

Riley smiled and
shook her head. “D, there’s no one coming for me.” Her mother—insert
eye-roll—was the only one outside of her attorney that knew where she was.

“If you say so.”
Delta stroked the air on her lap, making purring sounds as she did so. “Even
Fluffy says that there is something coming.”

Riley just
smiled. She might have everyone thinking that she was crazy, but Delta, God
love her, really was. Riley looked out of the barred window and closed her eyes
for a moment. It was lovely, the feeling of the sun on her face. The peace of
the moment. All of it. She listened to her friend Delta as she spoke to herself
and snorted from time to time at something the woman said. She didn’t know how
long she sat there but finally it was time for her to leave the room.

Riley rose from
the chair and walked out of the community room. She didn’t look back as she
entered her room. Taking a seat on the lone chair in the space, she began to
write in her journal.

A few hours
later, she was awakened from a deep sleep by the alarms that sounded in the halls.
She pulled on her robe and walked out of the room, her heart thudding in her
chest. She tightened her hands around the lapels of her robe as fear frizzled
up and down her spine.

She listened to the talk going
on around her and shook her head.

“She tied her
torn sheets up and hung them from the light fixture. Then she stepped off of
her bed and … well … you saw it.”

No,
that’s not right. At all.
Delta was a lot of things, but she wasn’t
suicidal. The woman had even painted her room with a bright sunshine field
filled with animals. The room radiated happiness where the rest of the facility
was cold and sterile. The grounds were beautiful, of course, which she assumed
was where Delta got the inspiration from.

“From what I
understand, Martin on floor two had three suicides in the last week.” The
nurses began to whisper as they walked away from where Riley stood.

“That’s
definitely not right,” Riley said to herself as she followed. Even if the women
thought they were telling the truth, Riley knew the lies as they were told.
That was the bane of her curse. She knew the truth when she saw it or heard it.
The lies that mascaraed as fact were clear to her.

With that
knowledge in mind, Riley began to formulate her next plan of attack, so to
speak. She had to get out of the facility. Yes, she could easily just walk out
the front door but then her mother would know she was out and that would cause
all sorts of complications that Riley didn’t want to deal with right now.

It took her
three days, but she was able to pull together enough information to back up her
own understanding of what the truth actually was. She couldn’t just blurt out
that the suicides were false. She had to have rock-solid proof, which was why
she needed to get out of the facility—so that she could find the person who
would be able to confess their sins. Failing that, she hoped to at least dig up
more information to give to the authorities.

She called in
help to slip out during the early morning hours. She knew that it would give
her doctor a bit of a heart attack, but she was there on a voluntary basis. She
was just simply leaving without signing out, in her way of thinking.

In the common
room once more, she was watching and waiting. Soon her ride would be outside of
the wooded area and waiting for her to come through. She knew that before too
long she would be trying to solve murders.

* * * *

Intercepting
Gaius in the hall, Hector held up a hand to stop the man. “Mercury sent them
off already. He needs us on a different task.”

“Unacceptable,”
Gaius snarled. “They went after Emily. All because that asshole sold us out. He
will die by my hand, not theirs!”

“Quit being such
a drama queen for a moment, if you wouldn’t mind. Mercury sent them off to
track him down. He also gave them explicit orders to find only. They will
contact you once they know he’ll be in one place. Or when they nail him to a
wall.”

Gaius was
practically vibrating in anger. Hector could appreciate that. The other man
only wanted to protect the person that held his heart, his soul, his very life
in her hands. Emily was one of the thirteen vestal virgins, a unique and
sought-after woman, to say the least.

The vestal
virgins were the only ones able to bond with the guardians. At least that was
Hector’s understanding of it all. Apparently, something in their genetic makeup
made them the perfect balance to the men who were the guardians.

Being a guardian
was a huge responsibility. It took a gigantic toll on each of the men that were
chosen to be part of the organization, which had been created by a goddess to
protect the humans from things they just couldn’t comprehend. The strain to
remain good when always faced with such evil day in and out was huge.

Many had
succumbed to the siren’s call of evil over the centuries that he’d been a part
of the guardians. More of late than at any other time, though. This worried
them all. They were finally finding the vestal virgins, or so it was all their
hopes, and guardians were beginning to turn on their brothers-in-arms.

In Emily’s case,
one of the guardians they had called brother had betrayed her journey to the
guardians’ mountain fortress. He’d sold the information to those they called
the monsters, or evil ones. Basically, they were all that was truly wrong with
the world. Literally. She’d almost been killed in the attack—badly wounded,
anyway—and was still recovering from her injuries seven weeks later.

Another reason for Gaius to be
so … moody. He didn’t want to leave her behind. She would be protected—their
leader, Mercury, wouldn’t allow any harm to come to her—but Gaius saw it as his
personal duty to ensure her safety always. An honorable and noble sentiment.
If only he wasn’t so damn pussy whipped
.

Focusing on his
fellow guardian again, Hector watched as Gaius reined in his anger. It was
fascinating to watch as he shoved it down, deep inside, so that he was the
chilling and calculating warrior that Hector had always known. “Better?” Hector
asked after a moment, his droll tone earning a snarl from the other man.

“If they kill
him instead of waiting for me, I will see to it they forever walk with limps,”
Gaius growled.

“Yes, they
realize that, I am sure. Now, we need to go.” Turning, Hector rolled his eyes
only when he was absolutely sure Gaius couldn’t see him. He didn’t need to be
walking around wounded.

“Where are we
going?” Gaius asked once they had gotten into one of the heavily armored SUV’s.

Hector smiled
slightly but got them in motion before he answered, “We’re going to the looney
bin.” He smirked when he caught the sharp, stunned glare that Gaius shot his
way from the passenger seat.

On the drive, he
explained to Gaius how Mercury had picked up on a sudden spike in apparent, yet
highly suspicious, suicides at a sanitarium. Even though they were crazy
people, they had all died around specific lunar events. Three suicides had been
made known to the local law enforcement, and another one had just occurred.

Mercury was
pretty damn sure that the evil ones were trying to gather souls. In the depths
of Hell, the more souls you had in your pocket, the more power you had. And the
more power you had, the more havoc you could create on earth. As far as the
guardians were concerned, someone was powering up and that was not a good
thing.

Four hours
later, they drew up to the structure in question. Parking well out of range of
the cameras, Hector leaned forward to stare at the building.

“How are we
going to do this?” Gaius asked.

Looking to the
other man, Hector was grateful to note that he was completely calm. Gaius was
looking around, likely noting the position of the cameras, doors, and the
security on the grounds, as well as any exits from the highly protected lot of
land.

“We’ll go in as
military intelligence. There’s no way anyone will buy that we’re law
enforcement.” Not with how they were both dressed in black clothing and
dripping with weaponry. “We’ll say we received notification that…” He dug out
the piece of paper Mercury had given him and read it again.

“That one Delta
Hastings has reportedly committed suicide. As she is a relative to one of our boys
out in the combat zone, we need verification. Thus, we need to see the body, so
that we can go through the chain of command to get him informed and back home.”

“All of this is
based on the hope that not a single person in there served with the military,
of course,” Gaius muttered.

“Even if they
did, they don’t know how black ops work. Plus, there’s only one former military
person working here, and he’s not back on shift until tomorrow morning. Mercury
did a quick check of the staff to be sure before giving me the ID’s necessary
to pull this off.”

Gaius grumbled
something under his breath, too low for Hector to make out the words. It likely
wasn’t complimentary, so he ignored it and got out of the vehicle. After making
sure the doors were locked, they headed inside and right into the midst of
utter chaos.

Several people
were yelling, both patients and their keepers. A few patients were cheering,
while a couple others were crying and screaming for it all to stop. There were
even more in another room, pretending not to be paying any mind to the noise,
yet actively eavesdropping.

Sharing a look
with Gaius, Hector rubbed at his chest. Shifting slightly, he let out a low
grunt. His medallion was reacting to something. It wasn’t priority, though
gaining some semblance of order was.

With a shrug to
his fellow guardian, he put his fingers to his lips and let out a piercing
whistle. He kept it going until he was absolutely sure every person was silent.
Dropping his hand, he glowered at everyone there. “Who the hell is in charge
around here?” he demanded in a loud tone.

Once a commander
of an army, he knew how to make himself heard over great distances. In the
small, lobby-like area, it was like a crack of thunder. All motion stopped long
enough for the men to find someone in charge.

As Gaius spoke
to one of the nurses, Hector was distracted by a flash of movement. All he
caught was a whiff of something intoxicating and a lot of curly, blonde hair.
Frowning, he turned ever so slightly and watched as the woman slipped out the
main doors.

She likely
wasn’t supposed to do that. Which made the already intriguing and disturbing
situation even more so.

“Handle this,”
he said to Gaius. “I’ll be back.”

Not waiting for
a reply, he headed out the front door, barely restraining himself from just
tearing the thing off its hinges when it didn’t open at first. One look to a
security man had it buzzing for Hector’s release.

Stepping
outside, he carefully searched the grounds of the sanitarium. If not for her
light-colored hair catching a bit of light, he’d never have spotted her. He was
soon chasing after her in the early morning light.

* * * *

It wasn’t exactly
good
of Riley to start the little brawl
that she had, but it was the only way she would be able to get out of the
facility without calling her attorneys. She needed to do this as much on the
down low as possible, so that her
mother
didn’t
catch on to what she was doing.