Guardian's Grace Read online

  Guardian's Grace

  A Novel of the Guardians of the Race

  by

  Jacqueline Rhoades

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyrighted 2012 by Jacqueline Rhoades

  Cover design: Heather Rhoades

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  My Thanks

  To Georgianna, sister of my heart if not my blood: your encouragement and support never failed me. I’m sure there were times when the phone rang and you rolled your eyes and sighed when you saw my name on the caller ID and still, you always answered. This book is yours as much as mine.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Books by Jacqueline Rhoades

  Excerpt from Guardian's Hope

  Chapter 1

  This was a mistake. Grace knew it when her best friend Alice cornered her at the elevators after work and she knew it when Alice dragged her, protesting, into the little apartment that shared a landing with her own to dress her up in what Alice called ‘a sexy little number’ and Grace called one step up from a street walker. Why, oh, why had she said yes?

  But, of course, she knew why. It was guilt. She’d avoided Alice all week because she hadn’t told her friend about getting laid off. Alice, with her rose colored glasses, would see this misfortune as an opportunity to try something new, to embark on an adventure, to meet new people. The woman never saw a problem that couldn’t be fixed and Grace needed a little more time to get used to the idea of being unemployed before hearing about how wonderful it all might be.

  So here she was, at a retirement party for a guy she barely recognized, sitting at a group of tables surrounded by twenty people she didn’t know, wearing a little black sheath that covered a great deal less than decency should allow and a pair of thin strapped stilettos that almost guaranteed foot pain in the morning. A crystal pendant disappeared into her cleavage and sparkling teardrops hung from her ears.

  The buzzing in her brain was a continuous thrum and it wasn’t from the lights or the music or the three glasses of wine she’d sipped her way through. It was the people. There were just too many people with their emotions rolling off them in waves, heightened by the music and alcohol.

  Grace looked around at the crowd, smiling, talking, drinking and dancing. Happiness, anxiety, lust, fear, and even a smattering of violence blazed through her head and she winced as her heart seemed to take up the throbbing beat of the music. The place was a cacophony of sensations and she didn’t know how much longer she could hold out. She couldn’t handle this many people on her best day and today definitely wasn’t her best.

  Today had been her last day to take the elevator to the basement storage facility where she’d spent the last six years scanning box after box of paper files onto her computer. It didn’t pay much, but she didn’t need much and the peace she enjoyed made up for the lack of dollars. No one ever came down to her little cloister and that was what made the job so perfect. No people meant no psychic vibrations and none of the violent headaches that accompanied them. Unfortunately, she’d been too efficient and worked herself out of a job.

  “Come on. Dance with me. You’ve been sitting there all night.” Alice, wearing a flirty red dress with glittery trim at the hem and deeply scooped neckline, shimmied in front of Grace. Her smile was wide and her eyes sparkled. She held out her hands. “How are you going to attract attention if you don’t display the goods?”

  “I’m not a piece of meat, Alice.”

  Her friend laughed. “Oh, honey, in that dress you’re a prime rib.”

  When Alice leaned over to whisper, Grace could only imagine the view the swirling skirt offered from behind.

  “In that dress, you’re as sexy as sin.” The bubbly blonde’s face became serious. “You really don’t have a clue, do you?” Then she shook her head and laughed again. “Never mind, come dance with your best friend.”

  And Alice was her best friend. If truth be told, Alice was her only friend and had been since seventh grade when yet another foster placement dropped Grace into yet another school, her eighth or ninth. She was no longer sure. Thirteen year old Alice immediately took her in and unlike most of her classmates, never saw Grace as weird, only different. The friendship continued right through high school as did the foster placement.

  She and Alice lost touch for a few years after high school when Alice remained at home to attend Junior College and Grace was cast out on her own when her foster child funding was cut off at the age of eighteen. Then six years ago, when Grace moved into her current cheap, fourth floor walk-up, there was Alice, ready to say hello to the new neighbor and reminding Grace that there were, after all, good things in every life and Alice was the best thing in hers.

  At twenty-seven, her life was a confined and lonely one. She didn’t like it, didn’t want it, but it was the only way she could survive. She often thought that without Alice’s friendship, she might have succumbed to desperation and depression.

  Grace smiled as she joined Alice on the dance floor and laughed outright as Alice lifted her arms and began swirling her hips to the heavy beat of the music. She raised her own arms and began a much slower mime of her friend. It was then that she saw them.

  Across the room, standing against the wall, arms crossed over massive chests, were two of the most beautiful men she had ever seen, twins, each the exact replica of the other. Soft light surrounded them as if they stood in a spotlight on a stage. Only their eyes moved, searching the room. She smiled in appreciation.

  “Whoa, girl, I didn’t know you could move like that,” Alice’s admiring voice broke through.

  Grace’s heart skipped a beat as realization dawned. The buzzing in her head was gone, leaving only the music. The tension that had been her body’s constant companion was replaced by a peaceful swaying rhythm. This was heaven. She kept her eyes on the twins and let her body fall under the seductive spell of the moment.

  “Alice,” she said softly, after another song began. “Eye candy at one o’clock.” She gestured with her eyes.

  Dov elbowed his twin lightly in the ribs. “That girl over there is staring at us.”
<
br />   “Woman.”

  “What?”

  “Woman. You can’t call a female over eighteen a girl. It’s sexist. Chauvinistic. Politically incorrect.”

  “Whatever,” Dov replied, shrugging off the criticism. “She’s staring at us.”

  “She can’t be. We’re in white light. Humans can’t stare at what they can’t see.”

  “I’m telling you, she’s staring at us. Look,” Dov directed with a slight poke of his chin. “Right there. Goddess body, skimpy black dress, dark hair with the blonde streak. She’s dancing with the sexy boobs in the red dress.”

  “Idiot. You’ve got to stop saying stuff like that. You can’t refer to a woman as sexy boobs in a red dress.” Col looked disgusted.

  “Blonde. I meant blonde. Sexy blonde in the red dress. Okay? And she’s still looking. She’s pointing us out to her friend.”

  “Shit. You’re right.” Col motioned with his head. “Let’s take it outside.”

  “Eye candy?” Alice squealed. “Did you say eye candy? I can’t believe you said eye candy!”

  Grace huffed in exasperation. “You say it all the time. Now quit making fun of me and look behind you, over by the wall. And don’t be your usual obvious self.”

  Alice made a casual turn and kept on dancing. “Ooo, you mean red shirt, dark hair, and dreamy eyes?” She completed her turn and faced Grace.

  “What guy in the red shirt? I’m talking twins! How could you miss them? White tees, light blue jeans, at least six feet of hunky body. Each.”

  “Twins! Where?” Alice shrieked and spun around.

  It was too late for subtlety. Grace pointed. “Right there in the light.”

  But they weren’t there. And neither was the light they were standing under. Her eyes darted around the room. They had to be here. Somewhere. They were way too big to get lost in the crowd.

  “They were there, Alice. I swear. They were right there.” Grace pointed across the room.

  “So they left. No big deal, honey. We’ll catch them another time. Now that you’re getting in the swing of things, we can go out anytime you want.” Alice winked. “You really let yourself go for a minute there, girl. You were something to see.” Her eyes lit on someone over Grace’s shoulder. “We’ll catch those twins another day, but right now I think I’ll go introduce myself to the cutie in the red shirt. Don’t leave without me, now.”

  She watched as Alice danced her way across the floor toward her intended conquest. Grace tried to keep the smile on her face, but knew it was becoming a grimace as the buzzing of emotions around her returned. She glanced at her watch. The few minutes of reprieve had been wonderful and it gave her hope. If it could happen once, it could happen again, right? But for now, the buzzing was back with a vengeance.

  She returned to her table, took a sip of wine and tried to take an interest in the dancers on the floor. She scanned the room again hoping to catch another glimpse of the gorgeous twins, to no avail. The buzzing in her head grew stronger and the migraine that always accompanied the sensory overload was building along the side of her head. It was too much and she knew it was time to go home. She wasn’t going to ruin Alice’s night out, just make her apologies and find her own way home. She once again scanned the floor, this time for Alice and Mr. Red Shirt and quickly spotted them heading for a hallway at the back of the club.

  She blinked her eyes, shook her head and blinked again. She couldn’t be seeing what she was seeing. Mr. Red Shirt wasn’t the cutie Alice claimed. Grace’s heart stopped and she choked on the bile that rose up in her throat. Red shirt’s face had elongated, his chin jutting forward with snarling lips curled back exposing jagged, feral teeth. His brow bulged over blackened eyes and it appeared he had no nose at all. Grace shook her head again, trying to dislodge the nightmare image. This couldn’t be real.

  Her rational mind told her that this was a hallucination. Someone must have drugged her wine. It all made sense. That’s why her brain buzz had temporarily disappeared. That’s why she saw the beautiful twins who weren’t there. That’s why she was now seeing this monster while Alice walked calmly at his side, laughing and talking as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

  Grace grabbed her purse and followed the couple across the floor. If she was hallucinating, whether from drugs or simply because she had finally gone over the edge into insanity, she needed to get to a hospital and she couldn’t trust herself to get there alone. She needed Alice. Alice was all she had.

  She reached the empty hallway in time to see a rear exit door close. Something was very wrong. Hallucinations or not, Grace knew that Alice would never follow a complete stranger into a back alley alone. Alice was fun and flirty. She wasn’t stupid.

  Grace sprinted for the door.

  Chapter 2

  Dov crouched low in the alley between the two brick buildings. His broad shoulders filled the narrow space as he ran his hands lightly over the surface and then brought them to his face. He sniffed and shook his head in the negative. Moving a few feet forward, he repeated the process with the same result. His shoulders slumped.

  “We’ll get him, Dov, just settle down. If we can’t smell him out, we’ll hear him. Canaan left us in charge and we’ll do the job.”

  “I can smell him, but I can’t get a track on him. It’s like he rolled all over four square blocks and never landed anywhere. That club reeks of him, but I can’t pin him down? How the hell does he do it? Who is this guy?”

  “Thing, not guy. We don’t even know what he is, never mind who he is. It might not even be the same one from last night.”

  “It’s the same one and it’s a demon. You know it. I know it. That poor dead bastard smelled just like this and now we’re going to lose another one. Canaan’s going to be pissed.”

  “No. He won’t. He knows there’s not enough of us to go around. We’re bound to lose some. Shit, he’s lost a few himself. Come on, my turn. We’ll run another circle. We know he’s here. We’ll get him. Let’s just hope we get him before he gets someone else.”

  Dov was about to respond when Col raised his hand in a signal for silence. “Did you hear that?” he whispered. “Back alley. Go.”

  They ran single file down the narrow passage emerging shoulder to shoulder as they reached the wider alley that ran along the backs of the businesses. A woman’s scream erupted from just beyond the rusty brown dumpster that served the club. The club’s emergency exit door opened and another woman stepped out as yellow light from the club spilled into the darkness of the alley. The faint light did nothing to illuminate what was going on beyond the dumpster but clearly showed the woman in the doorway. She stood on the platform, eyes wide with terror, the back of her fist held tight to her mouth as a second scream echoed off the alley walls.

  Grace’s eyes took in everything in an instant and as much as she wished it to be, she knew that this was no hallucination. Alice’s legs, black stockings torn and bloody, one glittery red shoe missing, splayed out from under the monster, her scream deepening to a low, frightened moan. The thing, its back strangely misshapen, snarled and slobbered at Alice’s neck. Ignoring Grace, it raised his head and roared at the night sky, blood dripping from his mouth to his chin. A hazy white light appeared down the alley to the right, moving at incredible speed. Before Grace had a chance to scream or call for help, someone from the alley shouted to close the door and she obeyed the command without thought.

  Without the light from the doorway, the alley should have been shrouded in darkness, but the moving white light revealed the scene. Grace saw clearly as the twins hauled the monster from Alice, spun it out into the alley and attacked in tandem. Flashes of silver seemed to explode from their hands, slashing mercilessly at the monster. The thing howled in pain and rage and fought back with its sharp, pointed teeth and the six inch claws that extended from its humanlike fingers. The twins kept attacking, front and back as the monster twisted and turned to ward off the blows. And then it was over. One twin lunged, the flash of silver plu
nging into the monster’s chest ripping downward. As the thing leapt back and away, the other brother grabbed its arm, pulled the monster to him and drove his fist deep into the gaping wound. His hand emerged holding something black and pulsing. The creature fell and began to writhe, its grotesque body shriveling to nothing but a pile of rags. This could not be happening.

  Still holding the beating heart, he pointed at Grace and screamed, “Do her, Dov! Do her and let’s get the hell out of here!”

  Grace hadn’t moved from her spot on the platform. Horror had kept her immobile as she’d watched the hellish play unfold. Now, at the words ‘Do her!’ her mind clicked back into gear. Do her? Murder? Rape? She had to get back into the building, find safety among the people there, find help for Alice. She turned and grabbed the knob. The door was locked.

  Dov reached the woman just as she turned from the door. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. But even as he said it, he knew the woman wouldn’t believe him. His fangs were still extended and the blood rage still sang in him. It sharpened the planes and angles of his face into something that humans would find frightening. His voice was a low growl. There wasn’t time to bring himself under control. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her up against the door. She tried to fight, but when he pinned her neck, she stilled and stared into his eyes.

  “Don’t,” she whispered and damned if Dov didn’t feel the strangest urge to let her go. He couldn’t, of course. This was the best and safest thing to do for her and for them. Make her forget. He placed the thumb of his free hand on her forehead, above the bridge of her nose, concentrated and pushed.

  “Please, don’t,” she whispered again. “I won’t tell. Just leave me to help my friend. I won’t say what I saw. Who’d believe me? Just go away and leave me to take care of Alice.”

  Again, he had the strangest compulsion to do as she asked, just walk away and leave her with the body of her friend. He concentrated and pushed with his thumb a second time. Her eyes still held that look of fear and pleading. It wasn’t working.