Locked Out of Love (3 page)

“I need you to read an impression off of that napkin,” Joel told Merrick.

Merrick watched him steadily. “Vander?”

That one name brought on a whole hurricane of emotions.
Vander Donahughe.
The Guild of Aletheia's antithesis. Their archenemy. The man responsible for kidnapping Joel and breaking his arm nearly six months ago to conduct an experiment, the one who held Merrick prisoner for four months, the man who tried to take Cali, Felix's Mirror Mate, and forced Felix to fight nearly to the death in an underground cage match.

Joel pushed down the anger. He'd spent the last six months keeping tabs on the Kratos Corporation—the conglomerate Vander owned and did his dirty work through—in an attempt to find anything incriminating that would bring them down. But so far there was nothing. Not to mention they kept beefing up their security, which meant Joel had to continuously hack their systems when he wasn't busy doing his own IT work to make a living. A task that was getting harder by the day.

The only obvious change in the business was their steady financial decline. Vander was burning through their resources in an attempt to find his Mirror Mate. It kept Vander busy and out of their hair, but when the suited man from the alley began showing up at their usual haunts, too, their hackles instantly rose. Was Vander back in the game? Was this stranger a new goon looking for more supernaturals to steal and torment? If Fern was their next target, Joel owed it to her, as one supernatural to another, to get involved and keep her from Vander's clutches. Vander had hurt enough people, and Joel wouldn't be able to call himself a member of the Guild of Aletheia—the Guild of Truth— if he just sat by and let Vander harm more of their kind.

Plus there was his own underlying reason for seeking her out. He had to see if his drunken state had imagined the whole incident between them, that spark of awareness.

Could it be possible she was his Mirror Mate?

He'd always wanted one, always thought he'd rejoice the day he found her, but now, after Sydney, he didn't know.

“I'm not sure,” he answered Merrick. “I take it you've heard about the suspicious men popping up?”

Merrick nodded then gestured to the napkin. “Did one of them touch that?”

Joel hesitated. “Not exactly.” He glanced down the hall but found no trace of Sydney hiding out in the shadows. “I'm looking for a woman. She's the one who touched this napkin.”

Merrick's ice-blue eyes widened fractionally.

“I met her nearly a week ago, but all I got was the name from her badge. It said ‘Fern,' but when I searched for her on the Internet, I got no hits. None that were her anyway,” Joel said dejectedly. “She ran into one of the men we've been seeing around lately, and I want to make sure they aren't after her.”

A small part of him wished for her to be some foreign exchange student working night shifts at a bar to pay for school with no super powers to link her to Vander, because, dammit, no one deserved to get involved in their world if they could help it. Hell, no one should have to deal with him right now. He was a jumbled mess.

Without another word, Merrick reached across the table and took the plastic bag. He pulled out the napkin and held it between his hands. He closed his eyes.

God knows how long something like this was supposed to take. He'd seen Merrick glean information off of a security control panel in five seconds. But this time Joel was asking him to find anything he could. What if Fern's impression wasn't strong enough? Or what if it faded over time?

A few seconds passed. “I think I know why you couldn't find anything.”

Joel sat up straighter. “Why?”

“Her name's not Fern,” said Merrick. “It's Melanie. Melanie
Fern
Vyntra.”

Joel whispered her name to himself, testing out the syllables. “Did you find anything else?”

Merrick nodded. “She spends a lot of her time at the community center. She attends yoga classes there every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”

Joel leapt to his feet. “Today's Friday. Thanks, Merrick, I owe you one.”

“Joel,” Merrick called after him.

Joel turned. Merrick held out the napkin for him, but he didn't let go when Joel went to take it. Instead he said, “I felt the connection. I know what she is to you.” Something close to dread settled in his chest. So it was true. Or at least Merrick thought so. That didn't mean it was fact. But why now? Couldn't fate have waited until he was less emotionally fucked up to shove a woman at him? No matter how much he lied to everyone else, he couldn't lie to himself: he wasn't ready. He didn't want this.

“I hope you find her.” Merrick continued, clearly unaware of Joel's inner turmoil. “I won't tell Sydney if you don't want me to, but she'll be devastated to know you kept this from her. She wants you to be happy, too, Joel. She still cares about you.”

Joel's fingers tightened around the napkin. “I know. I'll tell her in my own time. I just need to find Melanie first.” Everyone wanted him to be happy. Poor broken, fucking Joel, with his shattered heart. What was taking him so long to pick up the pieces? Sydney had moved on, why hadn't he?

Well, now he had the perfect reason—only he didn't want it. He really hoped his mind had been fucking with him.

Merrick offered a small smile. “I understand. Good luck.”

On the way to his car, Joel pulled out his phone and dialed.

“This had better be important,” Felix's irritated voice answered a few seconds later.

“Her name is Melanie—that's why I couldn't find her,” Joel said without preamble.  “I had the wrong name. I'm heading to the community center to see her right now.”

“Hang on there, Joel.” The sound of movement came from the other end of the phone, followed by Cali's voice protesting in the background. “You don't want to scare her. You can't simply rush in there and proclaim she's your destined soul mate. If she was using a fake name at work, it's pretty safe to say she doesn't want to be found by someone she saw at the bar.”

“Don't worry,” Joel said as he got into his truck. “I won't freak her out.”

“Joel.” The sternness in Felix's voice gave him pause. “I'm serious. I know you mean well, but you can't walk up to her and expect to become a couple instantly.” Joel's hands fisted. Little did Felix know that wasn't Joel's first concern. At one point in his life it would have been, but that felt like a long time ago. Now his first concern was protecting himself, and that included his heart.

“I'm not going to profess my undying love or anything,” Joel bit out. “I'm going to check on her, make sure she's safe.”

Felix remained quiet on the other end for a beat.

 “In that case, you'll probably want to approach her cautiously. If she's anything like Cali was, she'll try and flee. You're going to have to gain her trust. Hell, she might not even know that powers exist. You have to move carefully. She could be freaking out about what she saw last Saturday. ”

  “I'll go slow. Any ideas on what I should say so she doesn't think I stalked her?”

“To be perfectly honest, you probably won't get that far. My money's on that she'll see you and run. Again.”

“Great. Thanks.”

Joel's here.

It was just as Juliet predicted.

Melanie didn't like the idea of a man tracking her down. It triggered old memories of Alexander, her ex, the man who wouldn't take no for an answer. He'd stalked her, so she'd been there, done that, got the restraining order to prove it. But Juliet had informed Melanie about Joel's ability to Lock anything together and assured her that wasn't fatal. Melanie was safe.  Or so Juliet said, anyhow. Juliet didn't know she had firsthand experience.

Melanie's first task was to see if Joel even sought her out.

And he has. Juliet was right.
He'd found Melanie at the community center.

Melanie inhaled deeply to try to calm her racing heart. Joel was sitting in the main lobby like a little kid waiting in a doctor's office, holding an activity schedule upside down as he scanned the crowd. He wore a dark blue Superman shirt that brought out the color of his eyes. His shirt showcased his lean build—not too small but not overly bulky either. A swimmer's physique. He looked to be around twenty-eight, his mop of hair as messy as before, and Melanie got the strangest urge to walk over and run her fingers through it. Instead, the introductory computer class let out, and the people flooding the lobby provided Melanie the perfect cover. She pulled the hood of her jacket up over her hair. She wanted to observe him a little more before he saw her. She wanted to get closer to him, to gauge his response to being startled. Would he attack? Flee? Was Juliet wrong and she was in danger?

As the mass of people started to thin, Melanie pulled back her hood and approached him from the side.

In the event that Joel showed, which he had, Juliet wanted her to talk to him. But what was she supposed to say? Juliet hadn't exactly been clear about that. All Melanie knew was that if she helped Juliet gather intel about Joel and his guild, Juliet promised to help Nathan.

Joel was busy studying a group of girls at the far end of the lobby, his body leaning forward heavily.

Was he checking them out?

She cleared her throat loudly.

Joel jumped.

Serves him right.
“Hi,” she said when he turned to her. “I thought you looked familiar.” Her voice hardened. “Why are you following me?”

Joel hastily got to his feet, hands out. “I'm not.” He winced. “Well, I am … but it's not what you think. The thing is, I thought you might be scared—I mean, confused. You have nothing to fear from me though, I promise.”

Melanie repressed a smile. It was hard to stay frosty with a guy who was so openly nervous. He clearly wasn't a threat; his reaction to her was proof enough. Still, she wasn't going to let her guard down. “How'd you know I'd be here?”

Joel instantly started looking around as if searching for potential eavesdroppers. The sudden change in his behavior made her stiffen.

“Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” he asked. “I'm sure you have plenty of questions about last Saturday.”

Melanie quickly went on the defensive. She took a step away from him. “What do you want?”

 “I only want to talk,” Joel said. Those guileless, midnight-blue eyes stared steadily into hers, promising no harm.

Go with him
, a small voice deep inside whispered.

Don't go with him. It could be some elaborate trap
, the paranoid and usually sane part of her brain spoke up.

Suddenly, she was the nervous one, and Melanie didn't like it one bit. She licked her dry lips. Joel followed the movement, something flickering across his face. The hair on her arms rose. The air around them felt too heavy to breathe. She hastily took another step back. “Follow me,” she rasped. “There shouldn't be anyone back at my yoga class for at least another half hour.” Not bothering to check if he followed, she scurried back the way she'd come.

• • •

Joel watched as Melanie toyed with the leather band around her left wrist. They both sat across from each other on separate yoga mats, waiting. Joel didn't know where to start. He thought she'd have question after question for him, but as soon as he'd mentioned last Saturday, something in Melanie's expression closed off. Was she trying to pretend the whole thing hadn't happened?

“So,” he drawled to fill the oppressive silence. “I should probably introduce myself, huh? I'm Joel Kegler. I also possess the power to Lock any object to anything else.” Maybe if he shared about himself first, she'd feel a little more comfortable. Like those anonymous group meetings he saw on TV. ‘Hi, I'm Joel and I'm a super-powered individual.'

“Melanie,” she said crisply.

He waited for anything to follow. For her to mention her powers. For her to mention his powers.

Nothing.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

This was going to be harder than he thought.

He rubbed the back of his neck before coming to a decision. “All right, look, I'm just going to lay it all out here. I'm a part of a guild that uses our abilities for good, the Guild of Aletheia or Guild of Truth if you're like the rest of those bastards in our group who are too lazy to use our
real
name.” He cleared his throat. “Like I've said, I Lock things. I'm a LockSmith. My buddy Felix can Erase anything, his future wife can manipulate sound, our friend Niella is a Dreamer and can see the future.” Here a ripple of awareness crossed her face, but she quickly covered it.

“My girl—” Joel caught himself, but Melanie's brow furrowed, catching his slip-up. He plowed on. “My friend, Sydney, can negate power around her, and her boyfriend can read impressions from objects. Our newest member, Luke, has regenerative capabilities.” He stopped, studied her. “You're not freaking out,” he said after a few seconds. “Why aren't you freaking out?” Then it hit him. “You already know people with powers exist.”

Melanie glanced away, playing with the leather band around her wrist again. It was clearly her nervous tell. She was hesitant to tell him something, and that bothered him more than he liked to admit. His chest ached and his fingers itched to reach out and touch her.

Dressed as she was in tight yoga crop pants that showcased her legs and a hoodie that was unzipped enough to give him a teasing glimpse of her ample breasts, Joel had a hell of a time keeping himself in check. She wasn't short like Sydney. Joel would put Melanie at around five eight with a lithe frame that came from years of yoga.

His groin tightened. Fuck. Finally Melanie sighed, her hands dropping into her lap. “I know people with powers exist because my brother is one of them. He's like your friend, Niella. What did you call her? A Dreamer?”