Soul Bound

Evernight Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2011 Luxie
Ryder

 ISBN:
978-1-926950-39-6

Cover Artist: LF Designs

Editor: Caitlin Ray

ALL 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.

DEDICATION

"And
above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the
greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't
believe in magic will never find it."

—
  
Roald Dahl.

SOUL BOUND

Luxie Ryder

Copyright © 2011

Nathan.  His was the face I saw in my mind, as my life flashed
before my eyes at the moment of my death.

I heard the rapid volley of gunfire and closed my eyes to wait
for the pain, the flash from the barrel still visible behind my eyelids as if
burned into my retinas. 

My hand was on my holster, fumbling with the fastening, stopping
me from grabbing the butt of my gun and evening up the odds of my
survival.  Hernandes must have known his wife had called the cops and that
we were coming.  He was waiting out in the hall for us and we never really
stood a chance.  A routine domestic disturbance call had just turned
deadly.

Total silence and complete stillness followed the sound of the
gunfire and I wondered if I was dead but just didn't know it yet. 

Open your eyes.  You're safe.

I obeyed Nathan's command without question, so surprised by the
clarity of his voice that I looked at my would-be assassin to see if it was
really he who had spoken.  Hernandes was staring at the semi-automatic in
his hand like he didn't understand how it got there.  He lifted his
disbelieving gaze to my chest and his eyebrows knit together as his confusion
deepened.

My partner Jorge barreled past me, shoving me out of the way,
charging forwards and grabbing Hernandes' gun.  Jorge's anger at the
situation made him a little more heavy handed than usual and he slammed
Hernandes to the ground, knocking the wind out of him, a knee pressed into the
small of his back.  The part of my brain that wasn't preoccupied with an
image of Nathan had some sympathy for the guy sprawled on the floor with six feet
four and two hundred and fifty pounds of buzz cut ex-linebacker on top of him.

"You ok, Jessica?" Jorge barked at me, glancing up only
briefly as he took far too much time and got far too much pleasure in cuffing
the guy.

I realized then I hadn't yet moved.  My training kicked in
and I rushed to help Jorge drag the guy to his feet and haul his ass down the
stairs to the cruiser.  Jorge read him his rights but the guy wasn't
listening.  He couldn't seem to take his eyes off me.

"Bruja," he whispered, his lips quivering around the
word as his gaze became fearful.

"What does that mean?"

"He thinks you're a witch," Jorge said, giving the guy
another shove.

I laughed, ignoring the fear twisting my gut at the expression in
Hernandes' eyes.  "Typical! Calls me a witch rather than admit he
couldn't hit the side of a barn."

"Bruja," he said again, louder this time, hysteria
creeping into his voice.  I pushed him into the cruiser and slammed the
door.  I'd encountered some crazy cons in my time but I'd never seen one
go from cold-blooded cop killer to sniveling wreck in the space of two
seconds.  But his very evident terror got to me, and I decided it might be
best to let Jorge deal with him back at the station. 

****

I managed to ignore the questions churning in the back of my mind
and twisting my stomach in knots until I sat down to right my report. Questions
like, if my life was flashing before my eyes, why had an image of Nathan, who I
hadn't seen in my years come to mind rather than David, the man who I'd been
dating up until a year ago? 

Words filled the page, painting a picture for those who weren't
there, and I knew others who tried to make sense of the scene my report
recreated would have the same misgivings as me when they saw the gaps in the
logic. 

When forensics got through with the crime scene, my captain
called me into his office, and I saw the same disbelief I felt mirrored back at
me in his expression.  He told me they'd found empty shells on the floor -
but no bullet holes anywhere - which was weird because Ballistics was sure the
gun fired a round of maybe ten shots or more, all of them aimed at me.

That's when I started to cry.

Chapter One

 “I need a volunteer from the audience.”

Nathan Cain’s midnight blue gaze slid along my row of seats, crawling
ever closer to me.  I tensed; sure I could almost feel its approach. 
But it didn’t land on me, not straight away.

“Will it be you, Madam?” Nathan said to the audience member
sitting to my left.  The edge of his mouth lifted in wry humor when the woman
shook her head so vigorously, my seat wobbled beside hers.

His gaze shifted to the man on my other side.  “How about
you, Sir?” 

My heart beat once, maybe twice, before Nathan's stare found me,
as I knew it would.

“Or will it be you...Jess?”

Pinned against the back of my seat by no more than the intensity
of his gaze, I didn’t react at first to the sound of my name on his lips. 
Seattle seemed a million miles away and high school almost as many years ago,
and he had no reason to remember me the way I did him. 

Nathan strutted to the edge of the stage, the shape of his long
legs outlined in almost obscene detail by black leather trousers.  The
shift and roll of the clearly defined muscles shaping his torso and abdomen
told me his feet
were
actually on the ground but, with the dry ice
swirling around his shins, I could swear he floated towards me like some errant
spirit.  A tangle of silver crucifixes, gothic charms and skulls with ruby
eyes, suspended from thick chains around his neck, swayed hypnotically across
his alabaster skin as he moved.  His face creased into one of the half
smiles I remembered so well and I knew he was coming for me.

I swallowed hard when he crouched to put a hand on the floor of
the stage and leapt to stand in the aisle in front of me in one fluid, catlike
movement, his stare never wavering.  He stalked towards me and reached for
my hand before I had time to let out the breath I'd been holding.

He leaned over my seat, blocking the glare from the gaudily lit
stage and sending his large frame into near silhouette.  Yet his
kaleidoscope eyes still sparkled, their dark blue flecked with gold and brown,
reflecting the soft glow of the house lights. 

I experienced a moment of déjà vu.  If I had the power to
look away, I wouldn't have been surprised to find I was still a sophomore,
sitting next to that empty seat in English class, waiting with pounding heart
and baited breath for him to walk in to the room. 

Nathan's dark, shoulder length hair fell forward when he reached
down for me, casting his pale, almost Messianic features, wide mouth and high
cheekbones into stark relief.  His touch on the back of my hand sent a
sizzle up my arm, kick starting my brain into action and my heart into a
sprint. 

“Pick someone else,” I hissed at him, trying to warn him off with
the kind of stern look that worked on the perps back home.  Except here, I
didn't have the uniform, my gun and a shield to back it up. He simply smiled,
and wrapped his palm around my wrist.  I resisted the pull but his fingers
gripped tighter, gentle yet firm, and I had no choice but to comply.  I
stumbled and put my free hand against his chest to steady myself, snatching it
back when Nathan's hot, slick skin burned my palm.

“Don’t you trust me?”  

The deep, honeyed tones of his voice still had the power to
mesmerize and before I could gather my wits and repeat a plea to be left alone,
he turned to the audience.  “Come on, Ladies and Gentlemen, give her some
encouragement.”

The Vegas crowd, already very impressed by Nathan’s brand of New
Age magic, and high from too much sun and free booze, erupted into rapturous
applause.

This is what you came for, stupid!

I tried to ignore the taunts of my inner, angst ridden teenager,
the one who had never gotten over the loss of Nathan – the one who had taunted
me into coming here tonight with a plan to seduce him.  The one who hadn't
allowed for the fact that Nathan's magnetism might have multiplied so much so,
that I would still feel like a gawky kid beside him. 

The captain had insisted I take some time off until the shrink
said I was fit for duty.  I should have known to keep my mouth shut about
the voice I'd heard, but post traumatic stress robbed me of my common sense I
suppose.  A month spent sitting at home watching daytime TV drove me stir
crazy, so I followed the wild impulse to get out of Seattle and leapt on to the
next available flight to anywhere.  Until I saw his name on the billboards
lining the route to my hotel from the airport, I didn't know Nathan would be
here too.  Random luck had brought me to Vegas, but now I was here...and
he was here and, well, maybe everything happened for a reason. 

"Don't be scared, Jess.  I'll look after you."

Nathan's breath caressed my cheek and I started, surprised to
find him so close. 
Jess
.  Nobody had called me that for
years.  Not since the summer after he'd left town, taking my heart with
him, and I'd forbidden anyone from uttering that word ever again.  To hear
my old name on his lips took me back in a way nothing else ever could. 
For a moment, just for the briefest second, the glitz and glamour of Vegas
faded away and all I could see was the mysterious and enigmatic young man with
the spiky hair and the sad smile who had ignored my fragile teenage heart up
until about six months before he moved away.

"What do I have to do?" I whispered, conscious of the
strangers watching our every move.

"Just help tie me up, that's all."  A suggestive
glint in Nathan's eyes did nothing to make me feel better, despite the enticing
image of him bound and at my mercy that flashed into my mind.