Obsidian Souls (Soul Series) Read online

  Obsidian

  Souls

  Donna Augustine

  Copyright © 2012 Donna Augustine

  All rights reserved.

  DEDICATION

  To my sister Lisa, who let me rattle on until her ears bled and gave me the confidence to keep going.

  ObsidianSouls

  DEDICATION

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter One

  I’ve always liked plans, and I have one for every major event in my life. Sometimes, even for the inconsequential events as well. I’ve always thought that they would keep everything moving along in the proper direction, with each plan setting off the next, just like a well designed domino formation. As long as I kept to the plan, life was supposed to turn out the way I had designed.

  So when on a cold winter night, I was attacked by a brutish thug, I chalked the whole thing up to wrong place, wrong time. I never considered, even for a second, that this might be the hand of fate coming down and obliterating my carefully constructed dominos. I hadn’t known that this one moment would derail my entire life.

  It had started off like any other Saturday evening, I had gone to meet my friends Gilly and Amanda at this place they loved. It was the hottest bar in the city, which was the exact reason I didn’t like it. I don’t like standing in a corner, while trying to avoid hitting the overly perfumed bodies two inches away. Give me a corner pub with ripped vinyl stools and a pool table and I’m right at home, but they are harder to find in this neighborhood.

  Unfortunately, it was Gilly’s turn to pick tonight. We’d been getting together a couple times a month since I had moved to New York City a little less than a year ago. We always go out to a trendy bar or club on Gilly’s night.

  Gilly’s single…not happy about it… and definitely on the hunt. I’m single as well. I can’t say that I’m happy about it either but not exactly unhappy. I just believed that things would work out like planned, so I didn’t worry too much about that. I had every intention of settling down and having a couple of kids and had every reason to think it would happen.

  As I stepped into the bar, it took a moment for my eyes to adjust from the bright streetlights to the dim black lighting, but it was toasty warm, which was a nice comparison to the winter chill.

  Despite the lighting and the amount of people there, I could spot Gilly right away with her bright red Scott’s hair. As I weaved through the crowd, my friends seemed to be oblivious to me even as I got closer. They were too busy staring transfixed at something by the bar. I followed their line of vision as I got closer and saw what was so appealing. He might not be your type, but there was no debating his attractiveness.

  “Who is that?” I asked as I put down my jacket and purse in the empty chair and took the seat across from them.

  “He’s the owner” Gilly said. “It seems being drop dead gorgeous is a family trait. There is a whole gang of them. Brothers or something. Every single one could be in a Calvin Klein ad…not quite up to the owner’s level but I’m not sure that another man that attractive could exist, let alone two of them.”

  I took a quick look around the bar. It was a decent sized place, which surprised me. From the entrance, it looked as if it would have been half the size. Another glance around showed we weren’t the only females admiring the view of the hunky bar owner, which was not surprising in the least. He had a raw sex appeal not often seen except when manufactured for the movie screen. It was as if watching the tawny beauty of Brad Pitt in “Legends of the Fall,” wrapped up with masculinity of Gerald Butler in “Three Hundred,” … but times ten.

  “Thanks for ordering me a wine,” I thanked my friends. It might have taken a while since the waitress seemed as equally infatuated with the owner. Even as I spoke I could see her leaning over the bar giving him a generous display of her cleavage. I could hear the table next to ours trying to flag someone down for another round as they sat neglected.

  “So his name is Caden. He bought the bar a couple of years ago and it’s been doing fabulous every since. The guy is a women magnet. The place is packed because all the men come in following the women that are chasing him and his brothers.” Amanda was never as excited or as animated as when she was ferreting out a story or an angle. No surprise, she was a columnist for the local paper. She also did some freelance writing for some pretty big name news magazines. “Him and his brothers, or whoever they are, showed up out of nowhere. They are really a closed group it seems, never any outsiders. No long term relationships for any of them but that one guy over in the corner.” Amanda gestured over to a booth in the corner where an almost equally attractive man was having a drink with a pretty petite blond. “From what I’ve heard he’s the only married one in the group. Can someone explain to me why the really gorgeous ones always have a little petite blond on their arm?”

  Gilly and I laughed at the same time. “Are you kidding? What about that hunk you have at home that you snared with your mahogany tresses?” I asked as I was rolling my eyes to the ceiling and shaking my head.

  “My Mark is a cutie, isn’t he?” She said grinning like a school girl.

  Amanda, Mark and I had all gone to college together. Mark and Amanda had been crazy about each other from the first date, and they were still going strong. Whenever I felt really cynical about love, I always thought of them.

  “I want a Mark” Gilly said with a pout. She perked up slightly. “Or better yet, a Caden.”

  I looked over and saw Caden was inside the bar area still, but now only about six feet from our table. I’ve never been the type to gawk at a man, but I found myself doing it anyway.

  Just as I was looking at him his head tilted up, almost like he was catching a scent on the air, and he turned and looked at me. I couldn’t turn my head away from him. I felt my cheeks burning from the embarrassment of being caught watching him, but I just couldn’t help but hold his gaze. Even from where I sat, I could see the light grey color of his eyes. They stared at me like they wanted to devour me. His eyes were intense, and the look in them shook me to my core. It was a sexual look but at the same time angry and aggressive. I broke the eye contact first after what had probably only been seconds, but had felt like an hour. I was probably imagining it, but I would have sworn his eyes were still on me. My skin burned where I imagined him staring at me. I took a large gulp of wine to calm my now frayed nerves and looked up to see my two girlfriends staring at me.

  “You okay?” they both asked practically in unison.

  “You seem weird all of a sudden,” Amanda continued.

  “Oh no, I’m fine really.” I trie
d to say this as adamantly as I could, but the slight tremor in my voice removed whatever strength I was trying to portray. “This place is too busy. Do you want to try that new place down the street?”

  “I can’t leave yet. I’ve got some papers I have to pass off to a friend of Mark’s that is going to be here tonight,” said Amanda.

  “Why can’t he just email them like the rest of the civilized world does?” Gilly commented in her normal sarcastic tone.

  “They needed original signatures. Why don’t you two head out, and I’ll just hang here until the guy comes then meet up with you.”

  “No, no, I’m just being silly. I’m fine. I’m not going to leave you here sitting all alone. We‘ll wait.” Taking a quick look over at the bar to locate him and he was nowhere in sight, another good looking man had taken his place. Feeling a bit braver in his absence, “I just overreacted for a minute. It’s not bad here at the table.”

  “I for one could sit here all night. Look at the new one behind the bar now. This is unreal. They might have to throw me out of here.”

  I could not help but laugh at Gilly’s remark, and I felt some of the tension release its death hold on my muscles. I just hoped he would stay gone for the rest of my time at the bar. There was something about that brief connection that was completely unsettled me. I had no intention of ever stepping a foot in this place again.

  Chapter Two

  “Caden? What’s wrong with you?” Mike was close on my heels as I entered the room.

  If it wasn’t one of my inner circle, I never would have said a word. Only this small group of men could I ever really trust.

  “There is a female here.”

  “There are females here every night.” Michael stood there with a confused look.

  “No. She’s one of ours.”

  “Wow…are you sure?”

  “Yes. She’s the petite brunette sitting with two other women at table seven.”

  “Yikes, well what should we do? Tonight‘s the worst night for her to have wandered in here.”

  I heard the concern and unease in Mike’s voice. Breathing deeply, I tried to regain my control, as I stood there deep in the under cellars where only me and a very select few ever entered. The air was several degrees cooler down here, and it felt good to breathe in. I was always slightly warm upstairs in the bar.

  “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a situation like this.” All the possible ramifications sank into my head and I mentally got my brain around the situation.

  “Do you want me to try to get her out?”

  “I’m going to watch her from down here on the monitors and hope she leaves before the others arrive. She doesn’t look like the type to close down a bar so it should be okay. Give the guys a heads up to be on alert.”

  Mike nodded and left to go warn the guys.

  This was the heart of the operation. I could see everything in a ten mile radius from here. I had cameras on every street pole for miles. The lights never went out in this part of town. There weren’t any burglaries or vandalism. If something happened here it was because I had given the nod. And now, a tiny little clueless brunette was on the verge of causing all hell to break loose.

  Chapter Three

  “There he is. Let me go get him. I‘ll be right back.” Amanda jumped up and starting waving and heading toward two men near the door.

  “Thank god! Even I’m ready to leave at this point. Could they have gotten here any closer to closing?” Gilly looked to the two tall large men her friend was approaching. “The one’s not bad looking. The one she’s handing the papers to is a bit rough around the edges. Do you think they are lawyers too?”

  Gilly was always willing to downgrade her physical standards for a better paycheck. She called it the point system. If he made nice money it would offset the points needed in the physical department and vice versa. She swore everybody used this point system on some level, she just had fined tuned it. She even had a phone app worked out for it that she wanted to market. You would just take a picture of the guy and it would calculate what salary he had to make. Considering she was a computer programmer, it wasn’t THAT odd. You’d never peg her for a techie either. She was as flamboyant as the red hair on her head.

  “Well? What do you think? Lawyer?” Gilly pressed.

  “I don’t know. If she’s giving him papers from Mark I guess there’s a decent chance, but what do I know. Do you think she’s going to bring him and his friend over? I’m beat. I really don‘t want to run out on them, but I‘m ready to leave. Where did you park?” My feet were already aching at the thought of trekking back to the car.

  “About a block south of here.”

  “Oh good, I need a ride to my car,” I said with a sigh of relief.

  “I can give you a lift.”

  The deep voice coming from behind me startled me. I threw Gilly a look for not warning me of his presence.

  I turned and was shocked by how large the man was up close. He could have been a professional linebacker. I got to my feet, even though they were aching from my new heels, to level the playing field a bit. Even with the extra four inches I didn’t even come close to clearing his breast bone.

  “I’m Carl. Mark and Lisa’s friend?” he said it in a manner that implied I’d be bending over backwards to be nice to him after knowing that. As if I had some knowledge of him being an important person. What he didn’t know was, I didn’t really care who he was or what he did. I either like you or I don’t and not much changes that. Unfortunately, this time around, I took an instant dislike.

  “Thanks, but my girlfriend Gilly can drive me.”

  The guy was giving me the creeps and I took a step back to regain some of my personal space. He had an overbearing feeling to him, and he stood just a little too close. Everyone has a certain personal zone around them that they don’t like crossed. The average person likes twenty-eight inches in front of you and twenty-four inches on the sides. My personal space needs happen to be a bit larger than most, but even by average standards he was way over the line. If I can smell your cologne, you either have too much on, or you need to take a step back. This guy needed to do maybe a little of both.

  I turned to look back at Gilly, so she could confirm what I had just said about her giving me a ride, to find she had already abandoned me for a chance to chat up one of the cute guys that helped run the bar. There was no way I was getting her attention now. My only hope was to make a break for the ladies room and dodge him that way.

  “If you could excuse me a moment, I need to use the ladies room.” He looked as if he wanted to follow me, but he did not budge as I started to leave. As I turned toward the hallway that led to the restrooms, I caught sight of the owner again. Luckily, it seemed to be Carl, Mark’s friend, who was getting his attentions now. If I didn’t know better, I would have said it was a look of warning. It was clear that these two men not only knew each other, but would have preferred not to.

  This night was getting odder by the minute. My head was feeling slightly fuzzy now as well. I couldn’t remember how many glasses of wine I had waiting for Mark’s friend to show. I might text Gilly and Amanda goodbye, and sneak out and grab a cab.

  I ducked into the bathroom and ran my hand under the cold water. I made a little cool compress out of some paper towels and put it on the back of my neck to see if that would help with the fuzziness. I figured about five minutes had passed. He had probably moved onto another female by now, and hopefully I could just sneak out.

  Pressing my hand to the wood of the door, I pushed it out just enough to glance with one eye when another woman coming in swung it open.

  “Oops! Sorry honey! I didn’t see you there.” She stepped back to let me out of the doorway so she could proceed inside. I had to either leave or look crazy, so I decided to step back in and out of the doorway and just look crazy. Better that, then getting stuck with either the icky guy or the sexy but scary guy.

  “Is everything okay?” She asked with a stron
g Brooklyn accent.

  “I’m okay, thanks. Just avoiding some people.”

  “Oh boy…I know what that’s like. At least I use to. Men don’t bother you as much once you hit my age. Enjoy it while you’re young and sexy. The men probably go crazy for you.” She said this with a warm smile.

  “I do okay I guess. I wouldn’t say they are falling at my feet.” I was a bit uncomfortable with the direction this impromptu conversation with a stranger in the bathroom was going. The last thing I had been looking for was public bathroom therapy. What was it about female public bathrooms that led to these weird heart to heart conversations with strangers? I’d say it was the alcohol, except it seemed to not be a localized phenomenon that only happened in liquor serving establishments. I had a whole big conversation with a grandmother type just last week in the bathroom at Macys about whether I wanted to have a family. Perhaps it was the intimacy of the setting that made you more open and vulnerable?

  As if on cue, “Maybe you shut them down before they get a chance?” She said this with a little grin and knowing smile. Had to give it to her though, for free bathroom therapy, she wasn’t all that bad. I did tend to be standoffish at times.

  “Yeah, maybe.” She went into a stall, and I took another peak out the door. It looked clear. I yelled a goodbye to her as I seized on my opportunity to leave. As I made my break for it, I saw that Amanda was still talking with the creepy guy and the other one that had shown up with him. Gilly was standing next to her, busy flipping her hair at his friend. Too bad they were all by the front door blocking my exit.

  The bar was emptying out as the bouncers were herding people toward the doors. There was a group of people leaving through a side door towards the back, and that seemed to be my best shot. I would have to tough it out the eight blocks back to my car in aching feet if I couldn’t find a cab, but this was the safest neighborhood around so at least I figured I’d make it. I didn’t feel as confident if I went with Carl.