Garda - Welcome to the Realm (24 page)

He walked over to a garage door, pulled a key out of his pocket, then bent down and unlocked the padlock that secured the door. When he stood, he handed me the key.

I studied the small gold key; the metal was warm from being in his pocket. “What do I need that would be stored in the garage?”

He stood back up and grinned. “You can’t just go popping in and out of places. People might see that, but if you had transportation, then you would be just like any other person.”

He reached down and grabbed the handle to the garage door, pulling it up halfway before putting both hands under it and lifting it over his head.

When the door cleared his hips, I knew what was hidden inside. “Is that mine?” I whispered while my gaze caressed the black hood.

“It’s not the one you had, if that’s what you are asking, but it’s just like it.” He turned, sliding his hands back and forth together to get the dust off his palms.

There wasn’t anything on Earth that could take the smile off my face as I regarded the sleek black car.

“The keys are inside. I would suggest that you wait until nightfall before you take it out. Remember that people here will recognize you, so you have to be careful about that. It’s only Mitch that we want to shock.”

At the mention of his name, my heart skipped a beat. I was going to see him, face to face. I had no clue what I would say or how he would react to seeing me, but right now all I could think of was that he would see me.

“Oh,” Monty got quiet for a moment, irritation written on his features. “I must go, Coralenna, one of my charges has gotten himself in a predicament.”

He gave me a lopsided smile, “I wish you the best. Remember that your choices here will affect a lot of things, so be wise in your decisions.”

I nodded at him, “I will, Monty, and thank you.”

He walked to me and pulled me into a hug, his strong arms holding me tight and close. The love and friendship that wove through us was strong, and I absorbed it. He pulled away, searching my face as a parent might examine his own child’s.

“Be careful, my child.” He kissed me on the forehead gently and stepped back.

“I will.” We shared a moment of quiet and then he nodded once and was gone.

I inhaled a deep soul-cleansing breath, trying to relax my body as if I were to practice my forms. Releasing the air I held deep inside me, I examined the area around me again.

An old half-crushed soda bottle lay against one wall near another door, a few cigarette butts were strewn about. My line of vision settled on my car again as I heard a horn honk and a dog bark in the distance. I grinned. I was back!

~Mitchell~

Things at home the last two days were for the most part better. While Beth and I had not spoken about my involvement with Corey or her involvement with my brother, we seemed to have come to a truce.

I wasn’t sure what my feelings toward the whole thing were, but at least there were no more skeletons in the closet.

As I pulled up to the twenty-four-hour convenience store where all the guys on duty were meeting for coffee, I backed into a parking spot. Two other patrol cars were already parked, and I watched the last one pull in while I climbed out of the car.

I waited for Tom to get out of the car. Joe was off tonight, so Tom and I were partnered up for the shift. I liked working with Tom. I didn’t seem to make the bad judgment calls I did when Joe was my partner. Tom and I had just cleared a domestic call together. He prattled on about the baby mama drama that we had just dealt with as we entered the store.

The coffee island stood to our right, and we grabbed brown paper cups as we reached it. Tom poured French vanilla creamer into his cup before walking to the canisters to fill his. I made my way straight to the Kona coffee canister and filled my twenty-four-ounce cup to the rim. I liked mine hot and black.

We stood around the island idly chatting over the night’s calls, random people came in and grabbed what they needed and left. A few would stop to say hello, but most avoided us. At this time of night, the drunks were coming home from the bars and the seedier people were out and about.

With my hands resting on the green Formica counter, I glanced towards the door when headlights flashed into the store. The lights turned off, and I brought my attention back to the guys around me.

As if an ice cube had been slipped down the back of the shirt under my vest, a spear of anxiety raced down my back as I heard a gentle voice inside my mind.

Outside, Mitch.

I straightened and stared toward the glass doors, out in the parking lot beside the car that had just pulled in stood a dark figure. I tensed as a car turned the corner and the headlights hit the lone person.

Corey? My heart sped and my hands grew damp. The headlights had only flickered over the person, but in that single moment, I saw her. I stepped towards the doors, drawn to her.

The person turned back to her car and opened the door. No lights came on inside as I pushed open the first set of glass doors. I watched the person slip inside the vehicle.

“Hey, Mitch, where are you going?” Tom yelled from behind me.

I barely turned my head, keeping my line of sight trained on the car, “I’ll be right back. I need to check on something.” I stepped into the vestibule, stopping as the headlights came back on and struck me. I shielded my eyes.

It couldn’t be Corey. Corey was dead. Yet, I had just seen her. She was focused right at me. That had been her voice I had heard.

The car started to pull out. As it turned from the space in front of me, I saw the sleek lines of a black Camaro. My heart thumped wildly, and I pushed the second set of glass doors as the car continued to drive away.

Once outside, I watched the car pull to the roadway, stopping briefly before it turned right. I ran to my car, I had to find out who was driving that Camaro. This had to be a bad joke. I reached my car and pulled out my keys to unlock the door when I noticed something on my windshield and hesitated.

A small piece of paper was tucked under the windshield wiper. I grabbed it after unlocking the door. I lifted the single fold and gasped as I read the ink on the paper:
Meet me, C
.

I lifted my face from the paper toward the road. The car was just fading out of sight. Meet you where? Oh God, was that really Corey? The taillights disappeared, and I jumped into my car, pulled out of the parking space quickly, and moved towards the road.

The electronics building was in that direction, the place where we used to meet. I stepped on the gas. In the distance, I saw the back end of the car. The blinker flashed on and the Camaro turned off the road into a parking lot: the electronics place.

My hands were damp, my heart hammered wildly, and my mind reeled. How could it be Corey? I had watched her die. I had watched her get buried. I had carried her damn body for God’s sake!

Anger sparked from somewhere deep inside as I stepped on the gas harder. What kind of joke was this?

I slammed on the brake, almost locking them up, and turned without using my turn signal. The sudden fear that darted through my stomach made me feel ill.

I stopped my car before I turned around the backside, squeezing my eyelids closed as my hands choked the steering wheel. It can’t be Corey! But I saw her! I shouted inside my own mind.

I forced myself to breathe slowly and put my foot gently back on the gas pedal.

As I made the left turn to drive past the loading docks, my headlights landed on the black Camaro parked on the far side. The lights were out and the door was closed. My foot shook on the pedal as I softly pressed it down to move closer.

Twenty feet away, I stopped. My right hand put the car in park. I wiped my wet palms on my pants before turning my headlights off. There was no movement in the car in front of me. The overhead light on the corner of the building cast a harsh yellow fluorescent light.

Why wasn’t anyone getting out? Fear froze me to my seat, not the kind of fear that we get on the job responding to a dangerous call, but the kind that mentally locks you down on the inside. I was afraid—afraid that this was a joke, or maybe I was afraid that this was real. I wasn’t exactly sure, but the apprehension choked me even as I lifted my hand to the door handle.

A minute passed before I gathered the strength to pull the handle. I pushed the door open and stepped out gingerly, never taking my focus from the driver’s door. I held onto the door frame for a moment for support. The dark-tinted windows revealed nothing as I stood straighter and then stepped back to close the door with a soft click. My heart pounded in my chest in triple time, blocking out all other sounds except the blood rushing through my ears.

I stood staring, waiting for the car door to open, waiting for whoever was doing this to me to step out and face me. I took a step forward but spun around when a soft feminine voice came from behind me.

“Mitch, I’m glad you came.”

I sucked in the air as the sound of her voice reached me—Corey’s voice. I swallowed as I searched the shadows near the wall of the building. A figure slowly stepped out from the edge.

Her lower legs and shoes broke from the darkness first, and I followed the line of her legs as she emerged further. Black boots covered her feet and disappeared under dark blue jeans. She took another step, and the light revealed the bottom of a black leather jacket open at her waist. My mouth was dry as I tried to swallow again.

Another step forward brought her totally into the light, and my head swam as I gawked from her dark purple shirt into her angelic face. Her soft hair framed her face, her beautiful eyes bright and focused. A small elegant smile adorned her lips and the buzzing grew louder in my ears.

“Breathe, Mitch, you have to breathe before you pass out.”

Absently, I did as she said, pulling air in and out of my lungs as I stared at her. My mind was trying to process this, but it just couldn’t understand, and the quaking in my limbs grew.

“How?” the strangled word left my mouth.

She walked closer, stopping a few feet away, and I watched as she examined my entire face, a yearning filled her expression.

Could I be dreaming? Had I fallen asleep in my car, and this was all a dream?

I swallowed hard, “You’re dead. How are you here?”

Her shoulders rose as she took her own deep breath. “You’re right, I am dead, but I’m here.”

“Am I dreaming all this?”

She stepped close enough that I could smell her sweet citrus scent. “No, you are not dreaming, Mitch. I’m here, right in front of you.” She smiled softly, and my heart threatened to jump out of my chest.

“I don’t understand,” my voice quivered as much as my body. If I was dreaming, I didn’t want to wake up.

~Brock~

I moved from one charge to another, making sure they were all going in the right direction. Some were harder than others, but eventually I had checked in on all I needed to and phased back to the Realm.

Once in my quarters, I found myself pacing. While in the living arena, I had been able to keep Corey somewhat off my mind for the most part. Here, she was all I could think of. I reached out to see if she was here, but she wasn’t.

What was she doing? Was she with him? I shook the thought from my head.

I changed into workout gear, needing someplace to channel my tension, and phased to the bottom floor to hit the weight room. Maybe if I could wear myself out, I could get her out of my mind.

There were a few people in the gym when I arrived. Most nodded as I walked in and scanned the room. I acknowledged them with my own brief head tip and made my way to the squat rack.

As I lifted a forty-five-pound plate to slip it on the bar, Montgomery spoke from behind me. “I’m surprised to find you here, Brock.”

I twisted my face over my shoulder and watched him wipe sweat from his face with a light blue towel. “Why’s that?” I asked briskly.

He tossed his towel to the floor and picked up a plate, putting it on the other side of the bar.

“Figured you would stay in the living arena,” his glare met mine briefly before he turned to pick up a weight plate.

“Everyone is behaving; I came back for a break.”

He slipped the plate on, pushing it all the way in where it clanked against the other plate and met my gaze, “Oh, really? You didn’t come back to see if she was here?”

I huffed and turned for another plate. “What difference does it make? I was told to stay away from her.” I pushed the plate on until it met the other one. I bent down and picked up the collar that would lock the weights in place, pinching it between my palms; I compressed the clamp and slid it on the bar to rest against the plates.

Montgomery did the same, and I waited until he was done before I stepped into the rack and got ready to pick it up.

“Since when have you ever done what you are supposed to do?” he taunted.

I stepped back into the bar and shrugged. I lifted the bar with my hands on the sides of my shoulders, the bar rested on the back of my neck and the top of my shoulder blades. I took a small step forward to clear the rack. Taking a deep breath, I bent at the knees, went down to a squatting position, then slowly rose back up. After ten squats, I stepped back until I felt the rack behind me. Montgomery helped guide the bar back in place and let go as it dropped a half inch into position.

With each bend that I had made, I saw her face. Her smile, the sound of her voice filled my mind until I felt I would drop the weight.

“Where is she?” I wiped my hands on my sweatpants, drying the perspiration on my palms from holding the heavy metal bar.

“She’s down below.” He stepped around to the side of the bar, pulling the locking clip off to add more weight for my next set.

I knew she was down below, but hearing the words was like a knife to the back.

“How are things going?” I picked up a twenty-pound plate and put it on the bar next to the forty-fives.

He shrugged and picked up the locking clip, putting it back in place after he added weight to his side. “Don’t know just yet, haven’t heard from her since I showed her how to cross over.” He watched my face as he spoke.