Linked

COPYRIGHT

This e-book is
licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book 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’re reading
this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only,
then please return to an online retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you
for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work
of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of
the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity between
actual persons living and dead is purely coincidental. Any use of locales,
establishments, or events are used fictitiously.

Copyright © 2011
Hope Welsh

Cover Art © 2010
ninjaMel Designs

ISBN
978-1-890785-99-4

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’d like to thank ninjaMel Designs
for the wonderful work on the cover for this book. I’d also like to thank the
wonderful beta readers and reviewers that read this book along the way for
their support.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all that love books with a HAPPILY
EVER AFTER. And to those readers that love a bit of paranormal tossed in with
their romance.

I’d also like to dedicate this book to my daughter, Melanie
for her help in writing this book, and for her design of the wonderful cover
for LINKED.

REVIEWS

I have this little quirk when it comes to reading…I love
evil. Evil bad boys, evil masterminds and in the case of LINKED, the all-seeing
evil presence. When I was approached to read Hope Welsh's recent release, I
took one look at the blurb and smiled and when I then saw the cover with the
evil eyes staring back at me, I almost cackled with delight. I'm new to the
author's writing so I wondered if she'd provided me a story to appease my quirk
and boy did she ever. Evil comes in all forms and as I began reading, I loved
the characters I met, the unique storyline and I was especially happy to find
one of my favorite kinds of evil - the indignant.

This truly was a great book to read. I loved the unique take
Hope used in explaining the origins of shape shifters and I had never heard it
before. It was believable and I wish I could have learned a little more…I would
definitely recommend this to people to read. I loved it and was able to relate
to the characters. It left me with a good feeling in my heart and for me,
that's why I read. Happy Reading!—The Bookish Snob—

PROLOGUE

2,000 years ago...

The Evil One stared through the
invisible walls holding him and laughed.

They would never be able to
vanquish him. Their powers paled in comparison to his.

With no other option, they had
constructed this prison.

Even though the Druids tried to
hide it from him, he still heard of the prophecy. His spies were everywhere. He
came to force answers from the Druids, but they had been ready for him.

Before he discovered the Druids’
intentions, he had been trapped. Their blood sacrifice had been unable to
destroy him, but they ensured he would remain imprisoned here for the next two
millennia.

He actually laughed at the Druids
when they trapped him. Time was of little consequence to him, as it would pass
in the blink of his eye.

He had existed since the
beginning of time and they were mere mortals. Never would they have the power
to destroy him—but something apparently could.

He managed to read only a small
part of the prophecy before he had been detected.

When two become one.

He needed to recover those two
pieces before anyone else found them. He vowed to make sure they would never
have the chance to become one.

He would not be destroyed. And
now that he knew what to look for, nothing, and no one, would ever be powerful
enough to vanquish him.

Humankind would pay for the
Druids’ audacity. Did they think to imprison him and not pay the consequences?
Did they think he would suffer their insolence?

He hoped they did. Almost hoped
they thought themselves safe from him.

True enough now. For the time
being, they would be out of his reach. As time passed, they would forget about
the threat which lingered over them like a black cloud, circling, gathering
speed and force…waiting for the right moment.

Yes, revenge would be his, and
humankind would once again bow before him.

This prison would not hold him
indefinitely. Eventually, he would escape. Then he would find the pieces and
destroy them.

Nothing would stand in his way.

CHAPTER ONE

“
Run
!”

Lana Summers shot awake in a cold
sweat, her arm outstretched, reaching for someone who wasn’t there. She sat up
and brushed the hair away from her damp face.

“What the...?” She glanced around
the dark room, half expecting to see her mom. That’s whose voice had screamed
in her head.

No, not in her head.

It was from her dream—just a
dream. Her mom wasn’t there.

God, it had been so real. Too
real.

She shook her head in immediate
denial. Her mild psychic abilities never progressed to the same level of her
mother’s, thank God. It had only been a ridiculous dream. She refused to accept
it as anything paranormal.

I won’t be like you, Mom. I
love you, but I won’t be you. I won’t live my life always wondering what horror
I’ll see next.

But the dream…it had been so
vivid. It had seemed so real. And this wasn’t the first one she’d experienced.
She’d had the first one a week after her mother’s death. Though, in that one,
her mother hadn’t screamed at her or scared her half to death. All she could
remember about it was her mother’s tone seemed urgent, but she couldn’t figure
out what was wrong or what her mother wanted to tell her.

Not that she had tried that hard,
nor had she wanted to.

Unable to shake it off, Lana put
her feet over the side of the bed and slowly stood up, still looking around the
room. She slipped her feet into her slippers and had just reached to turn on
the bedside lamp when she heard a strange noise.

Her breath held as she listened.
Hearing strange noises in an apartment wouldn’t have bothered her, but this was
different—closer.

It took only a matter of seconds
before she recognized the sound of footsteps. Someone was in the hallway headed
toward her bedroom.

Someone was in her apartment! A
scream slowly bubbled up in her throat unbidden, but she suppressed it. She had
to get out, but how?

The window was her only chance.

Thank God for first-floor
apartments, she thought as she grabbed her robe off the foot of her bed and
made her way, quick and silent, toward the window. She held her breath again
and tried to open the window quietly. It finally opened with a creak, causing
her to wince as she slipped one leg over the ledge.

The back of her building had been
built on a downward slant of land, so what should have been a four or five foot
drop to the ground, ended up being eight.

The doorknob rattled. There was
no time to debate the pros and cons of jumping. She could either jump now or….
She didn’t want to wait for the or.

So much for choices, she thought
grimly, and jumped feet first.

Her ankle twisted as she hit the
ground, causing her to fall to her knees and suck in a breath at the sharp
pain. She looked up and saw a shadowed figure standing at the window. As she
pushed herself up, she turned her head, managing another quick glance. After
sticking his head out the window, he threw one leg over the edge.

He was going to do what she’d
just done, she realized as she took off around the side of the building.

Lana made her way toward the
front of the apartment complex, running as fast as her injured ankle would
allow, not even noticing that she’d lost a slipper somewhere along the way.

Footsteps echoed behind her, but
she ignored the natural urge to turn around. If she could just make it across
the street to the twenty-four hour store, she would be able to get help.

She stumbled and barely managed
to catch her balance. The convenience store, and a man standing outside,
finally came into view as she passed the edge of her building, and she almost
wept with relief. Never before had the sight of dim lights and a stranger made
her so happy. It was going to be okay.

Without slowing her pace, Lana
finally dared a glance over her shoulder to see if the figure was still following
her, and saw him round the corner.

§§§

Cole needed a cigarette. For the
umpteenth time he wondered why he’d quit the week before. The temptation to
light up surged through him, but he had better control than that. Barely. The
urges weren’t as frequent now, but when they hit, he really wanted to give in
to them. Maybe he should have tried one of the patches or that new medication.
He was not one to give in, though, once he’d made up his mind. Why had he
decided to quit again? Oh yeah—cancer.

If he couldn’t smoke, he needed
gum, and he needed it ten minutes ago.

He saw a convenience store up
ahead and debated whether or not to stop. The one closer to his house was only
fifteen minutes away, but that meant fifteen minutes longer without gum.

Not to mention the pack of
Marlboro that was sitting in his glove box. It had been easier somehow to quit
when he knew that there was a pack waiting. So far, it had worked well knowing
it was there if he really needed it.

The internal debate didn’t last
long. He’d quit. He wasn’t giving up, so he pulled in the parking lot and
parked by the front entrance. It was nearly deserted, which suited him just
fine. He really wanted that gum.

As he jumped out of his car and
headed for the door, a tingling at the back of his neck had him turning his
head.

He saw her immediately.

A woman out for a run at one
thirty in the morning? Not likely, and certainly not wearing anything but what
appeared to be a robe. Obviously something was wrong.

She ran with a limp, wearing only
one slipper, and glanced over her shoulder.

Gum forgotten, Cole headed toward
the edge of the parking lot. A man came darting from behind the building.
Instincts—not to mention the terror on the woman’s face—told him the guy
following her wasn’t someone she wanted to catch her.

Cole hesitated only a second
before sprinting across the street. Horns blasted, and a driver yelled
obscenities, but he ignored them.

The woman ran into him fast
enough to spin him around. She would have sent them both sprawling to the sidewalk
had he not put his hands around her waist to catch her. Either she hadn’t
noticed him cross the street, or she was too preoccupied with the man chasing
her to care.

“There’s someone after me,” she
said breathlessly.

“I know.” He turned back around to
get a better glimpse of the man, but he was gone, and that worried him.

She bent over, hands resting on
the tops of her legs, trying to catch her breath. “I’m sorry,” she said and
straightened.

She brushed long curls out of her
face, finally giving him a chance to get a good look at her.

Her brown hair glinted with
reddish highlights in the glow from the convenience store lights. Fear and pain
tainted the smoky blue of her eyes. She stood almost a foot shorter than his
own six-two and his innate protective nature kicked in instinctively.

Her dark blue robe looked as
though she had rolled around in the mud—the remaining slipper on her foot
didn’t look much better.

“Are you okay?” Cole asked, his
voice soothing. He wanted her to stay calm enough to tell him what was going
on, and that wouldn’t happen if she hyperventilated or got hysterical on him.
Hell, leave it to me to be in the wrong place at the right time.