Shattered Warrior Read online

  SHATTERED WARRIOR

  Brenda Trim and Tami Julka

  Copyright © April 2017 by Brenda Trim and Tami Julka

  eISBN: 978-1-63587-812-7

  Editor: Amanda Fitzpatrick

  Cover Art by Patricia Schmitt @ Pickyme Artist

  *****

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writers’ imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction of this work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the authors.

  Dedication

  “I feel like everything in my life has led me to you. My choices, my heartbreaks, my regrets. Everything. And when we’re together, my past seems worth it. Because if I had done one thing differently, I might have never met you.” ~ Author Unknown

  Table of Contents

  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

  Author’s Note

  Don’t Miss Out

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  CHAPTER ONE

  “Orlando!” Elsie’s frantic call echoed through the house. Orlando jumped from his chair in the war room and ran into the foyer just in time to see the vampire queen flying down the main staircase.

  Her long curly brown hair was sexy, whipping in every direction as she raced to him. He cursed himself every kind of fool. Apparently, he wasn’t as over the Vampire Queen as he’d believed. Sure, he couldn’t stop thinking about Jaidis, the cambion he’d met recently at the realm medical clinic, but he still stopped in his tracks when Elsie entered a room.

  Windmilling her arms, pink fuzzy socks sailed toward him. Orlando reached out, grabbing hold of Elsie’s waist to keep her from crashing into him and sending them both to the hard marble floor.

  “What is it, a ghra?” Zander asked as he took Elsie from Orlando’s grasp.

  Orlando hadn’t heard the vampire king follow him out of the war room, but it wasn’t a surprise given the frantic sound of Elsie’s voice.

  Orlando’s chest clenched when Elsie forgot about him completely and gazed up at her Fated Mate with those adoring blue eyes. How many times had Orlando wished he was Elsie’s mate and that she would turn that look on him? Too many to count, he thought, as he lowered his head, berating his jealousy. Elsie was not now, nor, would she ever be, his.

  Shaking his head, Orlando shoved those thoughts into the back of his mind. Would that overflowing box of feelings that had Elsie’s name engraved on the top ever stop tormenting him?

  “Did you need me?” Orlando interjected before the couple became lost in each other. From the tremble to her voice and the way she stormed down the stairs he’d bet there was a problem.

  Turning away from Zander, she gripped Orlando’s shoulders and shook him. “You have to get to the pregnant lady. She’s in a room and she’s hurt, maybe dying. I saw you there, too, and the realm police. Youhavetogonowthebabyisgoingtodie,” she blurted, her words running together at the end.

  He hadn’t seen Elsie this shaken up by one of her premonitions since the one she had involving her sister. He recalled how she’d seen her sister run off the road by skirm and attacked by an archdemon. It had taken the San Francisco Dark Warriors, along with, the Seattle bunch to get to Cailyn in time. After that experience, everyone took Elsie’s premonitions seriously.

  What Elsie had just described made Orlando’s heart stop as panic threatened to buckle his knees. The only pregnant female he knew was Jaidis, his other obsession. The alluring cambion had held his mind hostage for weeks now.

  “What did she look like? Did she have blonde hair? Was there a male there with her?” he asked frantically.

  “There was so much blood,” Elsie replied, sadness replacing some of her frenzy. “But, yes, she had blonde hair. The scene was chaotic with countless officers and a doctor. You have to go there now,” she pleaded, the urgency in her voice returning.

  A silver knife sliced through Orlando’s heart at the picture Elsie painted. Jaidis was in trouble. It didn’t surprise him given her abusive mate. How much time did he have? Unfortunately, Elsie’s premonitions didn’t always happen before the event. In fact, it was only last week that she’d seen a car accident after the fact and a young shifter died.

  “Do you know the address, a ghra?” Zander asked, phone out ready to call in the cavalry.

  Without thinking, Orlando blurted Jaidis’ address and was in motion to the front door. As he slammed the wood panel closed he heard Zander talking to O’Haire. After jumping in his Mustang, Orlando called the realm clinic and told the receptionist Dr. Fruge needed to meet him at Jaidis’ house pronto. He was relieved when the female who answered informed him the doctor wasn’t already there. Maybe he had time to make it to her.

  Heart racing and sweat slicking his palms, Orlando ignored speed limits and stoplights, placing his siren on the roof of his Mustang as he hurried across town to Capitol Hill. Urgency rode him like a demon. Jaidis had needed him and he wasn’t there to protect her. Fuck!

  *****

  When he arrived at the scene, there were no flashing lights or caravans of vehicles parked in front of Jaidis’ house. It was very different from the typical protocol of his human job at SPD. There were no patrol officers cordoning off the scene with yellow tape. In fact, from the outside, there were no visible signs that anything was going on inside the small house. It looked like any of the other houses in the dark of night.

  But that ended the second Orlando stepped out of the car and the scent of blood assaulted his senses. Looks were deceiving for sure. It had to be bad if the constant Seattle rain couldn’t wash away the scent. The sound of his heartbeat thrashing in his ears was deafening. Add to that the dark, winter night and his blood was like sludge in his veins. His legs threatened to give out as he trudged up the walk. Fuck, he needed to get ahold of himself. He was a seasoned warrior, after all, not some green officer.

  He wondered how many realm police officers had shown up. The house wasn’t very big and he imagined just a few people would make anything Elsie had seen more urgent. Closed quarters tended to skew perspective. Maybe the situation wasn’t as dire as Elsie had made it sound.

  Orlando already knew from a previous visit that Jaidis and her mate did not live with extended family. The faded paint on the siding was as he remembered and the porch still free of clutter. Hesitant of what he was walking into, he took several deep breaths, trying to ignore the coppery scent as he steeled his spine.

  The recollection of Elsie screeching about the baby dying hastened Orlando’s steps. J
ust as he was about to knock, the front door was pulled open and Steve O’Haire’s plump face filled his vision.

  “Trovatelli, thank fuck you’re here. This is a damned mess,” the realm police officer said by way of greeting. Orlando’s heart raced in his chest, making his vision waver and his stomach churn.

  The last time Orlando had seen Jaidis he had shown up at her house hoping to save the female. He’d surmised she was being physically abused and received confirmation that night when she’d answered the door bruised and battered. Now, he cursed himself for visiting at all.

  Kenny had shown up pissed off and threatened Orlando for being at his house with his pregnant mate. At the time, Orlando hadn’t given the threat against him any thought, but left fearing for Jaidis’ safety. And, it was that fear that had kept him away for the past weeks.

  Orlando hadn’t want to make matters worse for Jaidis, yet now he couldn’t help but wonder if he made a mistake by staying away. A quick glance over O’Haire’s shoulder had bile rising in his throat. There was a smear of blood on the wood floor of the tiny entryway. It was Kenny’s blood, he repeatedly told himself, because his mind would snap if he even considered it might belong to Jaidis.

  Thank the Goddess it was a habit to keep strict shields around his empathic ability because, in the next second, a toxic mix slammed into Orlando. The force of the terror made him take a step back and reach up, rubbing at the ache in his chest. Whatever happened involved more panic than he had ever experienced. More than once over his four hundred twelve years he’d wished for a different ability, but never more than right at that moment as he felt like he was going to vomit from the emotional impact.

  “What happened?” Orlando snapped, hating the tremor in his voice.

  O’Haire stepped aside and motioned for Orlando to enter the house. Automatically, Orlando searched for the container of protective booties for his shoes. In his position with the Seattle Police Department, there were certain protocols that clearly weren’t followed by the realm police, which Orlando understood because the Tehrex Realm didn’t have the same justice system as the humans.

  In the realm, the leaders were the judge, jury, and executioner and they required far less formal evidence. Not that they didn’t collect evidence, because they did. The realm had recently added crime scene investigators that handled cases similarly to their human counterparts with the major difference being in cataloging scents. They often called leaders to the scenes so they could gather their own impressions. These advanced senses allowed them to pick up on subtle clues that could exonerate or persecute perps.

  “I came right over after Zander called me and found the male and female in the family room. I called the rest of the team right away. I’ve never seen such a savage attack between mates. Scenes like this usually involve demons and skirm,” Steve shared as he shook his head in disbelief.

  The knot in Orlando’s chest expanded and further constricted his breathing. A silent prayer began in the back of his head as he entered the house. Careful of the bloodstains on the floor, his heart dropped to his feet when he looked around the room.

  Blood splattered the walls of the small living room to his left and the tan couches had sprays of red across the fabric. The television was on, but the picture was marred by streaks of blood, as well. Laid in a heap next to the small fireplace, Kenny lifeless eyes stared up at the ceiling.

  Right beside Kenny’s body was a fifty-caliber pistol, an AMT Automag if Orlando wasn’t mistaken. He prayed the son of a bitch had shot himself and Jaidis had escaped unharmed.

  Orlando identified Kenny more by the familiar jumpsuit he wore than his physical appearance. One side of the male’s face looked like a grenade had exploded near it. Flesh, bone and sinew gleamed in the lighting, telling Orlando it must have been a silver bullet because nothing else would have killed the supernatural.

  Skimming the room, Orlando fell to his knees when he recognized Jaidis’s tiny feet behind one of the blood-soaked couches. He didn’t give Kenny another thought as he crawled to her side, heedless of anything around him.

  Disbelief, anger, panic and despair flooded his entire being. Part of his mind registered he was kneeling in her life’s blood while the other part acknowledged nothing short of a miracle could save her.

  One of her eyes was swollen shut and her lip was cut and bleeding, but that was the least of her injuries. Crimson seeped steadily from a wound to her large abdomen. The oversized t-shirt hid the injury, but he knew it was life threatening to both Jaidis and the baby. The exit wound was on her chest, precariously close to her heart.

  “That sorry mother-fucker shot his mate and then turned the gun on himself,” Orlando muttered. Why did he have to harm her and the baby? Why couldn’t he have just killed himself and left them alone?

  “Hold pressure to the chest wound,” Dr. Fruge directed, startling Orlando as he entered the room and knelt on the other side of Jaidis. “I need to do a C-section right now if I want to save the baby,” the doctor informed him grimly, meeting Orlando’s gaze over Jaidis’s inert body.

  “No, you need to save them both,” Orlando barked at the male. Orlando felt an instance of guilt when the doctor trembled and paled.

  He knew his tone was threatening and he was frightening the male, but he couldn’t help it.

  As if his voice roused her, Jaidis slowly opened her eyes and turned her head his way. “Orlando,” she managed to croak. “Is that…you?”

  “Yes, Jaidis. I’m here. Dr. Fruge is here and he’s going to save you and the baby,” Orlando murmured, trying to reassure her.

  She opened her mouth and blood frothed, seeping out the sides with her labored breathing. Her shirt and pants were soaked with the liquid and he wondered how much blood a supernatural could lose and still live. The coppery scent overpowered every other scent in the room.

  It was a scene he’d seen too many times to count in the human system, but never imagined between Fated Mates. Orlando had always believed the bond between mates was above abusive behavior.

  Each of the Goddess Morrigan’s subjects was born carrying a piece of their Fated Mate’s soul. The first lesson taught in life was that it was their duty to protect their mate’s soul. Once mated, their connection became so profound couples could literally hear each other’s thoughts. Mates were so closely interwoven that they also knew each other’s feelings. He could not imagine harming your mate in this manner, especially, when you would feel everything you did to the person you loved.

  Kenny had to have felt what he’d done to Jaidis. The fear and pain he had caused. The male had to be masochistic to treat her like this and endure the consequences right alongside her. And then there was the baby to think about. How did a male harm his child when they were at their most vulnerable?

  The fact that Kenny had harmed both his mate and unborn baby made Orlando want to kill him all over again. He hoped the male was burning in Hell for what he’d done. He knew from Rhys’ account that there was a circle in the Underworld where souls burned in a lake of fire for eternity. It gave him immense pleasure to picture Kenny there suffering for the rest of his days.

  “Not…me,” Jaidis whispered. “Save…my baby.” Her eyes slipped closed and her face went lax.

  “No!” Orlando shouted as he pressed on her chest wound. “You’re going to live,” he ordered.

  “I have to operate now,” Dr. Fruge cut in. “I don’t know if she will make it through this. Her injuries are too severe,” he added.

  “You will save her!” Orlando growled at the male.

  Dr. Fruge paused at the tone of Orlando’s voice and swallowed hard. Orlando didn’t care if the male shit his pants from his fear. He needed to save Jaidis.

  “Get me some towels and move this furniture,” Dr. Fruge told O’Haire in the next second. The realm officer who had been standing sentinel over their group snapped to attention.

  “Search the hall closets for towels,” O’Haire barked over his shoulder.

  Orl
ando couldn’t see whom he talked to, but the sofa scraping over the wood floor echoed around the room as it was pushed out of the way. It was so loud that it drowned out Jaidis’s labored breathing. Orlando needed to hear her breathing to know she was still with him. He nearly snapped O’Haire’s meaty neck when he moved the broken pieces of a table out of the doctor’s way.

  Moments later a female shifter returned with a bundle of towels in her arms. Orlando gave her a cursory glance and was instantly drawn to her. She was attractive with an average build and had a police badge clipped to her belt. He didn’t sense she was a threat so he turned his attention back to Jaidis.

  He smoothed the blonde hair from her face, revealing more bruises. These were a greenish-black color telling him Kenny had beaten her before this latest incident, as well. Orlando wondered how often Kenny had harmed Jaidis. The male was damn lucky he was already dead because Orlando’s leopard wanted to rip him limb from limb.

  The female with the towels knelt next to Dr. Fruge and hesitated before she set the towels down. Orlando knew she paused because there wasn’t a clean spot on the floor.

  “Just set them there. And, spread one out for me, please. I need my tools handy. Once I start the procedure I will need to move quickly to save the baby. Already his heart rate is falling,” the doctor explained.

  Dr. Fruge was a talented sorcerer and doctor, but he did not have the healing abilities Jace did. Orlando contemplated calling Jace, but couldn’t free his hands long enough to make the call.

  Tearing his gaze away from Jaidis’s pale face, Orlando located O’Haire. “Call Jace and tell him to get here right away. He may be able to heal Jaidis. And tell him to bring Gerrick with him,” he barked at the cop.

  O’Haire’s steel gray eyes bulged and then he swiveled, phone at his ear speaking to someone before Orlando blinked.

  “Do you think Jace will make it? She’s in pretty bad shape,” the female shifter pointed out as she pushed her glasses up her nose.