God's Eye by A.J. Scudiere Read Free Book Online Page A

as expected. In a matter of weeks, great cracks and questions had appeared at the foundation of all she knew. But she had limited experience handling real questions, so Katharine did what she was good at and pushed it all aside. She had a thief to catch.
    •  •  •
     
    Zachary saw Katharine emerge from her father’s office, but she didn’t see him. He sat behind the veil, watching. Waiting. Making sure things didn’t go horribly awry for her.
    There was so much she did. So much she accomplished. He needed to show her the path to her own soul. She was so devoid of knowledge of herself, but he could set her free. She could join and do the work she was meant for. See all the things he could give her.
    She walked down the hallway away from him, but he could detect no change in her from a week ago. Nothing that said she belonged to someone, even though he knew she had feelings for him. That was something that couldn’t be helped. When one of his kind incorporated, while people could see and accept the brethren as human, there was usually still some tiny tip, some clue, that was picked up on. People flocked to Zachary’s kind like moths to flame, wanting to be near something they barely sensed. There was little he could do about it. Her attraction to him was as natural as the doormen going out of their way, the clerks at the grocery being nice for the first time all day, the hostess in the restaurant having feelings for him.
    He didn’t return the emotions. He couldn’t–he was a higher being. He could enjoy the interaction, empathize and placate the ones with feelings, but he couldn’t be attracted to them the same way they were to him. Katharine included. Having sex with her had been a necessary evil. Zachary needed her bound to him. He needed her to listen and hear what he told her. Allistair would destroy everything if he got to her first, if he tied Katharine more tightly to him, if he swayed her away from what she was capable of becoming. So Zachary had been forced to move first, to protect what she could become.
    His thoughts had wandered, his attention lapsed, and as he turned to follow Katharine he mistakenly ran into an employee. Mary Wayne. She was delivering the paystubs for the division chairs as well as for the payroll department. It was poor form for payroll to hand themselves their own checks, so it fell to Sharon to hand the payroll clerks the checks they had approved for themselves.
    Zachary had taken one step when Mary had passed through him. That was an error.
    He’d had contact with Mary off and on for several weeks, yet she was becoming a problem. Zachary decided something needed to be done. But as she passed through him, she stopped and shuddered as though she felt a chill.
    Mary was developing a sense of the other side. Not that she knew it, but she was having minor reactions to things that were happening across the veil. Even though she clearly sensed something, she didn’t see him, or even sense what he was.
    He stood and stretched, his wings unfurling to their full length. This body needed to be used when he was in his own form. This was the skin that fit him best, and he’d spent so much time in human form lately that he was in need of his own shape sometimes. His back worked and he felt the motion as his arms, legs and wings pulled in and pushed wide several times. Large as his kind was in comparison to humans, several steps brought him into Katharine’s office.
    The wall was no hindrance; it existed solely on her side of the veil, a mortal device that worked only on mortals. Katharine gave no indication of recognizing his presence on any level. Even the time she’d spent with him, some of it humanly intimate, hadn’t made her more aware.
    But Allistair paid attention; he looked around as though checking out the office. He sensed Zachary’s presence. Though Allistair’s mortal form limited his perception, it did not entirely block it. Likely it was merely a tickle at the back of