Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) by Rain Oxford Read Free Book Online Page A

smelled Henry. I could have fried her phone, but her
determined expression told me she had already gotten the order she needed. The
connection between Henry and me was still open, so anything I told him would be
overheard by the jaguar. “ There’s a wolf shifter headed your way .”
    The jaguar sent back an acknowledging thought. 
    I changed my focus from Henry’s mind to Maseré’s. His
mind was welcoming, but his wolf’s was not. “ Is she one of yours ?” I
asked, sending him a mental picture of the woman. I didn’t receive an answer,
but I should have expected that. Instead, my phone vibrated. I answered it.
    “You realize you have a phone, right?” the alpha asked
immediately.
    “Yeah, I know.” Actually, I had forgotten all about
it.
    “Her name is Veronica Biegen. She’s the daughter of a
wolf alpha in Canada.”
    “There’s a rival pack here?” 
    “They had a treaty with Stephan before I even got
here. My pack usually just calls them Canada, because their alpha is a little…
wishy-washy. I believe they changed their alpha a dozen times in the last
decade.”
    The woman was now out of sight, so I focused on
Henry’s mind again. The jaguar was watching her. She was no longer creeping
around like she was afraid to be caught.
    “What’s going on?” Maseré asked.
    “I’m not sure yet. Do you trust Canada?”
    “I can’t trust a pack who admittedly eats its
betrayers.”
    “Gross.” Veronica paused for a moment and glanced
around as if she smelled Henry, but then got into the back seat of one of the
Jeeps. After a couple of minutes, she got out and walked back to the castle.
    “What’s going on?” Maseré asked again.
    “I’m going to check it out. I’ll call you when I know
something.”
    I hung up, which was not the best way to ensure a
long and healthy life. I knew I should have been more respectful to the alpha,
but I seemed to always cut the conversation short. The jaguar didn’t know
whether to follow the shifter or stay and continue watching the humans.
    “ Stay with the humans ,” I told him. I knew
Veronica’s name and could find her later. The humans got out of their Jeeps at
that moment, giving me the perfect opportunity to do what I did best.
    There were five men and a woman, all dressed in black
clothes and scowling at their surroundings like they were trying to be the
characters in an old spy movie. I wasn’t impressed so far. I locked onto the
closest man and pushed my power out of the jaguar and into the human.
    He was an emotional train wreck; he was twenty-five
years old, a high school dropout, and father of two. His ex-wife wouldn’t let
him see his kids until he got his drug habit under control. He didn’t have the
ambition necessary to pull anything off on his own; he was just a pawn in this.
    The next man had ambition— too much of it. He was
here for the thrill of hunting vampires. He also wasn’t in charge, so I moved
to the woman. She was here because she was the girlfriend of the man in charge.
From her thoughts, I could see that they had a base somewhere with lots of
other vampire hunters. Their leader was there.
    I watched the hunters make their way through the
woods. The jaguar had apparently gotten over some of his bloodlust and was
mostly just curious now, because he didn’t immediately attack.
    We watched the humans surround the mansion, giving it
about a hundred feet or so of distance. Each of them had a black, fist sized
sack, which they buried at their respective positions. I focused on the woman’s
mind again, careful to stay undetected.
    I had no idea what it was called, but I saw a video
screen of what looked like a shower stall, except the miniscule concrete room
had a steel door. In the middle of the floor was a black item that resembled a
large roach trap.
    After a moment, the door opened, a young female was
tossed in, and the door slammed shut. She appeared to be in her late teens,
with dirty, mangled blond hair and torn clothes. Her