Maureen Child – Vanished (страница 1)
Rogan moved closer, until he could feel her body heat.
“I’ve no use for seers, Alison Blair. And even less for their servants.”
Aly swallowed hard and he could see the agitation suddenly take hold of her. Still she kept her gaze fixed on his. “I’m no one’s servant.”
“And yet here you stand at their beck and call.”
“It’s my duty.”
“And now you’ve done it and it’s past time for me to be doing mine,” he muttered thickly, grabbing her upper arm to steer her out of his house.
But as he touched her, something unexpected happened. Something dazzling. An arc of what could have been lightning jolted between them. White-hot heat – and something more – sizzled in the air and Rogan released her instantly.
He knew that sizzle and flash.
He’d felt it just once before.
For his Destined Mate.
But she had been dead for hundreds of years.
Maureen Child is a California native who loves to travel. Every chance they get, she and her husband are taking off on another research trip. An author of more than sixty books, Maureen loves a happy ending and still swears that she has the best job in the world. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children and a golden retriever with delusions of grandeur.
Vanished
By
Maureen Child
To the Staunton family at Knight’s Cottage
Shanvallyard, Tourmakeady, Ireland.
Thank you for your warm welcome
and for making our stay in Ireland so memorable.
Table of Contents
In Ireland, two thousand people vanish every year.
“What was
The long, undulating howl still quavered in the air as she stared back down the road into the darkness.
“A dog, no doubt,” the guard at the wrought-iron gate muttered in an Irish accent so thick it almost sounded as though he were speaking Gaelic.
“Scary dog,” Aly muttered, turning back to watch as the big man studied her ID card. Frowning, she said, “It’s not a forgery, you know.”
He flicked a glance at her from under thick black brows, and she deliberately lifted her chin and met that stony stare with one of her own.
The man nodded in approval, then said, “There’ll be hell to pay when the boss hears you’ve come.”
“I know.” As a member of the Guardian Society, Aly knew she would be as welcome here as a flu virus.
Even in the best of circumstances, Immortal Guardians weren’t exactly the most hospitable people in the universe. They lived alone, worked in secret and protected their real identities from a world filled with people who would never understand.
Chosen at the moment of their death, the Guardians were given the choice of either moving on to whatever awaited them or accepting immortality and the task of defending humankind against the demon threat. The Guardians were devoted to doing their duty and in general preferred to do that duty with as little interference as possible.
Both from humanity and the Society.
The Society had existed as long as the Guardians themselves. Generation after generation the families who belonged to the Society had worked with the Guardians. Some of those Guardians reluctantly accepted the help of the Society, and some…didn’t.
Rogan Butler, Irish warrior and a Guardian centuries old, fell into the latter category.