Beyond the Divide (Fractured Legacy Book 2) Read online

  Beyond the Divide

  Fractured Legacy, Volume 2

  Skye Callahan

  Published by Skye Callahan, 2014.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Beyond the Divide (Fractured Legacy, #2)

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Beyond the Divide

  By Skye Callahan

  Copyright 2014 Skye Callahan

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook 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 Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events and locations is entirely coincidental.

  Published: Skye Callahan

  October 24, 2014

  United States of America

  [email protected]

  Copyright 2014

  Cover Designed by Indie Author Services

  For my Mamaw and Papaw who have supported me through everything. Love can launch us into our dreams and provide the safety net when we fall.

  Chapter 1

  A week had passed since the entity had been sealed away in the Teague hotel, and Kaylyn had hoped that her sleep patterns would return to normal, but even with the immediate danger to her soul gone, the images of the dark creature continued to haunt her dreams.

  Breaking free from the nightmare, Kaylyn jerked awake to an unfamiliar room. Her gaze traveled around the dark room where cardboard boxes lined the far wall next to her dresser—which, at the moment, was the only thing she’d managed to organize in the five days since she’d moved in. Her boss, Jonah, had made quick arrangements for her new accommodations, after the nameless entity had taken out some of its frustrations on Kaylyn’s old kitchen. And since the new house was owned by Aicil, it effectively made Jonah her boss and landlord.

  She lay quietly in the bed, the heavy dread from the dream frozen in her muscles and dragging her bones heavily into the mattress. The last few weeks had taken a huge toll, mentally and physically, and she wanted to return to relative normalcy.

  Not that anything was ever really normal for a paranormal investigator.

  Just as her weary eyes began to drift closed again, a shadow in the corner caught her attention. She squeezed her eyes closed for a moment, expecting whatever it was to disappear, but when she opened them again, the shadowed figure stepped forward into the light of the descending full moon.

  She recognized the strawberry-blond woman from pictures and vaguely from her own dreams—Ida Troyer. Ida’s hands were clasped in front of her body, which appeared even more slender and frail in the dim lighting.

  Kaylyn had a strong feeling Ida had played a large role in their overcoming the spirit attached to the Teague Hotel. A lot of the details were still jumbled in Kaylyn’s mind—a logical result when multiple entities are trying to gain control of your body, she figured. “Isn’t it, you know, frowned upon to stalk your son’s employee while she’s sleeping?”

  “I’m merely checking on you, Sweetie.”

  “Mmh,” Kaylyn grunted and readjusted her blankets. Even spirits had to realize it was rude to check up on anyone before coffee. Since Jonah’s father had put in some kind of spirit ward on the house—the details of which Kaylyn wasn’t privy to, she was convinced she was still dreaming. Kaylyn waited for it to shift her to a new location as it had before—expecting, at any second, to see the walls of the abandoned hotel appear around her again.

  But the walls of her new bedroom remained solid, and the apparition moved a step closer.

  “It was you in the hotel, wasn’t it?” Kaylyn asked.

  “Partially. I helped you direct the power to your mother so she could protect you while Jonah figured out how to break your bond with the entity.” Ida’s light Irish accent rolled through the room with a lulling effect. Jonah, not surprisingly, did not share his mother’s accent, and Kaylyn thought for a moment that it was a pity. Instead, his fluctuated between a thick Minnesota accent with hints of his time spent in Alberta and Paris.

  “So, it is broken?” Kaylyn asked, looking for any form of confirmation that the evil entity wouldn’t be seeking her out again, leaving a trail of burned rooms and missing bodies in its wake. Even if that confirmation came from a dream.

  Ida remained silent for a few moments. “I need a favor,” she finally said.

  Ida’s obvious refusal to answer the question was disconcerting. “Favor?”

  Ida’s head turned slowly as her gaze swept around the room, she was in no hurry for whatever she’d come for.

  Kaylyn knotted her fingers beneath the blanket, waiting to be swept into a nightmare, waiting for the apparition to ask for some kind of impossible feat.

  “Watch out for Jonah,” Ida said in a whispered plea.

  The simple request didn’t bring relief, only more questions. “He’s my boss; I think it’s implied in the job description.” Not to mention she felt her debt to him burrowed into her core—where it was reluctant to give her any peace. Most of her injuries were healing, but they were still sore enough to bring back flashes of that night with every movement. There was a small cut on her left hand where Jonah had released her blood to break the bond with the entity and a burn on her right palm where Jonah’s protective necklace had seared into her skin as she channeled power from beyond the living world.

  But she’d gotten off lucky. Jonah had a matching burn on his left palm and three fractured ribs from protecting her from flying debris. And her sister, Cole, although physically okay, was now dealing with the loss of her fiancé’s brother.

  “Remember”—Ida said, interrupting Kaylyn’s thoughts—“going forward doesn’t always move you farther from the demons of the past.”

  Demons? That caught Kaylyn’s attention. Her muscles constricted and her stomach turned at the word. “Are we talking literal demons or figurative ones, because I’ve had my fair share of both?”

  Ida nodded and stepped back toward the window. Beyond the deep green curtains, the light was growing brighter, indicating that the sun was already rising.

  Fan-fucking-tastic. Kaylyn pressed her head into the pillow holding on to the slim hope that she really was fast asleep. It was much more comforting than the thought that the sun was peeking in with an early and unwanted reminder that in a couple of hours, she’d be on her way back to work.

  “If you’re really here,” Kaylyn said, squeezing her eyes closed, “does that mean I’m still connected to the other side? And how did you get past the wards Nathan put up?” Jonah refused to let Kaylyn even
begin moving her things into the house before he was certain that his father had made sure the house was fully protected from another spiritual invasion.

  “You’ve always possessed the capability. It’s merely easier now. And since I seem to have absorbed some of the energy from the hotel, appearing is easier for me right now.”

  When Kaylyn’s mouth opened to request clarification, Ida disappeared.

  Perfect. All possible life-or-death related questions continue to go unanswered. Ida had warned her that she was too close to the boundary between the worlds, and that made her an easier target—it also made it possible for Kaylyn to sense things that others couldn’t.

  Although more than two weeks had passed since Kaylyn first encountered the entity in the Teague Hotel, they weren’t any closer to any answers. They had no idea what the entity was—or even worse, why it had been hell-bent on claiming Kaylyn in the first place.

  Kaylyn was supposed to take a week off and recover, but she couldn’t stay out of the office while her mind ran wild with possibilities. Instead, she spent the week holed up in one of the corner offices researching on her own and intermittently helping Nathan with menial tasks in an attempt to organize Jonah’s office before he returned to work. Nathan was Jonah’s father, head of the Alberta offices and a member of the Council—Aicil’s top rung of leadership. He’d taken over the office temporarily while it was impossible for his son to work, ensuring that Jonah had a reasonably organized office and staff to return to. But he also had his own priorities to attend to in Alberta.

  Kaylyn suspected he’d also managed to hold off the questions of the rest of the Council.

  Today, they’d all be back at work—although she wasn’t sure how Jonah was going to manage it even after a week to heal. Maybe it meant things would go back to normal though, and everyone could focus on getting on with life.

  Moving forward doesn’t always move you farther from the demons of the past, Ida’s voice echoed in Kaylyn’s head.

  She rolled away from the light of the window. Despite her best efforts, her brain wasn’t going to shut down, and the slim hope that it was all a dream shattered as the light beyond the window intensified.

  She threw off the covers and slid out of bed, her toes assaulted by the cold of the hardwood floor. Even though the wood was easier to clean, she missed the carpet of her old bedroom—it made getting out of bed in the morning a little less painful.

  Kaylyn slid into a grey pair of slacks, then pulled on the pale blue blouse she’d hung on the bathroom door the night before. Another questionable aspect of the house—if she even wanted to entertain the question of why a paranormal research organization would invest in real estate—was its complete lack of closets. Cole had experienced conniptions when she stopped by to check it out. Nevertheless, Kaylyn shrugged it off—she rarely ever got around to hanging up clothes anyway, and now she had a perfectly good excuse.

  She pulled her hair into a low ponytail to keep it out of her face, and patted on some tinted moisturizer. The shiner she’d gotten nearly three weeks ago, right before meeting her new boss, had long faded, unlike the rest of her injuries.

  In less than a week, she’d been attacked by an obsessed entity, fought with her new boss, gotten suspended—and ironically defended by said new boss—her house caught fire, she found out that she was adopted, and came close to death more times than she cared to admit.

  The hustle of going back to business as usual promised a much-needed break.

  Once dressed, she grabbed a cinnamon roll from the kitchen and tended to her pet snake, Frank. At least he was dealing remarkably well with being uprooted and moved to a new house twice in as many weeks. All he asked for was a warm rock and the occasional rodent.

  Kaylyn secured the top of his aquarium, slipped on her leather coat, and headed out into the cold morning air.

  The night guard gave Kaylyn a squinted look as he buzzed her into the office. She was a little surprised he recognized her since she usually came in long after his shift was over. This was probably the first time she’d ever showed up to work nearly two hours early, but she didn’t expect the main workroom to be so eerily quiet.

  She made her way to the corner, outside Jonah’s office, where the coffee pot sat. Half expecting to see him already at his desk ready for business, a pang of guilt hit her as she stared at the large black office chair that sat empty behind his desk. She hadn’t been fond of Jonah—his new rules and by-the-book attitude—when he’d first showed up, but since he’d risked his life and career to help her, he’d earned her respect and admiration.

  With a frown, she picked up the coffee carafe to prepare some liquid motivation. Thanks to her recent lack of sleep, coffee had become more necessary than ever before.

  Nearly half an hour after she settled at a table in the first-floor lounge with her coffee and a company laptop, the front door opened. Finally, someone else had decided to show up. Since Jonah only used the back door, she knew it wasn’t him, which meant the early bird had already been beaten to the office by at least two of his employees. He’d taken a beating, but Kaylyn hadn’t expected that he’d let it keep him down this long. He was at least as stubborn as she was.

  She kept her eyes focused on the screen; unless it was Cole, Kaylyn didn’t feel like facing another of her co-workers or the possibility of being bombarded with questions.

  Quiet shoes shuffled nearer—it definitely wasn’t Cole unless, in a turn toward more insanity, she’d turned to wearing sneakers instead of her traditional “clickety boots,” as Kaylyn called them.

  Kaylyn tipped the computer screen enough to capture the reflection of the man standing behind her.

  “Kaylyn Anderson,” he mused in a very familiar tone, “The absolute last person I expected to see here this early. When I saw your hunk of scrap metal in the parking lot, I assumed it had finally decided to break down.”

  She grinned, snapped the computer closed, and leaned over the back of her chair. “Things have changed since you abandoned us three months ago, Mr. Franklin. And Chelle is far from a hunk of scrap metal.”

  “I know, I know.” He put up his hands in mock surrender and imitated Kaylyn’s voice. “She’s eight cylinders of fine-tuned perfection.”

  “I guess that’s more like it,” Kaylyn said, standing to find herself at the mercy of a muscular hug. Leon was nearly a foot taller than she was and below his deeply tanned skin, and pressed suit, he looked like he was made entirely of muscle. He was exactly the person you wanted to have on your side in almost any situation—strong, understanding, and loyal. He was also the only reason Kaylyn had passed all of her training since he’d been her mentor since she started at Aicil. Leon had already been with Aicil nearly a decade by then, making him one of the oldest members of her office, but still a youngster as far as the rest of the organization was concerned. After Cole’s training partner, Rocky transferred, Leon had taken on the daunting task of training both girls.

  As a fortunate perk, the situation gave the sisters an opportunity to show that although they were young, their skills were well matched as investigative partners.

  “At least you haven’t given up coffee,” he chuckled, nodding to the cup on the table. “Otherwise, I’d have to get home and start working on a bomb shelter to prepare for the end of the world.”

  “Hardy har har,” Kaylyn rolled her eyes and plopped back down in her seat. “You back for the long haul?”

  Leon nodded and pulled up a chair. “Divorce is final, she’s moving on, and I’m moving back—but in a good way. The new boss has to make the final decision though.” The chair creaked as Leon’s muscular frame rested against it. His eyes suddenly narrowed and locked on to Kaylyn. “Speaking of the new boss, I heard you’ve all ready done a number on him.”

  Kaylyn grimaced and swirled the cold coffee in her cup. “News travels fast. And it wasn’t technically my fault. The thing came after me because I was born and no one even cared to warn me.”

  “But you b
eat it—that’s also big talk around the offices.”

  “Barely,” she mumbled, not caring to voice her doubts on the matter—something told her that breaking her bond with the entity wasn’t exactly the same as beating it. “Jonah... he deserves most of the credit.”

  Leon cracked a smile, watching her intently. She knew that assessing look, he got it just as he was about to make a big break in a case. “It seems he made quite an impression on you.”

  “Don’t,” she said, chugging down the rest of the cold coffee. She pushed herself up, but before she could step away, Leon captured her wrist.

  “That doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” he said, still grinning.

  “I just want to get back to relative normalcy.” Except that what was normal for her, usually came with heaps of man trouble. That part, she was perfectly willing to leave out from now on.

  Leon stood and draped an arm around her shoulder, walking her back to the coffee nook. “Normal is overrated. I’m looking forward to working with you all again, though.”

  “I’m sure you won’t have any problem getting Jonah’s approval—aside from the fact that you trained me.”

  Leon crossed his arms over his chest and exhaled heavily. “That is the only major blemish on my record.”

  Before Kaylyn could respond, the front door opened again, this time the footsteps were punctuated by the loud clack of boots against the stone tiles.

  Lean leaned over and whispered in Kaylyn’s ear, “There are other things I wouldn’t mind seeing change around here.”

  As soon as he straightened, the back door thudded closed as well, and Kaylyn took a deep breath. “And, I bet you’re about to get your chat with the new boss.”

  She couldn’t explain why her body suddenly buzzed with nerves even worse than the day she’d learned that Jonah was taking over the office, so she busied herself by fumbling with the coffee pot and hoping that she wouldn’t say or do something to get herself in trouble.