Curse of Soulmate
D.N. Leo
Narrative Land Publishing
Contents
I. Psychic
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
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
II. Path
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
III. Mortal
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
IV. Spirit
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
V. Elusive
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
VI. Divine
Prologue
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Chapter 145
WHAT ’S NEXT
KISS OF MAYHEM SAMPLE
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
Kiss of Mayhem Bonus
Also by D.N. Leo
Afterword
Part I
Psychic
Chapter 1
Hate leaves ugly scars, love leaves beautiful ones.
Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, 1966
She stared at the last three seconds of her life.
A red double-decker full of passengers was racing straight at her, and she couldn’t do anything but stare at it.
Like the traffic and everything else surrounding it, the bus seemed to move in slow motion, but Madeline was more than certain that it was zooming in full speed in reality.
The bus was going to crush her the same way the kidnap and ransom ordeal had cut short Jo’s life.
Jo was like her sister. They had grown up together, but they might not grow old together.
Madeline kept staring at the bus. It was real. It was enormous. And her psychic ability didn’t seem to help at all—if she did have such ability.
Five seconds ago, Madeline had seen it—the haunting blue dot hovering in the air, giving her guidance. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She was a psychic after all. The blue dot glared at her and blinked. That’s unusual, she had thought. It had been three days that she’d stalked this place, and now her psychic ability had finally decided to kick in. About damn time!
She could save Jo now, and her life would be back to the way it was. Not that her life had been spectacular, but it was much better than her current situation.
The second blue dot appeared, blinking at her. She gazed at the dots, and then they were no longer blinking. They weren’t blue, either, but a bright yellow.
And they came with sound.
Honking.
Shouting.
She blinked. They weren’t her psychic blue dots but the headlights of a double-decker racing at her in full speed.
She glanced around. In a blur of motion, she realized she had just stepped out in front of ongoing traffic in the middle of a busy road in the center of London.
She now stood in her reality and froze.
Chapter 2
Someone grabbed Madeline’s arm and pulled her back onto the sidewalk. The double-decker zoomed past, and the other cars kept moving. If it had been New York, she would have stirred up a hideous bout of road rage. Madeline was still dazed. She turned around and looked at the man who had just saved her life.
“Are you okay?”
“Thank you,” she automatically said and immediately realized that those words she kept in her vocabulary inventory didn’t exactly answer the man’s question.
Then Madeline shook her head. Focus. Stay strong. You’re Jo’s only hope, she scolded herself. She turned toward the man, who was still looking at her with concern.
“I’m fine. Thank you. I’m sorry. The jetlag is killing me. And apparently, I was looking the wrong way.” She gestured toward the traffic and
smiled. “Madeline. I’m from New York.” She reached her hand out for a handshake.
“Peter. I’m from . . . here . . . apparently.” He fumbled with his briefcase, swapping it to his left hand so that he could respond to Madeline’s greeting.
Madeline pointed at the building across the road. “I’m looking for LeBlanc Pharmaceuticals. But I think I’ve got the wrong address. That building looks more like military barracks than business headquarters.”
Peter arched an eyebrow, looking Madeline up and down.
“I’m a journalist. I’m writing a business column about one of their new products. Is there a problem?” Madeline asked.
“Oh, no. No problem at all. Nobody has any problem with the LeBlancs.”
Madeline smiled and waited for the next part of Peter’s speech, but it never came. Instead, he shrugged. “Well, to be honest, even the locals know almost nothing about them. I’m sorry I can’t help you. But I can certainly show you around if it does any good. And the I around the corner is one of London’s hot spots. I’m sure it will help cure your jet lag.”
Madeline smiled but cursed on the inside. Peter was a decent-looking man. She hadn’t been in a serious relationship for a while—not that no one was interested in her, but her situation was too complicated to let anyone into her life. Still, it was nice to be hit on occasionally.
She was tall, slim, and attractive enough, but Madeline didn’t consider herself pretty. She had a slightly long, oval face, big brown eyes, a generous mouth with full lips, and a dimple on her left cheek. A sea of brunette curls wrapped around her shoulders.
A hot cup of coffee was tempting, but now was not a good time. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to get this done, or my boss will be very unhappy. Thanks for the offer, Peter. Maybe next time.” Madeline waved her gloveless hand goodbye and scurried away, shivering in the winter chill.
She glanced at the reflection on the shop window and saw that the smile on Peter’s face had been replaced by a strange look.
She wouldn’t be mistaken. She had seen that look several times. It was the look of a predator who had just lost his prey.
Instead of going straight home, she turned to the opposite direction and headed toward a crowed shopping center.
Chapter 3
Hours later, throwing her light backpack over her shoulders, Madeline headed toward a small apartment on a back street in Knightsbridge. Rows of terrace houses that curved along a tree-lined street looked invitingly at her. The black gothic-styled light poles and street fences accentuated the beautiful blend of modern and classic London.
She normally adored and admired the architecture. But right now, Madeline was cursing the amount of money she had to pay to stay in Knightsbridge on such short notice.
There—she saw those blue dots again.
It had been a secret she’d only told Jo, and Jo called it her psychic ability. After the incident in the bush that both Madeline and Jo didn’t want to remember, Madeline had appeared to be able to see people’s minds—or at least she thought that’s what it was.
Sometimes it came from those she had been in contact with. That was how Jo speculated she was able to track down a missing person. Sometimes it randomly came from a stranger when they directed their thoughts at her. Other times, she had absolutely no explanation of where the dots came from. She wasn’t a mind reader—she didn’t know what the thoughts were about. She just saw them as the blue dots.
Ironically, her randomly found ability only worked when she didn’t need it, like when it had led her in front of a fast approaching bus.
The dots hovered in front of her and then moved toward the alley leading to Hyde Park. After the near-fatal encounter with the bus, Madeline didn’t think it was wise to follow the psychic specks anymore. She ignored them and headed home.
Her cell phone buzzed as soon as she entered her apartment. She picked up the phone and kicked the door closed.
“Madeline,” she answered while searching for the light switch on the wall.
At the other end of the line, a male voice croaked, “I miss you. It’s been a few days. What have you got for me?”
“Zen, I almost got hit by a bus trying to get to the door of LeBlanc Pharmaceuticals. Their premises are guarded like a military barracks. Seriously, I’d have a better chance of running through the gates of Buckingham Palace to the Queen’s private chamber than breaking into the front yard of that building.”
“That’s why I sent you there, honey. We can’t compete with the LeBlancs using weapons, money, or manpower. Your little gift is just what we need.”
Madeline finally found the light switch. She flicked it on and strode toward the fireplace. Her teeth were never going to stop chattering if she didn’t get a fire going.
“I don’t have any gift, Zen. You know I can barely operate a computer let alone hunt down a computer geek and ask him questions about an avatar.”
“I saw the games you played with Jo, Madeline. Don’t bluff with me.”
Madeline closed her eyes. Damn. Jo made her play guessing games just to prove that Madeline’s psychic ability was real. Jo believed in it more than she did. Since Jo was doing research on a new simulation game, Madeline thought it would be fun to help out. Now those games were biting her in the backside.
“Look, Zen, it’s been days, and I haven’t been able to get inside. You have to give me more information than just ‘look for a White Knight.’”
“But that’s all I have!” Zen screamed though the phone. She could hear his heavy breathing and his swallow to suppress his anger.
She lowered her voice. “If you let me talk to Jo, we could figure something out.”
“You want to talk to her? Okay.” Zen turned on the video phone. He grabbed Jo’s hair and smashed her face onto the screen of the phone. “Do you see her now? Talk away. You girls can figure things out, right?”
Madeline caught a glimpse of Zen’s face, which was burning red with fury. Jo’s eyes were dazed, and her forehead was bruised. Jo bit her lips and looked into the screen. Madeline knew Jo wouldn’t cry.
“You hurt her, you bastard. You told me you wouldn’t hurt her if I found your stupid avatar!” Madeline roared.
“But you found nothing!” Zen screamed.
Chapter 4
“He didn’t hurt me, Madeline. I tried to run and fell down the stairs. Should have taken my stupid heels off.” Jo smiled weakly.
A tear rolled down Madeline’s cheek. Jo was barely five foot two, and she always wore those impossibly high heels. Madeline couldn’t understand why she was so conscious about her height. Jo was gorgeous. She was a brilliant computer game designer, but no one could peg her as a nerd. Madeline wiped her tear and smiled back.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. You take care of yourself, Madeline.”
“I can’t get the blue dots to work, Jo. Can you tell me what the game is about? What am I looking for?”
Jo was about to say something, but Zen yanked her off the phone. “All you have to do is to find out who plays with Jo using the name White Knight. You’ve seen the game—and the player. You should be able to tell who the guy is in real life. I told you he works for the LeBlancs and has been playing from that building. You don’t have to go in. Just wait him out.”
“Do you understand that LeBlanc Pharmaceuticals is a global company that employs millions of people?”
“But I gave you the precise location!”
“I told you, it’s like a military barrack. I used my journalist credentials to ask for an interview with their PR department . . .”
“And?”
“The waiting list is a month.”