Betrayer (Hidden Book 7)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “I did not mean it that way,” I said softly, stepping closer to him. I rested my hands on his waist and leaned my head against his chest. He immediately wrapped me in his arms, and we stood that way. “You see what the issue is, yes? I have no idea how to do this.”

  He was silent for a few moments, and I continued talking. “This frustrates me. You confuse the Nether out of me, even though you try not to. I want things to be good between us. I want whatever this is to continue to grow, and I do not want it to end in such a way that we will be unable to even be in the same room together without it being awkward.”

  “You know, we haven’t even really started anything and you’re already thinking of how it’s going to end,” he said, squeezing me close to him. Held as I was, in his strong arms, pressed up against the firmness of his body, I could barely contain myself. Even breathing became complicated in his presence.

  “I am very old. I am a master at planning ahead,” I said wryly, and he laughed and started running his hand up my spine. I shivered at his touch, and when he reached the back of my neck, he gave my hair a gentle tug, a demanding movement that forced me to look up at him.

  I should not have found that as alluring as I did.

  “If I have my way, Eunomia, there won’t be any kind of end for us.”

  I stared up at him, unable to even form words, unable to think of any to say in the first place.

  “You said you like things to be spelled out for you. You are mine. I’m just waiting for you to realize it.”

  And with that, he let me go, took my hand, and started walking again.

  I swallowed, and my face burned. We walked in silence for several minutes, and he turned toward the nearest main street. I could hear the traffic from where we were, and I could smell the aroma of food wafting from the restaurants there. “I’m starving,” he said.

  “Me too,” I managed.

  “Artemis’s revenge,” he said, looking down at me and grinning.

  I gave a short laugh. “There is a burger place that way, yes?”

  He nodded, and we went out to eat an awkward dinner together before he left for his patrol shift.

  Chapter Four

  When Brennan left to go to work, I rematerialized back to the apartment I was renting. It was a one bedroom unit, furnished simply, with a remarkable view of the city and the river beyond.

  It is good to be friends with powerful people. In this case, the vampire queen of the Midwest region. Rayna. Not that she went easy on me, rent-wise, but I was happy to pay for the quiet location and private entrance. Word was that she’d kept a lover here for many years, but I was not sure how much truth there was to it. Rumors surround Rayna in the same way that honey draws flies.

  I shrugged out of my coat and glanced at the clock. Brennan and I would be leaving in a few hours for our next mission to reclaim Mollis’s lost souls. This time, we would be going to Denmark. In the past two weeks, we had been to Italy, India, and Pakistan. It was no longer merely an issue of tracking down my list of souls. Whoever was working against Mollis was taking newly-dead souls as well, before the crows even had a chance to claim them. And just when we began to think we figured out where they might be headquartered, they would start taking souls from a different part of the world.

  They knew us too well. This is the problem with facing adversaries who have been among you and your kind for thousands of years.

  I sat and rested my head against the back of the sofa as I thought. It was better not to think about Brennan but it was pointless not to. And while the things he’d said, that kiss, the feel of being in his arms were all definitely worth reliving, I worried that I already spent far too much time mooning over him. And there were other things that demanded my attention.

  I felt tired. So much more tired than I should.

  The act of going back and forth, rematerializing from city to city, tired me in a way it had not before the battle against my sisters. I was not fully myself yet. I did not know if that was due to the weapons they used against me still taking their toll, or emotional nonsense over my wings, over my sisters’ existence and role in this new mess opposing Mollis. Likely, it was a bit of everything. Including the shifter who seemed determined to keep my life in turmoil.

  It was all getting too muddied, too complicated. The fact that I was even beginning to feel as if I had some claim on the shifter was a giant warning sign that I could not afford to ignore any longer. I no longer believed, as I once had, that I needed to be emotionless. I was not, and trying to be something I was not only weakened me. But it did not change the fact that I have always been, at heart, a solitary creature. I was ruthless, unstoppable, focused. And I needed to be those things, especially in the current reality, especially with forces mounting against my Queen, forces that only I could fight against. I could not afford to be distracted, no matter how much I would have liked to let him distract me.

  I grimaced and got up from the sofa and hastily packed the bag I would be taking with me to Denmark, then climbed into my bed, intending to get a few hours of sleep. I tossed and turned, my mind on overdrive. We were tracking the next soul on Mollis’s list, along with claiming any souls in the area before Mollis’s enemies could claim them first. We had three of my sisters in custody. But the fact that more souls were still coming up missing, the fact that the crows, myself, or my New Guardians were often too late to claim a soul, told us that it was very likely that at least one of my sisters was still in play. That, or there were enough undead about to make it nearly impossible to keep up with the new undead they were creating. Still, I wondered about my sisters.

  How many still remained? Were all of them somewhere out there? Three were in Mollis’s prison in the Netherwoods… if all those we thought were dead were still alive and well, that meant there were still nine of them left unaccounted for, despite all odds.

  I did not believe they had all made it. Delo, when we had fought, had made it sound as if few remained, and I had been enough of a problem that they had ultimately come after me.

  I would not be happy until every single one of them was either confirmed dead or captured. This was my own personal mission, in addition to the things I did for Mollis.

  I finally dozed off, and woke in time to get myself cleaned up before heading back to Brennan’s house to pick him up before we made the jump to Copenhagen. He greeted me with a nod, and I wordlessly took his hand, focused, and we fell away.

  Copenhagen was not a place I knew very well. I had been there perhaps a handful of times during my existence. I had scouted ahead a week ago, finding a place where we could rematerialize without any mortals seeing us.

  “There is a hotel this way,” I said to Brennan, nodding my head to my right. We had appeared behind a store that I’d previously scouted and found to be closed for renovations. There were large dumpsters behind it, full of construction materials, and we had reappeared behind one of them.

  Brennan nodded, keeping my hand in his as we turned out onto the street. Like many of the older European cities, this one was almost too narrow for modern traffic, and was flanked by tall stone and brick buildings. Black lampposts dotted the curb at regular intervals. The scent of bread wafting from a nearby bakery, combined with the scent of the sea air, filled the air. I felt myself relaxing, just a bit. I was still more comfortable in places like this, having spent most of my existence escorting souls from Europe. If anywhere other than Detroit could be considered “home,” it was Europe. It really did not matter which city. They all had their differences, their own flavors and cultures, but I loved them all fairly equally.

  We continued walking, turning a corner to the street where our hotel was located. “The New Guardians are here already. I brought them yesterday,” I said quietly to Brennan. “They are scouting for any sign of lost souls, as well as doing their level best to beat whoever it is we’re working against to any newly-dead souls.”

  “Are they keeping up?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “They we
re able to get to two yesterday and held them until the crows showed up. They are doing their best.”

  “They can’t do a whole lot other than hold them though, right?” he asked. “They can’t actually claim them for Molly. They can’t actually turn them over to her. They can’t even de-power them the way you can with your Netherblade.”

  “No. They cannot.”

  He took a breath. “I know you don’t want to take the chance, but— “

  “You are right. I do not want to take the chance. I know you want me to fully train them. You want me to figure out how to get them Netherblades of their own. I am not comfortable with that. Not now.”

  “Are they Guardians or not?” he asked.

  I glanced at him. “Gods, I hope not.”

  He shook his head. “You know, you can’t predict how the future will turn out. And I get that you feel like you should be able to know everything, anticipate everything because of how much you’ve seen in your life, but you can’t. Sometimes, you have to take a chance.”

  I arched an eyebrow at him. “Are we talking about my New Guardians now, or are we talking about us?”

  “Both,” he muttered. “But we’ll have to take a backseat to the more pressing problem. You can’t do it all alone. And I’m useless in dealing with the dead. And it pisses me off to have to admit that.”

  “If I teach them how to fight, and then put weapons in their hands, the types of weapons that can actually hurt me, and they betray me…” I shook my head. “I would rather just not sleep or rest and do it all myself.”

  “Tink.”

  “No. I cannot go through that again, Brennan, and I am really irritated that you cannot seem to understand that.”

  He stopped, pulling my hand to make me stop and face him. “I get it. Okay? I get it. But you can’t do this yourself, Eunomia. And you try to hide it, but I know you’re not a hundred percent yet, not after what happened in Japan.” I tensed, and he continued. “And don’t get all prickly with me over it. I don’t know anyone else who would be out fighting and kicking ass two weeks after losing major body parts. This isn’t a commentary on how strong or capable you are. It’s common sense.”

  I looked away. “I am fine.”

  “Of course you are. It’s the only way you know how to be,” he said, frustration in his tone. “You don’t think I notice the way you hold yourself sometimes, like your whole body is trying to curl in on itself to stop the pain? You don’t think I see how, even when you’re fighting, you’re off balance and less sure? Your wings were part of your balance, your stance. I know it feels weird without them, and you’re out here throwing yourself into this shit— “

  “What else am I supposed to do, Brennan?” I demanded, finally losing my patience. He was the only one, it seemed, who was capable of making me lose it. “Am I supposed to lie around while Mollis’s enemies work to weaken her further?’

  “No— “

  “Am I supposed to wait until I know perfectly well how well I can fight? Should I baby myself until— “

  He held his hands up. “Okay. Stop.”

  I glared at him. People continued to walk past us, eyeing us usually with irritation as they did, since we were stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

  “I’m just saying, you’re trying to do all of this alone and there’s no need for it. And despite the fact that you’d wipe the floor with most beings, even with what you’re going through now, I still want you to be careful. It was too close last time,” he finished more quietly, eyes on mine. “It was too close, and I don’t want to see you like that again.”

  “Careful is more likely to get me killed than anything else. You know this,” I said, reaching up and resting my hand on his cheek, feeling the brush of his beard against my skin. He nuzzled into my hand, eyes still on mine.

  “I know,” he finally said. “Will you at least think about what I said about the New Guardians? The sooner you train them and work out the way your team functions, the better.”

  I sighed, pulling my hand away from his face. As I did, he took my wrist in his hand and brought my hand up to his lips, pressing a soft, warm kiss to my palm. That simple touch, the barest touch of his lips, had my body warming, shivers running up my spine. My mouth felt dry.

  “I will give it some thought,” I finally said.

  He nodded, a small smile on his lips. “Thank you.”

  We checked into our hotel, then immediately headed out again. Brennan was meeting with his government counterpart in Copenhagen, trying to get any information about either strange, unexplained things, or, worse, word about any indication of undead activity. He planted a kiss on my lips before turning and walking away, his shoulders stiff, his entire posture radiating the fact that he disliked the fact that I was going off to do this without him, even though he well knew there was nothing he could do to help me.

  There was a small theater where one of the lost souls, Anselm Fisker, had worked back in the day. He’d also stalked women from the audience, following them home, terrorizing them for weeks, and sometimes months on end, before finally killing them. He had never been caught, and those were the souls who always tended to be the most cocky, because they believed their luck would hold out forever.

  They did not have me coming for them during their mortal lives.

  I made my way to the theater. It was rarely used now, and mostly held the unmistakable scent of abandonment, that musty, stale odor that results when there are no doors opening and closing, no press of warm bodies moving in and out of a space. I supposed one could find places like that depressing. That was probably the appropriate response. I had always found them to be nearly sacred. There was something beautiful in a place, or even a person, that has lived out the course of its usefulness and rests in the final pulses of its natural life. This was one such place.

  When I rematerialized inside, I found my New Guardians there waiting for me. Quinn stood, as he always seemed to. He was always watching, always ready, and I appreciated having someone like him helping me. He gave me a respectful nod when I appeared, and two of the women on my team, Claire and Erin, greeted me warmly. They genuinely seemed happy to see me, and I was happy to see them as well. We fought well together, barely needing words anymore for everyone to know what they were supposed to be doing. They were an enormous help to me, ruthless and thorough.

  I really hoped I could count on them not being betraying, backstabbing liars, the way almost all of the former Guardians had been.

  Once we’d all greeted one another, I brought us back to the topic at hand. “We have two souls here in Copenhagen,” I began.

  “We got one already,” Erin said, utter glee apparent in her voice.

  I raised my eyebrow, looked around at my New Guardians. “Excuse me?”

  “There was this guy, soul, kind of skulking around and we knew he didn’t belong here, obviously,” Erin continued. “So we kicked his ass and Cathleen is holding him.”

  I glanced at Quinn, who, stoic though he usually was, almost seemed unable to avoid smiling.

  “Where?” I asked, and Claire took my hand, and the others joined hands with us as well. “There’s a graveyard not far from here. Do you know it?” she asked me, and I nodded. “She’s there,” she added, and I focused, rematerializing all four of us to the old graveyard. Rows of weathered stones stretched all around us, along with several large marble monuments. At the base of one of them, I spotted Cathleen standing, holding the arm of a soul in her strong grasp.

  I felt a smile spread across my face. This was indeed one of mine. Bors Larssen, who had been sure that God was telling him to rid the world of redheads. At least, that was what he had claimed when he’d tried to plead insanity for his crimes to the human courts. Mollis knew better, and so did I. It was a whole ridiculous backstory about his first girlfriend who was a redhead and his refusal to let go when his pride was hurt. Murderers, especially serial murderers like this one, always had one thing in common: they saw themselves as heroes. Eve
n if they would never quite state it that way, they did. They believed their victims deserved it somehow, and that their world would be better for the deaths they caused.

  “He was on the list,” I said, and Erin and Cathleen smiled, obviously pleased. “Did he give you much trouble?”

  Currently, the “he” in question was whimpering and trying to break free of Cathleen’s grip. I casually pulled one of my Netherblades from its sheath and stuck it into his back. He stopped moving, but continued to whimper.

  “He tried to run when he saw us, but he didn’t get far,” Quinn said. “He was followin’ a pretty redhead around. We watched him follow her as she went to three different stores, and then he started following her to the bus and we grabbed him.”

  I shifted my gaze to Larssen. “You have not let it go yet, I see. One would think you would have possibly learned your lesson after spending all that time in prison.”

  He swore at me in Danish and I ignored him.

  “So you just stumbled across him, then?” I asked Claire, and she nodded.

  “We were near the theater, but we usually try to keep an eye out for any souls while we’re waitin’ for ye,” she said. “And we spotted ‘im and we knew we still had a few hours before you planned to arrive, so we figured at least it wouldna be wasted time if we tracked ‘im for ye.”

  Larssen continued his verbal tirade as she spoke, glaring at me, still cursing.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Quinn finally said, stepping forward and landing a hard punch to Larssen’s face. Larssen crumpled to the ground. “I don’t know what you were saying but it sounded disrespectful. Stay down,” he added, kicking the soul when he tried to stand. Then Quinn turned to me. “So this was one of yer twenty-seven?”

  I nodded. “He was a serial murderer. Of redheads,” I added, and Quinn shook his head in disgust. I looked around at my New Guardians. “You did amazing work here today, and you have my thanks. Would it do any good at all to remind you to be careful?”