Betrayer (Hidden Book 7)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “I am sorry for what was done to you,” I said softly, meeting Annie’s eyes. “All of my team,” I said, tilting my head in Quinn and the others’ direction, “all of them died under violent circumstances. It seems to be something my New Guardians have in common. Perhaps the violence is what creates you. I do not know,” I said. “But I do know that none of them are alone now. We are a team, and a family, and they have found a purpose in death. If you want it, I offer you the same.”

  She gave a small smile. “I am yours, then. I felt your presence a few days ago, and I felt like I needed to get to you. I was afraid, though,” she said, and then a look of concern crossed her face. “I don’t know how much good I’ll be for you.”

  “You are enough,” I said softly. “Welcome to the New Guardians. We have much hunting to do here.”

  After two days of almost ceaseless hunting, my New Guardians and I had brought twelve wandering souls to Mollis and come across three more in the very earliest stage of undeath. Mollis had destroyed the undead, judged, tried, and released the dead to the Everafter. Annie was slowly but surely becoming acclimated to life among those who could see her, and I was noting a strange thing about my team: when we passed the living on the street, it seemed as if they could see not just me, but Quinn and the others as well. I made a note of it, realizing that we would have to be more careful about how we moved. They could still, somehow, walk through walls and other obstacles, which would have certainly drawn the attention of any mortals who happened to be looking at them.

  I had predicted this happening, and had thought it had happened when we’d hunted in Germany, before the face-off with my sisters in Japan. At the time, they had merely been more solid to me, but the mortals could not see them, nor could any Aether immortals. Now, the humans clearly saw them, and I made a note to get them more modern clothing. Their period dresses certainly did not make us more inconspicuous. It seemed to have happened the night we had all watched Mollis destroy the being who had once been Mary. Whether it was because they had become more bound to me with that experience, or because they’d become more devoted to their roles and what we fought against, they were now much more. Anyone looking at them would think they were just as alive as I was and, truly, they were.

  They were Guardians.

  My team had become unstoppable after witnessing what had become of Mary. I still could not let go of the guilt I felt over Mary’s demise. It was not what I had promised her, and, had I been smarter and not left her vulnerable, it never would have happened.

  They did not seem to share that opinion. Instead, they had become like hardened steel. Unbreakable, unstoppable. Quinn had not smiled or joked since the day we’d discovered Mary, and the pale complexions of every member of my team let on how tired, how tense they truly were.

  And still, we hunted.

  We finally stopped once we were positive the area round St. George was clear. I had checked nearly half of the names off of the list Brennan had put together for me. Brennan and his grandmother were still working their way through the Mediterranean, though I had not had much of a chance to talk to him other than quick updates.

  “Back to Whitechapel, then,” I said to my team.

  “You should eat something. And sleep,” Claire said.

  “I am fine,” I said.

  “We’ve been going nonstop since Mary,” she argued. “You can take a couple of hours.”

  I was about to argue, but stopped myself. Undoubtedly, they needed time as well. “As long as you rest, too,” I said, and they nodded. We settled into the empty house in which we’d found Mary and the Arthurs, Erin and Cathleen together in one of the upstairs rooms, Claire and Annie, who had become fast friends, in one corner of the large living room. Quinn stretched out a few feet away from me, his hands resting on his stomach, and closed his eyes.

  I looked around. I did not feel safe with us all asleep.

  “Go to sleep, boss. I’m awake,” Quinn said.

  “You are tired as well.”

  He sighed. “I’m not gonna sleep. Every time I close my eyes, there she is…”

  “I am sorry for your loss. You two were close,” I said, deciding to keep what Mollis had told me to myself.

  “She was nice. She reminded me of my sister. Really, that…” he shook his head. “She had the same laugh as Abbie. Exact same — that rich, deep belly laugh. Now it feels like I failed my sister twice.” He glanced at me. “I know it makes no sense.”

  “Guilt often makes no sense,” I said softly.

  “You have nothing to feel guilty about, either,” he told me.

  “She was there because of me. I should have taken her with me. There are so many things I could have done differently.”

  He watched me. “You gave Mary the gift of bringing her tormentor to justice. I traveled with her for a long time, and every time the woman slept, she had nightmares about him. All she ever asked of you was the chance to do that. She never would have blamed you for what happened after.”

  “Perhaps,” I said softly, not quite believing.

  We sat in silence. “Your Queen is a good woman,” he said after a while. “I guess she’s my Queen as well, hm?”

  “She is.”

  He nodded. “Honorable. Scary, maybe, but honorable. I can see why you two are close. There’s all of that in you, too.”

  I gave him a small smile. “Thank you.”

  His gaze locked with mine for just a moment, and then he looked away. “I’ll keep watch. You need the sleep more than I do,” he said, and when I raised my eyebrow at him, he gave a wry smile. “I’m dead. Doesn’t make a difference to me either way. Sleep just gives us a break from the endless reality of life. We don’t need it the way you do.”

  I wanted to ask him what he thought of his endless reality, but to be honest, I had had far too much emotion to deal with in the past few days. I simply nodded, settled myself on my side, using my arm as a pillow, and closed my eyes.

  I stood in a lonely field, and I knew I was in the Nether. Not the new Netherwoods, but the original Nether. My homeland, the place I had always returned to through centuries of fulfilling my duty. I stood, and the amethyst sky with its abundant shining white stars stretched endlessly overhead. The wind blew, and the tall grasses around me rustled. The longer I stood there, the harder the wind blew, until my hair was blowing into my eyes and I was holding my hands out as if trying to shield myself from its fury. Thunder rolled through the sky, and when I called out, I was utterly alone.

  The wind died down, and as it did, I heard him calling for me. Across the field, I could just make out his blond hair, the strong slope of his shoulders under a white t-shirt. It was only after a moment that I realized the shirt was streaked with blood, and a dark shape behind him was ready to pounce.

  I ran.

  I ran toward him, shouting, urging him to look behind him, to run, to do anything but stand where he was, with that thing closing in on him.

  I was not fast enough. It felt as if I moved through mud, my legs an absolute failure at taking me where I needed to go.

  I leapt up, flapping my wings, rising into the air. I would swoop in, and save Brennan, and everything would be fine as long as I could just get to him.

  But of course, I had no wings, and I fell face-first into the hard soil of the Nether. His voice roused me, and I forced myself to stand, glancing back only to see that my back was bloody and there was nothing but bare bone where my wings had once been.

  I ran to him, and I screamed his name, and I watched in horror as a blade came from the thing behind him and his head fell to the ground.

  “Hey. Hey, boss,” I heard Quinn’s voice, felt a large hand shaking my shoulder. My eyes shot open, and he was crouched beside me. I was panting, my body slick with sweat, the lingering terror from my dream still with me, even in the light of day, sunlight shining through the windows of the empty house we were in.

  I glanced around. The other members of the team were awake as well, all o
f them watching me. Claire looked as if she was about to cry, and Cathleen and Erin both looked stricken. Annie stood behind them, hands clenching and unclenching the fabric of her skirt, a worried expression on her face.

  I sat up. My head ached, and my throat felt raw. My wings… no. Not my wings. The memory of my wings, my phantom limbs or whatever the human doctors called the phenomenon, hurt. “Please tell me I did not scream,” I said to Quinn.

  He shook his head. “No screaming. Just lots of thrashing about and whimpering.”

  I nodded, then rested my face in my hands. I stood up, shook my head, trying to get rid of the sick, uneasy feeling the nightmare had left me with.

  “We will go to Whitechapel,” I said. I glanced at my phone. Six thirty, which meant it was nearly noon in Detroit. I only hesitated for a moment, then I started typing.

  Just wanted to check in. Is everything okay?

  I waited a few moments that felt like an absolute eternity, and nearly cried with relief when my phone vibrated.

  Good here. Artemis and I are taking a couple of nights off to give Heph and Meg a break. Most of the immortals seem to be moving here now.

  Oh?

  They feel safer I guess.

  After a pause, my phone vibrated again.

  I miss you.

  My heart gave a little leap, and it felt hard to breathe. Stupid tears stung my eyes, and I wanted to smack myself for how ridiculously emotional I was being.

  Instead, I typed back.

  I miss you too. Please be careful, Cub.

  Come back soon, okay? How are you supposed to corrupt me if you’re not even here?

  I allowed myself a smile. That “corruption” joke had come after our first lost soul mission together, when I informed him that the lady in charge of the inn we were staying in seemed to think I had corrupted him somehow into spending time with me.

  I think maybe you are corrupting me. But it could be fun to corrupt you as well. I hit “send” before I could second-guess myself.

  A couple of seconds passed.

  Don’t make me jump on a plane, Tink. I’ll do it.

  Don’t do that. I will see you soon. I hope. I will talk to you later. We have to get moving.

  Okay. Be careful.

  You too.

  With that, I shoved my phone in my pocket, picked up the small duffel bag I always traveled with, and turned to face my team. My uneasiness over the stupid nightmare continued. I shook my head again. “Come. We have a nightmare to find.” I held my hands out, and we reappeared moments later on the brothel roof in Whitechapel.

  “We are not stopping until we find her,” I said. “If we want this mess to end, if we want to be able to point to a definitive success from this particular mission, we need to find her and turn her over to my Queen. We find her, and I believe we will find answers.”

  During the day, Whitechapel was a bustling place, and I tried to look inconspicuous as I walked through the streets. My New Guardians fanned out around me, we moved through the neighborhood, sometimes by foot, sometimes via rematerializing. She had been here again. I could feel the traces of her energy signature.

  Three days later, we were still looking, and my team was becoming restless, snapping at one another. Tempers were running short, as was patience. We had taken two new souls, along with three more who were beginning the path to undeath. It felt as if for every soul we took in, four more took their place.

  The humans were starting to notice that something was very wrong. Not only in London, but, to a lesser extent, in Tokyo, Athens, and Paris as well. Humans were going missing at an alarming rate, and the media was picking up on the story. Every newsstand we passed in our hunts was plastered with the news, the number dead or missing overnight. The screaming, large type asking what could be done to stop it.

  They had begun to call for answers from the immortal the entire world now knew about: Mollis Eth-Hades, the goddess of death.

  I was not entirely surprised when I received a text message from Mollis. “Come home, E. We need to make a move here.”

  My team and I were back in Detroit in seconds. I left them in my apartment, texted Mollis to meet me in our place, and within minutes, I was standing there with a very tired-looking death goddess.

  “This is a motherfucking mess,” she growled in greeting. “It’s getting worse. You’re doing everything you can. You’re bringing me souls and undead at a crazy rate. When’s the last time you slept?”

  “Recently. Kind of,” I added with a shrug. “You know sleep is not as necessary for me.”

  “No. But everyone needs a break and you have been going non-stop and I can’t fucking rest either with this mess. We can’t just let them keep on doing this. We can’t keep up. It needs to stop.”

  I nodded in agreement. “So? What is the plan?”

  “I have spoken to my mother. It’s not her.”

  “I am glad, demon girl,” I said, and she gave a wan smile.

  “She doesn’t believe it’s Aunt Meg, either. We disagree about that part.”

  I nodded.

  “It seems to me that maybe we need to force their hand. Maybe we need to make it very clear that there are sides to be chosen. We both started this little farce thinking the betrayer would come to you. Maybe they need a little more encouragement.”

  I studied her.

  “We should fight. Publicly. Make damn sure everyone knows we can’t stand one another. If anything’s going to draw them out, that would do it. They’ve been working with your sisters. They wouldn’t let a powerful possible ally like you go to waste. Especially one that knows me as well as you do,” she added.

  I thought, considering it. “And if it doesn’t work?”

  She shrugged. “Then if nothing else we can finally drop the act and at least that part of our lives can get back to normal. But I think we should try it. The sooner I know who the betrayer is, the sooner one part of this mess is wrapped up.”

  “You could just ask Megaera,” I said.

  “I did. She denied everything, and I can’t get into her mind. Not without fighting her, and if she’s innocent, I really don’t want to have my aunt’s destruction on my conscience if she pushes too hard. You know how we are. Neither one of us would give up if we got pissed off enough. I don’t trust myself in my current mindset,” she added quietly.

  I studied her, feeling as if she was not telling me everything. “Did something happen, Mollis?”

  She met my gaze, then turned away. “You’ve seen the news lately. They want answers I can’t give them.”

  “I know,” I said.

  “Every day has been more insane. I feel like I’m ready to crawl out of my skin, with all of these souls, more every day, on the loose. Nether is…” she shook her head. “She is not trying to be difficult. She’s very affected by my mental and emotional state, and it’s not good.”

  I nodded. Mollis and Nether were a deadly combination. An out-of-control combination, because Nether lacked care for anything but herself and maybe Mollis, and both beings were full of rage and destruction. Should Nether gain the upper hand, in Mollis’s weakened state, it was not likely that Mollis would be able to gain control again.

  “I attacked Nain,” she said, in a voice so quiet I was sure I had heard her wrong.

  “What?” I asked.

  She turned back to me. Her enormous wings trailed despondently behind her, her shoulders slumped. “I attacked my mate. The love of my life, because he startled me. It was instinct, automatic. I set him on fire, without a thought,” she finished.

  I closed my eyes and knew this was destroying her. He was the person, along with her children, that she loved and treasured most in this world or any other. She had hurt him, and now had another reason to fear herself. What if it was one of the children next? Or another team member, not as strong or resilient as the demon?

  The weight of the chaos was getting to her. She fought. Still, she fought, because she is Mollis and she will fight until there is not
hing left to fight for, until life itself ceases to be.

  But no one, no matter how powerful they are, can bear the weight of so much responsibility alone. We needed to resolve at least some of this. Figuring out who the betrayer was, taking them, would likely lead us to anyone else involved and stop the flow of undead into our world.

  “We will fight,” I said. “I will say many things indicating that you are not among my favorite people.”

  I could see her worry, even as she nodded in agreement.

  “It will be like sparring. We beat the Nether out of one another when we spar, demon girl. This will be no different.”

  “We haven’t sparred since all of this,” she pointed out, second-guessing her plan already.

  I put my hands on my hips. “I trust you to keep control of yourself and Nether, my Queen. You are not some weak, undisciplined child. Remember who you are, Mollis Eth-Hades,” I demanded, knowing she needed a bit of a pep talk. I did not know if I really knew how to give one or not, but I was the only one there.

  Her shoulders straightened, and she seemed to draw herself taller. “I will remember, E. I promise.”

  “Good.” Then she looked as if something had come to her. “Wait here a sec. I have something for you.”

  Before I could respond, she was gone.

  When she left, much of the anxiety left as well. It was not her fault, but I welcomed the respite, short though it would likely be.

  I crossed my arms, glancing around at the empty church. Mortal worship ceremonies held a certain fascination for me, and old churches like this one, even dilapidated and empty as it was, held the power that came with faith. I could feel it even now. It did not matter whether the faith had been the mortals believing in us or some other god. In the end, it was all the same, anyway. It was the same whether I stood in a Christian church, a Jewish temple, a temple built to one of my own kind, or the standing stones scattered throughout Britain. The sense of faith, of power, of the hope and belief in something more, imbued them all. In that way, I could understand what Cathleen had said about the soothing nature of the Church she had loved. There was comfort in that feeling, in the remnants of faith that remained even after those who had worshipped were gone.