by Tina Folsom
“That makes sense,” Wes said, “after all, quarried rock was hard to come by. People would have reused whatever they could, especially after a war.”
“We’ll have to inform the council members of this,” Virginia added.
“Doing it right now,” Pearce confirmed, punching away at his keyboard.
“Good. Now to something else: does the council have any suspicions as to how the demons were able to find and enter the compound?” Virginia asked.
“You mean other than that they believe Wesley led them there?” Manus shot back.
Logan jabbed him in the ribs and mouthed something unintelligible to him. “Sorry, we’re just all a bit on edge.”
“The council has no leads as of yet,” Pearce said, pointing to the computer screen. “But the other compounds have come up with plenty of theories.”
“Let me hear them,” Virginia demanded.
Pearce looked at the screen and started. “Betrayal by a council member.”
Virginia grunted.
“Been done, you know,” Aiden said.
Virginia motioned to Pearce. “Go on, what else?”
“A human mate being blackmailed by a demon. Torture of an emissarius. Betrayal by a guardian turned demon. Carelessness by a guardian traveling to the compound. Coincidence.”
“Coincidence?” Wes repeated, frowning.
Pearce shrugged. “A blind man may perchance hit the mark—if he takes aim often enough. Law of probability. The demons have been on our asses long enough.”
“Unrealistic,” Virginia said dismissively. “Any other theories?”
“What’s an emissarius?” Wes asked, recalling the word Pearce had thrown out earlier.
“A human who works for us, spies for us, keeps us abreast of anything important,” Aiden explained. “They know who we are, and they are loyal to us. But they wouldn’t be able to betray our compounds.”
“Why?”
“Because they don’t know where they’re located,” Virginia answered in Aiden’s stead.
Wes gave her a sideways glance. “Then how do they get in contact with you when they have news for you?”
“They’re given a phone number to call, and we get in contact with them when it’s safe.”
“And the number,” Wes mused, “can it be traced?”
“No,” Pearce said firmly. “Not a chance.”
That didn’t leave very many theories that were viable. “Virginia, you said the mate of a guardian wouldn’t know where the council compound is located, right?” Wes didn’t look at her, but turned to the others, all of whom, to his surprise, were suddenly staring at him as if he’d just committed the greatest faux pas. He quickly glanced at Virginia, who was glaring at him sternly.
“Counselor Robson is right,” Aiden said, putting emphasis on the first two words.
That was when Wesley realized why everybody was looking at him as if he’d grown horns. He’d called Virginia by her first name.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, people,” Wes cursed. “What are we standing on ceremony for? We could all be dead by tomorrow for all we know. So let’s not get bent out of shape because I called Counselor Robson by her first name. I think after saving her ass from the demons, I’ve earned it.”
For a second everybody seemed to hold their breath, then Virginia looked at the guardians and said, “I suppose it makes things easier for everybody. Forget about calling me counselor.” When everybody nodded, she addressed Wesley again. “You were saying?”
“The human mates of your guardians. Though they don’t know the location of the council compound they would know the location of the compound they lived at with their mate, right?”
Both Aiden and Hamish squared their shoulders.
“What are you insinuating?” Hamish hissed.
“Our women are beyond reproach,” Aiden grunted.
Wes lifted his hands in a defensive motion. He had no intention of alienating Aiden and Hamish. “I didn’t mean to suggest that your wives would do anything to hurt you or your kind. But I’m sure you’re not the only guardians who have human mates. Any of them could be a weak link that the demons could exploit.”
“Hmm.” Hamish crossed his arms over his chest.
Aiden did the same.
Wes sighed. So much for voicing his opinion.
Manus now rose from his chair. “Don’t worry about those two. They’re just protective of their women. But since I’m objective, I can follow your logic.”
Hamish scoffed at Manus’s comment. “That’d be a first.”
Manus tossed him a shut-the-fuck-up look, then said, “So, Wes, what I think you’re saying is that it’s possible that the demons got to one of the human mates, maybe even without her knowing it, possibly by simply following her.”
“Exactly. She might not have even been aware she was being tailed. She might have inadvertently led a demon to one of the compounds, where the demon found the portal and accessed the council compound from there. Isn’t that possible? I mean can they access a portal with their powers?”
“We’re not sure. In any case, there was no alarm,” Virginia said.
“What if the demons were able to eliminate the alarm?”
“Hmm. But they’d have to have had a Stealth Guardian with them in the portal to operate it.”
Wes thought about Virginia’s assertion. She’d said as much when she had transported him to the council compound. “Is there any other way into the compounds? This sounds like a dumb question, but did you check the front door? Is there a front door?”
The guardians hesitated, then their glances turned to Virginia—looking for approval.
Finally, Hamish answered, “There are doors, simply because we can’t get humans or other creatures, witches for example, through the walls. So should we arrive at the compound in any way other than via a portal, we have to use one of the normal entrances to bring the human in. It doesn’t happen often, because humans aren’t allowed in the compounds.”
“Other than human mates,” Virginia clarified.
“Yes,” Hamish consented. “Our human mates do occasionally have to use the doors. But that doesn’t mean the demons would be able to find them.”
“Why not?” Wes asked.
“Because the compounds are invisible.”
Wesley’s chin dropped. “You mean this entire building”—he made an all-encompassing movement with his hands—“is invisible?”
Hamish nodded. “The old runes you see everywhere, plus our virta, our life force, keeps it hidden. The demons can’t see it. Neither can humans. Or witches.”
“But it’s there, right? You can still feel it. You can run into it.”
“There’s a warding spell on the entire building that prevents anybody wanting to come closer. They wouldn’t even be aware of avoiding it. They’d just turn around and go the other way.”
“Pretty nifty,” Wes had to admit. “And you know for a fact that this spell works on demons?” The guardians exchanged apprehensive looks. “You don’t? Then it’s possible the demons could be immune to this spell and could have gotten close enough to the compound to find a way in.”
“That’s pure speculation,” Hamish said.
“So is everything else,” Logan said calmly. “I say we go about it systematically. We all take one theory and work through it. Betrayal by a guardian turned demon, a guardian’s mate being followed, a rogue council member, a compromised emissarius, and a careless guardian. Work for everybody?”
When nobody protested, Logan turned to Pearce. “Run us lists of all emissarii in our zone, all human mates worldwide, and all council members, past and present, if still alive.”
“Also, all the guards who’ve ever served at the council compound,” Virginia added.
Logan nodded. “Good idea. And send out word to the other compounds to compile a report on which of their guardians had meetings with emissarii in the last, let’s say, seven days.”
“You’ve got it,” Pearce
replied. “The list of the emissarii in our zone will be the quickest. You’ll have that in two minutes. You can get started on that while I work on the other lists.”
Wesley jumped off the desk. He loved the way the guys here came together when push came to shove. They reminded him of his friends at Scanguards—and the fact that he hadn’t called them yet to let them know that he was alive.
“And another thing,” Virginia suddenly added. “Don’t tell anybody that Wesley and I are alive. Not even the council members. If we truly have a traitor that high up, it’s best if they believe the witch and I are dead.”
Wes met Virginia’s eyes. Smart thinking.
When everybody nodded in agreement and then huddled around the computer console, he leaned toward Virginia and murmured, “Name’s still Wesley, or have you forgotten?”
“I haven’t forgotten anything.”
18
Virginia couldn’t help but be impressed. Within hours after her and Wesley’s arrival at the Baltimore compound, everybody was deeply entrenched in the investigation into the attack on the council compound. They’d spread out in the command center, working the computers and phones, and monitoring messages that came in from around the world.
Virginia was working on the list of council members past and present, when the door to the command center suddenly opened. Two women entered: Leila and Tessa. They carried trays with food. The aroma drifted to her, and she realized how hungry she was.
“Time for lunch, everybody,” Leila announced.
The guardians rose from their chairs and walked to the table along the wall, where Leila and Tessa were placing the dishes, and started grabbing plates and heaving food onto them.
Virginia welcomed the break. She looked around for Wesley and saw him waiting his turn for the food. He hadn’t talked to her since reprimanding her for not using his name and calling him witch. It had been an attempt at making the other guardians believe that nothing had happened between her and Wesley.
She’d wanted to explain the ground rules to Wesley earlier so that he would understand why she had to give him the cold shoulder in front of the others, but they’d been interrupted by Aiden, and there hadn’t been a good time since.
Virginia walked to the table and stopped behind Wesley. Reaching for a plate, she leaned in and whispered, “We need to talk later.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “About what?”
Clearly, he wasn’t going to make this easy. Fair enough. She couldn’t really blame him for his icy response.
“About how things have to be from now on,” she said.
“And who decides that?”
She opened her mouth, but hesitated, not sure how to respond. The answer should have been simple: she was the one in charge. But in Wesley’s presence she didn’t feel like she was in control. She felt… insecure. He made her question her actions, her beliefs, her goals. Nobody had ever done that, and now this man, this witch, who wasn’t even as strong as her, stood up to her like nobody before him.
“Hey, guys, you’ve gotta see this,” Pearce called out from the command console where he sat chowing down on his food.
Virginia turned and marched toward him, while several of the others did the same. She stopped behind Pearce’s chair.
“It’s about Faldo.” He blew up a window on one of the screens.
“Faldo?” Virginia asked.
“An emissarius here in Baltimore.”
He turned up the volume, and Virginia concentrated on the screen. A reporter stood outside a house. Policemen swarmed the property, and two men were rolling out a gurney: it carried a black body bag.
“Shit!” Hamish hissed next to her.
“Approximately one hour ago,” the female reporter on the screen started, “the police were called to this mansion behind me, belonging to Anton Faldo, a businessman with reported ties to organized crime. Mr. Faldo was found dead by his housekeeper earlier today. Reports indicate that he was found lying in a pool of blood in his study, and the house had been ransacked. The time of death is still unclear, but a statement from his housekeeper, who has been on vacation for the past week, asserts that the victim lived alone. It’s therefore possible that Mr. Faldo was killed several days ago. As for the cause of death, the police haven’t released any details yet. However, early indications are that this was a mob hit.”
Behind her on the screen, an elderly white woman exited the house, her face tearstained. Communicating with her producer off-camera, the reporter mouthed something, then looked over her shoulder, catching sight of the woman.
“And here is the housekeeper, Mrs. uh…Jefferson.” She turned and stepped in the woman’s path. “Are you Mrs. Jefferson, Mr. Faldo’s housekeeper?”
Startled, the woman stopped, whipped her head in the direction of the camera, then back to the reporter. Somewhat shyly she nodded. “Carol Jefferson, yes.” She pulled a tissue from her coat pocket and dabbed at her eyes.
“Can you tell us anything about what might have happened to your employer?”
Her lips trembled, but she answered, “I wasn’t here. He gave me the week off. You know.” A sob tore from her chest. “Because he was supposed to be gone. This should never have happened. He wasn’t even supposed to be at home.”
Clearly distraught, the housekeeper blew her nose into the tissue.
The reporter looked back at the camera. “As you can see, Mr. Faldo’s death has come as a shock to everybody. We’ll stay on this story—”
Pearce muted the volume.
Curses bounced off the walls. Hamish exhaled sharply. “Faldo was the one who alerted us to Tessa’s needing protection.” He put his arm around his wife, who sidled up to him, tears brimming in her eyes.
“I feel so bad,” Tessa murmured. “For so long I thought he was just another mobster taking advantage of this city and its inhabitants, but he was better than that. He looked out for me, for us.”
Hamish pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I know. That’s why we’ll find out what happened. I promise you.” Then he looked straight at Virginia. “Unfortunately, there’s a good chance the demons were able to connect him to us. They had a person close to Tessa who knew Faldo was the one who brokered the deal for her protection. By the time we found out who it was, it was too late. Faldo’s name could have easily been passed on to the demons.” He cursed. “It’s my fault. I should have had him relocated immediately.”
Virginia made a dismissive hand movement. “Let’s not waste any time on what could have been.” She pointed to the screen. “We need to find out what the demons were looking for at his house. The reporter didn’t mention anything about Faldo being tortured.”
“We can figure that out pretty easily,” Hamish said, then pointed to Logan. “Can you go down to the morgue, and have a look at the body?”
“I can do that,” Logan said.
“I’m going to his house,” Hamish stated.
“Not alone, you’re not,” Virginia interrupted. “Take two guardians with you. It’ll be faster and safer.”
“Fine. Enya, Manus, you’re with me.”
Pearce swiveled in his chair. “I’ll check the logs to see which guardians Faldo has been in contact with over the last few days.” He was already typing away on his keyboard.
“I can go with Hamish,” Wes suddenly said.
Virginia stared at him. “You’re not leaving this—”
“Hear me out on this,” he interrupted. “If I go with them, I can use witchcraft to maybe find traces of whoever did this. And perhaps even what they were looking for.”
Virginia hesitated. Allowing a prisoner to roam freely within the compound was one thing, allowing him outside with his bag of tricks was breaking the rules at a level that was unprecedented.
“He kept his word last time,” Aiden threw in. “And he’s good. His magic works.”
She knew that, had seen it with her own eyes. But could she risk letting him loose? What if something went wrong? What if he got
hurt?
Her own thoughts surprised her. Was she worried about Wesley?
“Come on, Virginia, after all we’ve been through, I think you owe me a little trust.”
He stared at her with his baby-blues, and she knew what he was referring to. Not just that he’d saved her life, but also that she’d surrendered to him in bed, and that he hadn’t taken advantage of her vulnerability. She’d been safe with him.
Slowly, she nodded. “But I’m coming with you.”
“No!”
The protest didn’t come from Wesley, but from Pearce.
“Excuse me?”
“We need you here,” Pearce claimed and pointed to the screen.
“What is it?” Virginia asked, instantly alarmed.
“Faldo’s last contact with our kind was a council member.”
Shit!
“We need to access the details on whom he met and what was discussed.”
Virginia took a shaky breath. “You think a council member could have anything to do with this?”
“I’m not making any accusations,” Pearce said carefully. “But it’s a lead we have to follow up on. Like it or not. The situation is delicate. It’s best that you, as a fellow council member, handle this.”
“You’re right.” She looked at Wesley. “You’ll go with Hamish, Enya, and Manus. Be careful.” Then she connected her gaze with Hamish’s. “And you make sure nothing happens to Wesley. He’s valuable.”
In more ways than one.
19
This was officially Wesley’s fifth trip in the Stealth Guardians’ portal, and he was getting more and more used to it. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad way to travel after all. Or maybe the fact that he was clutching his backpack, which contained all his tools of witchcraft, made the trip bearable.
After transporting to a warehouse somewhere in Baltimore, Hamish led them to a car parked close by, and together with Manus and Enya, they drove off.
Anton Faldo lived in a fancy suburb of Baltimore, among large mansions with manicured front lawns and mature trees giving shade.
