Guardian (Hidden Book 6)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  Mollis was about to go on when her phone rang. She held up a finger, gave me an apologetic look. From her end of the conversation, it sounded as if she was needed.

  She hung up and sighed. “That was my aunt. There’s a soul being uncooperative,” she said in irritation. “Do you want to come with me?”

  For some reason, I was not interested in feeling or seeing the Nether just yet. I shook my head. “I think I will get settled in here. Is my old room still available?”

  “Of course,” she said. Then she hugged me, and, within moments she was gone.

  I sat in the empty loft, feeling at home and yet even more lost than before.

  Chapter Two

  A while later, I heard one of the upstairs bedroom doors open. I turned and I glanced up from my spot on the sofa to see Tisiphone carrying a wiggling bundle in her arms. She threw a smile my way.

  “I thought I felt you here,” she said. I stood up and bowed my head in deference to Mollis’s mother.

  “Tisiphone,” I said softly, and she came up to me and put her fingers under my chin, raised my face to hers.

  “It is good to see you again, friend,” she said, a small, sad smile on her face.

  “It is good to see you as well,” I answered. I glanced at the bundle in her arms. Mollis and Nain’s son was just over three months old. He lay in his grandmother’s arms, bright blue eyes taking in everything around him, and finally, resting on me. I wondered if he could sense another being of the Nether. Ridiculously, I found myself smiling at him.

  “So, that is the new member of the family,” I said.

  Tisiphone smiled again, a more normal smile. I had the feeling that, even now, those were rare from her. Two mortal years since losing her mate, Hades, undoubtedly felt like nothing at all.

  “This is he,” she said, and she pulled the striped blanket completely away from his face so I could see better. From the nose up, he looked just like his mother, with Mollis’s narrow nose and high cheekbones. From the nose down, he reminded me of Nain, right down to the tiny cleft in his chin.

  “What did they end up naming him?” I asked.

  Tisiphone met my eyes. “Hades,” she said softly, and I rested my hand on her arm. “I wasn’t sure how I would handle that, the constant reminder. But, as she often does, my daughter seemed to see more clearly than I. It comforts me that in more than one way, he lives on.”

  “She has some experience in loss.”

  Tisiphone nodded. “That she does. She asked how I felt about it, and I was unsure. And she said that some days, the smell of her mate’s shirts was all that got her through, all that anchored her to sanity.” I remembered those days, those first days and weeks after we’d believed Nain to be dead. Mollis had been inconsolable, often clinging to shirts he had worn. She’d cradled his pillow almost nonstop. I knew Tisiphone would still be feeling that. The cost of the demon marriage bond is a high one. Tisiphone gave another small nod. “Besides, I think Hades would have enjoyed having another god named after him.”

  I laughed. “I think so, yes. He did suggest they name Zoe after him.”

  She nodded. “Would you like to hold him? I’m going to get a bottle.”

  I held my arms out awkwardly, feeling as though it would be rude to tell the Fury I had no interest really in holding the tiny being. What if I dropped him? I could just imagine having to explain to the Goddess of Death and her demon husband that I’d hurt their baby.

  “You are not going to drop him,” Tisiphone said, a wry tone to her voice as she walked to the kitchen.

  “You do not know that,” I said, frozen in place, afraid to even move rather than risk losing my grip on him. I looked down at his face to see his gaze fixed on my face.

  “His eyes glow, surely?” I asked.

  “They do. White like hers, but only when he’s upset. He is a perfect combination of their human forms.”

  “I wondered if he’d look more like a demon,” I said, looking down at him.

  “It seems that my daughter’s blood cancels out the demon form,” Tisiphone said distractedly, as she poured a bottle. “Which really makes no difference, since he’ll be plenty strong without it.”

  I nodded and breathed a sigh of relief when she took him from my arms. She carried baby Hades into the living room, settling into one of the overstuffed armchairs. I took my spot on the sofa again and watched Tisiphone feed the baby for a few minutes.

  “It is so quiet,” I finally said.

  She smiled at me. “Only now. Any minute now the demon and Artemis will be returning from patrol, and my daughter will be back from the Netherwoods, and Brennan will bring the children home. Hephaestus and his family usually end up here as well. It will likely be a full house tonight, once everyone hears that you have returned.”

  As could be expected, the Fury was right. Within moments, I felt Mollis’s presence, as well as the demon’s. They walked in, and Nain folded me into a bone-crushing hug before heading into the kitchen with his mate.

  “It’s Brennan’s night to cook,” he grumbled.

  At that moment, the door opened, Sean and Zoe running through and up the stairs into Sean’s room. Brennan followed them in and dumped coats, hats, and toys on the table near the door. “Actually, it’s Stone and Ada’s night,” he said.

  “It’s not our night,” Ada argued as she descended the stairs from the room she shared with her husband, Stone. I could smell the woodsy scent of rosemary, the pungent bite of mint wafting along with her. She often spent her days making teas and medicinal potions for the team and some of the humans that were allied with us. “Don’t even try to get out of it, son.”

  Brennan shook his head. “I watched the two tornadoes all day. If I cook, you’re all getting Cocoa Pebbles.”

  “Which would be fine, except that we’re out of milk,” Mollis said. “I forgot to stop off at the store. Sorry.”

  “Dry Cocoa Pebbles then,” Brennan said, shaking his head. “I honestly don’t even care right now,” he said with a laugh.

  Mollis started flipping through the drawer in the kitchen that held the many takeout menus we hoarded. “Were they insane?” she asked Brennan.

  “Aren’t they always?” he asked.

  “Pizza,” Nain cut in, and Mollis nodded. “I’ll call Heph and ask him to pick some up on the way over. Buddy’s?” he asked Mollis and she rattled off her order as Nain relayed it to Hephaestus. I sat and observed, amused by the flurry of activity, the noise. I was also well aware that, if I were to live among it every day, it would drive me slowly insane. Mollis had settled into this life, this messy combination of family, friends, duty, and violence, and somehow she was making it work. I reflected on how she’d grown, how she’d matured from the confused, rage-filled vigilante she’d been to the woman she was now. There was still that rage. Violence, always. But her violence had a focus now, and she wielded it with a wisdom even I had not foreseen when we had first met.

  Her father would be proud, I thought to myself, still feeling a pang for the loss of the being I’d given my loyalty to for most of my existence.

  My morose thoughts were interrupted by the booming roar of a familiar voice, and I stood with a smile.

  “Where is she? Where’s my frigid little nightmare?” Hephaestus boomed, and I laughed. His wife, the witch Meaghan, trailed behind him shaking her head and calling a cheerful greeting to me.

  “Hello, Meaghan,” I called back just as Hephaestus swung me into his arms. It was like being attacked by an excessively snuggly grizzly bear, I thought, laughing as he hugged me to him.

  “Ah, she’s back. I have missed you, you little terror,” he said, rumpling my hair in his usual annoying fashion.

  “Must you do that?” I asked him, though I knew I did not sound nearly as stern as I meant to.

  “I have two years of annoying you to make up for!” he said, planting a kiss on my cheek before setting me down. I smacked his arm, and he laughed as he headed into the kitchen. As usual, the only thi
ng that could distract the giant immortal, besides his wife, of course, was food. I shook my head and exchanged an amused look with Meaghan, who seemed to be thinking the same thing.

  “It is a good thing you are able to grow so much of your own food,” I said to her, and she laughed. Meaghan was an Earthwitch. Her power was in working with nature. She made plants grow larger, faster, made crops flourish. The Earth goddess Gaia had taken Meaghan under her wing since returning to the mortal realm after the gateway between the human realm and the realm of the immortals had been destroyed, exiling all of us here together.

  Reunions out of the way, we began eating, all of us gathered around the long, gleaming dining room table as we always had before. The main difference being that now Sean and Zoe ran around us, Mollis held baby Hades in her arms and talked to Hephaestus, who was holding his son, Michael. It was as if there had been an explosion of children, the beginning of a new generation of immortals.

  Everything was much, much louder.

  Soon enough, the loft was filled with old, familiar faces: old friends (very old friends) such as Artemis, Asclepias, and Gaia joined us. After dark the vampires made their appearance. Rayna, Ronan, Zero, and Shanti (who greeted me with an ear-splitting squeal and a hug that practically knocked the air from me) all welcomed me back home. I listened to the stories of the team’s exploits over the past couple of years. They’d discovered another cell of vampires in the city who’d been causing trouble and seemed to be ready to move against Rayna, and there was, it seemed, never any shortage of supernaturals who believed that their power granted them the right to endanger the humans. I laughed, and listened, and felt full. After a while, children started drifting off on the sofas, or, in Sean’s case, on the living room carpet, snuggled with a blanket, and talk turned as usual, to strategy. I took this opportunity now that they weren’t so focused on entertaining me, to slip out. I knew Mollis would fill me in later on anything important.

  I made my way up to the roof, breathing a sigh of relief. I’d gotten used to quiet once again. I loved being back, but it was a bit of a shock to my system.

  I pushed open the door to the roof deck, and when I stepped out, I saw that Brennan was already there. He had turned when the door opened.

  “Oh, I am sorry. I did not know someone was up here already,” I said, preparing to turn around.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “You don’t have to go. Unless you want to, I mean. Or if you want to be alone, I can take off.”

  “It is fine,” I said, walking the rest of the way across the roof. He was sitting on the wall surrounding the roof, feet dangling over the side of the building. I sat a short distance away from him. “It is much quieter up here.”

  He nodded. “Thank god,”

  I laughed, and, after a moment, he joined me. “They are talking work down there, if you are interested.”

  He shook his head. “I know it all already.”

  I smiled a little, looked out over the city. “How I’ve missed this view,” I said softly.

  “It never changes,” he said after a few moments of silence.

  I glanced at him. “You make that sound like a bad thing.”

  “It’s not,” he said, shrugging. “Never mind.”

  I studied him, and he seemed to be doing the same with me.

  “You’re taller,” he said finally.

  I laughed. “I am.”

  “Why?”

  “Being very short is almost the equivalent of being very tall. It makes people notice you. I didn’t especially want to be noticed anymore. Hence, I’m taller, and I take the lead from our Lady and wear an enchantment to hide my wings when necessary when I am out among the humans.”

  “Yeah, but your wings are totally badass. Hey, can you fly in front of the moon? It would be like a real-life bat signal.”

  I gave him a disbelieving look, and he grinned. “I…what? You are strange, shifter,” I said with a laugh.

  “So have you done that before?”

  “Make a bat signal?” I asked.

  “No! Change yourself like that,” he asked with a laugh, watching me.

  “My sisters and I were always able to evolve as necessary. We started out looking similar to what you’d think of as harpies… you’ve seen art with them in it before?” I asked, and he nodded. “That was similar to our original form. Over time, we evolved to look more like the others, like Hades. It made sense. We all presented a more uniform front. The only thing we kept of ourselves was our wings.” Indeed. My bat-like wings were nothing like the humongous feathered wings that the Furies, Hades, and Mollis shared. “And our diminutive size. It made sense at this point, that I could be what I wanted. So I grew taller and get fewer curious looks.”

  I sat with him, and we both looked out over the city. I felt myself decompressing. I’d been feeling overstimulated. Loved and happy, yes, but overstimulated nonetheless.

  “It sounds like your life has been exciting the last couple years,” he said after a while. “An entire vampire cell? Really?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “It wasn’t a very well-organized one. And they were feeding on children,” I added. “It felt right.”

  “Where was that?”

  “Portugal.”

  He looked out over the city again. “Is Portugal nice?”

  “It’s beautiful. It’s a lovely country, the food is outstanding, and the people are generally warm and friendly yet they know when to leave a person alone. I liked it there.”

  “How long were you there?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe a week or two? Not very long.”

  “I’m not gonna lie. I’m envious. Before, I’d just kind of take off when I wanted to. Nain usually wasn’t happy about it, but he got it.”

  “Wanderlust,” I said, understanding the feeling.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well. There is a trade-off, yes?” I asked, and he turned to look at me. “You are a father. You have friends and family here. You’re an important man. Director of a federal agency, leader of the shifter coalition, valued member of Nain’s team. You have a lot of wonderful things in your life.”

  “I do. And I’m grateful.”

  I watched him. “But you are also a shifter, my friend. When was the last time you ran, just to run?”

  He went still. His eyes met mine, and he gave a small shrug. “I don’t know.”

  “Don’t you think maybe that is part of what is bothering you? You are ignoring an essential part of what you are.”

  “There’s no time—“ he began, and I stood up and held my hand out.

  “Come,” I said.

  “What?”

  “We are going for a bit. And you are going to run.”

  “Huh?”

  I laughed, waved my hand, urging him to take it.

  “What if they need me? They don’t know we’re leaving.”

  I glanced to the shadows. There was an imp there, as always. “Can you please inform our Lady that we have gone to get some fresh air?” It nodded and disappeared. I turned back to the shifter. “All right?”

  “Why are you doing this?” he asked.

  “Because you are this close to snapping, I think,” I said, holding my finger and thumb up, demonstrating how close he was. “Or falling into depression. And you have not been taking care of yourself, as usual.”

  “Look who’s talking,” he huffed.

  I smiled. “Yet I had the sense to listen to myself. When I needed to leave, I left.”

  “I can’t just leave,” he argued.

  “For a couple of hours, you can. Come.”

  This time, he took my hand, and I focused.

  Moments later, we reappeared, and I heard his sharp intake of breath. I looked around. It was night, as it had been in Detroit. The air was perfumed with the scent of clean forest floor, orchids. A river roared in front of us, and jungle spread for miles and miles all around. I watched as Brennan turned in a circle, staring in wonder.

  “Where are w
e?”

  “The Amazon,” I said. “It seems to me that a panther should, at least occasionally, be able to run in a place like this.”

  He stopped looking around and stared at me. “This is amazing.”

  I smiled at the child-like wonder on his face. “Do you know what would be even more amazing?”

  “What?”

  “If you let your panther run free for a while.”

  He grinned, and I turned toward the river as he started removing his clothing. I could feel the prickle of power that came with a shapeshifter changing, could hear the sound of bones popping. A few moments later, the panther was gently butting my leg with its head.

  “You are a beautiful panther,” I said to him. “Go on. I will be here when you’re done.” I sat on the ground, and after a moment, the panther bounded away.

  I sat there for some time, enjoying the scents around me, the quiet, occasionally catching sight of Brennan’s panther, like a shadow streaking through the trees. I could tell he was enjoying himself. Every once in a while, he roared. That was one of the things, in addition to his ridiculous size, that set him apart. I’d heard panthers in this jungle. They tended to make a high-pitched, almost screaming sound when they called out. Brennan, and Artemis, his grandmother, did not sound like that. I suppose that when a god becomes a giant cat, they may as well be able to roar. And they did. Artemis’s roars, the times I’d seen her run in the Aether, had been so loud the ground shook with them. But of course, Artemis did everything full force. Brennan’s were loud but more controlled, somehow. And, like Artemis, he could turn into any animal he chose, but this, the enormous panther, was his favorite.

  I smiled to myself as I caught the sight of black streaking through the trees again, and sat and enjoyed the quiet.

  After a while, the panther loped up to me, butted his head to my shoulder in such a way that I ended up swaying under the impact, and then he dropped next to me on the ground. He lay on his side, back pressed to the side of my thigh, legs stretched out as he gave a luxurious stretch. He closed his eyes, and a deep purr emanated from him.