Guardian (Hidden Book 6)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “The Seasons were last seen by their sisters. They were all in Hawaii at the time. Pthinoporon and Cheimon were last seen when the sisters all settled in to sleep under the moonlight on one of the beaches. When Eiar and Thelos woke the next morning, their sisters were gone. They told me they did not hear a sound during the night and slept soundly,” Triton said. “Angelia and Penthus were together, from what we understand,” Triton finished.

  Brennan nudged me gently, and when I looked at him, he raised his eyebrows questioningly.

  “Angelia is the spirit of tidings. Messages,” I explained. “Penthus is the spirit of mourning.”

  “That’s kind of an interesting combination,” he said.

  “Opposites attract,” Eros said. “They have been inseparable for eons.”

  Brennan glanced at me again, and I nodded my agreement. “They have been together for as long as I can remember. Where there is one, you will find the other.”

  “Romantically, or friends, or?” he asked.

  “Mates,” I answered, and he nodded.

  “So who saw them last?”

  “Iris said that Lethe, who is close friends with them, is the one who told her they were missing,” Eros said.

  “Spirit of forgetfulness,” I said quietly to Brennan before he had to ask.

  “Are we sure she didn’t just forget where she’d last seen them?” he joked, and I hid a smile.

  “We should ask her. Where did Iris see Lethe?”

  “Somewhere in Ireland, I believe,” Triton said, and Eros nodded.

  I looked toward Mollis then, who was looking at me. “Well that is convenient. I am leaving for Ireland soon to check on something. I will see if I can speak with Lethe while I am there.”

  Mollis nodded.

  “Be careful, Eunomia,” Triton said. “I don’t know what’s going on, but it feels wrong. It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t like the idea of you going off alone tracking them.”

  “You asked me to do so,” I pointed out.

  “That was before I thought about it. If there’s something dangerous going on—“

  “I am the best one to handle it,” I finished for him.

  He gave me a stern look. “Do not be over-confident.”

  “I really am not in need of your advice about how to handle myself, Triton,” I said softly.

  “Eunomia can handle herself,” Mollis said. “And she is not going alone. Brennan, you’re going too.”

  “I was just going to suggest that,” he said, as I stared, open-mouthed at Mollis. I remembered myself, and clamped my mouth shut again.

  “I was not,” I said, looking coolly at first Mollis and then Brennan. “I do not need a babysitter.”

  “I know. But he can actually help with this. And I would feel better if you were not alone. Especially with people knowing where you’re going.”

  “Are you saying you don’t trust us, my Lady?” Triton asked irritably. “You must mean us, right? We’re the only ones here.”

  “Obviously,” Mollis said drily.

  “I would never hurt her. I want the same thing you want. To find them and figure out what happened,” he said.

  She was watching him, and I wondered what she saw. “Then surely you have no issues with her having backup, right?”

  “Of course not. I just think that if you’re looking for someone to mistrust, it is not anyone in this room.”

  Mollis stood, which was a clear indication that she was finished with the meeting. “Ask him about trust,” she said gesturing toward Eros. “He’s already proven that he has it in him to lie and a whole lot more. And my experience with immortals tells me there’s not a fucking thing most of you won’t stoop to. You’re clean right now. Your conscience is weighed by nothing. Which is really good for you, because if you’d come in here guilty of something, your throat would have met my blade instantly. Don’t give me a reason to rid the world of two more immortals,” Mollis finished.

  Triton and Eros stood. “We are on your side, my Lady,” Triton said.

  “Fuck my side,” Mollis said. “I don’t care about me. Just don’t be a lying asshole and we’ll be fine. Thanks for stopping by.”

  With that obvious dismissal, Eros disappeared. Triton turned to me.

  “Be careful,” he said, stepping toward me. He hugged me gently, gave Brennan a nod, and stepped back. Then he, too, disappeared.

  “They weren’t hiding anything.” Mollis said, answering my first question. “I still don’t like this. I know you like to work alone, but please just take Bren with you. Okay? For me?”

  I tamped down my irritation. I did not need help. And spending time traveling with Brennan was not exactly what I needed at the moment. But arguing with Mollis over it, especially in front of the shifter, would not help my case.

  “Very well,” I said.

  “I’ll do some searching. I’ll see if anything weird has been reported that we could possibly tie to this,” Brennan said, and Mollis nodded.

  “Artemis will watch Sean, right?” she asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Tell her if she needs any help, to just ask. Between Nain and me and Ada and my mom, we’ll work it out.”

  “It’ll be fine,” Brennan said.

  “Okay. I need to get back to work,” Mollis said. “Be careful, E.”

  “I will, demon girl. Go hurt somebody.”

  She grinned, gave us a wave, and then was gone.

  “Ready?” I asked Brennan, and he nodded. He was watching me closely, and there was that ridiculous tingle when he touched me, when he clasped his hand with mine. I forced myself to ignore it, focused on rematerializing. We appeared in the main living area of the loft. It was empty. Even the younger ones were gone. I knew they often went to the park with Tisiphone and Artemis. Everyone else was likely out on patrol.

  I let go of Brennan’s hand and started walking toward the stairs that led up to my room. I wanted to double-check my bags before I left for Ireland.

  Before we left for Ireland, I reminded myself.

  “Tink,” Brennan said, and I turned back to him, my hand resting on the railing of the stairway the led up to my room.

  “Yes?”

  “What’s the deal with you and Triton?”

  I froze. Damn perceptive shifter male.

  “What do you mean?”

  He walked toward me, slowly, reminding me of the way he moved in panther form. Graceful. Deadly.

  Why did I want to flee?

  “You know what I mean. I’ve never seen you that uncomfortable around anyone.”

  I did not answer.

  “Did he do something to you?” he asked, and his voice had that growl to it. “Because you don’t act like someone who’s in love. Or even just hot for someone, which is what I thought at first when I saw you two together. You act like you’re ashamed of something.”

  I simply stared at him. How in the Nether did he see so much?

  “I think you have an over-active imagination,” I said, and he looked down at me. There was no smiling now. There was an intensity to his eyes that practically took my breath away.

  “Eunomia.”

  “Brennan,” I said, trying to sound more irritated and less stupidly breathy. I am not sure I was successful.

  “Did he do something to you? Did he hurt you?”

  I shook my head. “It is nothing like that. We have known one another a very, very long time. He would never hurt me. He has not. Any so-called ‘weirdness’ you saw was all my own. I have a fair share of that. Or had you not noticed?”

  He was still watching me. “I like your weirdness.”

  “I should finish packing,” I said, taking a step back from him, still gripping the stair rail. “I would like to leave soon.”

  “I’ll pack up, and I want to say bye to Sean before I leave. Then we can go. Okay?”

  I nodded, turned, and climbed the stairs, more than happy to be away from him.

  Once I was in my room, I closed the doo
r and leaned back against it, closing my eyes.

  I rubbed my hands over my face in irritation, my fingers rubbing along the raised scar at the side of my face from where Biset had managed to cut me. In truth, it still hurt.

  I have only been struck by a Guardian’s blade on one occasion before, and it was the day I realized my life would never be the same.

  I stood, and tried to center myself, and remembered the first time I had ever been afraid. Mollis had gone to meet with Hades, and Brennan, who had been her mate at the time, had been kidnapped and held hostage by my sisters. Tortured. We realized what was happening when one of the imps alerted us that the shifter had been taken, and I had been in charge of getting Brennan out of the Nether.

  The blood.

  The blood was something it would take me a long time to forget. I was starting to believe I never would. I have taken part in my share of battles. I have been wounded more times than I care to remember. Seeing the way my sisters sliced and broke the shifter’s body at Hermes’ command was one of those things I just could not quite unsee. I saw it every time I looked at him. Perhaps that was why he was working his way into my life. Guilt on my part? Because my sisters did that to him? Maybe. Maybe I admire that, despite the fact that they were in the act of torturing him when I arrived, he’d refused, stubbornly, to give them what they wanted. He’d refused to scream, and, more, he’d refused to break.

  We’d fought, my sisters and I. One plunged a dagger into my thigh as I ran past her. I’d grabbed the shifter and lifted him into the air, preparing to fly away. Another of my sisters had barreled into me in midair, stabbing her dagger into my wing, slicing it all the way through.

  My wings flexed beneath my coat, a response to the memory of the excruciating pain. We barely made it out, and two of my sisters fell at my hand. From what I understand, they resurrected only to later be cut down by Mollis herself, permanently.

  I had flown Brennan out of the Nether and into the deserted Packard Plant in Detroit, where the gateway between this world and the world of the immortals had once stood, both of us bleeding, barely hanging on to consciousness. And even though I knew I must have been hurting him as we fell through the gateway, he never made a sound.

  Everything after that was chaos and panic, and it is only thanks to Ada’s quick skill that I can fly at all.

  I shook my head and walked over to the small dresser in my room. I tossed a few t-shirts, jeans, underthings into my duffel bag, along with the small laptop Hephaestus had given to me. I went through a box of different currencies I kept on hand, grabbing a few Euros for the trip, and I tucked them into my jacket pocket.

  I tried to keep my mind from reliving that day in an endless loop. These were things I did not particularly want to think about. I did not want to think about what it felt like to really fear something. Yet I had a feeling, like an irritating gnat that just would not go away, that I had a reason to fear something now. I just did not know exactly what that was.

  I tried to shove the thoughts aside and zipped up my bag. Hopefully this would be a quick trip. Hopefully she would send someone else with me next time. Hephaestus, maybe. Yes. Hephaestus would be better. Less likely to make me feel like some kind of awkward adolescent.

  All I had to do was make it through a few days in Ireland. How hard could it be?

  Chapter Seven

  Less than an hour later, Brennan and I rematerialized in an alley behind a row of storefronts in Cork. I’d already tried it once myself to ensure it was a good place for two people to suddenly appear out of nowhere. We were between two large trash receptacles, and while the smell was horrid, it did ensure that no humans saw us.

  “Ugh. Welcome to Ireland,” Brennan muttered. He did not release my hand, instead, he pulled me out from between the dumpsters and toward the opening at the end of the alley.

  “It generally smells much nicer than this,” I told him.

  “Good to know.” We walked in silence, turning onto a main thoroughfare, surrounded by cars, people about their business. He glanced at the duffel bag I carried. “Only one bag? I expected more.”

  “I do not need much. A change of clothing. Laptop. Local currency, because if you have money, you can buy anything else you may need.” I had that in abundance. One doesn’t live for thousands of years without amassing a sizable fortune, especially if one plans on trying to pass for human.

  Brennan was smiling, and he shook his head.

  “What?”

  “I’ve heard that before. Nain taught you how to pack, didn’t he?”

  I let out a short laugh. “I did not need him to teach me to pack, but he shared his advice nonetheless.”

  Brennan laughed. “He tends to do that.”

  “He was not wrong,” I admitted, and he shook his head. We walked, and I took in the tall, narrow buildings on each side of the cramped street, some in muted, natural tones, and others in bright pastels. The air smelled of bakery bread, and I breathed it in. We passed a cheese shop, and the scent of sharp, fragrant cheese wafted out when a customer opened the door.

  “Did you know my grandparents were from here?” Brennan asked, reading the name on the cheese shop’s sign.

  “I did not,” I said. I considered pulling my hand out of his, but did not. The man made me do nonsensical things. I am perfectly capable, more so than he is, of walking on my own. Yet I understood. I knew, from the time I had spent in the shifters’ company, as well as with Artemis, that their kind thrive on physical contact. I blushed at that, stupidly.

  I made the mistake of glancing over at Brennan to see him watching me, a small smile on his lips.

  “Your mother’s parents, or your father’s?” I asked.

  “My mother’s. My great grandfather owned a small cheese shop here in Cork. A long time ago. My mom’s parents emigrated to the U.S. after they were married.”

  I nodded. “And you would like to see the location of the shop. Even if it is not your family’s any longer.”

  He did not answer, and I smiled. “We can do that.”

  “It’s stupid, I know.”

  “It is not. It is part of your history. Your past. It is good to honor our history. It makes us who we are.”

  He squeezed my hand. “If we have time. Did you have a place you preferred to stay while we’re here?”

  I shook my head. “I was not thinking ahead. I just planned on finding a place once we arrived.”

  “I reserved two rooms at this small inn near the center of town. If that’s okay,” he said. “We can change it if you want.”

  “That is fine,” I said. “Thank you.”

  “So, look. We can get checked in, and then I’m meeting with one of the supernatural affairs guys here at four o’clock,” he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “It’s one thirty now, local time.”

  “Perfect. You can find out what you can from him while I look for the lost soul,” I told him. “And then I will see you when I am finished, and you can tell me what you’ve learned. And then we will go look for Lethe.”

  He sighed. “I still don’t like you dealing with these dead assholes by yourself.”

  I let out a short laugh. “I have been doing it for thousands of years, cub.”

  “I know. And you’re scarier than they are,” he said with a small smile.

  “Of course.”

  We walked through the streets, ending up at a large stone building just off the main thoroughfare. We went in, and Brennan did the talking as a woman who identified herself as the owner of the inn, an older human with snow-white hair and too much perfume, openly studied us. We definitely looked like an odd pair, Brennan in his very official-looking suit and tie, hair neatly pulled back, ready, friendly smile. And then there was me, with my leather coat, faded Nirvana t-shirt, and knee-high black leather boots. At least she did not know about the daggers strapped to my body.

  One did not need to be a telepath to see that she very clearly thought Brennan could do better. I hid a smirk as she gav
e Brennan the keys and looked disapprovingly at me, as though I was an irritant to her somehow.

  Humans are strange beyond all reckoning.

  She told us which rooms were ours, and Brennan and I headed there, hands still clasped.

  “She thinks I have seduced you and I am not nearly good enough for you,” I said when we got to our rooms. He was unlocking the door, and he fumbled, dropped the keys, swore under his breath.

  “What made you think that?” he asked after he recovered and picked the keys up.

  “She thinks you are a nice boy and I have corrupted you. She hopes you grow out of it.”

  “You are not a telepath,” he reminded me as he pushed the door open and waved me in.

  “No. Just very, very old. And humans are easy to read if you pay attention,” I said, walking into the room.

  “This room connects to our other one,” he said pointing toward a door on the opposite wall. “Corrupting me, huh?” he asked, dropping his bag on the bed.

  “Mhmm,” I said, walking over to the door, opening it. The other room was identical to this one, and I tossed my black duffel bag onto the bed with its bedspread of gaudy mauve roses.

  “Only if I was really lucky. Feel free to corrupt me, Tink,” he said, shrugging his suit jacket off.

  “You wish,” I said.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Glad you get it,” he said, grinning at me, and I felt my entire body heat. I looked away, and he let out a short, entirely too intimate sounding chuckle. “You blush an awful lot for a badass immortal who claims she has no emotions whatsoever, you know that?”

  “I am not blushing,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “Sure you are. It’s cute.”

  I did not dignify that with a response, and he chuckled again. He unbuttoned the top button of his white shirt, started tugging at his tie.

  It was much too warm in our rooms. Much too warm.

  “I should get to work,” I said, well aware that I was mumbling. Though part of me was very interested to stay and see how many more items of clothing the shifter planned to shed.

  Damn it.

  I headed for the door. “I will see you later,” I said.