Guardian (Hidden Book 6)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “So he is irritatingly persistent. I wonder where he gets that from,” I said, and he shook his head. “So… how was your day?” I asked him. He stood. His eyes flicked over me, and he pulled his tie off.

  “Infuriating.”

  “Oh?”

  “The thing the guy wanted to tell me? Basically there’s this one little town where everyone is batshit terrified of shifters. And they’re organizing hunts, and the dipshit in charge of supernatural affairs here isn’t sure what to do about it.”

  “Have them arrested and tried for murder, perhaps?” I said, watching him.

  “That’s what I said. You know what he said?” A muscle in his jaw jumped, and his entire body seemed tense.

  “What?”

  “They’re not human, so it’s not murder,” he said, meeting my eyes. The look in his eyes, more than anything else, let on how angry he was. “He said shifters are more like animals than people, so it’s hunting. Can you freaking believe that?”

  I shook my head. “Did he know what you are?”

  “He knows now,” he growled, and I stared at him. He must have seen something in my face, because he shook his head. “I didn’t kill him. Scared him, maybe. Let him know what I thought of his ideas about shifters. They’re used to witches here. Witches are their thing. They are terrified of the idea of their neighbors turning into wolves or bears.”

  “Thank goodness they have not encountered vampires yet,” I said, trying to lighten his mood a bit, and was rewarded with a small snort of laughter from him. “Were there threats made?” I asked, studying him.

  “Who, me?” he asked innocently, and I laughed. “Yeah. I maybe said something about how I’d be checking back in and that I have his scent. Maybe,” he said, and I shook my head.

  “I think I am ready to leave this place. Shall we go home?”

  “What about Lethe?” he asked.

  “I paid her a visit earlier. I meant to wait for you, but you were out and I wanted it over with. She says Angelia was there, and that she asked Lethe to help her forget, but we never got any further than that. Lethe is…” I trailed off and made a wiggling gesture with my fingers, indicating her unstable mental state. “It was mostly a dead end. But at least we know she did actually see them. Eros was not lying about that part.” I paused. “So we can go home now.”

  He nodded. “You’re just trying to get out of watching The Avengers with me.”

  “Not at all. I will watch with you whenever you want.”

  “That’s a date, Tink,” he said, and I felt the blush rise to my face.

  “I am going to gather my things. I will be back in a moment,” I said, hurrying out of his room, his low chuckle following me. Damn him.

  When I returned to his room with my duffel bag slung over my shoulder, he was standing near the windows, his own bag in his hand.

  “I am sorry we did not get to see the store your family owned,” I said, remembering.

  “I saw it,” he said. “On the walk back from talking to the supernatural affairs asshole. I needed to clear my head, so I walked around until I found it.”

  I smiled. “Good. And?”

  He shrugged. “It seemed very normal. Normal feels weird to me now, I think.”

  “Welcome to immortal life,” I said softly, and he nodded. “Ready?”

  He came to me, took my hand in his. “Not a word about the Golden Girls. I promise,” he said, tiniest of smiles on his lips, mischievous sparkle in his eye.

  “I will hold you to that,” I said. And then I focused, and moments later, we stood just inside the foyer at the loft. We were surrounded, immediately, by noise. Children laughing and shouting, adult voices. It was jarring, going from the calm and quiet of our rooms. Brennan seemed to sense it as well, and he squeezed my hand, then pulled me with him into the main living area. Sean, Zoe, and Heph’s son, Michael, were chasing one another around the dining room table. Hephaestus, Mollis, Nain, and Artemis were in the living room, and they called greetings to Brennan and me as we approached.

  “Glad you’re back, E,” Mollis said, standing up and hugging me. I embraced her, then backed away, looking at her, and focusing, harder than usual, on keeping my mental shields intact.

  “Those are new,” I said. She wore what looked to be reading glasses, but the emanations of power coming from them led me to suspect they were nothing of the sort.

  “Oh, aren’t they great?”

  “What do they do?” I asked her, then I glanced back at Brennan, holding a finger up to Mollis to forestall her answer. “They are not what they appear to be. Do you feel any power emanating from them?”

  “I don’t think so,” he said, looking unsure.

  “Try. Just focus for a moment. You should be able to feel something.”

  He looked at the glasses, and his brow wrinkled a bit as he focused. “I think, maybe? It’s hard to tell, because all of your power signatures are scrambled together.”

  I nodded. “All right. So what do they do?”

  Mollis was grinning, and even the demon seemed happy. “They block what I can see!” she said, her excitement leading her to clap her hands together in delight, and I had to laugh at her obvious happiness. And with relief. I was trying hard not to think about the mystery souls I was still trying to figure out. This would buy me more much-needed time.

  “Really?”

  “Yes! I think the constant barrage of seeing every damn thing about everyone I know is making this harder. I’m still learning how to handle my dad’s powers, right?” I nodded, and she continued. “So these make it so, as long as I’m wearing them, I don’t have that barrage of information rolling over me. I can see when I need to, but I can go about my life without being assaulted by everyone’s thoughts and sins all the time. Hopefully it will make me feel a little less insane,” she said, this last part in a lower, less cheerful voice.

  I smiled. “You are not insane. It is a lot to deal with all at once, and I am so happy you found something that works. I assume these are Hephaestus’ design?”

  She nodded, and I turned to Hephaestus to see him raising his fist. This human habit of giving fist bumps was something he seemed to have adopted, and I raised my own fist and went through the ridiculous ritual. He grinned at me and I rolled my eyes. “Nice work, genius,” I said, and he practically beamed.

  Mollis sat down beside Nain. “I’m so glad you’re back. Fill me in?”

  I glanced around, and Molly nodded. “I told Heph and Artemis what was going on. They deserve to know.”

  I nodded, in complete agreement that the more support Mollis had in what was going on, the better. I sat on the loveseat near the window, and, to my utter confusion, Brennan stayed at my side, sitting right next to me. His son had leapt at him the instant he’d seen him, and he sat contentedly on Brennan’s lap, breathlessly telling him about the adventures he’d had in the past couple of days as if they hadn’t just spoken to each other less than an hour ago. I began filling Mollis and everyone else in on the soul I’d found, my searches for the others. I did not say that I had found them, and I absolutely said nothing about the souls Mollis knew nothing about. Not yet. And it would be something I would feel more comfortable talking about to Mollis alone, not with the demon sitting there glowering at everyone, as he tended to do. Brennan picked up, telling them about the incident with the shifters. I left out my conversation with Lethe, because I was not sure if Mollis was keeping the issue of our missing immortals quiet or not.

  “Where next, E?” Mollis asked me.

  “I think Germany, and then Russia. I can probably do both in one trip.”

  “We can,” Brennan said, and I shook my head.

  “You do not need to come with me. You have responsibilities here.”

  “I’m not letting you go alone,” he argued.

  “Me neither,” Mollis said.

  “You have a job. You have a son. You can’t go with me every time.”

  “All right. All right,” Hephaestus boom
ed over whatever Brennan had begun arguing. “Ya twisted my arm. I’ll go with you.”

  “I… I do not need anyone to go with me,” I argued.

  “We’ve been over this,” Mollis said mildly, in a voice that, though I was her closest friend, made it clear she was not in the mood to debate. “You’re sure, Heph?” she asked him, and he grinned at me, obviously delighting in my irritation.

  “Absolutely. Me and my prickly little pal on a road trip? Sounds like fun. And I think Meaghan would welcome a bit of quiet for a few days as well,” he added.

  “Great. So that’s settled, “ Mollis said, and I didn’t say anything, because arguing with them was pointless. At least it would be better than being flustered and overheated every time the shifter looked at me. A few days away from him, and I would regain my sense where he was concerned.

  I sat and talked to the team for a while. Brennan’s phone rang and he carried Sean into the kitchen so he could answer it. I excused myself, grabbed my bag, and headed toward the stairs.

  “Hey,” Brennan said, and I turned.

  “What?”

  “That was Ronan. We’re going out with them tonight,” he said, and I immediately started shaking my head. “Oh, yes we are, Tink. You promised you’d go with me.”

  “I think ‘promise’ is overstating it a bit,” I said.

  “You did,” he said, that tiny smile on his lips that made my entire body warm. I glared at him, and his smile widened, well aware of what he was doing. “And,” he continued, “you’re taking off on me for a few days. I’m not exactly happy about that.”

  “Somehow, you will survive,” I said, turning and starting up the stairs.

  “Nine, Tink,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

  “I might have to patrol,” I said hopefully.

  “No, you’re good,” the demon said, overhearing the conversation. “We didn’t put you on the schedule because we weren’t sure when you’d be back.”

  I shook my head a little. “Very well.” I continued up the stairs.

  “Don’t sound so excited,” Brennan said with a laugh, and I directed a rude gesture at him I hadn’t used very often. It only made him laugh harder.

  In my room, I flopped onto my bed and buried my burning face in my pillow, groaning helplessly. Would I never get rid of him?

  Chapter Eleven

  Before I knew it, it was eight o’clock, and I forced myself up. I changed into a white button-down blouse that I liked almost as much as my t-shirts, a less-worn pair of jeans, my boots, and my coat. I glanced at myself in the mirror. Maybe I could pull my cowl up over my head and face and fade into the background.

  I brushed my hair, applied make-up, which I hadn’t done the past couple of days, distracted as I was by the new souls I’d found and how I would work out convincing Mollis not to imprison them immediately. I leaned on my hands on the vanity and looked at myself in the mirror. This was a normal thing, yes? For people of this world, anyway. Going out with friends. I have done this before. I had gone out with Mollis, the demon, Hephaestus, Meaghan. Shanti.

  So why were my palms sweating?

  “This is so ridiculous,” I muttered to myself. I looked longingly at my knife harness on the bed. I felt naked without it.

  I picked up my Netherblade and stuck it into the sheath inside my left boot, my regular dagger in the other boot.

  “Come on, Tink. We need to go pick the vampires up,” Brennan called from the bottom of the stairs.

  “This is not a date, or anything like that,” I told my reflection. As if saying it aloud would make me less nervous about it.

  I stepped out of my room and went down the stairs. Brennan was waiting there, wearing a pair of dark pants that hung in a very nice way from his body, a blue shirt that set off his eyes perfectly. His hair was down (which I really, really liked) and he smelled of the cologne he wore sometimes. The last time I’d smelled it on him had been Ada and Stone’s wedding.

  “You smell good,” I said to him, lacking for anything more complex to say to him.

  “You look good,” he told me.

  “That’s just going to make Rayna want to taste you even more,” I said, hiding a smile at the way his eyes widened, even as I thought “over my dead body.”

  What in the Nether was wrong with me?

  “Uh. Maybe I’ll go wash it off,” he said, and I laughed.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from the gorgeous, rich, sultry vampire,” I said in mock sympathy, and he grinned.

  “I’m counting on it, Tink.”

  Mollis laughed from the living room, where she, the demon, and their two kids were sprawled across one of the sofas watching some cartoon. “Go, before you make Rayna mad. She hates waiting.”

  “We’re gone. Call us if you need anything,” Brennan said, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the door.

  “Are we rematerializing?” I asked him.

  “Nope. Old fashioned travel. I’ll drive.”

  “I would feel safer my way,” I said wryly.

  “Ha ha,” he muttered, keeping my hand in his as we walked on to the elevator.

  “I have driven with you before. Do we really need to recount that ill-fated trip for the deep-dish pizza you absolutely had to have after Mollis and the rest of us moved back into the loft? And how we got lost and how you drive like one of those fastcar drivers?”

  “I think you mean NASCAR, Tink.”

  “Whatever it is. You are a terrifying driver,” I said as he led me to the black sports utility vehicle he drove. He opened the passenger side door for me.

  “Want me to teach you to drive?” he asked with a grin.

  “I would rather kiss a satyr, Cub,” I told him, meeting his eyes, and he laughed. He closed my door and got into the driver’s seat.

  “I’ll try to take it easy. You’re already on edge.”

  “Am not,” I said, looking out my window.

  “Uh huh. You’d think you were going to an execution instead of out for drinks with friends,” he said.

  I sighed. He was not wrong. “This is outside the realm of things I am comfortable with. Going out for food, fine. Coffee, even, okay. But going somewhere specifically to just, what? Sit around and drink and be sociable?”

  “And dance.”

  I stared at him, and he laughed. “You are joking.”

  “I am most definitely not.”

  “I hate you,” I said, and all it earned me was a wink and his hand searching for mine. He enclosed my hand in his, gave it a squeeze.

  “Take it back,” he said.

  “Definitely not.”

  “We both know you don’t hate me, Eunomia.”

  “But it makes me feel better to say it anyway,” I said, and he tangled his fingers with mine. “Do not even think I am setting foot on the dance floor.”

  He did not answer, and that should have been my first indication that things were not going to go my way.

  I held onto his hand with my left hand, the door handle with my right. I could tell he was driving slower than usual, zipping in and out of traffic less than he usually did, but he was still nightmarish to drive with. Mollis tends to drive fast, but there is not this feeling of recklessness. And Hephaestus usually drives slowly, only because he is looking at everything outside the windows. A thought struck me, and I glanced over at him.

  “Let me guess. The demon taught you how to drive.”

  He grinned. “Yep. I was twelve.”

  “He is the only other one I know who drives this horrifically,” I muttered, and he laughed. Before long, we were pulling into the circle drive at Rayna’s mansion in Indian Village, her guards waving us through the large iron gate upon recognizing Brennan.

  “They’ll meet us out here.”

  “You just do not want to go in and be surrounded by vampires,” I said.

  “Damn right.”

  “Shanti is a vampire,” I reminded him.

  “I know,” he said. “I am fine
with vampires. I just…” he shrugged. “It’s stupid. I know. It’s a prejudice I’m trying to get over. I spent my entire life believing vampires were the bad guys, and now some of them are our allies. I recognize that it’s something I need to work on.”

  I studied him. It was comfortable now that the car was not moving, and the night was dark around us, the lights from Rayna’s home casting just enough brightness for me to see his face clearly. “Good. I expect better from you,” I said to him.

  He met my eyes and nodded. “I’m working on it, Tink.”

  I glanced toward the house to see Rayna and Ronan walking down the front steps. A guard opened the door behind mine for Rayna, and Ronan climbed into the backseat behind Brennan. Brennan turned around and shook hands with Ronan, greeted Rayna, and I said hello to them both.

  “Where are we going?” Brennan asked, pulling toward the gates.

  “That new place near Greektown. You know the one I mean?” Ronan asked. I did not, but Brennan nodded.

  “You been there before?” Brennan asked.

  “I own it,” Rayna said, and I smiled.

  Brennan laughed. “Of course you do.” It was true. Rayna was one of the smartest businesspeople I have ever met. She had a hand in just about every legal business imaginable. Some vampires got involved in drugs, human trafficking, which was why they ran afoul of our team so often. Rayna was completely legitimate, with manufacturing businesses, retail, restaurants, bars, bakeries and undoubtedly other things I did not know about. Aside from being the vampire queen of our region, she was also singlehandedly changing the economy within the city for the better. She employed thousands of people, and every one of them was from the area.

  I held onto my handle, as well as Brennan’s hand, for the entire ride to the nightclub. Happily, it wasn’t a horribly long drive, and when we got there, Rayna told Brennan to park in a spot marked “reserved.” A bouncer-type was coming to reprimand him when he saw Ronan and Rayna with us, and immediately apologized.

  We went into the large brick building, which had once been a department store, according to Ronan, and I was assaulted by bright flashing lights and music that made me immediately wish for ear plugs. Brennan was walking beside me, still holding my hand, and I glared up at him in irritation. He simply smiled and squeezed my hand.