Guardian (Hidden Book 6)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “Why not find out for yourself?”

  “It would be stupid,” I said. “And I do not want to talk about it anymore.”

  He sighed, but he let it go and I was grateful.

  We quickly found a room at the small inn, a tiny room with two twin beds. Hopefully, this would go quickly and we would not need them for the two nights we’d allotted.

  I glanced at Hephaestus, who was clicking through television channels.

  “I am going to see if there is anything decent to eat in that shop down the road, and then we can eat and start hunting. I am starving,” I told him.

  “Me too. Get me something, okay?” he asked, mesmerized.

  “Of course.” With that I left our room, headed down the stairs, and ducked into the empty sitting room, where I focused and rematerialized. I went a bit farther than I told Hephaestus I would, ending up at the abandoned farm in Ireland where I had left Quinn, Cathleen, Erin, and Claire. They were there, and filled me in on their activities the past could of days. They’d helped the crows find two souls, and spent a lot of time listening for any word on others like them, but had heard nothing.

  I nodded. I filled them in on what had happened with Mary, and they were shocked.

  “We will find her. I swear it,” I told them.

  “How?” Claire asked.

  “The best way to find Mary is to find those who are working with our lost souls. With that in mind, we have souls to hunt in Germany.” I held my hands out, and the four of them linked hands, Quinn and Claire each taking one of my hands. I focused, and within moments, we were standing in an abandoned military hospital in Beelitz, on the outskirts of the town. Thick pine forest surrounded the abandoned facility, and I could smell its clean scent through the broken windows. Weak light filtered through the arched windows, and the tile walls and floors smelled of moss and death. Just as it had been the last time I’d been there.

  I waited a few moments to allow Quinn, Cathleen, and Erin to steady themselves, and Claire shared an amused glance with me.

  “Who knew the dead could be such delicate things?” she asked wryly, and I gave Quinn an amused glance. He was currently bent double, hands on his knees.

  “Stuff it, witch,” Quinn groaned, and she laughed out loud. “That is the worst. I’d rather be stabbed again than go through that.”

  “You will get used to it,” I told him. “We will be traveling that way often.”

  “I don’t want to travel that way at all,” he grumbled.

  “Well, it is a good thing I did not ask what you wanted, then, isn’t it?”

  He laughed then and shook his head. “You’re the kind of woman who would have driven me nuts when I was alive.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Bossy as all hell and too confident for her own good.”

  “I have every reason to be those things,” I said.

  “I don’t doubt it for a moment, lass,” he said, looking at me with amusement. I looked away from him toward the woman.

  “Are we all right now?” I asked them, and Erin and Cathleen nodded, though they both still had the pinched look of someone dealing with nausea.

  “Good. As I said, we will be doing that rather often, so you will just have to deal with your discomfort. Whether you want to or not.” That settled, I focused on the task at hand. “I told you we are missing twenty-four souls. We are now down to twenty-three. The sooner we find them, the better. This means we will not linger. We will not waste time. We will catch who we come for, and we will move on to the next. It’s not as if any of us has anything else to do, yes?”

  They all nodded. I had their attention now. Their postures were straighter, their attention more focused.

  “How do we find him? I don’t know about them until I see them,” Claire asked.

  “I can sense them. I can pick up their trails. But it takes time and focus,” I said, and they nodded. I started walking through the dilapidated hospital, focusing, feeling if there was anything there. I kept my focus, walked out of the building and down the crumbling steps, which led to the pine forest. I walked, and focused, and I could sense the four souls following closely behind me.

  I stepped into the tangled forest, ducking under tree branches and, after ripping yet another hole in my jeans on a thorny branch, envying the souls their ability to merely walk through anything in their way. This. The footwork, more than anything else, was what I found annoying about my work. I felt like a bloodhound, nose to the ground, endlessly shuffling through my life trying to find what I was after.

  And for the most part, it was endless frustration. We walked through the woods, and I stepped into what was left of a small hunting cabin.

  Nothing.

  I let out a breath of annoyance. If someone had told me of this mess sooner…

  I pushed it out of my mind. Complaining about the way things had been done wouldn’t make them any better. It was my mess to clean up now, and I would handle it.

  I would make it clear that something like this couldn’t go unreported so long. Not that I expected it to happen again.

  At least, I hoped it would not.

  We walked through the woods more, and then back to the hospital. It was a huge complex, and it was the most likely place to find Munch. I sighed in frustration and turned to my team.

  “Here is the situation. I am here with another immortal. My Queen worries about me doing this alone. Meanwhile, I am more worried about having those she sends with me getting hurt,” I said in irritation. “He does not know about you. As an immortal, he would be able to feel you, at the very least. More likely, he would be able to see you, given enough time and attention.”

  “How?” Erin asked. “Is he a death god… thing like you are?”

  I shook my head. “All immortals, whether they are like me or not, can sense all beings, living or dead. In your case, we can assume that a god or even someone like me would have to know to look for you. I still wish I understood how it all worked,” I said in frustration. “But for now, he does not know of you, and I am not ready to have you revealed yet.”

  They nodded.

  “I need to return to him. Please do some searching of the hospital and see if you find any evidence of a soul. I will return as soon as I can, but it may be a while. I am going to take him with me to hunt the other soul.”

  “We will take care of it,” Claire promised.

  “Thank you. Be careful. Watch your backs. I am not the only one anymore.” I hated leaving them alone, especially in light of what had happened with Mary, but I had to remind myself that for whatever reason, these souls were different. I would have to trust that it would keep them safe, that they would have the sense to watch themselves.

  They nodded, and I focused and rematerialized back in town, remembering at the last moment to stop in the shop for food. I threw a bunch of random items quickly into a basket, paid for it, and carried it into our inn.

  “You were gone a while,” Hephaestus said when I walked into our room.

  “I was not sure what to get,” I said, setting the white plastic bag on the bed beside him. He started rooting through it and opened a bag of potato chips and a soda.

  “When we finish eating, we will go looking for Stumpfe,” I said, and he nodded, still watching the screen.

  One hour later, we had one more soul for Mollis. He had been nothing more than a spirit, and it took almost no effort at all to bring him in. While Hephaestus exalted in how easy my job was, all I felt was unease. I do not trust it when things go easily. Nothing about Mollis’s assignment had been easy so far.

  “Why don’t we split up for the next one, now that you see how really not dangerous this is, hm?” I asked him. “The sooner we get this finished, the sooner you can get home to your family.”

  “We’re on to Russia after this, right?”

  I nodded. “And hopefully you can tell Mollis I do not need help. You know I am happier on my own.”

  “I know. I know,” he repeated. “We�
�ll split up for a bit. I’ll ask around. What? We’re looking for rumors of hauntings, things like that, right?”

  I nodded, then gave him a pat on the back. “Thank you.”

  “Sure thing. Just don’t get yer ass kicked or Molly is gonna have mine,” he warned.

  I smiled. “Do I ever get my ass kicked?”

  He rolled his eyes and started toward the other part of town, and I watched him go. After another moment, I rematerialized back at the hospital, hoping to hear that my team of new Guardians had turned up something.

  I didn’t have much time to wonder more about it.

  The second I rematerialized into the large foyer of the hospital, where my team was gathered: there. I could feel the energy signature of Munch.

  “One just arrived not ten minutes ago. This the one you’re hunting?” Quinn asked in a low voice.

  I felt a grim smile on my lips, unaware that I was doing it, and I nodded. I could feel him clearly. This was going to be a good day for Mollis.

  I glanced around at my team, motioned for them to stay quiet.

  I walked down the long corridor, so many empty rooms off to the sides, the black and white tile of the floor slippery with mildew beneath my feet. The occasional rat ran across our path as we disturbed their home with our presence. We neared a room where I saw a large apparatus, something that may have been used for lighting during surgery, over an old gurney. An operating room, I supposed. I stopped, holding my hand up for my team to be still. I listened, and heard a groan. Not of pain. Pleasure.

  I focused harder, and realized he most definitely was not alone.

  Faint, as if an effort had been made to hide it somehow, I could feel the trace of one of my own kind.

  One of my sisters.

  If she were not distracted, she would have felt me there. I turned my head, met the eyes of each of my new Guardians. This would be even more vital to do right than I’d initially planned, and I was glad to have them with me.

  I held my fingers up, signaling that there were two. Then I pointed to Quinn and Erin, and pointed to the west wall of the operating room. Pointing at Clair and Cathleen, I gestured to the east wall. “Keep Munch occupied,” I whispered, and they nodded, then left, following their orders. I reappeared inside the room. The man and woman on the filthy floor were very immersed in what they were doing. The female, on top, fluttered her bat-like wings in tempo to the way they moved.

  “This is utterly disgusting,” I said.

  The other Guardian stood up with a shriek.

  “Don’t you know where this thing has been?” I asked Munch, gesturing toward my furious sister as he scrambled on the floor, intent on getting away. It was then that my four souls converged, surrounding him. He started hitting, trying to fight his way out.

  I had no more time to focus on him, trusting that my little army had it under control. The Guardian, my sister, Kleio, snarled at me again and lunged, her own Netherblade in hand, and she slashed out at me.

  “Sister of mine,” she hissed. “So nice of you to drop in.” She slashed out at me again and I ducked it, kicked out hard and heard her ribs crack under the assault. She screeched.

  She would heal, of course. The point was to weaken her enough to be able to detain her. I am powerful, and so are those like me. None of us should be underestimated.

  “Defective bitch,” she hissed, lunging at me again. She narrowly missed the side of my neck with the dagger, and I punched, hard, and heard her nose crack. Blood flowed down her face, and she gave a maniacal shout and rushed me. She stabbed toward my stomach, but the blade scraped off, deterred by the metal embedded in my coat there.

  “Weakling. Depending on armor like a mortal.”

  “Better weak than dead,” I said coolly. “She is going to kill you,” I promised. “And I am going to watch.” I kicked out again. This time, the force of it made her crash back into the cabinets behind her. She crumpled for a moment, and then sprang back up at me. “If I could, I would kill you myself. Traitor,” I said, and I was all too aware of the coldness in my voice, the menace that only came out at moments like this. “You have failed everything we are. You have fouled your entire reason for being.”

  “You are the only failure I see here,” she snarled, jumping at me again.

  It is hard to describe how I feel during times like this. My breathing slows. My muscles are tense, yet fluid. I become cold, steady.

  I felt like nothing more than a vengeful spirit. And I embraced it.

  There was no blur of rage, no heat of battle. There was cold, mechanical destruction.

  A kick to her face.

  Her arm wrenched so hard behind her back I could feel her humerus break, and even as she screamed and tried to wrench away from me, I held fast.

  The wrist holding her Guardian blade broke as I twisted it, and she screamed in agony.

  I did not stop until the blade, a blade she no longer had any right to wield, fell to the floor.

  She slumped, raging, screaming in pain, and I felt nothing but cold satisfaction. I knocked her face into the white tiled wall, cracking several of the tiles with the impact, which was perhaps a bit much but it felt good to do it. I bent to pick up her blade, adding it to my sheath.

  It was only then that I finally glanced toward my souls. They had Munch’s soul surrounded, and Munch looked like he hadn’t fared much better than Kleio had.

  “Keep him there. I will return as soon as this one is imprisoned.”

  Quinn nodded, indicating that he’d heard the order.

  I took Kleio’s arm roughly and focused on the Netherwoods. More specifically, on the cells that held the souls of the dead. I knew I would find one of the Furies there.

  Tisiphone was on duty then, and I thanked Nyx for small miracles. I was in no mood to deal with Megaera and her nonsense.

  The second she realized I was there, Tisiphone’s eyes widened.

  “What in the Nether?” she asked as she stared at my sister.

  “That is what I would like to know. How is this one not dead?” I gave Kleio a rough shake, and she snarled at me.

  “I thought Molly killed all of them,” Tisiphone argued.

  “Yet here she is, alive and well and aiding those who escaped. We need to know why and how, right now.”

  “And we will.” Tisiphone took Kleio’s other arm and the two of us led her to a cell. The black walls echoed with the screams of other souls undergoing their punishment.

  “Tisiphone.”

  “Yes?”

  “Trust no one. Do not let this one out of your sight.”

  “Don’t you think you’re being overly suspicious—“

  “This one has no right even being alive. Someone was able to bring her back. Someone helped those souls escape. Do not make me have to hunt her again.”

  Her expression became even more serious. “This is wrong. How is this possible?”

  “That is what you need to find out. Set Mollis on her as soon as possible. I have no doubt our Queen will enjoy speaking with her.”

  “Indeed,” Tisiphone said.

  “I have one of the escapees for you as well. I will be right back.”

  “How can you be sure it hasn’t run off?” Tisiphone asked.

  “He was in poor shape,” I answered, focusing on returning to where I’d left my souls and the soul of Munch. As I’d left them, my four souls surrounded his, and he sat, shouting, on the floor, battered and desperate.

  I took the thin black chain out of my coat pocket and approached him. He tried to run for it and Quinn punched him, hard enough to make his head rock back at a painful-looking angle.

  I nodded my appreciation for the help and wrapped Munch’s wrists quickly.

  “I will return.”

  “Won’t he tell them about us?” Claire asked.

  “It is time for me to talk to my Queen anyway,” I said. “It matters not.”

  I took Munch by the arm again, and he trembled in my grip. I exchanged a glance with Clai
re. She seemed to understand; I would be back as soon as possible. Moments later, I was standing in the cells in the Netherwoods again, and I handed him off to Tisiphone wordlessly.

  “Looks like you had fun with this one, too.”

  “Indeed.”

  “Remind me not to anger you, Guardian,” she said with a smile, and I found myself smiling back.

  “You never have yet,” I said. “How is my Queen?” I wondered if she had gotten my email, and, more, if she had kept my advice about keeping it quiet. If she had said something, Tisiphone would tell me.

  “She is… this will likely help some. She needs to work off some of this rage.”

  I nodded.

  “She and the demon have been talking about moving their family here more permanently. Nether is less of a problem for her here, and Zoe is better able to handle her… issues as well.” Mollis’s adopted daughter, Zoe, was the child of a demon and a shifter. The opposite types of energy in those two beings usually make it impossible for them to breed. When they do, the results are not good. The demonic side is suppressed by the shifter side, but always bubbles just below the surface. Usually, any offspring that result are put down as soon as possible. Mollis refused to allow that to happen, taking baby Zoe (who was now three years old) into her family instead.

  I nodded. The energy of the Nether was soothing to my kind, as well as demons. It was a good plan on her part.

  “And what about Detroit?”

  “They will leave it in the hands of the vampire queen and the shifter coalition, for the most part. They will continue to work under Nain, but he will be more hands-off. It seems to be the best way to handle things for now. Each soul you find will likely help,” she said, pleading to her tone.

  “I will not stop until they are all found,” I promised. “Is she around? I need to speak with her.”

  “She is in with your sister. Do you want to go in?”

  I shook my head. “I will catch up with her later.”

  She nodded, and I focused one more time, reappearing in Germany. I went back to my team.

  “Amazing work. I need you to move on now. I will meet you at our next location when I can.” I held my hands out, and they linked hands with me again.