by Folsom, Tina
“Fucking demon!” Hamish growled, and kicked out, slamming his foot into the back of Zoltan’s knees.
The impact made him crash to the floor, but he immediately rolled to the side then jumped up, before Hamish could catch him in this vulnerable position. But Hamish didn’t give up. He kept coming, kept stabbing with his blade, kept kicking and punching, while Zoltan only defended himself, only held Hamish back as best he could. It made Hamish even bolder, and seemingly more ferocious. When Hamish’s dagger sliced into Zoltan’s thigh, leaving a deep gash, Zoltan had had enough.
“You’re fucking asking for it,” he growled, and fought back.
Zoltan punched Hamish in the neck, then kicked him sideways so he crashed against the sink so hard that the old thing cracked. The faucet was still running, and water seeped through the crack onto the floor. Hamish didn’t let the cracking sink distract him and pushed himself away, kicking Zoltan in the gut, while behind him, the sink’s anchoring to the wall snapped and porcelain pieces fell to the ground.
Zoltan tumbled backward and bounced against the bathroom stall. He saved himself from falling into the toilet by gripping the edges of the stall and catapulting himself toward his aggressor, losing his dagger in the process. It didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to use the blade on Hamish.
Hamish grinned, casting a triumphant look at the dagger that had slithered out of reach. Big mistake. It gave Zoltan a fraction of a second in which to knock Hamish backward, making him land on his ass. Together they slid on the now wet floor, until stopped by the wall. Despite being on his back with Zoltan on top of him, Hamish was able to aim his dagger at Zoltan’s neck. Zoltan blocked it not a moment too soon. In the same motion, he slammed Hamish’s elbow back and pinned his arm to the ground amidst pieces of broken porcelain.
With his left arm, Zoltan prevented Hamish from delivering a blow to Zoltan’s temple. “Stop fighting, you idiot!”
But Hamish wouldn’t have any of it. He kept struggling. But Zoltan had him pinned and was now slamming his fist on Hamish’s wrist so he released the dagger. Zoltan snatched it, then whipped his face back to Hamish.
The Stealth Guardian stared at him. For a moment, neither of them moved.
“I’m sorry for what I’m gonna have to do,” Zoltan said, and knocked the back of the dagger’s handle against Hamish’s pinned arm, slamming it against the jagged edge of the porcelain.
Hamish screamed in pain.
Zoltan jumped up, dagger still in hand, and moved a few steps away. “You gave me no choice.”
Hamish stared up at him, sitting up with the help of his good arm, while the other hung limply, the bone broken.
“Next time, take the out when it’s offered.” Zoltan ran toward the half-open window.
“Why didn’t you kill me?” Hamish called after him, while Zoltan pushed the window wide open and heaved himself onto the ledge.
He looked over his shoulder. “Ask Enya. She’s the reason you’re still alive.” He heard the sound of a door being ripped open, but he couldn’t stay any longer. He had to escape now.
Zoltan jumped.
22
Enya stormed into the men’s room, Tessa a few paces behind her. The moment she came around the bend from where she could see the entire room, Enya almost slipped. Hamish was on the wet floor next to broken bits from a sink, his clothes disheveled and drenched in water, one arm hanging by his side as he rose. Enya cast a glance around the room, but there was no sign of Zoltan. When she looked back toward Hamish, her eyes caught a green streak on the floor. Demon blood.
“Where is he? Did you hurt him? Did you kill him?” She rushed toward Hamish. “What the fuck happened?”
Hamish glared at her, but he didn’t get to answer, because Tessa finally charged into the men’s room and threw her arms around her husband.
“Are you okay?” Tessa asked. “Did you get hurt?”
“I’m okay. Just a broken arm,” he said to Tessa, his voice calm and reassuring. But his tone changed when he said, “Enya, I’d like you to explain to me why Zoltan didn’t kill me even though he had the chance, and instead just broke my arm to stop me from chasing him.”
Enya swallowed. Zoltan had made the decision to spare Hamish’s life? Relief washed through her. Zoltan had good in him. And he’d gotten away, albeit with an injury—one that, judging by the small amount of blood on the floor, was minor.
“Enya!” Hamish snatched her bicep and shook her. “He mentioned you by name. He said to ask you why he spared my life. So you’ve a hell of a lot of explaining to do.”
“Yeah, I guess.” She sighed. “I’d say you might wanna sit down for that, but…” She motioned to the wet floor, then shrugged and decided to start with the good news. “I was kidnapped by demons and imprisoned in an Underworld cell. Zoltan helped me escape.”
Hamish and Tessa stared at her.
“He what? Why the fuck would Zoltan help you escape?” Hamish asked.
Enya let out a breath. There was no good way to impart the bad news, or what Hamish would perceive as bad news. “Because he’s my boyfriend. He’s Eric Vaughn, and I think he loves me.” At least, that was what she had to assume, even though he hadn’t said the words. But why else would he have risked so much for her?
Only the continuing running of the faucet nobody had bothered to turn off could be heard in the men’s room for the next few seconds. Nobody breathed. Nobody moved. And Enya could have sworn that Tessa and Hamish’s hearts had stopped at the unexpected news.
“Fuck me!” Hamish said.
“Ditto,” Tessa added.
“There’s a lot more you need to know,” Enya said. “But we should discuss it back home. Together with the others. I don’t wanna have to tell the story twice.”
At first it looked like Hamish would insist on hearing the full story right now, but then he motioned to his arm. “I’d better get this healed fast. I have the feeling I might need my arm again to punch somebody for their stupidity.”
Enya took the jab in stride. Once Hamish knew the whole truth, he would change his tune.
To her relief, Hamish didn’t press her for any explanations during their ride home. As soon as Leila had patched him up in the compound’s state-of-the-art medical suite, and Ryder had given Hamish vampire blood to speed up the healing process, every resident of the compound—except the twins, who were doing their homework—assembled in the command center. The news that Enya had been kidnapped by demons and owed her escape to Zoltan had already spread. As had the fact that she was dating a demon.
When the door to the command center fell shut behind her, she felt as if she’d entered a courtroom where the jury had already decided her fate. She couldn’t even blame them: in the eyes of their people, Enya had committed treason by fraternizing with a demon, by not killing him when she’d had the chance.
All eyes were on her. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Fuck, this was harder than she’d envisioned.
She cleared her throat. “When I started seeing Eric, I assumed he was human. I had no reason to believe otherwise, particularly since I was the one who made a move on him. Even when he helped me defeat the demons that attacked me the other night, he was still playing an ordinary man who knew nothing about demons.”
She tipped her chin toward Pearce. “But when Pearce found Eric Vaughn’s LinkedIn account and I saw the photo, I knew something was up. Still—call me stupid; I know in your minds you already do—I didn’t suspect him to be a demon. I thought he was involved in identity fraud. So I confronted him the same night. That’s when I found out. I should have killed him right there and then.”
“Yeah, why didn’t you?” Logan asked, and pointed to Winter. “Or have you forgotten what he did to Winter?”
Enya shook her head. “No, I haven’t forgotten anything. I know about all his evil deeds. I just couldn’t do it. And now I’m glad I didn’t kill him, because the next day, when I took Winter to Cinead, I found out the truth about Zoltan.”
>
“What fucking truth?” Logan cursed. “He’s the leader of the demons.”
“He’s bad through and through!” Hamish added. Anger rolled off him. “He shot Tessa up with heroin to kill her, and you’re glad you didn’t kill him? Who the fuck are you? What happened to you?”
“Zoltan didn’t try to kill Tessa. He never sent anybody to Tessa’s place.” Enya nodded to Tessa. “I showed Tessa photos of Zoltan and his cadre of lieutenants. And she identified one of them as the demon who drugged her. It wasn’t Zoltan. He didn’t do this.”
“So he didn’t do it personally. Big deal. Why are you still defending him?” Hamish almost yelled.
“Is he that good in bed?” Manus asked.
Enya braced her hands at her hips. “Yeah, he fucking is. But that’s not why I’m defending him. Zoltan is one of us.”
Confused rumblings went through the room.
“And what would that be?” Aiden asked, turning out to be the calmest of all her colleagues today.
Enya took a deep breath. “Zoltan is Cinead’s lost son, Angus.” She let the news sink in.
“You’re making this shit up,” Pearce said.
Winter shook her head. “I don’t think she is.”
Everybody looked at her.
“When Enya accompanied me to see Cinead, I had to tell him that I know what happened to his baby son. He’s not dead. He’s a demon.”
Enya nodded. “Thanks, Winter. At least one person here is supporting me.”
“Oh, I’m not supporting you. I’m just presenting the facts.”
“Whatever,” Enya said.
“Even if Winter is correct that Cinead’s son is a demon, that doesn’t mean Zoltan is that demon,” Pearce said.
“I have proof.” Enya pulled out her phone and navigated to her pictures. With her wireless connection, she sent a picture to the main screen in the command center.
Everybody stared at the photo.
Hamish stretched out his good arm. “That’s Zoltan. I fought him just an hour ago. So what’s his portrait gonna prove?”
Enya turned to him. “That’s not Zoltan. That’s Cinead when he was a young man.”
Gasps echoed in the room and bounced off the bare walls.
She sent two more photos to the screen to show side by side. “On the left, you see the birthmark Angus carries on his butt; on the left is Zoltan’s birthmark. They’re identical. Zoltan is Angus.”
Silence fell over the assembled. They exchanged looks and shook their heads, but from the expressions on their faces, Enya knew they believed the evidence she’d presented.
“Enya, I don’t know how to say this,” Pearce said, “but even though we now know what happened to Cinead’s son, it doesn’t change who Zoltan is. He’s still a demon, no matter his origin. Cinead will be the first to tell you to kill him, even though he was once his son.”
Enya shook her head. “No. You don’t understand. Zoltan has some good in him. He’s not all evil. He can be redeemed.”
Kim put her hand on Enya’s arm. “I’m sorry, Enya. I know you want to believe that he’s good. But I’ve been at the other end. His demons killed my mother. And he nearly killed me for the book he was after.” She motioned to Leila, Winter, Daphne, and Tessa. “We all suffered because of him. You can’t just expect us to forget what we’ve been through because of him. You’re blinded by whatever you think you feel for him.”
Enya ripped her arm from Kim’s touch. “It’s not about what I feel. He can be saved.” She looked at the assembled, desperate to find an ally. Her gaze settled on Hamish. “Hamish! You fought with him today. You said yourself that Zoltan had a chance to kill you. Instead, he spared your life. Doesn’t that mean anything?”
Hamish hesitated. “I admit he could have killed me. I even admit that he didn’t want to fight me in the first place. But does that really prove that there’s still some good in him? Enya, he did it only for you. Because he needs you to be his advocate. What if it’s still part of his plan?”
“No, no.” She couldn’t allow her brethren to plant doubt in her. “He confessed everything to me. He told me about his original plan, but he’s changed. He won’t do anything to hurt us. He risked everything for me. His own people are chasing him now, because he betrayed them—for me.”
“Maybe that’s what he wants you to believe,” Aiden said.
“You’re wrong. You’re all wrong.”
“Fine,” Logan said. “Then tell us where he is. Let us bring him in and interrogate him. Then we’ll see whether he can convince us too.”
Enya glared at Logan. “How stupid do you think I am? The moment I tell you where he is, you’ll kill him.” Not that she knew where Zoltan was hiding out at present. However, before leaving the Underworld, she’d asked him to keep his burner switched on, so she could get a message to him should they get separated.
“Damn it, Enya,” Manus said. “Don’t you see that Zoltan’s been manipulating you? Wake up!”
“I’m awake. And I know I can save him. I can give Cinead his son back. I’ll find a way.”
“There is no way,” Manus replied. “Once a demon, always a demon.”
“Yeah,” Pearce added. “You can’t just say sim-sala-bim, touch him with a wand, and suddenly he’s a Stealth Guardian again. Doesn’t work that way.”
Enya spun her head to stare at Pearce. “What did you just say?”
“You heard me.”
Yes, she did. “A spell,” she murmured to herself, and remembered the morning just before she was kidnapped. In the shower, she’d thought about who to talk to about a cure for Zoltan.
Kim, who was standing closest to her, said, “You think a witch can turn Zoltan into a Stealth Guardian?”
Enya met Kim’s eyes. “Not just any witch.” She turned toward the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Hamish called after her.
She looked over her shoulder. “To get help.”
“You’re not leaving!” Hamish said.
“I do what I damn well please.” She marched toward the door.
“Let her go, Hamish,” Pearce said. “It’s no use…”
Enya passed through the door into the hallway and quickly typed a message on her phone, then sent it to Zoltan, telling him to stay put and wait for her to contact him again. The moment he replied in the affirmative, she switched off her phone and headed for the portal.
23
It took Enya less than half an hour to reach Scanguards headquarters in the Mission District of San Francisco. It was still daytime and would be so for a few more hours, which meant that many of the vampires employed by Scanguards wouldn’t be present. She was glad for it. While she loved the Stealth Guardians’ vampire allies, she didn’t have time for extended chats today.
In the glass lobby, she walked to the reception desk, where a bright-eyed human woman greeted her.
“How may I help you?”
“I need to see Wesley Montgomery. It’s urgent. Tell him Enya is here.”
“Please look into this camera,” she instructed Enya, and pointed to a small camera mounted on the reception desk. Enya complied, and the woman nodded and typed something on her keyboard. It appeared that Scanguards had a new system to announce visitors.
Within seconds, there was an audible ping, and the printer spat out a visitor pass. She looked at it, then handed it to Enya.
“Here you go, ma’am. Go straight down the hall. Wesley will meet you outside the V lounge.”
“Thanks.” Enya snatched the visitor pass and shoved it in her pocket, then turned to the corridor.
“Ma’am, you have to put it on your jacket…” the receptionist called after her.
But Enya didn’t care and kept walking. She didn’t have time for formalities. Zoltan’s future was on the line. And so was hers. She wasn’t stupid: if she couldn’t convince her colleagues that Zoltan could be saved and turned back into a Stealth Guardian, they would have to turn her in to stand trial befor
e the council. It was their duty.
Wesley was just coming around a corner when Enya arrived at the entrance to the V lounge, an area reserved for vampires and other preternatural creatures. It was strictly off-limits to humans.
“Hey, Enya, what a nice surprise.”
“It’s good to see you, Wes. Can we talk?”
“Something wrong?”
She motioned to the door. “In private?”
Wes swiped his access card and ushered her into the large room that resembled an executive lounge at a five-diamond hotel. Enya glanced around. Apart from a bartender, nobody was around. Wes motioned to the seating arrangement closest to them, and they both sat down.
Wesley had been the first and only outsider who’d ever managed to access a Stealth Guardian portal, an action that had teleported him to Baltimore, where he’d subsequently brokered an alliance between the vampires and the Stealth Guardians—but only after an adventure that included a trip to the Underworld and winning the heart of a member of the Council of Nine, Virginia.
“What do you need?” he asked, all business.
That was what she liked about Wesley. Even though he was a goofball and happy-go-lucky kind of guy, he immediately recognized when something was serious.
“In a nutshell: your help.”
“Okay? Give me the short version.”
“I’m sure that at some point Virginia must have mentioned to you that her fellow council member Cinead had a baby son who was believed to be killed by the demons.”
Wes nodded. “I’m aware of it. But according to Winter, the baby was kidnapped.”
“Correct. And I found him.”
“Wow! Something to celebrate. Knowing Cinead, he’ll be over the moon.”
Enya cringed. “Not exactly. I dread telling him.”
“But why?”
“Because his son is now a demon. And not just any demon. He’s Zoltan.”
Wes slouched back in the seat cushions and blew out a breath. “Zoltan? We’re talking about the Zoltan? Ruler of the Underworld, the Great One, yada, yada, yada.”