by Tina Folsom
Once. Twice. Three times. Was he not going to answer? Was she too late?
“Hey, Kim.”
Did his voice sound apprehensive, or was she just imagining it?
“Hey, Manus.” She tried to tamp down her pounding heart. She had to make this sound authentic, or he wouldn’t go for it. “Can we meet?”
“Meet? Why, what’s going on?”
“I found something. I think it’s important. But I don’t want to talk on the phone. There was a strange clicking sound in the line earlier when I spoke to a friend of mine. You know what I mean, right?”
There was a short pause, then he said, “Yeah, sure, of course, we can meet. Where?”
“The place where we met the first time,” she said, continuing her ruse that she believed somebody was taping her calls. “In an hour?”
“I’ll be there.”
“Thanks.” She disconnected the call, set her cell phone to silent, and shoved it back into her bag. “Now, let’s see who you really are.”
She knew she should call her best friend to tell her what she was up to, but was afraid that Jennifer would talk her out of it. And this was something she had to see through.
17
Manus arrived at Auntie’s Java Shop five minutes before he was scheduled to meet with Kim. When Kim had called him, he’d instinctively panicked, expecting her to be upset because he’d snuck out of her bed and her apartment in the middle of the night. He hated nothing more than clingy women who thought they had a right to him just because they’d been intimate. But Kim hadn’t even mentioned the night of incredible sex. Did it mean she didn’t care that he’d left her bed without saying goodbye? Had she perhaps welcomed that fact, so she didn’t have to wake up next to him?
Fuck! How could Kim be so indifferent after he’d told her things he’d never told anybody else? Instead of at least telling him that she’d had a good time the night before, she’d immediately gone down to business. As if all he was to her was a means to find her mother’s murderer. As if the sex had just been a by-product, something unimportant.
Manus ordered a coffee and sat down at the same table he’d met with Kim before. Only this time, he was alone. The two hybrids were back at the compound. If he needed their help with whatever Kim had found, he could call them discreetly later. But right now, he didn’t want any witnesses. Seeing Kim again after their night of passion could turn into an awkward situation. Not because he regretted it—he didn’t—but because it appeared that Kim had accepted his statement that he wasn’t one for relationships just a little too easily. Was it a trick to lull him into a false sense of security, so she could dig her claws in, and he’d find himself in a relationship before he knew what was happening? Or was she not interested in him other than for a quick roll in the hay? He didn’t know which option bothered him more. To be sure, he liked neither one. And that bothered him too.
He was about to take a sip from his coffee when his cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and looked at the display.
“Kim?” he asked, answering it.
“Hey, sorry.” She sounded out of breath.
“What’s up? Where are you?”
“I hate to do this to you, but something came up, and I can’t make it after all,” she said.
“But you said you needed to talk urgently,” he prompted her, hoping to get her to tell him over the phone.
“It’ll have to wait. Building maintenance is here right now, water is dripping from the ceiling. That stupid idiot upstairs clogged up the pipes with cat litter again… Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll call you as soon as I get this sorted. Promise. Bye.”
Before he could answer, she’d already disconnected the call. Manus sighed in frustration and shoved the cell phone back into his pocket. He’d hoped for a lead in the investigation, and now all he could do was go back to the compound and see what Pearce had found in the meantime.
He left his coffee cup untouched and exited the coffee shop. It was a busy afternoon with lots of people milling about downtown. While he could have ducked into an alley and made himself invisible, he rarely used his special skills during busy times. Being invisible did have its disadvantages. It made walking on the sidewalk a hazard. Since other people wouldn’t see him, they wouldn’t get out of the way, which meant he’d have to duck constantly, making for an awkward obstacle course. It was much easier to make his way to the nearest portal the old-fashioned way, by walking like a human.
He wasn’t particularly keen on using the lost portal located in the red-light district of Baltimore, but it was the closest. For a long time, the Stealth Guardians had believed that portals only existed in their compounds, protected by not only the Stealth Guardian warriors but also by their collective virta, their lifeforce. But several years earlier, one of their own, Hamish, had discovered the existence of portals outside their own walls. Many of them had been mapped and catalogued since; others were still hidden, lost to their kind.
The guardians relied on the portals for fast and safe transportation between the compounds, preventing detection by the demons. Their locations were a closely guarded secret and could never fall into the hands of the demons, or their race and their world would be annihilated.
Manus cringed when he saw the big neon sign outside the inconspicuous building that invited its patrons in pink letters: Touch our Junk. Maybe entering invisibly would have been less embarrassing, but the box office employee had already seen him and feasted his eyes on Manus’s body in a way that made him feel like he needed to take a shower to get clean.
Reluctantly, Manus paid the moderate entry fee and stepped into the dark interior. To his surprise, the place was busy even in the afternoon. The large room with its tiny bistro tables was filled with an equal amount of wide-eyed giggling women and horny old men. Clearly, some people had nothing better to do than watch half-naked men dance to cheesy tunes wearing frilly costumes that made the Village People look classy. A popular ABBA tune blared from the speakers while bits of clothing sailed into the audience, whose eyes were glued to the stage.
Manus ignored the goings-on on stage and made his way through the crowd. He felt many a woman’s and man’s eyes on him but ignored those stares too. He reached one of the doors leading backstage, made sure none of the waitstaff was looking at him, and slipped through the unlocked entrance.
Now, all he needed to do was to get to the stairs that led into the basement and access the portal hidden there. Piece of cake.
~ ~ ~
Kim was still recovering from the shock of seeing Manus enter a male revue in broad daylight but had swallowed away her embarrassment and bought a ticket to enter a few moments after him. Despite the fact that the place was busy, she was able to track Manus inside the club. He stuck out like a sore thumb. He was definitely one of the best-looking men in the audience. Not that there was much competition: most men watching the hotties on stage were heavyset, older, and most likely in the closet. While there were lots of women in the audience, it was clear that most of the men on stage were gay. Which begged the question: what was Manus doing here? Because she was pretty sure he wasn’t here for the action on stage.
Making sure she always had an obstacle or a person ahead of her she could dive behind to hide, Kim followed Manus through the club. He made a beeline for one of the doors. She read the sign on it: Employees only. Undeterred, he opened the door and walked through it. Did Manus work here? She shook her head. No. He’d bought a ticket to enter just like anybody else, which meant he was going somewhere where he wasn’t authorized to be.
Kim followed him, not thinking twice about the fact she was trespassing and would probably be arrested if caught. She could always say that she’d been looking for the restroom and hadn’t been able to read the sign on the door due to the dim light. Perfect. Excuse in hand, she walked along the corridor lined with several doors, some of which stood open. Dressing rooms. Men in various states of undress milled about, seemingly unconcerned about who could see them.
At the bottom of the stairs, she had two choices: go right or go left. She had no idea which direction Manus had disappeared in. She looked down to the left and saw a light toward the end of a short corridor. There was only one door. It was closed. She focused her eyes and noticed the light above it illuminating the cobwebs a spider had spun across one corner. If Manus had exited that way, the spiderweb would have been destroyed.
To the right then, she told herself. She took a breath and inhaled the musty smell of the damp basement. The large area she entered was filled with crates and boxes, old furniture, and other props used for the shows upstairs. Between two rows of crates, she noticed a movement. Manus—he had to be back there. Stealthily, she walked on, aware that it was much quieter down here, and that Manus would hear her footfalls over the muffled sound of the music if she didn’t tread lightly enough.
When she reached the end of the row of crates, she peered past them and froze. Manus stood facing a brick wall, his right hand braced against it. She focused her eyes, wondering what he was doing, when she noticed a glow emerge from under his flat palm. Odd. She blinked and focused her eyes again, but the glow was gone. As was a large portion of the brick wall. As if Manus had pressed a button and opened a secret passageway. A very dark passageway. Her eyes couldn’t make anything out.
Manus was already stepping into the dark. Fuck! She’d lose him. She had to go after him. Taking a deep breath, she pulled the gun from her jeans and released the safety. At least she would be able to protect herself. Before she could change her mind, she bridged the distance between the crates and the secret passage with several steps and walked into the darkness.
Suddenly, it went pitch-black. The secret door behind her had closed.
Startled, she tilted forward and bumped into somebody.
“What the fuck!” It was Manus. He spun around and grabbed her with both arms.
Before she could free herself, she was tossed in the air, tumbling weightlessly in total darkness.
“Oh shit!”
“Kim?”
What was happening? Manus was doing something to disorient her. He was trying to subdue her, to bring her under his control.
This wasn’t what she’d signed up for. But she had no choice now. He’d recognized her and saw her as an enemy now. Or why else was he grabbing her, so she couldn’t get away, so she couldn’t flee? Clearly, this passageway she’d followed him into was leading to a secret he didn’t want to share with her.
Would he kill her for it like he’d killed her mother?
She couldn’t let that happen. She had to fight him with all she had.
18
Manus had recognized Kim’s voice the second she’d uttered a curse.
What the fuck was she doing here? How had she been able to follow him without him noticing? But more importantly, why?
However, none of this mattered in this instance because Kim was fighting him, trying to rip free of his grip. And if he let that happen during the journey through the portal, she could end up anywhere, forever trapped in the portal system, aimlessly flying through time and space.
“Stop it, Kim!” He tightened his grip, but it made her struggle even more fiercely.
“Let go of me!” she cried out.
“No! Damn it, Kim, hold still.”
But the firecracker in his arms beat at him with her hands. Something hard hit him in the chest. Shit! Kim was armed with a gun. He switched his grip, wrapping one hand around her wrist, then the other around the second one.
“Let go of me, you bastard! You lied to me! You killed her!”
Light suddenly streamed into the portal. They’d arrived, and the door was open. But he didn’t dare let go of her wrists. Instead, he yanked her out of the portal and willed it to close behind them. At least one danger was past. Now, he had to deal with Kim’s inexplicable anger toward him. What the fuck had happened since the night before?
Kim glared at him, her jaw tight, her eyes narrowed. “Who the fuck are you?”
Manus tilted his head in contemplation, carefully studying her. “You know who I am.”
“Yeah, a liar. That’s what you are!”
She was right, of course, but he wasn’t about to admit that. He had to first find out what she thought he’d lied about. He wasn’t going to admit to anything more than she’d already discovered.
“I’m helping you find your mother’s murderer, and that’s the thanks I get? Insults?”
He loosened his grip slightly and immediately realized that it had been a mistake. Kim kicked him in the shin, making him yelp at the momentary pain, distracting him enough to free herself fully, her right hand still holding the handgun. A small-caliber pistol she now aimed at him.
“Step back!” she ordered firmly though he noticed her hand shaking.
Manus didn’t move, but he lifted his hands in a submissive motion. “Don’t do anything you might regret later.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t regret this. All I regret is having believed your lies, having slept with you. How gullible I was!”
“Listen to me, Kim, you’re obviously upset about something. Take a breath. Let’s talk about it.”
“When you left my place last night, you went back to the storage unit and broke in. Did you find what you were looking for? What you killed my mother for?” she spat.
In disbelief, he shook his head, ignoring her question, and instead homed in on her first statement. “There was a break-in?” It could only mean one thing. The demons were on their heels. “Shit.” What if they’d followed Kim and discovered the entrance to the portal?
He took a step toward Kim. “We have to make sure nobody followed you. Give me the damn gun.”
Kim shrank back a few steps, her retreat cut short by the wall. “How stupid do you think I am?”
“I admit I underestimated you,” he hedged. “You set me up at the café, so you could follow me. Smart, I give you that. But you’ve set up the wrong person. I didn’t kill your mother. And I didn’t break into the storage unit. I had no reason to.”
Kim tipped her chin up. “Maybe this will teach you not to lie to me,” she said and made a movement with the gun, aiming for his shoulder.
Manus lunged for her, but she’d already pulled the trigger. The gunshot echoed against the massive stone walls. Simultaneously, searing pain shot through his left bicep. Blood splattered, and he crashed against Kim, taking her to the floor with him. With his good arm, he reached for the gun and wrestled it from her hand, tossing it as far as he could.
He tried to pin her down, but Kim punched her fist into his open wound and shoved him off her.
“Fuck!” he hissed. “Did you have to shoot me?”
When she picked herself up and veered toward the direction he’d thrown the gun in, Manus jumped up despite the pain and lunged for her, managing to snag the back of her jacket. Luckily, it was zipped up, so she couldn’t slip out of it easily and he was able to yank her back.
At the sound of footsteps, Manus twisted his head and saw Aiden charging toward them. It had only been a matter of time until his brethren would come to his aid.
“Fucking demon!” Aiden screamed, his hand already aiming his dagger toward them. “Manus, duck!”
Shit! Aiden thought Kim was a demon. “No!!” Manus yelled.
Kim spun her head in Aiden’s direction, freezing in mid-motion.
Aiden
already flicked his wrist. The dagger flew through the air, perfectly aimed at Kim.
“Nooooooo!”
With every ounce of his remaining strength, Manus pushed Kim out of the way and dove after her, covering her with his body. He heard the dagger clatter to the floor several yards past them and breathed a sigh of relief. But the danger wasn’t over, not as long as Aiden believed that Kim was an intruding demon.
He lifted his head. “She’s not a demon, Aiden! She’s human.”
Aiden stopped just a foot away from them. “What?”
Slowly, Manus lifted himself from Kim. “She’s human. She’s Nancy Britton’s daughter.”
Aiden ran a shaky hand through his hair and exhaled sharply. “Fuck! You could have gotten her killed!” His friend shook his head. “Why the fuck were you fighting her?”
Clearly in shock, Kim tried to sit up, her eyes darting from Aiden back to Manus.
“Because she fucking shot me! And she was going for the gun again. That’s why,” Manus said, pointing to his bleeding bicep, which was starting to hurt like a bitch now. His previous gunshot wounds had never hurt that badly. “A little compassion would be nice right now.”
Aiden furrowed his forehead, his gaze now trained on Kim. “So, may I ask why you were trying to kill my friend?”
Kim looked around her, apparently for the first time taking in her surroundings. And obviously looking for an escape route.
Aiden shrugged. “There’s no way out, lady, so you might as well relax. You’re lucky Manus is the forgiving type and pushed you out of the path of my dagger, or you’d be dead now. I never miss.” Then he looked at Manus. “Leila can fix you up. You’ll be as good as new in twenty-four hours.”
Aiden was right. Only a dagger or sword forged in the Dark Days could permanently injure or kill a Stealth Guardian. All other weapons left only minor injuries that healed within a very short period of time.