by Tina Folsom
She shot up from her chair, happy to see that he was well, that he’d survived the ordeal. She was ready to throw herself into his arms when she stopped herself, freezing in mid-motion. This was the man she’d suspected of lying to her, of breaking into the storage unit, of killing her mother. This was the man she’d shot because she wanted answers. She couldn’t just forget all that. Besides, he’d suffered because of her. How could he forget that?
“Manus,” she choked out.
Manus nodded. “Kim.” His voice sounded tight. Well, she couldn’t blame him. He was pissed. And rightly so.
“What’s going on here?” he asked, but he wasn’t looking at her. He glared at Pearce and Aiden.
“Just doing our job,” Aiden said.
“This is my case.”
“Last time I checked, you were unconscious,” Aiden said.
“Well, I’m fine now.”
“Yeah, back to your usual charming self,” Pearce said under his breath, but everybody heard it.
Manus didn’t react to Pearce’s dig. “I need to talk to Kim. Alone.”
“Not gonna happen,” Aiden said.
A low growl came from Manus. “You can’t stop me from talking to her.”
“We’re not,” Aiden corrected, exchanging a look with Pearce. “You can talk to her, but not alone.” He pointed to her. “She shot you with a bullet made of metal forged in the Dark Days. She’s too dangerous. We’re not leaving you alone with her. Not until we can make certain that she means you no harm. End of discussion.”
Kim witnessed the silent standoff taking place between the three men and didn’t dare utter a word during the tense moment.
Finally, Manus said, “Fine. But not here. Let’s go to the living room. The things we need to discuss and explain to Kim will take a while, and we might as well be comfortable. I for one don’t fancy sitting on a hard chair right now.”
Kim cringed at that. Manus was still in pain, and it was her fault.
21
Manus swallowed away his annoyance. He would have much rather spoken to Kim alone, come clean without any witnesses, but apparently his comrades weren’t going to allow it. To keep him safe, they claimed. What bullshit! They wanted to be present to control how much he told Kim. Well, they wouldn’t be able to stop him because the time for secrets was over. Kim was in the middle of this now, and he was in no mood to tell her more lies to explain what she’d just experienced. No, this time, it would be the truth, and nothing but the truth.
They were all seated in the living room. By Manus’s estimate, he had about an hour before the whole gang would show up and somebody would prepare dinner. With three of the warriors now bonded—two to humans and one to a psychic—and one of the couples having five-year-old twins, the place could get crowded at times.
“Can I get you something to drink, Kim?” Manus now asked.
Kim shook her head, sinking deeper into the cushions of the large sectional. Manus sat opposite her in an armchair while Aiden and Pearce had spread out at the other end of the sectional.
“Well, then I guess it’s time for me to tell you what you want to know,” Manus started, his throat parched. He rose. “Maybe I need a drink.”
He walked to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of beer, popped open the lid, and gulped down the cold liquid until he felt better. Taking a deep breath, he returned to the seating area and dropped back into the armchair.
“Yes, let’s get this over with,” Kim said. “I’ve waited long enough to get to the truth.” She shot Pearce and Aiden an icy look. Apparently, being questioned hadn’t gone down well. Manus would rectify this problem now.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to explain things the moment we arrived here, but…” He glanced at his bandaged wound, then shrugged. “Anyway, since you’ve managed to follow me without me noticing, I suppose you deserve to know what’s really going on. You’ve already seen too much anyway.”
When a stunned gasp escaped from Kim’s mouth, he lifted his hand to calm her. “That’s not meant in a mafioso kind of way. What I mean is that considering that you now know of the existence of vampires and other preternaturals, there’s no reason to keep the rest from you.”
She nodded. “Leila said you’re not human.”
Manus cast a quick glance at his comrades, who watched in silence, then looked at Kim again. “We’re Stealth Guardians, members of an ancient race charged with protecting humans from the evil influences of demons.”
Kim tilted her head slightly. “When you say demons, I suppose you don’t mean one’s inner demons, one’s bad impulses.”
“I’m afraid I’m talking about demons made of flesh and blood.”
“Green blood, actually,” Pearce tossed in.
“Green? Really?” Kim said, sounding unconvinced. “Interesting.” She still held her arms crossed over her chest.
Manus tossed Pearce a chastising look. “Let me handle this.”
This was a delicate situation. Kim was skeptical. He could sense it, and if he gave her too many details that were hard to swallow—and frankly pretty incredible—he would have a difficult time making her believe. It was best to keep things as normal as possible.
“We have certain skills at our disposal. For example, we use a special mode of transportation,” Manus continued cautiously. “You jumped after me, into one of our portals. You probably felt disoriented when we started traveling in it. As if you were being tossed in the air.”
Kim’s eyes widened. It was a good sign. “You said that we traveled. What do you mean? I’m pretty sure I didn’t black out, and I’m also sure we didn’t walk anywhere. All you did was open that passageway, that portal, on the other side, and we were here, underneath the strip club.”
“We’re not underneath the strip club,” Manus said. “We’re at the other end of town.”
“No, that’s not possible.” She suddenly dug into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. “And I’m going to prove it to you.”
Manus pointed to her phone. “If you’re trying to use the map app to get a location on where you are, you’re out of luck. Our compound isn’t traceable. Any GPS signal in and out of here is scrambled.” That it was magic that prevented anybody from finding the compound, and not an electronic device, he kept to himself.
Kim stared at her phone, still tapping at her app, then lifted her head. “I see.”
“I’m sure you’ve heard of teleportation,” Manus said.
“Yeah, in the movies. It’s not possible in real life.”
“It is for us if we’re using a portal. The demons use something similar, and you saw the tail end of it. The vortex in your mother’s living room. You saw somebody disappear in it just before the vortex closed. That was a demon. Your mother’s murderer.”
~ ~ ~
Kim sucked in a slow breath of air, trying to digest the news.
“You’ve been looking for a supernatural explanation to your mother’s death. I’m giving it to you. What you saw was real.”
She didn’t know whether to be happy that she finally knew she hadn’t been hallucinating or whether to lament the fact that she’d stumbled into something she could barely comprehend. “You’re telling me a demon killed my mother?”
He nodded.
“And you knew about this all along?”
“We figured it out shortly after she died.”
Kim jumped up, angry now. “Then why? Why lie to me? Why come up with that stupid explanation about the air conditioning system?”
Manus rose. “I’m sorry about that. But we couldn’t let you continue poking your nose into things that would have exposed us.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” she spat. “If you say that’s how it happened, then why would the police try to pin the murder on some dead guy? Did you bribe them?”
Manus shook his head, looking sheepish. “The police know nothing about that. I planted the evidence.”
The implications of his words sank in immediately. “
You killed a guy so you could pin my mother’s murder on him? Oh my God!” She slammed her hand over her mouth.
“No!” Manus protested immediately. “Of course not. I merely found a dead body and planted the evidence on him. Why would you think that of me? I don’t kill innocents.” He appeared appalled by that idea.
“We’ll all vouch for that,” Aiden added. “We don’t kill innocents. We protect them. That’s our mission.”
She tossed a look at Aiden. What did it matter that he vouched for Manus? They were all the same, all in it together. She needed an independent third party to verify what Manus was telling her. No journalist worth their salt believed a story based on just one source. “I need another source.”
“What?” Manus stared at her, not understanding.
“I want to believe you. Because it would mean that I’m not crazy, that what I saw was real. But I can’t. It’s too fantastical.”
“But you saw the vortex,” Manus pressed. “You teleported through a portal with me. You saw the two vampires that live with us. You were there when Ryder saved me with his blood. And you still can’t believe?”
She closed her eyes, recalling the memories of the vortex, the tumbling in the portal, the vampires’ fangs. But what if she’d hit her head in the portal? What if she was still hallucinating and making up stories in her head to explain everything that had happened?
“I’m an investigative journalist. I need proof. I need a second source. Somebody with authority. Somebody whose identity I can verify.” She looked into Manus’s eyes and saw understanding in them. “I don’t know your friends. I don’t know any of you.”
“You need the word of somebody you might recognize?” he asked.
Kim nodded.
Manus pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket, unlocked it, and navigated to a screen, tapped on it, then pressed it to his ear. A moment later he said, “Hey, Hamish, you and Tessa getting home soon?”
To her surprise, she could hear the answer loud and clear. “Just walking in.”
Kim turned her head and saw a tall, dark-haired man enter the great room, a woman with long brown hair and lavender eyes by his side. Kim blinked. She recognized the woman. In fact, she’d voted for her in the last election.
“Mayor Wallace?” Kim echoed.
Tessa Wallace walked toward her, a smile on her face. “Yes. Do we know each other?”
“What did you want, Manus?” Hamish said. Kim recognized him now too. He was the mayor’s husband. She’d seen photos of him and her in the papers.
“I need Tessa to vouch for me, for all of us,” Manus said.
“Vouch?” Tessa asked. “What have you done now?”
“Nothing. All I need you to do is to explain to Kim here who we are and what we do. She doesn’t quite believe me yet.” Manus cast Kim a sideways look.
Tessa approached and stopped in front of the coffee table. “So, you’re human?”
Kim nodded.
“How much is she allowed to know?” Tessa asked, addressing Manus.
“Everything,” Manus said, “but give her the condensed version. We’ve got a lot more to discuss. And little time to do it.”
Tessa nodded. “Kim, I’m sure there’s a good reason why Manus brought you here. And probably also one why you don’t believe him, but as somebody who was once in your shoes, let me tell you this: you can trust any of these guys here with your life. Because they will protect you from the demons with everything they’ve got.” She reached for her husband’s hand, and Kim couldn’t help but notice the loving look they exchanged.
“My husband and the warriors in this compound are immortals. They have supernatural skills that I couldn’t believe the first time I encountered them either, but they exist.” She sighed. “And they’ll do everything in their power to protect us. Without them, I would be dead now. They’re men of honor.”
“Thank you, Mayor Wallace.”
“Call me Tessa, please.”
Kim smiled at her, then turned toward Manus, looking straight into his eyes. She saw the truth now. And as incredible as it was, she wasn’t scared anymore, even though she didn’t understand everything yet. Vampires? Immortals? Demons? Teleportation? There was so much to absorb. And she was willing to listen now.
But she also had regrets. She needed to apologize. Because she’d caused someone pain.
“I’m so sorry I shot you.”
Manus suddenly smirked, his eyes lighting up. “It was worth it.”
22
Manus felt relief flood him. It had taken a bit of time and effort, but now they were on the same page. There was lots more to impart on Kim, but the first step was done. Kim trusted him.
“Shall we sit down again, Kim?” he asked. “I need to tell you something about your mother.”
Slowly, Kim took her seat on the couch again, and Manus sat down opposite her.
“If you guys don’t need me anymore, then we’ll start preparing dinner,” Tessa said.
Manus cast her a glance. “Thanks for your help, Tessa.”
When she and Hamish walked into the kitchen, Manus took a deep breath and turned back to Kim. “Your mother worked for us. She was an emissarius, a messenger who’d alert us of anything that might be of importance to us or the demons. You might call it spying for us, but what she did helped us protect the human race.”
Kim’s lips parted. “My mother was a spy? But how? What would she know that could help you against the demons?”
“Her work in the museum often brought her in contact with artifacts that have significance to both us and our enemies. Whenever she came across something that she thought was important to us, she alerted us.”
Kim shook her head, visibly surprised by that revelation. “Why did she never tell me? I mean, we told each other everything.”
Manus sighed. “We made her promise not to. It’s important that our secrets are kept. And the more people are let in on them, the more likely we’ll be exposed. We can’t risk that. So much so that when you started questioning the police’s burglar theory and suspecting that there was a supernatural explanation for your mother’s death, I was charged with intervening. We needed you to stop talking about what you’d seen.”
Kim nodded in contemplation. “So, you told me that bogus story about the air conditioning system, and when I called bullshit, you planted fake evidence on that dead guy and somehow made the police connect the dots. But I identified the bracelet. It looked exactly like my mother’s.”
“Because it was identical,” Manus said. “I had it replicated from photos and the original drawings we found in your mother’s home.”
“You broke in?” She furrowed her forehead. “But there were no signs of a break-in.”
Manus exchanged a quick look with Aiden and Pearce. Both shrugged.
“Up to you,” Aiden said.
Kim tossed them all a quizzical look. “What’s going on?”
“I didn’t have to break in,” Manus finally said, having decided that there was no harm in telling her the truth, particularly since he’d have to use his preternatural skills in front of her soon anyway. “I can walk through solid objects such as a door or a wall.”
“What?” Kim blurted out, her mouth dropping open in stunned disbelief. “You mean like a ghost?”
“Kind of. Stealth Guardians can dematerialize their body in order to pass through solid objects, then materialize behind said object. To the human eye it would simply look like a person walking through a wall, as if the wall didn’t exist.”
The implications of his words seemed to sink in. “So, you’re saying you can enter any place, any building, any home?”
Manus nodded.
“So that’s how the demon got in? The front door was closed. He didn’t have to break in.”
Manus shook his head quickly. Kim wasn’t the first human to make the assumption that the demons had the same skills as the Stealth Guardians. “No, demons can’t walk through walls. But they can teleport into
a home if they can see where they’re teleporting to, or if they’ve been there before. They use a vortex for that. That’s how he got into your mother’s home, and that’s how he left.”
Kim sighed and sank back into the cushion. “I always thought it would be a relief to find out who killed her and how he got in, but it’s not.” She met Manus’s eyes, and he noticed the resignation in them. “If they can do that, if they can get into any place with their vortexes, then nobody’s safe from them.”
“That’s why we do what we do, and that’s why your mother and so many other humans help us in our mission: to keep them in check, to thwart their efforts, and to eventually defeat and destroy them. Unfortunately, the demons are hard to recognize.”
“What do you mean? Surely, you can recognize a monster when you see one,” Kim said emphatically.
Manus sighed. “Look at me. Do I look human?”
She nodded.
“Yet I’m not. Same goes for the demons.”
“They look like humans?” she asked, shocked.
“Like ordinary humans, with two exceptions: they have green blood, as Pearce has already mentioned, and they have poison-green eyes.”
“You mean all people with green eyes are demons?”
Manus chuckled. “No, of course not. In fact, the green eyes you think of are just normal human eyes. A demon’s green eyes are entirely different. You’ll recognize them when you see one, trust me. Unfortunately, they’ve gotten smart. They use sunglasses and colored contact lenses to disguise their eyes, making it impossible for us to spot them. That’s why we’ve allied ourselves with vampires.”
“You mean they can see through the disguise?”
“No. But they can smell the demons. Thus, they can warn us from an ambush.”
“But you look like humans too, so how would they be able to ambush you? I mean, how would they even know you’re Stealth Guardians?”
“We have an aura, and they, just like any other preternatural creature, can see our aura. That’s how they recognize us.”