Betrayer (Hidden Book 7)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “All I can go by is what I can see. And from what I see, there are a whole lot of questions where you’re concerned.”

  Megaera stared at Mollis, and then briefly met my eyes. I wanted to comfort her. I believed, as I had the night she had confronted me, that she was not guilty of any wrongdoing.

  “I know that you are terrified for your son, so I am trying not to take that personally,” Megaera said to Mollis. “But I also know that I do not have to stand here and take this nonsense from you. I am going to search with the bloodborn queen’s team.”

  “All you have to do is let me into your mind,” Mollis said, some uncertainty in her tone now.

  “And all you have to do is trust me. My mind is my own, niece.” With that, Megaera was gone. After a moment, Mollis turned wordlessly and headed toward the living quarters of her palace, and her mate followed.

  I asked an imp to tell me where to find Brennan. He nodded and took me to one of the many empty neighborhoods in the city, and there was Brennan, in panther form, nose to the ground. Artemis, in her panther form, was in the distance, and I could also see Asclepius not too far away. I approached Brennan, and he stopped, raising his head when he caught my scent. I went and knelt in front of him and put my hand on his head, and then gently scratched the sides of his neck. I looked into his eyes, and, after a moment, he shifted. For once, I was undistracted by his nakedness. I pulled him into my arms and he held me tightly.

  “I am sorry I left you alone with this so long, my love,” I murmured against his ear as he held me. “I wanted to be with you.”

  “Molly needed you to help control Nether. Dahael was here that first night helping, and she told me what happened when you went to see Molly that night.”

  I nodded, and held him tighter as we knelt on the cold ground together. “You picked up a scent here?” I asked.

  “A faint one,” he said. “He’s definitely not here anymore, but we’re following it, hoping it’ll lead us to some kind of clue or point us in which direction to look next.”

  I kissed the side of his neck. “Let us get back to tracking then. I can fill you in on what else we know while you follow the trail.”

  He squeezed me, hard, as if he did not want to let go. I knew it was a hard thing for him. This was one of those times, when he was tense and afraid, when my touch was what he needed to help deal with it, yet he could not allow himself even that small comfort, because he had to keep moving.

  He shifted, and began moving again, and I walked beside him. I kept reaching out to rest my hand on his back as we walked, as he tracked. I felt a helplessness I had never experienced before, that this was one person I never wanted to fail, and I could do so little to help him. It also struck me that this helplessness was part of what love was, the sense that I would do anything to make our life better, and there was nothing of significance I could do until we tracked his son.

  He began circling back, picked up the scent again, and then continued on. Whether he was aware of it or not, he kept rubbing his flank against my legs as he walked. It was another sign that he needed contact with me but would not stop the search for his son for something like that.

  “Stop a moment,” I said, and he glanced up at me, those blue eyes the exact ones that looked at me after he kissed me, or when he held me in his arms. I only hesitated for a moment before I lifted my leg and swung it over his strong, wide back, mounting him.

  “Is this insulting? Or does it make you feel better?” I asked him.

  In response, he began moving, quickening his pace and following the trail in a more focused way than he’d been before. As he tracked, I sat on his back and ran my fingers through the dense fur at the back of his neck, and I talked, filling him in on what was going on with the search elsewhere. I told him about my New Guardians, and about Mollis and Nain, and about how we still had not been able to track Eros down. I told him about the way we had travelled around the world, chasing the trail the Netherhounds had followed, to no avail. “We will find him,” I promised, a phrase that felt emptier and emptier with every hour that passed, knowing we were dealing with immortals who had taken the children practically from right under our noses.

  We searched through night and into the next day. The trail led us eventually to the Detroit River. Brennan sniffed along its banks, and, once there, circled around several times, seeming to grow more frustrated as time went on. Finally, he released a frustrated, anguished roar, which Artemis echoed. I slid off of his back and watched as he stumbled making another pass. Artemis shifted back, and shrugged into the dress Asclepius handed to her.

  I looked at her questioningly.

  “The trail ends here. This spot was the last place he was. It just ends.”

  “So they went by water, or, more likely, he was rematerialized elsewhere,” I said.

  She nodded.

  “We still should not leave the possibility of having gone by boat to chance,” I said, and she agreed. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed. Brennan continued sniffing, stumbling. He was exhausted and we had reached a dead end.

  Triton picked up on the first ring.

  “Hey! Did you find anything?” he asked.

  “No. We came up against a dead end. What about you?” I knew he was searching with Hephaestus, Athena, and a few of the other immortals for Michael.

  “No luck yet,” he said, a dejected tone in his voice, and I realized he had hoped I had been calling with some good news. “The imps said they thought they saw him in Scotland, so we all went there and searched for a day and a half, and it came to nothing. The Netherhound that was with us definitely picked up a scent, but it ended. My father is searching the seas nearby now,” he finished in a low tone, and I knew it meant they feared the child had been discarded.

  “I do not think they would go to all that trouble to just toss him away,” I said.

  “Who knows what these asses are thinking?” he said back with a sigh.

  “I was wondering if you could give us some aid here. We have been tracking Brennan’s son, and they had his scent until they reached the river. Would you mind coming and checking it out for us?”

  “I’m on my way.” He got our location from me, and moments later, he stood beside me. He gathered me into his arms, and the comforting scent of sea and sunlight enveloped me.

  “Thank you for coming,” I said.

  “Of course, little ghost,” he murmured, keeping an arm around me. Brennan was still in panther form, though he had finally stopped moving. His grandmother crouched before him, talking quietly as Asclepius looked on. “He’s exhausted,” Triton said. “Has he stopped at all?”

  I shook my head.

  “Even Hephaestus gave in and let Meaghan talk him into resting with her for a while,” Triton said.

  “Brennan is a very stubborn male,” I murmured. “And there is nothing he hates more than a problem he cannot solve. This is killing him.”

  Triton looked at me, and a look of understanding crossed his features. He gave my shoulder a squeeze, and then released me and stepped away a bit. I looked at him questioningly. He smiled. “He is stressed out enough. The last thing he needs is another male putting his hands on you. Shifters,” he added with a good-natured shrug.

  I smiled. “You are a good man, Triton. Very much like your father.”

  He looked a bit uncomfortable about the comment, and looked down, but his shoulders straightened a bit, and he held himself taller. I knew he was not overly comfortable with compliments, but I wanted to let him know I appreciated his help.

  “I’ll search the river. There are several types of fish and the animals in these waters that are intelligent enough to pay attention to their surroundings. If they have seen anything at all, I will know about it.”

  I nodded. “Thank you. I am going to try to get him to rest for a while. Please call if there is any word at all.”

  “I will.” He gave me a nod, and then he walked into the water, and, once it was deep enough, disappeared ben
eath the surface. He was in his element now, and if there was any sign of Sean or any of the other children there, he would find it.

  I sent a silent hope that he would find nothing but a trail to Brennan’s son, then turned and went to where Artemis was still trying to cajole Brennan into resting. He sat mutely, rigid, exhausted, in his panther form. I put my hand on Artemis’s shoulder, and she stood. Her eyes were bright with angry, frustrated tears. I squeezed her shoulder once, then knelt before Brennan.

  “My love,” I murmured to him. “There is no more you can do tonight. If there is some trail in the river, Triton will pick it up and report back. You will be no good to him, exhausted as you are, if we finally track him down and have to fight for him. You know that is likely how this will play out. We will not get any of these children back without a fight. Do you really want to find him, only to lose him again because you can barely stand up straight, let alone fight an immortal?”

  He bowed his head, and started shifting back. As soon as he had, I pulled him into my arms and rematerialized him back to my apartment, where I had left his phone and clothing, and where he could rest.

  With me.

  He held me tightly, and I wrapped my arms around his body, and we just stood there for several minutes, not a word between us.

  Finally, I ran my hands up his back, patted him gently. “Go have a shower. And then you need to eat something, and then we need to sleep.”

  “I need to get back out there, Eunomia,” he said against the side of my neck.

  “You do. And we will. But you can take a few hours to get yourself back into fighting form. You know this is necessary.” He nodded, then squeezed me one more time and headed toward my bathroom. He grabbed the pants he’d been wearing from the pile where I had dumped them when I had come for my New Guardians, then closed the bathroom door behind him.

  Once I heard the shower start up, I quickly changed into some comfortable pajama pants and a t-shirt, then scoured my kitchen cabinets for anything to feed him. I had plenty of tea and hot chocolate mix, microwave popcorn. In the end, I ended up frying eggs for both myself and Brennan. I was just finishing buttering the toast when he came out of the bathroom, steam following him out, the scent of my shampoo clinging to him.

  He met my eyes, and took the plate I was holding out to him. He lowered his face to mine, and kissed me, slowly, gently, a silent thanks. He devoured the eggs on his plate and I gave him mine as well. I was not hungry. Mollis had insisted on making me eat when I was searching with her.

  He ate, sitting in one of the chairs in my small dining room. I handed him a cup of tea, then led him into my bedroom, to the large, comfortable chair in the corner. He sat down, and I grabbed a comb and climbed onto the chair behind him.

  He sat and drank his tea, and I went to work sorting out the tangles in his hair, focusing on not pulling too much, on being gentle, on showing him, through this simple act, how much he meant to me.

  “I have wanted to do this for a long time,” I murmured as I worked at his tangles. “Your hair is enviable, Cub.”

  He answered by resting a hand on my calf and giving it a gentle squeeze. We sat in silence, him obediently drinking the tea I’d given him, and me working my way, section by section, through his thick blond mane. When I was finished, I set the comb down on the table beside the chair and wrapped my arms around his waist. I rested my cheek against his back. He put his hands on mine, covering them, keeping my arms around him.

  “You are exhausted,” I said, kissing his back. “Rest with me.”

  “I should get out there— “

  “We have been over this. You know I am right. Until we pick up his trail again, there is nothing you can do. So the best use of your time is to regain your strength and be ready to kick the ass of whoever has your son,” I said sharply.

  He stood up, then turned and picked me up, hefting me as if I weighed nothing.

  “As long as you come with me,” he said, looking into my eyes.

  “I am pretty sure I would do whatever it took to stay by your side, Brennan,” I said softly.

  He stilled, staring down at me as he held me in his arms. We were almost at my bed. “Well. That makes two of us, then,” he finally said.

  “I am glad to hear it,” I told him. “And thank you for letting me take care of you.”

  A small smile crossed his exhausted, haggard features. “Thank you for wanting to take care of me.”

  He set me down on my bed, and I pulled back the bedspread and sheet, and he climbed in beside me. Without a word, without needing any words, I settled into his arms, holding his body tight against mine. There was no space between us, pressed so tightly together it felt as if we were one. And I knew I wanted it to be this way for the rest of my existence.

  “Sleep. Rest. He could turn up at any moment.”

  He nodded, face buried against my neck, and I knew he would not vocalize the thing he feared most, that his son would not be alive when we finally found him.

  “You would know, Brennan. You would feel it if his life ended,” I whispered. “There is a bond between those of immortal blood and their children. I do not believe whoever it is went through all of this trouble merely to destroy them,” I said, and he held me tighter. He lay awake for a long time, unable to let himself relax. Finally, I heard the first soft snores, and felt his shoulders slump a bit in sleep, and I closed my eyes and drifted off beside him.

  I was awakened what felt like minutes later by my phone ringing on the nightstand beside the bed. I looked at it with a combination of loathing and fear.

  “Tink?” Brennan murmured sleepily beside me, his arms still warm around my body. I patted his behind gently and turned, reaching for my phone.

  “Boss?”

  “Quinn?” I said, sitting up, suddenly wide awake. “What is wrong?”

  “That Hephaestus guy’s kid? He’s about six months old, wearing blue pajamas, yeah? Otherwise we took some other guy’s brat.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Brennan and I threw on whichever articles of clothing were closest as I kept Quinn on the phone. “Where are you?” I tossed a t-shirt at Brennan, then let him zip me into my coat.

  “Remember that farm where you found me in Ireland?”

  “You are there?” I met Brennan’s eyes as he listened to my side of the conversation.

  “Yeah.”

  “And the rest of the New Guardians?”

  “We’re all here. Uh. This kid seems hungry and he stinks like the devil’s armpit. Are you coming or what?”

  “We are coming,” I said. I hung up and took Brennan’s hand, focused, and moments later we were standing outside of the decrepit, abandoned house that had once been Quinn’s home. It was mid-morning there, and the sun shone weakly from an overcast sky. A light breeze brushed past me, carrying with it the high-pitched cries of a baby, Quinn’s deep voice trying to make soothing noises. I looked toward the house, at its crumbling porch, at its empty windows. This was where Quinn had died, where he had remained for all of the long years of his time as a soul before I had come upon him and Mary. He had come to this place when he had needed a safe place. I wondered if he recognized the irony in that reasoning.

  Brennan and I exchanged a look, and we headed up the rickety porch stairs and ducked inside. We had put off calling Hephaestus and Meaghan in case my New Guardians had, in fact, taken some other poor person’s baby.

  We walked into the dimly-lit living room, the weak daylight barely illuminating our surroundings. The scent of dust, animal droppings, and a disgustingly full diaper reached my nose.

  “Is it him? All babies look alike to me,” I said to Brennan, who had gone to Quinn and the child.

  “It’s him,” Brennan said, and for the first time in a long time I heard hope in his voice. “Hey, buddy,” Brennan said softly, holding Michael against his chest and bouncing, just a little. “It’s him. Call Heph. He needs to know right away.”

  I took my phone out and hit Hephaestu
s’s number. Meaghan answered on the first ring.

  “E?” Meaghan asked.

  “We have him, Meaghan. He is well.”

  The news was met by sobs, and then Hephaestus was on the phone and I told him the news and where we were, trying to describe how to get to us as clearly as possible. He hung up, and we waited, Brennan murmuring and bouncing Michael in his arms, my New Guardians looking exhausted but proud, standing in one corner of the living room.

  Within minutes, Hephaestus and his mate had found us, and Meaghan took her son in her arms. After weeping over him for a few moments, she started checking him over. Gaia and Demeter arrived as well, both of them teary-eyed and cooing over the boy.

  “All right. So how in the Nether did you manage this?” I asked my team as we stood a bit away from the others. Brennan stood beside me, listening. And I knew he was happy for his friends, but also wishing it was his son.

  “We were hunting souls in Whitechapel, right?” Quinn began, “and we chased one of them pretty far. I hate it when the bastards run. Anyway, we’re chasing it, and it turns, and then Erin grabs it and stabs it.”

  “Lovely,” I said softly, and Erin gave me a shy smile.

  “And just as we’re getting ready to call you, Claire’s looking down the street and she says, “‘isn’t that that loud bearded fella’s son?’ And I have no idea because who the hell even looks at babies?” He paused, and Claire met my gaze and rolled her eyes. I hid a smile. “But they were all sure since we saw those pictures so many times that time Hephaestus hunted with us a while back, so we started chasing it. It was some lass with long black hair. Kinda looked like your Queen.”

  At that, Brennan and I exchanged a glance. My heart sank. I knew he was thinking what I was: Megaera.

  “Anyway, so we kept trailing her, and then we got lucky and she had to answer her phone. And she seemed not to know how to handle a baby and a phone, so he set him down on a bench.”

  “And then what?” I asked.