Warrior Unraveled

by Tina Folsom

  Cinead gave her a long look, apparently contemplating her words. He didn’t look angry or worried. Rather, he appeared sad. As if what he had to say was difficult. After a few moments of silence, he motioned to the couch. “Take a seat, Virginia.”

  He slumped down into an armchair. Virginia took a seat on the couch and waited.

  Cinead took a long breath, blew it out and started, “As you know, one of the vacant seats on the council was that of a council member who was punished for betraying her race.”

  Virginia nodded. “Deirdre’s seat.”

  “Yes, and while she had no contact with the demons and thought she was doing the right thing, she went against a council decision, and tried to take matters into her own hands by eliminating a human we had chosen to protect.” Cinead lifted his eyes to meet hers.

  Virginia nodded. She’d heard the story and agreed with the council’s punishment.

  “Deirdre was released from her lead cell a few days ago after spending a year in it.”

  “To strip her of her powers,” Virginia said quietly, almost to herself.

  “Yes, to make her human and send her into exile. She will have no further contact with any of us.” He sighed. “The council’s decision was unanimous. We knew it had to be done. But you see…” He hesitated.

  Virginia simply waited, not wanting to interrupt his thought process.

  “I had assigned Faldo to get her settled in the human world.”

  “Settle D. Settle Deirdre,” she murmured.

  “Yes, but I couldn’t let him do it. I wanted to see her one more time.” He smiled a sad smile. “You see, Deirdre is my half-sister. She’s all the family I have left.”

  She hadn’t known that, maybe because they didn’t share the same surname.

  “You spoke to Faldo and relieved him of his assignment, because you planned to do it yourself.”

  Cinead nodded. “And I did, three days before the compound was compromised. I brought Deirdre to Portland, Oregon, helped her get settled in a small house in a quiet neighborhood, and then I said my goodbyes.”

  “Was she angry?”

  He made a sudden jerky movement. “Angry?”

  “For being exiled.”

  “Oh no. Deirdre has made peace with us and herself. She knows she was wrong.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure. I know my half-sister. She might have been misguided, but she’s a good person.”

  Virginia took a deep inhalation. What she had to say wasn’t easy, but she had to say it. “I want you to hear me out, Cinead. This is not going to be easy.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “Deirdre knew where the council compound was located. In fact, she knows where every single one of our compounds is located. She knows everything about our defenses, our rules, our habits. If she’s seeking revenge for being exiled, helping the demons—”

  “No!” Cinead jumped to his feet. “You’re wrong. Deirdre would never betray us to the demons.”

  Virginia rose slowly. “She betrayed the council once. And she paid dearly for it. Anybody would be angry and would want to strike back. Wouldn’t you?”

  “How dare you make such an accusation?”

  “I dare because my concern is for my race. I dare because it’s my duty to keep them safe. And we’re not safe, not if the demons know how to find us and how to enter our strongholds.”

  Cinead narrowed his eyes. “I would be very careful, counselor, whom you accuse. I vouch for Deirdre.”

  “I’m afraid that’s not enough. And I’m not accusing anybody. But there’s a possibility that you can’t see what Deirdre’s true feelings are because you care for her. I don’t blame you. But I have to follow up on her. Her being released into the human world and the demons attacking us happened too close together.”

  Cinead continued shaking his head. But Virginia pressed on. “And even if she’s not involved, there’s still the possibility that you and her were spotted together, and that somehow the demons were able to get to her. Maybe torture her to tell them all she knows.”

  “Are you accusing me now of being careless?” Cinead barked.

  “I’m doing no such thing. But even the most careful of us makes a mistake once in a while.” She certainly had made a few, some of which didn’t lie that far in the past. “Even if you were careful, if a demon spotted you while you were helping her get settled, he would be curious as to what she means to you. Do you really want me to do nothing? I thought you cared for her. If you do, don’t you want to make sure she’s safe?”

  Cinead snorted. “You have an interesting way of manipulating people.”

  “You would know, wouldn’t you? You’ve had the same training as I.”

  “Yes. And that’s the only reason I’m not tossing you out on your ass right now.”

  She nodded. “I will need to know where to find Deirdre.”

  “Do you have a pen to take down the address?”

  Virginia shook her head. “I’ll memorize it.”

  “Good.”

  21

  Following the guardians into the command center, Wes tossed his backpack on the floor next to the door and looked around the room. Pearce and Aiden were both working on computers on the console. Logan lounged on a chair nearby. Now all three turned their heads.

  “Hey, you’re back,” Aiden said. “How did it go?”

  “Where’s Virginia?” Wes asked.

  “She left the compound a while ago,” Pearce said.

  “Alone?”

  Pearce shrugged. “Yeah.”

  “Where to?” Was his heart beating a little bit faster at the thought that Virginia had left the security of the compound without taking anybody for protection?

  Pearce jabbed Aiden in the side, grinning. “Looks like our friend here is a little concerned about the new council member.”

  “Don’t worry, Wes,” Aiden said calmly. “She can take care of herself.”

  “With all that’s happening, you let her leave on her own?” Wes wanted to punch somebody for that stupidity.

  “It’s not like she would have listened to us anyway,” Pearce threw in. “Besides, she transported directly to another compound. The demons have no way of tracing her.”

  “Hmm,” Wesley grunted with displeasure, though that knowledge was reassuring.

  A beep from the computer made Pearce turn back to the monitor. “She’s back.”

  Logan rose. “What was that?”

  “The beep?” Pearce asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “I installed a motion detector near the portal as an extra level of security,” Pearce said. “Just in case another witch is even cleverer than Wesley and figures out how to travel through our portal without triggering the intruder alarm. This way, we’ll get alerted to any motion down there, even if it’s one of us.”

  “Good idea,” Logan said. “Let’s wait till she gets here and I’ll update everybody on what I found out at the morgue and the police station.”

  Everybody nodded. A minute later, the command center’s door opened, and Virginia stepped in. Wes felt a breath leave his chest, relieved that nothing had happened to her. Damn, why was he so concerned about her wellbeing? He knew she was infinitely stronger than him and therefore shouldn’t have to worry that she couldn’t take care of herself. But he’d also seen how strong the demons were, and Virginia’s powers weren’t limitless, particularly not if she was trapped in a lead cell.

  “Hey,” Virginia said. Her gaze traveled over the assembled guardians and then landed on Wes. She said nothing to him directly, but the fact that she did lock eyes with him for a brief second made him feel better instantly.

  “Good, you’re back,” Logan said. “I was just about to fill everybody in.”

  “We have news, too,” Hamish said.

  “Same here,” Virginia said, then addressed Logan. “You were at the morgue? What did you find?”

  “I looked at Faldo’s body in the morgue,
” Logan started. “He was bludgeoned to death. There’s no evidence of him having been tortured before his death. He was hit with a heavy object. Which is consistent with the evidence the police picked up from the house.”

  “Which is?” Hamish asked.

  “A bloody paperweight. Looks like the killer grabbed it from the desk in his study.”

  Wes nodded to himself. “So the killer didn’t bring a weapon to kill Faldo.”

  Logan met his gaze. “Looks like it. So maybe this wasn’t premeditated. Maybe something went wrong. An argument got heated. Things got out of hand.”

  “That would make sense, since we didn’t find any sign of a break-in,” Wes said and motioned to Hamish, Manus, and Enya. “We checked everywhere. He might have let his killer in.”

  “What else did you find?” Logan asked.

  Hamish shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Wesley did a little spell to determine if there was any demon activity.”

  “And?” Virginia asked eagerly.

  “None. Nor any other preternatural activity. Which means, our race is off the hook too, as are the witches.”

  “Are you saying the killer was human?” Virginia followed up.

  “Looks like it,” Hamish said.

  “So we’re back to square one,” Logan said.

  “Not necessarily,” Virginia hedged, drawing everybody’s eyes on her.

  “Meaning what?” Hamish asked.

  “I just came from seeing Cinead.”

  Hamish raised an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t want anybody from the council knowing that you’re still alive.”

  “I had no choice. Pearce found that Cinead was the last to have contact with Faldo. And since he didn’t note his reason for meeting the emissarius in the log, I had to find out for myself.” She let out a breath.

  “Bad news?” Wes asked.

  “I’m not sure. But I know of a human who would have reason to want to hurt us. And this human knew about Faldo, was in fact supposed to meet Faldo, but then Cinead intervened and canceled Faldo’s assignment.”

  “Okay,” Aiden said, “how about being a bit less cryptic? Who’s the human?”

  Wes suppressed a chuckle. Aiden had balls to address Virginia like that.

  “Deirdre.”

  Silence followed Virginia’s one-word answer, and it felt like an ice age had suddenly descended on the room. Wesley looked at the guardians, but they all stood there, stone-faced.

  “Who’s Deirdre?” he finally asked.

  “A woman who once tried to kill Leila,” Aiden grunted.

  Well, that explained why Aiden looked like he’d just swallowed a rotten oyster.

  “Oh.” Wes refrained from saying anything else, since he was sure the otherwise friendly guardian would change his attitude and bite his head off.

  “Cinead confirmed that Deirdre was released a few days ago,” Virginia explained. “She served her sentence in the lead cell. Faldo was tasked with settling her in the human world, but Cinead decided last minute to do it himself. So he called Faldo’s trip off.”

  “So that’s why the housekeeper said that he shouldn’t even have been home,” Wes murmured to himself.

  Next to him, Manus asked, “What?”

  Wes jerked his thumb at the monitor. “Remember when that reporter interviewed the housekeeper? She was babbling that Faldo wasn’t supposed to be there. She was distraught. She didn’t know that his trip had been canceled.”

  Manus shrugged. “Whatever.”

  Pearce swiveled in his chair and typed something on the keyboard.

  In the meantime, Virginia continued, “I think we need to consider the possibility that Deirdre might feel resentment toward the Stealth Guardians and want revenge. As a former council member, she knows everything there is to know about our race. If she’s in the demon’s camp…”

  More silence. Wesley leaned toward Manus again. “Former council member? A human?”

  “I’ll explain later.”

  “Explain it to him now,” Virginia said. “I want everybody on the same page. That includes Wesley.”

  “Let me,” Aiden said, his voice icy. He turned his face toward Wesley. “All you need to know is that Deirdre once sat on the Council of Nine, our ruling body. But about a year ago, she went against the council’s decision and tried to kill my wife, though she wasn’t my wife then. Deirdre was sentenced to one year in a lead cell. As you may already have figured out, lead drains our powers temporarily. But long-term exposure will actually make the damage irreversible. After a year in a lead cell, a Stealth Guardian will have lost all supernatural powers and be entirely human. That’s what happened to Deirdre.”

  Wes nodded, letting the information sink in. “That’s a harsh punishment.”

  “That’s a matter of opinion,” Aiden replied.

  “In any case,” Virginia interrupted, “she’s human, and since you didn’t find any preternatural activity at the scene of the crime, everything points to her.”

  “Not everything, actually,” Pearce said from the console.

  Wes turned to Pearce, as did everybody else.

  The IT geek pointed to the screen. “I just reviewed the interview with the housekeeper. See, she’s all teary-eyed and broken up about Faldo’s death.”

  Virginia approached and looked over Pearce’s shoulder. “So? She’s probably worked for him for a few years. Of course she’s upset about his death. Wouldn’t you be, in her situation?”

  Wes tapped on Pearce’s shoulder. “Run it again, without the sound.”

  “Sure.”

  The video started running from the beginning again. Wes concentrated on the housekeeper, not even looking at the reporter now. The absence of sound made it easier to only see the woman’s facial expressions.

  He pointed to the screen. “See how she avoids eye contact with the reporter?”

  Virginia leaned in. “Yes?”

  “And how she fidgets. She’s nervous. Pearce, now run it with the sound, starting where she speaks.”

  Pearce turned the microphone up.

  “Carol Jefferson, yes.”

  “Can you tell us anything about what might have happened to your employer?” the reporter asked.

  “I wasn’t here. He gave me the week off. You know.” A sob. “Because he was supposed to be gone. This should never have happened. He wasn’t even supposed to be at home.”

  “Stop it here, Pearce.”

  Silence descended over the room and Wesley turned around to look at the others. “She feels guilty. As if it was her fault. Did you hear how she said that Faldo shouldn’t have been at home?”

  The others nodded, and Virginia said, “Because he was supposed to be on a mission for Cinead. But then Cinead canceled it.”

  Wesley gave her a sideways glance. “What if Faldo forgot to tell her that his trip was canceled, and she had plans for the time he was supposed to be gone?”

  Hamish and Aiden exchanged a look and nodded to each other.

  “I’ll check her out,” Aiden offered. “I need to get some fresh air anyway.” He was already heading toward the exit.

  Nobody stopped him.

  After the door fell shut behind him, Wes asked, “And what about this Deirdre? What are we going to do about her?”

  “Put a tail on her for now,” Virginia said. “We need to know where she goes, whom she meets.”

  “I can do that,” Pearce said. “Where does she live now?”

  “I have an address in Portland for her. What are you planning to do?”

  “I’ll put a few bugs into her apartment, some in her shoes and her handbag, so that when she leaves, we’ll know where she goes. Shouldn’t be too hard. It’s not like she can sense me when I’m invisible.”

  “Good. Do it.”

  Pearce looked at his watch. “I’ll transport to Portland right after dinner.” Then he looked at Manus. “Can you get me a few things from the supply room in the meantime?”

  “Sure,” Manus sai
d and joined Pearce who was already scribbling a list.

  Wesley stepped away and approached Virginia. “I guess that means there’s not much we can do until Aiden is back with news for us.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, we might as well all have dinner.”

  “I’m sure Leila is already cooking something,” Logan said and marched toward the door. “Enya, you coming? Let’s give her and Tessa a hand.”

  “Hamish,” Virginia said. “I’ll be taking the room I slept in the other night. But we need to find a guestroom for Wesley. Is anything made up?”

  Hamish approached. “Don’t worry, I’ll find him something comfortable.”

  Wes tried to catch Virginia’s eye, but she avoided looking at him. At least she wasn’t making him sleep in the lead cell again. It was an improvement.

  “Let me know where he’s gonna be sleeping, so I can keep an eye on him,” she said in a firm voice.

  Keep an eye on him? Was she still treating him like a prisoner even though she wasn’t locking him up in the cell?

  It was time to have a word about it with her. The sooner, the better.

  When Hamish nodded and headed for the door, Wes finally connected with Virginia’s gaze. Her cheeks appeared a little flushed, though the command room was cooler than the rest of the building.

  No reason for Virginia to feel hot. Or look so conspicuously inconspicuous. Unless…

  He suppressed the chuckle that was building in his chest.

  Virginia had lied to Hamish.

  And Wes had an inkling of why.

  22

  After dinner Wesley withdrew to the room Hamish had chosen for him. Aiden hadn’t returned to the compound yet, and Leila had looked a little pale, but had claimed she was fine. Apparently the mention of the woman who’d tried to kill her had stirred up painful memories. Pearce was getting ready to transport to Portland to bug Deirdre, and everybody else was trying to get some rest while they waited for more news.