by Tina Folsom
She passed him and went to her bench where only minutes earlier she’d confirmed that her laptop had been wiped clean. All she needed now were some acting skills to convince him that the last set of research data was destroyed too. Maybe then he would leave her alone, thinking there was nothing else the demons could take. And she would get her life back.
“Oh no!” she cried out, hoping she sounded convincing.
She let herself fall into the chair and stared at the monitor where the ominous ‘c:/’ still pulsed in silence.
“What’s wrong?”
She looked up at him, forcing tears to her eyes. “They tried to hack into my laptop.”
“Shit!” he cursed. “Did they get in?”
Shaking her head, she continued her charade. “No, but they activated the self-destruct feature.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, looking over her shoulder, hovering far too closely.
“I had a security program on my laptop. If anybody tried to access my data and there were more than two failed login attempts, the program would initiate, wiping the entire hard drive clean.”
“You mean there’s no data left on the computer?”
She shook her head. “None.” Feeling that she should show despair about the loss of her research, she turned her face away and let out a sob. It’s wasn’t too hard to produce. The thought of the bloody thumb on the floor in her office gave her reason enough to cry her eyes out. It struck her out of nowhere: the pain her boss must have suffered.
“Oh, God! Patten. I must find him. He needs a doctor. Oh, God, those bastards!”
She jumped up and almost bumped into Aiden, who instantly steadied her with a hand on her hip.
“Where’s his office?”
“On the eighth floor.”
“Let’s go,” he ordered.
As they rushed to the door and opened it, a loud alarm sounded from the hallway. Strobe lights flashed.
Aiden tossed her a questioning look.
“They’re locking down the building.” And she could guess what that meant.
FOURTEEN
Aiden by her side, Leila raced toward the elevator, hitting the call button impatiently.
“Come on, come on,” she coaxed it, shifting from one leg to the other, her concern for her own safety overshadowed by worries for her boss. She might have had a disagreement with him the last time they’d met, but that didn’t mean she didn’t care about his wellbeing. And she couldn’t help but think that part of this was her fault.
Aiden grabbed her elbow, making her look at him. The grim expression on his face confirmed that he had the same suspicion as she and feared the worst. It didn’t exactly calm her nerves.
A ping announced the arrival of the elevator. As soon as the doors opened, she squeezed inside quickly and hit the button for the eighth floor.
They didn’t speak while the elevator ascended. Instead, Leila fixed her gaze on the display panel that showed their movement from floor to floor. It felt like it moved at a snail’s pace. The local bus could have gotten them there faster.
“We should have taken the stairs,” she muttered.
Then she felt Aiden’s hand on her arm, squeezing it in reassurance. She glanced at him and noticed a flicker of compassion in them. It disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Maybe she had simply seen what she wanted to see, even though she guessed the hard man next to her had no capacity for such emotion. Hell, he’d coldly demanded that she destroy her own research without as much as flinching. If somebody could do that, knowing he would deprive thousands if not millions of people of a cure for a devastating disease, what else was he capable of?
Leila let out a sigh of relief when the doors finally opened on the executive floor. She rushed out, heading for Patten’s office. As she approached, she found the door wide open.
She stormed in, Aiden on her heels.
The room was lit, the fluorescent lights illuminating the space, the small lamp that normally stood on Patten’s desk lay broken on the ground in front of it—next to Patten’s body.
A choked cry tried to leave her throat but didn’t quite make it. Her breath deserted her. But her feet carried her closer, almost as if some perverted part of her wanted to gorge itself on the sight. She needed to know how he’d died.
Leila stared at the lifeless form at her feet. Blood oozed from his neck, having soaked his shirt and tie. The wound looked straight and almost . . . perfect, as if the murderer knew what he was doing. Her gaze drifted to Patten’s hands. And there, as if she needed a confirmation, one thumb was missing, cut from his right hand.
A sob worked its way up from her chest and past the lump in her throat that prevented her from speaking. She’d seen dead bodies before: in medical school, and during her time as a medical resident. But this was different. This wasn’t clinical, this wasn’t expected. This was a brutal crime.
All this so somebody could get to her research? Didn’t that make it her fault?
Sounds from the corridor made her lift her head. Aiden’s eyes bounced to the door, then back to her.
“Somebody’s coming. Not a word, promise me, don’t say a single word,” he ordered.
She nodded automatically. As if she could say anything while she fought the bout of nausea that developed in her stomach as the metallic scent of blood drifted into her nostrils.
Aiden pulled her aside, away from the body, and she didn’t have the strength to fight him this time. By now, somehow, her brain had figured out that he wouldn’t hurt her, even though she knew she couldn’t fully trust him—and could never tell him that a last copy of her research data still existed.
He pulled her closer to him as suddenly several people trampled into the room. The first one, she recognized instantly: Max. Behind him three other men barged in.
“Right here, officer,” Max pointed at Patten’s body. “I was doing my rounds when I found him.”
Police, she registered instantly, relieved that they had finally arrived.
As two of the men knelt down next to the body, the heavy set one Max had addressed, spoke. “Are you the only one in the building, Mr. Flanagan?”
Max shook his head. “No, Dr. Cruickshank is still working too, actually . . . I should check on her in her lab, make sure she’s all right.”
Why would Max need to check in her lab when she was right here? Leila opened her mouth, wanting to speak up, but Aiden’s hand clamped over her mouth to prevent her from talking. Before she could protest, his mouth was at her ear, his warm breath caressing her skin as he whispered to her so low she barely heard him.
“Don’t make a sound. I’ll explain later.”
Confusion made her vocal cords constrict. Why didn’t Max or the other people acknowledge her presence or the fact that Aiden was holding his hand over her mouth? Wouldn’t that look suspicious to them? What kind of detectives were these people that they couldn’t see what was right in front of them?
“Kowalski,” one of the officers next to the body called out. “Looks like a clean cut through the throat. He was probably dead instantly.”
“The forensics team should be here in a moment.” Officer Kowalski’s gaze swept the room, never pausing on the spot where Leila and Aiden stood, as if he didn’t see them at all.
“Holy shit!” the other officer suddenly exclaimed. “Look at that.” He pointed to Patten’s hand.
Kowalski stepped closer. “Christ, the murderer cut off his thumb. What the—?” Then he turned to grace Max with a questioning look. “Do you know what that could mean?”
Max’s face turned almost as white as a sheet as he clutched his stomach. Oh, God, if he started to puke, Leila wasn’t sure she could tamp down her own nausea any longer.
“Oh, God, the safe. There’s a safe in Dr. Cruickshank’s o-o-office . . . ” Max’s voice stuttered, then came to a halt.
Aiden’s mouth was at her ear again. “Let’s go. Now.”
He yanked her toward the door, the brusque movement making
her stumble over her feet.
“Did you hear that?” Kowalski asked.
“Hear what?” one of the officers replied.
Kowalski rubbed the back of his neck. “Nothing. So, you were saying something about a safe . . . ”
Aiden guided her outside, the voices behind her drifting into the distance as they walked along the corridor.
“The stairs?” he whispered.
She motioned her head toward them. When they reached the door, he opened it and pushed her through, closing it silently behind them.
Numb with confusion, horror and nausea, she allowed him to drag her down the endless flights of stairs, the sound of her tennis shoes echoing in the stairwell. The sound was eerie and only added to her sense of devastation.
In the span of a few hours, her entire life had turned upside down: her apartment burned, her belief in the order of this world shaken, her research nearly destroyed, and her boss murdered. She didn’t know if she could take any more. But somehow she knew this wasn’t the end of it.
And why hadn’t the police or Max seen her when she was right there in the same room with them? Why had they talked about her as if she wasn’t even there? Something was wrong. Was she dreaming all this? Was she hallucinating?
Aiden pulled her toward the exit, pushing a door open, then another one, until the cold night air hit her.
Outside, police sirens blared and several police cars screeched to a halt, stopping next to the one that was already there. More police officers, some in plain clothes, some in uniform, jumped from their cars and headed for the building.
They all ignored her and Aiden and allowed them to pass when they should have stopped them, questioning them what they were doing there in the middle of the night.
“Why?” she mumbled.
Aiden dragged her around the next corner, then finally stopped walking and pulled her into the entrance to a coffeehouse.
She stared up at him. “Why didn’t they stop us? Didn’t . . . didn’t they see us?”
He brushed a strand of hair from her face and pushed it behind her ear, a gesture so gentle, she must have dreamed it.
“I cloaked us. We were invisible to them.”
“Invisible?” That was impossible. It was against the laws of physics. It couldn’t be. “But—”
“It’s one of the powers of Stealth Guardians. With our touch, we can make humans invisible to others. We use it to hide our charges from the demons. That’s why they didn’t see us. But they could still hear us. That’s why I had to stop you from talking.”
“It can’t be. That’s not possible. Physics . . . there’s no such law . . . nobody can make . . . ” This was too crazy, but it had to be true: neither Max nor the police had seen her. In fact, they’d looked through her as if she were indeed invisible. Besides, she’d seen Aiden walk through walls. Turning invisible wasn’t any stranger than walking through solid objects.
“I was invisible,” she whispered to herself.
He nodded. “Yes, that was the only way to get us out of there. We can’t afford to get involved with the police. They won’t be able to keep you safe. I will.”
“They killed Patten.”
“We have to leave, now.” He cast a look in the direction they’d come from. “We’re not safe here. The demons might still be in the vicinity.”
For once, she had to agree with him. If these creatures were capable of killing Patten in cold blood and cutting off his thumb, they could do the same to her if they found her. Clearly, the security in the building wasn’t enough to keep them out. Somehow they had gotten around Max, maybe the same way Aiden had. Now that she knew that he could both walk through walls and make himself invisible, there was no question how he’d gotten in. The demons could have done it the same way. She was better off going with him now. He was the only one who could keep her safe from the demons.
“Are you going to hurt me?”
His eyes widened and his lips parted. His breath ghosted against her skin. “Never.”
FIFTEEN
Aiden’s stomach twisted as he led Leila back to where he’d parked the car.
He’d told her that he would never hurt her. What a lie! If his mission demanded it, he would have to kill her. Should the council alter their votes and decide at a later time that Leila needed to be eliminated to keep humankind safe, he would have to follow their orders, knowing that if he didn’t, two things would happen: he’d be punished for disobedience, and humans would be in a hell lot of trouble. The first consequence he could handle; the second one was unacceptable.
However, would he really do it? Would he be capable of driving his knife into her sweet body and draining the life from her, when what he really wanted was to see her live, laugh, breathe, and most of all, love? Would he waver in his duty in the end because she meant something to him?
He tried to shake off the thought, but it only pushed another problem to the forefront.
He’d told her that by touching her, he could make her invisible. He hadn’t lied outright, but he’d simply omitted that he could also render her invisible just with the power of his mind. No touching would be necessary. He let her believe that if she wanted to remain invisible to the demons, she would have to allow him to touch her. He should correct his omission right now.
He hesitated for a moment. If she believed that she needed to remain physically close to him to be cloaked, at least it would be easier to protect her. She wouldn’t bolt again. And it would save him from divulging even more information about Stealth Guardians than he wanted to give. But she had a right to know the truth. He would correct her assumption as soon as they were at a safe place where he had time to explain everything to her, lay out the ground rules, and answer the many questions she would surely have.
“Where are we going?” Her voice trembled as she rushed to keep up with his long strides.
“A safe house.”
There were several in the city: inconspicuous and staffed with humans loyal to their cause, humans who owed them something.
Aiden pulled his smartphone from his jacket pocket and punched in a code. A moment later, an App loaded. He entered another code and allowed the system to calculate. While he knew each safe house in this city, since this was his home base, he didn’t know if any of them were already taken. It would be against protocol to go to a safe house when another Stealth Guardian had already taken one of his charges there. It would only endanger others.
When a map pulled up, only one red dot blinked: the only safe house available to them. He swiped his finger over it to claim it and thus alert them to his imminent arrival. A bubble appeared on the screen, reading Notify second?. He pressed yes, then switched off the phone, so nobody else would be able to track him.
“Let’s go.”
He ushered Leila into the car, and she complied without protest. Maybe seeing her boss’s dead body had finally driven reality home and made her understand that she had to trust him if she didn’t want to meet with the same fate. Aiden turned on the engine and hit the gas, leaving Inter Pharma and the police in his rear view mirror.
“Tell me about the demons.”
He tossed her a sideways glance, surprised at her question. He’d thought she would want to block out everything she’d seen and not talk about it. Apparently he’d been wrong about her. Maybe she was stronger than he suspected.
Easing the car into traffic, he thought briefly about where to start. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything: what they look like; their motivation, strengths, weaknesses, where they hide, how they operate—”
“Whoa, whoa, that’s quite enough to start with. Besides, I don’t have answers to all of your questions.”
“How can you still hide things from me after all that . . . ” She tossed her head toward the window, indicating what they’d left behind. “. . . that happened there?”
He looked at her, his heart rate spiking at her accusation. Why did he even care what she thought of him? Y
et he couldn’t deny that he did. He didn’t want her to think of him as the enemy.
“I’m not. I don’t have all the answers. Do you really think we wouldn’t have taken the demons out if we knew where they were hiding?” He kept his voice calm despite the storm that was raging inside him.
“Oh.” She wrapped her arms around her torso and looked straight ahead. “Then how about all the other stuff?”
He lifted a hand from the steering wheel and ran it through his hair. “They’ve been around since the Dark Days. Nobody knows how—”
“What are the Dark Days?” she interrupted.
He sighed. “I’m getting to it. Patience.” When he looked at her, he noticed how tightly she clamped her arms over each other. Instantly, concern flooded his cells. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? Isn’t that pretty clear? Demons killed my boss, and now they’re after me. What if they catch up with us and see me? I’m not invisible anymore.”
He opened his mouth to correct her, but before he could find the right words, she gave him a pleading look.
“Please.” Her hand slid onto his thigh. “I need to stay invisible.”
The warmth emanating from her palm seared his flesh. It felt good, way too good to admit now that she’d been cloaked all along, ever since he’d caught up with her at her lab. He should come clean right now and not leave her in this false belief, tell her that it wasn’t necessary for her to touch him.
“Leila . . . ”
“The demons . . . ” she prompted.
Aiden cleared his throat, but he was unable to make a confession cross his lips. Was it rasen that made him react like this when he should tell her the truth about cloaking instead? Yet he couldn’t. He admitted it to himself: he was weak. And when Leila touched him, he couldn’t think clearly.
“The demons . . . ,” he answered instead, “they live in a place we call the Underworld for lack of a better term. They enter and exit it through portals, but we don’t know whether these so-called portals are stationary or not, or where they are. We’ve only seen them when fighting demons, but we’ve never been able to go through one, and it seems that they vanish when the demons disappear.”