by Tina Folsom
The only thing anyone in his family could be tempted with was to have Julia back, but even the demons couldn’t resurrect the dead.
Slowly, he walked back to the couch and slouched down.
“If I knew what went on in the head of each council member, trust me, I wouldn’t be sitting here wondering about it. I would be taking the asshole down. Whoever it is, he is betraying all of us. And putting us in danger,” Hamish said
“What do you propose to do about it, considering you’re a wanted man right now?”
Hamish grinned. “Now that’s where you come in.”
“Why do I get the feeling that I’m being used?”
“What are friends for? Besides, didn’t I just save you and your charge’s ass? And what a lovely ass it is.”
Aiden glared at him. “Leave her out of this.” He wasn’t in the mood to discuss Leila’s assets with him.
“So I wasn’t mistaken then. You do have the hots for a human. You never cease to surprise me.”
“It’s not like that. And it’s not up for discussion either.”
Particularly because he didn’t want to face the facts: with every minute he spent with her, the thought of having to hurt her one day sickened him more and more. He couldn’t remain objective about her and treat her like he’d treated every charge before her. The indifference and emotional detachment that had served him so well in the past had deserted him on this assignment. If he wasn’t careful, he’d form an attachment to her that he would have a hard time severing later.
“Can we change the subject? I believe we were talking about how to ferret out the traitor.”
“Very well. Let’s start with who knew you were at the safe house.”
“But as we both know, the attack on the safe house wasn’t staged by the demons,” Aiden explained. “Ergo, this won’t lead us to the traitor.”
“We can’t know for sure. Maybe they didn’t want to kill your charge but capture her instead. I know who she is.”
Aiden sucked in a quick breath. “How much do you know?”
“Most of it: that she’s a talented researcher, and that her boss just got killed and she’s somehow involved,” Hamish admitted.
“That’s only the half of it.” He leaned forward. As he filled Hamish in on the details of why the demons wanted Leila, he listened to the sound of the shower down the hallway. He blocked out the thought of it, and concentrated on giving Hamish all the information he had.
When he leaned back a few minutes later, Hamish took another sip of his beer and set the empty bottle on the coffee table. “No shit!”
“Yep, that’s it in a nutshell.”
“So we’re up against two enemies: the demons who want her drug, and since no copy of it exists anymore, they have to get her; and somebody else who wants to eliminate her before the demons get to her.”
Aiden twisted the bottle in his hands. “And since the only people who know what threat she represents are sitting on the council, whoever wants to eliminate her, is also on the council.”
“Two birds to catch then. One traitor, and one, let’s say, misguided council member who doesn’t like the fact that he was outvoted and is now taking matters into his own hands to ensure the desired outcome.”
“Exactly.”
Hamish rubbed the back of his neck. “There’s one other person who knows what kind of danger Leila represents.”
Aiden blinked. “Manus.” He slammed his hand into the sofa cushion. “He was the only other person who knew where we were. He came to switch out the cars. He even brought Leila some chocolate for her birthday, which proves he’s read her file from cover to cover.”
“It’s a possibility. But don’t forget that besides Manus, the council could have checked into your location log and found where you were.”
He shook his head. “No. They couldn’t have known. When I claimed the safe house, the request was anonymous, and I hadn’t checked my position in with central command yet.”
“After being at the house for what, at least eight hours?” Hamish sent an incredulous look his way.
“I know it’s against procedure, but there were circumstances that prevented me . . . ” Ah, hell, who was he kidding? He’d forgotten to send his position to central command. He’d been too preoccupied with Leila. A great Stealth Guardian that made him.
“So that confirms it,” Hamish agreed. “The only one who knew you were at the Thai massage parlor was Manus. That means he’s the one who sent the dogs after you.”
“Shit!” Aiden cursed.
“No!” Leila’s voice came from the corridor as she stepped into the living area. “It’s not Manus’s fault. It’s mine.”
***
Leila collected all her courage and stared past Aiden, unable to look him in the eye right now. Yet she couldn’t keep silent about this and let an innocent take the blame for what she’d done. It had bugged her ever since Hamish had shown up at the safe house and said that a phone call could have been traced back to it.
“I’m sorry, I just meant to . . . my parents, I didn’t want them to worry when they heard the news about what happened to me. I had to tell them I was okay.” She pulled the belt of the bathrobe she’d found in one of the closets tighter around her waist.
“You did what?” Aiden leapt from the couch.
“I called them from the safe house.”
Aiden closed his eyes for a moment and clenched his jaw together. She noticed how his hand curled into a fist as if he wanted to punch somebody, presumably her.
When he opened his eyes again, they blazed with anger. “Do you want to die? Do you? Because you’re making it damn hard for me to protect you.”
“But they needed to know. I couldn’t—”
“You couldn’t what? So you’d rather put yourself and everybody else in danger because of what? Sentiments? I’m afraid you don’t have that luxury.” He marched toward her, his steps slow like a tiger ready to attack.
“That’s not fair!” she bit back. Maybe he had no parents to care about, but she did.
“Fair?” he yelled. “Life isn’t fair! Those demons aren’t fair, and neither is that Stealth Guardian who’s after you to eliminate you!”
“What?” she echoed. Had she heard correctly? “The Stealth Guardians want to kill me?” Instinctively, she took several steps back and hit the wall behind her.
Aiden slammed his fist into the wall beside her head, jolting her. She’d never seen him so angry.
“Fuck, yes! Everybody is after you.”
“Stop it, Aiden!” Hamish jumped up and went to his side.
Aiden ignored him. “Not only are the demons after you. Whoever tried to attack you today, or last night for that matter is one of our own. And you worry about what your parents think?”
Leila shivered, not understanding why he still blamed his colleague. “I’m sorry, but I told you it wasn’t Manus’s fault.”
“I’m not talking about Manus!”
Hamish put a hand on Aiden’s shoulder, then looked straight at her. “It appears that somebody on our governing council would rather see you dead and your research die with you than risk that you fall into the demons’ hands.”
Her mouth fell open and her heart pounded into her throat. “But those are the same people who sent you, aren’t they?”
Both nodded.
Her voice shook, when she continued, “Then did they order you to kill me now?”
Aiden let out a breath, sounding somewhat calmer as he continued, “No. Whoever wants you dead is a rogue and is working against the council’s orders.”
Leila swallowed away the rising bile. She felt all power drain from her. She wasn’t safe anywhere, not even with him. “So not only do I have the demons after me, your own people want me dead.”
“Only one of them,” Aiden answered.
“You can’t know that. How many voted to eliminate me?”
“We don’t know.”
Hamish ran his hand through his ha
ir. “But most likely only one of them is actually doing anything about it. And we’ll find him.”
“He’ll use anything to get to you, I can promise you that,” Aiden added.
At his words, she instantly realized where she was most vulnerable. “My parents. You have to make sure they’re okay. They have to be protected. If anything happens to them . . . ” She would never forgive herself for it.
“We don’t have the manpower to protect your parents. Not when we don’t know who we can trust.”
“Please,” she pleaded and took a step closer to Aiden, tears threatening to overwhelm her. “I need to know that they’re all right. Please.”
She looked at Aiden, then at Hamish, hoping that one of them would give in to her.
“Don’t you have parents? Don’t you know how much this hurts not to know if they are okay?”
“Okay, I’ll go,” Hamish relented.
Instantly Aiden slapped his palm on his friend’s arm. “No, I’ll go.” Then he stared back at her. “I need some air.”
He turned away from her, but she caught his resigned look nevertheless.
She didn’t know what suddenly made her want to know, but she couldn’t stop the words leaving her lips. “If you were on the council, how would you have voted?”
He hesitated, his voice shaking slightly when he finally answered, “I’m not sure about that answer anymore.”
TWENTY-FOUR
It took Aiden an hour to reach her parents’ house. Hamish had explained to him that the portals outside the compounds worked the same way as those inside: he only had to concentrate on his destination and the portal would carry him to whatever portal was closest to his desired location. Simple as that. The reason nobody using the portals within the compounds had accidentally stumbled upon the portals that Hamish now called lost portals, was probably because nobody had ever tried to concentrate on a location other than the known portals. However, he was nevertheless baffled how their existence could have remained a secret for so long.
He was glad to have had an excuse to leave. The knowledge that Leila’s action had put her in danger again, had sent bolts of fear through his body. And had made him act irrationally. What had happened wasn’t her fault. It was his.
He should have taken better precautions and explained the ground rules to her. This could have been avoided if he’d used his brain instead of letting another part of his body inform his actions.
And maybe he wouldn’t even be so pissed about this fact if he wasn’t so emotionally involved. There, he’d admitted it to himself: he cared about her. When she’d pressed herself against him when they were in the portal and allowed him to kiss her, he’d thought for a moment that everything would turn out fine between them. Unfortunately he’d just pushed her away again with the way he’d yelled at her, when really, the fury he’d unleashed was aimed at himself for not protecting her sufficiently.
With a sigh, he perused his surroundings.
The house was a two-story Edwardian with a large front yard and an even larger garden in the back. Ivy grew on its façade, and the hedges around the grounds needed trimming. These were the suburbs, but the fancy ones. No doubt, the family had money.
Night had already fallen, and lights inside the home were ablaze. Aiden walked past the old station wagon that was parked in the driveway in front of the two-car garage. Did the Cruickshanks have visitors?
There was an easy way to find out. A familiar tingling went through his entire body as he dematerialized and passed through the front door, sneaking inside the cozy foyer a moment later. Remaining invisible, he walked along the wallpapered hallway with all the stealth he’d been taught.
The house smelled homey, the scent of freshly baked cookies drifting into his nose. He could almost picture Leila as a little girl, running down the stairs and toward the kitchen to collect her treat. Odd that she appeared in much softer terms to him now, when in the environment he’d met her first—her lab and her apartment—none of that softness was evident. Maybe he was simply imagining it.
A female voice came from the back of the house. He followed it and reached an open door. Halting there, he peered into the kitchen. It was spacious, with a large island in the middle, and a dining nook near one of the large bay windows.
A middle aged woman, presumably the housekeeper, stood at the island and cut bread into slices. At the dining nook, an elderly couple sat, waiting silently. The woman was probably in her mid to late sixties, and the man possibly five to ten years her senior. Those two had to be Leila’s parents. In fact, now that he entered the kitchen to take a closer look, he recognized similarities.
Her father had the same ocean blue eyes as his daughter, yet they lacked the sparkle and passion he’d seen in Leila’s. There was a dull sheen over them as he stared past his wife, almost as if he was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he didn’t really see her. Well, maybe after being married for several decades, that was what relationships turned into, for his wife didn’t look at him either. She played with her napkin, folding it first that way, then the other.
Somehow, the scene didn’t look like the companionable silence he’d occasionally observed with his own parents. It felt awkward. Had they quarreled?
“The soup is coming,” the housekeeper said in a cheerful voice, the same one he’d heard from the corridor earlier. “Mmm, you’ll like it. I made you pumpkin soup today, fresh with lots of cream, just the way you like it.”
Aiden turned to the woman, surprised at her tone. She sounded as if she were talking to a child. He got out of her way and moved to the other side of the table when she carried two bowls with steaming hot soup and set them in front of the couple.
“There,” she said. “How about some fresh rosemary bread with that?”
Leila’s mother nodded. “And butter. Don’t forget the butter. You always forget the butter.”
Aiden caught how the housekeeper rolled her eyes. “I never forget the butter, Ellie. Don’t you remember how I put it on extra thick this morning?”
“You didn’t give me bread this morning,” Ellie protested.
Her husband shook his head. “I didn’t get bread this morning either.”
Ellie tossed him a chiding look and waved the housekeeper closer. In a whisper, she spoke to her. “Do I have to always eat with him? Nancy, why doesn’t he go home?”
Nancy sighed and sat down on the empty chair. “But, Ellie, that’s George. You know George, don’t you? Your husband?”
Ellie’s eyes darted toward him, looking him up and down. Then she bent closer to the housekeeper once more. “I don’t think that’s my husband. He’s old. I married a handsome young man named George.”
George only grunted and started eating his soup.
Aiden watched the exchange with surprise. Something wasn’t right here. Was there a chance that the demons had already gotten to Leila’s parents and somehow distorted their sense of reality?
“Why don’t you start your soup, Ellie, and I’ll get you your meds, huh? Maybe you’ll feel better afterwards.”
Nancy lifted herself from the chair and went over to the kitchen counter where an array of medicine bottles and containers took up an entire corner. She took two long plastic containers, which were embossed with the days of the week and Ellie and George, and went back to the dining table.
Aiden didn’t follow her. Instead, he stared at the medicine bottles and read the labels. Since he wasn’t a doctor, he didn’t know what any of them were for, however, he needed to find out. Something he couldn’t explain compelled him to. He pulled out his smartphone, switched it on in silent mode, and entered the name of the first medication. A few second later, search results were back. He clicked on the first, read it. A knot started forming in his chest.
He entered the next one, and more results came back. Again, he read the first, and again, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He perused the bottles, noticing that both Leila’s parents took almost identical medication.
Shocked, Aiden stalked out of the kitchen and fled into the front of the house where he found the living room and let himself fall onto the couch.
Both Leila’s parents took medication for the treatment of Alzheimer’s.
Now everything suddenly made sense: the determination Leila showed in her research, the single-minded purpose that reflected in her private life or the lack thereof, her devastation when she’d found her research destroyed. She did all this for her parents. She wanted to save them.
She wasn’t looking for the recognition of her peers and humanity at large to become the inventor of the first Alzheimer’s drug that would halt the disease. All she wanted was to cure her parents and reverse some of the damage the disease had done to their minds.
Aiden felt shame radiate through him. He’d callously demanded that all copies of her research be destroyed, would have destroyed them himself had somebody else not beaten him to it. And all the while, her dreams destroyed, her hopes squashed, Leila had kept her true pain hidden from him.
No wonder she hated him and his kind. It was a miracle, she hadn’t tried to give him any more resistance, or tried to escape a second time. Now that he knew what was really at stake for her, he wouldn’t even blame her if she tried. Wouldn’t he do the same? Wouldn’t he try to do everything to save his parents if he had the means to do it? Would he care that by doing so, he would jeopardize the entire human race?
Could she be so selfless in the end to put humanity’s needs before her own? If she could do that, if she could look beyond her own desires, all he could do was admire her for it. Because it would mean she wasn’t weak. She was strong, stronger than any human or Stealth Guardian he’d ever met.
A woman he could fall on his knees for and wish for things he’d previously believed impossible.
If she ever forgave him.
TWENTY-FIVE
Leila accepted the cup of tea Hamish handed her as he joined her on the couch in the living room. She had gotten dressed in jeans and T-shirt again.