Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) (26 page)

Then his hand shot out to grab her. She evaded him by sliding sideways along the kitchen counter, surprising herself with her speed and agility. When he went after her and reached for her, she punched him, and felt a force in her body that seemed foreign to her. Was this an aftereffect of Aiden having poured his power into her?

“Come to Zoltan,” the demon hissed.

Oh, God, so it was he! How had he found them here? She backed away, ending up in the corner, the coffee pot at her back, and no escape route open to her.

Zoltan was on her a second later.

Behind him, she heard the grunts of the men and the clashing of daggers, but she couldn’t see them anymore, Zoltan’s massive frame blocking her view.

When he was a few feet away from her and approaching, she swung around and grabbed the coffee pot, hitting his head with it. The pot broke and the hot liquid spilled. It covered most of his face, but also her own hand, and despite the heat, she barely felt it. Neither, apparently, did Zoltan.

However, he looked pissed now.

“Let’s see what else is inside that pretty little head.” He reached for her neck, choking her.

She croaked, her hands flailing, trying to find another weapon, but there was none.

His head came closer, his teeth flashing, his green eyes more luminous now, like a traffic light. For the first time she noticed the handsomeness of his features, so unlike what a demon should look like. A straight nose, a square jaw, an even complexion. Full lips and straight, white teeth completed the picture that seemed to somehow keep her captivated. As if he were reeling her in, pulling her closer to him. Showing her that he wasn’t an ugly beast. All of a sudden, she felt his thoughts invading her mind.

Give it to me, give me what I want,
she heard him urge her.
I’ll give you everything you’ve ever dreamed of. Your parents, they will love you again.

Oh God, he knew her deepest wish! And he was tempting her with it. He was trying to seduce her!

Leila fought against him, trying to expel him from her mind. She couldn’t succumb, no, she couldn’t allow it. Aiden trusted her to be strong. What he’d given her last night proved that. She couldn’t disappoint him.

With the last of her breath, she raised her knee and kicked him in the nuts.

He cursed violently, then behind him shouts rang out.

“Take that to hell!” Aiden cried triumphantly as a body made a loud thump on the floor.

Zoltan’s hand slid from her neck and caught in her necklace. The chain broke, tangling itself up in Zoltan’s fingers as he turned and tossed a glance over his shoulder.

Leila saw Aiden charging toward them, but before he reached them, Zoltan jumped out of the way and vaulted himself through the kitchen window as if he were a Chinese gymnast.

Horrified she touched her naked throat.

“Leila, are you all right?” Aiden pulled her into his arms, but she pushed against him instantly, cutting off the waves of pleasure that started pouring through her at his touch.

Behind him, Hamish appeared, a bloody gash on his chest, but otherwise unharmed.

“My necklace… Zoltan got my necklace,” she stammered. Her data, the last copy of her data was in the possession of the demon now. Devastation coiled her stomach into knots.

“Don’t worry about it. Demons love shiny objects to trade. It can be replaced,” Hamish calmed her.

She shook her head and lifted her eyes, tears brimming at their rim. “No. It can’t be. It can’t… ”

“Leila, my sweet, please, you’re in shock.” Aiden lifted his hand to reach for her hair but she shrunk back.

With fear in her heart, she shifted her gaze to him. “There’s a USB drive inside it.”

Aiden’s eyes widened, his body visibly tightening.

“It contains a copy of my research data. The last copy,” she confessed.

He didn’t say a single word, only stared at her, disbelief spreading in his eyes as realization sunk in.

“They don’t know what’s in it. Nobody knows. It’s hard to open if you don’t know how,” she stammered.

Aiden clenched his jaw, and a low hiss escaped him as he stared at her, disappointment in his gaze. “I trusted you.”

TWENTY-NINE

After burning the two demon bodies, they packed up and left the house, driving back to the portal. Aiden could barely look at Leila. He’d never been so disappointed in another person before. She’d lied to him all this time, all the while knowing what could happen. She’d deliberately kept the existence of the last copy of her research data hidden from him. Gods, she’d lied to his face. He’d been such a fool to trust her, to even admire her for the strength she’d shown when he’d thought she’d lost everything.

And to think that he’d made love to her and poured his power into her, his heart, his very soul. And she’d taken it all and tossed it to the dogs. As if it meant nothing to her.

He glanced at her as they entered the wine cellar. Her glow had dissipated. It was probably the one thing that had saved her and made her hold Zoltan off as long as she had. The demon Aiden had fought against had been stronger than others he’d encountered previously, and it had taken him longer to kill him than he’d expected. Hamish had had as much difficulty, and hadn’t been able to help Leila either.

But somehow Aiden could find no satisfaction in his latest kill, nor in the fact that Leila had fought so valiantly. Any other time he would have admired her for it. All he could focus on right now was that she’d betrayed him. He finally understood now how Hamish must have felt when he’d found out that his lover had deceived him about her feelings. How his heart must have shattered into a million pieces at the knowledge that he’d opened himself up to someone who didn’t deserve his trust.

As they stood in the portal now, he didn’t reach for Leila’s hand, but instead let Hamish guide her through the journey. He felt her shiver and recognized that her claustrophobia was encroaching on her again, but he couldn’t find it in him to pull her into his embrace. Too much fury and anger coursed through his cells, too much pain settled in his heart.

Transporting through the portal took mere seconds. As they stepped out of it, Aiden smelled the familiar smells of home. Without waiting for Hamish or Leila, he headed for the door and charged upstairs, leaving the basement behind. Their footsteps followed him, but he didn’t turn. From now on, she was simply a charge. He should have never wished for more. It was a mistake to allow his emotions to get the better of him. All it had led to was pain. The sooner this assignment was over, the better.

When he barreled into the kitchen, he instantly spotted Manus and Enya, who sat at the kitchen counter, eating. His second dropped his sandwich when he saw him and slid off the barstool. Enya had her mouth full and swallowed quickly.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Manus glared at him. “Did it occur to you that we might all be looking for you?”

“There was a raid—”

“I know there was a fucking raid. Why do you think I was leaving you messages? And you couldn’t even be bothered to send word back that you’re fine. Fucking asshole!”

Aiden hadn’t seen any messages on his cell. “What are you talking about? You never left a message!”

Enya’s eyes widened. “Hamish?” She jumped off her chair and ran toward the door. “Hamish!”

Aiden turned to see how Enya flew right into Hamish’s outstretched arms. “Hey little one.”

“I’m not little,” she protested and squeezed him before pulling back from his embrace.

Her expression instantly changed when she saw Leila, who stood a few steps back, clearly uncomfortable.

“What the fuck?” Enya hissed, tossing glares between Aiden and Hamish. “You brought a human here?”

“Are you fucking nuts?” Manus added. “Your charge, you brought your charge to the compound? Have you lost it?”

“Believe me, we had no choice,” Aiden replied. He knew this would happen. Still, he didn’t like the hostile looks with which both Stealth Guardians sized Leila up. The urge to protect her welled up in him out of nowhere. Nobody had the right to hurt her.

“There’s always a choice.” Enya scowled at him. “You’ve compromised us all.”

“But first things first,” Manus said calmly and pointed at Hamish. “What happened to you? No offense, but some of us here assumed you’d gone over to the dark side. Some even set the council on you.”

Hamish grinned and cast a sideways glance at Aiden, who could but cringe. He should have had more faith in his best friend.

“So I heard. Sorry to disappoint you guys, but you’ll have to continue putting up with me. I ain’t going nowhere, particularly not to the dark side; never quite liked that look.”

“Then why did you disappear?” Enya asked, her eyebrows snapping together, her lips pursing.

Hamish ruffled her hair, earning himself an impatient grunt from her. He’d always treated her like a younger sister, and she normally played along; but apparently she was at the end of her nerves, and told him so. “Hamish!”

“Well, it’s a long story, and it’s got a lot to do with why we’re all here. And why we had to bring Aiden’s charge.”

“I’m listening,” Manus announced and crossed his arms over his chest.

“There’s a traitor on the council, working for the demons.”

Both of their fellow Stealth Guardians gasped.

Aiden held up his hand. He wasn’t finished with the bad news yet. “And the demons now have the blueprint for the drug.”

“You’re fucking shitting me!” Manus stared at them in disbelief.

Enya’s protest followed. “That can’t be true! Tell us that’s not true!”

Aiden interrupted. “It’s true, but before we tell that story twice, where is everybody?”

“Pearce is in the command room, Logan is in his quarters. Sean and Jay are out on assignment.”

“I’ll get Pearce and Logan,” Enya offered. As she walked to the door, Leila took a step toward her.

“Excuse me, could you please show me the bathroom?”

Enya scowled, but then relented. “Come with me. And you’d better not be going anywhere else but the bathroom, or I’m on you like a bee on honey.” To underscore her threat, she put her hand on the handle of her dagger.

Leila nodded quickly and followed her out of the room. Aiden watched her disappear, then looked back at Manus.

“You said you left messages. I didn’t get any.”

“That’s not possible,” Manus protested. “Just admit that you didn’t want to let me know where you were, because you were too busy shacking up with your charge.”

Aiden gritted his teeth. “I got no fucking message from you.”

Manus narrowed his eyes. “If that’s true then we’d better have Pearce look at your cell phone. Because I swear, I left you three messages in the last twenty-four hours.”

He knew his friend wasn’t lying. Which could only mean one thing. “Somebody must have tampered with my phone.”

Hamish tossed him a look. “Do you think that’s how the demons would have found us in Sonoma, via your phone?”

“It was switched off the entire time. And I’d already disabled the GPS tracking device before we even went to the Thai massage parlor.”

“Somebody could have reactivated it,” Hamish guessed.

“Let’s ask Pearce,” Manus suggested.

The door opened. “Let’s ask Pearce what?” the man in question answered. He motioned his head toward Hamish. “Good to see you back in one piece.”

“Good to be back.”

“So what do you guys need to know?”

Aiden pulled out his cell phone. “Manus says he left me three messages. I never got them. Which makes me think somebody did something to my phone. Can you check it out?”

Pearce accepted the phone. “Can you be a little bit more specific what you’re looking for?”

“We were attacked by demons this morning. There was no way they could have traced us to our safe place. My cell phone was off, and my GPS was disabled. Is there any way somebody could have reactivated it?”

“Hmm, let me comb through all the software you’ve got on it and see whether anything shakes.”

“How long?”

“A few hours, at most.”

“Thanks.” Aiden let out a relieved breath. They would need a few hours anyway to formulate a plan and get everybody on board.

“Oh, and while you’re at it, can you see who might have put a tap on Leila’s parents phone line? She called her parents from the Thai parlor, and we believe that’s why they set the dogs on us.”

“Ah shit, after all we told her?” Manus cursed.

Aiden felt the inexplicable urge to defend her. It was his own fault as much as it was hers. But his anger over her lies won out. He ignored his friend and patted Pearce on the shoulder. “Can you do it?”

“Piece of cake.”

“Thanks, man.”

A moment later, the door opened and Enya and Logan entered.

Hamish cleared his throat. “Well, since we’re all here, let’s get you guys up to date.”

***

Zoltan pressed the cell phone to his ear and looked around him before answering. He already knew who was calling him—very few had this number.

“Yes?”

“Did you get it?” the Stealth Guardian’s voice came through the line.

He felt fury rise up through his stomach. His last mission had been a bust. And he knew exactly who to blame.

“You neglected to tell me he had help. Because of your useless information I lost two men.” Two men who were entirely expendable, and he would have not batted an eyelid about the loss had he come away with his prize.

“Aiden defeated you?”

“Did you the fuck not listen to what I said?” he barked into the phone, angry for having to deal with such an imbecile. “There was a second Stealth Guardian helping him. And the human was strong, she had
virta
in her. You didn’t mention that either.”

“I didn’t know, I swear,” the man stammered.

Zoltan could fairly sense the fear in him, and it only fed his anger more. He let out a growl, not caring that he sounded like a wild beast. It was best for the Stealth Guardian to know how displeased he was.

“I want results, not excuses,” he hissed. “Now, you go back and get me information I can work with. Do you understand?”