Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) (5 page)

And if the love wasn’t true and pure, the ritual mating, which bound the two lovers together, would rob them of their lives. Their death wouldn’t be instant, but knowledge of it would be. A Stealth Guardian’s immortality would drain away like sand in an hourglass. Just like his mate, he would wither away in a few short months, enough time to regret his actions and see his own death coming. Hamish had almost entered such a union, and only by sheer luck found out in time that his intended mate had been a plant by the demons.

The success rate for finding a mate was thus low, with few single female Stealth Guardians available. He’d practically grown up with Enya, who lived in the same compound with him, and he regarded her as a true sister. There was no physical attraction between them. He knew most of the other female Stealth Guardians in the US, because they were rare, but none stirred him the way a woman should tantalize a man. Maybe he was simply not meant for a relationship.

Aiden knew what was expected of him, and he didn’t want to disappoint. But pleasing his mother and father as well as their community wasn’t in the forefront of his thoughts. He was a guardian first and foremost; finding a mate and helping his race procreate was a distant second. Maybe he could suppress the urges
rasen
forced on him. He was strong-willed—those damn hormones had nothing on him.

“Guardian,” a voice called him. “The council will see you now.”

The attendant, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, stood in front of the door to the council chambers.

“One moment,” he requested, “please place all your electronic devices here.” He pointed to a carved out indentation next to the door.

Aiden did as he was asked and then allowed the attendant to swipe a wand up and down his body. It was a security measure so that no recording devices could be smuggled into the council chambers since all undertakings within were kept secret.

As Aiden finally walked inside, the door closed behind him with a loud clunk.

“The council welcomes you, Guardian,” Primus’s voice greeted him.

Aiden looked straight at him to acknowledge his welcome. He bowed his head. “I thank the council for receiving me, Primus.”

With the formalities behind him, it was time to give them the news. He couldn’t stall this any longer. “I bring bad news. My last assignment ended in a loss. My charge succumbed to the demons. I had to eliminate her.”

Low mumbles went through the assembled.

“As much as we regret this incident,” Geoffrey piped, “it is hardly a matter to bother the council with. You’re not the only one who’s lost a charge in the last few weeks. Reports have—”

“I’ve heard of the reports,” Aiden interrupted impatiently.

When Geoffrey and several of the other council members gasped, he knew that he’d acted against protocol by interrupting him. However, enough time had already been wasted. He couldn’t stand on ceremony.

“And what I have to tell you might be related to it.”

When Geoffrey tried to speak, Primus held up his hand. “Let him talk.”

Taking an extra breath, Aiden recounted what had unraveled at their compound.

“Hamish has disappeared. At first we thought he might have been ambushed, but then we traced his cell phone and found his things.”

“Meaning what?” Primus asked curiously.

“We found his cell phone in a dumpster, together with all this clothes. Neatly folded.”

Several eyebrows rose. Deirdre spoke up. “What are you alleging?”

Aiden swallowed away the bitter taste in his mouth. “When I was on my last mission, outnumbered by the demons, I called for Hamish. He was my second. He didn’t show. I have reason to believe that he deserted us.” The next words hurt to speak, his heart clenching painfully at the loss he experienced. “I believe he’s gone over to the demons’ side.”

He wished he was wrong, but everything pointed to it.

Outraged gasps filled the council chambers.

Cinead rose from this seat. Aiden had always liked the Scotsman and knew he could expect a just ruling from him. “Those are serious allegations, Aiden. Hamish is a valued member of our society, a fierce fighter. I don’t believe him capable of treason. He’s strong of mind, one of the least likely guardians to be influenced by the demons.”

“Then explain to me why he didn’t come to my aid, why we found his clothes and cell phone. He got rid of everything that would have made it possible for us to trace him.” Aiden lashed an accusatory glare at Cinead. Maybe the council member didn’t
want
to believe that a fellow Scotsman was capable of such thing. “Why did the demons find my charge when I had cloaked her? Only Hamish could have known where we were.”

Ian raised a hand. “Ah, not entirely true, I’m afraid.”

Aiden lifted an eyebrow in question as several heads turned to the council member who’d spoken.

“As you all know, everybody who sits on this council is aware of any assignment that is handed out. Each one of us could have known the whereabouts of your charge. Are you calling us traitors too?”

“No, of course not!” he hastened to answer.

“Then you might grant your fellow guardian Hamish the same courtesy. There could be a myriad of reasons why he disappeared. Maybe he was captured.”

“Since when do assailants fold clothes they strip off their victims?” Aiden grumbled under his breath. Only Hamish himself took such care of his beloved designer clothes.

Cinead nodded at Ian. “We’ll send out guardians to search for him.” He waved toward Geoffrey. “Can you notify the
emissarii
? They might be able to help.”

Geoffrey gave a nod.

“I want to be on the search team,” Aiden requested.

“I don’t believe that’s wise. You’re too emotionally involved,” Cinead declined.

Aiden shot a pleading look at the head of the council. “Primus, I appeal to you.”

The slow shake of his head quashed any hope that he could get to Hamish before anybody else and wring the truth from him.

“Father, I implore you,” he insisted, hoping by emphasizing that he was not just his Primus, but more importantly his father, he could be reasoned with.

He and his father exchanged a long look. The older man’s dark hair showed a few errant strands of silver, and his angular face was full of laugh lines. Brown eyes studied him from beneath dark lashes. Aiden knew that he’d inherited many of his father’s features, and side-by–side, many would have thought them brothers rather than father and son.

Like all Stealth Guardians, his father aged only fractionally compared to humans. While the offspring of Stealth Guardians aged in the same way human children did, once they reached their twenty-fifth birthday, their aging slowed to the speed of a snail. Even the oldest man of their species, a Stealth Guardian of over 1,500 years of age, looked like a man in his late fifties. Time was good to their kind.

Finally, Primus shook his head. “I’m afraid, son, that’s not possible. You’re needed elsewhere. We have an assignment for you.”

FIVE

In his cloaked state, Aiden paced outside of Inter Pharma’s facility. After leaving the council chambers, he’d looked at the manila folder containing the details of his assignment and read it cover to cover. He’d formed his opinion on this case by the time he reached the last page, secretly questioning the council’s decision. Given the details laid out in the report, he would have decided on eliminating the human in question. It would be the safest and only reliable way of ensuring that the demons wouldn’t gain access to this dangerous drug.

However, when he’d pulled out Dr. Cruickshank’s picture, which had been tucked into an envelope and placed in the back of the file, his gut had instantly made a curious flip. He’d expected her to be different… older… and not so… beautiful. But it wasn’t only her beauty that created such a physical reaction in him. It was the determined look in her eyes that the camera had captured. What he read in them attracted him most of all: strength. A human woman who was strong and determined, not weak and impressionable, not easily seduced. Would she be strong enough to resist the demons once they found her?

He turned, annoyed at himself for letting a picture sway him in his conviction. What she looked like didn’t matter. It would not influence at all how he treated her: with utter professionalism. Just as he treated all the others. And should it become necessary to kill her, he wouldn’t hesitate.

Aiden’s gaze drifted down the street. The area was a mix of residential and commercial buildings. The shops had long closed, but a couple of the restaurants farther down the street were still open. Some of the windows in the nearby office buildings were illuminated, and in the apartment buildings he saw people go about their lives, cooking dinner, watching TV. He always felt like a thief when he watched others like this. Yet it had become second nature. All Stealth Guardians did it.

Curiosity had always been one of his traits. Even early in his training, he’d liked to watch humans, observe how they lived. In many ways it was so different from his own life of duty and service. Inside those apartments he gazed up at, people loved and lived. They raised children, had careers, shared laughter and tears. And one day, they died. A strange yearning came over him each time he thought of their lives.

While his life at the compound afforded him the same comforts humans lived with, life was very different there. For starters, he spent very little time at the compound, and it was rare that all inhabitants were there at the same time. One or the other was always on assignment. Birthdays weren’t celebrated, neither was Christmas, Easter, or any other holiday. Every day was the same. There was no weekend where people relaxed and unwound. Demons didn’t rest on Saturday or Sunday, and neither did Stealth Guardians. Danger was always awake. It never slept.

Aiden tore his gaze from the apartment building and continued surveying the area. Few cars passed. A bus stopped on the next block, dropping off a woman with a small child. In the distance, a door closed and another opened. Normal sounds of a neighborhood.

But his senses were only partially engaged, his thoughts going back to his new charge, Leila. He would follow her home tonight and assess where she was most vulnerable to an attack by the demons. Not that he believed that they would mount an outright attack: they wanted what she had, the drug. They were more likely to find something in her life to make a bargain with.

The sound of distant footsteps and voices, carried to him by his preternatural senses, made him turn his head back to the building Inter Pharma occupied. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows that encased the lobby, he saw Leila crossing to the door, exchanging a few kind words with the night watchman. The photo he’d been given didn’t do her justice. In reality she looked even more enchanting than on the black and white picture. His stomach tensed at the sight, giving him a visceral reaction he was unaccustomed to when dealing with a charge. She was so unlike anybody else he’d ever had to protect.

Aiden attributed his reaction to the fact that this woman was extremely dangerous: if the demons were to ever seduce her over to their side, they would have a brilliant scientist working for them. He’d gathered that much from the dossier on her. Who knew what other little serums she could invent, maybe one that rendered Stealth Guardians powerless? Yes, he reasoned with himself, what he felt in his gut now had everything to do with the knowledge that a brilliant mind like hers was trapped in a human body that would eventually succumb to the demons, because despite the strength he’d seen in her eyes, she would never be strong enough to resist them.

And his reaction to her had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that he found her more intoxicating than any woman he’d ever met.

Leila smiled at the security guard before exiting into the crisp night air. It was September, but the day had been overcast, and it was colder than normal for the season. She turned left and walked down the block.

Aiden followed her, remaining in his cloaked state, and mindful that even though his body was invisible, he could still be heard. His breathing, his footsteps, none of it could be disguised by his cloak. It was one of the reasons, he and all his fellow Stealth Guardians wore specially designed soft-soled shoes when on assignment. They absorbed nearly all of the sound of his footsteps on the pavement. In addition, he’d learned to tread lightly like a cat, or like a thief. If he stayed far enough back, his charge would never notice him.

Yet, he broke protocol and approached, walking a mere step behind her, close enough to touch her should he desire to. A faint smell of roses surrounded her. It was so exquisite that for an instant it made him forget what he was there to do.

She wore a short jacket over her blouse. Her delectable behind, encased in those tailored slacks, swished from side to side in a tantalizing rhythm that could make any man turn soft in the head and hard in other places. Her hair was kept in a tight ponytail, and he wondered what it would feel like to release it from its confines and bury his face in it. Soaking in her scent, feeling the silken softness of her tresses, all while she writhed underneath him in obvious ecstasy.

He exhaled sharply at the unexpected thought.

An instant later, Leila spun on her heels. She would have crashed into him were it not for the preternatural speed his species was graced with. He rocked to a halt and held his breath.

Her eyes peered into the darkness, tension lines forming on her forehead, her lips slightly parted. He noticed the pulse in her neck twitch. Her hand reached into her shoulder bag, clearly gripping something tightly in her fist. A knife? A gun? But she didn’t pull it out, her eyes and her face relaxing slowly as she scanned the area. Her shoulders dropped, and she turned back, continuing in the same direction as before.

Aiden started breathing again. It was best not to concentrate on Leila’s enticing body, or incidences like these would keep happening. And next time, she might bounce into him and realize something was amiss. He couldn’t risk that, even though he wouldn’t mind knowing what her body felt like pressed against his, to feel her curves yield to his hard muscles.