Master Unchained (Stealth Guardians Book 2) (13 page)

He tossed a quick sideways glance toward the front door. Tessa had reached it now, but she was digging in her handbag, trying to find her keys, panic making her clumsy.

“Fuck!” he cursed and rammed into the demon, catapulting him into the air so he crashed against a car on his way down.

But the asshole wasn’t giving up. He got up, aiming his dagger at Hamish, and threw it with a quick flick of his wrist. Hamish dove away and cloaked himself again. The dagger landed harmlessly on the sidewalk. The demon was pulling another dagger from his belt, when Hamish came at him invisibly, kicked it from his hand, and rammed his own blade into the demon’s side.

The demon cried out, green blood splattering onto the sidewalk like confetti at a carnival. Some of it splashed on Hamish. It stuck to his clothes and remained visible, disclosing his location to the demon.

“Gotcha!” the demon grunted triumphantly and barreled toward him, another dagger in his hand.

Shit! Just how many weapons did this fucker have?

A cry from Tessa made Hamish whirl his head in her direction. Fuck! The other demon had her pinned against the front door, even though she was still cloaked. Still invisible to anybody but Hamish.

Hamish spun around and raced toward her, the first demon right behind him.

“Let go of her!” he screamed.

The demon holding Tessa captive looked over his shoulder. An evil grin spread on his face. “Too late, guardian.”

“Noooooo!” Hamish screamed as he felt strong hands grip him from behind. The demon he’d stabbed pulled him back and tossed him against the wall of the apartment building. His head whipped back, pain radiating through his entire body. But he couldn’t let such a small thing stop him. Not when Tessa was struggling to fight off the demon who was trying to drag her away, while she held on to the door handle for dear life.

“Hold on, Tessa!” he managed to cry out, while he tried to twist his arm so he could fend off his attacker. To no avail. The demon had him pinned.

“Good night, guardian,” the demon grunted.

Hamish felt the blade at his neck and knew there was only one way out. He dematerialized and passed through the wall, materializing in a closet next to the entry hall. Spinning around, he gripped his dagger tightly with his right hand and passed through the wall again, dagger aimed at the demon’s chest, reappearing in front of him, just as the demon was hitting his fist against the wall in frustration.

Before the asshole even realized what was happening, Hamish plunged his dagger into the demon’s heart and sliced upward, killing him with one swipe of his blade. But there was no time to celebrate. He whirled his head toward Tessa. The demon had managed to pry her away from the door and was dragging her, kicking and screaming, away from the building.

Hamish jumped him from behind and tore him off Tessa. The demon had no chance. Hamish’s dagger found its target with furious precision. Full of rage, Hamish drove his blade into the helpless creature, watching with satisfaction as his guts spilled onto the street, painting it green. But even when he knew the demon’s life force was already extinguished, he couldn’t stop. With one last swipe, he severed the demon’s head from its body and watched it roll a few yards away until it was caught by the grid of a drain.

Only then did he turn around to where Tessa had landed on the sidewalk. But she wasn’t there anymore. She was running toward the Mercedes; in fact, had reached it already.

“Tessa! Stop!”

He charged after her.

“Get away from me!” she screamed, frantically looking around as if searching for an escape route, when she suddenly bent down and picked something up.

Shit! His car keys!

She charged around the back of the car and got in. The engine revved just as Hamish reached the passenger side door and gripped the handle. Too late. The doors had locked, and Tessa was racing away.

Bracing his hands on his knees, he cursed. “Fuck!”

Now that Tessa was fleeing in his car, she wasn’t cloaked anymore—she was outside his range, and if those two demons weren’t the only ones trying to get to her tonight, she would be exposed.

Frantic, Hamish pulled his cell phone from his pocket and pressed the number of the compound’s command center.

Logan picked up. “Hey, buddy, what’s up?”

“I need you to remotely disable my car right now, and give me its location.”

“Okay, give me a sec.” He heard Logan typing away on his keyboard.

“And I need a cleanup crew outside Tessa’s apartment. Two dead demons.”

“Whoa! What the fuck happened?”

“Ambush!”

“And your charge? Is she okay?” Logan asked.

“She fled with my car.”

“Smart cookie, trying to escape the demons, huh?”

“She fled from me.
After
I’d already killed the demons.” Maybe beheading the one who’d attacked her had been a bit too much for her sensitive nature. But when he’d seen the asshole’s hands on her, he’d seen red.

“Why the fuck?”

“Hell if I know.” However, he had his suspicions: what if she’d seen too much? After all he’d had to use his preternatural skills to free himself from the demon’s hold. What if she’d looked in his direction just then? If that was the case, he had a problem on his hands. But first he had to find her. “Have you located the car yet?”

“Hmm. Working on it.” A short pause. “Ah, just got a lock on it. Disabling now. She’s at the corner of Elm and Thirty-seventh.”

“Thanks. And send the cleanup crew right now. Tell them to make sure they don’t leave any body parts behind.”

Logan groaned. “You went all machete on them, didn’t you?”

As if Logan would have acted any differently in the same situation.

“They had it coming!” For touching Tessa. Hamish pocketed the phone and started running. She hadn’t gotten far. He should be able to catch her.

18

The car’s engine suddenly began to sputter. Tessa punched the gas pedal of the Mercedes down harder, but the car slowed.

“No!” she ground out, looking at the gas gauge, but to her astonishment, the tank was nearly full.

“What the…?”

The engine noise ceased, and the steering wheel locked. The car had stalled.

“So much for German engineering!” she cursed. She put her foot on the brake and pressed the starter button. Nothing! Frustrated, she hit her fists against the steering wheel. “Damn it! Start already!” When she hit the starter button again, her eyes fell on the gearstick. No wonder the engine wasn’t starting: she was still in drive. She put the car in park and tried again. All she heard was a click.

“Please, please!” she begged, but the engine didn’t respond. “Shit, shit, shit!”

She couldn’t stay here like a sitting duck. She had to get away. Oh God, what she’d seen back there had terrified her down to the marrow of her bones. She didn’t want to think about it, not now, or it would paralyze her.

She reached for the door handle and yanked at it. It wouldn’t open. “No!” she screamed and yanked again frantically. She slammed both her fists against the door, even rammed it with her shoulder, then noticed the button for the locking mechanism. Feeling suddenly foolish, and praying that it worked, she pushed it and tried the door again. She almost fell out of the car when the door opened.

The moment she disentangled her feet from the pedals and was outside, she began to run.

She’d lost her handbag in the fight with her attacker, and therefore had no cell phone to call for help. But she knew there was a police station only four or five blocks from here. She had to make it there. Her life depended on it.

As she ran, the attack replayed in her mind, assaulting her with images that couldn’t possibly be real. Images that had no basis in nature or science. She knew she’d had a few glasses of champagne, and maybe she was even over the legal limit for driving, but she wasn’t drunk, and knew for sure she wasn’t hallucinating.

Two men had attacked them out of the blue, and while Hamish had fought off one of them, the other had chased her. And caught her. Clumsily at first, but then she’d been in his grip and hadn’t been able to escape him. She’d tried to hold on to the door so he couldn’t drag her away, and had been forced to watch in horror as Hamish tried to fight off the other thug.

That’s when she’d seen it: Hamish had suddenly disappeared before her very eyes, only to reappear in a different spot. Like a genie in a bottle. She’d blinked at first, thinking her fear was causing her vision to blur, but there’d been nothing wrong with her eyesight.

Hamish had disappeared several times. And then reappeared. Stunned and paralyzed, her strength had started to wane. When his attacker had suddenly slammed Hamish against the wall of the building and pinned him there, she’d thought it was over. And then Hamish’s body had sunk
into
the wall, faded right through it and disappeared completely, only to return a second later, stepping back out
through
the wall, and ramming his knife into his attacker.

She should have been relieved at this point, but when she saw the green blood that spilled from the dead thug, the last ounce of her strength left her, and her attacker had dragged her away from the door. Green blood! It was impossible. But she’d seen it.

Hamish hadn’t even flinched at the sight of it. As if he’d expected it! As if he’d seen it before! Then she’d seen the streaks of green on his clothes. Did it belong to his attacker, or was it Hamish’s? Was he the same as them?

When she’d witnessed him massacre the second assailant with so much rage, fear and horror had gripped her, and she’d nearly thrown up. She’d never seen such fury in anybody’s eyes. Such bloodlust. She’d seen a monster in those eyes. An untamed beast. And all she’d been able to think was:
Run! Get somewhere safe!
For all she knew, those two thugs had unleashed something so evil in Hamish, something so uncontrollable, that it would lash out at her next. And whatever it was, it wasn’t human.

Survival instinct had overridden any rational thought. Yes, Hamish was her bodyguard, but what did she really know about him? Sure, he’d saved her life, not once, but twice, but what if that had all been part of a bigger plan?

No, her best chance of survival was to get to the police. They’d help her. And once they found the two dead bodies, they would start a manhunt for Hamish.

She turned a corner, and there, on the next block, she saw the lights of the police station. She was almost there. Just a few more steps. She gasped for air and begged her tired legs not to desert her now.

“Almost,” she murmured breathlessly as she reached the steps leading up to the station door. She stretched her arm out toward the handrail. But it slipped from her grip as she was suddenly ripped backwards.

An arm wrapped around her waist, lifting her off her feet, while simultaneously a hand clamped her mouth shut, before she could take a breath to scream.

Her assailant yanked her back away from the station and dragged her around a corner. A block from the station, he turned and carried her down a side alley next to an auto repair shop. She kicked at him with her legs and struck out with her arms, but to no avail. He didn’t slow down, until he pulled her into the yard of the auto repair shop, where he finally stopped.

“Stop kicking me, Tessa!”

It was Hamish, but instinctively she’d known that already.

“Now calm down. I’m gonna take my hand off your mouth, as long as you promise not to scream.”

Fat chance!

“Nod to tell me you’ll cooperate.”

She nodded.

Hamish took his hand off her mouth, and she screamed as loud as her lungs allowed. A split second later, his hand was back on her mouth.

“Bad move, Tessa. I expected better from you. I thought we’d been through this once already and established that you’re following my commands.”

She grunted and kicked her leg back to hit him in the shin.

“Damn it, Tessa, will you listen to me? You’re safe now.”

She huffed.

“Those two guys back there are dead. They can’t hurt you anymore. I made sure of that.”

Yeah, but who would keep her safe from Hamish? She sniffled. What was going to happen to her now?

“Have you calmed down?”

She nodded.

“Good. No more screaming, or I’ll have to use other methods to shut you up. So don’t try my patience.”

This time when he took his hand off her mouth, he spun her around to face him, but didn’t let go of her. He looked her up and down.

“Did he hurt you?”

She ignored his question. “Who are you?”

“You know who I am.”

“No, I don’t. What I saw…” She pointed toward the street. “What you did back there…”

“That’s part of my job. To protect you. Even if it means killing an attacker. I know it’s hard to accept. But I had no choice.”

Tessa shook her head. “I saw you! You disappeared!” She watched his reaction and noticed that he flinched ever so slightly. “You melted into the wall. I saw it with my own eyes. What are you? Because you’re sure as hell not human. Just like those two men weren’t human. For God’s sake, they had green blood. Green! And you, you just vanished and then reappeared, and then you went into that wall, and you came back out as if it were nothing. Damn it, tell me the truth! What are you?”

Hamish exhaled sharply, his eyes searching hers.

“The truth, damn it. I want the truth! Don’t I deserve at least that?” She drummed her fists against his chest.

Slowly, almost gently, he wrapped his hands around her wrists to stop her.

“I’m your guardian. And those two dead creatures with the green blood attacking us were demons.”

She moved her head from side to side. “No, no.”

But Hamish’s expression remained sincere. “I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to find out. But if I hadn’t used my skills and passed through the wall when that demon pinned me against it, he would have killed me.” He paused. “And you would have been next. And I couldn’t let that happen, because I promised to protect you.”

Tessa panted, trying to make sense of his words. She tried to fill her lungs, tried to send oxygen to her brain, but still, she didn’t understand what he was saying. Demons. The word conjured up images of creatures half human, half animal, half ET. But the two attackers had looked entirely human.