Master Unchained (Stealth Guardians Book 2) (22 page)

“Almost there, my love, almost there,” he murmured to her when he finally reached the portal.

To a human it looked like a wall, but Hamish recognized the carving in the stone: a dagger. He pressed his hand against it and felt the spot warm under his touch. A second later, the wall was gone. He charged into the dark cave that had opened up. With his mind, he willed the portal to close and concentrated on his destination. He held Tessa closely against his chest; everything seemed to spin around him, but he knew it was only an illusion. In reality, he wasn’t moving. A few seconds later, it was over. They’d arrived. The portal opened up. Hamish stepped out of it.

Aiden and Leila were waiting for him with a gurney.

“Put her on here,” Leila ordered.

Gently he laid Tessa onto the hospital bed. Leila was already checking her pulse. Hamish searched her face. When Leila nodded, he let out the breath he’d been holding. Leila pulled a hypodermic needle from her lab coat and removed the cap. As she swabbed Tessa’s skin and stuck the needle into her vein, she said, “Naloxene works very quickly. If she has opioids in her bloodstream, this will block them.” She pushed the liquid from the needle into Tessa’s arm slowly and then pulled it out. “We’ll know within the next fifteen minutes. Now let’s get her to the medical room. I need to hook her up to the monitor to get her vital signs.”

Hamish held onto Tessa’s hand, while they pushed the gurney down the long hallway and through the double doors into the room that Leila had equipped as a mini medical center. Several monitors, a crash cart, and other equipment Hamish didn’t recognize stood along one wall, while an operating table and steel cabinets took over the other side of the room. A large sink was located in one corner, a decontamination shower next to it. The University Medical Center Hospital wasn’t any better equipped than their compound.

Hope finally blossomed in Hamish’s chest. Tessa had a chance now. Thanks to Leila. Hamish lifted his eyes and looked at Aiden’s mate, who was now placing sensors on Tessa’s chest and an oxygen monitor on her index finger. Then she put an oxygen mask over Tessa’s nose and mouth.

“I don’t know how to thank you, Leila.” He felt unshed tears sting his eyes.

Leila smiled. “I’ll do everything I can. But she’s not out of the woods yet.”

Hamish squeezed Tessa’s hand and looked down at her pale face. “I can’t lose her.” He was certain of it now. His heart wouldn’t survive it. She meant too much to him.

He felt Aiden’s hand on his shoulder and turned his head to his best friend. They exchanged a wordless look, and he realized that Aiden understood what was going on inside him.

Suddenly, a loud high-pitched noise blared through the compound, accompanied by flashing strobe lights overhead. Through speakers high up in the ceiling, a computer voice announced, “Intruder detected. Portal breached. Intruder detected. Portal breached.”

“Shit!” Hamish cursed. Had a demon followed him because he’d been careless, only concerned with getting Tessa to the compound as quickly as possible?

“Demons!” Aiden grunted. “Fuck!”

“They must’ve followed me.” He tossed a look back at Tessa, torn between staying with her and responding to the intruder alarm, while Aiden was already running toward the door.

“Go!” Leila shouted. “You can’t do anything here anyway.”

When Aiden pushed the double doors open, Hamish charged after him, drawing his dagger.

“Let’s get those fuckers!” he ground out and ran to catch up with Aiden.

32

Disoriented, Wesley felt his feet touch solid ground. He exhaled sharply and pressed a hand to his heart. It was beating like a jackhammer. He felt like he’d been tumbled around in an industrial-sized dryer. At least his racing heart meant he was still alive. However, now his ears were ringing as if an ambulance were chasing him.

Shit, if this was what Stealth Guardians went through every time they used one of their portals, then he wasn’t envious at all. He’d take a first class flight on a commercial airline anytime. Or on Scanguards’ private jet.

Suddenly dim light illuminated the dark space he’d been thrown around in, and he realized that the portal had opened in much the same way as it had when he’d gotten in. For a moment he couldn’t see anything. Shit, had the damn thing even worked, or was he still in the woods in Sonoma? Would his vampire friends at Scanguards, the security company he worked for in San Francisco, have a right old laugh when he returned, having to admit he’d failed in locating the Stealth Guardians?

His boss, Samson, an over two-hundred-and-fifty year old vampire, had been skeptical when he’d told him he wanted to investigate these preternatural creatures after encountering one in the woods of Northern California. But Samson had relented after Wesley had made his case, arguing that in today’s volatile world it was good to have allies. He wanted these Stealth Guardians and the vampires of Scanguards to work together in defeating evil.

And he had no intention of disappointing Samson.

Wesley now took a step forward and let his gaze roam. Grinning, he pumped his fist in the air. “Yes, I did it!”

Because he wasn’t in the forest anymore; he was in a building. Thick stone walls, a stone floor, sconces on the walls that provided light. Outside of the portal, the sound grew louder, indicating that it wasn’t his ears ringing, but some sort of alarm that had gone off.

He didn’t need to speculate whether it was meant to alert the occupants of the building to his arrival. Two men were already barreling down the long corridor toward him.

Crap, make that
armed
men, because unless his eyesight was failing him, they both held weapons in their hands, some kind of dagger or machete. When they saw him, they seemed to run even faster.

“Shit!” Wesley hissed under his breath.

It didn’t look like either of these guys had any intention of giving him time to explain why he was here. They looked like the kind who killed first and asked questions later. Not a good scenario. But Scanguards had taught him to play the cards he was dealt, so he prepared himself for his not-so-friendly welcome committee.

He collected his strength and called the air to him, intending to throw up a shield, but nothing happened. He tried again, but the air didn’t stir, didn’t listen to his command.

“Change of plans,” he mumbled.

Frantically, he looked around for an escape route, and saw the reason why his witchcraft wasn’t working: along the walls, ancient runes were carved into the stone. Though he couldn’t decipher them, he knew they were meant to shut down a witch’s power. As long as he was within these walls, he was, in effect, powerless.

“Fuck!” he cursed, but it was all he had time for, because one of the men, clearly a preternatural as identified by his aura, had reached him and now slammed him to the ground with two-hundred pounds of muscle and rage.

“Fucking demon!” the man yelled.

A dagger came toward Wesley’s neck, but he was able to divert it with his arm. Searing pain shot through him, and he realized the blade had caught him.

“Argh!” he cried out, but the knife was already coming at him again.

“Die, you fucking demon!”

“Fuck! I’m not a demon!”

But his attacker wasn’t listening, his face a mask of rage and hate. He made another swipe with the blade, but before Wes could fend him off, his attacker was ripped off him by the second guy.

“Shit, Hamish, let go of him! He’s a witch!”

Wesley breathed heavily, staring at both men and using the momentary truce (or whatever it was) to scramble backward, away from the blade’s reach.

The man who’d attacked him, the one called Hamish, stared back. “A witch?” He let his eyes wander over Wesley, then ran a hand through his dark hair. “Shit!”

But if Wes had thought this might mean their encounter would now turn civil, he was wrong. Hamish jumped at him again and pinned him against the wall. “And how the fuck did a
witch
get into our compound?”

Wesley managed to jerk his thumb to the left. “Portal?”

“No shit!” Hamish hissed, while more footsteps could be heard echoing through the corridor.

“Aiden? You got ‘em?” somebody called out.

The man addressed as Aiden looked over his shoulder at the two men coming their way. “We’ve got ourselves a witch.”

“I’ll be damned!” one of them responded.

Suddenly they were all crowding around him. The one they called Hamish still had his forearm pressed against Wesley’s throat.

“Now tell me who you are and how the fuck you got in here,” he demanded.

“As I said,” Wesley gritted, “I used that portal. Can’t you get that into your thick head, you numbskull?”

When Hamish bared his teeth, one of the other men put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t go all machete on him now. We don’t hurt witches.”

That little piece of information lifted Wesley’s spirits a bit, though Hamish didn’t seem to agree.

“Still doesn’t explain how he was able to use the portal and breach our defenses,” Hamish grunted.

“We’ll figure it out,” Aiden said calmly. “But you’re under enough stress, buddy.”

Whatever stress Aiden was referring to, it appeared that it had clouded the Stealth Guardian’s ability to recognize Wesley’s aura as that of a witch.

One of the others said, “Yeah, man, just heard about Tessa. Hope she pulls through.”

Finally Hamish released him, and Wesley pulled in a few deep breaths. At least they weren’t trying to kill him anymore. That was an improvement.

“So, fellas,” Wesley started, “I suppose you wanna know what I’m doing here, huh?”

“Brace yourselves, guys,” Aiden said to his friends, “looks like we’ve got a smartass on our hands.” Then he narrowed his eyes at Wes. “You’d better make your explanation quick and to the point. As you may have noticed, some of us have a short fuse.”

It wasn’t hard to guess whom Aiden was talking about.

“I’m Wesley Montgomery from San Francisco. And if my research is correct, then you’re all Stealth Guardians,” he said, watching the four guys for their reaction. But they all had their poker faces on. “Okay, and none of you is the chatty kind either.”

When several of them grunted in displeasure, he lifted his hands. “No worries, I get it. You’re a little pissed that I didn’t ring the doorbell. My bad.” Still no reaction from the four. “I’m here because I was hoping to broker an alliance between you and Scanguards.”

“Who’s Scanguards?” Hamish ground out.

“A security company headquartered in San Francisco.”

“All witches?” Hamish wanted to know.

Wesley shook his head and braced himself. “I’m the only witch in their employ. Most of the others are vampires.”

Wes could have heard a needle drop in the silence that now descended. He suddenly realized that the alarm had stopped, though he hadn’t noticed when.

Aiden shook his head and so did the other men. “Don’t treat us like imbeciles. We know as well as any preternatural that witches and vampires are archenemies. So what do you really want?”

“Man, I’m telling you the truth. You can check it out—”

A shout coming from the end of the corridor interrupted him. “Hamish!” a man called out. “You’ve gotta come. Tessa is crashing.”

“Oh God no!” All the blood drained from Hamish’s face as he spun around and raced out of sight.

“So what should we do with him?” one of the others asked, gesturing to Wes.

“Lead cell for now,” Aiden ordered.

“Hey, listen to me!” Wes protested. “I’m telling the truth!”

“We’ll deal with you later. We’ve got more important things to worry about right now,” Aiden claimed and grabbed him by the arm.

“Hey, watch out!” Wes pointed to the wound on his arm. “Can’t you see that I’m injured? A little professional courtesy would be nice!”

“Let’s go, witch! I’ve got a nice little cell with your name on it.”

33

Hamish kicked the double doors to the medical room open and ran inside. Monitors were beeping. His gaze shot to the gurney where Tessa lay—not motionless like before. Her whole body was spasming violently, Leila frantically trying to hold her down. Her eyes locked with his as he approached the bed.

“She’s having a seizure,” she cried out.

“Oh God! No!” Hamish said, panic saturating every single one of his cells. “Why is this happening? Can’t you do anything?”

“She’s reacting to the Naloxene.”

“What?” He took Tessa’s head between his hands to hold her still so she wouldn’t kick off her oxygen mask.

“It’s a side effect of the opioid blocker. It happens.”

“Fuck!” he cursed. “What now? Damn it, Leila, what now?”

Tears shot into Leila’s eyes. “I don’t know, Hamish! I don’t know! I’m not a trauma surgeon.” She looked around the room, appearing just as panicked as he. “I don’t have anything else…”

The words clamped around his heart and squeezed painfully. “I can’t lose her, Leila! I can’t lose her.” He looked at Tessa’s face. “I can’t bear to see her in pain.”

The doors opened behind him, but he didn’t look over his shoulder.

“She’s not strong enough, Hamish!” Leila’s words came out as a sob. “Not strong enough…”

“Then make her strong!”

The words had come from Pearce, who’d approached the bed behind him. Hamish looked at him. And just as Pearce opened his mouth again to continue, Hamish understood.

“Virta,” Hamish said.

Pearce nodded. “It’s worth a shot.”

Hamish exchanged a look with Leila. A hopeful expression spread over her face. “It helped make me strong when I fought Zoltan in that farmhouse. You remember, Hamish, don’t you?”

All too well. Leila had been nearly as strong as a Stealth Guardian, though the circumstances under which she’d received virta had been different.

“Do it!” Leila urged.

Hamish removed the oxygen mask from Tessa’s face. “Leila, Pearce, hold her so she doesn’t hurt herself.” Because he’d have to concentrate on one thing and one thing only: to collect his virta—his preternatural power—and pour it into her.

He felt his body harden and his muscles tense as he called on his powers and commanded them to rise. For a brief moment he realized that he’d wanted to share his virta with her ever since he’d first laid eyes on her, though he’d never imagined it would happen like this.