“I wish I could tell you. I’m not quite sure about that myself. But I saw a preternatural creature, a man who was invisible. He disappeared in a portal in the woods of Sonoma and—”
“One of the lost portals,” Aiden murmured.
Not knowing what he meant by that, Wes continued, “I found a dagger carved into the stone where I’d last seen him. I did some research and got lucky. I figured out what that man was: a Stealth Guardian. So I talked to my boss at Scanguards and asked him for permission to find you guys.”
“For what purpose?”
“So we could help each other; you know, work together.”
“Hmm.”
Wes lifted his hands. “I know. It was a long shot. But I was able to use witchcraft to give the portal the illusion that I was a Stealth Guardian, so that it would open for me. It did. But once inside, I didn’t really know what to do. I couldn’t find any buttons or anything.”
Leila chuckled.
“Because there aren’t any,” Aiden said, and tipped his finger to his temple. “You can only operate it with what’s up here.”
“With your mind?” Excitement shot through Wes. “That’s amazing. Fuck! But…” He furrowed his forehead. “Then how did I land here? I didn’t know how to operate the portal. It just started turning and throwing me around like a ping-pong ball in a dryer.”
“Yeah, I guess it would feel like that to you. To anybody but a Stealth Guardian or a demon, the trip in the portal is disorienting,” Aiden admitted.
“You mean it doesn’t feel like that to you?”
He watched Aiden run his eyes over him, assessing him now. “I think you know enough already.” Then he motioned to Wesley’s arm. “And you’re all bandaged up. Time to go back to your cell.”
Wes jumped from his barstool. He had no intention of going back there. He’d have to stall the guy for as long as it took to gain his confidence. “I haven’t eaten anything yet.”
Aiden pointed to the fridge. “Don’t expect me to prepare it for you. Help yourself.”
Wes didn’t wait for a second invitation and marched to the industrial-sized refrigerator, ripping it open. It was fully stocked. “Excellent.” He went to work, pulling out various items, before saying over his shoulder, “You know, Aiden, that glass of Scotch you promised me would be nice just about now.”
Aiden grunted, “Don’t get too comfortable. You’re not staying here.”
Wes grinned to himself. A few glasses of whiskey with Aiden, and the guy might sing a different tune. After all, Wes could charm any vampire. How hard could it be to get a Stealth Guardian on his side?
35
The weightlessness was gone. Tessa was aware of her body again, in fact, she was aware of every single cell of it. She felt strong and full of energy. There was a beeping sound somewhere close by as well as a humming that sounded like an air conditioning unit. Only, she had no air conditioning in her apartment.
She blinked her eyes open. The light around her was blinding, forcing her to squint. Fluorescent lights above her, steel cabinets in her periphery, white glossy walls all around. A hospital room. Immediately, memories rushed back: the demon who’d attacked her, the hypodermic needle, the drug he’d injected her with. Had she made it? Had she survived against all odds?
She inhaled sharply, when she felt movement next to her. She spun her head to the side. Hamish! He lifted his dark head of hair from the edge of the gurney where he’d been resting it.
“Tessa.” His voice cracked. “Finally.”
“Hamish,” she murmured, her throat as dry as the Sahara.
He leaned to the side and reached for something. “Here, drink,” he coaxed, bringing a glass of water with a straw to her lips. She pulled the straw into her mouth, lifted her head off the pillow, and greedily gulped down the cool liquid until the glass was empty.
“I knew you’d come,” she whispered.
He smiled, and only now did she notice that his eyes were red and swollen… as if he’d shed tears. Automatically she reached for him, but he drew back and rose.
“Tessa, as much as I want to hold you in my arms right now, we can’t touch just yet.”
She felt confusion spread at his strange words and searched his face for a possible explanation. “W—”
“I nearly lost you, lass. You were slipping away. There was only one thing I could do to save your life.”
She swallowed hard, fear gripping her once more.
“I had to pour virta into you.”
“Virta?” She didn’t know what he meant. She’d never heard that word.
“My life force. The force that gives me my preternatural powers. I needed to make you strong.”
She exhaled, her pulse beating frantically. “I’m a Stealth Guardian now?”
He chuckled. “No, my love, but you’re nearly as strong as one for a few hours. Look at your arms.”
She lifted them and shrieked when she saw the color of her skin. “I’m golden.”
“It’ll wear off soon.” She noticed how he ran his eyes over her, desire and tenderness colliding in them. “But if I touch you while you’re shimmering golden, you’ll orgasm within a few moments. And as much as I want to give you that pleasure and feel you climax under my touch, we need to talk first.”
In disbelief she kept staring at her arms. “Oh my God, I can’t believe it. But why? How? I don’t understand.” She’d thought she knew everything about Hamish and his race, but there appeared to be so much more.
“Stealth Guardians want to make sure that their lovers are always completely satisfied. We can will our virta to enter our lover’s bodies during sex and—”
Shocked, she sat up. “You had sex with me while I was unconscious?”
Immediately he shook his head. “No!”
“But you just said—”
“When you reacted badly to the opioid blocker Leila injected you with and crashed, I kissed you and poured my life force into you that way. It gave you the strength you needed to fight for your life. I couldn’t let you die, Tessa.” Tears brimmed in his eyes. “You mean too much to me.”
His words made her head and her heart spin. Without thinking she reached for him and stroked his cheek. A tingling sensation spread over her body and traveled to her core. A flame of desire heated her insides and shot to her pussy. Her clit began to throb uncontrollably.
“Oh God!” she cried out, but it was too late to pull her hand back from Hamish’s face. A wave of pleasure rolled over her as she climaxed harder than she ever had, the power of it making her sink back onto the gurney, while her spasms reduced her to a moaning woman in need.
“Tessa,” Hamish ground out, hovering over her. “Damn it, when you do that, I can barely hold onto my self control and not take you right here.” He glanced around. “But this is neither the place, nor the time.” He ran a hand through his hair and reared back again.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, feeling her cheeks flame.
“Don’t be,” he said, “you’ve just given me something to look forward to.” In his eyes, she saw a promise, and she intended to hold him to it.
“Me, too.”
He smiled, then he pulled the chair close to the gurney again and sat down. “Tell me what happened,” he said gently. “Everything you can remember.”
“He was a demon. His green eyes… I recognized them immediately. I’ll never forget that color. I tried to slam the door in his face, but he was so strong…”
“You opened the door for him?”
Tessa felt her heart beat into her throat as she relived the most frightening moments of her life. “I thought Poppy had forgotten something.”
“Poppy left you alone, after what she promised me?” Hamish ground out.
“Don’t be mad at her. She got a call. Her mother fell down the stairs, and she needed to get to the hospital. She didn’t want to leave me alone, but I forced her to go.”
Hamish nodded. “That explains why she wasn’t at your place. At least she’s fine.”
“We don’t know that,” Tessa said, shaking her head. “Not even a minute after she left, there was a knock at the door. I thought it was her. I thought maybe she’d left something in her rush to get to the hospital. So I opened the door without looking through the peephole.” It had been careless. “What if he caught her on the way in? And hurt her?”
“There was no evidence of a struggle anywhere in the stairway. More likely the demon waited for Poppy to leave and snuck into the building after her—before the front door could snap in.”
“I’m worried about her. We need to check on her. Please.” She shot him a pleading look.
Hamish sighed, then nodded. “I’ll send Enya to her apartment.” He looked at his wristwatch. “It’s almost five in the morning. She should be at home if nothing happened to her.”
“Thank you.”
“I know this is hard for you, but I need to know what else happened. Anything you can remember about the demon, what he looked like, what he did and said.”
“He kicked the door open and slammed me against the wall. When I tried to scream for help, he choked me, until I almost fainted.” Even now she felt her airways constrict and had to gasp for air.
“Easy, my love, he can’t hurt you anymore,” Hamish murmured.
There it was again: he was calling her
my love
. As if it were the most natural thing in the world. As if he truly meant it.
She nodded, recalling the horror again. “He put tape over my mouth then, so I couldn’t scream anymore. Then he tossed me over his shoulder and carried me into the bedroom. I thought he was going to rape me…” She stopped, then looked down at herself—and sighed in relief. She still wore the same clothes as earlier. The only difference was that somebody had put sensors underneath her top. Her eyes shot to the monitor, from which she heard a steady beeping. Then she looked back at Hamish.
“Leila, Aiden’s wife, took care of you. She’s a doctor, well, a researcher. But she did what she could. I brought you here…”
“Where is here?”
“Our compound. All Stealth Guardians assigned to Baltimore live here.”
“Like in a commune?”
He smiled. “Kind of. We’re protected here.”
“And the demons?”
“Nobody, no demon, no human can find this place. It’s invisible to all but us. It’s safe.”
She let out a breath, nodding. “The demon, when I saw what he pulled from his pocket—a hypodermic needle—I tried to fight him, but he was so strong. So strong.”
“No human has ever been able to overpower a demon. Physically they’re too strong. The only way a human can fight them is by outsmarting them.”
“And Stealth Guardians? Are they stronger than the demons?”
“We’re about equally matched. But as you know we have a couple of aces up our sleeves.”
She immediately remembered the fight outside her apartment building. “Yes.” She swallowed and continued, “He pinned me and then he started injecting me with the drug.”
“Can you describe him?”
She shrugged. “Tall, dark hair, scary looking.” She shook her head. “I don’t know. All I saw were his demon eyes.” Tears shot to her eyes again.
“It’s okay, Tessa.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “Did he say anything before you passed out?”
She frowned. Words were tumbling around in her mind. “A lot of things. I’m not sure they make sense.”
“Try and recall what he said.”
She closed her eyes for a moment. “He said they would find me dead of a drug overdose. And nobody would question it. They would all think I took my life because of the scandal.” She met Hamish’s eyes. Understanding shimmered back at her. “He said I was hard to kill. That I’d escaped twice already.”
“So he’s responsible for both the attacks: the duct falling, and the demons attacking us the night after your parents’ party.”
“I think that’s what he meant. He said this time I wouldn’t escape and my death would finally make him superior.”
“Superior?” Hamish’s eyebrows snapped together. “Did he say anything else?”
“Something about the Great One,” she said, but couldn’t recall the exact words.
Hamish slammed his fist on the gurney. “Zoltan himself. That fucking bastard!”
“Zoltan?” Why did that name have a familiar ring to it?
“Yes. I found out who sent that photo to the press. There was an email by somebody named Zoel Monnadt. Only the name turned out to be an anagram. When you shift the letters around you get
Demon Zoltan
. He sent the photo to Meredith Durant to discredit you and destroy your campaign.”
Excitement raced through her when she realized something. “So you can prove that the photo was altered, right?”
To her surprise, Hamish shook his head. “The photo is real. I had Pearce check it out. It wasn’t altered in any way.”
“But—”
The doors to the medical center suddenly opened, and she spun her head toward them. A man in his thirties marched in, a file in his hand. She’d never seen him before and tensed automatically.
“That’s Pearce. He’s one of us,” Hamish said quickly, easing her concerns.
“Hey, she’s awake, huh?” Pearce said as he approached. “That’s great news.” Then he handed the file to Hamish. “From the county courthouse.”
“Thanks,” Hamish replied. “And did Manus bring Tessa’s things?”
“My things?”
Pearce nodded. “Manus went to your apartment and packed some clothes and personal items for you.” He looked at Hamish. “We put them in your quarters. We figured…” He didn’t finish his sentence, but instead dug into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. “We brought your cell phone. Your father called several times. He’s worried.”
“Did you speak to him?” she asked, surprised.
“No. We hacked into your voicemail.” He shrugged. “Sorry, but we needed to know whether there was anything we had to take care of while you were out…”
She nodded slowly and reached for the phone. When she felt Pearce’s fingers brush hers as she took it from him, she jerked back, not wanting to climax in front of a stranger.
A frown crossed Pearce’s face, then he suddenly chuckled. “Oh, I see. You told her, huh?” He tossed Hamish a sideways glance, then smiled at Tessa. “Just so you know, that uh… thing that happens when you’re shimmering golden… it only happens if the person who touches you is the same as the person who gave you their virta.”
Heat shot into her cheeks. She felt exposed, bare. “Uh…”