Lover Uncloaked E-Book

Tina Folsom

• Herausgeber: Tina Folsom
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Serie: Stealth Guardians
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 453

Beschreibung

Able to render themselves invisible, immortal Stealth Guardians like Aiden have been protecting humans from the dark power of the Demons of Fear for centuries. But the demons might soon have a powerful tool in their hands to seduce humans to the dark side. The person to provide them with this elixir is the human scientist Leila. Unbeknownst to her, the drug she's developing to cure Alzheimer's Disease has the unexpected side effect of weakening the mind's resistance to the influence of demons. As Aiden accepts the assignment to protect Leila, forbidden desire flares between them, and they are forced to rely on the only people they can trust: each other. But even if he can save her from the demons, a union between them might be the most dangerous undertaking of all. Scanguards Vampires Series: Book 1: Samson's Lovely Mortal Book 2: Amaury's Hellion Book 3: Gabriel's Mate Book 4: Yvette's Haven Book 5: Zane's Redemption Book 6: Quinn's Undying Rose Book 7: Oliver's Hunger Book 8: Thomas's Choice Book 8 1/2: Silent Bite (A Scanguards Wedding) Book 9: Cain's Identity Book 10: Luther's Return Novella: Mortal Wish Book 11: Blake's Pursuit (coming in 2016) Venice Vampyr Novella Series: Venice Vampyr (#1) Venice Vampyr (#2): Final Affair Venice Vampyr (#3): Sinful Treasure Venice Vampyr (#4): Sensual Danger Out of Olympus Series (A romantic comedy series about Greek Gods): Book 1: A Touch of Greek Book 2: A Scent of Greek Book 3: A Taste of Greek Book 4: A Hush of Greek (coming in 2016) Eternal Bachelors Club (contemporary romance): Lawful Escort Lawful Lover Lawful Wife One Foolish Night One Long Embrace One Sizzling Touch

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Book Description

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EPILOGUE

About the Author

Copyright

Lover Uncloaked

(Stealth Guardians #1)

by

Tina Folsom

It is always darkest just before the day dawneth.—Thomas Fuller (1650)

* * * * *

Lover Uncloaked Copyright © 2012 by Tina Folsom

Previously published under the title Edge of Passion Copyright © 2012 by Tina Folsom

* * * * *

Book Description

Able to render themselves invisible, immortal Stealth Guardians like Aiden have been protecting humans from the dark power of the Demons of Fear for centuries. But the demons might soon have a powerful tool in their hands to seduce humans to the dark side. The person to provide them with this elixir is the human scientist Leila. Unbeknownst to her, the drug she’s developing to cure Alzheimer’s Disease has the unexpected side effect of weakening the mind’s resistance to the influence of demons.

As Aiden accepts the assignment to protect Leila, forbidden desire flares between them, and they are forced to rely on the only people they can trust: each other. But even if he can save her from the demons, a union between them might be the most dangerous undertaking of all.

MORE BY TINA

Scanguards Vampires

Phoenix Code Series with Lara Adrian

Out of Olympus

Venice Vampyr

Eternal Bachelors Club

Stealth Guardians

1

Aiden launched his dagger at the demon, aiming for his forehead, but the weapon missed its target as the bastard spun with superhuman speed. Whirling to the left, Aiden avoided what was coming next: an ancient blade flying in his direction, leaving the demon’s deft wrist just as fast as the underworld vermin had turned on his heels. The sharp edge of the knife passed by him not an inch too close. Forged in the Dark Days, the weapon could kill even him, an immortal Stealth Guardian. And he wasn’t here to die. He was fighting evil to save his charge, the human woman he’d been assigned to protect from the influence of the Demons of Fear, the greatest enemies of mankind.

Aiden watched in horror as the three demons collected their powers and projected a vortex of black fog, engulfing the entrance to a rundown apartment building, its tendrils reaching the feet of his charge as she took another step toward it as if pulled by invisible strings.

Sounds akin to a tornado deafened his ears, and his screams were swallowed up by it just as Sarah would be sucked into its depths. Seduced by the demons’ promises of power and riches, she advanced toward the dark portal that would take her into their world and turn her into one of them.

“Sarah! Noooo!”

She turned her head as if she’d heard him over the din in the alley. But her eyes were empty. As if she didn’t even see him.

He knew the only way to get her to stop was to destroy the portal, which meant killing the demons who’d created it. In a flash, he turned to retrieve the knife the demon had thrown at him. Just as such a weapon could kill him, it could kill a demon. They were as vulnerable to tools forged in the Dark Days as Stealth Guardians were.

Aiden glanced down the narrow alley toward the intersection, but none of his brothers was coming to his aid. When he’d realized that he was outnumbered, he’d immediately called for his second, Hamish. But his fellow Stealth Guardian was nowhere to be found. As if he’d vanished into thin air.

Their code of ethics dictated that a Stealth Guardian’s second would be close at all times to respond quickly in situations like these—situations of life and death. Aiden had often been second to Hamish, and even though the term implied rank, a switch between sentinel and second occurred assignment after assignment. It assured a constant honing of their skills, of being as comfortable with issuing orders as with following them without question.

They were brothers, if not in blood, then united by a common goal: to protect the human race from the influence of the Demons of Fear and to further the good in this world.

From the corner of his eye, he perceived a movement and realized instantly that two of the demons had left the protection of the vortex, clearly to finish him off in close combat.

Aiden expelled a bitter laugh. They were in for a surprise. Killing up close and personal was his specialty.

“Come and get me,” he taunted them, opening his arms in invitation. A gust of wind blew through his coat, causing its tails to flap wildly behind him.

The mocking laughter of the demons droned over the noise, and for a moment, it was all Aiden heard. His pleading look toward Sarah disappeared into her barren eyes. She moved her head slowly from side to side as she took another step forward. She was merely a weak human, the influence the demons exerted over her too strong for her to resist.

Gritting his teeth, and gripping the ancient blade tightly in his fist, Aiden leapt at the first demon, a creature humanoid in appearance, yet with glaring green eyes, the telltale sign of the malevolence inside. He bumped against his opponent, who was built as massively as a tank. It didn’t dissuade Aiden in the least. While he was not as strong as the demon, he was more agile and faster. It was his advantage in close combat.

Snarling like a beast, the demon drove a dagger toward his chest, but Aiden sidestepped him in the blink of an eye and catapulted behind him. With one clean swipe, he ran the knife along the demon’s neck, cutting it open from left to right. Amidst the surprised gurgles of the dying creature, green blood spurted onto the street. Aiden thrust his knee into the expired demon’s back and tossed him to the ground.

But he didn’t get a chance to breathe. With a ferocious growl, the second demon jumped him, tackling him. The impact squeezed all air out of his lungs, for a moment immobilizing him.

As he lay on the damp surface, the massive creature pinning him, he chanced a look at the vortex. Sarah was almost upon it, her steps less hesitant now. Aiden could fairly hear the seductive whispers of the third demon who was coaxing her to come to him. And weak as she was, she approached.

Yet Aiden wouldn’t allow it. Collecting all his strength, he freed one leg and kicked it hard between the demon’s thighs. Luckily, demons too had balls. And by the sounds the son of a bitch was making now, they were just as sensitive as a human’s.

With a shove, Aiden pushed the hurting demon off his chest. His eyes searched for the knife he’d dropped when the prick had forced him to the ground. As he did so, the demon regained his strength and rose, his arm clutching the dagger as it whipped toward Aiden’s neck. He rolled to the side, avoiding the deadly blade by a split second, and shot to his feet in the same instant.

But the demon was just as fast and threw his leg against him, catapulting him into the wall behind him.

A rib cracked, but the power coursing through his body made sure Aiden felt no pain. As an immortal, his tolerance for pain was many times that of a human, even if his body was entirely human in appearance. Beneath the skin and muscle, though, lay the collective experiences of all Stealth Guardians that had ever walked this earth. Virta they called it, and it lent them the power to fight demons and cloak themselves and humans from their view as if they’d thrown an invisibility cloak over them. They’d been bestowed with powers that defied physics—powers humans would deem supernatural—if they knew Stealth Guardians existed. But their existence had been hidden for centuries. Since their beginning in the Dark Days.

Just as Aiden scrambled to his feet, his hand brushed the dagger he’d tossed at the demon’s forehead earlier. He gripped it and lunged forward again, barreling against his attacker, thrusting the knife in the lowlife’s stomach.

As the Demon of Fear’s eyes widened in disbelief, Aiden drew the dagger upwards, slicing him open like a pig. Guts and green blood spilled from him, the stench filling the crisp night air, before his body collapsed.

Not losing a second, Aiden turned and ran toward his charge. In a desperate attempt to pull her back, his body coiled in tension, his long, black trench coat flapping at his sides, blown back by the force of the swirling air and fog. Reaching his hands forward to try pulling her toward him, he concentrated all his energy on one thought: to save this human from the clutches of evil.

Anger boiled in him like in a caldron about to overflow. He couldn’t allow the demons to take her. Every soul they brought to their side made them stronger. Soon, they would rise again from their lairs deep down in the netherworld and dominate mankind once more. The bleakness of this prospect made him shudder to his bones.

A scream from behind him caused him to spin his head around, making him lose his concentration for a moment. He spotted a woman with a toddler in her arms, frantically ringing a door bell at one of the apartment buildings, her eyes wide in horror.

Shit! He didn’t need any witnesses to what was happening here. But there was nothing he could do now. His first priority was to save Sarah.

Collecting the ancient power that was within each Stealth Guardian, he allowed it to surge through his body and recharge his cells. He lurched forward, electrical charges dancing on his palms like little flames, and reached for her.

She pushed him back, anger glowing in her eyes. Behind her, he glimpsed the third demon as his hand reached forward through the vortex, a dagger in his palm. Whispering something to her, the demon pressed the ancient weapon into her hand.

With dread, Aiden noticed how she accepted it and flicked her wrist as if she’d been trained to do so. The demon was controlling her body now.

All Aiden could do was spin to the side to avoid the blade.

Then Sarah’s eyes turned green. By giving in to the demon’s demand, she’d become one of them.

Another scream pulled his attention to the woman behind him. What he saw turned his stomach. Sarah’s dagger had hit the child in the head. Blood seeped from the gash onto the tiny white sweater and onto the hands of the mother who was trying desperately to save her baby.

God damn it! He should have killed Sarah the moment he realized that she couldn’t be saved. Now she’d killed an innocent. And he was to blame, because he hadn’t acted fast enough. He’d let her live because he’d hoped he could save her.

He’d failed again. Feeling his past reach for him, he forced the painful memories of his first and only other failure down and concentrated his energy on his erstwhile charge. Without hesitation, he aimed. The ancient dagger lodged in Sarah’s neck, arresting her movements. Blood spurted from the fatal wound as she fell into the vortex.

The demon’s cries of frustration filled the alley, and charges of light illuminated the dark night. A moment later, the air and fog stopped churning, and everything went quiet, except for the sobs of the woman whose child lay dead in her arms.

Aiden glanced at her, his eyes filling with moisture as he felt her pain. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, his heart full of compassion.

When he walked to the spot where Sarah had fallen, it was empty. The vortex had swallowed her up. Only his bloody dagger was left as evidence that he’d killed her. He’d had no choice but to do so. It was better than allowing the demons to use her. Better for her and this world. It was the reason he couldn’t regret his action. He only regretted that he had delayed the inevitable and not acted sooner.

Never again would he hesitate to kill a human he had reason to believe had been compromised already. It was better for one human to die than for the demons to capture another soul or for an innocent to suffer, as this child—and its mother—had. Next time, his dagger would find its target the moment he suspected that a demon was influencing his charge. He wouldn’t hesitate again.

Humans were weak. They should be eliminated as soon as they represented a danger. The Council was wrong to try to protect them when clearly they would turn against their protectors, against the Stealth Guardians who only wanted their best. Sarah wasn’t the first one who’d proven that to him.

Old memories, yet fresh as ever, reminded him once more that he could never be allowed to waver again. His hesitation had cost him too dearly many years ago. As a result, his entire family had suffered; they’d lost a loved one, and it was his fault. His heart clenched painfully as guilt about his past mistake resurfaced. He could never make the same mistake again. Evil had to be eradicated swiftly, no matter in what form it presented itself: demon or human.

2

Leila lifted her head from the microscope when she heard an urgent knock at the door to her lab.

“Dr. Cruickshank? Are you still there?”

She smoothed her lab coat down and caught her reflection in the glass cabinet over the work bench she was hunched over. Her ponytail was still holding back her long, brown hair, but several strands had struggled free and now curled around her face. It looked almost as if a hair stylist had taken great pains to arrange her hair like that. Of course, that wasn’t possible. She hadn’t been to a hair salon in months. How could she waste precious time worrying about her appearance when she had such important work to do?

Over the last few months, she’d made huge progress. The clinical trials were promising, and it appeared that there was only a little more fine tuning necessary until the drug would do exactly what she wanted it to do: stop Alzheimer’s Disease, a disease both her parents were suffering from, in its tracks. The drug even appeared to show some promise of being able to reverse some of the effects of the disease, even though chances of eradicating all damage Alzheimer’s had already caused were slim.

For her parents, it was a race against time. There were times when they seemed perfectly well, yet at other times, their memory lapses were glaring, and she could sense them slipping away. If she didn’t finish her research soon, the damage to their brains’ neurons would become too severe for even her wonder drug to reverse it. The earlier the drug was administered, the higher the chances of some recovery of brain function. Even though she realized that her parents might never fully recover, she clung to the hope that at least some of their brain function could be restored to their former states.

At thirty-six, she should have children and a family of her own, but there had never been anything else but her work. After finishing medical school, she’d wanted to go into plastic surgery, lured by the high income the specialty offered. However, when first her father and then her mother had shown early signs of the disease, she’d quickly switched tracks.

Leila had suddenly realized that all her parents’ money didn’t mean anything when they were losing what they loved most: each other. After her fellowship, Inter Pharma had shown interest in her research and offered her a job. Now she headed her own lab, supervising three lab assistants and two young researchers.

She loved running her own lab; the order of her work appealed to her senses. Everything had its time and place. It was how she managed to deal with crisis: by keeping things in order and always knowing what came next, always having a plan. It gave her security, something she’d craved ever since her parents had fallen ill. And that need for security permeated throughout her work.

While her lab team would execute many different parts of her research, Leila was the only one who had access to the full set of data and the complete formula of the drug as it existed right now. Keeping her data secure was paramount to her.

It was one of the reasons she didn’t use the networked computer Inter Pharma provided her with, but used her own encrypted laptop, backing up her data to a memory stick that hung, disguised in a diamond studded pendant, on a necklace around her neck wherever she went.

There’d been earlier incidents where another researcher’s data had been stolen by an employee and later resurfaced at another pharmaceutical company, which then beat them to the discovery. A new drug meant vast amounts of money to Inter Pharma, but to Leila it meant getting her parents back and seeing recognition light up their eyes again before it was too late and they were gone forever.

“Dr. Cruickshank?”

Leila shot up from her chair and went to the door, unlocking it. She’d gotten used to locking the door whenever she was alone in the lab. As she opened it, she looked at the flushed face of the CEO’s personal assistant, Jane.

“Oh, good, you’re still here. I wasn’t sure,” she babbled.

Leila nodded, preoccupied. Her staff had already left for the night, but even though it was past eight o’clock, she wasn’t ready to leave. There was always more data to be analyzed.

“Jane, is there anything you need?” she asked, hoping all the ditsy secretary wanted was an extra packet of sweetener or a teabag because she’d once again forgotten to order supplies for the executive offices.

“Mr. Patten sent me. He asked if you could spare a minute to talk to him.”

“Now? I thought he would have gone home long ago.” It was rare that anybody but she and the security guy worked this late.

“I wish. But he had a late meeting, and it only just ended. Of course, he made me stay.” Jane blew out an annoyed breath. “So can you? I mean see him in his office?”

Leila nodded absentmindedly even though she hated the interruption.

“Oh, and would you have any sweetener left? I ran out.”

Well, that explained why Jane hadn’t used the phone to summon her to the office.

Leila turned quickly to snatch a handful of packets from the bowl on top of the refrigerator and pressed them into Jane’s outstretched hands. Making sure the door locked behind her, she walked down the long hallway, flanked by Patten’s assistant.

The key around her neck jingled against her pendant, making an eerie sound in the empty corridor.

“I’ve always admired your necklace,” Jane chatted. “Do you remember where you bought it?”

“It’s custom made,” Leila said, ignoring the sudden prickling on her nape. She quickly cast a look over her shoulder, yet saw nothing but the gleaming linoleum floor and the sterile white walls.

“Custom made?”

She nodded back at Jane. “Yes, I had a jeweler make it for me.” To conceal her sixty-four gig memory stick and keep her research close to her heart, literally. But nobody knew that. Maybe it was paranoia or perhaps it was simply common sense, but she wanted to ensure that none of her data would ever be lost.

“It’s beautiful. Where’s his shop? I would love to have something similar.”

“He went out of business, I’m afraid,” Leila lied and forced a regretful smile.

She wouldn’t reveal the jeweler’s name just in case he’d let it slip that the pendant was hollow inside and the perfect size for a memory stick. Nobody was supposed to know she carried her data with her. Already, not saving her data on the networked computer in her lab had raised a red flag and earned her a meeting with the CEO. However, once she’d made her case that she was worried about research being stolen, Patten had conceded to a compromise: each night when she was done with her research, she would back up the data on an external disk drive that she then placed in a safe. Only her own thumb print or that of Patten could open the specially designed piece, thus assuring that nobody unauthorized could access it.

It appeared that her boss was nearly as paranoid as she was. And why shouldn’t he be? Pharmaceutical research was a cutthroat business. The first company to develop a new drug had an enormous head start no other company could compete with. To be first was everything in this business.

Her laptop was armed with a special software that would initiate a sequence to destroy all data on the hard drive should anybody tamper with it. It was failsafe.

“…so I went with the red one instead. What do you think?” Jane pointed to her fingernails, which were painted in a ghastly orange color. Clearly, the young woman was colorblind, even though colorblindness was a male phenomenon.

“Cute,” Leila managed to say, wondering what else Jane had been prattling on about while she’d had her head in the clouds again. It happened so often lately: she would space out thinking about one thing or another and not even notice that other people were around her or even talking to her.

At the next bend of the corridor, they turned left. Leila pressed the button at the elevator bank. The doors instantly parted, and she stepped inside, followed by Jane. Her colleague pressed the button to the executive floor, and the doors started closing. Just as they were halfway shut, something beeped and the doors opened again.

“What the hell?” Jane cursed and pressed the button again. “I can’t believe these stupid elevators. Half the week they’re out of order, supposedly getting fixed, and the other half of the week they’re on the blink again.”

Leila shook her head. “I wouldn’t know. I normally take the stairs.”

“Well that’s easy when you’re on the third floor, but try the eighth, and you’ll be out of breath in no time.”

Leila couldn’t stop herself from glancing at Jane’s three inch heels.

Yeah, or break an ankle.

But she refrained from making a comment. It wasn’t her business that Jane was out of shape. She herself ran at least four times a week, trying to stay healthy and fit. As well as slim. She’d noticed how much weight her mother had gained when she’d broken a leg a few years ago and hadn’t been able to move much. Leila knew she had her mother’s physique—petite and solid, rather than tall and lean—and knew that if she let herself go, she would balloon one day. Hence, she ran and climbed the stairs whenever she got a chance.

When they arrived on the eighth floor, Jane turned toward the kitchen, instructing Leila in leaving, “Go right in to see him. He’s expecting you.”

Leila pulled her lab coat straight and brushed a hair off the white fabric. Clearing her throat, she lifted her hand and rapped her knuckles against the door.

“Come.” The order was instant and spoken with unmistakable authority.

She didn’t lose any time, opened the door and entered Patten’s office. The room was shrouded in semi-darkness. Patten, a man in his late fifties, graying at the temples and balding on top, sat at the wide desk, which was illuminated by a large halogen light. Yet the overhead fluorescent lights were off.

“Come in, come in, Dr. Cruickshank. Excuse the lack of lights, but they burned out just when my visitor was here earlier. Darn embarrassing, too. Better get maintenance on that right away.”

“Evening, Mr. Patten,” she answered simply, knowing he didn’t expect a reply to his rant about the lights. “You wanted to see me?”

“Ah, yeah. That’s right.” He brushed a strand of gray hair back behind his ear, making her aware that just like her, he needed a haircut. He appeared somewhat disheveled.

Now that she looked at him more closely as she approached and took the visitor seat in front of this desk, she noticed that his face looked gray and tired. As if he’d been burning the candle at both ends, just like somebody else she knew: yours truly. Well, he was probably not the only workaholic at Inter Pharma. Nobody got to the top without sacrificing something for it.

“Sit down… Ah, you’re sitting… good, good…”

Leila crinkled her forehead in concern. She’d never seen her boss this flustered. She hoped he wasn’t having a stroke, because despite having a medical degree, she was ill equipped for dealing with a medical emergency. The last time she’d seen a patient was during her residency at Mass General, and that seemed eons ago.

“Are you feeling all right?” she felt compelled to ask, her nurturing side rearing its head.

His eyes suddenly focused, and he appeared as clear as he’d always been. “Of course, why wouldn’t I? … Well, I wanted to speak to you because I’ve had a visit from a shareholder.”

Leila sat forward on her chair, uncrossing her legs. Why would Patten want to talk to her about a shareholder? She wasn’t involved in the company’s finances. Apart from being responsible for her own lab budget, everything else she did was pure research.

A shot of adrenaline suddenly coursed through her. She knew that the share price had recently dipped. Could this mean that the shareholders were unhappy and wanted to cut programs? Possibly eliminate her research?

“My budget is already tight as is.” The words were out before she could think any further. Darn! The way she acted, she would have never made it in the diplomatic corps. And if she continued with blurted-out statements, her career as a researcher with her own lab could soon land on a slippery slope, too.

Patten gave her a confused look. “What?”

“I’m sorry, go on; you were saying a shareholder visited you.”

“Yes. It appears Mr. Zoltan has purchased a large amount of our shares when the market dipped. He now owns 36% of our stock, and while that doesn’t give him absolute control over the company, it makes him the largest individual shareholder—”

Leila lifted her hand from her lap. “Uh, Mr. Patten, as you know, I’m not involved in that side of the company. My research—”

“I’m getting to it, Dr. Cruickshank.”

She nodded quickly, not wanting to upset him any further. Something clearly had rattled him today, and she wasn’t interested in getting caught in the crossfire. It was better to keep her mouth shut and let him talk. Maybe he simply needed to vent to somebody, and apart from Jane and the security guard in the lobby, she was the only one left in the building.

Leila sighed inwardly. Great! Now her boss was offloading some useless stuff on her when she could utilize the time much better and finish analyzing the data that she hadn’t gotten to yet.

“As I said, Mr. Zoltan now owns a vast amount of this company and that gives him certain powers. You probably understand that it would be unwise to anger such a man and deny him what he wishes.” Mr. Patten wiped a bead of sweat off his brow before he continued, “He could force a vote and practically reshuffle the board, boot me out… uh, as you see, I really don’t have much choice in the matter.”

His eyes glanced at her nervously. In turn, the same nervousness spread to her, making her skin tingle with unease and her palms turn damp. On edge, she shifted in her seat but refrained from saying anything, realizing that he wasn’t done talking.

“He is merely making sure his investment is safe, you see. It’s not any different from a new owner inspecting his factory and watching over the production process. Right, that’s how we have to look at this.”

Watching over the production process? Was he saying what she thought he was saying? He couldn’t possibly allow… no, that would never happen.

“Mr. Patten, I… I,” she stammered, her mind in too much uproar to be able to form a coherent sentence.

“Mr. Zoltan will be returning on Monday to sit in with you.”

“Sit in?”

Patten nodded, avoiding her gaze, and instead stared at the darkness beyond his window. “He’s requested to learn about your research. My understanding is that he has a medical degree as well and wants to assess the viability of the product you’re working on.”

Leila jumped up. “You can’t allow that. My research… it’s secret. No outsider can—”

“Mr. Zoltan isn’t an outsider. He practically owns this company.”

Disbelief welled up in her, making her knees wobble. “But you said he only owns 36% of the shares, that doesn’t mean he owns us.”

“In the corporate world that gives him sufficient power over us to force practically anything he wants. We don’t even know what other resources he has at his disposal. For all we know, he can buy another fifteen percent, giving him full control.”

Leila leaned over the desk. “Please, Mr. Patten, you have to stop this. I can’t have a stranger looking over my shoulder. This is sensitive work. If somebody gets hold of my formula, they can steal it. It’s not safe to have somebody in the lab who might—”

“I understand your feelings, Dr. Cruickshank, but I have no choice. My hands are tied. Your research belongs to this company. It’s not your property. If I tell you that you have to allow someone access to it, then you’ll do as I say,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “Do we understand each other?”

Leila pulled back, disappointment flooding her veins. “I understand.” Her jaw tightened. “Is that all for tonight?”

He nodded, a tired look crossing his features. “Go home, Dr. Cruickshank. You’ll eventually see that things aren’t as bad as you might think.”

She turned without another word and walked back to her lab, holding back tears of frustration until the door latched behind her. Dropping into her chair, she covered her face with her hands and let the tears come.

This wasn’t fair.

She’d worked so long and hard for this, and now some rich shareholder with a medical degree would swoop in and nose around in her work. What if that wasn’t everything he wanted to do? What if he was intent on taking over the research and taking credit for it? She’d seen things like that happen before, where one researcher was booted out in the middle of the project and some newbie had taken over, getting credit for the ultimate result.

Or what would happen if he was incompetent and destroyed the progress she’d already made? If that happened, her parents would never get better.

She couldn’t allow this to happen. Nobody would ever find out enough about her research to be able to take over. This was her life’s work!

“You can’t take this away from me, Patten,” she mumbled, wiping the tears off her cheeks.

As she pushed back the chair, it scraped against the floor, the sound echoing in the empty lab. Her legs carried her to the wall safe. She pressed her thumb against the touchpad that activated the scanner. Then she heard a mechanism click. A beep accompanied by a green light told her that her authorization had been accepted.

Leila pulled the thick door open and peered into the dark interior. She had to do what needed to be done.

3

Aiden burst through the door of the compound. There was no need to open it. His body simply dematerialized as he passed through the solid material and rematerialized beyond in a process too fast for the human eye to analyze. All it would see was a man walking straight into a door or a wall, the process behind it remaining a mystery. It was a power unique to Stealth Guardians; no demons known to them had a similar skill.

He charged down the hallway. The massive building consisted of three stories above ground and two below. Its walls were thick, like those of an old English castle, build the way their ancestors had built their own strongholds. Their past was imprinted on the structure: ancient runes decorated the walls and floors, and charms to ward off evil hung over each door and window.

There were many Stealth Guardian compounds dotted all over the world, places where the brothers, and the few sisters, lived together. All compounds were protected by the collective power of the Stealth Guardians, their virta, and might as well have been invisible. An ancient hypnotic-like spell ensured that the buildings went unnoticed by humans.

Inside, no humans were allowed. Not even the charges of Stealth Guardians could be trusted to keep its location secret. There was always a chance that one of them would turn against them and eventually betray them to the demons.

Within the walls of the compound, Stealth Guardians could recharge their energy after each mission, energy they expended as they cloaked their charges from detection by demons.

Weapons long forgotten were stored in the vast underground vaults, weapons that could kill even an immortal Stealth Guardian. While no human weapon such as a gun or a knife could permanently injure Aiden or his brothers and sisters, any weapon forged during the Dark Days had the power to kill Stealth Guardians and Demons of Fear alike.

As Aiden rushed into the large kitchen that was the center and indeed the hearth of the house he called home, his eyes scanned the assembled quickly. Manus was busy raiding the refrigerator, clad only in a pair of tightly fitting leather pants, his scarred chest bare, while Logan poured himself a drink. His dark hair hung loose over his shoulders and it looked as if he’d just only risen.

Enya, the only female in their compound, lounged in one corner of the large couch in the adjacent great room. Her long blond hair was braided and pinned up in circles on the back of her head. She rarely wore it open, and Aiden could only suspect that it had grown down to her waist by now. Instead of watching the football game that blared from the giant TV mounted on the wall, she had her nose stuck in a book.

Aiden cursed. “Where the fuck is he?”

Heads turned toward him. Manus slammed the fridge door shut and placed a bunch of plastic packages of cold cuts on the kitchen counter.

“I’m afraid that my mind reading capacity isn’t worth shit, so toss us a name, will you?” Manus exchanged a look with Logan who kicked back his drink in one gulp.

“Somebody’s in a pissy mood today,” Logan added as if wanting to provoke him.

Aiden felt his temper flare and squared his stance.

“Manus kinda has a point,” Enya suddenly interjected not even looking up from her book.

“I’m talking about fucking Hamish!” Aiden felt the air rush out of his lungs, the anger about his second’s failure to back him up growing with each moment.

Logan grinned and lifted the whiskey bottle once more. “Had no idea you guys were that close! But hey, if you wanna fuck Hamish, go—”

Aiden had Logan by the throat before he could finish his sentence and slammed him against the oven door. “I’m not in the mood for your fucking jokes. I’m asking again: where the fuck is Hamish?”

His captive pushed against him, shaking off his hands with more grace than a man of his massive build seemed capable of. As Logan carefully straightened his T-shirt and rolled his shoulders, he lashed an angry glare at him.

“I haven’t seen Hamish in two days. He was supposed to be with you. So piss off, and let me enjoy my game.”

Logan turned and walked to the couch, plopping down in the corner opposite to Enya. When the weight with which he’d let himself fall jolted her and almost made her lose her grip on her book, she only raised an eyebrow.

“Testosterone,” she mumbled under her breath.

Logan narrowed his eyes. “And you know exactly what to do about that, don’t you? But no, you’re not gonna spread your legs for any of us, are you?”

“Shut it!” Manus’s response came before Enya could even reach for the dagger that always sat at her hip, even when she was relaxing.

“Asshole,” she hissed.

Manus glanced at Aiden. “As for Hamish. If he isn’t with you, maybe he got ambushed.”

“Then we should trace his cell and find him,” a voice from the door added to Manus’s sentence.

Aiden whirled his head to the new arrival: Pearce.

“It’s not like him to neglect his duties,” Pearce continued as he stepped fully into the room.

Aiden nodded. Pearce was right.

“I was outnumbered.”

A soft hand touched his arm. His head snapped to the right. Enya had approached him without him noticing. “What happened today?”

Aiden braced one hand against the kitchen counter. He squeezed his eyes shut. “I called Hamish, but he didn’t show. I couldn’t hold them off any longer. I killed two of them, but the third stayed within the protection of the vortex. He was too strong. He had complete power over her.” So much so that she’d tried to kill him, and instead . . . “My charge killed an innocent child. I had to terminate her.”

“Fuck!” Manus cursed.

“Not another one!” Logan added.

“Damn it, what the fuck did you do, Aiden, sleep on the job? Why wasn’t she cloaked?” Manus ground out between clenched teeth.

Aiden allowed the fury to blaze from his eyes as he faced Manus. “I protected her as best I could!”

“If you’d cloaked her properly, she wouldn’t be lost now!”

“What are you saying?” Aiden bit out.

“You know what I’m saying!” Manus countered and moved in. “If you wanted her properly cloaked you should the fuck have been touching her the entire time.”

Aiden knew exactly what Manus meant. He and his fellow guardians had two ways of cloaking humans: by the power of their minds, or by touch. The first needed more energy, but just as a cell phone signal could be intercepted or interrupted, it was possible to break the connection and inadvertently uncloak a charge. The second brought with it other problems. A Stealth Guardian’s touch could be perceived as intimate even when it was not intended as such.

“Like you touch them? Like you pretend to feel something for them so they trust you? That’s not protecting them! It’s against every single rule in the book,” Aiden snarled.

“I don’t care about the fucking rules. Rules are for people who can’t think for themselves.”

“And you break them all.” Aiden felt his chest heave. He couldn’t be like Manus, who pretended to love each woman he had to protect, so he’d have a surefire way of making certain the woman was at all times cloaked. He, on the other hand, preferred not to touch humans when it could be avoided. Other than having the occasional one-night stand with a human woman, he wasn’t interested in them. Not anymore. Not after what a human had done to his family.

“You fuck them so you don’t have to expend any extra energy!”

The accusation only earned him a smirk from Manus.

“I wouldn’t exactly say that. I’m expending plenty of energy doing that.”

Before Manus could turn away, Aiden landed a punch in his face, wiping the grin right off it.

Damn, it felt good to hit someone!

It felt cathartic to beat the crap out of Manus, to unleash his anger and frustration on him. Maybe it would dull his mind.

An uppercut to his chin whipped Aiden’s head back. He tasted blood an instant later, but ignored it to answer Manus’s blow. Leveraging his right leg against the kitchen counter, a bar stool crashed to the floor as Aiden swung against his fellow Stealth Guardian. The strike knocked Manus against the fridge, which groaned under the impact.

“Jerk!” Manus spat. “This isn’t about what rules I’ve broken. Don’t pretend you haven’t thought of it yourself… how sweet it is to break a rule once in a while.” He gave a devilish grin.

“Fuck you!” There were plenty of willing women in the bars Aiden frequented. He didn’t need to screw his charges. Sex was sex—and as long as the woman was reasonably hot, what did he care who she was? He had no interest in getting involved with a charge. He kept his distance from them, emotionally and physically, knowing that the day might come where he’d have to kill one of them, just like tonight. He couldn’t allow his emotions to get in the way.

“And stop blaming me for your failures! I’m not playing scapegoat today,” Manus growled, interrupting Aiden’s thoughts and making him focus on the issue at hand.

He had only himself to blame for what had happened tonight. Well, himself and Hamish. But once he tracked down his errant second, there’d be hell to pay.

Beating Manus to pulp wouldn’t bring his charge back, wouldn’t make it undone.

“Ah, shit!” Aiden cursed and lowered his fist. “I failed.” He raised his eyes to meet Manus’s gaze, but instead of a mocking glare, he recognized a flash of compassion.

Manus pushed himself off the fridge and brushed past him. “Get used to it. It’ll happen more often now.”

Aiden grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. “What do you mean?”

“Haven’t you seen the reports from the other compounds?”

“And when do you think I would have had time to read stupid reports?” He’d been on this assignment for several weeks and barely had time to rush back to the compound for urgent updates.

Aiden wiped the blood from his mouth and looked at the others in the room.

Pearce cleared his throat. “The demons are getting stronger. The other compounds are reporting more and more… losses.”

Aiden shook his head in disbelief. “How?”

“They somehow seem to know where our charges are. Despite them being cloaked, they find them.”

“That’s not possible,” Aiden protested and looked at Logan and Enya. “They don’t have those capabilities. They can’t sense our charges when they’re cloaked.”

Enya nodded solemnly. “That’s right, but what if they don’t need those senses? What if they have another way of knowing where our charges are?”

Not wanting to follow Enya’s thought process, Aiden took a steadying breath. “You can’t mean that.”

Logan huffed. “And why not? Our own emotions aren’t that different from those of the humans we’re protecting. So what makes you think all of us can resist temptation?”

“But that’s what we’re trained for…” Aiden’s voice died. He swallowed past the dryness in his throat. His next thought came out of nowhere. “But Hamish. You can’t mean that he… and the demons…”

“He wasn’t there to back you up. And how did the demons find your charge anyway when you say you cloaked her?” Logan asked.

“Who better to know where you are at all times than your second,” Manus added.

“A traitor? You think Hamish sold me out to the demons?”

When the words left his lips, his heart clenched painfully. Aiden sought support from the kitchen counter, his knees buckling under the strain. It couldn’t be possible. Hamish was like a brother to him. A brother he occasionally butted heads with, but a brother nevertheless.

“We have to find him.” Aiden glanced at Pearce. “Find his cell. Maybe he’s hurt somewhere.”

He put all his hopes into his last words. It was better that the reason why Hamish hadn’t come to his aid was because he was hurt. The other possibility—that he had joined the demons—was too awful to contemplate.

4

Barclay dropped the gavel and called for order in the council chambers. The mumbling of his fellow council members tapered slowly. When it finally died, he gazed into the faces of the men and women who sat around the table, which was built in a half circle. All of them were experienced Stealth Guardians, seven men and two women with great knowledge and skill, who’d been serving their people well for many centuries. They had been hand selected to serve on the Council of Nine, the ruling body of their ancient race. Judge, jury, and executioner in one, the council bore a heavy burden. Yet each member wore their duty with pride.

Surrounded by ancient runes engraved in the stone walls of the chambers, and protected by the collective powers of the Stealth Guardians, this was the inner sanctum, a place where few other guardians were allowed to set foot. Important decisions were made within these walls, decisions that could mean life or death for humans and Stealth Guardians alike.

Whenever he sat at the center of the table, Barclay, as primus inter pares, the first among equals, felt the weight of responsibility on his chest. He sensed the winds of change, and he knew their world was at the edge of something new—something that would change all their lives for the worse if he and his fellow Stealth Guardians couldn’t stop it. If only he knew what it was.

Barclay cleared his voice and rested his eyes on the tall man, whose hazel eyes looked anxious and whose dark brown hair looked more disheveled than usual.

“Geoffrey, you called this meeting. The council is eager to hear your report.”

Geoffrey stood. “Brothers, Sisters, Primus—” He nodded toward Barclay. “—I have received disturbing reports from our emisarii. Information has surfaced that the demons have discovered a serum that may make humans more susceptible to their influences.”

A collective gasp rippled through the assembly. Barclay sucked in his breath, the thought of such a thing being possible shocking him to the core. Was this the change he’d been sensing lately?

“Demons aren’t capable of witchcraft,” Finlay protested loudly.

“Never heard of such a thing!” Riona, one of the two female council members, interjected throwing her hands up in a dramatic gesture. “Besides, the witches are our allies, not theirs.”

Barclay pounded the gavel on the table. “Order! Order!”

His fellow council members fell silent as he lashed an angry glare at them. Then he cast his eyes toward Geoffrey. “Continue with your account.”

Giving a pointed look to Finlay, Geoffrey parted his lips. “Witchcraft no. That we agree on, my friend.”

Barclay was fully aware that Geoffrey and Finlay rarely saw eye to eye on anything. He’d had to mediate many a fight between the two guardians, who were as stubborn as they came. For once, he hoped that no such fight broke out at this meeting. Circumstances were too dire to waste time on a useless display of excess testosterone as if the two were green teenagers and not the hardened men who had fought by his side for centuries.

“However, I’m not talking about witchcraft. I’m talking about science.”

“Science?” Finlay echoed, clearly stunned.

A grim nod marked Geoffrey’s reply. “Pharmaceutical science. Dr. Leila Cruickshank—” He passed a picture around. “—is a talented researcher for Inter Pharma. Over the last few years, she’s dedicated her life to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s.”

“Very admirable. But what has that got to do with us?” Wade interrupted, threading his fingers through his dark blond hair. “Besides, many others have tried before her, and nobody has succeeded.”

“Has this Dr. Cruickshank?” Finley asked, waving his hand at the picture that reached Barclay at this moment.

Barclay’s gaze fell on the young woman’s face. The picture had been taken through a window from a fair distance. Despite that fact, the lens had been able to capture her essence: her pleasant, yet determined features and her straight nose and piercing eyes underscored what Geoffrey had said. Wearing a white lab coat, she sat at a computer, gazing into the screen in fascination. Her long dark hair was pulled together in a haphazard looking ponytail, strands of it having escaped, framing her classic features, softening them.

“Our emissarius reports that she is at the edge of a breakthrough. According to lab reports he was able to get access to, early clinical trials suggest that the serum seems to be… unlocking the mind.”

“Unlocking?” Barclay echoed. “Explain.”

“With Alzheimer’s, neurons and synapses in the brain are destroyed, shutting off the mind, locking away memories and experiences, making people not even remember their loved ones. If this serum does what we think it does, then it seems to reverse some of these effects.”

“Well, that’s a good thing then,” Deirdre agreed and pushed her long blond hair behind her back. “So I’m assuming you want her protected?”

Geoffrey shook his head and gazed into the round, his expression solemn. “On the contrary. I want her eliminated.”

Finlay shot from his seat. “What?”

“We’ve sworn to protect humans and help further the good in the world,” Deidre added, placing a hand on Finlay’s arm and urging him to sit back down. “And you want to do the opposite?”

“You’d better have a bloody good explanation for that,” Wade bit out.

As Norton, Ian, and Cinead, the three council members who’d so far remained quiet, cleared their throats, Barclay stood and motioned everybody to be silent. Then he turned to Geoffrey.

“I too would like to hear your reasoning behind this. Alzheimer’s has plagued mankind for many years, and to deny humans a cure for this ailment…” He shook his head. “Speak.”

Geoffrey’s cheeks appeared heated as he continued. Clearly, this subject was dear to his heart. “Just as the serum may halt Alzheimer’s and reverse some of its effects by repairing some of the damaged neurons and allowing memories to flow freely again, it will unlock the mind to allow demons easy access. The natural resistance humans possess to withstand the influence of the Demons of Fear will be melted away. There will be no block, no gate. A human mind will be as open as a school gate on graduation day. And if Inter Pharma decides to not only use this drug to treat current Alzheimer’s patients, but to use it as a vaccine…”

Geoffrey didn’t have to finish his sentence. Everybody in the room knew what this meant. From an early age, all humans would be walking invitations for the demons to take over their minds and control them to do their bidding.

“Nobody would be able to resist,” Cinead said in a gravely voice, rising. He nodded toward Barclay. “May I speak?”

Barclay showed his agreement with a wave of his hand. Cinead, the Scotsman who’d been on the council longer than any of them, yet had never accepted a nomination as Primus, was the wisest among them, always looking at all sides of an issue before making a decision.

“Geoffrey, you say your emissarius has seen lab reports. Are those available for our review?”

“I can procure them, if you don’t believe my words.” He appeared miffed at Cinead’s request.

“I would like to see them and study the data myself. We cannot callously eliminate a human solely based on the report of one emissarius who might not have the relevant knowledge it takes to assess this issue. We’ve never acted on rumors or assumptions. There’s no need to start now.”

Geoffrey huffed. “I’ll get you the bloody report, but I’m telling you, there’s no time to lose. If the drug is allowed to be brought to market, it has the potential to annihilate the human race and us in the process.”

“I agree,” Riona said. “At the very least, access to it has to be restricted until we know more. If the demons get a hold of it, they may well be able to reproduce it and distribute it among the human population.”

“It would still have to be administered by injection, I assume?” Norton asked, his eyebrows pulling together into a deep frown.

Geoffrey shrugged. “Not every vaccine is delivered with a needle. Should the demons get hold of it, who says they can’t infiltrate the human food or water supply with it? They have to be stopped before they get that far. We have to destroy all traces of Dr. Cruickshank’s research and all samples of the drug.”

“If the drug truly does what you say,” Norton conceded. “However, until then, I am with Cinead: we will not interfere until the facts have been confirmed.”

“The facts seem pretty clear to me,” Ian voiced. “Her research is dangerous. It needs to be taken care of now. Every minute we sit here discussing this, the demons get closer to her, if they haven’t already found her.”

“So this is how much you value a human life,” Riona remarked. “What if it were your life?”

“I’m immortal,” Ian ground out.

“Even you can be killed,” Riona pressed out under her breath, “with the right weapons.”

Barclay ground his teeth, not keen on listening to more bickering between the two. “Either keep your remarks to the subject at hand, or take your disagreements outside. What is it to be?”

At his stern look, both of them pressed their lips together.

Wade lanced a look at the two, then straightened in his seat. “If what Geoffrey says is true, I believe the human race is in grave danger. And there’s really only one way of dealing with a threat like this. We’re not simply guardians, we’re also warriors; collateral damage is expected.”