ended in a loss. My charge succumbed to the demons. I had to eliminate her.”
Low mumbles went through the assembled.
“As much as we regret this incident,” Geoffrey piped, “it is hardly a matter to bother the council with. You’re not the only one who’s lost a charge in the last few weeks. Reports have—”
“I’ve heard of the reports,” Aiden interrupted impatiently.
When Geoffrey and several of the other council members gasped, he knew that he’d acted against protocol by interrupting him. However, enough time had already been wasted. He couldn’t stand on ceremony.
“And what I have to tell you might be related to it.”
When Geoffrey tried to speak, Primus held up his hand. “Let him talk.”
Taking an extra breath, Aiden recounted what had unraveled at their compound.
“Hamish has disappeared. At first we thought he might have been ambushed, but then we traced his cell phone and found his things.”
“Meaning what?” Primus asked curiously.
“We found his cell phone in a dumpster, together with all this clothes. Neatly folded.”
Several eyebrows rose. Deirdre spoke up. “What are you alleging?”
Aiden swallowed away the bitter taste in his mouth. “When I was on my last mission, outnumbered by the demons, I called for Hamish. He was my second. He didn’t show. I have reason to believe that he deserted us.” The next words hurt to speak, his heart clenching painfully at the loss he experienced. “I believe he’s gone over to the demons’ side.”
He wished he was wrong, but everything pointed to it.
Outraged gasps filled the council chambers.
Cinead rose from this seat. Aiden had always liked the Scotsman and knew he could expect a just ruling from him. “Those are serious allegations, Aiden. Hamish is a valued member of our society, a fierce fighter. I don’t believe him capable of treason. He’s strong of mind, one of the least likely guardians to be influenced by the demons.”
“Then explain to me why he didn’t come to my aid, why we found his clothes and cell phone. He got rid of everything that would have made it possible for us to trace him.” Aiden lashed an accusatory glare at Cinead. Maybe the council member didn’t want to believe that a fellow Scotsman was capable of such thing. “Why did the demons find my charge when I had cloaked her? Only Hamish could have known where we were.”
Ian raised a hand. “Ah, not entirely true, I’m afraid.”
Aiden lifted an eyebrow in question as several heads turned to the council member who’d spoken.
“As you all know, everybody who sits on this council is aware of any assignment that is handed out. Each one of us could have known the whereabouts of your charge. Are you calling us traitors too?”
“No, of course not!” he hastened to answer.
“Then you might grant your fellow guardian Hamish the same courtesy. There could be a myriad of reasons why he disappeared. Maybe he was captured.”
“Since when do assailants fold clothes they strip off their victims?” Aiden grumbled under his breath. Only Hamish himself took such care of his beloved designer clothes.
Cinead nodded at Ian. “We’ll send out guardians to search for him.” He waved toward Geoffrey. “Can you notify the emissarii? They might be able to help.”
Geoffrey gave a nod.
“I want to be on the search team,” Aiden requested.
“I don’t believe that’s wise. You’re too emotionally involved,” Cinead declined.
Aiden shot a pleading look at the head of the council. “Primus, I appeal to you.”
The slow shake of his head quashed any hope that he could get to Hamish before anybody else and wring the truth from him.
“Father, I implore you,” he insisted, hoping by emphasizing that he was not just his Primus, but more importantly his father, he could be reasoned with.
He and his father exchanged a long look. The older man’s dark hair showed a few errant strands of silver, and his angular face was full of laugh lines. Brown eyes studied him from beneath dark lashes. Aiden knew that he’d inherited many of his father’s features, and side-by–side, many would have thought them brothers rather than father and son.
Like all Stealth Guardians, his father aged only fractionally compared to humans. While the offspring of Stealth Guardians aged in the same way human children did, once they reached their twenty-fifth birthday, their aging slowed to the speed of a snail. Even the oldest man of their species, a Stealth Guardian of over 1,500 years of age, looked like a man in his late fifties. Time was good to their kind.
Finally, Primus shook his head.