Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) - By Unknown Page 0,34

Would Leila have to pay the ultimate price for his failure? It was unacceptable. It was better if he took himself off this assignment and made sure she had a protector who wasn’t as conflicted as he. The state he was in right now, he couldn’t trust himself.

He pulled out his cell. When the call connected, Aiden took a deep breath. “Father, we need to talk.”

“Aiden,” his father replied in surprise. “I thought you were on your assignment.”

“I am. That’s what we need to talk about. I’m not the right man for this.” Never before had he shied away from a challenge, but this was different.

“Aiden, you know we have faith in you. You were trained for this,” his father’s calm voice replied.

Trying to convince his father to let him off the hook wouldn’t be easy. He would have to confess his shortcomings. “I lost a charge only a few days ago. I shouldn’t be the one to protect this charge. This case is too important.”

“Unfortunately, sometimes bad things happen. The demons are getting stronger. All reports indicate it. Even the best among us have lost charges, more than usual. Not even your near-perfect record could be upheld. That’s why you need this now. You haven’t had to deal with failure in a very long time. If you don’t battle it now, it will grow in your mind and hinder you forever. You can’t allow it to fester like an infected wound.”

Letting his last assignment replay in his mind, Aiden couldn’t detect any obvious mistakes he may have made. As much as he blamed himself for his failure, there was nothing he would have done differently, except to kill Sarah earlier before she killed the innocent child.

“You don’t understand.” And how could his father really know what was going on inside him? That he couldn’t protect Leila like he was supposed to because he wanted her the way the desert craved water.

“I’m sorry for your loss, Aiden. I know what it feels like to lose a charge. We’ve all been there, but you’ll get past this. We’ve survived much worse.”

Aiden shook his head, wanting to repress the bad memories that resurfaced at his father’s words. He didn’t want to be reminded of his greatest failure. “It would be a more efficient use of my time to give this charge to somebody else and let me look for Hamish.”

“We’ll handle Hamish. You concentrate on your job!” The order was clear.

Aiden reared up from his position on the bed, frustration surging. “Please reconsider.”

There was a short pause, and he only heard his father’s breathing. “What is this really about?”

Aiden rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “I don’t think I can protect her.” Not when lust controlled him like this. A woman like Leila deserved better.

“Are you saying you don’t want to protect her?” his father shot back.

“Yes . . . no . . . I don’t know. What I mean is, what if I fail like I have before? Or worse, what if can’t do what needs to be done because I . . . ” His voice trailed off. He couldn’t tell his father. He couldn’t admit to him that there was something going on inside him that bothered him. That it appeared as if rasen had taken hold of him and was making him unpredictable.

“You’re questioning the council’s decision to assign you to this case? Are you telling me that we were wrong to trust you with this?”

“Circumstances change.”

“And what circumstances are those, Aiden?”

“You heard me earlier: I lost a charge. She killed an innocent child before I eliminated her. If I’d killed her earlier, it wouldn’t have happened. We knew she was weak and susceptible to the demons’ influence. We knew how much they wanted her for her skills. You should have voted to eliminate Sarah, not to protect her. Some humans are just not worth protecting. They represent too much danger. They’ll turn against us and their own kind. They can be too easily seduced.”

And they could do things that put Stealth Guardians in danger. It had happened before. But it was only half the truth, the other half, he couldn’t confess to his father.

“That’s nothing new. We’ve always known about the risks. So, why are you making this an issue now?”

Aiden shot up from the bed and paced to the window. “I’m out there every day. I see what’s going on. You know yourself what’s been happening at all compounds. More charges are being lost. The