Page 45 of Guardian

Manus shrugged.

“What is going on here?” Winter said, her voice even tenser than before, her eyes now scrutinizing Logan as well as his fellow guardian. “I’m not crazy. I know he was trying to kill me.”

Logan sighed. “He was.”

Winter shook her head in confusion. “But why, if it’s true what you say? If he is a Stealth Guardian.”

“Because I wasn’t able to do it.”

Winter shrank back from him, her eyes widening. Logan saw shock start to mingle with fear on her face. A breath rushed from her lungs. “What?”

Logan dropped his lids, unable to look her in the eye any longer. “That’s what I was about to tell you before Manus stormed in. I was ordered to kill you. That’s why I was in your shop. That’s why I came. But—”

“But what?” she spat. “You decided to screw me first? Is that it? And now that you got what you wanted, you’re gonna kill me? Or does your friend here get a turn first?”

“No!” Logan protested. “That’s not—”

“Way to go, Logan,” Manus interrupted. “You screwed her? Are you fucking nuts?”

“I said, shut up!” Logan yelled at his friend. “You’re not making this any easier.”

Manus cursed. “Fuck that! You know why I’m here. If you don’t do what you were ordered to, the council will get wind of it. You know what happens then. And I’ll be damned if I let my friend be tried for treason, because he couldn’t follow an order. Now, be smart, man. Finish the job and nobody needs to know what you did.”

“No! I won’t kill her. And if you lay one finger on her, I’m going to—”

“What? Kill me?”

“If it comes to that, yes. Winter is under my protection. If you want to kill her, you’ll have to kill me first.”

~ ~ ~

Stunned, Winter listened to the exchange between the two men. Logan was ready to fight his friend to protect her? That couldn’t be right. She had to have misheard, because only a few moments earlier he’d confessed that he’d been in her shop to kill her.

“Is she such a good lay?” Manus mocked.

“It has nothing to do with that. Winter is more valuable to us alive than dead. She’s the key to fighting the demons. Once the council realizes that, they’ll reverse their order of execution.”

Order of execution. Those words sent a chill down her spine and turned her blood to ice. A race she didn’t know existed until less than two days ago had decided to kill her. And she didn’t even know why.

“Why? Why do you want me dead?” she murmured. She met Manus’s eyes. “What have I done that’s so terrible that it warrants death?”

“It’s not what you’ve done, but what you will do,” Manus said and motioned to Logan. “Tell her, explain it to her. It’s your mission. It’s your mess to clean up.”

Logan cast her a long look. “Our ruling body, the Council of Nine, believes that you’re too weak to withstand the demons and will eventually give in to their demands.”

“Their demands?”

“To tell them everything you see about us in your visions. To become their seer so they can destroy us. And once they’ve destroyed us, they’ll have free rein over mankind. But I know you won’t do that. Because I’ve seen how strong you are. How good you are.”

“Bullshit,” Manus hissed. “Did you not read her file? She’s not strong enough. If she were, the council would have voted for us to protect her.”

Slowly, she tried to piece together what it all meant. “But I didn’t even know that I was a psychic. They didn’t even give me a chance to make my case.”

Her words were directed at Manus, but Logan answered instead. “That’s why I’m going to make it for you.”

“No, you won’t!” Manus griped. “You won’t even get that far. The moment they find out you let her live, you’ll be thrown into a lead cell to wait for your execution.”

Winter swallowed hard. Manus had said something about treason earlier. “Execution? They’ll kill him if he helps me?”