Page 76 of Guardian

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Logan raced toward the vortex, ready to jump inside. He lunged for it, felt the cold fog at his fingertips, catapulted himself forward—and landed on the stone floor. The vortex had closed and disappeared. And with it, Winter. Taken by the demons. Gone.

“Fuck!”

“Shit!” Manus echoed behind him. “They must have had a lookout.”

Logan turned around. “We have to get her back. I have to get her back.”

“Impossible,” Manus said, regret coloring his voice. “We’re fucked.”

“I’m not giving up. I’m going to get her back.”

“From the Underworld?” Manus shook his head. “It’s over, Logan. We screwed up.”

“We?” Logan shook his head. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I screwed up. I screwed everything up. If I’d told her immediately, she would have never been out here.”

“So it’s true what she said, that you killed her grandmother?”

Logan dropped his head. “She was a psychic too. The demons had gotten their hooks into her. I did what I was ordered to do. She was beyond saving. I just didn’t know that she was Winter’s grandmother. I only found out a few hours ago.”

“Oh fuck!”

“Yeah, fuck!” And he had to make it right. He couldn’t let Winter suffer in the Underworld. He had to save her. “I have to find a way to get to the Underworld.”

“There’s no way to get in. “

“There has to be. Winter had a vision. She saw me coming to her rescue in the Underworld. So there has to be a way in.”

Vehemently, Manus shook his head. “That’s suicide. Even if you found a way in—and there’s none—no Stealth Guardian has ever been in the Underworld.”

Logan suddenly stiffened. “You’re wrong. Virginia. She and Wesley. They got in. And they got out again.”

Manus’s eyes widened. “That was an accident. And nobody has ever tried to replicate it.”

“Then somebody has to try now.”

“You’re crazy.”

No, he wasn’t crazy. He was scared for Winter, worried about what the demons would do to her. He had to get her out of there as quickly as possible. “I’m going to San Francisco.”

He didn’t wait for a response, but charged out the side entrance and headed for the car.

Despite using the compound’s portal to San Francisco, it took almost two hours to reach Wesley’s house. He’d called ahead, advising Wesley that he was on his way and that he should make sure that Virginia was home, but not tell her that Logan was coming. He didn’t want her to alert the council. After telling Wesley it was a matter of life and death, the witch didn’t ask any more questions.

When he entered Wesley’s house and marched into the living room, not having used the door bell or the door, Virginia stared at him in disbelief.

“What the fuck, Logan?” Her hand went to the dagger that was sheathed at her hip. As so often, she wore the black uniform of the enforcers, the elite policing force of the Stealth Guardians she’d once been part of.

“Easy, babe,” Wes said, and put his hand on her arm. “I have a feeling Logan needs our help.”

She shot him a suspicious look. “You knew he was coming? That’s why you wanted me to be here?”

Wes shrugged. “Hear him out first before you strangle me or him.”

Logan could see that Virginia was fuming, but she seemed to get herself under control and said tightly, “Fine.” She tipped her chin in Logan’s direction. “Talk, and make it quick. You’re still a fugitive, and I intend to bring you in.”

“I’m aware of that. But I hope I can change your mind.”