Page 62 of Warrior Unraveled

“What else did you find?” Logan asked.

Hamish shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Wesley did a little spell to determine if there was any demon activity.”

“And?” Virginia asked eagerly.

“None. Nor any other preternatural activity. Which means, our race is off the hook too, as are the witches.”

“Are you saying the killer was human?” Virginia followed up.

“Looks like it,” Hamish said.

“So we’re back to square one,” Logan said.

“Not necessarily,” Virginia hedged, drawing everybody’s eyes on her.

“Meaning what?” Hamish asked.

“I just came from seeing Cinead.”

Hamish raised an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t want anybody from the council knowing that you’re still alive.”

“I had no choice. Pearce found that Cinead was the last to have contact with Faldo. And since he didn’t note his reason for meeting the emissarius in the log, I had to find out for myself.” She let out a breath.

“Bad news?” Wes asked.

“I’m not sure. But I know of a human who would have reason to want to hurt us. And this human knew about Faldo, was in fact supposed to meet Faldo, but then Cinead intervened and canceled Faldo’s assignment.”

“Okay,” Aiden said, “how about being a bit less cryptic? Who’s the human?”

Wes suppressed a chuckle. Aiden had balls to address Virginia like that.

“Deirdre.”

Silence followed Virginia’s one-word answer, and it felt like an ice age had suddenly descended on the room. Wesley looked at the guardians, but they all stood there, stone-faced.

“Who’s Deirdre?” he finally asked.

“A woman who once tried to kill Leila,” Aiden grunted.

Well, that explained why Aiden looked like he’d just swallowed a rotten oyster.

“Oh.” Wes refrained from saying anything else, since he was sure the otherwise friendly guardian would change his attitude and bite his head off.

“Cinead confirmed that Deirdre was released a few days ago,” Virginia explained. “She served her sentence in the lead cell. Faldo was tasked with settling her in the human world, but Cinead decided last minute to do it himself. So he called Faldo’s trip off.”

“So that’s why the housekeeper said that he shouldn’t even have been home,” Wes murmured to himself.

Next to him, Manus asked, “What?”

Wes jerked his thumb at the monitor. “Remember when that reporter interviewed the housekeeper? She was babbling that Faldo wasn’t supposed to be there. She was distraught. She didn’t know that his trip had been canceled.”

Manus shrugged. “Whatever.”

Pearce swiveled in his chair and typed something on the keyboard.

In the meantime, Virginia continued, “I think we need to consider the possibility that Deirdre might feel resentment toward the Stealth Guardians and want revenge. As a former council member, she knows everything there is to know about our race. If she’s in the demon’s camp…”

More silence. Wesley leaned toward Manus again. “Former council member? A human?”