Hunted

bad enough. She begged me to protect him.” He laughed, though there was no humor in his eyes. “Come on, let’s go.”

There was anger and pain in his voice, but I was used to getting those emotions from him whenever he talked about his brother. I slipped my hand through his and let my energy caress his. “What are we going to do about Keiran?”

He squeezed my hand. “Let’s discuss it with the others after dinner.”

- 17 - A TOTAL FLOP

Cardinal Hsia’s living room no longer had sofas, or coffee and side tables. Instead, long dining tables were lined up at right angles to form a rectangle, leaving space in the center. On one side of the rectangle were piles of pizza and breadstick boxes from a local pizza shop; the rest of the tables had place settings for about sixty people.

There were lots of psi energies downstairs and a classical piano tune drifted upstairs. It was verbally quiet, but telepathically loud.

“That’s a lot of Cardinals,” I mumbled.

“Other sectors have two or three Cardinals with the same power,” Bran explained.

“How come we’re shortchanged?”

“That’s an insult. You have the senior Cardinals and me.” He wiggled his brow.

“Show-off.”

“Guess how many Water Cardinals there are in total?” he asked.

Water powers were rare. “One? You?”

“Three including me.”

We headed downstairs, where the Cardinals were having pre-dinner drinks and mingling. Not your normal party by the looks of things. But then again, “normal” and “Guardians” didn’t exactly go together.

The dress code was typical Guardian dark hunting clothes—pants and shirts, trench coats and boots, which meant weapons were hidden in sheaths and inner pockets in case of an attack. Our team dressed the way they normally did when we had a formal dinner—Remy in his signature preppy polo shirt and dressy pants, and Sykes in frayed jeans and a t-shirt with Size Matters written under an energy ball, while Kim and Izzy wore fashionable dresses with knee-length boots, their makeup flawless. No coats, but they were packing. They always did, no matter what they wore.

Bran and I moved from group to group. There was no warmth. No welcome. No attempt to say anything besides name, abilities, and sector. They all knew about my infamous father, but after L.A. and meeting with the archangels, I didn’t care. I had more things to worry about.

The two Cardinal Water Guardians Bran had mentioned were fresh out of high school and wanted to know about his adventures with the senior Cardinals. All their sentences began with, “Is it true you…”

You stay, I’ll mingle, I telepathed Bran.

You sure?

I could tell he wanted to stay and share his exploits. Even he wasn’t immune to hero-worshipping. I’ll be fine.

I looked around and smiled when my gaze connected with Solaris. She smiled stiffly back. Yeah, right back at you, lady. I assumed the Guardians beside her were from her sector. Going by their unsmiling expressions, she must have mouthed off to them about what happened in L.A.

Lifting my chin, I walked over and introduced myself. The false smiles set my teeth on edge, but I learned something. Each team gravitated toward the familiar, namely their teammates.

Like water, time ability was rare. Actually, it was even rarer, but Izzy found one, a super-hot guy with tawny eyes and bronze hair. The two hugged the wall, lost in their own little world. From the look in his eyes, Izzy walked on water.

“You mean you took them all at once?” he was saying just as I reached them.

“The energy surge from the Kris Dagger helped of course, but yes,” Izzy said with a saucy grin.

“I wish I’d seen that.”

I cleared my throat, but they didn’t hear me. I did the next best thing and pinged Izzy to get her attention. She turned.

“Oh, Lil. You guys finally made it. This is Solomon, Time Guardian, Northeast. Sol, Lil.”

“Lil doesn’t need introduction. Everyone calls me Sol.” His was the first genuine smile I’d seen, but his interest was in Izzy and their conversation.

I took one step away from them and Sykes slid in by my side. “Nice party.”

“If you like people staring at you like you’re the devil’s spawn.”

“You are the devil’s spawn,” he teased.

“And you are a jackass.”

Sykes laughed. “Hey, I’m getting frostbite from this lively bunch too and I’m a home-grown hero.” He glanced behind us. “Bran, on the other hand, found groupies and ditched you.”

I ignored the dig. “Where are yours?”

“Have you met Lunaris and Solaris?” He shuddered. “Energy Cardinals are supposed to be fun. They suck fun from the air and spit on it.”

He soon found a girl he knew from home and I continued to mingle until Esras asked people to head upstairs.

Bran materialized beside me and we headed upstairs. Sector Cardinals grouped together except Sol, Izzy’s time buddy, who sat beside her and Bran’s water duo. The pizzas had cooled down, but Esras’ energy guys warmed them up, then the Cardinal Psis floated the boxes around the table so we could select steaming slices and breadsticks.

“Have you guys had a tough time dealing with humans here in the Northwest?” Esras asked and glanced over at our table.

Heads turned and eyes focused on us.

“I’m talking about Damned Humans whose souls we were trying to restore before the Tribe attacked,” he added.

“We have,” Remy said. “Some didn’t want their souls back. Others went into hiding rather than make the decision.”

“Humans are so unpredictable,” another Cardinal said.

“Impossible to deal with.”

“Always looking for an easy way out.”

Their anecdotes about human encounters were many and varied. Others were amused. Some sympathetic, but the majority were haters. I refused to be drawn into human bashing. Guardians’ lives were mapped out for them. The ones with powers over elements became Cardinals. The ones with moderate powers became part of the Civilian support team and ran the High Councils, owned businesses in various towns and provided Cardinals with support in other ways. The rest stayed back in Xenith. Humans couldn’t live like that because they had free will. Free to do whatever they want, within societal norms, however stupid or mundane, and live with the consequences of their actions.

“Aren’t you going to jump in and defend your friends?” Kim asked.

I shrugged. “No. The Cardinals are entitled to their opinions.”

“Are your humans losing their memories or going into comas after being attacked, too?” Bran asked, redirecting the conversation.

Esras nodded. “When we left, we didn’t know the ‘Tribe’ was behind the attack.” Esras looked at me. “Perhaps you can tell us what happened to you on the island, Cardinal Lil. We really only learned that one of them attacked you.”

All eyes zeroed in on me. Usually I would have felt self-conscious at the attention, but not after that