FORTY
After nearly a week at the compound during which Aiden had rarely left her side, it was finally time for Leila to step outside her safe haven.
“It’s time to see your parents,” Aiden said.
Leila gave a bittersweet smile. This would be the last time they saw her—if they even recognized her this time.
“You can do this.”
Pushing back the rising tears, she pasted another smile onto her lips. “I can do this.”
The things she’d been through since that fateful night when she’d met Aiden had shown her that she was stronger than she believed. She’d survived several attacks by demons and two attempts of murder by a Stealth Guardian. Somehow she would survive this too, as much as it would break her heart. But she understood the importance of this and knew that for everybody’s sake—the world’s sake—she had to make this sacrifice. The wellbeing of billions of humans was at stake, and if giving them a fighting chance to resist the influence of the demons meant she had to take this step, then she would do it. She had no right to be selfish.
By the time they pulled up in front of her parents’ house in Aiden’s car, she and Aiden had gone through everything that would happen that day. She reached for the door handle when he clasped his hand over hers.
She looked back at him.
“You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met.”
Leila smiled, his admission warming her heart. “Because you make me strong.”
As they got out of the car and walked up the driveway hand in hand, she felt a prickling sensation at her back and tensed.
“Don’t turn around,” he murmured under his breath.
“Are they watching us?”
“Yes. Are you afraid?”
“Yes,” she answered. There was no need to lie. Fear was good, Aiden had told her. It would keep her on her toes and ultimately safe.
When she reached the door, she didn’t have a chance to even ring the bell. The door was torn open, and Nancy greeted her enthusiastically.
“Leila! My dear! We were all so worried about what we saw on TV. Are you all right?”
Leila forced a charming smile and gave the housekeeper a quick hug before squeezing past her into the house.
“No worries, Nancy. It was all a big misunderstanding. I’m sure the news will report in a few hours that I had nothing to do with what happened at Inter Pharma.”
“Ah, that’s a relief!” Nancy said as she eyed Aiden who now closed the entrance door and stood in the hallway.
“Oh, sorry, this is my boyfriend, Aiden. Aiden, this is Nancy, my parents’ caregiver.” She knew that half of the introduction wasn’t necessary. Aiden already knew everything there was to know about Nancy.
He shook Nancy’s hand, flashing a boyish grin. “So pleased to meet you. Leila talks about you all the time. You take such good care of her parents.”
Nancy blushed and made a dismissive hand movement. “Oh, they’re so easy to work for.”
“Where are they?” Leila looked down the hallway, listening for their voices.
“In the den. Your dad is reading the paper, and your mother is watching TV.”
The walk down the hallway felt longer than ever before. Would they recognize her today? Her father maybe. He often seemed more lucid than her mother. Would she know today that her daughter was visiting, or would it be like it was when she’d called from the massage parlor? Leila prayed that this was a good day for both of them.
“I’ll make us some tea,” Nancy chirped and headed for the kitchen.
“We can’t stay long,” Leila called after the caregiver.
“Your parents are due their tea anyway. It’s no bother.” Then she disappeared into the kitchen.
Aiden squeezed her hand in reassurance. She nodded at him, then slowly walked into the den. Her mother sat on the couch, staring at the TV, a soap blaring from it. Her father sat in his favorite armchair, folding a newspaper and putting it on a side table. He looked up and straight at her.
For a moment she stood there frozen in place, waiting. She searched her father’s blue eyes for a sign of recognition.
“Leila?” he suddenly said and rose hesitantly.
She ran toward him and threw her arms around him. He hugged her to him.
“Thank you, thank you,” she whispered. “Oh, Dad, it’s so good to see you.” She raised her head to look at him.
“You haven’t visited in a long time,” he admonished.
She decided not to tell him that she’d spent half a day with him and her mother only two weeks earlier. “I know, Dad. I’m sorry.”
“Well, at least you’re here now.” Then he looked past her, releasing her from his embrace. “You brought a friend?”
Leila turned. “That’s Aiden, Dad.”
Her father nodded. “Hello.”
“Sir, it’s a pleasure meeting you.”
“How is Mom?” Leila asked and cast a look at her mother who was still staring into the TV as if she hadn’t even heard the conversation that was taking place not five feet away from her.
Her father shrugged. “Fine, I guess.”
Leila took a few tentative steps toward the couch, then crouched down in front of her.
“Hi, Mom.”
Her mother stared back at her, then moved to the side to look past her at the TV.
“Mom, it’s Leila, I’m here to visit.”
She gave Leila an inquisitive glance before training her eyes back onto her TV show. Leila took her hand and squeezed it, trying to hold back the tears that started to well up in her eyes.
“They said Leila disappeared,” her mother suddenly said. “The TV said it.”
Leila let out a sigh, half relief, half pain. At least her mother’s words meant that she still grasped something. “Leila is here, Mom, I’ve come back. The TV was wrong.”
Her mother turned her head fully back to her. “Leila is back?”
Stifling her tears, she answered, “Yes, Mom, Leila is back, and she loves you very much.”
“Why doesn’t she come and visit then?” Her mother’s eyes stared right at her, but still there was no recognition in them.
“She will, Mom, she will very soon. Your daughter loves you. She wants you to know that.”
“I love her too.”
Leila released her hands and rose, turning away in order not to show her tears. Aiden put a comforting hand on her forearm.
“She might not know who you are, but she knows you love her. Isn’t that most important?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes. It will have to be enough.”
When she turned back to her father, he was sitting in his chair again, reading the paper.
“Dad?”
He didn’t look up this time, almost as if he was in his own world, too engrossed to hear anything else.
“I have to go,” she whispered, knowing he didn’t even hear her.
As they left the house only moments later, saying their goodbyes to Nancy, Aiden took her arm and led her back to the car. She lowered the window all the way and waved at the caregiver from inside the car, making sure Nancy would later recognize the fancy Ferrari.
Leila reached for the seatbelt out of habit, but Aiden’s hand stopped her.
“Maybe it’s better that way,” she mused, looking at Aiden who put the car in gear and drove off. “Maybe she’ll never find out that I died today.”
At the next intersection, the light was red.
“Time to go, baby,” Aiden instructed. “Hamish is waiting on the sidewalk for you. You’ll be cloaked all the way.”
She nodded and heaved herself out of the car window as they’d practiced the entire week. Then she gave Aiden another look. “Be careful.”
When the light turned green, he took off like a rocket. There was no other traffic. The Stealth Guardians had made sure of that. She watched as Aiden’s car ran a red light at the next intersection.
The crash could be heard in the entire neighborhood. Moments later, it was followed by an explosion. Aiden’s car had crashed into a gas truck that had come from the right. Everything went up in flames, the gas from the truck spilling everywhere, spreading the fire to engulf the entire intersection, incinerating Aiden’s sports car.
“Be safe,” she whispered. “Please be safe.”
“He can’t be killed by fire,” Hamish murmured behind her.
“Where is he? I can’t see him.” Nervousness crept up her spine. What if Hamish was wrong? What if an explosion could kill a Stealth Guardian after all?
“He would have dematerialized at impact and emerged behind the gas truck,” Hamish tried to calm her. “At worst he would have gotten singed a little.”
“But what if—”
Bare arms closed around her, pulling her into the hard muscles of a naked man she would recognize anywhere. Naked, because the fire had burned the clothes off his body, yet left him untouched.
“I’m here, baby.”