Page 65 of Demon Unleashed

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It took Enya less than half an hour to reach Scanguards headquarters in the Mission District of San Francisco. It was still daytime and would be so for a few more hours, which meant that many of the vampires employed by Scanguards wouldn’t be present. She was glad for it. While she loved the Stealth Guardians’ vampire allies, she didn’t have time for extended chats today.

In the glass lobby, she walked to the reception desk, where a bright-eyed human woman greeted her.

“How may I help you?”

“I need to see Wesley Montgomery. It’s urgent. Tell him Enya is here.”

“Please look into this camera,” she instructed Enya, and pointed to a small camera mounted on the reception desk. Enya complied, and the woman nodded and typed something on her keyboard. It appeared that Scanguards had a new system to announce visitors.

Within seconds, there was an audible ping, and the printer spat out a visitor pass. She looked at it, then handed it to Enya.

“Here you go, ma’am. Go straight down the hall. Wesley will meet you outside the V lounge.”

“Thanks.” Enya snatched the visitor pass and shoved it in her pocket, then turned to the corridor.

“Ma’am, you have to put it on your jacket…” the receptionist called after her.

But Enya didn’t care and kept walking. She didn’t have time for formalities. Zoltan’s future was on the line. And so was hers. She wasn’t stupid: if she couldn’t convince her colleagues that Zoltan could be saved and turned back into a Stealth Guardian, they would have to turn her in to stand trial before the council. It was their duty.

Wesley was just coming around a corner when Enya arrived at the entrance to the V lounge, an area reserved for vampires and other preternatural creatures. It was strictly off-limits to humans.

“Hey, Enya, what a nice surprise.”

“It’s good to see you, Wes. Can we talk?”

“Something wrong?”

She motioned to the door. “In private?”

Wes swiped his access card and ushered her into the large room that resembled an executive lounge at a five-diamond hotel. Enya glanced around. Apart from a bartender, nobody was around. Wes motioned to the seating arrangement closest to them, and they both sat down.

Wesley had been the first and only outsider who’d ever managed to access a Stealth Guardian portal, an action that had teleported him to Baltimore, where he’d subsequently brokered an alliance between the vampires and the Stealth Guardians—but only after an adventure that included a trip to the Underworld and winning the heart of a member of the Council of Nine, Virginia.

“What do you need?” he asked, all business.

That was what she liked about Wesley. Even though he was a goofball and happy-go-lucky kind of guy, he immediately recognized when something was serious.

“In a nutshell: your help.”

“Okay? Give me the short version.”

“I’m sure that at some point Virginia must have mentioned to you that her fellow council member Cinead had a baby son who was believed to be killed by the demons.”

Wes nodded. “I’m aware of it. But according to Winter, the baby was kidnapped.”

“Correct. And I found him.”

“Wow! Something to celebrate. Knowing Cinead, he’ll be over the moon.”

Enya cringed. “Not exactly. I dread telling him.”

“But why?”

“Because his son is now a demon. And not just any demon. He’s Zoltan.”

Wes slouched back in the seat cushions and blew out a breath. “Zoltan? We’re talking about the Zoltan? Ruler of the Underworld, the Great One, yada, yada, yada.”