Vanished - Maureen Child

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to a waitress who saw her leave. Alone. But after that there’s just nothing…”

      Alison turned her head to look through the pub’s window at the laughing, dancing people inside, and she was so wistful, so lost, she made his heart hurt. Something it hadn’t done in a very long time.

      Bristling at the very notion, Rogan straightened to his full height and looked down at her. “What makes you think a demon has her?”

      “What else could have happened? She isn’t at the hospitals. Hasn’t been arrested. She doesn’t know anyone here, so she’s not staying with a friend.” She shook her head slowly and looked away from him, staring off into the shadows as if expecting to find her sister there waiting for her. “She’s vanished, Rogan, and no one’s seen her. Anywhere.” She wiped away the stray raindrops from her cheeks with the back of her hand.

      She blew out a breath and sucked in another. “There are others missing, too. Lots of them. Tourists are disappearing, and I believe it’s got something to do with the seer’s warning. There is something rising here and I think it’s got Casey.” She stepped up close to him, tilted her head back and met his gaze with a steadiness he admired. “I’ve got to get her back. And you’ve got to help me.”

      Behind them the pub door opened and noise and smoke rolled out around them. A couple, linked arm in arm, ran from the pub and down the sidewalk, laughing. Rogan, though, paid them no attention.

      Grabbing Alison’s arm, he ignored the instantaneous burn that erupted between them and dragged her farther from the lights, deeper into the shadows. When he was sure they were alone, he let her go and said, “You’ve no business following a demon.” When she started to argue with him, he cut her off neatly and kept talking, his voice going deeper, more rough with every word. “I’ve seen this before, you know. Society members spend so much time studying Guardians that they begin to believe they, too, are capable of battling the demons. It’s a false confidence, and all it causes is more death. If you go after a demon, you’ll get yourself killed.”

      She stepped back from him, and despite the darkness, the determined gleam in her eyes shone at him. He actually itched to touch her again. A humming sense of intensity built inside him, roaring like a fire just catching the tinder. He hadn’t felt that particular warmth in more years than he cared to count and wasn’t at all grateful to be feeling it now.

      “I’m not an idiot. I wouldn’t try to capture a demon. But I can follow one.”

      “To what end?”

      “Finding my sister, of course. What else?”

      “You’ve no idea if she’s being held by a demon or not.”

      “I’m out of options, Rogan,” she muttered, turning her gaze from him, back to the shadows that edged the riverside. A moment later Alison lifted one hand and pointed. “There! There it is again. Do you see it?”

      “Aye. I see it.” It amazed him to know that she could see that faint wash of pale purple and red twisting in the night wind. But clearly she could. There was more to Alison Blair than he might have thought. And the danger of that was all too clear to him.

      If he didn’t step in, keep her from following whatever demon was haunting the shadows of Westport, Alison would do it herself.

      She was willing to risk her life to find her sister.

      And as a Guardian, he was duty bound to protect her.

       Chapter 4

      Alison wasn’t about to waste precious seconds as they ticked inexorably past. She simply set off in the direction she’d seen the demon’s energy signal and expected Rogan to follow her. She wasn’t disappointed.

      For a huge man, he moved so quietly he might as well have been invisible again. And hadn’t that been a surprise and a half! To feel unseen hands grab her…to hear that deep, musical voice telling her to be quiet…and to see not a soul.

      Of course, she knew about the Guardians’ ability to obfuscate themselves, but she’d never really seen that ability in action. The way she’d jumped and yelped had really been professional. Oh, she was not at all prepared to be a field operative. And the thought of following a demon to find Casey absolutely terrified her. But she had no choice in this. So when Rogan grabbed her again, none too gently, she ignored the arc of something hot and delicious jolting through her system and turned to face him, fire in her eyes.

      The furious expression on his face made her almost wish he’d go invisible again. “Come on. If we don’t follow what’s left of that energy signature, we’ll lose the demon.”

      “We’ll do nothing of the kind,” he said and gave her arm another squeeze before releasing her. “You’re tracking no demons while I’m here.”

      “You can’t stop me.”

      “I can, yes. Don’t push me on this, Alison Blair. I’ve no use for the Society and even less use for a woman on a hunt.”

      “You really are a caveman, aren’t you?”

      He seemed to swell in indignation. His broad chest widening, his square jaw tight, his green eyes flashing with a banked fury. “I’m a Guardian, in case you’ve forgotten. This is my job, not yours.”

      “And Casey is my sister, not yours.” She wouldn’t back down. Couldn’t. He’d just said it himself. Casey was no more than a job to him. He wasn’t involved in this. Not really. He didn’t care as she did.

      The rush of the nearby river blended with the sigh of the wind and the patter of the rain falling down around them in fat, lazy drops.

      “You’ve a car, don’t you?” he demanded.

      “Yes.”

      “Then get in it and go back to your B and B. If I find anything, I’ll let you know.”

      Her jaw dropped. Surely he didn’t actually expect that to happen. “I can’t go back without Casey.”

      “You can and you will. Now.”

      That last word was emphasized, and he stared her down as if daring her to contradict him. She would have, too. But in a small, still-rational corner of her mind, her own voice whispered that she was wasting time—that Rogan Butler was a legendary Guardian, that if anyone could find Casey, it would be he. But he needed her along. She knew Casey. He didn’t. Her younger sister would be terrified by the huge warrior if Aly wasn’t along to reassure her.

      Deliberately, she took another step toward the river. “I’ll go when I see you’re on the demon’s trail. When I know you’ve got some clue as to where Casey is.”

      Muttering under his breath, he stalked past her, the sound of his movement lost in the sigh of the river. The rush of Gaelic pouring from him sounded both musical and enraged. When he finally spoke in English again, it was short and sweet. “Stay behind me. And the hell out of my way.”

      “Charming,” she murmured, but did as he said, taking two or three steps for every one of his. He moved along the river walk, his gaze darting from side to side, checking every shadow, searching every corner he passed. Casey, too, kept her gaze alert, hoping to see another swirl of color, some trace of the demon that had been moving through here only moments ago.

      But there seemed to be nothing, only the quiet rush of the river and the dark that seemed to spill along the streets. The moon was hidden now beneath a bank of clouds still spitting rain, and the blend of fiddle and drum from the pub seemed distant and dreamlike.

      Her breath came in short, hard gasps as she struggled to keep up with the Guardian, who clearly didn’t care if she fell behind. Maybe he was going so quickly on purpose. To prove to her that she couldn’t keep up. That she had no business being on a hunt.

      Aly didn’t know. Didn’t care. Her gaze locked

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