I resisted the urge to yell at my father. He was just the messenger. “Are they after Nick?”
“Not directly,” he said. “Nick’s identity is a very closely guarded secret. They’re after you and the others guarding him. Of course, they don’t know you’re guarding someone, only that you’re here.”
Which meant the closer we stayed to Nick, the more we put him at risk. Leaving him also wasn’t an option. “He’s just starting to gain his powers. If they detect him he’d be helpless.”
“No one’s suggesting you leave him alone, but this does make things… complicated.” Dad smiled, tossing my word back at me. “You and the others need to be extra careful to shield yourselves when using your powers and vigilant for any abnormal energy around you.”
“If they’ve been hidden for a year, they’re not emitting any signatures we can read.” I sounded like I’d given up, but they needed to give us more thanbe on guard. “Should we move Nick to a more secure location?”
Dad shook his head. “As I said, he’s not their target, the rest of you are.”
None of this made sense. Not with our technological superiority. “How is it they can hide from us, but we can’t hide from them?”
“Micheal is still working on the first part, but we can hide from them, we didn’t know we needed to until now.”
The implication was daunting. Angels used their powers in small ways every day. We weren’t in the habit of shielding ourselves every time we used our abilities. “Can we create safe zones?”
“Yes.” Dad tapped his watch and mine buzzed. “I transferred information on how to cloak your location even when you’re not there. Keep them small, preferably inside a larger structure like your condo, or Nick’s apartment. If you cover too large an area the dead space will alert them to what you’re doing.”
I quickly skimmed the data. The process wasn’t hard, but it took time. “What about you and Mom? You don’t live in a dense area. Won’t shielding your house tip them off?”
“Thank you for your concern, but we’re fine.” Dad said with a smile. “We’re only shielded on the second floor.”
Voicing my concern was borderline insulting. Dad was so powerful, there weren’t enough Drevlin on earth to take him down. “Other than shielding our homes and ourselves, is there anything else?”
“I’ve told Orion and Zeke to help. I’ll leave it to you to work out how to integrate them into your team.”
Nothing like leaving me the hard part. “Anything else?”
“Yes.” He scrolled on his watch face before tapping. “Finding Uriel is no longer a priority. He’s made contact with you, so we know he’s watching the situation.”
Dad pointed to my wrist and I took the hint. Reading the new information, I wasn’t sure if I was happy or upset. “Victoria is now working for me?”
“That came from Michael. She should be aware of her new assignment by now.”
Great. Just what I needed. A pissed off cousin. “I’ll talk to her.”
“She can’t be in charge of you because of your connection with Nick, and you’re not an autocratic leader.” He patted my arm. “It will be fine.”
Easy for him to say. The devil was always in the details. I’d worry about Vicky when we had a chance to talk. “What’s the Drevlin’s end game? If you know.”
“Ultimately, it’s to conquer the earth. In the short term, however, they want to take out as many of us as possible.”
Dad had the benefit of being there four thousand years ago when the Drevlin destroyed our home world. He also had direct contact with Michael. To someone like me, this was a confusing mess. “How did they even find us?”
“They didn’t,” he said. “Earth is in the path of their expansion. I doubt they know who we are, only that we’re powerful. Their tactic is to take out the strongest members of arace before they invade. It didn’t work when they attacked us, which is how we were able to escape.”
I had a million questions, but before I could ask any, Dad held up a hand. “Big picture questions need to wait. Right now, our focus is on stopping this threat to you and the others. Once we root out this cell, we can have a broader conversation.”
I preferred to have as much information as possible, but Dad was right. I needed to concentrate on everyone’s safety. “What about Uriel? Does he know about this?”
“If he does, he hasn’t said anything to us.” Dad sounded more frustrated than I’d ever heard him. “Uriel didn’t share much in the best of times. Now he’s following his secret plan. Michael might be mad at him, but this time I agree with Uriel. There may be someone close to Michael, Raphael, or me who’s a traitor. Uriel doesn’t want to risk getting you or the others killed.”
Uriel’s secretive ways didn’t seem as eccentric as they appeared on the surface. “What should we do about Nick’s emerging powers? They show up whenever he’s overly emotional. He can’t control them, much less use them to defend himself. Should we tell him the truth so we can train him? Otherwise, he’ll be leaking any time he gets upset.”
“Not until Uriel says it’s time.” Dad held up his hands in a sign of defeat. “For good or bad, we’ve followed his visions this far. It would be foolish to deviate now.”
My father wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t feel better. It was much harder to protect Nick if he didn’t know he was in danger or how to minimize the risk. “Can you contact Uriel and ask him if we can tell him the truth before it’s too late?”
