Leah squeezed his hand and smiled up at him. “No wonder you were so amused when I asked if I looked like her.”
Chuckling, he curled an arm around her shoulders and addressed the others. “Our children were similar in coloring to Darnell. My daughter married an Egyptian man who was as dark as David. And David inherited his father’s coloring.” He shrugged. “Or my wife’s. Or both.”
Roland studied him. “Are you infected with the virus, Seth?”
“No. My immortality was bestowed upon me at birth.”
Roland nodded slowly. “No wonder I’ve never seen you infuse yourself with blood.” He glanced at the image on the floor. “And this is your lineage?”
Seth nodded. He waved a hand, enabling all of them to read the ancient language he’d used. “You’ll find each of your names carved therein amongst the others.” As well as dates of birth, dates of death for his descendants who had not become immortal, and notations about each individual’s gifts.
Leah moved away but kept a tight hold on his hand.
Seth didn’t blame her for not wanting to sever the contact. He deeply regretted frightening her so. He had not expected to die today. He also hadn’t expected his father to bring him back if he did.
Drawing him over to the base of the tree, Leah stared down at it. “Your granddaughters weren’t immortal?” she asked softly.
He swallowed the lump that always rose in his throat when he thought of the granddaughters he had raised. “No. My children and those who came after them were not granted immortality at birth the way I was. And David was the first gifted one infected with the virus. We knew little about it at the time.” Until then, none of them had ever sickened or caught so much as a cold. “We saw what the virus did to humans and worried it would drive David insane, too—that it would just take longer.” Kneeling, he traced his granddaughters’ names. “And immortality lost its appeal when both girls—because of the DNA they inherited from me—outlived the human husbands they loved, then their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Their longer mortal lives brought them great grief, so they didn’t wish to extend those lives even more.” It had been heartbreaking to lose them.
Leah stroked his hair.
When Seth glanced up, she gave the shorter locks a playful tug. “It’s going to take me a while to get used to this.”
Trust Leah to always find a way to make him smile. He rose. “It will grow back.”
“What’s wrong?” Ethan murmured, drawing Seth’s gaze.
Standing beside her husband, Heather nibbled her lower lip. She glanced around. “Am I the only one who is quietly freaking out a little over the fact that we’re all related?”
“I’m not,” Sarah said with a smile. “It’s nice to discover I have family members I actually like.”
Roland laughed. “And who won’t try to stab us in the back.”
“Exactly,” she replied. Both seemed quite pleased by the revelation.
Heather wrinkled her nose. “Yeah. But… we’re related to our spouses.”
David laughed.
Seth did, too. “Everyone on this planet is related—all descendants of the first man and woman who walked the earth. Some just choose not to acknowledge that fact.”
Melanie tilted her head to one side. “I’m guessing the Great Flood narrowed the gene pool pretty dramatically, too.”
Seth nodded. “Very few survived. So Melanie and Bastien, for example, are about as related to each other as Bastien is to Chris Reordon.”
Bastien grimaced. “Please tell me I’m not related to that bastard.”
Everyone laughed.
David smiled at Heather. “Heather, you and Ethan aren’t first cousins whose shared ancestor is a grandparent. Or second cousins who have a common great-grandparent. You would have to trace your lineage back thousands of years to find your closest shared ancestor.” He motioned to the carving that covered the floor and three walls. “And you may do so if it will ease your concern.”
Smiling, Heather leaned into Ethan’s side. “You’ve already eased it.”
“None of the men present,” Seth added in case any doubts lingered, “are their wives’ ancestors. Only Roland fathered children before his transformation. And Sarah is not his descendant.”
Sarah grinned and pretended to wipe sweat off her forehead. “Whew! I didn’t marry my great-grandpa!”
More laughter erupted. Then everyone began searching the elaborately carved foliage.
“I found my name!” Krysta called with excitement. “Look, Sean. Yours is here, too. And Mom’s and Dad’s.”
Leah leaned into Seth as more exclamations arose.
Smiling, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
Gershom was gone. Leah and the others were safe.
It was finally over.
Rising onto her toes, Leah cupped his jaw in one delicate hand and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I like your family,” she confided with a smile.
Seth captured her lips in a longer, deeper exploration. “I love you, Leah.”
“I love you, too.” Tears welled in her eyes. “You scared the hell out of me.”
“I know,” he acknowledged, riddled with remorse. “Will you forgive me?”
“Yes.” She hugged him tight. “Just don’t ever do it again.”
“I won’t.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The next evening, Seth teleported into a dark cavern that had never been found or explored by mankind. Heat immediately closed around him, almost robbing him of the ability to breathe as it threatened to sear his skin. Guided by his preternatural vision, he strode forward and followed the tunnel, which had once served as a lava tube.
The channel carried him deeper and deeper into the earth.
The Others had chosen well.
It took some time to reach the end of it. Seth didn’t mind. He was in no hurry and could use the extra minutes to tame his emotions. He hadn’t wanted to leave Leah and was not looking forward to this. But it had to be done. He had to know.
At last the tunnel ended in a small room as round as a bubble. Seth halted. Only about twenty feet in diameter, it looked no different from the tunnel that preceded it save for the figure chained to one wall.
Gershom’s head hung low. His hair covered his face in tangles. The Others had succeeded so well in permanently depleting his power that Gershom could barely raise his head. And his eyes remained a brown so dark they were nearly black instead of flashing with golden sparks at Seth’s appearance.
Gershom’s lips turned up in a sneer. “I won.”
Seth held his arms out away from his sides and made a point of looking around, looking at Gershom in chains, then looking down at himself—clean and strong and free to go wherever he willed. “How do you figure that?”
“I decapitated you. I killed you.”
Seth casually seated himself on a nearby rock. Stretching his legs out before him, he crossed them at the ankles. “Actually, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did… when you rushed into that cell to save your pathetic little family.”
Seth shook his head and sent him a pitying look. “No, you didn’t. The United States military decapitated me. That base was used to incarcerate enemy combatants before it was repurposed for the study of bioweapons. It was already booby-trapped to prevent terrorists from breaking in and absconding with the people held there before you took control of it. The fail-safe in that holding room was designed and put there by humans, not you. It responded to human speeds, not immortal speeds. You failed to have them update it because you foolishly believed you would defeat me before I got that far. Your hubris screwed you and robbed you of victory.” He gave a careless shrug. “You didn’t decapitate anyone. The military did, aided by my own carelessness.” He glanced down at his healthy body. “And as you can see, I survived.”
“Because daddy came to save you,” Gershom spat, his face full of fury.
Seth raised his eyebrows and again
made a point of glancing around. “Jealous because your daddy hasn’t come to save you?”
The verbal barb struck hard, sparking a rant filled with epithets and pointless threats.
Seth shook his head. “Why do you hate me so much, Gershom?” he asked when the Other ran out of breath. He still couldn’t puzzle it out. It was the only reason he had come here today. Gershom no longer posed a threat. To anyone. He never would again because he would never escape. But Seth needed to know. “Some believe it’s because you resent that I was living life whilst you merely observed it.”
“Because their minds are too small to see the bigger picture,” Gershom snarled. “Living life,” he scoffed. “Soiling yourself with humans. With that offal. It’s all your fault,” he mumbled. “Your fault. It’s all your fault.”
And for a moment, Seth revisited the notion that Gershom had been slowly going insane over the millennia. The Other truly did seem mentally unbalanced.
“What bigger picture?” Seth asked. “What is my fault?”
The veins in Gershom’s neck stood out as he roared, “It should have been ours!”
Seth stared at him. “What should have been ours?”
The question only seemed to infuriate Gershom more. “Everything!” he bellowed. “Every-fucking-thing! This planet should have been ours! Ours to rule over! Not theirs! Not humans, who are so fucking weak and pathetic and childish in their thoughts and actions!”
“Those weak humans succeeded where you could not,” Seth pointed out. “Those weak humans decapitated me, not you.” Then he shook his head. “The Earth was never meant to be ours, Gershom. It was meant to belong to humans. We came later.”
“And we were better!” Gershom proclaimed, a wild glint entering his eyes. “We are better! We are so much more than they will ever be.”
“Our mothers were human. Have you forgotten that? Human women bore us. We owe humans our very lives.”
“We owe them nothing!” Chains rattled as Gershom gestured weakly. “Humans were given dominion over the Earth. Well, look what the fuck they’ve done with it! This was a beautiful planet! Perfect in every way! And look how they’ve soiled it! They’re unworthy of it. They’re like spoiled fucking children scrapping over toys at the playground, always warring and fighting and stabbing each other in the back in a bid to gain more wealth, more land, more power at the expense of others.”
Seth refrained from pointing out that Gershom had tried on at least two occasions to spark wars himself and had repeatedly stabbed Seth in the back.
“It all could’ve been made right,” Gershom ground out, “but you fucked it up.”
Once more, Seth found himself shaking his head in bafflement. “I didn’t cause—”
“Survival of the fittest,” Gershom interrupted.
“What?”
“Survival. Of. The fittest,” Gershom repeated as though speaking to a dimwit. “Nature would’ve corrected itself, but you wouldn’t let it.”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
“The virus. I know its origins.”
Seth frowned. “You do?” Even he didn’t know that. “Did you create it?”
“No. But I saw it claim its first victim. Then another. And another. And I knew.” He nodded, his gaze unfocused as if he were peering back into the past. “I knew it for the gift it was. I knew our time had come. I knew the virus would spread. I knew that eventually every human on the planet would either be killed by vampires or become one of them. And once only vampires remained, they would slay each other in their insanity.” He smiled. “Then only we would remain. We, the strongest. We, the fittest. We would inherit the Earth.”
Seth stared at him.
Gershom refocused his gaze on Seth. His face mottled with rage. “But you fucked all that up. Over a piece of ass! You fucking defected and married a human woman who bore you gifted children. Children with advanced DNA the virus couldn’t corrupt. And when David was infected with the virus, he didn’t go insane. He didn’t die. Nor did the other gifted ones who became infected. Even so, nature could’ve still prevailed. The virus still could’ve wiped out all the humans. But you pitted your blessed Immortal Guardians against the vampire population to keep it in check and protect the humans. The fucking humans who are so fucking far beneath us!” he roared, spittle flying from his lips. “It would’ve been ours if you had just done what you were fucking told and stayed away from humans. It would’ve all! Been! Ours!”
Seth sat there, stunned, for many long moments while Gershom’s ragged breathing echoed in the chamber.
Damn, Seth, he heard Leah say again. You saved the world.
And all of this—all of the battles and war and pain and death he and his family had endured in recent years—was because Gershom hated him for it.
“It should’ve been ours,” Gershom muttered. “It should’ve been ours. It should’ve all been ours. It should’ve been ours.”
He was still repeating it when Seth left and headed back up the tunnel.
Adira’s giggles filled the air as Leah trotted up the basement hallway. Bouncing on her back, the toddler wrapped her arms so tightly around Leah’s throat that her little fists threatened to choke her. But Leah didn’t mind. Making growly monster noises, she stomped up the stairs, adding lots of extra bounce and jounce that inspired more squeals of delight.
She burst into the hallway above.
Richart and Étienne grinned and dodged out of her way as she trotted into the living room.
David’s home was packed to the rafters. Every Immortal Guardian stationed in North Carolina occupied the sofas, love seats, and wingback chairs, as did their Seconds. Seth had given them the night off and allowed the network special-ops teams to patrol for vampires instead so the immortals and their Seconds could rest and recuperate.
All grinned when Leah entered with a giggling Adira on her back.
Leah galloped through black-clad bodies and sank to her knees next to Michael, where he and his mother and father were playing with some toy cars.
Ami leaned forward to help Adira dismount.
Leah grinned at her. “Whew! That was quite a workout.”
Ami laughed. “I’m sure it was. Adira even runs Marcus ragged, and he’s immortal.”
The front door swung open.
Leah turned to see who had entered and smiled when she saw Seth step inside. Rising, she closed the distance between them. “Hi, babe. How’d it go?” She knew he’d intended to speak with Gershom.
Ducking his head, he pressed a kiss to her lips, then wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.
Her smile faltered when that hug went on longer than expected. “That bad, huh?”
A long sigh escaped him. “It went about how I thought it would.”
Very bad then. “Did he say anything about the missing gifted one?” she asked tentatively. Now that the dust had settled, there was still one unaccounted for.
“No. And asking him would’ve proven futile.”
Leah drew her hands up and down his back in a soothing caress. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her, honey. Forget Gershom,” she declared disparagingly. “He’s an ass.”
Seth huffed a laugh. “An understatement if ever there was one.” Loosening his hold, he leaned back and looked down at her. His somber expression lightened as he brushed a few damp tendrils of hair back from her face. Amusement sparkled in his eyes. “What have you been doing? Your face is flushed.”
“I’ve been giving Adira piggyback rides.”
He smiled. “Let me guess. Every time you tried to put her down, she asked for one more?”
She laughed. “Yes.”
Looping his arms around her again, he clasped his hands at the base of her spine, pressing her close. “I like it when your cheeks are flushed,” he murmured. “You’re so beautiful, Leah.” This is how you look when we make love, he whispered in her head.
Her heart leapt as desire flared to life. Leah rubbed her hips against his, delighting in the h
ard length she felt rise behind his fly. “Flattery will get you everything.”
He arched a brow. “Even a ride of my own?”
She grinned. “Hell yes.” Breaking his hold, she took his hand and began to lead him through the living room toward the hallway. “Good night, everyone,” she said with a wave.
“Good night,” several chorused, offering them smiles.
“Wait,” Sheldon called. “You two aren’t heading to bed already, are you?”
“Yes, we are,” Seth confirmed.
Leah could feel his gaze on her ass like a caress as she walked in front of him.
“All right, guys,” Sheldon told the room, “you heard them. You know the drill.”
Frowning, Leah turned to look over her shoulder, then stopped short and stared.
Every man and woman present reached down beneath his or her seat. Within seconds, all donned rain slickers and rain boots, then grabbed the arms of their chairs as though bracing for an earthquake.
She burst out laughing.
A look of chagrin swept over Seth’s face. And she could’ve sworn color crept into his tanned cheeks. “Oh, come on,” he complained. “It’s not that bad.”
As if on cue, little Adira and Michael both held up child-sized umbrellas.
Boisterous laughter erupted throughout the room.
Even Seth joined in before Leah tugged him down the hallway and into their bedroom.
She closed the door, ensconcing them in quiet.
Seth shook his head, a smile lingering on his tempting lips. “I’m never going to live this down.”
Reaching up, she started to tug off his coat. “Well, it’s only going to get worse.”
“You think so?” he asked, his eyes glued to the cleavage the V-neck of her shirt exposed.
“Oh yeah,” she replied with certainty. Hanging his coat on the hook by the door, she grabbed the hem of his T-shirt and drew it up over his head. “If you think their ribbing is bad now, how much worse do you think it’ll be when the thunderstorms and earthquakes stop?”
Seth yanked off his boots and kicked them aside.
Leah drew her fingers over his bare chest, then flattened her hand and felt his heart begin to pound beneath that warm, beautifully sculpted muscle. “You said you think it only happens because it’s been so long since you made love.” She loved the way he sucked in a breath when she trailed her hand down his washboard abs and unfastened the button on his pants. “And you believe it’ll stop once we’ve been pounding it out every night for however many weeks or months.”
Death of Darkness Page 47