Blade of Darkness

by Dianne Duvall

  “Not someone bearing Aidan’s appearance,” Chris corrected. “Aidan.”

  Ethan spoke up. “I still don’t think it was him. I think it was someone else. One of the Others maybe.”

  Chris rolled his eyes. “You’re biased and don’t want to believe he could do anything bad because he transformed Heather for you.”

  Heather huffed a laugh. “And you aren’t biased?”

  “I have three videos that say I’m not,” he countered.

  Heather raised her eyebrows. “Really? And if the man in the videos appeared to be Seth or David, would you still be so quick to disregard Ethan’s input?”

  That actually seemed to give Chris pause. “I trust Seth and David.”

  Ami leaned forward. “Then trust Seth’s judgment. When Gershom hit us on multiple fronts last year, we trusted Aidan to keep Adira safe and he did.”

  All eyes went to the redheaded toddler who slept in Marcus’s arms.

  Marcus nodded. “Aidan risked his life to protect her. He knew there was a good chance Gershom would follow him. He knew he couldn’t outrun Gershom or beat him in a fight. Yet he still didn’t hesitate to put his life on the line, whisk her away, and do everything he could to keep her safe.”

  Heather spoke once more. “Ethan remembers every tiny, insignificant detail he sees. If he says he doesn’t think the man in the video is Aidan, then I believe him. And I think you would, too, if that man looked like anyone else here.”

  Chris ground his teeth for a full minute, then sighed and sank back in his seat. “You’re right. I fucked up.”

  One might think that would assuage Seth’s anger, but it didn’t. “Yes, you did. And because you did, Roland followed Aidan, attacked him, and did his damnedest to kill him.”

  Gasps of dismay.

  Marcus scowled. “Are they okay?”

  In the rare instances in which immortals fought each other, the elder immortal almost always emerged the victor.

  “They each suffered a few deep gashes,” Seth disclosed. Gashes he supposed he should have healed for them, but he had been too pissed to think of that at the time.

  “Why was Roland so upset?” Marcus asked, his voice reflecting puzzlement.

  Sheldon nodded. “Yeah. Did Roland used to date Veronica or something?”

  Seth almost laughed over that. Sarah was the first woman in whom Roland had shown an interest in centuries. “Veronica is his descendant.”

  Every eye widened.

  Sheldon looked at the faces around the table. “So she’s like his great-great-great-et-cetera-granddaughter?”

  “Yes.” Seth shook his head. “Roland didn’t move to America a century ago just for the hell of it. Or to disappear, as some believe. He came because the bulk of his descendants migrated here. And a large portion of those now reside in North Carolina and surrounding states.” He motioned to Jenna. “Jenna is his descendant.”

  Heather gaped at Jenna. “You are?”

  She smiled. “Yes.”

  “Veronica is Roland’s descendant, too,” Seth continued. “And when Chris stopped just short of telling us Aidan had killed her…”

  Marcus swore. “Roland was understandably furious.”

  Chris shook his head. “If Aidan is innocent and didn’t harm those women or—at the very least—abduct them, then why did he flee the meeting?”

  Seth didn’t see much reason to withhold the information. “Aidan has been seeing a mortal woman. A gifted one by the name of Dana Pembroke. When he heard that the last six female gifted ones he’d met had disappeared shortly thereafter, he feared Dana was in danger and wanted to ensure she was safe.”

  “Was she safe?” Brodie asked.

  “Yes.”

  Sheldon’s brow creased. “Why didn’t Aidan just teleport over there? Why drive?”

  Seth glared at Chris. “Because Dana doesn’t know he’s immortal and can teleport. Or at least she didn’t until Roland followed Aidan to her home and outed him.”

  Groans all around.

  Chris frowned. “Aidan didn’t circle her name on the list.”

  “No, he didn’t. Because he didn’t want you to fuck things up,” Seth ground out, “which you managed to do quite efficiently anyway. Roland attacked Aidan and was doing his damnedest to kill him—with glowing eyes and at preternatural speeds—when Sarah called me.”

  Brodie slammed a fist down on the table. “Damn it, Reordon!”

  Little Adira jumped. Cracking open sleepy eyes, she peered at the faces around the table, then snuggled back against her daddy’s chest and let slumber claim her once more.

  Brodie sent Marcus and Ami an apologetic look, then glared at Chris. “Aidan has waited three thousand years to find a woman he loves, a gifted one who might love him enough to transform for him the way Sarah did for Roland. And when he finally finds her, or thinks he has, you go and fuck it all up?”

  The anger and belligerence in Chris’s expression gave way to guilt.

  Ami turned to Seth. “What about Dana? Is she okay?”

  “Yes. But she Tasered Roland.”

  Jaws dropped.

  “That is awesome!” Sheldon declared.

  Brodie grinned. “I knew it. She’s a fighter.”

  Seth agreed. It had taken a hell of a lot of guts for her to grab that Taser and rush outside when she saw Roland and Aidan zipping around at preternatural speeds, trying to slay each other. “She’s understandably shaken up though. Angry. And afraid.” He shook his head. “We may have just blown Aidan’s shot at finding a woman he can spend the rest of his immortal life with by robbing him of the opportunity to share the reality of his existence with her and reveal the truth himself in his own time.”

  Bastien swore. “Three thousand years alone and he’s going to miss out on love because Chris had his head up his ass?”

  Seth shook his head “It’s not definite yet. He’s talking to her now.”

  Chris frowned. “You left him alone with her?”

  “Yes, Chris,” Seth gritted. “I left him alone with her to try to undo the damage you’ve wrought. And before you object, let me remind you that I’ve known Aidan for a hell of a long time. I made a colossal mistake two years ago when I falsely accused him of working against us—based on video footage you provided, I might add. I won’t make the same mistake twice without having more conclusive evidence than you’ve shown us tonight.”

  Chris dragged both hands down his face. “Okay. You’re right. I fucked up.” Leaning forward, he braced his elbows on the table. “And I don’t mean in a small way. I mean in a huge, Sheldon kind of way.”

  Sheldon sent him a disgruntled frown. “Come on, man.”

  Everyone chuckled.

  The tension in the room eased.

  Chris flipped through the papers in front of him. “From this point on, I’ll pour more time and effort into considering the options I shoved aside because I believed Aidan was guilty.”

  Seth nodded his approval. Chris was a good man, unafraid of admitting when he was wrong. He’d find a way to make amends.

  Chris folded his hands on top of the papers and addressed them all. “Aidan swears the man in the videos isn’t him. And most of you want to believe that, so this won’t be a popular supposition, but what if it is him and he just doesn’t remember it? We all know Gershom is fond of mind control. What if Gershom has stepped up his game and, instead of using mortals, is now using Aidan as his puppet?”

  Seth looked at David. “I think Aidan’s mind is too strong for that, don’t you?”

  David nodded. “Yes. His mental barriers are nearly impenetrable. I don’t think Gershom could plant commands or tamper with Aidan’s memories without him knowing it.”

  Seth looked to Zach.

  “I agree,” Zach said. “I had to constantly enforce a command to sleep the one time I tried to read his mind. His mental barriers are, in fact, so strong that I failed to topple them. His nose and ears bled. And even though he slept through it all, he still knew when
he awoke that someone had been in his head.”

  Chris’s brow furrowed. “If Zach could command him to sleep, couldn’t Gershom command him to forget?”

  “Theoretically,” Seth admitted. “I’ll try to convince Aidan to lower his barriers enough for me to look for signs of such. I believe he wouldn’t do so before because he didn’t want me to know about Dana. But now that I do…”

  Melanie bit her lip. “Seth, even if Gershom did manipulate Aidan’s mind, I don’t know that you would find any evidence of it. In humans, you would see scar tissue and other signs of the damage that causes. But immortals have incredible regenerative capabilities. If Gershom planted commands in Aidan’s mind to make him abduct the gifted ones, then returned after the fact and erased those commands—along with all of Aidan’s memories of the events—the virus could conceivably have healed the scarring that would’ve resulted and left no traces of tampering in Aidan’s brain.”

  David frowned. “So we can’t clear Aidan simply by reading his mind?”

  “I doubt it,” she confirmed with regret.

  Seth shook his head. “Then our problems have just multiplied.”

  Ethan frowned. “I still don’t think that was Aidan in the video. I think it was Gershom or someone else who can shape-shift.”

  Brodie braced his elbows on the table. “If it’s Gershom, why assume another’s appearance at all? I don’t see the purpose of it.”

  “Plausible deniability?” Zach suggested. “As long as no one actually sees him do it, he can deny it.”

  “Or,” Bastien proposed, “perhaps he just likes to fuck with us. He’s tried once before to turn us against each other.”

  Seth hid his pleasure over Bastien’s use of the word us. It had taken the immortal black sheep a long damned time to truly become one of them.

  David made a sound of agreement. “We know Gershom holds a great deal of animosity toward Seth. What better way to strike at him than to the make Seth strike at one of his beloved Immortal Guardians, only to discover too late that he was wrong?”

  Which was why Seth was loath to believe Aidan guilty.

  Bastien shook his head. “Vampires appear to be amassing again, too. I think we also need to consider what, if any, role they may be playing in all this.”

  Ethan nodded. “Heather and I killed a dozen in just one night. Then killed a dozen more a few nights later.”

  Marcus spoke softly so as not to wake the toddler he held. “Roland and Sarah have been encountering such numbers as well, killing nine one night, eleven the next. I took out seven myself last night.”

  Étienne frowned and leaned forward. “Krysta and I just took out ten. But I didn’t have time to explore their thoughts and look for signs of manipulation.”

  Krysta snorted. “You would’ve had plenty of time if you hadn’t been killing them as fast as you could so I wouldn’t have to kill as many myself.”

  He looked down at his wife. “I don’t like your taking on such numbers.”

  She gave his cheek a little pat. “I was killing vampires long before I met you and transformed, sweetie. I can take care of myself.”

  Sheldon grinned. “She sure as hell can. Strong women are so hot.”

  Tracy scowled and hit him on the shoulder. “Hey!”

  “What?” Sheldon asked with a wince.

  “I’m sitting right here,” she protested.

  “And you’re strong,” he retorted. “What do you think drew me to you in the first place?”

  Her eyes narrowed, then her lips twitched. “I believe you once told me it was my breasts.”

  Grinning, he sent her a wink. “Those did, too.”

  Seth felt his ire recede and leaned back in his chair. “All right. Let’s get back to business and see if we can’t figure this out. Chris, redirect your efforts toward proving that the man in the video is not Aidan.”

  Chris removed a small notepad from his breast pocket, along with a stubby number two pencil, and began to scribble notes.

  David spoke next. “You might also consider having your special ops men surveil the other women on Aidan’s list of female gifted ones to ensure no more are taken.”

  Chris nodded, still writing. “I’ll give them all pictures of Aidan and have them call you directly, Seth, if they see someone matching his description approach any of the women.”

  David glanced around the table. “The rest of you keep an eye out as well. We don’t know yet who is guiding the vampires, but Gershom is likely responsible for both the abductions and the sharp increase in vampire population.”

  Seth nodded. “Telepaths, read the thoughts of as many vampires as you can without endangering yourselves unduly and search for anything else that may help us identify their leader and learn his goals.”

  Lisette spoke. “Should we start carrying tranquilizer guns with us and tranq those we think may possess useful intel?”

  “Yes.” Seth consulted his pocket watch. “We should end the meeting early. I asked Aidan to bring Dana here after they talked, and I don’t want her to have to deal with a house full of powerful immortals on top of everything else.”

  Heather regarded the Immortal Guardians gathered around the table. “You are kind of a lot to take in all at once.”

  They smiled.

  Seth tucked his watch away. “David, Darnell, Marcus, Ami, Ethan, and Heather, you may stay. The rest of you, make yourselves scarce.”

  Those who hadn’t been named all rose and swiftly exited.

  The house quieted.

  Seth turned to Ethan and Heather. “Ethan, we have already ascertained that you are impervious to mind control. And I believe your gift can be particularly useful to us, so I would like your aid in this.”

  “I’ll do everything I can,” Ethan said without hesitation.

  Heather nodded. “Me, too.”

  “Good. I’m going to ask Aidan and Dana to stay at your house until we get to the bottom of this. I’d ask them to stay here but…”

  Ethan glanced at Ami and Adira. “You’re reluctant to put Ami and Adira in danger?”

  “Yes.”

  Ami was like a daughter to Seth. Adira like a granddaughter. He couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to them.

  Ami bit her lip. “Seth, I can be just as useful as Ethan when it comes to discerning the difference between Aidan and an imposter. I think they should stay here.”

  Ami had come to them from another world. And though she wasn’t immortal and couldn’t transform (none of them were sure what the vampiric virus would do to her), her race was very long-lived, had incredible regenerative abilities, and possessed special gifts of their own.

  One of Ami’s was the ability to feel individual energy signatures.

  Apparently every living person boasted an energy signature that was as unique as his or her thumbprint. Once Ami was in the presence of someone like Aidan, she would always be able to identify him again—even while blindfolded—just by sensing his energy signature. So if Ami were in the presence of the man in the video, she would be able to tell them with absolute certainty if the man was Aidan, Gershom, or someone else.

  “No,” Seth and Marcus said simultaneously.

  Ami frowned at them. “Why not?”

  “It’s too dangerous,” Marcus protested.

  “With all of you here to protect us?” she countered incredulously.

  Seth shook his head. “Gershom has not yet dared to breach these walls. But if he wants Dana and can get you and Adira, as well, in one fell swoop, that may tempt him into trying it.”

  “I agree,” Marcus said.

  “Also,” Seth added, “David’s home sees too much traffic.” Ami and Marcus had moved in with David when she had been targeted by mercenaries. And since Ami had been the first woman in history to bear an immortal’s child, the Immortal Guardians in the area all felt very protective of her and had begun to spend most of their downtime at David’s to ensure her safety and Adira’s. “Dana is new to our world and ma
y find it more difficult to accept if she can’t turn around without bumping into another immortal.”

  “Oh.” Ami nodded. “I guess you’re right.”

  Heather smiled. “I’m the youngest immortal around and still fairly new to the game. Do you want me to see if I can help ease her into things?”

  Seth smiled. “I would appreciate that, Heather. Thank you. Ethan, you keep a close eye on Aidan. Keep him in your sight as often as possible. And in the instances that you can’t, keep your ears tuned to him. If another woman goes missing and Chris gets another video that implicates Aidan, I want you to be able to confirm with absolute certainty that Aidan was with you when it happened.”

  Unease crept into Ethan’s expression. “That could get awkward, couldn’t it? I mean, if Aidan and Dana work things out, they’ll probably want to make up, if you know what I mean.”

  Heather’s brow furrowed “So?”

  “So,” her husband told her, “if I keep my preternatural hearing attuned to him, I’ll hear everything.”

  “Oh.” Her brow cleared. “Ohhhhhh. Yeah. That would be awkward.”

  Seth shrugged. “Zach did it for you, Ethan. You can do it for Aidan.”

  Heather looked from Ethan to Seth and back again. “What do you mean Zach did it for Ethan?”

  Ethan shot Seth a narrow-eyed look, then sighed and turned back to his wife. “When vampires kept attacking you and someone was messing with your mind last year, we stayed with Zach and Lisette to ensure your safety and…”

  Her eyes widened. Then her face scrunched up. “Oh. Ew. Zach was listening to us when we made love?”

  Ethan winced. “Not by choice. He had to, honey. He couldn’t risk tuning us out and missing it if Gershom were to pop in and do whatever he wanted to do.”

  Heather didn’t look appeased. “Did Lisette listen, too?”

  “No. She put on headphones and blasted music.”

  Heather’s face flamed with color. Covering it with both hands, she moaned with embarrassment. “Do you know how many times we made love while we were staying with them?” she cried in dismay.