She tried to ask about the others, but could only motion to them.
“Ruptured aneurysms. I’ve never altered the health of a human before and am actually surprised it worked.”
She nodded. Her knees buckled.
Zach caught her before she could hit the ground. “Easy,” he said, his voice soft and deep. Kneeling, he laid her on the ground with her upper body cradled in his lap.
Moonlight formed a halo around his head as she stared up at him, struggling for breath.
The bullets had done a lot of damage. She knew that, rather than kill her, excessive damage would send her into a sort of stasis not unlike the hibernation of a water bear. But she had never done that before and couldn’t help but fear the prospect as she felt her heart rate slow. And slow some more.
He rested a hand on her chest.
At first she thought he was feeling her up and forgot everything else in a few seconds’ shock. Then she realized his thumb rested upon her collarbone and his fingers weren’t splayed enough to reach her breasts.
His hand heated, warm and comforting. A tingling feeling engulfed her, part pleasure and part pain, beginning in her chest and sweeping down her arms to her fingers, down her torso to her thighs, calves, and toes. Misshapen bullets emerged from her flesh. Bleeding ceased. Wounds closed. Bones shattered by bullets fused themselves back together. Her collapsed lung reinflated. Her breathing grew easier. The pain receded, then vanished entirely.
He removed his hand from her chest, curling it into a loose fist, then rubbing his thumb against his fingers as though touching her had made him tingle.
She sat up, but didn’t move away. Just to double check, she pulled the neckline of her sticky shirt away from her body and peered down through it at her bare chest and bra-encased breasts. No wounds. Only dried blood.
She let the material fall back against her and stared up at him, too tired to attempt to stand yet. He had healed her wounds, but severe blood loss still rendered her weak.
A shiver shook her.
He unfurled his beautiful wings and cupped them around her like a tent, keeping the breeze at bay.
“Who are you?” she asked when she could find her voice. “Really?”
“Zach,” he said simply.
“That only tells me your name, not who you are.”
He shrugged. “Seth calls me Cousin.”
“You’re Seth’s cousin?” Merde. He really was an elder. She had never heard of any immortal other than David being so close to their leader in age. Or who may actually be able to match his power.
And that had been quite a power display, killing the mercenaries without even touching them.
“Why have I never heard of you?” she asked. “Why don’t you ever come inside when you visit David’s? Why do you keep your presence a secret?”
“Neither Seth nor David would want me there.”
“Why? Did you have a falling-out?”
He seemed to weigh his words. “Seth and I chose different paths when we were still young men and disagreed with each other’s choices.”
David would have, of course, taken Seth’s side. He and Seth were like brothers.
“Are you enemies?” She was pretty sure she would have heard about it if this man had been actively trying to kill Seth or wage war with him.
“No.”
Just no. Nothing more.
She had a feeling she wasn’t going to get anything more specific than that, but tried anyway. “So, you’re immortal, but don’t lead the life of an Immortal Guardian? You don’t hunt vampires or have a Second?”
“Correct.”
“Until tonight.”
“Technically, I let you slay the vampires, then took care of the mercenaries when you faltered.”
And saved her life. Had he not stepped in when he did, the mercenaries would have captured her. “So you intervened where, in the past, you would not have.”
He hesitated. “Yes.”
“Why?”
He clenched and unclenched his jaw. “I couldn’t let them take you.”
“Why?”
His brow furrowed. “I don’t know.”
If she didn’t need blood so badly just then, she was sure her heart would have begun to beat faster.
Had he veered from his chosen path for her?
“You need blood,” he pointed out.
She nodded, a shock of excitement darting through her at the idea of leaning into him, pressing against that wide, muscled, bare chest, and touching her lips to his neck.
“I can’t give you mine,” he said, his deep voice full of . . . regret?
“Okay.” What the hell was she doing? Was she attracted to him? A man who had freely admitted he was at odds with Seth, the wisest man she knew and to whom she owed her life and allegiance?
Snapping out of it, she fumbled with her coat, seeking the right pocket and—fingers tangling in a couple of holes—managed to draw out her cell phone.
Or what was left of it. A bullet had forged a hole through it on its way to her liver.
Wonderful.
“May I borrow your phone?” she asked. “I need to call my Second.” Tracy could take care of notifying Chris that a cleanup crew was needed and have Richart bring Lisette some much-needed blood.
“I don’t carry a phone.”
Okay. Plan B.
She looked at the lifeless mercenary bodies around them. Tucking them away, out of sight, seemed a monumental task as low on energy and strength as she was right now. And when her energy was low, her telepathic range diminished greatly.
Étienne? she called. Perhaps he and Krysta were hunting nearby.
Nothing. Étienne! I need you.
Still nothing.
Richart? She had an even smaller chance of contacting Richart because he couldn’t send his reply telepathically. He could only think it and hope she would pick up on it.
“I can take you where you need to go,” Zach said, his eyes never leaving her.
She shook her head. “I can’t leave these bodies here. I need to contact the network and have them come clean things up, hide what happened from the humans.”
He sighed. “If I were a different man, I’d say you owe me one.”
One what? And shouldn’t being in this powerful immortal’s debt alarm her? “For killing the mercenaries and saving me?”
“No, for this.” He closed his eyes.
He was so handsome. Straight nose. Strong, shadowed jaw. Ebony brows over eyes so dark a brown they were almost black . . . when they weren’t glowing golden. Just like Seth’s.
He opened those eyes and met hers. “Help is on the way.”
“It is?”
“Can you sit by yourself?”
She hadn’t even realized he had been supporting her with an arm behind her back.
“Yes.” She sat up straighter.
Withdrawing his arm, he rose and backed away.
“Thank you,” she said, sensing he wouldn’t stay until help arrived.
He nodded. Bending his knees, he leapt up into the air and brought those powerful wings down, shooting into the sky like a missile and disappearing from sight.
Lisette didn’t know what to think. Of him. Of what he had done.
Seth appeared several yards away, his back to her. “What?” he growled. “I don’t appreciate being summoned so . . .” He trailed off.
Lisette felt as anxious facing Seth now as she had the first time she had realized just how much power he wielded.
Would he view her interaction with Zach as a betrayal?
He took in the dead mercenaries and turned around. “Lisette!” In a heartbeat, he knelt beside her and touched her shoulder. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “Just weak. I’ve lost a lot of blood.”
A couple of humans strolled in their direction, not yet in sight of the carnage.
Seth waved a hand in their direction, mentally guiding them away. “I was summoned here by another,” he said, st
udying her closely.
She swallowed. “Zach was here.”
No visible reaction. “Did he hurt you?”
“No. He saved me.”
A long pause followed, during which she fought the urge to squirm.
Was he reading her thoughts, surfing through them and replaying what had happened?
He drew out his phone and dialed. “Chris? Seth. Send a cleanup crew to UNCG. A couple of dozen mercenaries attacked Lisette and are dead. One fled bearing a tracking device.”
He had definitely read her thoughts. Lisette just hoped he hadn’t noticed the fascination and, yes, attraction she felt for the other elder.
“They did? Excellent. Keep me posted.” He pocketed his phone. “Étienne and Krysta also engaged mercenaries tonight, over at UNC Chapel Hill, and succeeded in planting a tracking device on one. Chris is already tracking him.”
“Good.”
“Can you hold out until the cleanup crew arrives, or shall I take you home or to David’s for blood now?”
“I can wait.” For blood. She couldn’t wait for a verdict on her encounter with Zach. “Are you angry?” she asked tentatively.
“With you? No.”
“With Zach?”
“I haven’t decided.”
“Who is he, Seth?”
He looked at the bodies around them again. “I’m not sure anymore.”
“He said he’s your cousin,” she pressed.
“Did he?”
A human approached, accompanied by staticky walkie-talkie speech.
Lisette’s heart skipped. More mercenaries?
Seth covered her hand with his. “Campus security.” He looked in the direction from which the sounds came.
The human’s footsteps stopped, then carried him away.
Disturbed’s “Down With the Sickness” swelled from Seth’s pocket. Retrieving his phone, he answered, “Yes?” He met Lisette’s gaze and smiled. “Word travels fast. Yes, she’s here. She’s fine. Her phone was just destroyed.” He held out the phone. “It’s Tracy.” Don’t mention Zach.
Lisette took the phone, aware that Seth had neither confirmed nor denied that Zach was his cousin.
“Two mercenaries tagged,” he murmured as she assured Tracy she was fine and glossed over what had happened, leaving out Zach. “It’s been an interesting night.”
Once the immortals and Seconds staying at David’s had bedded down for the day, Seth and David retreated to David’s study.
Seth told him what had happened with Zach and Lisette.
David’s brow furrowed. “He helped her?”
Seth nodded, still unsure what to make of it.
“How did he kill the mercenaries? I didn’t think he carried a weapon.”
“He told Lisette he gave them all ruptured aneurysms.”
“That takes both power and precision.”
“He must be practicing.”
“On whom? And why?”
“I don’t know.”
Perhaps when Seth had warned Zach months ago that the Others couldn’t best him because Seth had been exercising and growing his powers, it had struck a nerve.
“How did he even know Lisette was in trouble?” David asked.
“I suspect he was following her.”
“Why would he do that?”
“She, Roland, and Sarah captured him a couple of weeks ago and interrogated him.”
David’s eyebrows nearly met his hairline. “I assume he let them.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Not yet.”
“What did they ask him?”
“He’s been seeing Ami. They wanted to know why.”
David’s face filled with pure menace. “By seeing her . . .”
“He’s been meeting with her on your roof.”
Utter disbelief mingled with the menace. “How did I not sense his presence?”
Seth shook his head. “He’s learned to mask it in some way. I didn’t even sense it myself. Had I not read Lisette’s thoughts, I would not have known anything about it.”
Judging by his expression, the idea that Zach could come and go without their knowledge unsettled David as much as it did Seth.
“Apparently,” Seth went on, “Ami can detect his presence and joins him up on the roof whenever he pulls gargoyle duty up there.”
“In her condition?” David said with disapproval.
Seth snorted. “She’s as sure-footed as a cat and has exhibited no dizziness thus far. I don’t think we have any worries there.”
David grunted. “So he can mask his presence, but not his energy signature.”
“Yes.”
“What is Ami’s interest in him?”
“I don’t know,” Seth admitted. He seemed to be saying that a lot lately. “I think that’s the biggest puzzle of all.”
David frowned. “You don’t think it’s romantic, do you?”
“No. Ami sees no one but Marcus in that light.”
“I agree.” David pondered the mystery for some time. “Perhaps he reminds her of you.”
Seth grimaced. “I hope not.”
The sound of a car turning onto the long drive caught his ear. He looked toward the front of the house the same time David did.
A window rolled down so the driver could lean out and punch in the security code.
The music of Miles Davis floated to their ears.
“Chris,” they said in unison.
Reordon always played Miles when he was stressed.
The car seemed to crawl up the lane so slowly Seth thought Chris could have walked and reached the house faster. The engine stopped. His car door opened and closed.
“Does Chris ever sleep?” David asked as they followed his progress up the walk and through the front door.
“Not much. Not enough. But he refuses to delegate.”
Footsteps approached from the hallway.
“You ever been to his place?” Seth asked.
David nodded. “Looked like a typhoon hit it.”
“Come on, guys,” Chris complained, entering. “I’m right here.”
“We know,” they said.
He dropped a briefcase on the floor and flopped down in the chair next to Seth, across the desk from David.
“How did the tracking go?” Seth asked.
“Very well.” He opened the briefcase, drew out a folded piece of paper, then leaned forward and spread a map out on the desk. “Both mercenaries headed for the same rendezvous point here.” He pointed to an area on the outskirts of Chapel Hill. “They remained there until daybreak, presumably to ensure they weren’t followed by immortals or vampires, then headed here on wheels they must have stashed somewhere because they moved much more quickly.” He pointed to an isolated area between Mebane and Saxapahaw. “Again, they waited, then were probably taken blindfolded by someone they met there—if the mercenaries stayed true to what they did before—to what I believe is the PMC’s base here near Burlington.”
He reached into his bag again and drew out an iPad. “Here’s a satellite image of the area,” he said, bringing it up for them.
Seth set the tablet on the desk so David could examine it, too, and leaned forward. “Did one of your new contacts send you this?”
“No. I’m leery of risking their involvement.”
Seth hesitated to say anything. Chris still labored under the ass-load of guilt piled on his shoulders after discovering that his former contacts and their spouses and children, had all been either tortured to death or shot execution style by the last mercenary group they had fought in an attempt to extract information and send a message. But one of the things that made Chris indispensable to the Immortal Guardians was his ability to recruit contacts in very high places. Contacts who had been invaluable in the past. “Chris—”
“I know. I’ll get there. I will. If I thought lives depended on it now, I would risk it in a heartbeat,” he said.
“Then where did you get this?”
Seth tapped the satellite image of a building surrounded by forest.
“This is a map I got off the Internet. You can get satellite images of just about any place on the net by typing in the address or GPS coordinates, but the images are often out of date.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Seth murmured. “I don’t have time to explore crap on the Internet.”
David nodded. “And I’d rather read a good book when I find a few free minutes.”
“Admit it,” Chris said. “You’re both just a couple of old farts who are technologically challenged.”
“True.”
“Admitted without shame.”
Chris smiled and shook his head. “You can zoom out or in by pressing these buttons.”
David pressed the zoom out minus sign a couple of times and studied the area. “So this is probably out of date? The mercenaries could have expanded the structure or added security features?”
“Yes. This looks pretty generic, so I think you can pretty much bet on it. If they transport the mercenaries blindfolded and in windowless vehicles, I’m pretty damned sure they’re going to have every kind of security and surveillance feature they can afford.”
Seth caught David’s gaze. “Shall we go have a look?”
“I’m game.”
Chris slumped farther down in his chair. “I’ll wait here until you get back. Give me a call if you get into trouble.”
“Go lie down,” David urged him, rising.
Chris shook his head, eyelids heavy. “I’m good here.”
“You said it yourself,” Seth pressed. “We’re a couple of old farts, not youngsters.”
“Several thousand years your senior,” David added.
“So you don’t have to baby us,” Seth finished.
“To quote Sheldon and Melanie: Says you.”
The elders laughed and shook their heads. Striding from the room, they headed down the hallway, out the front door, and into bright afternoon sunlight.
“Teleport or fly?” Seth offered.
David closed his eyes and turned his face up to the sun. “Fly.”
That had been his choice as well. Flying was a real stress reliever.
The shadows they cast on the brick path morphed into that of large vultures as he and David shifted form and took to the sky.
Chapter 18
North Carolina was a beautiful state. The area above which Seth and David soared boasted rolling hills and meadows, corn fields, hay fields, and forest. Rivers and streams wended through the countryside like arteries, feeding numerous lakes and ponds. Wildlife abounded. And the two eldest immortals were not the only “carrion birds” surfing the breeze.
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