Darkness Rises (Immortal Guardians) (34 page)

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.

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.

A vulture that shared their glossy black wings joined them, searching the ground below to see what had caught their attention and regarding them curiously.

Inwardly, Seth smiled.

I needed this
, David said.

The trip did not take long by air. Soon the land beneath them began to mimic the satellite image Chris had shown them. There were differences, as he had warned. Fewer trees, thanks to logging and a new housing development under construction that was still in the skeletal stage. The mercenaries probably wouldn’t like that. They wouldn’t want neighbors so close to their home base.

That must be it
, he said as the thick trees beyond parted, revealing a building that looked quite different from the one in the dated satellite image.

The mercenaries had doubled its width, but the different-colored roofs—old and new—allowed Seth to discern the original structure. The flowering trees in front of it had been removed, leaving a large open area and a small parking lot. Two large hangars rested like small football stadiums nearby. Barracks that reminded him of those their previous mercenary enemy had employed formed rows between the main building and the hangars. A nice collection of Black Hawk helicopters rested on helipads beside the hangars, in which Seth glimpsed armored personnel carriers and Humvees.

All was surrounded by a twenty-foot fence woven throughout and topped with razor wire.

As with the other PMC encampment, one road led in and out and required inspection by guards armed with automatic weapons.

Déjà vu
, David uttered.

Seth agreed. It was all very similar to Emrys’s base, to which Donald and Nelson had been frequent visitors.

Do you think all mercenary bases look like this?
David asked.

I know little about them
, Seth confessed.

Each building bore surveillance cameras. The main building bore two different-colored bricks where Seth guessed they had replaced windows with walls. The front door was steel.

More soldiers, bearing automatic weapons, walked the grounds and the perimeter.

I’m getting a bad feeling,
David said.

So was Seth. The feeling that they had indeed screwed up and missed something. The similarities were too numerous. This base was too reminiscent of the other. Coupled with the knowledge that these men had acquired the tranquilizer, Seth could only conclude that—

We must have missed something,
David announced grimly.

Their memories were wiped, so if it
is
them, they’re operating on whatever information the hard drive or whatever gadget we missed contained.

Their feathered companion swung away just as a scent reached Seth.

You smell that?
he asked.

They banked, circling around to follow the vulture to its feast.

“Are those vultures?” he heard a guard down below ask.

“Yeah. I told you the body was too close. If the wind changes it’s gonna smell like shit.”

The vulture led them to the body of a mercenary who had been shot in the head.

Seth and David joined the bird in circling above it.

Do you think it’s one of the men Lisette, Étienne, and Krysta tagged?
David asked.

Reading the minds of the guards from this distance was a challenge, simply because maintaining this form already took a lot of concentration, but both elders could do it.

You weren’t exaggerating,
David said. Had they been in their usual forms, Seth knew David would be shaking his head.
They know almost nothing about the outfit that employs them.

A couple more vultures joined them, circling the carcass below.

I’m going to read the minds of the men in the hangars and the barracks
, Seth said
. You take the men in the main building.

It was a time-consuming task. Holding these forms for extended lengths sapped their energy, but neither complained. What they learned here could save lives.

By the time they finished, half a dozen vultures were picking the dead soldier’s bones clean.

I got nothing,
David said at length.
None are aware of any plans to capture us. No one has been warned about or knows anything about the tracking devices. And, while they’re all speculating and coming up with their own ideas, none know why the dead soldier was deemed a traitor.

And, of course, they don’t know where he is. This is ridiculous
, David said with irritation he rarely exhibited.
There is a point at which gullibility ceases and stupidity begins
.

They were imbeciles before that. The money just gave them a chance to confirm it. How are you holding up?
Generally the only time David’s mellow temperament succumbed to irritation or anger was when he was in pain. They had been out in the strong midday sun for a few hours now while expending large amounts of energy to retain the forms of vultures. While Seth was weary, David was probably really feeling it by now.

I could use some blood
, he admitted reluctantly.

We aren’t going to learn any more here today. Let’s head home
.

The fact that David didn’t protest told Seth the pain was substantial. He should have asked David to shift forms and wait on the ground in the shade at least an hour ago.

Five miles beyond the fence, Seth banked toward the ground.

David followed without question.

Seth shifted just above the grass and landed on his feet.

David did the same, but stumbled.

Seth braced him until he could get his balance, then drew him into the shade of a nearby tree and placed his hand on David’s chest, absorbing his pain. “Forgive me. I lost track of time.”

“I didn’t. We needed the information.”

When David sighed with relief and nodded, Seth removed his hand and clapped him on the shoulder, teleporting them home.

 

 

“You seem nervous,” Krysta said, eyeing Étienne with some concern. The only other time she had seen him this nervous was when he had been about to ask Seth if she could be transformed.

Even facing multiple vampires and mercenaries didn’t make him nervous. So what was up?

The two continued to arm themselves for the night’s hunt while she awaited his response. Cam was training with Sean in the home gym down in the basement.

Sean hadn’t been as pissed as she had thought he would be when she had transformed. He actually had seemed relieved that she would now be much safer when hunting.

Étienne cleared his throat and opened his mouth. Let it hang open. Closed it and turned back to the cabinet in which he kept his many daggers.

“Oh, come on. It can’t be that bad,” she coaxed. “Can it?”

He gave her a quick glance from the corner of his eye. “Do you have enough daggers?”

“Just tell me what it is!” she blurted, then clamped her lips shut. “I’m sorry. It’s just that imagining whatever catastrophe might make
you
nervous is beginning to make
me
nervous.”

“It isn’t a catastrophe,” he muttered. “Or wasn’t. I seem to be making it one. Cam warned me I would, damn him for being right.”

She pursed her lips.

Crossing to him, she took the dagger from his hand, slipped it into its sheath and turned him to face her. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

He smiled. “Have I mentioned how much I like it when you call me that?”

She smiled. “Yes. So, what’s up?”

He leaned back against the cabinet and crossed his arms over his chest. “I talked to Chris earlier. He mentioned assigning you your own Second now that you’re immortal and said he has a couple of houses in mind for you and Sean to choose from.”

“Oh.” Her stomach sank. She had thought . . .

Well, she
hadn’t
thought. Not about this.

When she and Sean had first moved in, living with Étienne and Cam had been a temporary arrangement. She had even mentioned staying in a hotel. But then she had gotten to know Étienne and fallen hard for him. They had made love and admitted their feelings for each other. He had transformed her and helped her adjust to her new condition. They had spent nights hunting together and days . . .

She hadn’t slept in “her” bedroom in weeks. She spent the days with him in his. The subject of moving out had just never come up.

“I don’t want you to go,” he said.

Relief left her buoyant. “I don’t either. I mean, we never talked about it and I don’t want to push you into anything you aren’t ready for—”

“I love you, Krysta.” He straightened and took her hands. “I don’t think I could sleep without you beside me. I don’t
want
to sleep without you beside me. And I want you to be right there with me every evening when I wake up.”

“Me, too.”

He pulled her into his arms and claimed her lips in a kiss that seemed to carry with it everything she felt herself: relief, excitement, lust, love . . .

“Too bad we have that meeting tonight,” he said, trailing heated kisses down her neck.

Her pulse leapt. “We’re both immortal now. Can’t immortals have quickies?”

He laughed. “Immortals give quickies a whole new meaning. But . . .” He drew his hands up her sides and brushed her breasts with his thumbs. “I like to savor you.”

“That disappoints me and excites me all at the same time.”

He brushed her lips with his once more. “So you’ll stay with me? You’ll live here with me?”

“Yes.” Happily.

“How would you feel if I told you that I’m an old-fashioned guy—”

“I already knew that.”

“—and wish to marry you and spend the rest of eternity as your husband?”

She stopped breathing. “You want to marry me?” Marriage was big for immortals. For them,
’til death do us part
could mean hundreds, even thousands, of years.

“More than anything,” he vowed, the sincerity in his voice unmistakeable.

Krysta threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight.

“Is that a yes?” he asked, sliding his arms around her and burying his face in her hair.

“Yes. A very enthusiastic yes!”

He hugged her close and said with some regret, “I wanted more time to woo you.”

She grinned. “To what me?”

He popped her lightly on the butt. “Stop mocking me.”

She laughed. “I can’t help it. It’s fun.”

Straightening, he brushed her hair back from her forehead and cupped her face in his large hands. “I wanted to spend months courting you properly. I
planned
to spend months courting you properly once we’d quashed this latest threat. But Chris kept mentioning the damned house . . .”

“Étienne, you
have
been courting me.”

“No, I haven’t. All we’ve done since we met is train and fight vampires and mercenaries.”

“Sweetie, I’m not a flowers and chocolates kind of gal,” she said, leaning into him. “Well, maybe the chocolate.”

“I was going to say.”

She laughed. He had seen her put away a
lot
of chocolate. “I don’t need flowers. I don’t need jewelry. I don’t need . . . whatever other frilly things men give the women they’re dating.” She hadn’t dated anyone long-term since Michael and couldn’t remember what men usually brought their girlfriends. “I need weapons. And you have given me some
beautiful
weapons.”

She no longer carried Lisette’s weapons. Étienne had, over the weeks, gifted her with her own personal arsenal. Shoto swords. Katanas. Daggers. Throwing stars. Glock 18s. Sigs. Her very own uncomfortable rubbery suit to wear if she had to venture into daylight.

“We’ve talked for hours,” she said. “We’ve laughed and flirted and teased.” She nipped his chin. “Seduced.”

“You’re very good at that,” he said, voice deepening.

“Which one?”

He began to move from side to side, the two of them swaying to slow, nonexistent music. “All of them.”