Darkness Rises (Immortal Guardians) (35 page)

She smiled. “You see? We’re even dancing.”

“Is that what this is? I was just enjoying the feel of you against me.”

She shrugged. “That’s what we called it at my high school prom.” And she was loving the feel of his hard body pressed to hers.

“Dancing was very different in my day.”

“Would you teach me?”

“I would love to.”

A throat cleared.

Cam and Sean stood in the doorway.

Cam raised his eyebrows. “Should I call and tell them you’ll be late for the meeting?”

Smiling, Étienne shook his head. “No. And you were wrong. It wasn’t a catastrophe.”

Krysta grinned. “We’re engaged.”

Sean’s face brightened. Striding forward, he hugged her and shook Étienne’s hand. “Congratulations.”

Cam did the opposite, hugging Étienne and shaking Krysta’s hand.

“Listen,” Sean said, “while we’re talking about the future . . .”

“I hope you’ll stay with us,” Étienne said, then looked to Krysta.

She nodded. “Absolutely.” Unlike many siblings she knew, they rarely fought. And, since Cam already lived with them, it wasn’t as if Sean would be intruding upon their privacy or anything.

Sean tucked his hands in his pockets, a nervous gesture she hadn’t seen him make in a long time. “Actually, I’ve come to a decision.”

She didn’t like the sound of that, nor the somber look on his face. Had he changed his mind about working for the network? He had seemed very happy working with Dr. Lipton these last few weeks.

“Étienne,” Sean said, “I would like you to transform me.”

Krysta’s jaw hit the floor. “What?”

Sean held up his hands. “Now, hear me out—”

“That would be awesome!” she practically shouted.

Sean blinked. “What?”

Jumping up and down, she tugged on Étienne’s arm. “You have to do it! That would be so cool! You have to do it! You have to do it!”

 

 

Étienne hesitated. He didn’t want to disappoint Krysta or squash her excitement, especially after she had just
made his existence
by agreeing to be his wife, but . . . “Are you sure?” he asked Sean.

“I’m sure. If you doubt me, read my mind.”

Étienne did and found, to his relief, absolute certainty.

“I’m as proficient with weapons as Krysta is,” Sean said, “so I wouldn’t require a lot of training.”

Krysta nodded. “He’s good. He really is.”

Étienne smiled. She was like a child trying to convince a parent to buy her that one special toy she wanted for Christmas. “What about medical school?”

Krysta sobered. “Oh. Crap. I forgot about that.”

“I didn’t,” Sean said. “Since I’ll be able to do
everything
faster, including read, I can finish my studies in record time under Dr. Lipton’s instruction. She has already agreed to oversee my education and I can serve my residency at network headquarters.”

Étienne was impressed. “Sounds like you’ve considered everything.”

“I have. When I’m not studying, I’ll be able to hunt instead of having to sit on the sidelines as I have for the last six years.” His thoughts revealed just how much that had bothered him. “I’ll be able to heal—Krysta or anyone else who needs it—without risking my life. And I could potentially live forever.”

With everything that had been happening in recent years, the enemies who had risen up against them, the Immortal Guardians could use another healer in the area. “As long as Seth grants his approval, I’ll do it.”

Squealing, Krysta threw her arms around Étienne and hugged him tight, then hugged her brother.

Cam clapped Sean on the back. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks.”

“So . . . you’re okay with what will happen when Étienne bites you?”

Sean nodded. “Dr. Lipton told me what to expect and I saw what Krysta went through with the illness, so yeah.”

Face solemn, Cam shook his head. “I wasn’t talking about the illness. I was talking about the other thing.”

What other thing?
Étienne asked him silently.
What are you doing?

“What other thing?” Sean asked, smile fading.

Cam lowered his voice conspiratorially. “You know. The intense sexual bond it will forge between you two.”

Étienne was looking at Krysta when Cam made the absurd claim and nearly burst into laughter. Lightning fast, her eyes widened, she flashed all of her teeth in a grin, then sobered just as Sean turned a stricken gaze upon her.

She nodded solemnly. “It’s true.”

You are so bad
, he told her.

“Dr. Lipton didn’t say anything about a sexual bond,” Sean said, the picture of unease.

Krysta shrugged. “She was probably too embarrassed. You’re about to become her student. I doubt she wanted you to know she was overcome with lust for Roland and tore his clothes off when he bit her. Especially since she and Bastien were already a couple then,” she lied with silent glee.

Cam nodded. “You’ve seen the movies. Being bitten is always . . . incredibly erotic.”

Krysta nodded. “Orgasmic.”

Sean swallowed. “Umm . . . Okay. Wait.” He actually began to sweat.

Krysta burst out laughing.

Unable to keep a straight face any longer, Étienne did, too. Then Cam.

Realizing he’d been punked, Sean swore and gave Cam a hard shove. “You asshole!”

Cam staggered. “You should have seen your face!”

“Uncool, man.” He turned to Krysta. “And you!” Locking an arm around her neck, he drew her down and ruffled the hell out of her hair.

She laughed all the while, letting him do it even though she was strong enough to toss Sean through the roof if she wanted to.

When he released her, Sean smiled wryly up at Étienne. “So you’ll transform me?”

“With Seth’s permission, yes.”

“And there won’t be anything sexual?”

“No.”

Krysta shook her head, still smiling. “The bite actually hurts like hell. You won’t be having any warm and fuzzy feelings for him. Trust me.”

“Good.” He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “You guys are so wrong.”

“I wanna be a cowboy,” a man began to sing to an eighties beat. “And you can be my cowgirl.”

Scowling, Étienne glanced around, then realized it was his cell phone. Damn it. He really needed to figure out who kept changing his . . . ringtone. He looked at Cam, whose mirth was unmistakable. “You?” he demanded incredulously. Cam was as staid and stolid as they came.

Or he had been until five minutes ago.

Laughing, Cam shrugged.

“You’ve been my Second for seven years now and haven’t once cracked a joke until tonight.”

“Because you were always so somber,” Cam said. “I thought you were a stick in the mud like the last immortal I served. Damn, Petrus was boring. I practically begged Chris for a transfer, then you ended up being the same. But you started loosening up after you encountered Krysta.” He shrugged. “So I did, too.”

Étienne narrowed his eyes. “Remind me to kick your ass later.” He answered the call. “Yes?”

“It’s me,” Lisette said. “I just talked to Chris. We’re striking the mercenaries’ compound tonight. Come loaded for bear.”

 

 

Krysta sat at David’s dining room table, Étienne on one side of her, Sean on the other, and marveled over how dramatically her life had changed. Two months ago, she and Sean had been struggling to make ends meet and risking their lives every night as they tackled the vampire threat on their own. Exhausted. Lonely. Their futures uncertain.

Tonight she was immortal, even stronger and faster than the vampires she hunted. She fought alongside a powerful immortal warrior she loved and who had asked her to marry him earlier this evening with charming uncertainty. Her brother, still studying medicine, would soon be immortal himself and free of the threat of death if he had to heal her. And the three of them sat at a table, surrounded by more than a dozen other immortals and their Seconds, all of whom would fight to the death if necessary to defend each other
and
her like family.

Yes, the task before them—besieging the mercenary compound—was daunting and made her stomach flutter with nerves. But the future was bright. And, for the first time in years, Krysta was happy.

At least, that was, until she glanced down the table and found Roland staring at her. Again. He had been watching her and studying her ever since she had arrived and it was seriously starting to aggravate her.

Seth and Chris had not yet arrived. Everyone else chatted and joked and wondered aloud if this battle would be as volatile as the last big battle with mercenaries had been.

Krysta hoped not. Étienne had told her about it and about the attack that had inspired it. And it had sounded like something out of a freaking Michael Bay movie.

Beneath the table, Étienne took her hand and rested their entwined fingers on his thigh.

They had decided not to tell anyone they were engaged tonight, since—

Across the table, Lisette sucked in a breath. “You’re engaged?”

All conversation stopped as heads whipped around and gazes honed in on her and Étienne.

Krysta stared back, eyes wide.

Crap. She must have been reading my thoughts.
“I—”

“Yes,” Étienne announced.

Lisette whooped and circled the table so fast she blurred, drawing Krysta into a hug, then squeezing the stuffing out of her brother. “I’m so happy for the two of you.”

Richart rose and approached more slowly with a broad grin. He, too, hugged them both, as did Jenna.

When Sheldon rose and tried to hug Krysta, Étienne shoved him aside with a roll of his eyes.

Congratulations and well wishes abounded.

Even the quiet giant, David, sitting at the head of the table on the other side of Sean, wished them happiness and expressed his pleasure over the union.

All retook their seats.

And still Roland stared.

“Okay,” Krysta said when she couldn’t take it any longer. “
Why
do you keep staring at me?”

Étienne glanced down at her, then followed her gaze to Roland. “He’s staring at you?”

“Yes, ever since we arrived.”

Étienne frowned. “If you’re still pissed because I asked you to transform her—”

“That isn’t it. I was trying to recall where we had first met.”

“You and me?” Krysta asked with a frown of her own. “Here at David’s place the night the mercenaries tore up my house.”

Roland shook his head. “No. We met before that. I just couldn’t remember where until a few moments ago.”

“I’m pretty sure I would remember it if I had met you before.”

“Not if you had just been bitten by a vampire.”

Her blood chilled. She had only been bitten by a vampire once . . . the night she and Michael had been attacked. “You were there?”

“Yes. I’m the reason the vampires didn’t kill you. I intervened when the scent of blood led me to you.”

She gripped Étienne’s hand like a lifeline. “No. I remember the attack. The chemical—whatever it is—that affects memory when humans are bitten doesn’t affect me. The vampires grabbed us, dragged us away from campus, tortured Michael, and fed on me. Then I blacked out from blood loss.”

Roland shook his head. “Vampires don’t leave witnesses. Particularly female witnesses. Did you never wonder why they let you live?”

She had. Every day.

Why had they let
her
live and killed Michael?

That single question had spawned a nearly suffocating guilt that had never left her.

“Yes,” she said. “But, I don’t remember you being there.”

David leaned forward, drawing her gaze. “Do you
want
to remember? All of it?”

All these years she had thought she
had
remembered it. “Yes.”

He reached past Sean and touched the tip of his middle finger to her temple.

Nothing happened at first. Then images flooded her mind. Memories buried by either the concussion the vamps had given her in their initial attack or the drug the vamp’s bite had released into her system.

A drug against which she had believed she was impervious.

She saw it all at lightning speed. Strolling hand in hand with Michael. The vampires confronting them and dragging them away. The pleasure they took in cutting and biting and torturing Michael while they made her watch. One of the vamps turning his attention on her and thrusting his fangs into her throat. Then . . .

Roland arrived, striking with a ferocity that was as frightening as the vampires, his white and purple aura contrasting with the bright orange of theirs. He tore the vampires apart, as vicious as an animal, then turned to her. The vampire feeding from her bolted. Krysta let her gaze stray to Michael, saw his chest rising and falling in pained pants.

Roland took out his phone and called for a cleanup, then started after the vampire.

Krysta caught his pant leg as he passed, clutching it with a hand that shook. “P-Please.”

He knelt beside her, brushed her hair back with gentle fingers.

“H-help him,” she begged, looking at Michael, too weak to point. “S-save him.”

Roland shook his head, his strong face full of compassion. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “One of them tried to turn him. If he lives, he will become a monster like them. Dying is far more merciful.”

Darkness threatened.

David withdrew his touch.

Krysta stared at Roland through eyes full of moisture. “You
were
there.”

He nodded. “I arrived too late to save him. He had been infected on too large a scale and, as a human, would have turned vampire. Had he lived, he would have long since lost his sanity by now.”