Night Unbound (6 page)

Her gaze shifted to Zach as she debated whether or not she should speak the truth, then back to Ethan. “I don't know. I'm . . . drawn to him. I don't know why.”

Had she not been paying such close attention, she would have missed the tiny muscle that flexed in Ethan's jaw.

His gaze slid to Zach. “Lucky bastard.”

“Ethan—”

“Let me see what Tracy has in her medic bag.” Spinning on his heel, he left the room.

Perhaps this hadn't been such a good idea.

Returning, Ethan sat on the edge of the bed and started digging through Tracy's first-aid bag.

It was actually a diaper bag.
Diaper bags have all kinds of little compartments and pockets that are good for organizing crap
, Tracy had said when asked about it.
They even have pockets that will keep blood cool if I have to bring you some.

“So?” Lisette asked as the minutes stretched and Ethan continued to rummage through the bag.

“So,” he responded, “it belatedly occurs to me that I don't know what half of this shit is for.”

She groaned. “You've never had to patch up a Second?”

He shook his head. “I've only had three. The first retired without ever having suffered a major injury. The second bled to death before I could reach him. And Ed is tough as nails. Any time he's injured he just stoically sews himself up.”

“You don't help him?”

He glanced up at her, his expression sheepish. “I'm a little squeamish around needles.”

She stared at him. “Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“You slice and dice and decapitate vampires every night.”

“And you'll notice that I don't try to sew them back together again afterward.” He set the bag aside and rose.

It appeared she was back to square one. “What should I do?”

He took in the patient once more and pursed his lips. “I think you're going to have to call in the big guns.”

“I told you, Seth doesn't like him. If he—”

“Not Seth. Seth isn't the big guns. Seth is the fucking hydrogen bomb.”

“Ethan.”

“Bastien. I meant Bastien.”

She blinked. “Bastien is the big guns?”

“Yeah,” he said with a distinct
Duh
inflection. “The man raised and commanded an army of psychotic vampires. Not one or two or ten. An
army
of them. He actually lived with the crazy bastards and kept them in line. Mostly. Can you imagine the kind of balls that must have taken?”

She didn't have to. She had peeked into Bastien's thoughts enough to know just how much power and authority he had wielded. Even though Bastien was young for an immortal—roughly her own age—he really
could
be deemed the big guns.

“You're right. But what's to stop Seth from seeing this in Bastien's thoughts?”

“I don't think Seth spends much time in Bastien's head these days. One, Seth is too busy worrying about Ami. And two, Melanie is keeping Bastien in line, so Seth no longer has to.”

“Hmm.” Retrieving her cell phone, Lisette dialed Bastien's number.

“What?” he answered, his deep voice curt and unwelcoming.

“Bastien, it's Lisette.”

“Oh.”

Awkward silence.

Yeah. Bastien wasn't exactly a people person.

“Are you busy?” she asked hesitantly. She hadn't realized until that moment just how rarely she had spoken with him since Seth had brought him into the fold.

“Not really. Why?”

“I have a . . . situation that I could use your help with.”

“Okay.”

Ethan's eyebrows rose.

She gave Bastien her address, then ended the call.

“I didn't think it would be that easy,” Ethan said.

“I didn't either.”

When the British immortal arrived, Lisette met him at the front door and led him down to her bedroom.

Bastien nodded to Ethan, then stared down at Zach. After a few moments, he looked around. “Where's the shovel?”

Ethan coughed to cover a laugh.

“I didn't kill him!” Lisette nearly shouted.

Bastien shifted his gaze to Ethan.

Ethan held up his hands. “Don't look at me. I didn't kill him.”

“He isn't dead,” Lisette snapped. “And I'm not into rough sex!”

Bastien stared at her. “Ooookay.”

She frowned. “Isn't that what you thought had happened? That I had killed him during sex?”

“No. I just assumed he had pissed you off.”

“Oh.” Her face heated with a blush.

Bastien's lips twitched.

And Ethan was enjoying this way too much, damn him.

She counted to ten. “Why would the two of you think I would call you over here to bury him? It's not like I don't have the strength to lift him and do it myself.”

Ethan shrugged. “You're a girl.”

Lisette glared at them both. “And, what, you think I don't want to get my pretty little hands dirty?”

No response.

“You do know I kill vampires for a living, right?”

Bastien pointed at Ethan. “He said it, not me.”

“But you were thinking it.”

He scowled. “Are you reading my thoughts again, telepath?”

“I didn't have to. It was all over your face. Besides, I stopped peeking into your head a long time ago because all you ever think about is Melanie naked and your vampire friends.”

Ethan's eyebrows shot up. “He thinks about Melanie naked with his vampire friends?”

Bastien popped him on the back of the head.

“Ow! Shit!”

Lisette pinched the bridge of her nose. “Let us return to the subject at hand, shall we? Yes, I'm a girl,” she pointed out needlessly. “A girl who can kick your ass, Ethan.”

“I know,” he acknowledged with a grin as he rubbed the back of his smarting head.

“Bastien, my
guest
here,” she said, refraining from mentioning Zach by name, “is immortal. I was hoping you might know how to tend his wounds. Neither Ethan nor I knows much about first aid.”

“Why don't you just give him blood?”

“No fangs.”

“You don't need his fangs to descend. You can transfuse him with your own.”

She hesitated, unwilling to tell them what she suspected.

“What?” Ethan asked, picking up on her unease.

“He has wings,” she said.

“Those are real?” Bastien asked.

“Yes.”

He studied her stoically. “And—what—you think . . . ?”

Ethan frowned. “You don't think he's an angel, do you? Like a fallen angel?”

Some
kind of angel. She hadn't thought about whether or not he had fallen.

“I don't know what he is,” she hedged.

The two men shared a look.

At least they didn't laugh at her or mock her.

“He's probably just a shape-shifter,” Ethan suggested.

Possibly, but . . .

“You don't want to give him blood,” Bastien said.

She shook her head.

“All right. I'll tend his wounds.”

“There's something you should know first,” she cautioned.

“I'm listening.”

“Seth isn't terribly fond of him.”

Ethan crossed his arms. “Translation: He's on Seth's shit list. If Seth finds out we helped him, we will likely join him on that list.”

A dark smile slid across Bastien's handsome face. “When has pissing Seth off ever stopped me from doing something?”

There were definite perks to having a black sheep in the Immortal Guardian family.

Bastien ended up being a remarkably capable medic. He seemed to know the use of everything in Tracy's substantial first-aid kit and used a hell of a lot of it to close Zach's wounds.

“Where did you learn to do all this?” Lisette asked, watching him stitch up a deep gash on Zach's arm.

“I commanded an army of vampires prone to psychotic breaks and a dozen or so human wannabe minions with violent tendencies. Severe wounds were a nightly occurrence, and Tanner and I were the only ones around who were guaranteed to be focused enough to take care of them. Hold his wings while I roll him onto his side.”

Approaching the bed, she leaned down to grasp Zach's wings. They were so large. And so mangled. Broken in countless places. Feathers bent and torn. “Ethan, will you help me?”

They each took a wing and kept it as immobile as possible while Bastien turned Zach onto his side. Again Lisette marveled over how soft the feathers were. Softer than rabbit's fur.

“I've set countless broken bones in the past,” Bastien murmured, “but broken wings . . . ? This is a first.”

“I appreciate your trying.”

He glanced at her as he worked. “Any particular reason you didn't ask Melanie to help?”

Bastien's wife, Dr. Melanie Lipton, was a now-immortal doctor who worked at the human network, searching for a cure for the virus. Either that or a way to prevent or reverse the brain damage it caused in humans. She was also doing everything she could to carry Ami safely through her pregnancy.

Lisette sighed. “I didn't want to get her in trouble.”

His lips quirked as he manipulated one of the wings. “But you didn't mind getting
me
in trouble?”

Ethan snorted. “When are you
not
in trouble?”

Bastien laughed. “True. I'm going to need something I can use as splints.”

Bastien slowly and methodically tended the many injuries that marred Zach's lean form. When he finished, Lisette walked Bastien upstairs and followed him out the front door.

“Will you have time to get home before sunrise?” she asked, eyeing the gray that preceded dawn.

“The way I drive? Yes.” He paused on his way to a Chevy Volt and turned to study her.

Lisette shifted, uncomfortable beneath his silent scrutiny.

“Are you sure you're ready for this?” he asked at last.

“Ready for what?”

“Being on Seth's shit list.”

Hell no
. The thought of facing Seth's wrath made her quake in her boots. “You survived it,” she replied coolly, but feared she didn't fool him.

He shook his head. “Only because Seth believed himself responsible. It's why he still tolerates my bullshit. And why he won't hold my helping you against me. He feels guilty about overlooking me and leaving me to fend for myself for two centuries.”

Whenever a
gifted one
was transformed into an immortal, Seth sensed it, made his way to his (or very rarely her) side, and aided him in the transition into his new life. Seth then either trained the new Immortal Guardian himself, or saw to it that the newbie was trained by another and received the guidance all new immortals needed.

But Bastien had escaped his notice. So Bastien had mistakenly believed himself a vampire and had lived among those monsters for two hundred years.

All knew his violent, troubled past haunted their leader.

“Do
you
hold him responsible?” she asked.

“No,” he said, his voice devoid of rancor. “And I'm sure he's seen as much in my thoughts. But the guilt nevertheless lingers and pretty much gives me a permanent get-out-of-jail-free card.
You
, on the other hand, don't have that protection.”

No, she didn't.

“I learned very quickly,” he went on, “that Immortal Guardians have a pack mentality.” Three years with them, and Bastien still didn't consider himself one of them. “If Seth turns on you,” he warned, “the others will, too.”

She swallowed hard. “My brothers—”

“Have wives to think of. And, in Richart's case, a stepson.”

“I know.” She didn't have a problem with no longer coming first in her brothers' affections. It just felt a little scary to know they wouldn't always have her back now.

“Is he worth it—your fallen angel?” Bastien asked. Again, no scorn or mockery infused his voice.

She honestly didn't know the answer to that and settled for saying, “He saved my life. I can't forget that.”

“That's a hard debt to forget.” Turning, he continued on to the car. “You have my number.”

“Thank you, Bastien.”

He opened the driver's door. “Ethan's jealous as hell, you know.”

Her eyes widened.

“Asshole!” Ethan called from inside.

Bastien laughed. “I guess this means you two are on the outs.”

“You knew?” she asked, stunned.

How had he known about the affair when no one else had guessed?

He sank into the driver's seat. “I may not get along well with others, but I
am
a keen observer of them.” The words seemed to carry a warning. “And I can feel your emotions every time I brush against you.”

Considering how many times she had barged into his thoughts in the past, she decided she wouldn't let that bother her. “Give Melanie my love.”

He winked. “I'll be too busy giving her mine.” Closing the door, he started the engine and sped away.

Chuckling, Lisette stared after him. What an enigma.

Ethan exited the house and stepped up beside her. “That guy is so weird.”

“You didn't tell him?” she asked.

“About us? No.”

“Do you think he'll say anything to anyone?”

“Nah. Who would he tell, other than Melanie? And she isn't one to gossip.”

“I don't want to end up in the betting books, Ethan.”

Immortal Guardians, their Seconds, and the mortal members of the network would gamble on just about anything. She didn't want them to complicate matters between her and Ethan by betting on whether or not the two of them would get back together.

“If word gets out about your beau in there,” he said, jerking a thumb back at the house, “they'll be betting on whether or not Seth will let you live.”