Darkness Rises(18)

“Not as much as this will, asshole,” a male voice growled in his ear.
It carried a British accent, so it wasn’t one of her brothers.
What exactly was going on here?
Before Zach could ponder further, a figure appeared on the roof beside him. Sarah met Zach’s gaze, took in the piano wire choking him, glanced at Lisette—who looked guilty as hell—then turned her attention to the man behind Zach.
“Hi,” Sarah said.
“You followed me?” that one growled.
Ah. Roland.
“Yes, I did.”
“Why?”
“Curiosity. You wouldn’t say why you were coming back and told me not to follow you, which left me no choice but to do so.”
Both spoke as softly as Zach had.
Roland grunted.
“So,” she said.
“So?” Roland parroted.
“Watcha doin’?”
“Lisette has some questions for this one.”
“Uh-huh. And . . . you thought this was the best way to elicit answers?”
“Yes.”
“Uh-huh. Uh-huh. You don’t think . . . maybe . . . this sort of thing might be why everyone calls you antisocial?”
“Considering the questions, I thought he would likely be uncooperative.”
“Oh.” She studied Zach, then looked at Lisette. “Ohhhhhh.” Her brows drew together. “Is this a lover’s quarrel kind of thing? Did he do something to piss you off?”
Lisette looked uncomfortable.
“He didn’t cheat on you, did he?” Sarah asked, all concern. “I didn’t realize you were seeing anyone.”
Zach watched Lisette, ignoring the pain in his throat and the burn beginning to fill his lungs.
Lisette visually consulted Roland over Zach’s shoulder. “It isn’t about me.”
“Then who is it about?” Sarah asked.
Roland must have mouthed a name, because—though Zach heard nothing—Sarah’s eyes blazed a bright luminescent green, very rare amongst immortals. “Really.” She moved, silently circling around to stand with her husband at Zach’s back. “Let me give you a little help with that, sweetie.”
In all of his thousands of years of existence, Zach didn’t think anything so peculiar had ever happened to him.
Or so intriguing.
Or entertaining.
As the husband-and-wife team slowly choked him toward unconsciousness, he pondered what to do. He could make enough noise to draw David’s attention. But David wouldn’t appreciate his presence here any more than Seth would.
He could teleport away. But anyone touching him would go with him. So he would only escape Lisette, and she was the most interesting person here. She was the reason he hadn’t yet attempted to secure his freedom.
Roland planted a boot in Zach’s back and pulled harder.
Roland had said Lisette wanted to talk to him. That she had some questions for Zach.
What kind of questions?
How did she even know about him?
How had she detected his presence when Seth and David hadn’t?
His heartbeat sounded loudly in his ears as his lungs hungered for oxygen.
Zach couldn’t seem to find the will to fight them. He wanted to know what Lisette wanted from him. Had Roland and Sarah stopped trying to suffocate him and stepped back, he didn’t think he would have left.#p#分页标题#e#
Hmm. He could just go with it.
The idea appealed to him far more than it should. He wasn’t supposed to care about this. Any of it. Or these people.
But his damned curiosity wouldn’t leave him be.
And Seth hadn’t been far from the truth when they had spoken in South Korea. The numbness was wearing off. Boredom had set in. Zach was drowning in it. And he would do just about anything, including allow the odd couple behind him to force him into unconsciousness, to swim his way back to the surface and leave it behind him.
A very dangerous mind-set that had already gotten him into trouble once.
His eyes locked on Lisette’s face.
Fuck it. He wanted to know.
The smile he gave her as darkness enfolded him must have puzzled the hell out of her.
 

 

Lisette stared down at the unconscious male Roland dumped onto the floor of the safe house they had claimed for the day.
He was incredibly handsome. Dark, wavy hair fell below his shoulders. A muscled chest devoid of hair tapered to a narrow waist and slim hips encased in black leather.
Her gaze went to his wings.
They were beautiful. The same tan as his skin at their base, the nearly translucent wings darkened to black at their tips and would span twelve or fourteen feet when fully extended.
The man himself was taller than Seth, who stood a good six foot eight or thereabouts.
“Do you know him?” she asked Roland as he left the room.
“No.” He returned, carrying titanium chains thicker than her biceps that humans would probably have to use a forklift to move. Dumping the lot on the floor, he crouched next to their prisoner.