Darkness Rises(44)

“Oh, wait.” Jenna looked over her shoulder at her son. “John, toss me my phone.”
Krysta turned around in time to see John pick a cell phone up off the bar and sling it Jenna’s way.
Jenna caught it easily. “I’m sorry. I need to make a quick call.” She dialed and held the phone to her ear. “Darnell? Hi. It’s Jenna. Richart and Étienne are—” She tilted her head. “Oh, he did? . . . No, they made it here safely.” She looked at Krysta. “She made it safely, too . . . Our place . . . No, they put on protective suits and headed back with Sheldon . . .” She lowered the phone slightly and addressed Krysta. “Are you injured?”
“No.”
“She’s fine,” she said into the phone. “Okay. Bye.” She set the phone on the coffee table. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think to ask you earlier. I’m still pretty new to this.”
“I’m totally new to this. New to the immortal thing, anyway.”
“Well, Darnell said Chris is on his way to your home with a small army. So Richart and Étienne will have help fighting whomever they’re fighting.”
Krysta nodded.
“John,” Jenna said with a smile, “you can go back to studying. They might be gone for a while.”
He nodded. “Nice to meet you, Krysta.”
“Nice to meet you, too,” she murmured, then turned back to Jenna.
Jenna smiled with pride. “He’s pre-med at UNC.”
“Oh. Great. My brother’s in med school there.” Alarm shot through her at the thought of Sean. “Oh, shit. My brother.”
Jenna leaned forward. “What about him?”
“We live together. Those men were looking for Étienne, but they found him at our house. Do you think they’ll go after Sean? Is Sean in danger?”
Brow furrowing, Jenna reached for her phone again and dialed. “Darnell? It’s Jenna again. Krysta has a brother and is worried he might be in danger . . . Oh. He did? . . . Okay, good. Thanks.”
She set her phone down again. “Chris took care of it.”
“Chris?” The same Chris Étienne expected to threaten her?
“Chris Reordon. Head of the East Coast division of the human network that aids immortals.”
Yep. Same one.
“He sent men over to guard your brother at work. No one will get near him.”
Krysta stared at her. Guard or interrogate? “Could I borrow your phone, please?”
“Of course.”
Krysta dialed Sean’s cell.
“Krys?” he answered almost immediately.
“Yeah. You okay?”
“Yeah.” He lowered his voice. “What the hell is going on? A bunch of Secret Service–looking guys showed up, pulled me aside, and said they’re friends of Étienne and are here to protect me.”
“They are.” She sure as hell hoped they were, anyway.
“Well, they’re freaking out my boss. They told Ed I’m in a witness relocation program and that there may have been a leak. What the hell? Did something happen? Or is this about last night?”
“Something happened. Étienne and I were sleeping and—”
“Oh, shit. Not together, right?”
“What?”
“You didn’t sleep with him, did you?”
She looked at Jenna and turned away, lowering her own voice. “Yes,” she whispered, “but all we did was sleep in the literal sense.”
“Are you crazy?”
“I said we didn’t do anything!”
“You let your guard down with a vampire in the house!”
“He isn’t a vampire. He’s an immortal.”
“A what?”
“Never mind. Some guys with guns showed up.”
Sean swore again.
“I didn’t see them, but assume from the way Étienne and Richart were acting that they were like the soldiers or whatever last night.”
“Are you okay?” he asked again.
“Yes. But the house is all shot to hell.”
“What?”
“And Étienne punched a big-ass hole in the floor.”
“Great. There goes our security deposit.”
Jenna laughed.
Krysta turned back around.
“I’m sorry,” Jenna said. “I didn’t mean to listen. I’m still getting used to the acute hearing thing and haven’t learned how to tune things out yet.”
“Who was that?” Sean asked.
“Richart’s wife.”
“Vampires marry?”
“He isn’t . . . Forget it. Listen, the bottom line is if the soldiers could trace us to our house, they could trace you to your job. So I guess Étienne sent his friends over there to keep you safe.”
“Where are you?”
“At Richart’s house.”