“And yet,” Roland said, “Étienne was tranqed and attacked by humans garbed as soldiers.”
“Could they be military?” Sarah asked, brow furrowed. “Could Emrys have gone to the military without our knowledge?”
Seth shook his head. “I would have seen it in his thoughts.”
“Donald and Nelson didn’t either,” David mentioned before anyone could ask.
Donald was the leader of the elite Private Military Company Emrys had drawn into his war with the immortals near the end. Nelson was Donald’s second in command or yes-man. Because their company was widely known by the public, killing the two men would have raised too many questions, so their memories had been erased instead and a story concocted—something about a couple of transport planes colliding in a freak accident—to explain the deaths of the soldiers slain by the immortals.#p#分页标题#e#
“So where does that leave us?” Cam asked.
Seth shook his head. “Without an explanation.”
Krysta studied the men and women seated around the table in the grim hush that followed.
She glanced at Sean to see how he was taking all of this.
Suspicion had fled his face and been replaced by the same fascination she suspected lit her own. This was amazing. She didn’t know what she had expected, but it hadn’t been this.
They were like a big family. They teased. They bantered. They got snippy with each other, like when Étienne had tossed his dagger at Ethan.
That had been too funny. And rather revealing. Étienne’s eyes had actually glowed with jealousy. How cool was that?
Sean shifted slightly. “How did the mercenaries find out about you before?” he asked, surprising her. She had sensed he was relaxing into the situation, but hadn’t thought he had relaxed enough to participate in the conversation.
David answered. “The brother of a vampire we slew told them, enlisting their aid in his quest for vengeance.”
“Could something similar have happened this time?”
Seth shook his head. “It was the first time in history that such had occurred. Because of the madness that plagues them, vampires tend to either kill or transform relatives they bring into the loop. And most vampires think the only thing that differentiates us is immortals’ unwillingness to kill innocents, or to let them do it. Because we don’t fraternize, vampires often don’t realize how much longer immortals live or know that we differ genetically. This human male was in a unique position to learn this information.”
Everyone shifted their gaze to a man at the opposite end of the table who sat with his arm around a pretty brunet. Krysta thought his name was Bastien, but was having trouble keeping up.
As her own attention was drawn that way, she noticed for the third or fourth time that the forbidding immortal across from Sheldon was staring at her.
Roland? Was that his name?
Krysta didn’t know what it was about him, but he unnerved her more than anyone else present. He just seemed menacing. Like he could slit your throat, then sit down, prop his feet on your corpse, and eat a sandwich.
Uneasy, she looked up at Étienne. “Who else could be in a unique position to share this information?”
He shook his head. “No one.”
“Bullshit,” Roland growled.
Étienne frowned. “No one at this table would betray us.”
“I wasn’t thinking of someone at this table,” he intoned. “We all know the mercenaries’ goal. At least the goal of those we fought before. They know vampires swiftly lose their mental faculties and immortals don’t. They need to capture one of us so they can torture and dissect us and figure out why. Once they do, they intend to use the virus and whatever information they can glean from us to create an army of supersoldiers they can hire out to the highest bidder.”
“Oh, shit,” Sean breathed. “They could make billions.”
David nodded. “And wreak havoc upon the world. No human army could stand against an army of immortals. Or a more expendable army of vampires.”
“Why expendable?” Sean questioned.
“Any human soldiers they intentionally infected with the virus would have to be slain a year later to ensure their leaders could maintain control.”
One year? “The madness kicks in that fast?” Krysta asked. No wonder she had never encountered a sane or non-murderous vampire.
“It varies from human to human and can be accelerated by things like poor living conditions or torture,” David explained. “Sometimes vampires begin to lose impulse control and experience psychotic breaks six months after infection. Sometimes, if they are extraordinarily strong, they can have three or four years before lucidity abandons them. Since the change can be insidious and difficult to detect in the beginning, the mercenary leaders would have to limit the lifespan of their soldiers in order to prevent chaos and collateral damage.”