“Well, clearly they aren’t,” he snapped. “And you can’t go on the way you have been. How many times have you nearly died in the past six years? In the past one or two? You’ve been coming up against larger and larger numbers and even admitted yourself that you would have been killed twice in the past month if Étienne hadn’t saved your ass!”#p#分页标题#e#
“Those were exceptions,” she protested, anger and panic rising. She couldn’t stop hunting vampires and just sit on the sidelines. Hunting was what she did. It was who she was.
Sean snorted. “Those exceptions nearly killed you.”
“I can’t stop hunting,” she insisted.
“You would still be contributing to the destruction of vampires,” he insisted. “You’d still be making a difference.”
“Not the way I want to.”
He clamped his lips shut, his face tightening in anger. “And when you’re mortally injured and I die healing you?” It had been her biggest fear all along. “It’s an even greater possibility now than ever before because you’re battling vampires and being hunted by mercenaries who are shooting at you,” he pressed.
She swallowed hard. “If I suffer a fatal injury, you’ll just have to let me go.”
“You know I won’t do that.”
She did. And it killed her to think that he would die for her.
Her eyes began to burn as her throat thickened. She had promised herself she wouldn’t stop hunting until the vampire threat had been eliminated. Not hunting would feel like giving up. She didn’t want to give up. She wasn’t ready to give up.
Étienne clear his throat. “She can hunt with me.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
Chapter 11
While Étienne inwardly cursed himself in every language he knew, Krysta swung around to gape up at him in disbelief.
“What?” Chris, Cam, and Sean spoke at the same time.
He gritted his teeth. “I said, she can hunt with me.”
It wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted Krysta safe, damn it. But when her brother had slapped her in the face with reality, the barriers of her mind had crumbled. He had heard every panicked thought and hadn’t been able to bear her unhappiness and dismay.
Seth and David glanced at each other, then examined Krysta and Étienne for several long moments, during which he suspected they were communicating telepathically.
If Seth and David nixed the idea . . .
Seth met Étienne’s gaze. “She’ll be a liability.”
Krysta did not like hearing that. A dozen denials immediately flooded her mind, overriding the panicked despair.
But Étienne couldn’t contradict it.
David drew Krysta’s gaze. “Though they don’t like it, immortals’ orders are very clear. If they are tranqed, they are to immediately flee the battle in order to avoid being captured and call their Seconds before they lose consciousness. When the two of you were attacked by mercenaries, Étienne put himself in a position where he would likely be captured in order to keep them from killing you.”
She lost some of her fight. “But I kept them from taking him.”
Seth acknowledged her words with a slight nod. “Had he been hunting alone, however, he would not have lingered once he saw that first dart. He would have gotten away without further injury.”
Quiet descended upon them, heavy and uncomfortable.
“Krysta,” Chris said, “you have to understand that, if you and Sean join us, your actions will affect us all. If you had been shot despite Étienne’s efforts to keep you safe, he would have been captured, tortured, and killed before we could even identify whoever the hell our new enemy is. The mercenaries would have then obtained both the virus and the DNA evidence they need to build their research and their army.”
“The fault was not entirely Krysta’s,” Étienne mentioned. “I thought the mercenary threat over. Had I not been so caught off guard by their reappearance, I would have reacted faster and likely could have gotten us both out of there before they could hit me with a second dart.”
Cam shook his head. “I could just as easily argue that you may have noticed the mercenaries’ approach and not been so caught off guard if Krysta hadn’t been distracting you.”
“I won’t make the same mistake twice,” Étienne insisted.
Another long moment passed.
Krysta fidgeted.
Sean said nothing.
Étienne didn’t have as much difficulty reading Sean as he did Krysta. The younger man was hoping the elders would forbid Krysta from hunting. Not because he feared he might die healing her, but because he feared she might be so badly injured one night that she would die before he could reach her.