“No,” she muttered, reluctant to admit it.
“I know you don’t like to hear it, but you are a liability, Krysta. Étienne already has to divide his attention between fighting and reading the minds of as many opponents as he can. Keeping an eye or ear out for you, too, distracts him even more. He could have been hurt far more seriously than he was tonight as a result.”
Her stomach sank as she turned to Étienne. “You were hurt?” Krysta gave him a quick once-over, but there was no way to know how much of the blood painting him was his. And his coat had already sported several bullet holes before the night had begun because he had neither replaced nor mended it after his last encounter with mercenaries. “Where? What happened?”
He glared at Seth. “I’m fine.”
Seth shook his head, strolled around, and placed a hand on Étienne’s chest. That hand began to glow as he healed Étienne’s wounds. “He was shot multiple times by the mercenaries and suffered a few deep gashes at the hands of the vampires before they decided to join forces with you.”#p#分页标题#e#
She hadn’t known. She hadn’t even guessed. How many of those injuries had he incurred while he was looking out for her? While he was distracted, listening to ensure the vampires hadn’t either turned on her or abandoned her?
“Don’t,” Étienne said.
“Don’t what?” She looked from him to Sean, lying so still on the bed.
“Krysta,” Étienne said.
All she could do was stare at him, feeling sick inside.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Cam look back and forth between them and clear his throat. “I, uh, I’m going to go see what the word is on the vamps you recruited tonight.” He backed out of the room.
Seth’s hand ceased glowing as he dropped it from Étienne’s chest. “And I am going to go see if you left any mercenaries alive.”
“I did.”
“Then I have some minds to read. Hopefully, when I’m finished, we will know who we are dealing with and how they learned about our existence so we can end this.”
He vanished.
When Étienne walked toward her, Krysta held up a hand to keep him at bay.
Étienne took that hand and carried her palm to his lips for a kiss. “Don’t.”
“You already said that.”
“You’re still doing it.”
“Doing what?”
“Beating yourself up. You were injured, too, you know.”
“But that wasn’t your fault,” she said, throat thick.
“Wasn’t it? How long did we walk and watch that campus? The mercenaries were likely there the whole time. But I forgot to use the damned infrared scope to check shadows too dark for my eyes to pierce.”
“Because I distracted you.”
“Because I’m accustomed to not needing it, to depending upon my own enhanced vision. Had I been more thorough, I would have known they were there, summoned aid, and captured them all alive without you suffering a single injury.”
“My being shot wasn’t your fault.”
“And my being shot wasn’t yours.”
“Sean collapsing was.”
“Sean knows his limits.”
“And I pushed him to those limits. You aren’t going to make me feel better about any of this.”
Étienne sighed. “Fine. Then make me feel better about it.” Tugging her hand, he brought her close and wrapped his arms around her.
Krysta leaned into him, locking her arms around his waist.
“I should be angry at you, but not for any of the reasons you think,” he muttered, resting his cheek on her head.
“Why?”
“You actually made me understand Bastien,” he grumbled.
“How so?” she asked, tired, lost.
“Bastien is not my favorite person. Despite what I learned about him recently, I have not been able to abandon my dislike for him entirely because he killed a friend of mine two hundred years ago. But there was a night—before I met you—when he thought the woman he loved had been killed and went berserk in the true sense of the word. He painted UNC red with blood and was coated with it himself by the time I came upon him. I thought he had gone mad. He was, for all intents and purposes, gone, wanting only to kill and punish. And, tonight, when I saw those bullets strike you, I wanted the same. I knew exactly how he felt.” His arms tightened around her. “I wanted to kill every mercenary, then kill every vampire for distracting me so much that I didn’t hear the damned mercenaries’ approach until it was too late. But I couldn’t. I had to think of the fucking greater good,” he said with such disgust that she found a laugh. “I had to take some of them alive.”