Seth stared at Aidan in silence.
Aidan raised his arms a few inches, then let them fall back to his sides. “I need my lotto ticket, Seth,” he said with near desperation. “I need hope. I’ve lived too long without it.”
“And you thought raising a vampire army—”
“I didn’t raise a fucking army!” Aidan shouted, features mottling with fury. “I breached network headquarters and violated Reordon’s protocols because I was looking for a list of gifted ones!”
Seth could detect no deception in his tone and saw none in his posture or expression.
“You wouldn’t transfer me,” Aidan said, both his voice and face full of anguish.
“Five gifted ones have been transformed in recent years, so we have five new immortals in the area. We don’t need—”
“I don’t give a flying fuck how many immortals are in the area! If you have more than you need, then send the Brits and their wives elsewhere and transfer me here. I know the chances of finding a gifted one who can love me and who will transform for me are as slim as the chances of winning the lotto, but I need the hope, Seth.” He shook his head, swallowed hard. “I’ve lived without it for nearly three thousand years. I broke into the damned network and risked your wrath because I can’t live without it any longer. If you wouldn’t transfer me here, then I wanted to acquire a list of gifted ones I could look up myself. I wouldn’t hurt them. I wouldn’t scare them. I would just . . . bump into them at the grocery store. Help them change a flat tire. Whatever the hell I had to do to just have that chance meeting and see if, by some miracle, a spark might flare between us. If I had to teleport here every night before hunting to manage it, I would do it.”
Shit.
“I didn’t raise a vampire army. I just . . . wanted to purchase a lotto ticket.” Aidan held out his bloody hands. “Whatever the cost.”
Seth stared at Aidan, one of the most powerful warriors he knew, and felt his chest tighten when moisture glinted in the other man’s eyes. “Lower your barriers,” Seth commanded.
“What?”
“Your mental barriers. Lower them.”
Aidan nodded slowly. “It’s done.”
Seth delved into the immortal’s mind. Every barrier toppled, letting Seth see the loneliness and desperation that had driven Aidan to rebel. Not by raising a vampire army. But by combing the network’s records in search of the names and addresses of female gifted ones. Had Aidan tried to hide anything, Seth would’ve seen it.
There was nothing. Aidan hadn’t even known a vampire army had risen against the immortals until he had awoken chained in this holding cell and heard Bastien and Melanie discussing it . . . and naming him the betrayer.
Yet again, Seth had misjudged one of his immortals.
Closing his eyes, he bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fuck.” Would this never end? Would he never discover who was waging war with them?
Aidan released a long sigh. “I’m sorry I defied you.”
Seth shook his head. Opening his eyes, he crossed to Aidan and placed a hand on the younger man’s chest. Though Seth was low on energy from healing Ami, he poured what he could into Aidan and healed both of his hands.
While Aidan flexed his fingers, Seth drew back his hand and waved it toward Aidan’s feet.
The shackles opened and fell away.
“Thank you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Seth asked. “When you requested the transfer, why didn’t you tell me how bad things were?”
Aidan sank down on the narrow bed behind him. “Too proud, I suppose. Too ashamed. I don’t know. Too angry, maybe, that you didn’t see it. Hell, Seth, after all these years, you know me better than anyone.”
Sighing, Seth sat beside him and leaned back against the wall. “You’re right. I didn’t see it.”
“Now that I know what you’re dealing with here, I understand why.”
And Aidan didn’t even know about Ami. “It’s no excuse. I should have realized.”
“Seth, you can’t be everywhere at once,” Aidan said, the words oddly familiar. “Because you seem to know everything, some of us sometimes forget that you don’t and . . . I don’t know . . . expect perfection. Miracles. Though we are far from perfect ourselves.”
“If it helps, even after seeing the surveillance video, I had a hard time believing you guilty.”
“You’re sure it’s an immortal?”
“Yes. Whoever it is can erase memories.”
“Shit.”
“Everyone in the area has been cleared, so a teleporter must be involved.”