Night Unbound(136)

Several of Chris’s Special Ops men had posed as survivors who had seen the whole thing.
Since gunfire had been a norm on the isolated compound, explosions a little less so, authorities had not been alerted by those who had heard the battle, and Chris had had plenty of time to coordinate things. And little had remained for police and emergency crews to sort through.
David felt only mild relief upon sighting the tall figure standing in the center of the slab of blackened cement that marked the place where the armory had once stood.
Head bowed, Seth stared down at the charred foundation.
“Seth.”
The eldest immortal didn’t raise his head. “Why didn’t I feel it?” he whispered, the words filled with baffled despair.
David stared at him helplessly. Seth had always felt internally the death of an immortal, no matter how far away it happened. “When Lisette, Richart, Étienne, and Bastien were transformed, you couldn’t feel Bastien’s pain because it was lost amongst that of the other three. Perhaps it was the same with Stanislav’s death. Perhaps it followed Yuri’s too closely for you to feel it separately.”
Seth shook his head.
“Seth—”
He held up a hand. “Where’s Zach?”
“My place.”
“Where’s Aidan?”
David sighed. “They’re all at my place.”
A full minute passed. “You know what I intend to do?”
“Yes.”
“And you support me?”
“Always.”#p#分页标题#e#
The word didn’t seem to reassure him. “Send Aidan to me.”
David had known Seth long enough to recognize when he needed to work something through on his own.
Nodding, David turned and headed back the way he had come.
 

 

“She’s beautiful,” Lisette praised.
Smiling with motherly pride, Ami nodded. “Yes, she is.” Her gaze shifted to the large immortal sprawled beside Lisette. “Thank you, Zach.”
The three of them lounged on the cushioned floor of the training room while Marcus and Roland did their best to kick each other’s asses. Both warriors grieved for their lost brethren. And, unlike Lisette, neither had felt comfortable expressing it through tears. So they worked their fury and hurt out as they always had: through battle.
“For what?” Zach asked, reaching over to tickle the baby’s tiny feet.
“I know you helped Seth and David get me through childbirth and kept me from slipping away.” She cast Marcus a worried glance. “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t.”
Marcus had already lost one woman he had loved. None of them believed he would recover if he were to lose Ami, too.
“I couldn’t let you go,” Zach replied with a smile. “You’re the only one who gives me lollipops.”
The women laughed.
“Have you chosen a name for her yet?” Lisette asked.
Ami nodded. “Adira.”
“I like it,” Zach said. “It suits her.”
Ami’s smile broadened. “Since she has both alien and gifted one DNA, we wanted a name that would represent both of her parents’ worlds.” She toyed with the baby’s tiny toes. “On my planet, Adira is a shortened form of my mother’s name: Adiransia. And, on this planet, Adira means strong, powerful.”
Zach smiled as the baby grabbed his index finger and tugged. “She is that.”
Lisette agreed. In more ways than one. Precognition was just one of the gifts they suspected little Adira possessed. “It’s perfect.”
Ami drew a hand over the baby’s soft hair. “We thought so, too.”
“Zach.”
Lisette looked to the doorway and felt a rush of relief.
Seth.
None of them had seen him since the battle two days ago.
“Yes?”
“A moment.”
Zach gave the baby’s foot one last stroke, then rose. “I’ll be back.”
Lisette nodded. “Take your time.”
She thought David and Zach were probably the only ones who could reach Seth just then.
As soon as Zach drew even with him, Seth reached out, touched his shoulder, and teleported him away.
Lisette looked at Ami, who shrugged as Aidan strode through the empty doorway.
 

 

Zach contemplated his surroundings.
The earth around them curved upward on all sides into rolling hills as if he and Seth stood in the center of a large, grassy bowl. No trees rose from the ground to block the light beaming down upon them from a full moon. Not until one’s gaze reached the tops of the hills. There, trees erupted into forest so dense that even Zach’s sharp eyes couldn’t penetrate it.
A light breeze combed through his hair. The knee-high grasses around them rippled like ocean waves, the swishing sounds they made reminiscent of the sounds water made as it lapped at the shore.