Night Unbound(35)

She sent him a sheepish grin. “I’m just as bad.” Picking up the plates, she carried them to the table. “If you weren’t so much older than I am, I probably would have examined every nook and cranny of your mind by now.”
Then he was fortunate she couldn’t do so. There were some very dark days in his past.
Dark days and dark deeds he didn’t want her to see.
She set one plate in front of him and one in front of the chair catty-corner to him.
Zach’s view of her shapely bottom, as she turned away, was blocked by her long hair. He had never seen it loose before. The ends had begun to dry and curled every which way. The rest rippled with soft waves.
She returned, carrying a second glass of tea and a plate of bread.
Zach rose and drew her chair out for her.
Surprise and pleasure lit her light brown eyes as she sat and let him scoot the chair forward a bit.
He was a little surprised himself. It was yet another first for him.
Zach retook his seat and turned a bit so he could face the table more. Pain shot through his wings again when he accidentally jostled them.
“You didn’t have wings in the dream,” she mentioned, “when we were outside David’s place.”
He forced his muscles to unbunch and relax. He had kissed her in that dream, had touched her full breast. How he wished he could do the same now. Instead he picked up his fork and tucked into his meal. “I can retract them if I wish and make them—for all intents and purposes—disappear.”
“Oh.”
“I would do so now, but I can’t until they’re healed.”
Her brow furrowed as she chewed.
She even did that beautifully, he thought with an inward shake of his head, following the motion of her pale, elegant throat as she swallowed.
“Does Seth have wings?”
Unease crept through him. He didn’t know how he should respond to questions about Seth. “Seth is a shape-shifter like David. He can have or be anything he wants.”
Her look carried a reprimand. “You know that isn’t what I meant. Is Seth like you?”
Zach toyed with his food for a long moment, considering his words carefully. “Lisette . . .”
Her eyes fastened on his, acquiring an amber glow.
“What?” he asked, confused. Had he angered her?
“I don’t think you’ve ever called me by my name before.”
Because doing so felt intimate. “Forgive me. I should have asked—”
“No,” she interrupted. “I like it. I’m sorry. You were saying?”
“Lisette,” he began again, “if we . . . spend time together . . .”
“Yes?” she encouraged when he faltered.
How should he put this? “There will be things—about myself and about Seth—that I won’t be able to share with you.”
She looked down at her plate. “Because you don’t trust me?”
“I wouldn’t be here now if I didn’t trust you.” The trust he was willing to place in her astonished him. Were her safety not at risk, he suspected he would’ve answered every question she asked him.
“Then why?”
“For the same reason you don’t tell your Second certain things. I can’t risk your brother, or any other telepathic immortal, finding the information in your thoughts.”#p#分页标题#e#
A full minute passed while she studied her plate.
“No protest?” he asked.
“No,” she muttered. “Étienne has been in my head so much, I have a hard time keeping secrets from him. And I can’t promise I’ll never let my guard down. I get tired. I get wounded. I sleep. And my barriers fall.” She speared some pasta, but didn’t raise it to her lips. “Even with my barriers in place, Seth and David could read me if they wanted to.”
Silence engulfed them. It wasn’t a particularly comfortable one.
Zach scrambled for something to say. “Would you like me to leave?”
“No,” she said without hesitation, but both her words and tone lacked pleasure. “If I were like Ethan, would you tell me? Would you answer my questions?”
“I fear I would, yes.”
At last she met his gaze. “Why fear?”
He considered his answer. “I once heard Roland ask Seth—long ago, before you were born—what the source of gifted ones’ advanced DNA was. Seth refused to answer. His explanation: that, if he did, bloodshed would follow.”
A spark of interest lit her eyes. “Do you know the source of our advanced DNA?”
“Yes. But speaking of such things, as well as of Seth’s origins and my own, always results in bloodshed.”
“Why?”
“Because someone always shares the information with someone they shouldn’t. Someone always trusts where he or she shouldn’t. And the consequences are far greater than you could imagine.”