Night Unbound(41)

Richart nodded. “He was skilled enough that I feared for a moment he might be like Bastien, an immortal who mistakenly thought himself vampire.”
Bastien frowned. “Was he?”
“No,” Seth answered for them.
“But,” Chris continued, “Lisette and Ethan encountered two more vampires with the same skills last night.”
Lisette addressed the group. “All three vampires had been trained in martial arts and knew weapons as well as we do. The two last night were accompanied by a couple of your standard fare vamps—lanky and essentially useless—whom we swiftly defeated.”
“The two with skills,” Ethan added, “were a real challenge. They actually proved to be very difficult to defeat. It was like sparring with an immortal.”
Roland leaned forward. “Sarah and I encountered a similar vampire a week ago.”
Sarah nodded. “If I weren’t as strong as Roland, I don’t know that I would have defeated him.”
Edward swore. “I came up against one, too. Just a couple of nights ago. I thought it was a fluke.”
“One skilled vampire is a fluke,” Chris said. “Five isn’t. Five is a problem.”
Roland looked to Lisette. “Were you able to read their minds?”
“Yes, but I could glean little more than that they thought the other vampires beneath them and intended to kill them once they proved to be of no more use to them.”
“Sounds like Dennis,” Ami commented. “The night he captured me, I saw Dennis lose it completely and hack several of his followers to pieces with a machete.”
“Jeez!” Krysta exclaimed.
Chris sighed. “Clearly someone is amassing a new vampire army. And, based on the descriptions I was given of the fights, I suspect one of his or her goals is to capture an immortal.”
Melanie frowned. “Why would that be a priority for vampires? Are they interested in immortals’ advanced DNA?”
Bastien wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I doubt vampires know about the DNA. Those I used to encounter when I thought myself one of them certainly never did. But I can have Cliff ask those he encounters outside of network headquarters some subtle questions to see if that’s changed.”
Roland cast him a disapproving scowl. “You’re really taking him hunting with you?”#p#分页标题#e#
“Yes. And will allow him to roam freely a couple of times a week so he can connect with other vampires without them instantly going on the defensive when they see an Immortal Guardian at his side.”
Marcus straightened. “You’re going to let him roam freely? Are you crazy? He could tell them everything he knows. He could tell them about Ami! Any vampire wanting to get his hands on an immortal would be doubly eager to capture the only woman to ever successfully conceive a child by one.”
Seth shook his head. “He hasn’t told anyone, nor do I believe he will. David and I will take turns reading his thoughts each night after he hunts to make sure, but—as I said—I don’t believe he will betray us.”
Lisette watched Marcus absorb that with deep unease while the others compared verbal notes on the vampires they had come up against in recent weeks. She glanced at Ami to see how she was taking this.
Just then, Ami looked up at the ceiling for a long moment, then peeked at Seth with an I hope he didn’t catch that expression.
Oh, crap. He wouldn’t do it, would he?
Zach would not be so monumentally foolish as to follow Lisette to David’s place and perch on the damned roof, knowing Seth was beneath it, itching to hand Zach his own ass again.
He wouldn’t be that foolish, right?
Lisette kept her gaze on Ami.
Ami glanced at the ceiling again. A moment passed. She smiled, then lowered her head and rubbed her tummy.
Damn it! He had! What the hell?
Ami must have sensed his presence in that odd way she could. Had she spoken to him telepathically as well?
If so, how had she managed to do so without Seth and David picking up on it?
“Why would the vampires want to capture an immortal?” Marcus asked. “Why not just try to kill us as usual?”
Bastien leaned forward and braced his elbows on the table. “The vampires in the army I raised knew very little about immortals. I knew little of you myself.” Would he ever consider himself one of them? “I knew Roland had to be as old as I was, but I had no idea immortals could live thousands of years.”
Marcus frowned. “I’m not sure where you’re going with this.”
“Vampires may not know immortals have advanced DNA or how long-lived you are,” Bastien said. “But they do know you’re faster and stronger than they are. Some of the vampires who followed me firmly believed that drinking your blood would give them the same speed and strength, the same power. According to their reasoning, capturing an immortal and using him as a nightly donor would render the effects permanent. When I waged my war with you, I had a hell of a time convincing them to fight to kill instead of fighting to capture.”