She frowned. “How would Étienne even know what buried memories look like? Neither of us has ever seen them.”
He studied her. “You’ve never read the mind of a mortal after David or I buried his memories?”
“No. Neither has Étienne.”
“Yes, he has. He was there when I buried the memories of the military veteran Chris recruited from Donald’s army.” He looked thoughtful. “That explains why Étienne said you claimed you had seen nothing out of the ordinary when you scanned the vamps’ minds.”
“I didn’t claim it. I—” She stiffened. “Wait. When you brought me here tonight and told me to tell you I didn’t do it, you weren’t actually . . .” Hurt stabbed her in the chest. “Did you think I had done it? That I had altered the vampires’ memories? That I was in league with them?”
Arms at his sides, Seth spread his fingers in a What else could I think? gesture. “Coupled with your long absences and odd behavior of late—the discomfort that bordered on fear you exhibited whenever you were in my presence or David’s—I didn’t know what to think,” he said.
“So, this wasn’t about Zach at all,” she pressed, needing to clarify it in her own mind before she went ballistic. “You thought I had taken up the sword Bastien dropped and was secretly raising a vampire army?” Her voice rose with each word.
Seth’s face tightened. “I didn’t know what else to think.”
“You didn’t think at all!” she yelled, then gasped at her temerity.
“I know!” he shouted and gave her his back. “I know I didn’t! I don’t know what the fuck is happening!” Dragging a hand through his long wet hair, he paced away from her. “I can’t think straight anymore!” he growled with such frustration, such anguish.
Lisette stared.
He stopped and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, seeming infinitely weary all of a sudden. “I can’t think straight anymore,” he repeated softly.
And all of the anger building inside her—or most of it anyway—fled.
Lisette approached him with care. “Seth . . . how long has it been since you slept?”
“I don’t know.” He lowered his hands. “Weeks, I think.”
“Because you’re worried about Ami?”
The drizzle stopped, but heavy clouds lingered.
“Because I’m worried about Ami. Because keeping her from losing this babe has been a constant struggle. Because her babe is dreaming of torture.”
“What?” Horror filled Lisette. “Is the babe dreaming of her mother’s torture?” Lisette had been pulled into Ami’s dreams often enough to know that the torture Ami had endured sometimes returned to haunt her in nightmares.
Seth shook his head. “That’s the puzzle. Ami isn’t the one being tortured in the dreams.”
“The baby is dreaming of her own torture?” That was even worse! Was Ami’s daughter precognitive? Was she seeing her future? A future in which she would be tortured like her mother?
“No. The one being tortured is a man. And, before you ask if it’s Marcus, I don’t know. I can’t see his face because the dreams seem to be from his perspective.”
“No wonder you aren’t sleeping.”
A sad laugh escaped him. “Those are just the highlights. I’ve also seen the future.” He studied the puddles forming around his big boots. “More specifically, I saw Ami and Marcus in the future. Two years hence.”
“Then you know Ami will survive childbirth.” That was a good thing, right?
“Yes. Ami will,” he whispered. He said nothing of the babe.
Dread soured Lisette’s stomach. “Was the baby with them? In your vision of the future?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “No.”
She could think of no response.
“I know it doesn’t necessarily mean . . .”
“Of course not.” Lisette tried to sound confident, but failed miserably.
“Now this new vampire army is rising. And . . .” He turned to face her. “I thought Zach was out of the picture, and it tore me up inside to think you had betrayed me.”
“I would never betray you,” she responded automatically, then bit her lip.
He raised one eyebrow.
“Okay, other than boinking your enemy, I would never betray you,” she qualified.#p#分页标题#e#
He huffed a laugh. “Boinking?”
“I believe that’s one of Sheldon’s terms.”
He nodded, amusement gradually receding and leaving his handsome face pensive as he searched the horizon. “I can’t seem to keep you all safe anymore,” he murmured. “It weighs heavily on me.”