“David knew?”
“Of course.”
“Does anyone else know?”
“Do you really want me to answer that?”
“No.”
“Well, there you have it.”
“Back to the subject at hand,” she said, eager to abandon that of her affair with Ethan. “Would you please talk to Zach? Maybe he can help you figure out who is working against us.”
His look told her he knew who was working against them: Zach.
“Have you no faith in my judgment?” she pressed.
“Love can make us blind to the obvious. Love can make us trust where we should not.”
“Did you not see, in my memories, how he treats me? How loving he is? Zach wouldn’t endanger me by waging war with you. He wouldn’t endanger Ami either. He considers Ami his friend. And . . . I don’t think Zach has had many friends during his long existence.”
Seth mumbled something that sounded like with good reason.
“If Zach truly were your enemy, Seth, would he not have exposed all your secrets? Would he not have told me what you are? What you both are?”
His gaze sharpened. “I’m immortal.”
“I think we both know you’re more than that, that you’re different from the rest of us. I know Zach is like you. Yet, when I asked him what he is, if you have wings like his, what the source of gifted ones’ and immortals’ advanced DNA is, he wouldn’t tell me. He didn’t want to expose your secrets to me and to anyone who could read my mind. And, when he told me you were responsible for his capture and torture, he even offered an excuse. He said sometimes the truth is too harsh to bear even for someone your age. That it’s easier, sometimes, to believe a lie.”
Minutes passed. Did Seth search her memories again?
“I’ll consider it,” he said at last. Disturbed’s “Down With The Sickness” rose on the night. Seth took out his cell phone and gave it a glance. “Duty calls. I must go.”
“You aren’t going to insist I stop seeing Zach?”
“Would it do any good?”
“No.”
“I assumed it wouldn’t.”
Lisette hugged him again. “Get some sleep, Seth.”
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Be careful.”
“I will.”
When he released her, they were atop Davis Library once more.
Seth vanished without another word.
Fury thrummed through Zach.
Beside him, Lisette sighed as they strolled through Duke’s quiet campus. “It’s been days, Zach. I wish you would just let it go.”
If Lisette hadn’t all but begged him not to, Zach would have confronted Seth and done his damnedest to beat the shit out of him after she had mentioned the little conversation the two of them had shared. “He accused you of betraying your brethren.”
“Well, you have to admit I have been behaving suspiciously of late.”
“He frightened you.” That fueled his temper more than anything—that she had experienced even one millisecond of fear because of that bastard.
“I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t exactly making me feel all warm and fuzzy yourself right now.”
He looked down at her in surprise. “You fear me?”
“No. Not really. But your eyes are glowing and you look like you really want to kill something.”
“Not something. Someone.”
“Well, let’s put those violent urges to good use. About a dozen vampires are headed our way.”
Shocked, Zach realized he had been so distracted he hadn’t even smelled them coming.
A smile slid across Lisette’s pretty face. “Oh, you’re going to love this. They’re all the new breed.”
He followed her gaze to the figures making their way through the shadows. Indeed they were. Strange. “I don’t suppose I could talk you into letting me handle this on my own,” he said, palming two daggers.
She drew her shoto swords. “Don’t start treating me with kid gloves, Zach. My brothers do it, and it drives me crazy.”
As soon as the vampires spotted them and the weapons they held, the vamps attacked. There was no talking. No boasting. No bullshit. Just what appeared to be a single-minded determination to capture Lisette. Zach, too, once they realized that—despite his lack of hunting garb—he bore the speed and strength of an immortal.#p#分页标题#e#
Planting his back to Lisette’s, Zach started carving the vamps up with the weapons she had insisted he carry. Oh yeah. This was just what he’d needed.
Cries of pain sounded behind him. All male.
Zach smiled. He loved that Lisette could fight and found her strength a fascinating complement to her vulnerability.
Crimson liquid slapped him in the face as he opened arteries. These vamps bordered on expert warriors. They fought as a team with order and a cold calculation that the vampires he had seen Seth and his immortals fight in the past had lacked. Even those led by Bastien had not achieved this expertise.