“I don’t know,” Zach responded, his eyes glowing faintly. “I kinda like it now.”
Seth laughed.
“Down With The Sickness” sounded once more.
“Seriously?” Zach demanded, retrieving the phone and taking the call. “What?”
“Zach,” Darnell said on the other end, “what the hell are you doing with Seth’s phone? Why are you taking his calls?”
Seth smiled. “I have business I must attend to, Darnell,” he said, raising his voice so the mortal could hear him. “Zach has offered to field my calls for a couple of days.”
“Oh.” Lisette suspected Darnell knew exactly what Seth’s business entailed. “Is there anything I can do? Do you want me to screen your calls? Chris and I can handle the nuisance calls, and I can forward the emergencies to Zach.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Aren’t they all nuisance calls?” Zach drawled.
Lisette kicked him under the table.
“I would appreciate that, Darnell,” Seth said. “Thank you.”
“Great. I’ll get right on it.”
Zach set the phone on the table.
Lisette arched a brow. “Nuisance calls?”
Seth smiled sheepishly. “A term Darnell has coined, not I.”
“And those entail . . . ?”
Zach arched a brow. “Brothers bitching about their sister being accused of something she didn’t do?”
Seth laughed. “More like Seconds complaining that their immortals keep trying to protect them instead of vice versa. Or an immortal wanting to be assigned a new Second because his Second snores and keeps him awake all day. Or a newbie immortal bitching about having to change his diet and go organic because his favorite foods don’t taste the same now that his senses are heightened.”
Lisette laughed. “I’ve heard Melanie complain about that. Makes me glad I was transformed when organic foods were all that was available. I didn’t have to change a thing diet-wise.”
“Down With The Sickness” filled the kitchen.
Zach scowled. “I’m already beginning to hate that song. What?”
Portuguese, a language she recognized, but had never learned to speak, flowed over the line.
Rising, Zach grabbed half of his sandwich. “I’m taking this with me,” he grumbled and vanished.
Lisette glanced at Seth. “Is it always like this?”
“Yes.” He downed half of his glass of tea.
“I had no idea you were so inundated with calls.”
He shrugged. “I turn my phone off at meetings and let David, Darnell, or Chris answer them when I spend time with Ami.”
They ate in silence.
Zach reappeared, sandwich gone, hands bloody. He washed them in the sink and returned to the table. Before he could sit down, “Down With The Sickness” sounded once more.
The air turned blue with curses. “What?” he growled into the phone.
Urgent Swahili flowed across the line.
Sighing, Zach vanished.
Lisette looked at Seth. “It’s going to be a long two days.”
Chapter Thirteen
Cloaked in darkness, Zach watched the immortal seek his bed. Outside, the sun crested the horizon and bathed the earth with golden light.
Though shadows had been Zach’s friend for thousands of years, he found no comfort in them now. He had not slept in two days, thanks to Seth’s precious Immortal Guardians. Nor had he made love to Lisette.
The last irritated him far more than the first, of course. Zach craved her touch like a cat craved catnip. His existence had always been so bereft of affection and passion and tenderness that—now that Lisette had given him a taste of it—he constantly wanted to drink more in, to bathe in it and relish every kiss and touch and gasp of ecstasy.
The immortal sprawled on the bed and fell still. Soon his breathing deepened as sleep claimed him.
He was older than most of the Immortal Guardians in North Carolina. A Mayan who could unravel the mysteries surrounding the prophecy about which so many doomsday enthusiasts speculated. A powerful telepath with mental walls Zach couldn’t breech without the Mayan’s being aware of his presence. Not while the Mayan was conscious.
Zach silently stepped forward and waved a hand over the immortal’s face.
While the Mayan was unconscious however . . .
Zach took a mental sledgehammer to the walls the telepath had erected. The power and time it took to topple them impressed the hell out of Zach, as did the mental push it took to keep the Mayan unconscious. Once the walls fell, Zach dove in and began his search.
Many minutes later, he appeared on the roof of a building at Duke University, where it was still night.
Lisette stepped from the shadows. “What took you so long?” Wrapping her arms around his waist, she leaned into him and rested her chin on his chest.