“Oh no! Not Cliff,” she pleaded. The young, courageous vamp had grown on them all.
“I don’t know. Chris will tell us when he gets here. Do you think Zach could pop you on over here?”
“No,” Zach grumbled in the background. “Zach wants to get back to dreaming about making love with his wife on a sunny beach. On second thought . . . screw that. I’m going to make love with her here in our bed. Hang up, love.”
Ethan heard a thump.
“Behave,” Lisette admonished with a laugh. “And get up. We’re going. I want to meet Ethan’s mortal girlfriend.”
“Ethan has a girlfriend?” Zach asked.
He didn’t have to sound so damned surprised. Or was he relieved? Zach knew Lisette and Ethan used to be lovers and didn’t even try to hide the fact that he loathed Ethan for it.
When Ethan had been turned by vampires a century or so ago, Seth—the leader of the Immortal Guardians—had taken him to Lisette to be trained. Ethan had instantly been smitten with the fierce, female immortal and had become even more so once he had coaxed her into his bed. Alas, Lisette had not loved him in return, so they had transitioned into what his Second called friends with benefits. It had been a comfortable relationship that had staved off the loneliness for decades until Lisette had fallen hard for Zach last year.
“So, are we a go?” Ethan asked, not bothering to correct Lisette’s assumption that Heather was his girlfriend.
“Yes.”
“Thank you.” Glancing at Heather, he swiveled away and lowered his voice. “And tell Zach to put some damned clothes on and to tuck his you-know-what away.”
Lisette laughed. “I will. I’ll call you when we’re ready.”
Pocketing the phone, Ethan turned back to Heather.
She arched a brow. “What is it you want him to tuck away?”
He laughed. “Not what you’re thinking. Let’s just . . . save that for another day.” Until Chris and Lisette confirmed what Ethan already sensed—that Heather was worthy of their trust—he thought it best not to mention the fact that Zach rarely wore shirts because they interfered with his big-ass wings. Wings he could tuck away or make vanish at will.
“If you say so,” she drawled. “Was that your Second again?”
“No. That was Lisette, one of the telepaths I told you about. She’ll be coming here to do the same thing you do in your work. She’ll assure Chris you aren’t bullshitting him when he talks with you.”
Her look turned uneasy. “She’s immortal?”
“Yes.”
“And she’s going to read my mind?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. I know it’s an intrusion. But it’s the fastest way to get Chris out of our hair. An interview with him”—he opted not to use the word interrogation—“would take hours otherwise until we convinced him you could be trusted.” And Ethan would’ve likely become so angered by whatever intimidation tactics Chris would’ve used that Ethan would’ve hurt the man and earned Seth’s wrath.
“As often as I’ve read others’ minds, I guess I shouldn’t balk.” She sighed. “All right.”
Ethan studied her for a moment. “You look nervous.”
“I am.”
Closing the distance between them, he took her hand. “Don’t be. I’ll be with you the whole time.”
“Thank you.”
Damn, she appealed to him. “May I ask you a question?”
“Sure.” Heather was almost a foot shorter than Ethan and seemed so fragile. So very mortal. It terrified him a little to recall her standing with him against seven vampires earlier. “Why did you welcome me into your home?”
She raised her eyebrows. “Temporary insanity?”
He flashed her a quick grin. “No, seriously.” Even though he had done his damnedest to convince Heather that he wouldn’t harm her, it still surprised him that she hadn’t continued to run away from him.
“You defeated seven vampires,” she said.
“With your help.”
She rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t that much help. You clearly were the strongest and most skilled fighter in the bunch.” Hard not to preen a bit over that declaration. “And I figured, if you had wanted to kill me or harm me, you would have done so in the clearing.”
“You had a weapon with a full mag trained on me in the clearing.”
“But my hands were shaking so badly that I didn’t have a hope in hell of hitting one of your major arteries. I would have only gotten one—maybe two—shots off before you jumped into hyperspeed and disarmed me.”
“I did disarm you.”
“After trying to talk me down.” Shrugging, she offered him a smile. “As you pointed out earlier, you could have easily killed me on the spot. Or you could have forced me into your car and whisked me away. Or you could have forced me into my house. Instead, you politely asked me if I’d like to discuss matters inside. And you trusted me enough to confirm that vampire folklore had gotten it right with regard to your not being able to withstand exposure to sunlight. You revealed a weakness to me. A vulnerability. It made me feel . . . not safe exactly, but safer.” She studied him. “Your eyes are glowing again.”
“You’re beautiful, you’re smart, you think quickly in a crisis, and you kick ass. Do you have any idea what a desirous combination that is?”
“Since I could say the same about you, yes.”
He grinned. “You’re bold, too? Be still, my heart.”
The phone rang before she could respond.
Still holding her hand, Ethan answered. “Yeah?”
Zach and Lisette appeared three feet away.
Heather jumped and emitted a little shriek of surprise. Tilting her head way back, she gaped up at Zach’s six-foot-ten-inch glowering form, then sidled up to Ethan.
Releasing her hand, Ethan wrapped an arm around her and glared at the elder immortal. “You could have given us a little warning first.”
Zach arched a brow. “I did. I called.” He curled an arm around Lisette’s waist and drew her closer as if to remind Ethan of his claim on her.
Lisette smiled and offered her hand to Heather. “Hello. I’m Lisette.”
Heather shook it. “Heather.”
Lisette patted Zach’s chest. “This is my husband, Zach.”
Heather eyed the two of them, her face full of curiosity. “You’re both immortal?”
“Yes,” Lisette answered.
“How did you . . . ? I mean, you just . . . appeared out of nowhere.”
“I can teleport,” Zach told her.
Heather turned wide eyes on Ethan. “Can you do that?”
“No,” Ethan confessed, hoping she wouldn’t be too disappointed. “Remember I told you we all have different gifts? Well, that’s one of his.”
“One of his?”
“Yes. Zach is an elder, so he has several gifts. I only have the one.”
“Oh.”
Silence fell as they all studied one another.
Lisette’s curious gaze kept darting back and forth between Ethan and Heather as if she were already sizing them up for wedding finery.
“I don’t think you want to do that,” Zach drawled, his dark gaze zeroing in on Heather.
“Do what?” Ethan asked, frowning.
“Read my mind. There are things up there you really don’t want to see.”
Great. Way to make her feel more comfortable, asshole, Ethan thought dourly.
Lisette’s lovely face lit up. “You’re telepathic?” She turned bright eyes on Ethan. “She’s a gifted one !” She can be transformed, she whispered in Ethan’s mind with glee.
Ethan shook his head, unable to tell her she was getting ahead of herself. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he had told Heather telepaths like Lisette couldn’t read his mind. She could send thoughts his way, but couldn’t receive them.
Awkward silence engulfed them.
Ethan wasn’t sure he liked the way Heather was studying Zach.
Zach’s lips twitched. “It isn’t what you’re thinking,” he told Heather, who blushed.
“What?” Ethan asked.
Zach nodded to the mortal in their midst. “She’s still wondering what you wanted me to tuck away.”
Lisette and Ethan both laughed.
Heather did, too.
Even Zach finally allowed himself a smile.
The tension eased.
Heather motioned to the sofa. “Would you like to sit down while we wait?”
“What exactly are we waiting for?” Zach asked.
“Chris Reordon,” Ethan told him.
“He’s at the network?”
“Probably. He said he had to wrap some things up there before he left.”
“I’ll go get him.” Leaning down, Zach pressed a quick kiss to his wife’s lips, stepped away from her, and vanished.
“That is so cool,” Heather declared.
Ethan silently agreed and again bemoaned the fact that he had been born with such a boring gift.
“My brother can teleport, too,” Lisette informed her with a smile. “I admit I’ve always envied him that gift. It seems much more fun than constantly being bombarded with others’ thoughts.”
Heather smiled. “I agree.”
“And few can defeat him in battle.”
“I imagine so. Hard to defeat someone who’s there one second and gone the next.”