The ringtone on Linda’s phone led Zach to a shiny black SUV parked under a tree down near the end of one of the first rows of cars. Just as he had seen in Whetsman’s thoughts, Linda lay crumpled on the backseat.
Zach gripped the handle of one of the back doors and yanked it off the vehicle.
A car alarm immediately began to whine an annoying complaint.
“We have a situation in the parking lot!” another voice in the building shouted.
“Stand down!” Todd barked. “I repeat, stand down! We have a code nine! Immortals are on the move, inside and outside the building! Lower your weapons and let them pass unharmed!”
Heat and the scent of blood blasted Zach as he leaned into the SUV.
He heard Bastien struggle with Melanie somewhere inside the building, trying to keep her from running out into the sunlight after Zach.
A heartbeat—faint, unsteady—met Zach’s ears. “She’s alive,” he announced, knowing the other immortals would be able to hear him, even over the alarm.
Melanie began to sob.
Zach eased Linda onto her back and rested a palm on her bloody stomach. Warmth rose in his chest and flowed down his arm, through his hand, and into Linda’s body. The ugly wound, which would’ve proven fatal had Zach not arrived when he had, closed and healed beneath his touch.
“I’m bringing her in,” he announced and gently lifted the mortal into his arms. “Meet me in the infirmary.” Easing back out of the SUV, he adjusted his hold on Linda and teleported to the infirmary.
Bastien and Melanie burst through the doorway.
“It’s okay,” he told them as he lowered Linda onto the hospital bed next to Cliff’s. “I healed her wounds. If you give her blood and liquids, she should be fine.”
Taking Linda’s hand in both of her own, Melanie looked up at him with tearstained cheeks. “Thank you, Zach.”
Bastien stepped up beside her and glowered down at her. “Don’t you ever pull that shit again!” he bellowed.
“She’s like a sister to me,” Melanie tried to explain.
“I don’t care if she’s your fucking twin! You don’t rush out into sunlight without donning your protective suit!”
“It wouldn’t have killed me,” she protested. “It would have just—”
“Burned you, then blistered you, then barbecued your ass, and would have hurt like hell while it did! It would have felt like your skin was being seared in a frying pan over a high flame. Zach is immune to sunlight and was already handling things. Next time use your fucking head!”
Melanie stiffened.
Zach saw the storm rolling in and, for some reason (Lisette’s influence, no doubt) tried to dispel it. “He’s right,” he told Melanie, his own voice calm. “I was handling the situation. The sunlight would’ve harmed you. And it would’ve harmed Bastien far more when he raced after you in an attempt to protect you had you made it outside. You may be fairly newly transformed, but you were transformed by Roland, a nearly millennium-old immortal, and possess his strength. Bastien is only a couple of centuries old. By the time you had begun to pinken with a burn, Bastien would’ve already blistered while trying to protect you.”
Regret and self-condemnation filled her features as she looked up at her husband. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I didn’t think. I just . . . reacted.”
Sighing, he drew her into a tight hug. “I’m sorry I shouted. I didn’t mean to be harsh, sweetheart. I just can’t bear the thought of you being hurt.” He rested his cheek on her hair and closed his eyes. “And . . .”
“And you’re worried about Cliff,” she finished for him. “I know. I am, too.” Her face resting on Bastien’s chest, Melanie looked to Zach. “Why would Whetsman shoot Linda? I know they don’t like each other, but—”
“No one likes Whetsman,” Bastien grumbled, rocking her back and forth in his arms as if he still needed to reassure himself she was unharmed.
“But trying to kill her . . .”
Zach eyed them grimly. “Linda caught him smuggling out vials of the sedative.”
Bastien’s eyes flew open. “What? Why the hell would he do that?”
Zach shook his head. “I’ll have to dig deeper into his thoughts to find the answer to that and can’t do it without Seth’s permission, because it could cause damage.”
Melanie gently pried herself from Bastien’s tight hold and started setting up an IV drip for Linda. “Shouldn’t we call Seth?”
Seth, Zach knew, was busy following a lead, hoping to find Gershom, the Other who plotted against . . . well, the entire world. They’d had so few leads. He didn’t think it wise to interrupt the Immortal Guardians’ leader. “Don’t worry.” Zach nodded to Whetsman. “He won’t be going anywhere soon. Seth can deal with him upon his return.”
Ethan stared down at Heather. The two stood in her living room, shrouded in silence after Zach had returned and teleported Chris and Lisette away. Ethan couldn’t read Heather’s expression, but thought it somewhere between shell-shocked and just plain weary.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Her eyebrows rose. “For what?”
He dragged a hand down his face, fatigue sifting through him.
He should have asked Zach or Chris to bring him some blood. Losing quite a bit had left him weak, even though Zach had healed his wounds. Ethan thought it would be rude to crash out on Heather’s sofa and sink into a deep healing sleep. Plus he would much rather spend time with her while he had the chance. The best thing he could do for her, after all, would be to never see her again after today so she wouldn’t be tempted to take that damned job Chris had offered her and end up getting killed.
Fucking Chris.
Ethan knew Chris was just doing what he always did—compiling every possible resource he could to aid immortals in their quest to protect humanity—but Heather was one resource Ethan didn’t want Chris to exploit.
“Sorry for what?” Heather prodded again.
“I feel like I dragged you into all of this,” he told her.
Her expression lightened. “I was the one who camped out in the clearing every morning, hoping I’d see or find something that would explain the dreams. Hoping I’d find you, I guess.”
Ethan stared at her. “You camped out in the clearing every night?”
“Only for a half hour or so before dawn, around the time the dreams took place.”
“Holy hell.” Closing the distance between them, he drew her into a hug.
“What’s wrong?” She slid her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest.
“Those vampires were headed straight for you. If I hadn’t driven past when I did and smelled them, they would have found you and . . .” He didn’t even want to think about the atrocities they would have committed as they killed her.
“Geez. With everything that’s happened, I didn’t even think of that.”
“Don’t camp out in the clearing anymore unless the sun is up,” he urged her.
“I thought you said you didn’t think more vampires would follow.”
He shook his head. “It’s unlikely, but . . .” He sighed. “I have the most absurd urge to ask you to promise me you won’t go out after dark anymore.”
“Um . . .”
“I know. It’s totally unreasonable. I just . . .”
She leaned back to look up at him. “You said your enemies killed Chris’s former contacts. Your enemies were vampires?”
“No.” With great reluctance, Ethan released his hold on her and coaxed her into sitting beside him on the sofa once more. “They were mercenaries.”
“Human mercenaries? As in private military companies?”
“Yes. Not long ago, a small mercenary outfit got their hands on the vampiric virus and thought it would be a great idea to use it to create an army of supersoldiers they could hire out to the highest bidder.”
She mulled that over silently while she twisted to face him on the sofa, curling her legs up on the cushions so her knees brushed his hip. “That army would be worth a fortune.”
“Yes, it would.”
“If it weren’t for the madness that would infect the soldiers, my dad would be interested in contracting that army.”
“I’m sure he would. But the leaders of the mercenary group didn’t care that their soldiers would be driven insane. They considered them all expendable and intended to kill them off after a year, then rotate in new recruits.”
“Wow. What total assholes.”
He laughed. “Very much so. Long story short, the smaller mercenary group’s actions led to a larger mercenary group procuring the virus and . . . well . . . Have you ever heard of Shadow River?”
“Yes. My dad mentioned them several times. They were a very elite private military group that was slated to receive some hefty government contracts until a group of their own men . . . blew up . . .” Her eyes widened. “Holy crap! That was you?” she asked incredulously. “You blew up their entire compound?”
“I, my immortal brethren, and Chris’s network soldiers blew it up.”
“It was, like, four or five thousand acres!”