Night Unbound (28 page)

Zach's lips left hers. His eyes shone a vibrant gold as he stared down at her, the emotion they contained a mystery. “Don't ever . . . ever . . .
ever
defy me again,” he ordered, voice hoarse.

She frowned. “Zach—”

“I'm not saying it to be a hard-ass. I'm saying it because . . .” He buried his face in her neck and squeezed her tighter against him. “You don't know what it did to me to see you fall that night. To not be able to awaken you. To reach into your thoughts and find nothing but silence. Darkness.” His grip tightened to the point of pain as he swallowed hard. “To hear that same silence, day after day after day and not know if there would ever be anything else. To not know if you would ever again open your eyes. Say my name. Wrap your arms around me and dispel the cold.”

Moisture blurred her vision as his agonized voice rumbled in her ear.

“You can't let yourself be tranqed again, Lisette. You can't.”

“I won't,” she vowed.

He shook her slightly. “Don't make promises you won't keep. If I tell you to stay on the roof, then stay on the fucking roof. If I tell you to run, then run,” he commanded, his torment carrying to her loud and clear. “We have no way of knowing if they'll up the dosage again. If they increase it even a
little bit
and you're hit with a dart, we may not be able to bring you back.”

Chilled by the thought, she nodded. “I will. I'll do as you say.” She would rather duck and run for the first time in her immortal life and let Zach fight her battles for her than end up lost forever in a dark mental void. Or destroyed. Particularly since the drug didn't affect him.

“I don't want to be left with nothing but a pile of your clothing, Lisette,” he murmured. “I don't think I could handle it.” He fisted a hand in the back of her shirt. “I think I would lay waste to the world if I lost you.”

Tears burned her eyes. “I'm sorry,” she wheezed, chest constricted by his words as much as his tight hold.

Giving a little start, he relaxed his grip and raised his head to peer down at her with furrowed brow. “I'm sorry. Was I hurting you?”

She smiled. “It's okay.”

“No, it's
not
okay. I don't
ever
want to hurt you.”

“Zach, you were just cutting off my air a little. Don't worry about it.” When he opened his mouth to protest, Lisette stole a quick kiss. “I'm sorry I didn't take greater care earlier. I should have listened to you and not let my curiosity get the better of me.”

“Curiosity?”

“I wanted to see what you were doing to the vampire.”

“I was turning his brain to mush, searching for answers.”

She wrinkled her nose. Then a disquieting thought arose. “Wait. You didn't do that to the telepath you gave a nosebleed, did you? You didn't turn his brain to mush?”

“Of course not.”

Whew!
“Just checking.”

He smiled. Easily supporting her weight with one hand, he raised the other and drew gentle fingers down her cheek. “I really do love you, you know.”

Her heart swelled in her chest. “I know. I love you, too.”

“I would've thought that, after waiting thousands of years, it would take longer.”

“What would?”

“Falling in love.” He brushed a tender kiss across her lips.

“Surrendering my heart.” Another kiss. “My body.”

She nipped his chin. “Having your first blow job interrupted by your lover's brother?”

He laughed. “That's going to be a tough one to forget.”

Yes, it was, damn it. But she'd worry about that later.

Lisette sent him a flirtatious smile and arched against him.

He groaned as desire leapt to life once more in his luminous eyes.

“We could pick up where we left off earlier,” she suggested. She was eager to taste him again. To see the ecstasy ripple across his handsome face as she tongued him and teased him and—

“I need to feel you under me first.”

Sounded good to her. All of that delicious weight pressing down on her, muscles bunching as he drove into her again and again, urging her toward a climax. His wings, when he released them, hovering above them and filling the room with the scent of rain and snow and sunshine all at once.

“Then what are you waiting for?” she demanded, not bothering to hide her need.

He hesitated.

“What?” she asked, wishing they were already naked.

“Don't take this the wrong way,” he began.

Uh-oh. “Okay.”

“When I'm inside you, driving into you and tasting every inch of your soft, soft skin . . .”

Her gaze dropped to his lips. She could almost feel them on her now. “Uh-huh?”

“I want to smell
you,
not the vampires we killed tonight.”

Lisette laughed. “Yeah. We do sort of reek, don't we?” And her skin, beneath her clothing, was probably streaked with vampire blood. As was his. “Okay. Why don't we . . . play with each other in the shower until we're both clean and mindless with lust? Then, once we make it to the bed and you have me under you, you can do anything you want to me.”

His eyes flashed brighter. “Anything?”

She drew her tongue across his lips. “Anything.”

Their clothes fell away as he turned and crossed to the bathroom.

“How did you do that?” Lisette asked. His hands hadn't moved.

“Telekinesis.”

Lisette decided she loved that ability. With their clothing strewn across the floor behind them, his long, hard erection now teased the heart of her, sending sparks of pleasure dancing through her with every step. “Hurry,” she pleaded.

He responded with a wicked chuckle that made her shiver. “I don't think so. David gave us two hours.” Entering the bathroom, he turned on the shower with a thought. “And I intend to spend every last minute of them worshipping your lovely body.”

When Lisette and Zach teleported to her home two hours later, sated and relaxed, they found Seth in the kitchen, sipping tea from a huge Looney Tunes mug.

Lisette stared.

He wore only a pair of black pants that rode low on slender hips. No shoes. No socks. (It felt oddly intimate to see his big feet uncovered.) Just bare muscled chest, rippling washboard abs . . . and wings nearly identical to Zach's.

Folded in against his back, Seth's were a little bit darker. But then his skin was too, always appearing sun-kissed and naturally tanned. Like Zach's, the feathers of Seth's wings were the same color as his skin at their base and darkened to black at their tips. Seth's long hair, pulled into a ponytail at the nape of his neck with a leather tie, was still damp from a shower and nearly disappeared amidst the dark, silky wings.

Zach touched the tip of an index finger to the bottom of Lisette's chin and applied gentle pressure, closing the mouth she hadn't even realized had fallen open.

A quick look up, and she saw disapproval into those deep brown eyes.

“What?” she asked in her defense. “I'm just not used to seeing him this way.”

Seth turned to face them.

“And wish you were?” came Zach's caustic reply.

She gave his shoulder a shove. “Oh, please. Wipe that jealous look off your pretty face. You know you're the only man I want to lick from head to toe.”

Golden flames dispelled the darkness in his eyes. During their two-hour interlude, she had done just that until he had shouted her name in climax.

Seth set his mug on the counter and reached for a black T-shirt that lay over the back of a chair. “Forgive me. I didn't expect you home so soon.”

Lisette held out a hand. “No. Leave it off, Seth. There's no need to don it on my account. I'm guessing you don't let many people see you like this, and I want you to be comfortable.” She knew, from her mortal past, how hard it could be to maintain a facade among friends and family. “In fact, I want you to consider this a second home. A place where you can be yourself.”

He hesitated. “You would offer me that after I accused you of betraying me?”

She waved a hand. “Pfft. Water under the bridge. You were tired. I was behaving oddly. And, technically, I
did
betray you because I ignored your warning to stay away from Zach.”

Still, Seth hesitated.

Zach released a heavy sigh. “You may as well. She's already seen your wings.”

“Do
you
want this to be a second home for me?” Seth taunted with a faint smile.

“Hell no. But I love her and will tolerate your ass as often as I have to if it will make her happy.”

“It will,” Lisette said.

Zach dipped his chin in an abrupt nod. “Then park said ass at the table and finish your tea.”

Seth grinned. “Actually, I was just about to cook some pasta. I can make enough for all of us, if you'd like.”

“I could eat,” Lisette said. Her stomach rumbled in anticipation.

Smiling, Zach rolled his eyes. “Didn't I tell you? The woman is always hungry.”

“Hey,” she admonished playfully, “unless you object to how I
worked up
my appetite, don't complain about it.”

Zach held both hands up in surrender.

Shaking his head, Seth took a couple of boxes of multicolored fusilli down from an upper cabinet.

Lisette let Zach tug her coat off her shoulders and draw it down her arms.

As he left to hang it up on the coat hooks near the front door and remove his own, she studied Seth.

No stubble adorned his cheeks. Nor did circles hover beneath his eyes or lines of strain bracket his mouth. His shoulders and stance seemed relaxed. His lips still curled in a faint smile.

“You look better,” she ventured gently.

He glanced at her as he stirred the pasta, his expression somewhat chagrined. “I
feel
better.” When Zach rejoined them, Seth held out his hand. “My phone, please.”

Zach handed it over with unmistakable relief.

Seth tucked it in a back pocket. “I have to admit, I expected you to crush it mere hours after I gave it to you.”

“I was sorely tempted,” Zach retorted without remorse.

Seth motioned for them to sit at the table.

Each took a turn at the sink first, washing and drying their hands.

“Ami and the babe are all right?” Seth queried.

“Yes,” Lisette assured him. “Dr. Kimiko and Melanie both seem pleased with how well Ami is doing
and
by how the baby's lungs are coming along.”

“Excellent.” He looked to Zach. “Marcus hasn't tried to kick your ass?”

Zach smirked. “He isn't that stupid.”

“Marcus has been keeping his distance,” Lisette said, warning Zach with a glance not to stir up trouble.

He winked, the rascal.

Zach held the chair at the head of the table for Lisette, then seated himself on one of the new bench seats she'd had Tracy purchase.

Seth served them each a plate piled high with the colorful fusilli and topped with homemade sauce Lisette had prepared earlier, then took his own plate and settled himself on the second bench across from Zach.

“So,” Seth said as they tucked into their meal.

Lisette didn't know if it was the vampire hunting or the lovemaking or a combination of the two, but hunger gnawed at her and drove her to wolf down the delicious meal faster than she normally would have.

“So?” Zach repeated before he slipped a forkful of pasta into his oh-so-talented mouth. Perhaps it
was
the lovemaking. He seemed as hungry as she.

Seth caught Lisette's eye. “How did he do?”

Her mind still on lovemaking, she paused. Then she realized Seth was asking how Zach had done filling in for him. “Very well. I'm proud of him.”

Zach sent Seth a
See, I told you I could do it
look.

“He didn't kill anyone?” Seth asked, voice full of doubt.

“Only vampires. No immortals,
gifted ones,
or humans.”

Seth nodded, satisfied, and addressed Zach directly. “How did the search go? Have you read the minds of all the immortals on the list?”

“Yes.”

“Without giving anyone nosebleeds? I'm impressed.”

Lisette and Zach looked at each other.

And, of course, Seth saw it. Seth saw everything. “Without giving anyone nosebleeds?” he repeated, his deep voice acquiring a hard edge.

“Actually . . .” Zach said slowly.

“Damn it, Zach! I told you not to hurt any of them!”

“I—”

“I told you not to tip any of them off either!”

“I didn't,” Zach protested. “They all slept through it. And I healed the damage done once I was finished.”

Lisette rested a hand on Seth's strong forearm. “He did it for
you,
Seth. They're elders. Their minds are very difficult to penetrate. Zach knew it would tear you up to hurt them like that yourself. So he . . . hurt them for you.” This wasn't sounding as good as it had in her head. “I mean, he knew you needed the information and the only way to get it was to force it. . . .” She looked at Zach. “I'm not helping, am I?”

“You don't need to defend me, love. Seth knows it had to be done and is secretly relieved he won't have to do it himself.”

Lisette eyed Seth doubtfully.

Seth stared at Zach, his fingers clenched around the fork he held. “What did you find?”

“Not a damned thing,” Zach told him.

Seth's brow furrowed. “I'm torn between feeling relieved that I didn't miss anything and utterly confounded. How is that possible?”

“That would be the billion-dollar question.”

Seth poked at the pasta on his plate. “You found no evidence of guilt in
any
of their minds?”

“Nothing.”

“You read the shifters, too?”

“Yes.”

“And found nothing?”

“Nothing. Although . . .”

Seth looked up.

“There
was
one telepath,” Zach murmured, face troubled, “whose barriers were stronger than any of the others'.” Setting his fork down, he leaned forward and drew a folded sheet of paper out of his back pocket. He spread it on the table in front of Lisette.

A quick glimpse revealed it to be the list of immortals he had been given, both names and where to find them.

“This one,” he said, pointing to a name on the list. “The Celt.”

“Aidan,” Seth murmured.

Curious, Lisette leaned forward to view the name. “Aidan?” The only Aidan she knew spelled it with an
e
.

“Aiden O'Kearney?”

Seth shook his head as he studied the paper. “Different Aidan. This one's been stationed in Denmark for some time. Keeps to himself.”

“He's an elder?”

Seth nodded. “Born around seven or eight hundred B.C.” His eyes met Zach's. “And he can read minds
and
teleport.”

Zach picked up his fork and resumed eating. “Among other things.”

“You say his barriers were stronger than the others'?”

Zach nodded.

“How much stronger?”

“
Too
much. Enough to tell me he's been working on strengthening them. I couldn't penetrate the strongest of them without giving him more than a nosebleed. With your
permission,
” he drawled, voice dripping with sarcasm, “I'll return and find out what the hell he's hiding.”

Seth immediately vetoed that one. “No, I'll do it.”

“Bad call,” Zach said with a shake of his head.

“Not wanting you to kill him is a bad call?”

“I wouldn't kill him. I'd just hurt him. And an Immortal Guardian as old as he is will recover quickly.”

“No.”

“Stop being such a hard-ass,” Zach said. “When you fucked up before, you could blame it on not having slept for two months.”

Lisette looked at Seth. “You told me weeks, not months!”

Seth glared at Zach.

Zach continued. “Fuck up now that you're rested, and it'll just be poor judgment.”

“I'm not going to let you—”

“There's a reason surgeons aren't supposed to operate on their own relatives,” Zach interrupted, voice mild. “Their emotions are too invested and may lead them to make mistakes, to
not
do something they should for fear they'll cause their spouse or father or daughter pain.” He pointed his fork at Seth. “Try to do this yourself, and you'll pull back the instant Aidan manifests discomfort.”

Lisette nibbled her lower lip and watched Seth. “He has a point.”

Something flickered in Seth's eyes, there and gone in an instant. “You question my ability to carry out my duties?”

“Absolutely not,” she assured him, squeezing his arm before she withdrew her touch. “Unlike Zach, I think you'll do whatever it takes to find out what Aidan is hiding because the lives of the rest of us depend upon it. But I also know that you aren't as cold and ruthless as Zach can be.”

Zach frowned. “Ummm . . .”

Seth's lips twitched.

“Being the instrument of pain that will extract the information you need from Aidan will torment you endlessly. Zach won't give it a second thought.”

“Now, wait a minute,” Zach protested.

Lisette rolled her eyes. “Don't even try to deny it. If I hadn't stopped you, you would have erased Bastien's and Ethan's memories of you and given them brain damage.”

Seth scowled. “What?”

“To protect you,” Zach ground out. “I was going to do it to protect you.”

“And you're willing to hurt Aidan why?”

A moment passed. Zach sighed in defeat. “To protect you. Fine. I'm ruthless.”

She smiled. “It's one of the many things I love about you.”

His face lightened. “Good.” He looked to Seth. “So, am I doing this, or what?”

Lisette could almost hear Seth's stomach churning at the prospect.

“Fine,” Seth said at last. “You can do it. But we go together.”

“If you go, you'll just—”

Seth held up a hand. “We go together,” he repeated, words clipped. “And not just so I can be assured you won't kill Aidan. Have you forgotten the Others are hunting you?”

“Hell no. They're like fucking bloodhounds. Every time I expend more energy than usual, they come running and I have to disappear.”

Lisette stared at him. “
Every
time? You didn't tell me that. I thought it was just tonight.”

He shook his head. “I didn't want to worry you.”

“Zach . . .” How long would they hunt him?

And how long could he continue to elude them? Lisette feared she would never see Zach again if the Others succeeded in recapturing him.

“As long as I'm gone when they get there and have left nothing behind that carries my scent,” he said, “they have no way of knowing for sure whether it was me or Seth. And, since I can still conceal my presence from them, even if they figure out it was me, they can't follow me once I teleport.”

Seth grunted. “Expending the amount of energy you'll need in order to topple Aidan's mental barriers is sure to draw their notice. If I sense the Others coming before you're finished, I'll take over, and you can disappear so they'll think it was me the whole time. In fact, even if you finish before they arrive, I'll linger after you leave, just to throw them off a little.”

Zach nodded. “Sounds good.”

Lisette continued to fret.

“We'll go as soon as we finish our meal. It's daytime in Denmark, and Aidan will be sleeping.”

They returned to their pasta, silent, somber.

“Someone want to tell me why my phone isn't ringing?” Seth asked out of the blue.