Night Unbound

by Dianne Duvall

  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.

  “You’re splattered with blood,” he said in lieu of an answer. “You weren’t supposed to hunt without me. What the hell were you thinking?” Locking his arms around her, he held her tight.

  “Relax. Three of the usual psycho vampires caught a couple of eggheads who were stumbling back to their apartments after studying late. I couldn’t just let the vamps kill them.”

  “Lisette—”

  “None of the new vampires were with them. I made sure of it before I attacked. And I didn’t stick around after saving the humans. I called Chris’s cleanup crew in to tidy things up and take the guys home.”

  Zach grunted.

  Leaning back, she looked up at him. “What about you? You didn’t say what took so long. Is everything okay?”

  “Yes.”

  She lost her smile. “Uh-oh. What happened?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You look guilty as hell. What did you do?”

  “Why would you assume I did something?”

  She arched a brow.

  “All right,” he conceded. “I might have accidentally made a telepathic immortal’s nose bleed. A lot. While forcibly intruding into his mind.”

  “Zach!”

  “I said accidentally.”

  “Was it an accident?” she asked.

  “No.”

  She pushed out of his arms. “Damn it, Zach! Seth told you to be subtle and not to alert the immortals to your intrusion when you read them.”

  “Don’t worry. The immortal won’t remember having his thoughts read.” He’d made sure of it.

  “What did you do to him?”

  “I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re thinking. I merely commanded him to sleep through it. And I stopped his nosebleed and cleaned him up afterward, so there will be no indication that anything happened.”

  She stared up at him.

  “I can’t read your expression,” he said after a moment. “What are you thinking?”

  “You said you’d play nice.”

  “I did play nice. I let him sleep through it.”

  “Zach—”

  “What would you have me do, Lisette?” He paced away, tension beating him. “I’ve read every immortal on the list who can easily be read and keep coming up empty. There is nothing more incriminating in their minds than lusting after this person or that or cheating at fucking cards. Only the elders remain. Those whose minds, like Ethan’s, are extremely difficult to read. And no stone can go unturned.”

  “Okay,” she said softly. “It’s okay. Come here, mon coeur.”

  Sighing, he returned to her and welcomed another embrace.

  “I know this is all new to you and that you’re frustrated,” she said, her small hands roaming his back. “I shouldn’t have criticized.”

  “And I shouldn’t have snapped.” He rested his chin on her hair and closed his eyes.

  “So you didn’t find anything in the telepath’s mind?”

  “Nothing.” He heaved a heavy sigh. “I don’t understand this. Something is wrong. Something is off. But I can’t put my finger on what it is. Why can’t we find out who the enemy is? Why is there no trace of him in any immortal’s thoughts? Someone has to know who he is. Someone has to be complicit.”

  “Have you read the thoughts of everyone on the list?”

  “Almost. Only three remain, all older than the one I examined tonight. And those I must read before Seth awakens.”

  Seth had slept soundly for going on two days now, waking only twice to ask if all was well.

  “Why do you have to do it before he awakens?”

  “Because I’m not confident he will do what’s necessary to seek the information we need.”

  Her hands stilled. She leaned back. “Zach . . .”

  “He told me not to force it, not to give anyone nosebleeds. Do you think it will be easier for him to do it himself?”

  She sighed. “No. As long as you can do it without them knowing it or causing permanent damage, you may actually be doing Seth a favor by taking care of it yourself.” She smiled. “And I know how much you love to do Seth favors.”

  He groaned. “I hope you know what torture this is for me.”

  Instead of laughing, she bit her lip. Her face turned pensive. “Is it really?” she asked. “I know being with me requires you to do things you’d rather not do . . . like play nice with Seth and the others.”

  “You’re worth it.” Cupping her face in his hands, he pressed a tender kiss to her lips. “I would do anything for you, Lisette.” He kissed her again. “If you told me tomorrow that Tracy had inadvertently thrown away your favorite throwing star, I would fly to the nearest landfill and comb through the mountains of reeking, dripping garbage until I found it.” He thought about it for a moment. “Actually that would probably be a lot less irritating than dealing with your immortal brethren has been for the past forty-eight hours.”

  She laughed. “Poor baby. You’re just not a people person, are you?”

  “Not by any stretch of the imagination.”

  Tightening her hold on him, she rested her head on his chest. “That just makes me appreciate everything you’re doing for us, and for Seth, all the more.”

  He grimaced.


  “You’re going to have to stop doing that, you know,” she said.

  “Doing what?”

  “Grimacing every time I mention your helping Seth.”

  “How did you know I grimaced? You weren’t even looking at me.”

  “Because I know you.”

  He smiled. She did. She knew him better than anyone else in the world. He supposed that should unnerve him, but it didn’t.

  She leaned back. “For example, even if I couldn’t feel how tense and bunched up your muscles are, I would know you’re feeling stressed.”

  Stressed didn’t quite cover it.

  Peeking up at him between her lashes, she drew a circle on his chest with one finger. “Maybe I can do a little something to help you relax.”

  Every muscle in Zach’s body tightened as she drew that finger down his abdomen and tucked it into the waistband of his pants.

  “You know, I’m still not used to seeing you in so many clothes,” she purred, and flicked open the button.

  Zach swallowed, already hard and aching for her. While performing Seth’s duties for the past two days, Zach had dressed as the Immortal Guardians did: black pants, black shirt, long black coat, wings tucked away.

  “It’s almost like I have two different lovers,” she continued, taking his zipper in her hand and lowering it an inch, knuckles brushing the erection straining against the black material. “A mysterious Other who comes to me bare-chested and embraces me with wings as soft as silk.” She lowered the zipper another inch. “And a hunter, who comes to me dressed all in black and loaded down with weapons.”

  Hell, he’d come to her dressed as a party clown, if she would just finish lowering the damned zipper.

  She laughed. “I heard that.”

  “You did?” He was slipping more and more around her, letting his guard down without even realizing it.

  “Never let it be said that I won’t give you what you want.” She drew the zipper all the way down, freeing him at last, and took him in her hands.

  Zach moaned as she tightened her hold and squeezed her way to the sensitive head of his cock.

  She sank to her knees in front of him.

  His pulse raced. His heart pounded erratically in his chest.

  She touched her tongue to the sensitive crown, licked it, teased it, closed her lips around it, and sucked him deep.

  Ssssshit!

  Coherent thought fled as she used fingers, lips, and tongue . . . her warm, wet, talented mouth . . . to drive him to the brink. Zach had never experienced anything like it.

  “You taste so good,” she murmured, then resumed her exquisite torment.

  Her phone rang.

  Zach groaned.

  She ignored it.

  “I love you so much,” he vowed.

  Her eyes lit with amusement as she winked up at him.

  “Down With The Sickness,” a song Zach had really come to hate, filled the air.

  Damn it. Darnell only forwarded the emergency calls, so Zach couldn’t ignore it.

  Fumbling in his pocket, he retrieved the phone. “What?” He bit back another moan of ecstasy.

  “Why isn’t Lisette answering her phone?” Richart demanded.

  Zach glanced down at her. She did something just then with her tongue that damned near made him come. “I don’t think you want to know the answer to that,” he gritted.

  The call ended.

  Zach stuffed the phone back in his pocket and buried his fingers in Lisette’s hair, unraveling her neat braid with a thought so he could bunch the thick waves up in his hands and urge her on.

  Richart and Jenna appeared a couple of yards away. Their jaws dropped.

  “Ahhh!” Richart spun around and gave them his back, then reached over, took his wide-eyed wife by the shoulders, and turned her back to them, too.

  Scrambling to her feet, Lisette wheeled around. “What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded, her face darkening with absolute fury, her French accent more pronounced than usual.

  “I did not need to see that,” Richart said. “I mean I really did not need to see that. Jenna, honey, grab one of my daggers and poke out both my eyes.”

  “Richart!” Lisette barked.

  Zach mentally mumbled every curse word he knew, tucked himself away, and carefully raised his zipper, throbbing and trembling on the precipice. Just one more minute. If they’d just had one more minute . . .

  “You’re my sister!” Richart shouted in dismay.

  “I know that, jackass. Why are you here?”

  “You didn’t answer your phone!” he complained.

  “And it never occurred to you that I might simply want a little privacy?”

  “I wish to hell it had. You think I wanted to see you . . . like that . . . with him?”

  “Oh, please. Like what you just saw was any worse than what Étienne and I overheard the first time we spent the night at your place after you and Jenna married.”

  Richart turned to face them and frantically drew a hand back and forth across his neck.

  Jenna gasped. “What?” When she turned to Lisette and Zach, her face flamed with color. “You could hear us?” she asked, voice high with mortification.

  Zach looked down at Lisette in time to see her bite her lip. As much as she must have wanted to shove it down her brother’s throat, she clearly did not want to embarrass Jenna. Not any more than she already had, anyway.

  Jenna looked up at Richart. “You said you soundproofed our bedroom because I was having trouble sleeping with my new heightened hearing.”

  “I did.”

  She narrowed her eyes.

  “And . . . because Étienne said they could hear us when we made love,” he finished miserably.

  Jenna covered her face with her hands. “Richart! Why didn’t you tell me they could hear us?”

  “I wasn’t thinking about them when we made love. How could I? I was so caught up in you and your delectable body that it didn’t even occur to me that they might hear us.”

  “I am never going to be able to look your siblings in the eyes again without blushing.”

  He took Jenna’s wrists and tried to pull her hands away from her face. “Oh, come on, sweetheart. It’s not that bad,” he cajoled. “We just caught Lisette down on her knees with Zach’s cock in her mouth, and she isn’t blushing.”

  Zach bit back a bark of laughter.

  Through gritted teeth, Lisette said, “I’ll blush as soon as the desire to decapitate you has passed.”

  Zach held up his hands in a placating gesture. “All right. All right. So everyone is embarrassed . . . except for me. I’m just very, very frustrated.”

  Lisette elbowed him.

  Jenna lowered her hands and offered him a tentative smile.

  “Since I’m playing problem solver again tonight,” Zach went on, “why don’t I simply bury everyone’s memory of this, send Richart and Jenna back to wherever they came from, and Lisette and I can go back to what we were doing?”

  “Zach,” Lisette warned.

  “Fine. I won’t bury anyone’s memories. Can I still send Richart and Jenna back to wherever they came from so we can go back to what we were doing?”

  Jenna laughed.

  Richart relaxed.

  Lisette just shook her head. “I think that ship has sailed.”

  Zach groaned.

  “That’s just wrong,” Richart said.

  Lisette gaped at him. “After you just . . . And all that bitching and moaning . . . You can’t . . .” She clenched her teeth. “Tell me again why you’re here?”

  In much calmer tones, Richart repeated, “You didn’t answer your phone.”

  “So? I let it go to voice mail all the time.”

  “So, a week ago you were incapacitated by a tranquilizer dart and we nearly lost you.”

  “Oh.” All hostility fled. “Right.”

  “When you didn’t answer your phone,” Richart continued, “I feared you had been sedated again. So I called Zach
and mistook the strain in his voice for anger.”

  Zach frowned. “You thought I’d harmed her?”

  Richart shrugged. “I don’t know you, Zach. I have no idea what you are or aren’t capable of or how you treat Lisette when the rest of us aren’t around.”

  And Lisette had once had a husband-turned-vampire who had beaten her on a regular basis. All without her brothers’ knowledge.

  They hadn’t learned the truth until the night her husband had turned her.

  Well, that killed Zach’s erection.

  Wrapping an arm around Lisette, he drew her into his side. “In the future, when you call to inquire about her, I will endeavor to be more specific.”

  “But not too specific,” Richart requested with a smile.

  Zach laughed.

  Lisette sighed. “Unless I’m fighting vampires, I’ll start answering my phone whenever it rings. At least until we’ve conquered this new enemy.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Anyone else smell that?” Jenna asked suddenly, her nose wrinkling.

  Lisette looked down at her shirt. “What? The blood on my clothing?”

  Zach shook his head. “The vampires headed our way.”

  Though Jenna was younger than anyone else present, she had been transformed by Roland at Richart’s request. So, like Sarah, she had the power of a nearly millennium-old immortal and was far stronger and faster than the French siblings, with more acute senses.

  “Ugh.” Lisette grimaced. “I smell them now.”

  The four of them eased back into the shadows.

  Eight vampires loped into view. Scraggly, unkempt hair partially concealed eyes glowing from a recent kill. Multiple blood types stained clothing that reeked of stale sweat and unwashed bodies.

  With her sharp eyes, Lisette could see dirt and she didn’t want to know what else caked beneath their fingernails. Some hands still bore the blood of their latest victims, sticky and glistening like strawberry jam.

  All were of the usual variety of vampires, infected for a few years by the looks of them and well on their way to becoming totally psychotic. All but one.

  One vampire ate up the ground in long, confident strides rather than slump-shouldered lopes or shuffling steps. Both his body and his clothing were clean, his hair cropped short and recently shampooed. He walked at the back of the pack, curling his lip at the others while he studied his surroundings with a razor-edged gaze.