Lisette staggered to one side as her feet connected with the ground.
Zach steadied her and bit back a grin when she glared up at him.
“Next time at least let me stand up and set my fork down first,” she demanded. Her angry words lost much of their impact, however, when she raised the forkful of pasta she held to her mouth and stuffed it in.
Smothering a laugh, Zach turned to Seth and the others.
Bastien stood facing them, his feet braced apart in a warrior’s stance and his face set in stone. At his side, Cliff shifted constantly, as if he couldn’t bear to stand still, his features pinched with anxiety.
Seth addressed the young vampire. “Are you injured?”
“No,” Cliff answered.
Seth looked to Bastien. “I thought we had decided it would be too dangerous for Cliff to try to tag one of the new breed.”
A muscle jumped in Bastien’s jaw. “I changed my mind. We needed information. I thought it worth the risk.”
“Bullshit!” Cliff exclaimed, mirroring Zach’s thoughts.
If Zach had learned nothing else about Bastien, he had learned that the immortal black sheep was fiercely loyal to those he loved. And he loved Cliff like a brother. No way would he have let the young vampire, who clung to sanity by his fingertips, try to tag one of the new breed of vampires and risk being captured again.
Bastien shot Cliff a warning glare.
“I did it myself,” Cliff said. “On my own. Bastien didn’t know about it.”
Leaden silence.
“If you did it on your own,” Seth said, “how did you get your hands on a tracking device?”
“I gave it to him,” Bastien answered.
“No, he didn’t,” Cliff denied. “I stole it.”
“He’s lying to protect me,” Bastien continued. “He knows I went against your orders—that we had agreed not to do it—and doesn’t want to see me punished.”
Seth looked to Cliff. “Is that true?”
“No, sir, it isn’t. You can read my thoughts if you don’t believe me.”
Bastien turned on Cliff. “Would you shut the hell up?”
“No! I’m not going to let you take the fall for this, Bastien, not after everything you’ve done for me!”
Bastien swore.
Cliff turned back to Seth. “And after all the Immortal Guardians have done for me, I wanted to help. I wanted . . . no, I needed . . . to do one fucking good thing in my life before I lose my mind and have to be put down like a rabid dog.”
“I’ve been in your thoughts,” Seth said, more calm than Zach would’ve expected when faced with such insubordination. “You’ve done many good things, Cliff, both as a mortal and as a vampire. You have already helped the Immortal Guardians in countless ways for which we can never fully repay you. Humans, too.”
Lisette nodded. “The night the mercenaries attacked network headquarters you saved dozens of human lives and put yourself in harm’s way to do it. You’re a hero, Cliff. Even mortals at the network, who are leery of vampires, think so.”
He shook his head. “Don’t say that.”
“It’s true. We immortals couldn’t have fought the mercenaries and saved the network’s employees. Most wouldn’t have made it out alive if you hadn’t rescued them and helped them evacuate.”
Zach’s heart went out to the young man, who so badly wanted to be known and remembered for something good rather than the bad they all knew lurked just over the horizon.
“Anyone would have done that,” Cliff murmured.
“Joe didn’t,” Bastien said. “Joe ran.”
Silence.
“Where did you get the tracking device you planted?” Seth repeated.
“At the network,” Cliff admitted with a miserable glance at Bastien. “They don’t keep them guarded and locked away the way they do the sedative and antidote. It was actually pretty easy to sneak one out.”
Seth sighed. “Chris is going to freak.”
“Then don’t tell him,” Bastien came close to pleading.
Seth shook his head. “The rules are there for a reason, Bastien. After all Chris does for us, I won’t undermine his authority by lying about a security breech.”
Again Bastien swore.
“Don’t panic. I’ll suggest leniency this time.” He gave Cliff a stern look. “But you’re on notice, Cliff. No more bullshit. No more following Bastien’s example and breaking the rules. No more putting yourself at risk because you think you have nothing to lose. You’ll follow protocol and abide by our decisions, or I will revoke your hunting privileges.”
Cliff nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Now tell us what happened.”
“I found a group of vampires over by the Morrisville Walmart.”
There weren’t that many places open twenty-four hours a day in North Carolina. Those that were, like a select few Walmarts, tended to be vampires’ second-favorite hunting grounds. College campuses being their first.
“There were half a dozen nutcases who were really far gone and three huge guys I could tell had only recently been turned. All three of the big vamps carried tranquilizer guns and looked like friggin’ marines, so I knew they were the new breed. While the crazy ones were running their mouths the way they do, I sidled up to the other three and asked if they were all together.”
Bastien grumbled something indecipherable.
Cliff ignored him. “They said they had just met the crazy ones and figured they should band together for safety’s sake. Hunt in larger numbers, you know? A couple of the crazy vamps started fighting. I pretended to try to break it up and let them push me out of the way. I stumbled into one of the stoic vamps, planted the device on his tranquilizer gun, told them they might want to think twice about hooking up with the psychos, then got my ass out of there.”
“Did any of the vampires follow you?” Zach asked.
“No. The older ones were too busy scrapping. The younger ones must have thought they would have a better chance of running into an Immortal Guardian if they hung out with vampires guaranteed to go on a killing spree.”
Bastien nodded. “I heard no signs of pursuit when he caught up with me.”
“Could they have tagged you with a tracking device?” Seth asked Cliff.
“Vampires have tracking devices?”
“They haven’t used any thus far. But, since they have the drug, we can’t rule it out.”
“If they did, I didn’t feel it.”
“I shall return momentarily.” Seth vanished.
The swish of tree leaves rustling in the breeze was the only sound for many long minutes. That and the frogs, insects, and other creatures that embraced the night.
Zach studied the vampire.
Cliff seemed to be calming a bit. Perhaps he had feared Seth would execute him for disobeying.
“You did a good thing,” Zach told him.
A faint smile curled Cliff’s lips as relief that someone thought so crept into his features.
“Don’t encourage him,” Bastien snapped.
“I believe you are the one who encouraged him.”
“I didn’t tell him to do this!”
“Are you not his mentor?” Zach studied the irate British immortal. “How many times have you broken, trampled upon, then set fire to the rules by which the other Immortal Guardians live, as well as the rules Chris Reordon has painstakingly created to keep those at the network safe?”
“You would lecture me on following the rules?” Bastien demanded incredulously.
Lisette nodded her agreement. “It is sort of the pot calling the kettle black.”
Zach shrugged. “I don’t pretend to be a leader. I’m just saying, if you want to protect your vampire followers, then lead by example.”
“They’re my friends, not my followers. I no longer command an army of vampires.”
“Yet those at the network look to you for leadership.”
“I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t bound your wounds when y
ou were injured,” Bastien groused.
Zach grinned.
Lisette smiled up at him. “You two are so alike.”
Cliff laughed, finally at ease.
Seth reappeared with Chris Reordon.
Before anyone said a word, Chris stepped forward and waved a metal detector over Cliff. “Clear.” He stepped back. “So, Seth says you tagged one of the new vampires?”
“Yes.”
“You can tell me about it in a minute. Right now, we need to get you back to network headquarters so I can start tracking the bastard.”
“Down With The Sickness” overlapped his words.
At the same time, Bastien’s phone bleated.
He and Seth shared a look of concern as they answered their phones.
“Ami’s water broke,” Marcus and Melanie said in unison, Marcus to Seth and Melanie to Bastien.
“I’m on my way,” Seth told Marcus.
“We’ll be there soon,” Bastien promised his wife.
Seth put away his phone and looked at Chris. “Ami’s water broke.”
Zach spoke up. “Go. I’ll get Chris and Cliff back to the network.”
“Thank you. Come to David’s afterward. Dr. Kimiko said once Ami’s water broke, there would be no turning back, that we couldn’t risk putting the delivery off any longer for fear of Ami or the baby developing an infection. So she’ll have to deliver tonight, and I want every healer in the area on hand.”
Zach nodded. “We’ll be right behind you.”
Seth crossed to Bastien, grabbed his shoulder, and teleported them away.
Zach, Lisette, Chris, and Cliff stared at each other in somber silence.
“I hope she’ll be okay,” Cliff said softly. “The baby, too.”
Suddenly his insubordination seemed meaningless.
Zach commanded the others to close in, then teleported them all to network headquarters.
After the kindness Ami had shown him, he wanted to be there for her in case she should need him.
Chapter Fifteen
Over a dozen immortals and their Seconds occupied David’s living room in what felt to Lisette alarmingly like a deathbed vigil.
Every available chair, love seat, sofa, coffee table, and footstool was occupied.
Lisette sat in a flat-wing chair with Tracy wedged in beside her. Like children awaiting punishment by a stern parent, they held hands and tried to will strength and hope into the small mortal woman laboring in the next room.
Utter silence reigned, broken only by Ami’s labored breaths.
Zach, Seth, David, Marcus, Melanie, and Dr. Kimiko were all with her in the delivery room. Roland and Sean had been asked to linger in the recovery room, ready to rush forward in the event the babe should require healing once delivered. The other three healers might be either too sapped from pouring their healing energy into Ami or too busy trying to keep Ami from slipping away from them to heal the babe themselves.
Marcus whispered words of love and praise and encouragement to his wife and, by all accounts, had not released her hand since discovering her water had broken.
Melanie and Dr. Kimiko monitored Ami every second, guiding her through breathing exercises as contraction upon contraction gripped her, murmuring medical nonsense to each other, and assuring Ami she was doing well. But an underlying thread of tension resided in their voices that led Lisette and the other immortals listening to believe that all was not well.
What’s a cervix? Zach asked her suddenly.
Lisette blinked. What?
What’s a cervix? Apparently Ami’s has stopped dilating despite the hard contractions, which I gather is not a good thing.
Ummm . . . It’s a . . . female thing . . .
I already knew that. What is it and where is it located?
I don’t know, Lisette admitted.
How can you not know? You’re a woman.
Yes, a woman born in a time when women didn’t sit around discussing their lady parts.
He swore.
Hang on. She turned to her Second. Tracy?
Slumped beside her, face pensive, Tracy looked over at her. Yeah?
What’s a cervix?
Her eyebrows flew up. It’s . . . ummmm . . . Her eyes roved the room as she thought about it. Actually, I’m not sure.
Lisette didn’t feel so bad now. “Does anyone know what a cervix is?” she asked the room at large, frustration mounting. Since Ami was mortal, Lisette didn’t fear her overhearing them. And, if Zach needed to know, Lisette would do whatever she had to, to find out for him, even if she had to use Darnell’s laptop to look it up on the damned Internet.
Everyone present stared at her with what the hell looks.
“A cervix?” she repeated. “Anyone know what it is?”
Sheldon slowly raised his hand.
Tracy rolled her eyes. “Sheldon, put your hand down. Watching porn does not teach you what a cervix is.”
He grinned. “I didn’t learn it from porn. I read up on pregnancy and childbirth after Seth told us Ami was pregnant.”
Tracy’s face lit with surprise. “Oh.”
“The cervix is the lower portion of the uterus that opens into the vagina. During pregnancy it closes to hold the baby inside the uterus. During labor, it dilates or widens to allow the baby to pass from the uterus into the vagina.”
Everyone stared.
Yuri looked around. “Anyone else think that was too much information?”
Every male save Sheldon raised a hand.
Did you hear that? Lisette asked Zach.
Yes. Thank you.
His presence in her mind receded.
Once more, Lisette waited with the others.
Stanislav cleared his throat. “How bizarre is it that Sheldon knows more about a woman’s body than the women present do?”
Sheldon smiled.
More waiting.
More unbearable tension.
Several knees bobbed up and down.
Anxious teeth abused fingernails.
Stanislav’s Second, Alexei, paced back and forth and back and forth until several voices shouted at him to sit the hell down.
Suddenly, Zach swore.
What? Lisette asked, unable to remain silent.
Dr. Kimiko is recommending a cesarean.
Seth studied Dr. Kimiko. “Is there no other way?”
She shook her head. “I fully understand the ramifications and wouldn’t recommend this if it weren’t absolutely necessary.”
He looked to Melanie.
Melanie nodded.
Marcus’s eyes, when they rose to meet Seth’s, carried fear and dread and a desperate need for Seth to assure him that everything would be okay.
How Seth wished he could make that promise.
Seth leaned down and stroked Ami’s hair. “Sweetheart, the babe is being stubborn. Dr. Kimiko and Melanie think a cesarean is necessary to bring her into the world.”
Ami nodded, her sweet face pinched with pain as she breathed through another contraction. “Do it.”
“You know they can’t sedate you or numb you. Because the babe carries both alien and gifted one DNA, we have no way of knowing how the medication would affect her.”
“I know. It doesn’t matter.”
“David and I may have to—”
“Just do it,” she commanded. “I endured six months of torture. I can endure this.” She looked at the doctors. “Do it. Whatever it takes. Just keep her safe.”
That was all they needed to hear. The two women went to work. Sterile drapes replaced the lightweight hospital gown that covered Ami’s belly and the monitors strapped to it.
Melanie placed a short screen above Ami’s abdomen that blocked her view. “To keep the field sterile,” she told Ami with a smile, then looked to Seth. And so she won’t have to watch us cut her.
Seth and David had been monitoring Melanie’s thoughts ever since they had arrived so she could think concerns to them that she didn’t want to voice in front of A
mi and Marcus.
Melanie wheeled a tray of surgical instruments closer to the table while Dr. Kimiko scrubbed for surgery. Seth hadn’t even thought about germs, assuming he could heal any infection that resulted if Ami’s own incredible regenerative capabilities failed her. But he supposed Dr. Kimiko had some concerns for the baby. None knew what kind of immune system the child would possess. Or if she would even possess one. None knew if the babe was infected with the virus. Ami had had such difficulty carrying the baby to term that testing the babe in utero had been deemed too risky.
Seth retook his position beside David at Ami’s head and placed a hand on her shoulder. He met David’s gaze and saw the same dread reflected in his dark eyes that Seth felt himself.
He nodded to Dr. Kimiko.
Dr. Kimiko made a horizontal incision on Ami’s lower abdomen.
Ami stiffened and clutched Marcus’s hand so tightly her knuckles turned white. Pain contorted her features. Her breathing turned harsh. But she made no other sound, didn’t scream or moan, her ability to remain silent a holdover from the torture she had endured.
Marcus leaned so close to her their noses practically touched, maintaining eye contact. Seth overheard Marcus speaking to her mentally and knew Ami listened to every word, drawing what comfort she could from it.
Before Dr. Kimiko could make another incision, the first began to heal and seal itself. She met Seth’s gaze.
Steeling himself against the pain he knew he was about to inflict, he refocused his energy and used it to prevent Ami from healing. The temperature in the room rose a degree as David, then Zach, threw their energy into the mix.
Seth’s eyes burned as he felt Ami’s pain magnify tenfold.
Lisette, and everyone else present, cringed at the first whimper that escaped Ami. Another followed. And another. Then a moan.
She heard sniffles and could almost see the tears trailing down Ami’s pale temples.
Which was more painful, Lisette wondered: Being cut? Or Seth and David’s preventing Ami’s body from doing what it did naturally and healing itself?
Another whimper.
She feared it was the latter.
Ami cried out in agony.
Darnell leaned forward and buried his face in his hands, his bald, brown head gleaming in the overhead light. Closer to Ami than anyone else in the room, he was clearly terrified for her.
Night Unbound Page 27
