Shadows Strike

by Dianne Duvall

  Seth smirked. “Did he not warn you as much himself?”

  “Yes.” Zach looked thoughtful. “Perhaps I should have taken him more seriously.”

  “I sure as hell do,” Ethan put in with a wry smile.

  “Yes, but you’re just a pup,” Zach pointed out.

  Jared cleared his throat. “So . . . where do we go from here?”

  Heather slipped her hand into Ethan’s.

  Looking down, he gave her hand a squeeze.

  “Lower your mental barriers,” Seth commanded. “Let me read your thoughts.”

  Jared scowled and looked to Zach. “Did you have to do that to win his trust?”

  “No. I refused.”

  Seth spoke before Jared could. “Zach was in love with one of my immortals, so he had a vested interest in keeping her—and the rest of my Immortal Guardians—safe. I didn’t need to read his thoughts to know he wouldn’t betray us.”

  A tense moment passed. “Fine,” Jared grumbled. “Just do it. My barriers are down.”

  Ethan caught Heather’s eye and nodded slightly toward Jared.

  Really? He wanted her to read Jared’s thoughts?

  She hesitated. Jared had been in her head often enough. She supposed it was only fair that she return the favor.

  Heather closed her eyes, focused on the Other’s thoughts . . . and found herself caught up in the search Seth performed. Year after year of thoughts and memories and events flew past as though someone had pressed rewind. Decades passed, flowing backward. Centuries. Millennia.

  A hand gripped her arm none too gently.

  Eyes flying open, she looked up at Zach.

  “You’ve seen enough,” he told her. “Seth alone should see the rest.”

  Her stomach jumping with nerves, Heather nodded.

  Ethan scowled. “Leave her alone.”

  Zach released her arm. “I’m doing her a favor, Ethan. There are things about the Others she can’t know. If she sees any more than she already has, Seth will have to erase her memory of it.”

  “It’s okay,” Heather assured Ethan. “I’ve seen enough.” She had seen that, like Zach, Jared questioned the path the Others had chosen. She had seen the dismay that had stricken Jared when she had been run through in the second battle with vampires he had instigated. She had seen the fear he had felt for the delicate mortal baby Seth loved when the battles had raged earlier today.

  And she had felt how much Jared wished to find for himself, after thousands of years of loneliness, what Zach had found.

  Seth abruptly strode forward and offered Jared his hand. “Thank you for protecting Adira. You are welcome to join us.”

  A faint smile curling his lips, Jared shook Seth’s hand. “The Others aren’t going to like this. Three defections in as many years?”

  Zach joined Seth and offered his own hand. “The Others need to follow your example and choose sides. Preferably ours.”

  Jared nodded.

  As soon as Zach released Jared’s hand, he drew back his arm and slammed his fist into the other man’s face.

  Heather heard bone crack as Jared flew backward a good twenty yards and hit the ground, skidding several feet and leaving a wide path in the grass.

  Seth sighed and sent Zach a withering look. “Really?”

  Zach shrugged. “The bastard tortured me. What did you expect?”

  Somewhere in the grass and the darkness that eclipsed him, Jared groaned. “Yeah. Sorry about that, Zach.”

  Ethan laughed.

  Heather did, too, her tense muscles relaxing.

  As the words spoken in that clearing finally began to sink in, joy filled her.

  She wasn’t being used as a pawn by Gershom. Gershom had never even been in her head. Her dreams and thoughts weren’t being manipulated with the intention of harming Seth and his Immortal Guardians. She was free to love Ethan now. Free to be with him without fearing she would hurt him. Free to be with him always, if she so chose.

  Her heart began to pound.

  She really could be with Ethan always. She could transform now and spend hundreds, if not thousands, of years with him, laughing and loving.

  Yes, his was a dangerous world. But whose wasn’t with Gershom out there plotting Armageddon?

  Ethan glanced down at her, a frown marring his handsome features. “What’s wrong? Your heart is racing.”

  Grinning big, she reached up, curled her free hand around his neck, and drew him down for a long, passionate kiss.

  Ethan could be hers now.

  All hers.

  Rising onto her toes, she leaned into him.

  Ethan hummed his approval and wrapped his arms around her, locking her against his hard body as the kiss went on and on.

  At last, Heather broke the heated contact. Excitement filled her near to bursting. “I love you, Ethan,” she professed, breathless from the kiss.

  “I love you, too,” he said, his eyes glowing vibrant amber.

  “Enough to make me immortal?” she asked.

  Grass rustled as Jared dragged himself to his feet, but Heather kept her eyes on Ethan.

  He sucked in a breath. His eyes brightened. “You would do that? You would let me transform you? You would spend forever with me?” His look turned wry. “Even if Gershom succeeds and forever only ends up being a few years?”

  She nodded. “However long forever lasts, Ethan, I want to spend it with you.”

  Ethan hugged her tight, picking her up so her feet dangled above the ground. “Thank you,” he murmured, his voice hoarse. “I love you, Heather. More than I knew I could love another. I’m sorry so much bad shit had to happen to bring us together, but I am so glad we’re together.”

  “Me, too.” Over his shoulder, she saw Seth and Zach watching them. “We have an audience,” she whispered in his ear.

  Ethan lowered Heather until her feet touched the ground, then turned to face the elders, his arm around her shoulders, keeping her close. “She wants to be transformed,” he announced.

  Seth smiled. “So I heard. You may do so at your convenience. However, I ask that you do it at David’s place so he can help her through the transformation.”

  Ethan nodded.

  Heather’s belly filled with butterflies, but it didn’t dampen her happiness.

  Jared trudged into the lantern’s light, his nose and chin bloody, and stood on Zach’s other side. Scowling at Zach, he said, “I take it we’re even now?”

  Zach’s fist shot out and struck him in the jaw. “Not quite.”

  Jared flew sideways out of Heather’s line of sight and hit the ground with a thud.

  A groan floated on the night.

  Seth’s face darkened with displeasure. “Damn it, Zach!”

  A wicked smile curved Zach’s lips. “This is going to be fun.”

  Aidan stared down at the list of names he had compiled. Beside it, spread out on Cliff’s coffee table, was a building schematic of network headquarters.

  “This one,” Cliff said, pointing to a name, “you can cross off your list. She’s in love with a professor at UNC and just found out she’s pregnant.”

  “Are they married?” Aidan asked.

  “No. But based on the lovey-dovey crap I hear when they call each other, they’ll probably get married as soon as she tells him about the baby.”

  Aidan drew a line through the woman’s name.

  “Now, Angela might be a good fit for you.” Cliff sorted through several sheaves of paper until he found the map of sublevel three. “Her office is here, just up the hallway from the cafeteria. She’s single. She’s pretty. She’s . . . I don’t know . . . maybe thirty-five. I think she might have a little girl. Is that a deal breaker?”

  “No,” Aidan said. “I can’t give her children myself and have long wondered what it would be like to be a father.”

  “Well, since you’re so old you can go out in daylight, you could take the kid to the park and everything.”

  How normal it sounded. How wonderfully b
eyond-his-reach normal.

  “And,” Cliff added, “she doesn’t freak out when she runs into me in the cafeteria. A very good sign. If she doesn’t freak out when she sees me, then she may not be nervous around you the way many of the employees here are around immortals.”

  Aidan smiled at the vampire. He hadn’t known Cliff long, but already considered him a friend. Yet another first he had experienced since Seth had transferred him to North Carolina. Aidan would’ve never thought he would befriend a vampire.

  He hadn’t liked how solemn and restrained, though, the young man had become after his psychotic break—which Aidan had trouble thinking of as a psychotic break since Cliff had been trying to save Linda. So Aidan had decided to enlist the vampire’s aid in his quest to find a gifted one who might love Aidan enough to transform for him and spend the rest of eternity ridding him of this aching loneliness that plagued him.

  The distraction seemed to be working, at least in part. Cliff had behaved much more like his old self these last few days.

  “What does she do?” Aidan asked of the woman. “Is she smart?” If he had to choose between the two, Aidan would take brains over beauty any day.

  Cliff snorted. “Everyone who works for the network is smart. I think . . .” He considered it a moment. “I think she might be one of the financial geniuses that manages the network’s money. I can ask Linda, if you want.”

  Aidan shook his head. “I’ll ask this Angela myself when I bump into her. Do you know what hours she works?”

  “Yeah. She—”

  A knock sounded on Cliff’s apartment door. A moment later, a loud thunk sounded as it swung inward.

  Ethan and Heather stood in the doorway.

  “Hi,” Heather greeted them with a tentative smile. “Are we interrupting anything?”

  “No,” Cliff said and turned one of the maps upside down on the coffee table to hide what they were doing. “Come on in.”

  The couple entered and closed the door behind them.

  “How’s it going?” Cliff asked, rising.

  Aidan rose as well. Ethan was staring holes in him, so Aidan suspected they weren’t just dropping by to shoot the breeze.

  Heather smiled at Cliff. “Good. How are the voices today?” She frowned and bit her lip. “I’m sorry. Was that insensitive? Am I not supposed to ask about that?”

  Aidan looked at Cliff, uncertain.

  Cliff smiled. “I’d rather you ask about it than dance around it. They haven’t been as loud or persistent of late.”

  Her smile returned. “Good.”

  The room quieted.

  “So?” Cliff prompted when the silence stretched into awkward territory. “Would you like to sit down? Can I get you something to drink?”

  “Actually,” Ethan said, “we were hoping to talk Aidan into doing us a favor.”

  Aidan’s curiosity rose. “What can I do for you?”

  Ethan took Heather’s hand.

  Heather looked up at him, then met Aidan’s gaze. “Would you please transform me?”

  Aidan stared at the couple, damned near shocked speechless. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Heather would like to become immortal,” Ethan said. “Seth has given his blessing. And I was thinking . . .”

  Cliff gave a slow nod. “You want Aidan to transform her so she’ll be as strong as he is.”

  “Yes,” the couple replied.

  Aidan frowned. “I’m not certain that’s how it works.”

  “Roland has transformed three gifted ones in recent years,” Ethan said.

  What a shocker that was. Roland was the most antisocial immortal Aidan had met.

  “All three new immortals can match him in speed, strength, and regenerative capabilities,” Ethan continued. “No one knows why, whether it’s because he’s so old or because he’s a healer or if it’s something unique to him. But if it’s either of the first two things . . .”

  Understanding dawned. “I’m a healer and am even older than he is, so Heather would acquire the same strength, speed, and the like that I have if I were to transform her.”

  “Yes.” Ethan’s eyes practically begged Aidan to understand. “You know the enemy we face. You know the danger he poses. I want Heather to be as strong as possible when she faces whatever Gershom throws our way.”

  Aidan could understand that. Vampires had launched no more mass attacks, confirming in many minds that the immortals had successfully eradicated Gershom’s army and thwarted his attempt to spark World War III. But all knew it would not be his last attempt.

  How would he strike next? Would Gershom again manipulate the mind of a network employee? Or perhaps impersonate an Immortal Guardian as Jared had done? None were certain Gershom could even do the latter. But both possibilities could breed frightening repercussions. And Seth, Zach, and Jared had not yet been able to locate whatever lair Gershom had fled to to regroup and plan anew.

  Aidan had never transformed a mortal before. He had always assumed that when he did, it would be a gifted one who had chosen to spend the rest of forever with him. But he had lived three thousand years without finding that woman. There seemed little point in holding out any longer. Particularly when he could help these two.

  “I’ll do it.”

  Cliff grinned. “Awesome! Congratulations, guys.” Striding forward, he shook Ethan’s hand and hugged Heather. Even that showed he was returning to his old self. Cliff had been keeping a careful distance from others since his break.

  “When would you like to do it?” Aidan asked.

  Heather shrugged. “Are you busy now?”

  “No,” he responded, surprised she wanted to act so swiftly.

  She offered him a sheepish smile. “I’m a little nervous, so I’d kinda like to get it out of the way.”

  Aidan laughed. “As you will.”

  Ethan looked around his living room and smiled.

  The furniture from Heather’s small home that had not been destroyed in the vampire attack had been fetched, cleaned, and now mixed and mingled with his own. The photographs that had hung on her home’s walls now bore new frames and adorned the walls here.

  He could see Heather’s touch all over the house. It no longer looked like the home of two longtime bachelors. Heather hadn’t added any of what he and Ed considered feminine froufrou stuff. Yet one could definitely see the influence of a woman in the place.

  Ethan liked it.

  No, he loved it. He loved her. And intended to tell her as much every day for the rest of their long, long lives.

  Heather entered the living room from the kitchen. “The chicken is almost done,” she announced with a smile. She had insisted on preparing it herself.

  “Smells delicious,” he praised.

  Ed strolled in from the hallway. “All right. I’m out.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay and join us?” Heather asked.

  Ethan sent her a wry smile. “He has a hot date.”

  “Oh.”

  Ed flashed her a charming grin. “A very hot date.”

  She grinned. “Well, have fun, handsome.”

  Ed laughed, grabbed his keys, and headed for the door.

  Ethan was pleased to see Heather and his Second getting along so well. Some women would have balked at having the other man live with them. Heather hadn’t batted an eyelash.

  As Ed stepped out into the night, he caught Ethan’s eye. “Good luck.”

  Ethan grimaced. He’d need it.

  “Oh, come on.” Heather said after Ed left. “It isn’t going to be that bad.”

  “If you say so,” he muttered.

  She eyed him speculatively. “Are you nervous?”

  “No. Yes. Maybe. Why do you ask?”

  She laughed.

  Ethan didn’t know how she could face the night so casually and straightened his tie for the dozenth time. “Do I look okay?”

  Her eyes lit with amber fire as she gave him a long once-over. “You look positively edible.” As did she wi
th her iridescent eyes.

  Ethan drew her close and pressed a tender kiss to her lips.

  She had made it through her transformation with only one hitch. As with Sarah, Melanie, and Krysta, her fever had climbed so high they had had to submerge her in an ice bath to bring it down. It had scared the hell out of Ethan, making him all the more thankful that she would never be sick again.

  Fortunately, Heather remembered very little of the three days illness had claimed her.

  The doorbell chimed.

  His heart leapt in his chest.

  Heather laughed. “You really are nervous.”

  “Yes, damn it.”

  She leaned up and kissed his chin. “Everything’s going to be okay, Ethan.”

  “Your eyes are glowing,” he told her.

  “Oh. Hold on.” Stepping back, she closed her eyes a moment. When she opened them, they were brown once more.

  He smiled, relieved.

  She winked. “You’re cute when you’re nervous.”

  Ethan groaned. “Don’t make this more difficult for me than it already is.”

  “Who? Me?” she asked, the picture of innocence.

  “Ah hell. I’m screwed, aren’t I?”

  Laughing, Heather leaned past him and opened the front door. “Hi, Dad. Come on in.”

  General Lane, wearing slacks and a dress shirt with the collar loose, returned Heather’s smile. Stepping inside, he waited for her to close the door, then gave her a big hug. “How’s my girl?”

  “Excellent,” she chirped.

  Her father turned to Ethan and offered his hand. “Ethan.” Ethan shook his hand. “Good to see you, sir.”

  General Lane glanced at Heather. “Should I have worn a suit?”

  “No. Ethan’s nervous, so he overdressed.”

  Ethan stared at her. “You said I looked fine.”

  A teasing glint entered her eye. “Actually, I said you looked positively—”

  “Don’t say it!”

  She laughed.

  Ethan sighed. “If you’ll forgive me for saying so, sir, your daughter has a mean streak.”

  Smiling, General Lane clapped him on the back. “I’ve known that for years, son. So why are you nervous?”

  Heather winked at her father. “He’s afraid you’re going to freak out when you find out we’re living together.”