Night Reigns

by Dianne Duvall

  Ami tensed.

  Marcus wrapped his arm around her and drew her close. “Is that absolutely necessary?” Because if Chris said anything to upset Ami, he would end up in the network’s intensive care unit.

  “Yes, it is. You know Chris has friends in very interesting places. We need him to contact his men on the inside and connect the dots.”

  Ami bit her lip. “Couldn’t you tell him the source of the drug without bringing me into it?”

  Seth shook his head. “He needs to see the files and hard drives we took, sweetheart, if he’s going to determine Montrose’s involvement.”

  “Then I want Marcus to see the files, too.”

  Surprised, Marcus met her gaze as she turned her pensive face up to his.

  “No more secrets,” she said. “I don’t ever again want anyone to know something about me that you don’t.”

  His heart swelling, he pressed a tender kiss to her lips. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Seth’s eyes narrowed. If she told you about Lasara, then you know her people forbid premarital sex.

  Marcus kept his expression blank. I discovered that one a little late, I’m afraid.

  If you truly love her, I assume you intend to do the honorable thing and marry her?

  Of course, Marcus thought irritably. I just thought we should wait until fewer vamps were trying to either kill or capture us so she can actually enjoy the ceremony. That okay with you?

  Seth gave him a brief nod, pulled out his cell phone, and dialed. “It’s Seth. You’re needed.” He gave Ami an affectionate smile and touched her cheek. “Okay. I’m on my way.” He returned his phone to his pocket. “I’ll be back with him in a minute.”

  Seth vanished.

  Ami leaned into Marcus.

  “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” he asked, concerned.

  “Yes.” She smiled up at him. “As long as you accept me for who I am, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.”

  Heat spiked through him. Marcus took her lips in a searing kiss. “You know I adore you, don’t you?”

  When she opened her mouth to reply, he took advantage and slid his tongue inside to stroke hers.

  Moaning, Ami wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her breasts to his chest.

  Marcus trailed kisses across her cheek and teased her soft earlobe with his teeth, loving her scent, the feel of her, the sound of her racing heart. “I don’t suppose I could talk you into risking Seth’s and Chris’s popping back in and finding us bare-arsed naked, making love on the sofa, could I?”

  She drew back with a wonderfully carefree laugh, pushing at his chest when he growled and pretended he wouldn’t let her go.

  Marcus resolved to make her laugh as often as possible in the future to make up for the pain of her past.

  When he released her, she had just enough time to straighten and adjust the shirt he hadn’t even realized he had untucked and slipped his hands beneath before Seth teleported back in with Chris.

  “Marcus, Ami,” Chris greeted them, “glad to see you’re okay.”

  Seth retook his place beside Ami while Chris sat in the armchair Roland and Sarah had vacated.

  “So,” Chris said, “what can I do for you?”

  Marcus and Ami looked to Seth.

  “Darnell, David, and I are in possession of some laptops, DVDs, flash drives, and hard drives,” Seth began, “that contain information that should help you locate the original source of the new drug the vampires are using. Darnell has already decrypted them, but doesn’t have your particular skills with tracing information to its source without raising red flags.”

  Chris nodded and pulled a small tablet and pencil from his jacket pocket. He might have incredible knowledge of a wide array of technology but, when he was thinking or puzzling something through, Marcus noticed he preferred to scribble notes on paper with a standard No. 2 pencil. “Okay. How did you come into possession of these files?”

  “We stole them from what may have been a military facility we burned to the ground a year and a half ago in Texas.”

  “I hadn’t heard about that.”

  “No one did.”

  Chris nodded, unfazed, as his pencil scratched across the paper. “You said it may have been military.”

  “We aren’t sure. They could have been mercenaries.”

  “My guys will find out.”

  “There’s more.”

  “I thought there might be.” Pencil pausing, he stared at Seth expectantly.

  “The files also contain sensitive information regarding Amiriska that I would prefer the fewest number of people possible know about. Those with whom you choose to work on this will be sworn to secrecy and forbidden to speak of it to anyone, even other network employees.”

  “Sensitive in what way?”

  “I’m an alien,” Ami stated calmly.

  Marcus’s eyebrows flew up. He hadn’t expected her to blurt it out like that. Considering the trepidation with which she had shared the knowledge with him earlier, he had assumed she would let Seth do the talking and stress over Chris’s reaction.

  “You’re in the country illegally?” Chris asked and began scribbling in his notepad again. “No problem. I can get you all of the documentation you need. But I don’t really see why that needs to be kept quiet. Immortals enter and leave the country illegally all the time and—”

  “I’m not from another country,” Ami said. “I’m from another planet. I’m an extraterrestrial.”

  Marcus tensed, ready to inflict serious physical harm if Chris said or did anything to upset her.

  Chris’s pencil paused for a long moment. His head remained down, his gaze fixed on the paper.

  Though Ami was cool and collected on the outside, Marcus could hear her heart pounding loudly in her chest.

  “Okay,” Chris said slowly. “You’ll still need the proper documents.” His pencil began to move once more across the paper. “I’m guessing you’re the reason Seth burned down the military facility.”

  “Yes. They had captured me and were ... studying me.”

  “Torturing her,” Marcus elaborated.

  Chris’s fingers tightened on the pencil. The lead broke. Features composed, he tucked the useless pencil into an inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a second.

  Ami clung to Marcus’s hand. “The drug the vampires hit the immortals with last night is the same one the doctors and scientists at the facility used to incapacitate me.”

  Her fear of the network doctors and scientists suddenly became crystal clear.

  At last, Chris raised his head. “Then we need to find out how the hell Montrose Keegan and his vamp pals got their hands on it.”

  She smiled tentatively. “Yes.”

  Seth caught Chris’s eye. “We also need to eliminate the source.”

  “That’s a given,” Chris said. “We take care of our own and need to make sure these ...” He seemed unable to find a word for them that he thought wouldn’t offend Ami.

  “Monsters?” she suggested helpfully.

  Chris smiled. “Thank you. Make sure these monsters won’t come looking for Ami at a later date.”

  Marcus had never liked the man more. Chris hadn’t overreacted to Ami’s secret and had just included her in their family.

  “Now,” Chris continued, “we already have Montrose Keegan in custody.”

  Marcus sat forward. “You do?” He hadn’t heard that and couldn’t wait to get his hands on the little prick.

  “Yes, but I’m afraid he’s useless as far as providing us with the information we need. He was admitted to the hospital this morning after a deputy found him slumped over the wheel of his car in a ditch.”

  “He tried to drive himself to the emergency room?” Ami asked incredulously. “I assumed he’d just call 911.”

  Chris shrugged. “I guess he didn’t want the police to find his lab. He died en route to the hospital and was revived, but the extended oxygen depriva
tion left him brain-dead.”

  “Where is he now?” Ami asked.

  “The network. It took me all afternoon, but I managed to shut down the police investigation he spawned before it could catch fire and had his hospital records purged. The only ones who even know he was there are the people who worked on him, and none of them will be able to say where he was transferred if asked.”

  “Is there no brain activity at all?” Seth asked.

  “None that we can detect.”

  “Take me to him when I return you to the network, and I’ll see if I can’t find something in there.”

  He nodded. “So, Montrose has been neutralized. Ami, I need you to give me his address if you can remember it so I can send a crew in to sweep the location clean. The address isn’t in our system.” He looked at Seth. “If you can spare an immortal or two, we can get started tonight.”

  “I’ll accompany you myself. The vampire king may return, and I’m the only one who won’t be affected by the drug.”

  Marcus frowned. “Are you sure? Roland is nine hundred years old, and it affected him.” They couldn’t afford to lose Seth.

  “I’m sure.”

  Ami looked as worried as Marcus felt.

  “Do you remember the address?” Marcus asked her.

  She nodded and recited it.

  Chris added more notes to his tablet. “Okay. Keegan’s house will be clean by noon tomorrow. The vampire king still needs to be taken care of, his lair found, and his army destroyed. Any plans for tackling that?”

  Seth shook his head. “Not until everyone is back on their feet and supplied with an antidote for the drug.”

  “We were able to collect some darts from the passed-out immortals, and Dr. Lipton has been working on it nonstop ever since. She’s the best we have. If anyone can combat this drug, she can. Marcus, will you be patrolling tonight?”

  “No.”

  Ami regarded him with surprise. “Why not? You told me you felt fine.”

  “I’m not leaving you alone until the vampire king is either captured or killed. If he returned to Keegan’s after you left, he could have tracked you here.”

  “Then I’ll go to David’s and hang out with Lisette and her brothers while you hunt.”

  Marcus looked to Seth.

  “It’ll have to do,” Seth said. “We need you out there.”

  And if anything went wrong, as it seemed to do regularly now, Ami would once more rush to his rescue.

  With the d’Alençons on her heels, Seth reminded him. And they’ll be given the same instructions I gave Roland and Sarah: protect Ami at all costs. She won’t fall into enemy hands again.

  Marcus agreed, unhappily with the plan.

  Chris studied his notebook. “So, the three major things on our to-do list are: find and capture the vampire king, locate and destroy both his lair and his army, and discover the identity of the mysterious supplier of the drug. That about cover it?”

  Marcus and Seth nodded.

  Ami bit her lip. “Actually, I think I may be able to help you cross a couple of those off your list.”

  Marcus frowned.

  She met his gaze. “Remember how I told you my brother can make people see things that aren’t there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Lasarans each have our own—”

  “What’s a Lasaran?” Chris interrupted.

  “I am,” Ami said. “Our planet is called Lasara.”

  “Oh. Cool.”

  She smiled and turned back to Marcus. “Anyway, we each have a unique talent outside of the more common ... paranormal abilities I guess you’d say. Mine is ... Well, it’s a little hard to explain, but ... We all have electrical impulses running through our bodies. And every individual has his or her own unique energy signature. I can feel that signature internally like a GPS signal and trace it. It’s how I can always find you when you need me.”

  “Is that how you always knew when I was in trouble? My energy signals changed?”

  “No.” She blushed. “I’m not sure why I always know that. I think it may be tied to the way I feel about you.”

  “Damn!” Chris exclaimed.

  Marcus scowled at him. “What?”

  “I lost the pool.”

  “What pool?”

  He looked uncomfortable for a moment. “There’s sort of been a long-standing wager over whether or not you would ever fall in love again. You love Ami, don’t you?”

  “Yes.” Outrage swelled. “Are you telling me people have been betting on my love life?”

  “For centuries. And now I’m out a thousand freakin’ bucks.”

  Marcus couldn’t believe it. He turned to Seth.

  A sly smile slid over Seth’s features.

  “Don’t tell me you bet, too!” Marcus demanded.

  “Neither David nor I ever engage in wagers because we inevitably end up being accused of cheating or divining the outcome. But Darnell did. And just won big.”

  Marcus could think of no response. It was bad enough that everyone gossiped about him, but to place bets?

  Chris leaned forward. “Ami isn’t going to continue being your Second, is she, now that you guys are together?”

  “Of course she is,” Marcus said. He had already made the mistake of asking (ordering) her to step down once. He wouldn’t do it again.

  Chris threw up his hands. “Damn it! I just can’t win!”

  “There was a wager over that, too?” Marcus snarled.

  “Yeah. Pretty much everybody expected you to take the Roland route and scare her off.”

  “Darnell didn’t,” Seth put in smugly.

  “Well,” Chris grumbled, “I think some of your paranormal whozeewhatzit is starting to rub off on him.”

  Ami stifled a laugh, which went a long way toward relieving Marcus of his irritation.

  “Sorry for the interruption,” Chris told her. “Go ahead.”

  “Since I was in close contact with the vampire king,” she told them, “I learned his energy signature and can use it to lead you to him. If we wait until daylight, he should be in his lair with whatever is left of his army when I find him. So you could do as you did with Bastien and his army.”

  A sound plan, Marcus thought. But Ami didn’t fare well when fighting in close quarters, and he really didn’t want her anywhere near the vampire king.

  Seth gave a slow nod. “You can lead us to the king and his lair tomorrow afternoon, Ami. We’ll take Roland and Sarah with us.”

  Marcus opened his mouth to object.

  Seth held up a finger. “But I don’t want this to go down like the destruction of Bastien’s lair. I won’t have a handful of us fighting dozens of vampires in cramped quarters with this drug floating around. It’s too risky. Instead, we’ll see if we can’t sneak in, snag the king, and blow the place.” He met Chris’s gaze. “Can you get us some napalm-B?”

  “Anything you need. Bombs, flamethrowers. Just let me know how much, and you’ll have it by tomorrow morning.”

  “You know the plan. I’ll let you estimate it.”

  Chris turned a page on his notebook and began to write. “I’ll also have network emergency response crews ready to sweep in and divert the authorities, say it was a gas main explosion or maybe a meth lab.”

  That last one always seemed to work.

  “Once we have the king in custody,” Seth finished, “I’ll find out what he knows about the drug’s origins. I seriously doubt he would allow Montrose to keep secrets.”

  Chris finished writing. “That about cover it?”

  Everyone nodded.

  Marcus rose, his eyes on Seth. “When was the last time you had something to eat?”

  Seth thought for a moment. “Before our meeting last night.”

  “I’ll heat you up some vegetarian lasagna.”

  “Is there enough for me to take some to David before we get started?”

  “More than enough. I’ll get it.”

  “I’ll help,” Ami offered, rising.r />
  Smiling, Marcus took her hand and headed for the kitchen.

  Chapter 17

  Bzzzzz.

  Groaning, Seth rolled over and grabbed the cell phone that vibrated on the bedside table. He peeled an eyelid open, saw the time, and swore.

  Bzzzzz.

  Only an hour had passed since he had returned from Montrose Keegan’s house and Ami and Marcus had talked him into lying down to get some much-needed rest. If he looked out the window, no doubt the sun would have barely crested the horizon.

  Bzzzzz.

  Sitting up, he swung his longs legs over the side of the bed and let his senses seek Ami and Marcus.

  Downstairs. Sound asleep. Good.

  Bzzzzz.

  “What?”

  “Hey,” Chris Reordon said. “I have something you need to read.”

  Which was Chris’s code for Someone might be listening, so read my thoughts if you can.

  “All right.”

  I’m still with the cleaning crew at Keegan’s house. We’re well on the way to removing everything. But I keep feeling that crawling sensation on the back of my neck that tells me someone is watching us. It started about half an hour after you left.

  Have you found any surveillance equipment inside? Seth asked him.

  No. We did a careful sweep before we started tackling the interior. Whoever is watching us is doing it from outside in the surrounding trees.

  Vampire or human?

  I don’t know. The sun’s up, but there’s enough dense shade to shelter a vampire. I could call in reinforcements, have them set up a perimeter, and gradually tighten the circle until we find whoever it is. But I would have to give my men shoot to kill orders for their own protection in case it’s a vamp.

  And they couldn’t afford to lose any possible leads.

  Give me five minutes, Seth said with a sigh. Even powerful immortals such as himself could feel tired as hell at times. I’ll meet you in Keegan’s laundry room.

  Great. See you then.

  Seth returned the cell phone to the bedside table, then rose and crossed to the adjoining bathroom. Splashing cold water on his face did little to revive him, but felt good nonetheless.

  He rubbed a towel briskly over his features.