Night Unbound (9 page)

“What, like
path of life
kind of paths?”

“I don't know.” She picked up a bloody pair of pants and started checking the pockets. “How's your head?”

“Better. Is my nose still bleeding?”

She looked up. “No.”

“What are you doing anyway?”

“Trying to find some clue as to who the muscled vamps were. We're going to have to call Chris about this.”

“I thought you didn't want anyone to know.” He picked up another pair of pants and searched the pockets.

“Not about Zach. We'll have to leave that part out of it.”

“No humans saw us. The mess is quick and easy to clean up. Toss the clothes in a Dumpster. Confiscate the weapons. Let the sprinkler system wash away the blood. No big deal. Why call at all?”

“Because Richart and I encountered a vampire like the big ones a couple of weeks ago.”

“You did? He could fight like these two?”

“Yes. I thought it a fluke at the time. You know how it goes. Not
every
vampire led a sedentary life before he was turned. Some actually trained in martial arts or boxed. But those are rare. To encounter three who matched us in skill in such a short time . . .”

“Is no accident,” he finished for her, brow furrowing. “Do you think another Bastien is raising a vampire army?”

Much to her surprise, Lisette found she disliked the comparison.

Sure Bastien had once been a villain. But he had redeemed himself since Seth had pretty much forced him into the fold. He had fought by their sides countless times. He had always been kind to Ami. Hell, he had even tested on
himself
the antidote Melanie had concocted to counteract the mercenaries' sedative to ensure no other immortal would be harmed if it went really wrong. Without that antidote, the Immortal Guardians would have been screwed many times over.

And he had done Lisette a
huge
favor last night.

“Not another Bastien,” she corrected. “Bastien's on our side now.”

Ethan sent her a crooked smile. “Won you over last night, did he?”

“He was already on his way to doing that before. I was just being stubborn because I liked Ewen.” The Scottish immortal Bastien had slain so long ago had been a friend to all.

“You said yourself that Ewen attacked him.”

She nodded. “I saw as much in Bastien's thoughts. But I also saw Ewen die.”

“That sucks.”

She collected the lanky vampires' flashy bowie knives. “Anyway, we may have another
Dennis
on our hands.”

“Great. Just what we need: another self-proclaimed vampire king, raising and training an army of vampires and pitting them against us in a crazy-ass quest for world domination.”

“This one isn't crazy yet. He can't be if he's creating vampires so well-trained and disciplined.”

“And things were just returning to normal.” Ethan dropped the pants and picked up a shirt. “I'm not finding anything. Are you?”

“No. Let's call Chris and see if his cleanup crew can discover something useful.”

Bastien sprawled in his favorite chair in Melanie's office at the network, indulging in his favorite pastime: watching his wife mutter to herself as she poured over test results and whatever other medical mumbo jumbo consumed her tonight. When she bent over her desk to search for a missing file, he tilted his head to one side and admired the trim thighs encased in formfitting faded blue jeans, followed them up to her tempting, shapely ass.

She straightened, file in hand, and began to flip through it. Her mind on the mysterious pages within, she absently reached up and tucked her hair behind one ear, exposing her profile.

Gorgeous.

His gaze slid along her jaw, down her slender throat, and caressed the full breasts below.

“Your eyes are glowing,” she murmured, a smile in her voice.

“How do you know?” he countered. “You aren't even looking at me.”

“I don't have to. The temperature in here just rose several degrees.”

He smiled. “You've only your own tempting self to blame.”

Closing the file, she turned to him with a smile. “You know I have work to do.”

But work was
all
she seemed to do lately. She needed to relax. Grab a few light moments. Allow herself a release from the stress that had been weighing her down of late. He didn't like the furrow that now seemed a permanent fixture upon her brow.

Bastien sat up and leaned forward. Hooking a finger in one of her belt loops, he drew her toward him until she stood between his splayed knees. “Don't worry. What I have in mind doesn't have to take long. We are, after all, immortals . . . with preternatural speed.”

She set the file on the table beside him. Her eyes acquired an amber glow as he pressed a kiss to the cleavage exposed by her V-necked T-shirt. “The vampires will hear us,” she protested softly, leaning into him and combing her fingers through his hair.

Heat coursed through him, turning him rock hard, and she had barely touched him. “What happens at the network, stays at the network.” He nudged the neckline of her shirt lower with his chin, dropped a few more kisses, stroked her breast along the edge of her skimpy bra with his tongue.

Her breath caught as he cupped the other breast in one hand and kneaded it.

“Um,” Cliff, a former vampire follower of Bastien, said in his apartment across the hall, “that doesn't mean we
want
to hear it. It'd be too much like listening to our brother and sister do it.”

“Dude, speak for yourself,” Stuart, the vampire who lived next door to him, said. “They won't let me subscribe to the porn channels here.”

Melanie's face flushed.

Bastien sighed. “And I believe that's Chris and Seth striding up the hallway, so . . .”

Eyes widening, Melanie tugged the neckline of her shirt up, grabbed the folder, and zipped over to her desk.

When Chris Reordon and Seth entered, she appeared to be studiously pouring over her notes . . . if one failed to notice the pink in her cheeks and her rapid pulse.

Seth glanced at Melanie, turned his attention to Bastien, and raised one eyebrow.

Bastien shrugged and nodded to Chris. “You need to add a quiet room down here.”

If possible, Melanie's face grew even rosier.

“Why?” Chris asked. “For interrogation purposes?”

“Okay,” Bastien said. It was as good a reason as any.

Chris frowned and glanced at Melanie just as she peeked at them over her shoulder. He turned back to Bastien. “Oh, hell no. I am
not
spending tens of thousands of dollars to soundproof a room down here so you two can have sex without the vampires hearing you.”

Melanie covered her face with the file folder.

Seth crossed his arms over his chest, unable to suppress a smile.

Bastien quirked a brow at the irate human. “You
want
the vampires to hear us?”

“No,” Chris sputtered. “I mean, I don't want you having sex! Not while you're both on the clock. Melanie is supposed to be working—”

“She is,” Bastien defended her. “
Long
hours.”

“And
you
are supposed to be serving as guard. Seven vampires live across the hallway. What are you going to do if a couple of them have psychotic breaks and try to escape while you two are having a quickie?”

“Chase them down bare-ass naked and give the human guards an eyeful.”

“I don't know about you,” one of the new vamps said in his room, “but I'm pretty sure even total mind-fuck madness wouldn't make me risk that guy chasing me down and tackling me while he's naked and has a hard-on.”

Bastien and Seth both laughed.

“What?” Chris asked, unable to hear the vamps.

Bastien rose. “Nothing. Forget I mentioned it.” At least the banter had given him a moment to get his body under control. He looked to Seth. “Ready?”

Seth nodded.

Bastien pulled the file away from his wife's red face and leaned down to brush her lips with a kiss. “I'll see you later.”

She nodded. “Be careful.”

Picking up the duffel bag beside his chair, he followed Seth across the hall to Cliff's apartment.

Reordon headed back to the elevator.

Bastien gave the door a perfunctory knock, then waited for Seth to wave a hand over the key-code pad.

A clunk sounded.

Seth pushed the door—as thick and heavy as that of a bank vault—open and motioned for Bastien to step inside.

Cliff slid off a bar stool, leaving behind a plate with sandwich crumbs, and smiled as Bastien entered. “Melanie is so going to kick your ass when you get home tonight.”

He chuckled. “Not if I'm busy
kissing
hers.”

“Damn it, Bastien!” she said from across the hallway.

Cliff laughed . . . until he saw Seth enter the apartment behind Bastien.

All of the vampires were uneasy around the powerful immortal leader, but Cliff, who had been infected the longest, was the most uncomfortable. Bastien suspected it stemmed from Cliff's knowing Seth could look into his mind and see every manic thought Cliff fought to hold at bay as the brain damage the virus spawned progressed.

“Hey,” he greeted Seth.

Seth nodded. “Good evening, Cliff. How are you?”

“Fine, I guess.” His brown eyes met Bastien's. “What's up?”

“Feel like taking a trip?”

He swallowed. “Now?”

Bastien nodded.

“Aren't you on guard duty?”

“Sean is on his way over to take my place. He'll be here in a few.”

“Oh. Okay.” Cliff's dreadlocks slid forward and hid his features as he bent down, retrieved a pair of sneakers from beneath the sofa, and donned them. Straightening, he wiped his palms on his jeans. “Can I say good-bye to Melanie first?”

“Bye, Cliff!” Melanie called merrily.

Cliff said nothing. He just stood there, looking as if he were about to walk the plank.

“Shall we?” Seth asked. Touching their shoulders, he teleported the three of them to the field that had once supported Bastien's vampire lair.

No structure remained. Only lumpy, uneven ground covered by grasses and weeds that swayed and rustled in the breeze.

As Cliff looked around, his expression lightened. “I never thought I'd see this place again.” He drew in a deep breath. “Or smell it. Damn, it smells good out here.”

Guilt pricked Bastien. Cliff had been cooped up at the network for so long. Perhaps if Bastien had worked harder to integrate himself into the Immortal Guardian family, he could have earned Seth's trust and done this sooner.

Cliff stared at the ground upon which Bastien's home had rested. “The old place is gone, huh?”

“Yes, as are the caverns we constructed beneath it.”

“Wow. All that work . . .”

“I know.” Smiling, Bastien tossed him the duffel bag. “This is for you.”

Cliff caught it easily and unzipped it.

Inside lay hunting clothes and a nice assortment of weapons. Bastien had taken great care when he had chosen them, wanting his friend to have only the best. Cliff had been with him a long time. He was the last survivor of Bastien's vampire army. While three had surrendered during the final battle they had fought against the immortals, the other two had succumbed to the madness and . . .

Bastien mentally shook his head. He didn't want to think about that right now. Or about the fact that the young man before him would soon meet the same fate.

Cliff looked from the contents of the bag to Bastien. “What's this?”

Bastien clapped him on the back. “You're going hunting with me tonight.” He had thought the young vampire would be as excited by the news as a child presented with a huge pile of presents on Christmas morning, but the smile Bastien expected never arose. “I thought you'd be pleased.”

“He thinks we've brought him here to execute him,” Seth said softly.

Bastien lost his smile.
“What?”
He waited for Cliff to deny it.

Cliff just stared at him, his hands clenched tightly in the material of the bag.

“Why the hell would you think that?”

Cliff glanced at Seth.

Seth looked to Bastien. “Because the violent thoughts are growing louder and harder to ignore, and he knows I can hear them.”

Bastien's stomach sank like a stone. How much longer did they have until the psychotic breaks began? How much longer until Cliff asked Bastien to end it for him? “Why would I give you a bag full of hunting clothes and weapons if I intended to kill you?”

Cliff shrugged. “I thought maybe it was like people getting their dog all excited about going for a ride in the car so he wouldn't realize they were taking him to the vet to have him put down.”

Bastien stared at him. “That's fucked up.”

“Yeah.”

“Cliff, when the time comes, I'll either take care of it myself like I did with Vince, or Melanie will sedate you and drain you as she did with Joe. Either way, it will be on
your
terms.”

“And,” Seth added, “the hope remains that Melanie will discover a treatment before it comes to that.”

Swallowing hard, the young vampire nodded and looked down at his bag of goodies. “So . . . this is real?” His eyes met Bastien's with a first flare of excitement. “You're really taking me hunting with you?”

Bastien forced a smile. “Yes.”

Cliff glanced at Seth. “And you're okay with this?”

Seth nodded. “You've proven yourself to be a valuable member of our family. We could use another good hunter.”

Cliff's face lit with a grin. “This is so cool!”

Seth smiled. “I'll leave you to it then. Enjoy your hunt.”

As soon as the Immortal Guardians' leader vanished, Cliff stripped down to his skivvies and donned the traditional black hunting garb of Seconds and immortals. Black pants. Black shirt. Black coat outfitted with numerous pockets and sheaths.

“Will the coat be a hindrance to you?” Bastien asked. “You aren't accustomed to fighting in one.”

Cliff picked up a couple of daggers and flipped them end over end, catching them with a flourish, then performed several experimental swings, kicks, twirls, and thrusts at preternatural speed. “No. I'm good with it.”

He was also very good with weapons. The human members of the network would probably crap their pants if they knew Bastien hadn't just been sitting on his ass, playing video games when he visited Cliff. He had been training him. Cliff was almost as good a fighter as Bastien was. Had he possessed Bastien's age and the added strength and speed that came with it, he would've been capable of defeating immortals as young as Ethan.

“Shall we go then?”

Cliff nodded eagerly. “Where to?”

“I thought we would see what's happening at UNCG tonight.” The campus was nearer network headquarters than the others. Seth had thought it best that they stick pretty close to home . . . at least on their initial forays.

“Wanna race?” Cliff asked.

Bastien shook his head. “Let's save that for the end of the night if you still have the energy. I've got a car parked through there.”

Cliff followed him through the trees to the Chevy Volt and folded his thin frame into the passenger seat. He smiled. “It smells like Melanie in here.”

Bastien nodded. “It's her car.” Since he and Melanie were rarely apart, he hadn't seen a need to procure one of his own.

Cliff raised an eyebrow. “It also smells like sex.”

His acute sense of smell
would
pick that up. “Yyyyeah. Melanie and I sometimes . . .”

“Go at it like teenagers?”

Bastien laughed. “Yes. Just don't tell her I told you that.”

The drive was short. Cliff peered through the windshield, eagerly devouring the sight of the countryside he hadn't seen for so long. “I'm glad you two found each other,” he commented as Bastien parked the car.

“Me too.” Bastien kept his eyes and ears peeled for vampire activity as they strolled onto the quiet campus.

“Do you still feel like you don't deserve her?”

“All the time.” And he had admitted as much often in the early days of their relationship.

“Well, you do,” Cliff said. “Deserve her, I mean. You're a good guy, Bastien. I wish you could see that.”

Bastien looked at him askance. “You aren't going to get maudlin on me, are you?”

Cliff laughed. “No, I just wanted to put that out there in case I don't have a chance to say it later. I really appreciate everything you've done for me. You've been a good friend.”

It almost sounded like a good-bye. Alarm bells rang. Bastien stopped. “Cliff, if you're thinking of running, I've been ordered to—”

“I'm not,” Cliff assured him. “I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to torture and kill innocents the way other vampires do.”