A blond—just under six feet tall—issued orders with hand signals, sending half the troops to Richart’s side of the house, then leading the rest to Etienne.
And still the music roared.
Bodies in a ready-for-anything crouch, tranquilizer guns loaded with the human dose of the tranquilizer aimed and ready to fire, network soldiers nodded to Etienne as they flowed past him.
Mercenaries dropped like flies as tranquilizer darts found vulnerable throats.
Shaded by the trees, Etienne tugged off his protective shades, head covering, and gloves, and smiled as the blond strolled toward him. “You do like to make an entrance, don’t you?”
Chris Reordon grinned. “May as well have fun with it. Besides, it will help me with the coverup. Any calls the neighbors make to nine-one-one will be intercepted and they’ll be told we’re filming a movie.”
“That won’t attract spectators?”
He shrugged. “If it does, my guys will steer them away.”
The walkie-talkie on his shoulder squawked. “Location secure,” a tinny voice declared. “Targets down.”
Chris reached up and pressed a button. “Set up a perimeter and stay sharp. If they repeat last night’s performance, they’ll have a second team sweep in shortly.”
“Yes, sir.”
The network guards began to check the downed men and call out their conditions.
“Dead.”
“Dead.”
“Dead.”
“Dead.”
Chris frowned at Etienne.
Etienne pursed his lips. He thought he had left some alive.
“Dead.”
“Alive. Pulse thready. Pupils blown.”
“Same with this one.”
Chris sighed heavily.
“What?” Etienne asked, beginning to feel defensive. “What does that mean?”
“It means you hit them too hard.”
“Well, I’m not used to fighting humans.”
“You spar with Cameron all the time.”
“No, I don’t. I spar with immortals. Cam spars with other Seconds.”
“But you’ve fought humans in the past. Hell, we just fought a minor war with them.”
“And we fought to kill. Vampires can take a punch. I can fight to wound them, crack their skulls, and they’ll recover. How the hell would I know how hard I can hit a human?”
Chris was silent for a moment. “Okay, I see this is going to be a problem.”
“Dead,” another guard called.
“Dead. Sheesh. What the hell did you do to this guy?”
Etienne winced.
Richart approached—tugging off his own shades, head covering, and gloves—and stood next to Etienne. He was pretty blood-splattered. Had he run into the same problem?
“Did you get anything from their thoughts?” Richart asked.
Etienne shook his head, frowning as Richart weaved on his feet. “Are you wounded?”
“Huh?” He glanced down. “I don’t think so. Maybe. A couple of gunshots. Why?”
Sheldon walked up, looking as though he had rolled in a puddle of mud. Reaching up, he yanked a tranquilizer dart from Richart’s upper back. “Dude, are you okay?”
Chris reached into one of the pockets on his thigh and drew out an autoinjector full of the antidote. Flicking off the lid, he jabbed it into Richart’s neck.
Etienne took his brother’s arm and steadied him until it kicked in. He gave Sheldon a once-over. “What the hell happened to you?”
“Some asshole shot the hot water tank. The water spilled down into the crawl space and muddied the shallow end. I had to take cover there after they figured out someone was shooting from the house.”
Richart straightened.
“Better?” Etienne asked.
He nodded.
“Did you leave any men alive?” Chris asked.
Richart sent him a sheepish look. “Yes, but your men seem to think I scrambled their brains.”
Grumbling, Chris took out his cell phone and dialed. “Seth? Chris. You have a minute?”
The leader of the Immortal Guardians appeared beside Etienne, pocketing his cell phone. “What’s . . . up?” He glanced around and swore. “Mercenaries?”
“Yes,” Etienne, Richart, Sheldon, and Chris responded.
Seth studied the house, the grounds, the bodies. He returned his attention to the younger immortals. “Go home. Rest. And be at David’s an hour after sunset tonight.”
Etienne looked at his brother. “Don’t you want us to stay and tell you—?”
“I know what happened. Go home. And, Etienne, when you come to the meeting tonight, bring the woman.”
Merde. Had he read Etienne’s thoughts and seen Krysta? Seth was so powerful that he could do so without Etienne even knowing it.
“What about the brother?” Chris asked. “What do you want us to do with him?”
Seth eyed Etienne. “Will you be going home or staying with Richart today?”
Etienne consulted Richart. “Can you teleport us to my place?”
“Yes.”
He turned back to Seth. “Home.”
Seth nodded and told Chris, “When her brother gets off work, provided no one comes looking for him before then, take him to Etienne’s home. Ensure you aren’t followed and can’t be tracked. Station guards outside the home and around the property’s perimeter.”
“Is that really necessary?” Etienne asked.
“Which part?”
“The guards.”
“Yes.”
He didn’t like it, but said nothing. One didn’t argue with Seth.
Frowning, Seth looked up at the helicopter, made a brief motion with his hand, and stopped the music. “Show’s over.”
Chris motioned for the helo to land.
“Go home,” Seth instructed the d’Alençons.
“Should I bring the brother to the meeting?” Etienne asked.
“Yes,” Chris answered, monitoring the cleanup.
Etienne looked to Seth.
Seth nodded.
Richart touched Etienne’s shoulder.
Krysta listened with amazement as Jenna described her recent courtship with Richart, which had been a bizarre combination of conventional and unconventional.
The tale helped calm Krysta’s nerves. As well as her fears. Jenna seemed so human. So normal. She’d been a single mom, struggling to put a son she’d had way too young through college, when she had met Richart. Her concerns seemed so not paranormal. And her love for Richart so sweet. Still fresh and new.
Krysta actually found herself envying the woman.
Very unsettling.
Richart and Etienne suddenly appeared a few feet away.
Heart slamming against her ribs—and not just because it startled her—Krysta leapt to her feet.
Jenna did, too. Hurrying over to her husband, she hugged him hard despite the blood that stained him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, sweetheart. I just need some blood.”
Krysta had the odd impulse to do the same to Etienne, to run to him and hug him tight and tell him how glad she was to see he was okay. Or mostly okay. She couldn’t tell if any of the blood staining his weird suit was his.
She settled for crossing to stand in front of him. “Are you okay?”
He nodded.
Two more men suddenly materialized before the brothers. Krysta noticed absently that Sheldon looked as though he had been wallowing in mud. The other man . . .
She gawked. Damn. He was hot. As hot as Etienne and Richart, but several inches taller with wavy, black hair that fell past his waist. He positively oozed power. And his aura . . .
She had never seen anything like it. It was an almost blindingly bright white with none of the swirling purple that flowed through Etienne, Richart, and Jenna’s auras.
“Thanks,” Sheldon said.
The man nodded and disappeared.
Krysta returned her gaze to Etienne, whose face had darkened with a scowl. “Who was that?”
“Seth, the leader of the Immortal Guardians. The eldest and most powerful among us.”
“What is he?”
“As I said, he’s our leader.”
“No, I mean, he isn’t a vampire or an immortal. So what is he?”
“He’s an immortal.”
Krysta eyed Etienne’s aura. “He is?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand any of this.”
“I know. I’ll explain everything when we get home.”
“My home?”
“Nnnnnno. Your home is . . .”
“Shot to shit,” Sheldon supplied for him.
Richart popped the young man on the back of the head.
“Dude, I’m wearing a helmet. I didn’t even—”
Richart popped him on the head again with enough force to send him stumbling several steps away.
“Okay. That I felt.”
Etienne consulted his brother. “Can you take us both at once?”
“Let me get some blood first.”
Richart headed into the kitchen, Jenna at his side, clinging to his hand and leaning into him.
Sheldon gave Krysta a sheepish look. “Sorry about your house.”
She nodded, not knowing what else to do.
Sheldon unfastened the chin strap of his helmet and tugged it off. “See you guys at the meeting tonight. I’m gonna go take a shower.” Spinning on his heels, he trudged down the hallway and out of sight.
“What meeting?” Krysta asked.
“Seth has called a meeting to discuss what has happened and how to identify and deal with the new threat.”
“I can’t go home, can I?”
“No.”
“Great. I guess I could stay in a hotel.” It would have to be the cheapest one she could find.
“You can stay with me,” Etienne suggested. “You’ll be accompanying me to the meeting tonight anyway.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I will?”
He grimaced. “I’m afraid so. Seth has asked that you be there. And no one gainsays Seth.”
