Night Reigns

Chapter 16

Ami stood still while Marcus fastened the belt supporting her 9mm holsters around her hips. “Thank you.”

He smiled, slid his hands to her waist, and placed a tender kiss on her lips. “My pleasure.” Kneeling before her, he took the thin leather straps at the bottom of her right holster, looped them around her thigh and tied them in a double-knotted bow.

Her flesh tingled at his touch.

He looked up at her as he did the same with the other. “Some of my immortal brethren believe that gifted ones possess more advanced DNA because we are descendants of aliens.”

“I’ve heard that rumor,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t ask her straight out if it were true. She couldn’t betray Seth’s trust.

“Do you think some of our ancestors might have been Lasaran?”

Relieved, she shook her head. “I’m the first Lasaran to visit your planet.”

“What about one of your allies?”

“As far as I know, the only other people from our solar system who have visited Earth are the Sectas.” She wrinkled her nose and hoped he would read the apology in her expression. “And the Sectas view humans with too much derision to ever mate with them.”

He rose. “Now they have even more reason to despise us.”

“Because of what happened to me?”

“Yes.”

“They don’t know. They probably never will.” Nor would her family.

He frowned. “Ami, isn’t there any way you can contact your world?”

“No. My ship was destroyed. As soon as it was damaged enough to force a descent, my crew set the auto destruct so humans wouldn’t be able to gain any of the technology it contained. Nothing salvageable remains. And, though I know how to use an interstellar communicator, I have no more knowledge of how to build one from scratch than you have of creating a cell phone.”

He took her hands in his. “Then there is no way you can return to your home?”

A fist squeezed her heart. “No. No one knows I’m here. And I doubt the alliance will change its mind and send a party to warn the people of Earth.”

Again he brushed her lips with his. “If you ever find a way to return to Lasara, will you take me with you?”

She stared up at him, shocked. He would do that? He would leave his friends, his life here, so he could remain with her?

Wouldn’t you consider staying on Earth to be with him?

She smiled. “I wouldn’t return without you.”

When he drew her into his arms, she rested her cheek against his chest and listened to his strong, slow heartbeat.

He lowered his chin to the top of her head. “I think I would like your world,” he mused. “No war. No violence.”

Ami missed it. Missed her family. Her friends. The peace. “What would you do with your nights if you didn’t have to hunt vampires anymore?”

“Spend them with you.”

She laughed. “You already do.”

“I guess that settles it then. War ... peace ... as long as you’re at my side, I’m happy.”

Ami leaned her head back and kissed his chin. “Sweet talker.”

He grinned down at her and lowered his head. His lips were an inch from hers when he paused. Straightening, he frowned and turned his head. “Someone is coming.”

Ami dropped her hands to the 9mm’s. “Friend or foe?”

“Friend. It’s Roland.”

She followed Marcus out of the armory and down the hallway. As he crossed to the front door, she couldn’t keep her gaze from falling from his broad shoulders—encased in a tight, long-sleeved, black T-shirt—to his muscular butt.

Sparks of warmth heated her blood as she remembered gripping it with both hands and urging him on as he drove into her. Her pulse leapt. Her breath shortened.

“Ami,” Marcus said without turning around, “you’re killing me, honey.”

The longing in his deep voice made her chuckle.

Marcus opened the door at the same time the doorbell rang. “Roland, what’s—”

Marcus’s head jerked as a thud sounded. Flying backward, he landed at Ami’s feet. Blood gushed from a broken nose.

“Marcus!” she cried.

Face tight with pain, he blurted out, “Ow! What the hell, bad?”

When Roland entered, slammed the door behind him, and stalked forward, Ami drew her 9mm’s and planted herself in front of Marcus. “Stop right there, Roland!”

He halted, face mottled with fury. “Step aside, Ami.”

She shook her head. “Touch him again, and I’ll empty the clips into you.”

“Dab, Abi,” Marcus huffed beneath her. “How cad you turd me od whed my face feels like it just exploded?”

“Are you okay?” she asked without taking her eyes off Roland. The older immortal still looked ready to attack.

“Yeah,” Marcus grumbled, climbing to his feet beside her. He glared at Roland. “What the hell is wrog with you?”

“Sarah saved your life, you miserable bastard,” Roland shouted, “and you condemned her for it?”

Mouth falling open, Ami lowered her weapons. “Oh, Marcus, you didn’t!”

His jaw clenched as his face darkened with anger. “She left you there.” He wiped the blood from his mouth and chin with one sleeve. “She knew you couldn’t defeat two dozen vampires without her, and she left you there.”

“I asked her to,” Ami said. “You and Roland were out. If she hadn’t gotten you to safety—”

Much to her surprise, Marcus transferred his anger to her. “You don’t ever put my life before yours!”

She raised her eyebrows. “Marcus, I’m your Second. My job is to keep you safe. If that means—”

“Then you’re no longer my Second,” he decreed.

From the corner of her eye, Ami saw Roland cross his arms over his chest and tilt his head to one side as he studied them.

She holstered her weapons. “Well, lucky for me,” she said, determined not to let anger take hold of her as well, “that decision isn’t yours. Seth decides who serves as whose Second, and he decided I should be yours. And, even if I weren’t your Second, I would still put your life before mine. That’s what you do when you love someone. So, even if you could fire me, it wouldn’t make a difference. If the same thing happened tomorrow, I would beg Sarah to take you to safety and take my chances with the vamps again.”

Marcus looked like his head might explode.

Ami had to fight to hold back a grimace as the broken bones in his nose shifted beneath the skin and slid back into position.

“Ami, honey,” Marcus said, a pleading note entering his voice, “you can’t do that. You’re not immortal.”

“Neither are you. Not really. You can be killed, too, Marcus. What makes you think I would mourn you less than you would mourn me?”

He didn’t seem to know what to say to that.

Roland sighed. “All right. I see the way things are. I didn’t realize... .” He motioned to the two of them, then threw his hands up in surrender. “Just get on the phone and apologize to Sarah so she’ll stop tearing herself up inside. If she sheds one more tear over your sorry arse, I’ll come back and finish what I started.”

Afraid Marcus might yet hesitate, Ami reminded him, “It wasn’t just you she was saving, Marcus. Her husband’s life was at stake. If it had been you, me, Roland, and Chris, and Roland and I had been drugged, would you have left us there and taken Chris to safety?”

Roland and Marcus suddenly turned their heads to the east.

Roland swore. “I’m not here,” he hissed in a hasty whisper. “You never saw me.”

Ami frowned at him. What?

“Roland Warbrook,” Sarah called from outside a moment later, “I told you to leave Marcus alone!”

Ami looked at Roland, who—eyes wide—shook his head and held a finger to his lips.

“Don’t even try it,” his wife warned. “My senses are as acute as yours. Did you forget that?”

He grumbled something Ami couldn’t make out that made Marcus’s lips twitch and looked toward the door. “Sarah, sweetling, I was only trying to help Marcus ... ah, see the error of his ways.”

“Marcus has every reason to be upset with me,” she said, softer, sorrowful.

“No, he doesn’t,” Ami said. She didn’t bother shouting. She was the only non-immortal present. Any shouting on their part was for her benefit.

“Ami?” Sarah said, voice brightening with hope.

“Yes.”

“Oh, thank goodness. Darnell said you were okay, but ...”

Marcus turned to Roland. “Why isn’t she coming inside?”

Roland’s features tightened. “Because she doesn’t think she’s welcome, asshole.”

Marcus shifted uncomfortably, then crossed to the front door and opened it. “Come in, Sarah.”

So much shame and regret shadowed Sarah’s pretty features as she eased inside and eyed Marcus that Ami hurried to close the distance between them and threw her arms around the other woman.

“Thank you so much, Sarah.”

Sarah hugged her tight. “I’m so sorry I left you.”

“I’m glad you did. You did exactly what I hoped you would. You got Marcus and Roland to safety.”

“I thought I was leaving you there to die.”

“You were,” Marcus spoke behind Ami.

Ami lashed out and unerringly found Marcus’s shin with the heel of her boot.

“Ow! You didn’t let me finish,” he sulked.

“Then finish,” Roland rumbled, the low tones laden with warning.

Marcus looked at Sarah. “Thank you for saving my life. Again. And for saving Roland’s.”

Moisture welled in Sarah’s hazel eyes. “I’m so sorry, Marcus.”

He opened his arms. “Come here.”

Small shoulders slumping, Sarah stepped into the hug.

“It was an impossible decision,” he conceded.

Ami thought that was probably as close as he could get to telling her she had made the right one. He would always put Ami’s life before his own.

Roland shifted from foot to foot, then stomped forward. “All right. All right.” He took Sarah’s arm and pulled her away from Marcus. “Enough. You forgive her. It’s over.”

Ami bit her lip to suppress a smile.

“Not quite,” Marcus said. “I want you both to promise me here and now that, should a situation arise in the future that would require you to choose between my life and Ami’s, you will choose Ami’s.”

“No way,” Ami objected.

Marcus met and held Roland’s gaze. “Promise me you’ll protect her.”

Roland nodded. “You have my word.”

Sarah’s brow furrowed. “I promise.” Ami knew she must be hoping she would never again have to make such a choice.

Marcus smiled, once more the amiable warrior she loved. “Then we’re good. What’s going on with the d’Alençons?”

Sarah curled her arm around her husband’s waist. “Étienne and Lisette are still groggy, but getting stronger. Richart finally called in and said he’s in the same condition.”

Marcus closed the front door and motioned them over to the living room. “What happened to him? Where did he go?”

“The drug screwed with his gift,” Roland said as he sat in Marcus’s favorite armchair and pulled Sarah down on his lap, “made him get his wires crossed. You know how your thoughts were all over the place right before you passed out?”

“Yeah.”

When Ami sat on the sofa, Marcus sank down beside her and looped an arm around her shoulders.

“Mine were the same way. So were Richart’s. Except, when Richart had a stray thought regarding a certain human woman, he unexpectedly found himself standing in her living room instead of teleporting Ami to safety.”

Marcus’s eyes widened. “What?”

Ami gasped. “Did she know he wasn’t human?”

“No, but she does now.”

Marcus grunted. “Who is this woman? I didn’t know Richart was seeing anyone.”

“More stalking than seeing,” Roland muttered.

Sarah elbowed him in the ribs. “Apparently he’s been drawn to her for some time.”

“He actually blushed when he admitted it,” Roland drawled. “Can you believe it?”

Ami found the notion of a two-hundred-year-old warrior blushing over a woman rather charming.

“He’s been a little hesitant to act on his feelings,” Sarah went on, “because of the whole Immortal Guardian thing. And we don’t know who she is. He won’t say. He’s afraid Chris will frighten her in his determination to gain her consent not to reveal what she knows to anyone.”

Roland snorted. “I don’t blame him. When I met Sarah, I threatened to kill Reordon if he came near her.”

Sarah looked at him with surprise. “You did?”

“Yes.”

She smiled and ran a finger along his jaw. “Ohhh. That’s so sweet.”

An adorably sappy smile slid across the dour immortal’s face.

Marcus squeezed Ami’s shoulder and leaned down to murmur in her ear, “I see why the Sectas think we’re a tad bloodthirsty.”

She laughed.

“Who are the Sectas?” Roland asked.

Marcus shook his head. “Inside joke.”

Marcus tensed when a large figure suddenly appeared in the foyer.

Sarah emitted a squeak of surprise, then sighed.

Garbed in dusty, sweat-stained khakis, Seth swayed with weariness. His already tan skin had been darkened by hours in the sun. At least what little of it Marcus could see beneath the grime.

The immortal leader’s long raven hair was pulled back into a braid that hadn’t been tended to in some time. Long, tangled strands fell about his face. So much dirt and dust powdered his hair that it appeared gray.

Beside Marcus, Ami sat up straight. “Seth?”

Seth blinked and looked their way. “Ami.” He took a step toward them. “I came as soon as I heard. Are you okay?”

Nodding, she jumped up and hurried over to him.

Seth wrapped long arms around her and hugged her tight. He was so much taller than Ami that he couldn’t even rest his chin atop her head without bending. “Are you sure?”

She nodded.

Much to his relief, Marcus felt no jealousy toward the other man, not after learning the role Seth had played in saving Ami.

“Are you okay?” Ami asked, her words muffled by his clothes.

He nodded. “Just tired. David sends his love. He wanted to come, but time is a factor.”

She drew back. “Have you been able to save any?”

“Not enough,” he professed, face grim. “Thousands are missing and feared dead.”

“Come sit down,” she urged.

Marcus scooted over to the far end of the sofa, making room so Ami could sit beside him with Seth on the other side of her.

Seth nodded to Roland and Sarah. “Just so we’re clear,” he said, “this isn’t going to happen again.”

“What isn’t?” Ami asked with a frown.

“Your being taken.” He speared the others with a glare. “Ami is to be protected at all costs.”

Marcus stopped himself just short of punching the air and shouting, Yes!

If Seth ordained it, it would be done.

“Seth!” Ami objected. “You can’t just—”

“Even if it means risking exposure to the humans,” Seth clarified, “you are to do everything in your power to prevent Ami from falling into the hands of our enemies.”

Sarah nodded, once more looking guilty as hell. Marcus wished her entrance into the Immortal Guardians’ ranks had taken place during less onerous times.

Roland said nothing, just shot Marcus a look that asked him what the hell was going on that he hadn’t been told.

“Roland,” Seth said, “you and Sarah go ahead and begin the night’s hunt. The vampires lost dozens last night. I’m sure their king has instructed them to replenish their numbers as quickly as possible. Sebastien, Yuri, and Stanislav will patrol for Lisette and her brothers. I don’t want them fighting again until they’re at full strength. Reordon notified the immortals in surrounding states of the situation and put them on alert as well.”

Marcus met his gaze over Ami’s head. “Did he warn them about the drug?”

“Yes. The network is already working on combatting this new development in two ways: with protective clothing the dart can’t penetrate—”

“Too constrictive,” Marcus and Roland both protested at the same time.

“It will have to do until they succeed in the other. They’re also trying to develop an adrenaline-like injection to counter the drug.” He looked at Roland and Sarah. “Be careful.”

Nodding, the couple rose and left.

Seth turned his head and stared at Marcus with an intensity that grated. “She told you?”

“Yes,” Ami answered and took Marcus’s hand. “He knows I’m Lasaran. And you were right. He didn’t freak out.”

Marcus scowled at Seth. “No. I freaked out before she told me, when I thought she was a vampire. A little warning would have been nice.”

Seth nodded. “I know. But my hands were tied. And it didn’t occur to me that you would draw that particular conclusion.”

Ami began to fidget. “Okay. I’m an alien. He knows it. He loves me. I love him. Let’s move on. There’s something you need to know about last night that we didn’t tell Chris.”

Seth frowned. “What?”

Ami’s fingers tightened around Marcus’s.

He knew she blamed herself for this and wished she wouldn’t.

“The drug the vampires used against the immortals is the same one developed by the men who held me captive.”

Seth’s eyes flared gold as a thunderclap split the air outside. “What?”

Marcus eyed the windows warily.

Ami nodded. “I’m sure it’s the same. It smelled the same and, when the vampire king ...” She frowned. “I hate calling him that. It’s so ridiculous. Anyway, when the vampire king shot me with one of the darts, it had the same effect as the drug they sometimes injected me with during their experiments.”

“That’s impossible. The only people we let live were the grunts who knew nothing about you. We destroyed the facility, and we destroyed all of the computers, servers, and files we didn’t steal.”

Marcus rejoiced in the knowledge that Ami’s torturers had all been killed. “Well, apparently they backed up their files at an offsite location. Do you have any idea how Montrose or the vampires might have hooked up with these guys?”

“No.” Seth ran a hand over his face, sighed, then cast Ami a reluctant look. “We’re going to have to bring Reordon into the loop.”

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 deprivation 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.

Smiling, Marcus took her hand and headed for the kitchen.