Ethan raised his brows at the dismissal and looked at Aidan. “Maybe she wants to get in some girl talk.”
Dana emerged from the bathroom, a white towel wrapped around her sarong-style. “Who’s getting in some girl talk?”
“We are,” Heather declared brightly.
Aidan eyed the women dubiously. “Is it odd that I find that prospect more daunting than insane vampires attacking?”
Laughing, Heather stepped inside the bedroom and waggled her fingers at them. “See you boys later.”
Amused, Dana watched Heather close the door in the men’s faces.
Swiveling with a smile, Heather handed Dana a tidy pile of clothing. “I think these will fit you.” She was pretty in a fresh-faced, girl-next-door kind of way and had a friendly demeanor that instantly put Dana at ease.
“Thank you.”
“Now might be a good time to tell you,” Heather said, “that I’ve spent most of my life around soldiers, so I actually have no idea what exactly constitutes girl talk.”
Dana laughed. “That’s not why you’re here anyway, is it?”
“No,” she admitted. “I’m new to this life. I’ve only been immortal for about a year. So I thought… I don’t know… If you have any questions you’re reluctant to ask Aidan, maybe I can answer them for you.”
Dana took the clothes into the bathroom to dress but left the door cracked so they could still talk. Dropping the towel, she donned the bra and underwear she’d brought from home. “What did you do before you met Ethan?”
“I worked as a FACS specialist. I’m telepathic, but the law enforcement agencies I worked with believed I was an expert at reading minute changes in facial expression that indicate whether a person is telling the truth or lying. I still do that on occasion.”
So she had earned a living using her gift, too, but had cleverly managed to do so without actually revealing that gift. “How did you meet Ethan?”
“Long story short, he was fighting vampires and I sort of stumbled into the fray. I was armed and helped defeat them. He explained who and what he was. We ended up having to stick together for a while because we thought an enemy was messing with my head and… Well, that’s a longer story. But we got to know each other pretty quickly and fell in love.”
Dana drew on a pair of black cargo pants and topped them with a long-sleeved black shirt. Both fit her well. “And you transformed for him?”
“Yes,” Heather replied, a smile in her voice. “I love him. Ethan is my best friend. I couldn’t imagine anything better than being able to spend hundreds or even thousands of years with him.”
Dana opened the bathroom door. “But don’t you miss being able to go outside during the day?”
Heather sat on the edge of the bed and shrugged. “I’m lucky. I don’t have to forgo the sun. Ethan and I talked Aidan into transforming me.”
Surprise struck Dana, followed swiftly by jealousy.
Aidan had put his lips on this woman’s neck? He had held her? Bitten her? He had bonded with her?
Smiling, Heather shook her head and patted the mattress. “It wasn’t like that.”
Dana sank down beside her and starting tugging on the boots Heather had loaned her.
“Aidan bit me on my arm,” the other woman explained. “And there was nothing sensual or sexual about it. It actually hurt quite a bit.”
“You were reading my mind just now, weren’t you?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. I’ll try not to do it again, but I’m younger and have less control over my gift. So unless I consciously block other people’s thoughts, I hear them. And sometimes I hear them even when I do try to block them, especially when they think them as loudly as you just did.”
Dana didn’t know what to say to that. She really wasn’t comfortable with so many people reading her private thoughts.
“Anyway,” Heather continued, “it didn’t bond us like it does in movies. We aren’t attracted to each other or anything. I think Aidan actually kind of views me as a daughter if you want to know the truth. Or maybe a protégée.”
Nothing in her tone suggested she was sugarcoating the situation or lying. That was a relief.
Heather shrugged. “Ethan wanted Aidan to transform me because Aidan is stronger and has a greater tolerance for sunlight. Aidan is also a healer. And we’ve come to understand that gifted ones who are transformed by healers for some reason acquire the same strength, speed, et cetera, that the healer has.” She grinned. “And I did. I’m superstrong. And I can tolerate quite a bit of sunlight. You will, too, if you end up asking Aidan to transform you.”
Heather winced suddenly and looked toward the door. “I’m not pushing her,” she said with exasperation, “I’m just letting her know she wouldn’t have to give up daylight if she—” Sighing, she sent Dana a wry smile. “I’ve been advised to change the subject.”
“By Aidan?” He must be listening in via Heather’s thoughts.
“Yes, but I really wasn’t trying to coax you into transforming for him. I just wanted you to have all the information you can about it.”
“Thank you.” Dana stood, testing the boots. They were a little tight but would do. “How do I look?”
Heather grinned. “Like one of us.” A second later she rolled her eyes and again looked toward the door. “I’m not pushing her!”
Dana laughed as she followed Heather from the room and the two joined Aidan, Ethan, Brodie, and Ed in the living room.
2
In the original manuscript, these two scenes appeared right after Scott Henderson and Alena Moreno called Seth while he was talking with David about having kissed Dana in Chris Reordon’s boardroom while testing her to see if she could discern Aidan from a shape-shifting imposter. I posted them in my Street Team and in my Dianne Duvall Books Group on Facebook as a bonus scene, but many outside the groups have never seen them.
Dana smiled as she strolled down the hallway toward the room she and Aidan shared at David’s.
They had both been pretty wired after the fight with Seth—or rather with Gershom—so they hadn’t been able to sleep. Not until David had informed everyone in the house that there would be no hunting that night.
She and Aidan had eaten dinner with the other immortals and their Seconds. Afterward, they had retired to their room, made love, and finally succumbed to slumber.
When Dana had awoken with a hearty appetite and thirst a good ten hours later, she had found Aidan still sleeping deeply. So she had decided to brave the unknown and see if she couldn’t scare up another sandwich in the kitchen for brunch.
She had instead ended up sharing several pizzas and laughs with Sheldon, Tracy, Ed, Brodie, and Darnell, David’s Second, as well as two elder immortals named Chaak and Imhotep, who had remained awake to guard them all.
The more she encountered immortals and their Seconds, the more she relaxed and viewed them as a great big, happy family. They seemed so normal. Even the immortals. Not at all what she had expected from a houseful of extraordinary beings who had lived hundreds—if not thousands—of years and wielded so much power they could take over the world should they desire to do so.