Cliff still wasn’t sure how Seth did that.
“I probably would’ve tried to leave anyway,” Bastien admitted. “As Melanie is so fond of saying, I’m hardheaded.”
Cliff laughed. “I have heard her say that a time or two.” More like twenty. “So why didn’t you?”
“Leave?”
He nodded.
“Because of you. I wanted to stick around and make sure they were really trying to help you and not just using you as a lab rat.” Noting Cliff’s surprise, he shrugged. “You were my best friend. My brother. I know I’m about as warmhearted as Warbrook, but I hadn’t been close to anyone since I lost my sister and Blaise.” Two centuries earlier.
“Then you met Melanie.”
“And saw how much she cared about you, how desperately she wanted to help you, and…”
“Fell in love?”
“Yes. I still would’ve left though. I figured if I stayed, I would only bring her trouble and grief. But I couldn’t bring myself to leave you.”
That confession, offered freely from the Immortal Guardian black sheep, made Cliff choke up a little. “Thanks, man. That means a lot.” It really did. Cliff loved Bastien like he would a brother if he had one.
Bastien’s lips turned up a little at the corners. “You’re the only family I have.”
A woman appeared in front of them. She didn’t race up at preternatural speeds. She just… faded into view only a few feet away.
Cliff jumped, then gaped.
She was beautiful. As petite as Melanie, she had pale, porcelain skin, long dark hair, and a fragile look about her. She also wore a dress that looked like something you’d see in the eighteenth century.
A man, decked out in black, appeared beside her. And though Cliff had only seen him once, he was pretty sure it was Yuri, an elder Russian immortal who had been slain in battle by vampires and mercenaries a couple of years earlier.
“The only family you have?” the woman parroted with a British accent. Crossing her arms, she arched a brow in challenge. “And what am I?”
Bastien grinned. “I didn’t know you were with me all those years.” Turning, to Cliff, he motioned to the woman. “This is my sister Catherine.”
Cliff’s jaw dropped.
Catherine smiled and offered her hand. “Please call me Cat.”
Cliff glanced at Bastien as he reached for her hand. “I thought your sister was…” A tingle raced up his arm when his hand passed right through hers. He stared. “…dead.”
Cat wrinkled her nose as she withdrew her hand. “Blast it. I keep forgetting. I’m new to this whole interacting-with-the-living thing.”
Laughing, Yuri wrapped an arm around her. “That’s all right, love. I’m never sure if Stan can see me outside of dreams until I startle the hell out of him.”
Bastien laughed.
Cliff turned to him. “What’s… happening here?”
Bastien smiled, clearly enjoying his friend’s consternation. “Like I said, Cat is my sister.”
Cliff glanced at her from the corner of his eye and lowered his voice. “The one you thought Roland killed?”
“Yes.”
Cat nodded. “But it wasn’t Roland. It was Blaise, my husband.”
“Former husband,” Yuri added in a growl.
She grinned. “Yes. My former husband, whom we have now made our bitch.”
Again Cliff gaped.
Bastien chuckled and shook his head. “You love saying that, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do.” She grinned unrepentantly. “I had to be proper my entire mortal life and was miserable because of it. Now I finally have the freedom to be improper.”
Yuri grinned. “You do all kinds of improper things with me.”
She winked up at him. “And enjoy every moment of it.”
Bastien grimaced. “Damn it, Yuri. She’s my sister.”
Cliff laughed.
Cat began to fade, her form turning translucent. Glancing down, she frowned. “Bollocks! We’re fading already?”
Yuri pressed a kiss to her hair. “We’re new to this, love. We only recently gained the ability to show ourselves to mortals and immortals who don’t usually see ghosts. We’ll get better at it with practice.”
Smiling, she kissed his cheek, then turned to Cliff. “I just wanted to pop in and thank you, Cliff, for everything you’ve done for my brother.”
Cliff shook his head. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Oh, but you did. You were there for him when I couldn’t be. You were his friend, his brother, when he had no one. And you saw in him what so many others refused to. I will always be grateful to you for that. Congratulations on your nuptials. I hope you and Emma will have many, many years of happiness together.”
“Thank you,” Cliff blurted just before she disappeared. After a moment, he looked at Bastien. “That was weird.”
He laughed. “You’ll get used to it.”
“It wasn’t just the seeing-a-ghost thing. It was her thanking me when I should be thanking you.”
Bastien snorted. “For what? Making you listen to all my drama with Melanie?”
Cliff laughed. “No. That was actually pretty entertaining.” He sobered. “But seriously. Thank you for saving me. If you hadn’t taken me under your wing when I was newly transformed…” He shook his head. “I shudder to think what would’ve become of me.”
“One of the immortals would’ve eventually found you and brought you to the network.”
“No, they wouldn’t. The other immortals would’ve just killed me when they encountered me. They didn’t start trying to recruit vampires until you guilted them into it.”
Bastien studied him a moment, then nodded. “I guess we saved each other then.” He offered Cliff his hand.
Cliff shook it.
A thud sounded, then Bastien stumbled forward, bumping into Cliff.
Cliff hastily steadied him. “You okay? What the hell was that?”
Bastien laughed. “I believe that was either my sister or Yuri telling me to loosen up and hug you.”
Cliff laughed. “I think I’m going to like seeing ghosts.”
Bastien drew Cliff into a bear hug. “Congratulations, brother,” he murmured, then backed away.
“Thanks.”
Cliff’s dad walked up to them, his eyes wide. He wore a black suit identical to Cliff’s, his form as trim and broad-shouldered as always. And damn it was good to be around him again. Even when he looked poleaxed like he did right now.
“Hey, Dad.”
Bastien nodded. “James.”
His dad’s wide eyes met Cliff’s, shifted to Bastien, then back to Cliff. “What the hell was that?”
Bastien smiled, his expression all innocence. “I was just congratulating Cliff with a hug.”
James sent him a reproving look. “Not that. The see-through woman who was standing here a minute ago and looked like she’d just stepped off the cover of a historical romance novel.”
Cliff looked at Bastien, uncertain what to say.
“Ah,” his friend said. “That was my sister… who wasn’t supposed to show herself today.”