Tessa’s heart beat harder as her energy faltered, but she didn’t stop, pouring everything she had into the ground beneath her. Tears spilled over her lashes and trailed down her cheeks. The warmth her gift always generated slipped away, leaving her cold and spent.
Exhaustion replaced it, so intense that her head hung low.
Her elbows buckled. Tessa toppled sideways.
Strong arms caught her before her head could hit the ground.
Her eyelids growing heavier by the second, she looked up and caught the concern that darkened Jared’s expression as he drew her against his chest.
Sighing, she closed her eyes.
Perhaps now she could finally seek oblivion in sleep.
Chapter Seven
Inside a holding room on sublevel five of network headquarters, Seth frowned down at the vampire Nicole had tranqed. Gary was a mere twenty-two years old. Seth would pity him for the future that awaited him if the boy hadn’t already had a history of violence before he’d transformed.
Having gleaned everything he could from perusing the young vampire’s twisted mind, Seth touched a hand to Gary’s chest. The heart housed within it ceased beating. A moment later, the vampire’s body began to shrivel up. It was a painless death. More than the boy deserved after the suffering he had spawned in his victims. Gary had killed none of them, per Gershom’s orders, but he had delighted in hurting and terrifying them.
Seth’s lip curled with disgust. “Coward.” The vampire had enjoyed picking fights with humans who were significantly weaker than he was, yet he hadn’t hesitated to run when faced with the prospect of battling an Immortal Guardian who could match his strength.
Typical bully.
Turning, Seth opened the heavy door to the hallway. Sound flooded in, his enhanced hearing carrying it to him from every floor of the building. Reordon had thought it best to soundproof this holding room to keep vampires they couldn’t persuade to join them from listening to the inner workings of the organization.
Normally, Seth wouldn’t consider that an issue. Any vampires who didn’t join them met the same fate Reed and Gary had. Since they couldn’t be saved, a quick, merciful death seemed the only way to ensure they wouldn’t harm or kill anyone else. So there was little chance the vampires would escape and share knowledge of the network with others. But there had been too many How the hell could this have happened? incidences in recent years. And Reordon liked to cover all bases.
Leaving the door to the holding room open, Seth headed up the long hallway. Perhaps he would pay each of the slumbering vampires who lived at network quarters a visit first and see what damage he could heal in their deteriorating young minds before leaving. Once the madness began to kick in, the vampires who sought refuge here became increasingly uncomfortable around the powerful Immortal Guardian leader because they knew he could see and hear every twisted thought and impulse they did their damnedest to suppress. So he often did it without their knowledge.
Seth was just about to visit Stuart, who seemed to struggle the most, when the elevator doors at the end of the hallway opened.
Jared emerged, an unconscious woman cradled in his arms.
“Oh shit,” Todd blurted. “What happened?”
“Tessa’s all right,” Jared murmured. “She’s just sleeping.” But his eyes, when they met Seth’s, said otherwise.
Seth met him at the door to Tessa’s room and opened it. Once Jared carried the newly turned immortal inside, Seth entered and closed the door behind them. “What happened?”
Jared crossed the living room and entered her bedroom. “Are all the vampires sleeping?”
Seth listened for sounds of movement in the neighboring apartments, found none, and searched each vampire’s mind. “Yes.”
“What of the immortals?” Jared placed Tessa on her bed.
“Melanie and Bastien won’t return until tonight. And Jordan and Liora are both asleep.”
Straightening, Jared headed into the adjoining bathroom.
A cabinet opened, and water ran as Seth studied the young woman on the bed.
Dark circles painted the skin beneath her eyes. As long as Immortal Guardians transfused themselves often enough with the network’s donated blood, they could go days—even weeks—without sleep before they manifested any physical symptoms of fatigue. And yet Tessa resembled a human who suffered from sleep deprivation.
His gaze traveled over her. She wore no shoes or socks. Dark soil coated her fingers and thumbs as though she had been digging in the dirt.
Jared returned with a dry towel in one hand and a wet one in the other.
While Seth watched in bemusement, Jared gently bathed the dirt from her hands.
“What happened?” Seth asked again. He could easily pull the information from Tessa’s thoughts but refused to do so. Gershom had toyed with her mind enough. Seth wouldn’t betray her trust by invading it without permission.
“She can’t sleep,” Jared murmured. “Tessa has suffered insomnia on and off throughout her brief life, and becoming immortal doesn’t seem to have remedied it.”
“She told you that?”
The Other shook his head. “I heard her tell Stuart once when she joined him for an afternoon run on the treadmills.”
Sometimes the vampires ran themselves into exhaustion on the network’s specially designed treadmills—not an easy thing to do when one has their strength and stamina—in an attempt to suppress the violent impulses spawned by the madness.
“Grief for her brother seems to have compounded it,” Jared added.
Seth frowned. “You haven’t been combing through her thoughts, have you?”
Jared looked at him from the corner of his eye as he dried Tessa’s hands. “Only once. Today.”
Anger rose. “Damn it, Jared—”
“I know.” His brows drawing down in a scowl, Jared ceased his ministrations and faced him. “After what she’s been through, it was a betrayal of her trust. But I was worried.”
Seth’s anger evaporated, replaced by surprise.
Drawing a hand over his short hair, Jared sighed with apparent frustration. “Tessa wanted to go outside. Something about fresh air helping her sleep. Chris asked me to accompany her. I could feel his concern and…” He shook his head. “If you had seen her, Seth… the grief she wrestled with as she stared at that field…” He paced away from the bed and back. “For a moment, I shared Chris’s fear that she would walk into the sun and try to end it.”
“Chris said that? That he thought she might—”
“No. I read it in his thoughts.”
Seth frowned again. “If Chris finds out you ramble around in his head without him knowing, he’s going to kick your ass.” The last thing he needed was for those two to butt heads. This was the first period of peace the Immortal Guardians had enjoyed in some time. They had battled one enemy uprising after another for several years now. And they could all use a break.
Unconcerned by the warning, Jared stared down at Tessa. “We were sitting at one of the picnic benches. When she rose and walked toward the sunlight, I grew concerned and delved into her thoughts.” He met Seth’s gaze. “Grief for her brother is eating her up inside.”