Marcus scowled. “Are they okay?”
In the rare instances in which immortals fought each other, the elder immortal almost always emerged the victor.
“They each suffered a few deep gashes,” Seth disclosed. Gashes he supposed he should have healed for them, but he had been too pissed to think of that at the time.
“Why was Roland so upset?” Marcus asked, his voice reflecting puzzlement.
Sheldon nodded. “Yeah. Did Roland used to date Veronica or something?”
Seth almost laughed over that. Sarah was the first woman in whom Roland had shown an interest in centuries. “Veronica is his descendant.”
Every eye widened.
Sheldon looked at the faces around the table. “So she’s like his great-great-great-et-cetera-granddaughter?”
“Yes.” Seth shook his head. “Roland didn’t move to America a century ago just for the hell of it. Or to disappear, as some believe. He came because the bulk of his descendants migrated here. And a large portion of those now reside in North Carolina and surrounding states.” He motioned to Jenna. “Jenna is his descendant.”
Heather gaped at Jenna. “You are?”
She smiled. “Yes.”
“Veronica is Roland’s descendant, too,” Seth continued. “And when Chris stopped just short of telling us Aidan had killed her…”
Marcus swore. “Roland was understandably furious.”
Chris shook his head. “If Aidan is innocent and didn’t harm those women or—at the very least—abduct them, then why did he flee the meeting?”
Seth didn’t see much reason to withhold the information. “Aidan has been seeing a mortal woman. A gifted one by the name of Dana Pembroke. When he heard that the last six female gifted ones he’d met had disappeared shortly thereafter, he feared Dana was in danger and wanted to ensure she was safe.”
“Was she safe?” Brodie asked.
“Yes.”
Sheldon’s brow creased. “Why didn’t Aidan just teleport over there? Why drive?”
Seth glared at Chris. “Because Dana doesn’t know he’s immortal and can teleport. Or at least she didn’t until Roland followed Aidan to her home and outed him.”
Groans all around.
Chris frowned. “Aidan didn’t circle her name on the list.”
“No, he didn’t. Because he didn’t want you to fuck things up,” Seth ground out, “which you managed to do quite efficiently anyway. Roland attacked Aidan and was doing his damnedest to kill him—with glowing eyes and at preternatural speeds—when Sarah called me.”
Brodie slammed a fist down on the table. “Damn it, Reordon!”
Little Adira jumped. Cracking open sleepy eyes, she peered at the faces around the table, then snuggled back against her daddy’s chest and let slumber claim her once more.
Brodie sent Marcus and Ami an apologetic look, then glared at Chris. “Aidan has waited three thousand years to find a woman he loves, a gifted one who might love him enough to transform for him the way Sarah did for Roland. And when he finally finds her, or thinks he has, you go and fuck it all up?”
The anger and belligerence in Chris’s expression gave way to guilt.
Ami turned to Seth. “What about Dana? Is she okay?”
“Yes. But she Tasered Roland.”
Jaws dropped.
“That is awesome!” Sheldon declared.
Brodie grinned. “I knew it. She’s a fighter.”
Seth agreed. It had taken a hell of a lot of guts for her to grab that Taser and rush outside when she saw Roland and Aidan zipping around at preternatural speeds, trying to slay each other. “She’s understandably shaken up though. Angry. And afraid.” He shook his head. “We may have just blown Aidan’s shot at finding a woman he can spend the rest of his immortal life with by robbing him of the opportunity to share the reality of his existence with her and reveal the truth himself in his own time.”
Bastien swore. “Three thousand years alone and he’s going to miss out on love because Chris had his head up his ass?”
Seth shook his head “It’s not definite yet. He’s talking to her now.”
Chris frowned. “You left him alone with her?”
“Yes, Chris,” Seth gritted. “I left him alone with her to try to undo the damage you’ve wrought. And before you object, let me remind you that I’ve known Aidan for a hell of a long time. I made a colossal mistake two years ago when I falsely accused him of working against us—based on video footage you provided, I might add. I won’t make the same mistake twice without having more conclusive evidence than you’ve shown us tonight.”
Chris dragged both hands down his face. “Okay. You’re right. I fucked up.” Leaning forward, he braced his elbows on the table. “And I don’t mean in a small way. I mean in a huge, Sheldon kind of way.”
Sheldon sent him a disgruntled frown. “Come on, man.”
Everyone chuckled.
The tension in the room eased.
Chris flipped through the papers in front of him. “From this point on, I’ll pour more time and effort into considering the options I shoved aside because I believed Aidan was guilty.”
Seth nodded his approval. Chris was a good man, unafraid of admitting when he was wrong. He’d find a way to make amends.
Chris folded his hands on top of the papers and addressed them all. “Aidan swears the man in the videos isn’t him. And most of you want to believe that, so this won’t be a popular supposition, but what if it is him and he just doesn’t remember it? We all know Gershom is fond of mind control. What if Gershom has stepped up his game and, instead of using mortals, is now using Aidan as his puppet?”
Seth looked at David. “I think Aidan’s mind is too strong for that, don’t you?”
David nodded. “Yes. His mental barriers are nearly impenetrable. I don’t think Gershom could plant commands or tamper with Aidan’s memories without him knowing it.”
Seth looked to Zach.
“I agree,” Zach said. “I had to constantly enforce a command to sleep the one time I tried to read his mind. His mental barriers are, in fact, so strong that I failed to topple them. His nose and ears bled. And even though he slept through it all, he still knew when he awoke that someone had been in his head.”
Chris’s brow furrowed. “If Zach could command him to sleep, couldn’t Gershom command him to forget?”
“Theoretically,” Seth admitted. “I’ll try to convince Aidan to lower his barriers enough for me to look for signs of such. I believe he wouldn’t do so before because he didn’t want me to know about Dana. But now that I do…”
Melanie bit her lip. “Seth, even if Gershom did manipulate Aidan’s mind, I don’t know that you would find any evidence of it. In humans, you would see scar tissue and other signs of the damage that causes. But immortals have incredible regenerative capabilities. If Gershom planted commands in Aidan’s mind to make him abduct the gifted ones, then returned after the fact and erased those commands—along with all of Aidan’s memories of the events—the virus could conceivably have healed the scarring that would’ve resulted and left no traces of tampering in Aidan’s brain.”
David frowned. “So we can’t clear Aidan simply by reading his mind?”