“Of course not. But that isn’t—”
“It is the same thing,” he told her. “And the fact that you think the difference in our ages should bother me more than it does you is a clear indication that I haven’t learned as much as you think I have. Because I thought the opposite would be true.”
She bit her lip. “Our age difference really doesn’t bother you?”
He smiled. “The only thing that ever bothered me about it was the fear that you might declare me a decrepit old geezer when you found out.”
She laughed. “That is one thing you will never be, Aidan.”
He grinned.
Three thousand years. Sorrow filled her as she recalled something she’d learned the first time she had read his palm. “You’ve lived almost three thousand years and you’ve never married?”
He shrugged. “I never found a woman I felt comfortable sharing my differences with. Never found anyone I loved enough to risk it. Not until I met you.”
Her heart ached for him. “So you’ve been alone all this time?”
“I’ve had Seconds and my immortal brethren.”
It wasn’t enough.
Closing the distance between them, she brushed his hands aside so she could stand between his thighs, wrap her arms around him, and hold him close. “I’m so glad my name was on that list you stole.”
Releasing a contented sigh, he slid his arms around her and buried his face in the crook of her neck. “I am, too.”
Branches snapped and fallen leaves crackled beneath David’s big boots as he strode through dense forest.
The usual night sounds serenaded him. Insects buzzed. Frogs croaked and twanged, sounding alternately like growling belches and plucked guitar strings. Wings flapped far above him as an owl rode the breeze, seeking prey to fill its belly. And somewhere off to his left, a large opossum foraged through the brush.
The trees thinned ahead of David.
Stepping out of the forest, he crossed a paved road that no longer saw traffic. Two years of inactivity and no care had evoked quite a change in it. Weeds grew out of cracks in the pavement. Others thrived along the road’s edge, obscuring the border as they crept toward the road’s center, attempting to rendezvous with the weeds on the other side.
The twisted, rusted remains of a gate folded outward in a permanent bow, courtesy of the grenades that had blown it open.
David passed between the two sides, noting the No Trespassing sign each now boasted.
The signs themselves might not discourage curious ne’er-do-wells from exploring the former mercenary compound, but the network guards who monitored the place via hidden surveillance cameras would.
He walked past the remains of buildings that bore scorch marks and jagged holes between the vines that slithered up their walls. Broken windows watched like vacant eyes that revealed interiors damaged by the elements.
In the distance, a lone, dark figure stood in the center of a slab of blackened, weed-strewn asphalt that marked the place where an armory had once stood.
David had known he would find Seth there. The Immortal Guardians’ leader often came to this place of loss when he was troubled. And after the day he’d had, Seth no doubt needed a moment to gather his thoughts.
Head bowed, Seth said nothing when David joined him.
Minutes passed.
“Anything?” David asked softly, referring not to Seth’s hunt for Gershom but to what Seth sought every time he came here.
Seth shook his head. “Nothing.”
David had known it would be thus. The loss of Yuri and Stanislav had hit Seth hard.
It had hit them all hard.
But for Seth, the uncertainty—the not knowing absolutely what had happened to Stanislav, not seeing him fall, never encountering his spirit—had made the loss all the worse because Seth couldn’t quite abandon hope that Stanislav had somehow survived.
“How long to you intend to search for him?” David asked, no criticism in the question.
Seth turned his gaze to the decimated compound around them. “Until I know for certain he is gone.”
David offered no objection. “Gershom eluded you and Zach again.”
“Yes.”
Gershom was proving to be a far more formidable foe than they had anticipated, which made him wonder just how long the Other had been plotting and planning and building his strength.
Far longer than his brethren realized, it would seem.
“The Others tried to aid us in our pursuit,” Seth said.
David had hoped they would. Even the Others couldn’t ignore the chaos Gershom was breeding and wanted him brought to heel as much as the Immortal Guardians did.
“They followed the same pattern they did before,” Seth went on, “scattering themselves around the globe and teleporting from place to place, hoping they would land in Gershom’s general vicinity and be able to hold him until Zach and I could get there. But Gershom was expecting as much and used it against us.”
“How so?”
“He teleported to the Others’ home.”
Surprise gripped David. And very little surprised him after such a lengthy life. “He did? Were any of the Others still there?”
“One, who was caught off guard and easily defeated.”
“Defeated, but not killed?”
“Yes.”
At least Gershom hadn’t lost all his sanity.
“Gershom was already gone when Zach and I tracked him there. But there were so many energy trails leading from the place as a result of the Others teleporting out to try to help us that we couldn’t discern which one was his and lost him despite trying all damned day and most of tonight to locate him.”
“That was ingenious.”
“And unexpected. The Others have vowed they won’t make the same mistake again.”
“At least there is that.” But David knew such provided Seth with little solace.
“The bastard posed as me, David.”
“I know.”
“And he did it so well that even Ethan didn’t know it wasn’t me until Gershom made the mistake of harming Cliff.”
David nodded, finding the news beyond troubling. “He must have been studying you for years. Every movement. Every mannerism. Every inflection in your voice.”
“As étienne would say, that shit is creepy.”
David laughed. “Very much so.”
“I just wish I understood why he hates me so much,” Seth proclaimed with a sort of helpless bafflement.
“Perhaps Jared was right. Perhaps Gershom simply resents the fact that, while the Others have been merely observing life for thousands of years, you’ve been living it.”
“Well, if that’s the case, I wish to hell he had just defected like me and Zach.”
David shrugged. “Or perhaps he’s insane.”
“I’m not sure which would be worse.”
Frogs continued to croak and twang. Crickets chirped. Insects hummed.
“You need to talk to Aidan,” David offered softly.
“I know. I want him to get some rest first. He isn’t hunting tonight, is he?”
“No. He and Dana are both sleeping. And I ordered all the other immortals in the area to stand down and take the night off.”
“Good. You called a meeting?”
“Sunset.”