Eyes glowing gold, Gershom burst into preternatural speed, racing up the sidewalk, swinging his swords every which way, felling one human after another after another and breeding pandemonium.
“You can’t win!” Gershom growled breathlessly. “I’ll always find a weakness!”
Once more, he teleported away.
Zach! Seth called.
Almost there, came his response. I’ve a few more to heal.
The screams continued.
Seth couldn’t wait for him. Jared, he called. Come to me now, and bring Chris.
Reaching out to every man, woman and child he could see, Seth seized control of their minds.
All motion ceased.
Running bodies stumbled to a halt.
Drivers braked.
Bicyclers slowed to a careful stop.
Horns sounded in the distance behind Seth as drivers farther back wondered what the holdup was.
He couldn’t worry about them right now.
Blank expressions cloaked the faces of every person present as Seth began the arduous task of burying each individual’s memory of what had just happened.
Chris Reordon and the faux General Gershom appeared at Seth’s elbow.
General Gershom shifted into the form of Jared, who swiftly replaced his uniform with Immortal Guardian standard blacks.
“Oh shit,” Chris whispered. “This is fucking worst-case scenario.”
“How can I help?” Jared murmured.
“It looks like Seth is taking care of everyone we can see,” Chris told him. “You need to catch all those we can’t see and bury whatever the hell they just saw.”
Zach appeared. Foul curses colored the air.
“Heal the injured,” Chris ordered, “beginning with the pregnant woman Seth is holding. Then see if you can catch Gershom.”
Zach knelt beside Seth and carefully pulled the bleeding woman from his arms.
“If anyone took pictures,” Chris told Jared, “or made a phone call or tweeted or otherwise spread the news, give me their names.”
“Okay.”
Seth worked as swiftly as possible. A hell of a lot of windows looked down on them. The longer it took them to clean this up, the more it would snowball.
Chris dialed a number.
“Yes, sir,” a man answered.
“There’s been an incident in Times Square. Mobilize four units and get them here ASAP.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Put the tech team on it and expunge every record of this.”
“Yes, sir.”
Chris dialed another number.
“Alena Moreno,” the head of the West Coast division answered.
“It’s Reordon. We have a situation,” he announced without preamble.
“Tell me what you need.”
Minutes passed as Chris made his calls, Seth and Jared buried memories, and Zach moved from body to body, healing the wounded.
Too many minutes.
And through it all, Seth’s anger simmered.
Damn Gershom for this.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The group that gathered around David’s table two nights later was a somber one.
No meeting had been called. Everyone had just felt the need to stay close. Not just to look after each other, but to be there for Seth.
They had succeeded in rescuing the gifted ones Gershom had abducted and removed all knowledge of them from the military, foiling his latest plan. But Gershom would be back. All knew it. And all now knew it would be even harder than anticipated to stop him. Because Seth and the immortals had a weakness he could exploit.
A weakness Gershom lacked.
They cared. About their brethren. About their Seconds and network family. About all humans and gifted ones.
Gershom would always be able to use that against them. And none knew how to guard against that.
Dana studied the men and women around the table.
Conversation flowed as plates filled with the scrumptious meal Dana wasn’t sure who had prepared for them. But the conversation was muted, reserved.
More leaves had been added to the long dining table along with more chairs. All the immortals in North Carolina were present, along with their Seconds. Cliff had come, too, she was pleased to see. And General Lane, who had abandoned his uniform in favor of civvies.
Melanie, Bastien, and Cliff sat on Dana’s right.
Aidan, Heather, and Ethan sat on her left.
Ethan had awoken shortly after the trucks carrying Dana and the other gifted ones from the military installation had arrived at network headquarters. He had been quiet and had spoken little when Heather, Aidan, Dana, Bastien, and Melanie gathered around him. And the words he had spoken had come slowly, sparking fear in those who loved him.
But after more blood infusions and a long healing sleep, he seemed to be his regular self again.
David presided at the head of the table.
Seth occupied the chair at the opposite end.
This was the first time Dana had seen Seth since Gershom had taken her.
Lisette and Zach sat at Seth’s right elbow, Jared beside them.
Apparently posing as General Gershom and having Seth pose as Marcus had been Jared’s idea. And his helping clean up the mess in Times Square had outed him to the Others. So he was bunking at David’s now.
Ami and Marcus sat on Seth’s left as usual. Adira sat in her mother’s lap, brow furrowed, two fingers in her mouth.
Aidan followed Dana’s gaze. I heard Marcus tell Roland that Adira is afraid to let her mother out of her sight now, he said softly in her mind.
I don’t blame her, Dana thought. Poor baby. Can’t they just bury her memory of what happened?
He shook his head. Seth is afraid burying the memory would do too much damage to her still-developing brain.
The front door opened. Chris Reordon strode in, his battered briefcase in hand.
All called greetings.
Tossing them a wave, he dropped his briefcase and hung his jacket up among the many black coats that adorned the long coatrack.
“Join us for dinner?” David asked.
Chris responded with a weary smile. “Thanks. I’d love to.” Shadows darkened the skin beneath his eyes. Had he slept at all since Times Square?
While Darnell grabbed another chair and pulled it up to the table, Sheldon retrieved a plate, heaped it full of food, and deposited it in front of Chris.
Thanking him, Chris tucked into his meal with a gusto that made Dana wonder when the man had last eaten a hot meal.
“So?” David said.
Chris swallowed a mouthful. “Times Square has been taken care of. Alena Moreno and Scott Henderson had their tech teams pitch in and handle everything that popped up on the internet while we handled phone calls and everything on the ground.”
Dana stared at him. “So no one knows?”
“No one knows,” Chris confirmed, taking another bite.
“That’s amazing.”
Chris shook his head and motioned to Seth. “What he did was amazing. No way would we have been able to contain something this big if he hadn’t brought everything to a screeching halt and bought us time.”
Seth seemed less than impressed with the feat he had performed. “Gershom still got away.”