Or blinded her to the truth, as Sean feared.

But Krysta didn’t think so. Vampires were insane. They were mentally off, and anyone who spent two minutes in their company knew it. Not once, all day, had any of the immortals she had met done anything to suggest they weren’t completely lucid. Not once had she felt threatened by them.

Nervous? Yes. Confused? Yes. In danger of being harmed by them? No.

“Who is David?” she asked as dark arboreal shadows in monstrous proportions whizzed past outside the window. The meeting to which they had all been summoned would be held at the home of someone named David, who seemed to live way out in the middle of nowhere.

Seated beside her, Etienne said, “David is the second eldest, most powerful immortal in existence.”

“How old is he?”

“I don’t know exactly and suspect he ceased counting centuries ago. Suffice it to say, he is old enough to have witnessed biblical events.”

Her neck popped as her head snapped in his direction. “What?”

Sean turned to look at them over his shoulder. “Are you saying he’s thousands of years old?”

“Yes.”

“Do vampires live that long?” Sean asked, mimicking her own thoughts.

“No. Vampires rarely live a century because of the madness that claims them. Either they kill each other in fits of rage, are hunted and killed by immortals, or grow careless and inadvertently bring about their own destruction.”

Krysta couldn’t even imagine living that long. She had suspected vampires didn’t live as long as movies and books often claimed they did. But immortals . . .

Living thousands of years? What was that like?

“You said second eldest,” she murmured. “Is the tall one I met earlier older?”

“Yes. And he’s only about an inch taller than David.”

Sean frowned at her. “You met another one?”

She nodded. “He must have been six foot seven or eight, and he positively oozed power.”

Sean shifted his gaze to Etienne. “Just what are these elders’ gifts?”

“Don’t answer that,” Cam said, catching Etienne’s gaze in the rearview mirror.

Krysta waited for Etienne to respond.

He remained silent, disappointing her, but she couldn’t fault him for it. Sean wasn’t exactly cooperating. Or he was, but had put up quite the verbal fight in an attempt to avoid this meeting. The idea of being sequestered in a home with over a dozen immortals was very unnerving.

So Krysta could see why Etienne might be reluctant to share more secrets without first securing Sean’s favor.

“We’re here,” Cam announced, turning onto a secluded drive and following it to a tall security gate. Heavy silence filled the car as he rolled down his window, reached out, and entered a security code she couldn’t see from her vantage point.

The majestic gates swung open on well-oiled hinges.

Dark trees towered over them, blocking out the moon, as the car crawled forward along a winding road that ended in a circular drive full of . . . hybrids and electric cars?

Sean peered through the window as Cam parked behind a shiny black Prius. “Are you guys, like, environmentalists or something?”

“All of our senses are heightened,” Etienne said, “not just our vision. Our sense of smell is more acute than a polar bear’s or an arctic fox’s. The pollution you barely notice that makes the air smell a little stale to you makes it smell to us as though we’re living downwind of a garbage dump on a hot summer’s day.”

Krysta grimaced. “That sucks.”

He nodded. “Particularly since most of us have lived long enough to remember what the world smelled like before the industrial revolution.”

Cam exited the car and pocketed the keys.

Etienne opened his door, stepped out, and circled around to open Krysta’s before she could reach for the handle.

She took the hand he gallantly offered and let him help her from the car.

Did she need the help?

Of course not.

Did she leap at the excuse to touch him?

Absolutely.

Sean joined them and slammed his door shut out of habit.

Etienne motioned toward the house. “Shall we?”

The door swung open at their approach.

Etienne nodded to Darnell, who greeted them all with a smile.

“Hi. You must be Krysta and Sean. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Darnell, David’s Second.”

Krysta and Sean each shook his hand.

“So you’re human?” Sean asked.

“Actually, I’m a gifted one like you two.”

That was news to Etienne. He had thought Darnell human.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to let me hold on to your cell phones while you’re here.”

Is that really necessary? Etienne asked him.

Darnell met Etienne’s gaze. Yes. We can’t risk them recording anything they see or hear. Chris also wants me to go over them with a metal detector.

Hell. Isn’t the fact that the mercenaries didn’t attack us at my place or at Sean’s job proof enough that they aren’t being tracked?

Not in Chris’s mind.

Paranoid bastard.

That paranoid bastard brought you reinforcements today.

I know, damn it. I’m just tired.

Darnell’s lips twitched as he stepped outside with them and held out his hand.

Krysta and Sean dropped their phones into it, their irritation obvious.

Darnell checked the phones to ensure they were turned off, then pocketed them. “I’ll return them to you when you leave.” He reached behind him and pulled a handheld metal detector from his back pocket.

Etienne sighed. “I apologize for this.”

Krysta did not look pleased. “So you expect me to trust you, even though you clearly don’t trust me?”

“I trust you,” Etienne assured her. He really did.

“If Etienne weren’t attracted to you, the rest of us would, too,” Darnell said, earning Etienne’s wrath. “But smitten immortals have trusted the wrong humans often enough in the past to make us wary under such circumstances.”

A frown creasing her brow, she held out her arms. “Smitten, huh?”

Etienne didn’t deny it.

Sean eyed the two with disapproval.

Darnell passed the wand over Krysta’s head and chest, then down one arm. It beeped.

Pursing her lips, Krysta rolled back the sleeve of the black shirt she had borrowed from Lisette and revealed a small, sheathed dagger she had strapped to her wrist.

Darnell moved on to the other arm without removing the weapon. Another beep. A dagger graced her other wrist as well. Two more beeps revealed more tucked into the waist of her pants.

Etienne raised a brow.

“Well,” she declared defensively, “what did you expect? Total trust? I haven’t known you for that long and am going on faith that you all are what you say you are and aren’t vampires.”

More beeps on her ankles. More weapons.

Darnell found the same on Sean. Etienne wasn’t sure why that surprised him. Krysta had said Sean had skills and Etienne had witnessed as much in her dream.

Darnell pocketed the wand. “Okay. We’re good.”

Krysta stared at him. “What?”

Sean looked at Etienne, then Darnell. “Aren’t you going to confiscate our weapons?”

“No,” they said simultaneously.

Etienne wanted them to feel safe and knew the weapons would lend them a sense of security.

The siblings shared a glance.

“Why not?” Krysta asked.

Darnell shrugged. “Immortals are stronger and faster than vampires. Your weapons are useless against the men and women here tonight.”

And there went the sense of security.

Really? Etienne asked him. You couldn’t have said you were letting them keep them as a gesture of faith or friendship?

No. I appreciated honesty when I stumbled into this world and assumed they would, too.

Etienne grunted, knowing he was right, but not wanting to admit it.

Krysta swallowed. “If you don’t care that we’re carrying weapons, what were you looking for with the metal detector?”

She was sharp. Etienne loved that.

Darnell shrugged. “More cell phones. Voice or video recorders. Anything you might use to capture the meeting digitally.”

And tracking devices. An overlooked tracking device had cost them lives in the past. They wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

Darnell entered the house and gestured for them to follow. “Welcome. And thank you for your cooperation.”

David’s home was large and spacious and tastefully decorated with modern furniture. Etienne had always felt at home here.

“Wow,” Krysta whispered to Sean. “This place is huge. Our whole house wouldn’t even fill this living room.”

David maintained an open-door policy, inviting all immortals, Seconds, and other members of the network to come and go as they pleased. Like Seth, he worked hard to create a family atmosphere. So his home saw a lot of traffic and needed to be big enough to handle it.

Several sofas graced the living room on the right, which bled into a dining room on the left. Etienne turned his attention there and saw that everyone else had already arrived. Everyone save Seth and David.

He guided Krysta toward a table that now seated twenty-eight. A leaf had been added to extend the table and accommodate the Immortal Guardians’ growing numbers.

Conversation ceased as all eyes watched their approach.

The chairs at the head and foot of the table were vacant, reserved for the eldest immortals. At the far end, Ami sat beside her eight-century-old husband Marcus. Ami looked rather pallid tonight. She must have heard about the mercenary attack and, having been the primary target of the last one, was understandably distressed by the news that the threat had resumed.

Roland, the notoriously antisocial, nine-hundred-plus-year-old immortal, sat beside Marcus. The two Brits had known each other for eight centuries and were like brothers. Roland’s wife Sarah, transformed only a couple of years earlier, occupied the seat beside him and leaned into his side.