up a palm. “I didn’t hurt him. I’m a powerful healer and kept my hand on his shoulder the entire time, healing the damage the sun wrought so quickly that he didn’t feel it.”
She frowned. “You can do that?”
“Yes. I tried it first on Ethan, an immortal who is only a century old and can tolerate very little sun exposure, to confirm it would work.”
She stared at him. “So Cliff was able to stand in sunlight without it hurting him?”
Aidan smiled. “Yes. And we discovered that sunlight silences the voices as effectively as you do.”
Hope welled. “So he’s better now?”
“He’s better.”
Relief left her light-headed. Smiling, she reached out and took one of his hands. “Thank you.” That had been incredibly thoughtful. And it was a relief to know they had someone else in their corner who could help them find new ways to help Cliff.
“I was happy to do it,” he replied as if he’d done something far simpler, like let Cliff borrow his car.
“Do you think, if it gets bad again,” she asked hesitantly, “that maybe you could do it again?” Wasn’t healing the wounds of others painful for immortals?
Aidan patted her hand. “I’ve already told Cliff I’ll take him into the sunlight every day he continues to fight.” That was a hell of a thing to offer.
She clutched his hand. “Really? You would do that for him?”
“Of course. He’s my friend.”
“But doesn’t it hurt?” she asked. “I thought immortals healed others by absorbing the damage into their own bodies.”
Aidan shrugged. “I told Cliff it’s a mild discomfort at most.”
She smiled wryly, seeing through the lie. “It hurt like hell, didn’t it?”
He laughed. “Yes. The longer we stood in the sunlight, the worse the pain grew. But I can tolerate it for Cliff. He’s a good man, well worth saving.”
“I wouldn’t love him if he weren’t,” she professed with a sad smile. “Did you know he saved my life?”
Aidan shook his head, his face lighting with surprise. “No.”
“I work the day shift now but used to work nights at the network. And I was there when mercenaries bombed the original network headquarters just before dawn. I worked on sublevel 1. Part of the ground floor collapsed before I could evacuate. Something hit me on the head and knocked me unconscious. And when I woke up, I was buried beneath the rubble and couldn’t move.” She shook her head. “I didn’t even have a chance to call for help before the concrete and whatever else was piled on top of me began to shift and groan as someone lifted it away. The next thing I knew, Cliff was staring down at me, his eyes glowing bright amber while he told me not to be afraid, that he was there to help me.”
“Did you know he was a vampire?” Aidan asked curiously.
“Not with certainty.” He’d been covered in dust and debris that made him look different enough from the man in the photo Cynthia had shown her that Emma hadn’t been sure it was him until Melanie confirmed it after Cliff handed Emma over to her. “But I had heard that one of the vampires housed on sublevel 5 was a brother. And I figured he wouldn’t keep telling me not to be afraid if he were an immortal.” She remembered the mercenaries dropping down through jagged holes in the ceiling as Cliff spirited her away. “I wouldn’t have made it out of the building alive if Cliff hadn’t saved me.”
“So that’s how you two met.”
She grinned. “Yes, but he doesn’t remember it. I was pretty unrecognizable when he found me.” She opted not to mention the torture he’d endured shortly thereafter that had deprived him of the memory.
Aidan drew a piece of paper from his front pocket and handed it to her along with a small box.
“What’s this?” she asked as she took them.
“Cliff asked me to speak with you.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“He’s worried he’s going to hurt you.”
“He won’t,” she countered. “I’ve already told him he won’t hurt me. I’m sure of it. But he—”
Aidan held up a hand. “You didn’t see him yesterday, Emma. You didn’t hear his thoughts. And you’ve never seen a vampire who has completely succumbed to the madness and lost all knowledge of right and wrong.”
She shook her head. “Dr. Lipton told me that—even during psychotic breaks—the other vampires have never attacked her or Dr. Machen.”
“Melanie knows about you?”
“Yes. Bastien told her Cliff and I are lovers. And she came to see me, afraid I