Even when he shifted his gaze to meet hers, she wasn’t sure he really saw her.
“Calm him,” Seth said suddenly. “We need his help.” His hand still on Emma’s shoulder, Seth reached out with the other and grabbed Cliff.
Dizzying darkness swirled around her once more. Then they stood in Mr. Reordon’s swanky boardroom. But this time they weren’t alone.
At the opposite end, Mr. Reordon hovered over a laptop while he spoke rapidly into a cell phone. The immortal Zach was there, too, along with an older man in military fatigues.
Emma had seen Zach around network headquarters a few times in recent months. The gray-haired soldier seemed oddly familiar, like someone she’d seen on the news or something. Wasn’t he a general?
Yes! General Lane.
Seth released them and moved toward the others.
A thunk drew her gaze to the floor. Cliff had dropped the coffee table leg.
When she looked up, his gaze was fastened on her face. He said nothing, breath still coming in harsh gasps. He just stared at her as though he wasn’t sure she was really there.
Reaching out, she slipped her hand into his and twined their fingers together, willing him to know her, to find his way back to her.
He held on tight, the battle he waged palpable.
Her throat thickened.
“I have Scott Henderson on the line,” Mr. Reordon announced. “He’ll have special-ops teams en route in two minutes. My own team is assembling in the hangar.”
“Excellent,” Seth said.
General Lane cast Cliff a wary look before addressing Seth. “My team is on standby if you need them.”
“Thank you.” Seth returned and stood nearly nose-to-nose with Cliff, demanding his attention. “Bastien, Melanie, and the others are being held in a military facility defended by mercenaries.”
Emma tensed. Oh shit.
“We’re about to descend upon it en force. General Lane believes the alarm will trigger fail-safes or booby traps installed in the base to prevent anyone who succeeds in infiltrating it from leaving alive. I need you to help us pinpoint those fail-safes before we trigger them so we won’t lose anyone.”
Her stomach sank.
A muscle twitched in Cliff’s tight jaw before he issued a nod. “I won’t let you down.”
Absolute terror filled her. As soon as Seth turned away, she tugged Cliff over to a corner. Releasing his hand, she cupped his face in both hands and met his glowing gaze, relieved to find it less wild and more lucid. “Honey,” she whispered urgently, “I don’t know what’s happening, but—”
“Gershom took them,” he said, his voice retaining a hint of the roughness that had rendered it unrecognizable earlier. “He captured them all. Bastien, Melanie, Aidan, and every other immortal stationed in North Carolina. He even took Seth’s daughter and granddaughter.”
Shock stole her breath. “What? How?”
“I don’t know. I can’t…” His face tight with frustration, he reached up and fisted a hand in his hair. “I can’t think straight today.”
Releasing him, she gently took both his hands in hers to keep him from pulling his dreadlocks.
“I think I had a break earlier,” he said. “I blacked out. And when I woke up, I was locked in my apartment and everything was trashed.” He shook his head. “There were so many voices. Not just the ones in my head telling me to kill everyone…”
Her blood chilled.
“But others. It was the medical staff in the infirmary. When Gershom captured the immortals, he also injured all of their Seconds. So badly they suffered brain damage. I heard Seth tell Linda that Bastien and the others had been taken. I wanted to help. I wanted to help find them. But no one would let me out. They wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t let me out. And…” He gripped her hands so tightly it almost hurt. “I-I-I think I lost it. Then you and Seth were there.”
Grim-faced Immortal Guardians decked out in black and armed for war began to fill the boardroom, but Emma kept her gaze on Cliff. “Honey, I know you want to help, but—”
“I have to help them,” he told her earnestly.
“No. You don’t.” It sounded like he’d already had two psychotic breaks today, another terrifying first. If he went into battle in his current state of mind—
“Yes, I do,” he insisted.
And something in his voice made her fall quiet.
His Adam’s apple rose and fell with a hard swallow. Moisture filled his amber eyes. “I fucked up,” he choked out.
She stared up at him. “What?”
Again he swallowed. “Last night I nearly killed one of the missing female immortals Seth has been searching for.”