The Lasaran (Aldebarian Alliance #1) - Dianne Duvall Page 0,97
he pressed a kiss to her lips. “You will, dashura.”
She smiled.
Lisa stole another kiss before Taelon straightened.
He curled an arm around her and stroked the baby’s soft hair while he started discussing… she didn’t know what.
Lisa kept the smile plastered on her face as panic swelled within her.
“What is it?” Marcus asked, interrupting Taelon midsentence.
She glanced up and found him staring at her. “What?”
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Your heart is racing.”
Right. With his enhanced senses, he could hear it. Damn it.
Taelon and Ami went quiet, both watching her expectantly.
She swallowed nervously and held the baby a little closer. “I’m kinda freaking out.”
Concern furrowed Taelon’s brow as he tightened his arm around her. “Why? Have you changed your mind?”
“No. I just…” She shrugged, wondering how to explain it. “I haven’t been happy in so long that now that I’ve found you and have our baby and you’re promising to whisk me across the galaxy to a utopian planet where it sounds like we’ll have a great future…” She took a deep breath. “I’m terrified that something is going to go really wrong and take it all away. I lost my mom. I lost my dad. I lost my home. I don’t want to lose you, too, Taelon.”
“You won’t lose me. I—”
The door abruptly slammed open.
Lisa jumped, swung around, and gaped at the man who glared at them. He must be six feet, seven inches tall, only a tad shorter than Seth, and had skin as dark as midnight. Long, pencil-thin dreadlocks covered the top and one side of his head, trailing down his back to his hips. The hair on the other side was shorn close to his scalp in a fade with an elaborate design shaved into it. His eyes glowed an unearthly amber.
“David?” Ami asked hesitantly.
“What the hell is in my backyard?” he demanded in an accent Lisa thought was somewhere between British and Egyptian.
Seth abruptly appeared out of thin air beside him, a scowl on his face. “What is it?”
“We have company,” David growled.
Seth frowned, then looked toward the back of the house. “Friend or foe?”
“I don’t know.”
Two long swords appeared in Seth’s hands as he regarded the foursome. “Explain.”
Ami’s eyes widened. “Taelon. What did you do?”
Surprise, then chagrin swept across his features. “Oh. Right. When Lisa’s water broke, I, ah, summoned my ship.”
David shook his head. “I don’t see anything, but I hear an engine and heartbeats.”
“They mean you no harm,” Taelon quickly said. “I was uncertain of Seth’s healing abilities and thought having access to our med bay would be prudent.” His hand slipped down and pressed against Lisa’s lower back, urging her forward. “Come. I’ll show you.”
All crowded into the hallway.
As Lisa looked up at the men around her—every one of whom stood over six feet tall, had broad shoulders, and sported a lot of muscle—she felt downright tiny.
Something brushed her shoulder, and she turned to find Ami grinning at her. “They’re big, right?”
“Yes. Do they always wear black?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
“Killing vampires can be a messy business, and bloodstains aren’t as noticeable on black fabric.”
Lisa didn’t know what she found more disconcerting—that they spilled so much blood they had to wear special clothing to conceal it or that they had been doing that nightly for hundreds (if not thousands) of years without the rest of society knowing. In this day and age of electronic devices and social media, how the hell did they keep something like that secret?
“A carefully cultivated network of humans helps us,” Seth said.
She spun to stare up at him. “Are you reading my thoughts?”
“Yes.” He motioned to Taelon. “His, too. If I weren’t, there would be a hell of a lot more black-clad warriors in this hallway.”
This house did see an awful lot of Immortal Guardian traffic.
David escorted them out a back door and onto a wide covered porch.
A cool breeze ruffled her hair as stars sparkled in a cloudless night sky.
When the baby wiggled sleepily in her arms, she adjusted the blanket to cover more of her.
Silence engulfed them.
Too much silence.
She stilled. No crickets chirped. No frogs croaked. No owls hooted. No insects buzzed or hummed. No rodents or other creatures rustled around in the forest. It was as if she and the men and women with her were the only living things around for miles.
Creepy.
The night sky suddenly seemed to shimmer or ripple.
Frowning, she squinted, trying to decide whether she had imagined it.
The tall evergreen trees that encircled the clearing creaked as they uniformly leaned away from them.