Night Reigns by Dianne Duvall Page B

reminded Seth, his own anger rising. “What did you think I would do? Ask her if I could braid her hair after we gave each other facials and painted our toenails?”
    “Get your head out of your ass, Marcus!” Seth roared.
    “Did it ever occur to you that I may have had a reason for assigning Ami to be your Second? That, perhaps, my sole motivation for doing so was not simply to piss you off or enforce a rule I have allowed you to break—without complaint—for the past three decades?”
    “No,” he answered frankly. “What other reason could there be?”
    Again came the feeling that Seth counted to ten, except this time he also muttered something in a language Marcus couldn’t identify.
    When next he spoke, Seth softened his words. “It has been eight years, my friend.”
    Marcus gritted his teeth against a rising tide of resentment, because he could guess where this was going.
    “I know that, for centuries, Bethany was a sort of beacon for you, a candle that held back the darkness, giving you a reason to keep going and to soldier on despite the loneliness so many of us feel. But she is gone. And, this time, she will not be coming back.” Seth really knew how to twist the blade in deeper. “I have given you eight years, have waited for some sign that you are recovering, that you have found some new purpose and are ready to move on. Instead ... you are faltering.”
    “I’m fine,” Marcus bit out.
    “No, you’re not. You’re faltering. So much so that even Roland is concerned about you.”
    That actually gave Marcus pause. Roland was worried about him?
    A century older, Roland Warbrook had been the immortal chosen to train and guide Marcus during those first few years after he had been transformed. He was like a brother to Marcus. A grumpy, antisocial, paranoid older brother few liked. One who, until he had met and married Sarah Bingham a year and a half ago, had insisted on living the past nine centuries in complete solitude.
    Marcus had never known Roland to take an interest in another immortal’s affairs, including his own. “What makes you think he’s worried about me?” he asked doubtfully.
    Seth rolled his eyes. “Gee, I don’t know. Because he told me? We’re all worried about you, Marcus! Roland, Sarah, David, Darnell, Lisette, Étienne, Richart, Reordon ... We’ve all noticed the changes in you, the risks you take now that you didn’t before.”
    “What risks?”
    Seth motioned to the totaled Hayabusa.
    Marcus snorted. “David goes way faster than I do.”
    “And David can reattach his own arm if it is severed.”
    Shock tripped through him. “Really? I thought he needed you to do that.” David was more powerful than Marcus had thought.
    “Don’t change the subject. You know the unique situation we’re facing here. Ever since word leaked that Sebastien was raising a vampire army to bring down the Immortal Guardians, North Carolina has been inundated with them. Instead of facing one or two vamps per night, you’re encountering three or four or more—sometimes in groups—and, instead of phoning for backup, you take them all on yourself.”
    “So I like a challenge.”
    Seth shook his head. “One should never only feel alive when one is faced with the possibility of death.”
    Damn. How did Seth read him so well? “I’m fine,” he insisted once more, not knowing why he still pushed the lie. He hadn’t felt fine in a long time.
    “You are not fine. But you will be. Even if I have to kick your ass every night to get you there.”
    “How is kicking my ass going to help?” Marcus grouched.
    Seth shrugged. “Makes me feel better.”
    Marcus responded with an obscene gesture. “So, you thought assigning me a Second would miraculously make everything okay?”
    Seth raised one eyebrow. “How often have you thought of Bethany during the past five days?”
    Marcus opened his mouth to spout often, then hesitated. With a great deal of astonishment, he realized that until Ami had