“How did you know?” she asked finally.
Smart woman. “Cliff is like a brother to me,” he told her. “He knows me better than anyone other than my wife. And I know him just as well. He’s been keeping something from me for some time now. I could tell but didn’t press him. I thought, perhaps, he was shielding me from some of what he’s been suffering as the madness progresses.”
Her lashes lowered as she looked down at her bare feet.
“Then I started taking him hunting with me to give him an outlet for the aggression,” Bastien continued, “and the first night I let him roam freely… he returned carrying a woman’s scent. Your scent. And he’s done so again every night I’ve left him to his own devices.”
A muscle in her jaw twitched as she looked up at him. “If you’re here to tell me not to see him anymore, you can—”
“That’s not why I’m here,” he said, interrupting what he suspected would have been a tirade that would likely end with her telling him to go fuck himself. Cliff had chosen well. This woman would fight to remain by his side. “I’m here because…” Damn, he hated to be the bearer of bad news. “There was an incident this morning at the network.”
She straightened, her arms falling to her sides. All defensiveness fled, replaced by fear. “What happened?”
“Dr. Linda Machen caught Dr. Whetsman trying to smuggle vials of the sedative out of the building and tried to stop him. Whetsman shot her. And when Cliff smelled her blood on him… he suffered a psychotic break.”
All the strength seemed to leave her knees. Reaching out blindly, she grabbed a table just inside the door that bore a purse and keys and leaned on it. She swallowed hard. Tears welled in her eyes. “Is he…? Did you…?”
“No,” Bastien hastened to assure her. “I didn’t kill him.” Cliff must have told her about Vince. When Vince’s madness had driven him to ask Bastien to end it, Bastien had decapitated him. And still relived that horrid moment in his dreams. “Cliff is alive… I’m sorry. I don’t know your name.” He wouldn’t have known her address if he hadn’t followed Cliff here one night.
“Emma.” Tears spilled over her lashes as her chest rose and fell with harsh breaths taken to hold back sobs. “I thought you were going to tell me…” Shaking her head, she swiped at her tears. “He’s okay then?”
Bastien touched one soft shoulder and guided her over to the sofa. “Let’s sit down first, shall we?”
Nodding, she sank down on the soft cushions.
Bastien retrieved a wingback chair from one corner and plunked it down across from her so he could face her. “He was injured. The guards at the network didn’t know at the time that Linda had been harmed or that Whetsman had betrayed us. They just thought Cliff had lost it and… Well…” He sighed. “Cliff took a lot of bullets. Even so, he had to be tranqed twice before he finally lost consciousness. Several guards were injured in the skirmish, and Cliff really fucked Whetsman up.”
“Did Cliff kill him?”
“No. But he came damn close to it, trying to find out what had happened to Linda.”
Emma grabbed a tissue from a box on the coffee table and dabbed her eyes. “Is Dr. Machen okay?”
“Yes. A fellow immortal healed her, so she is completely recovered.”
“And Cliff?” The agony in her expression tightened his chest. This woman loved Cliff. “Did anyone see to his wounds?”
Anger welled within him. “Not until Zach arrived on the scene.”
She frowned. “Zach. He’s the ancient immortal who just joined your ranks, isn’t he? The one who is almost as powerful as Seth?”
“Yes. I think Cliff is one of the few people Zach likes. He admires Cliff’s strength, determination, and perseverance. As soon as he heard what happened, he teleported Melanie and me to network headquarters to check on Cliff. And while Melanie gave Cliff blood to replenish what he had lost, Zach read Cliff’s and Whetsman’s minds and pieced together what had transpired. Cliff’s wounds have healed. But it may be a while before he regains consciousness.”
She sat quietly, processing it all. “What will they do to him? Is he being restrained?”
“No. Not anymore. He’s resting in his apartment. Melanie is with him now. I just thought you would want to know what had happened, particularly since I don’t know how Chris Reordon will proceed after this. Have you and Cliff been having lunch together in the network’s cafeteria?”
She nodded.
“I thought so. Thank you for that. Cliff told me when Reordon gave him permission to dine in the cafeteria, the tables around him tended to clear out as soon as he sat down.”
She gave him a weak smile. “Not entirely. Some stayed. But they all stared at him and watched him like they would a wild animal poised to attack.”
Cliff had said something similar. It infuriated Bastien. “He also told me he was pretty uncomfortable until an employee approached him and asked to sit with him. That was you?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you do it?”
She was quiet for a moment. “The night the mercenaries attacked network headquarters, Cliff saved my life. I was trapped on Sublevel 1, buried beneath… I don’t remember what, just that it was too heavy to move. Cliff heard my heartbeat, lifted everything off me, and got me out of there just as the mercenaries hit that floor. Had he not come when he did, the mercenaries would have found me.”
And those mercenaries had been ruthless. They would have tortured her for any information they could drag out of her if they had gotten their hands on her.
“Did he remember you when you met again?” Bastien asked. The torture Cliff had endured at the hands of the mercenaries had robbed him of most of his memories of the attack.
She smiled. “No. But I sure as hell remembered him. And when I saw some of the other employees skitter away from him that day in the cafeteria, I was furious. He didn’t deserve that. He doesn’t deserve that.”
“So you asked if you could join him.”
“Yes. And we’ve had lunch together every day I’ve worked since.”
Bastien sighed. “Well, I didn’t want you to be left wondering when Cliff didn’t show up tonight. Or tomorrow for your lunch. Or the day after that. I fear Reordon may restrict Cliff to Sublevel 5 from now on. Chris tends to not react well to his men being injured. I’m not even sure Seth will allow me to take Cliff hunting at night.”
Emma’s look turned pensive. “How will I see him?”
“I don’t know. I’m not even sure what frame of mind Cliff will be in when he awakens.”
Tears rose in her eyes once more, but she refused to let them fall. “He’ll come back from this,” she stated firmly. “I know he will.”
“I hope so, Emma.”
She nodded.
Bastien studied her a moment, his heart going out to her. “You do understand how this will likely end, don’t you?” he asked her gently. “Melanie and the other doctors at the network have found no way to halt the progression of the brain damage. And even healers as powerful as Seth and David can do no more than slow it minutely. Unless Melanie stumbles upon a miracle cure in the next year or so, the madness will claim Cliff.”