“Of female gifted ones? Yes, I know about it.”
Hell. “How do you know about it?” he asked. Only a handful of immortals knew Aidan had inspired Chris’s wrath and come damned close to being executed by Seth, the Immortal Guardians’ leader, for breaking into network headquarters and stealing a list of female gifted ones in the area.
Gifted ones were men and women like himself who had been born with advanced DNA, the source of which they still didn’t know. Only gifted ones could be transformed by the virus without descending into insanity. And, after nearly three thousand years of loneliness, Aidan had defied Seth and acquired the list so he could arrange chance meetings with the women in hopes of hitting it off with one and—at long last—finding someone who would love him enough to transform and spend the rest of eternity with him.
Again she smiled. “Dawn gushed over you for days after she got a flat tire on the way home from work and you miraculously showed up to change it for her. Then Kimberly got a flat tire and”—she grinned—“a certain Celtic immortal appeared like a knight in shining armor and took care of it.”
He grimaced. Perhaps flattening the women’s tires, then gallantly showing up to aid them hadn’t been the wisest way to arrange a chance encounter. But the odd hours he kept made it hard for him to bump into them at the grocery store. “You’re saying I need a new MO.”
She laughed. “Yes, you do. But don’t worry. I think I’m the only one who has put two and two together. And I only guessed it because I happen to know that they’re both gifted ones.”
“Oh.” He didn’t really know what else to say.
“So, why were you late?” she asked again.
“Actually, I didn’t flatten your tire tonight,” he admitted, fearing it might offend her. “You aren’t on my list.”
“Oh. Well, that’s a relief.” She frowned, then laughed. “And yet I feel oddly insulted, which makes no sense whatsoever.”
He smiled. “It isn’t because I don’t think you’re worthy,” he assured her. “I love strong women. And you showed great courage tonight, standing against those two vampires. I admire intelligence as well, and Cliff says you’re brilliant.”
She blushed. “The vampire Cliff?”
“Yes.” Cliff had been amongst the first vampires to surrender to the Immortal Guardians and seek their help, hoping the scientists at the network would be able to stave off the madness that would soon claim them. “Since he lives at network headquarters and has heightened hearing, he pretty much knows everyone’s business.”
She shook her head. “Poor guy, listening to everybody’s drama all day.”
Aidan shrugged. The vamps all viewed it as an ongoing soap opera or reality show and found some entertainment in it. “Cliff told me you lost your husband last year,” he said, broaching the subject gently.
Grief darkened her features.
“He also told me you loved your husband a great deal, so I assumed your heart still belonged to him.”
Her throat moved in a swallow. “It does.” She blinked quickly several times as moisture welled in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I still can’t talk about it without crying.”
“No need to apologize.”
Silence fell as she navigated the dark country road.
“Does it bother you?” he asked curiously. “The list?”
“No.” She cast him a curious glance. “Is it true you’re almost three thousand years old?”
He released an exaggerated sigh. “Yes, it is.”
She laughed. “I heard one of the other immortals at the network say that immortal/human love affairs always end badly.”
“They do. The human ages while the immortal remains young. Even if bitterness over that fact doesn’t worm its way into the relationship, the mortal dies and leaves the immortal alone to grieve for centuries.”
She shook her head. “So you’ve been by yourself all this time?”
He shrugged. “I’ve had the friendship of Seconds.” Mortal men assigned to guard him during the day, provide companionship, and offer a semblance of normalcy to neighbors and anyone else who might be paying attention.
“But no wife?” she prompted softly. “No lovers?”
“No wife. And it’s difficult to take a lover for more than the briefest amount of time when I must hide my abilities and so much of my life from her.”
She slowed the car to a stop at a red light. The low rumble of the car’s engine filled a comfortable silence until she spoke. “You know, Tom and I only had nine years together. He worked at the network, too. And when we ran into each other the first time… something just clicked. It was like we became instant best friends. We wanted to spend all our time together from then on and would spend hours laughing and talking in the cafeteria after our shifts ended. Then we started going out to dinner and…” She shook her head. “He was it for me. He was the one.” When she gave him a sad smile, tears glistened in her eyes. “People keep telling me that I’m young. That I’ll move on and find love again. I smile and nod. But I know in my heart that I won’t. I’ll never find someone I can have that deep a connection with again. And the knowledge that I’m going to spend the rest of my life without that—without Tom, without love—is unbearable sometimes.”
Aidan read her thoughts and knew her sorrow to be true.
He also heard the words she didn’t speak aloud: How have you lived for three thousand years with that sorrow and that loneliness when I can hardly bear the notion of living another forty or fifty years with it?
She cleared her throat. “So I get it. I get the list.”
Nodding, he murmured, “I see that you do.”
The signal light turned green.
Driving forward once more, she forced a bright smile. “Any luck so far?”
“Nope.” He returned her smile. “But as it happens, I have an appointment in”—he consulted his watch—“thirty-five minutes with a lovely psychic in Carrboro.”
“Ooh, a psychic,” she repeated, her voice full of intrigue. “Maybe she’s seen you coming.”
“If she had,” he countered with a wink and a grin, “she would’ve canceled the appointment.”
Veronica laughed.
Thirty-five minutes later, Aidan stepped out of his Tesla Model S and studied the small shop in front of him. It was half of what appeared to be a duplex that had been converted into two businesses with homes above them.
Closing the driver’s door, he pocketed the keys.
A tingle of excitement fluttered in his chest. Anticipation rose. As did hope.
It made him feel young again and brightened spirits that had been dark for too many years to count.