Page 103 of Shadows of Eternity

“It’s gone,” he said.

“What’s gone? Oh.” Her brow furrowed. “Did it heal because you killed Josiah?”

Rohan nodded.

“One more reason to be glad he’s gone,” Leia muttered.

In a single, fluid movement, Rohan stood. Taking hold of Leia’s left hand and Trent’s right, he pulled the two of them to their feet.

“What now?” Leia asked, raking her glance across the hunters who stood as still as statues.

Rohan jerked his chin toward the hunters. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure,” Leia said with a shrug. “One of them said they should take me along with you and Josiah and when two of them started toward me, I … I don’t know what I did. But they’ve been like that ever since.”

Rohan threw back his head and laughed. “Damn, girl, you beat all, you know that?”

“What are you gonna do with them?” Trent asked, sorely afraid of the answer.

“Well,” Rohan drawled. “We’ve got two choices, either kill ‘em all, or erase their memories.”

“I vote for the second one,” Leia said.

Rohan shook his head. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

She stared at him, wide-eyed. “You wouldn’t really kill them all?”

“That’s why they came here,” he reminded her. “To destroy me. And they came damn close. You’ve got to know they wouldn’t have spared you, either.”

“I know, but to kill them in cold blood … that … that’s murder.”

“Isn’t that what they tried to do?” he asked dryly. “Kill me in cold blood?”

He was right, Leia thought. “It just seems wrong, when they can’t defend themselves,” she argued, knowing it was a weak argument at best. “But you do what you have to do.”

Shit! He couldn’t do it with her standing there looking at him like he was about to drown a sack of helpless puppies. Had he been alone, he would have disposed of them without a second thought, but he couldn’t do it now, couldn’t bear to have her think he was a cold-blooded killer. She would understand how things were after she’d been a vampire for a couple of years. But this time, for her, he would let the hunters go.

“Rohan?”

“You win, love. I’ll erase their memories of you and Trent and this night and send them on their way.”

It didn’t take long. Leia watched, astonished, as he led the hunters outside where he spoke to each of them in turn, wiping the memory of what had happened and replacing it with a new, different memory for each man and woman, and then sent them away.

Leia glanced over her shoulder. “What are we going to do about the awful mess in the church?”

“I know a guy who makes his living cleaning up this kind of thing,” Trent said. “I’ll give him a call. By morning, this place will look as good as new.”

Rohan nodded. “It’s been a busy night,” he said, slipping his arm around Leia’s shoulders. “Let’s go home.”

Rohan transported the three of them to the front yard of the Winchesters’ house.

“Listen,” Trent said, not quite meeting Rohan’s eyes. “I’m sorry about tonight. I thought I could trust those guys. They promised all they wanted was Josiah. I should have known better than to believe them.”

Rohan shrugged. “Things go wrong. The main thing is, Josiah is no longer a threat to you or Leia or anyone else.”

Trent held out his hand. “As of tonight, I’m out of the vampire hunting business.”

Rohan grinned as they shook hands. “Good to know.”

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