Phantom Shadows (6 page)

Surprised that he had been asked directly, Bastien complied.

Every brow present furrowed as his words floated around the table.

“You couldn’t have spared even one?” Chris asked. Leave it to him to ignore everything except the deaths of the humans. Hell, if Bastien had let every human soldier live, Chris no doubt would have
still
found fault with his actions.

“Not without risking capture myself.”

Richart nodded. “It’s true. He was barely conscious when I found him, with two darts on the ground beside him. By the time I got him to the network, he was out cold.”

“How are you feeling, Sebastien?” Seth queried softly.

Bastien fought the urge to squirm, uncomfortable with the concern in the elder’s voice. He had yet to figure out why Seth gave a damn about him. “I’m fine.”

Seth’s gaze shifted to Melanie. “Dr. Lipton?”

Melanie sent Bastien an apologetic look. “He’s still a little groggy and hasn’t yet fully regained his strength. I understand he’s roughly the same age as the d’Alençons, so—based on the time it took
them
to recover when they were hit—I’d say he should recover fully during the next few hours. Certainly by dawn.”

Seth nodded. “I assume you’d like to observe him while he does so?”

“Yes, if that’s all right.”

“Of course. We rely on your medical expertise in matters such as this and know you need to gather as much information as you can.” The words, as well as the warning look that accompanied them, seemed to be directed at Bastien.

Bastien scowled. The bastard had better not be reading his thoughts again.

Of course I’m reading your thoughts,
Seth said.
As is David. And most likely Étienne and Lisette. How else can we reassure the others that you are sincere in your claims?

“These men . . . these soldiers . . . weren’t out to kill,” Richart continued. “They were out to capture and would have done so had Bastien left any standing. Perhaps if I had returned sooner, we could have taken one or more alive. But alone, Bastien had no choice but to protect himself.”

“This is
so
bad,” Darnell muttered.

Several heads nodded.

“Chris,” David spoke, “have you succeeded in tracking down your missing contacts?”

Chris shook his head. “No. There’s no trace of them at all, or of their families. Nothing to tell me where they may have gone or where they were taken or if they’re dead or alive. Or that they ever
were
. It’s as if they never existed.”

Bastien may frequently think about dismembering Chris, but he couldn’t help but sympathize with him over this. Reordon had spent years cultivating contacts in the various government agencies that were swathed in secrecy. Years tapping those contacts for information and enlisting their aid whenever the Immortal Guardians needed it. When those contacts had mysteriously disappeared a few weeks ago . . .

It didn’t take much of an imagination to guess what had happened to them. The Immortal Guardians’ new enemy had gotten his hands on them. And the blame for it—all of what they were currently dealing with—could be laid squarely at Bastien’s feet.
He
had inadvertently set all of this into motion when he had begun his quest for revenge a lifetime ago.

“Any luck finding new contacts?” Seth queried.

Chris shook his head. “Some. But it’s slow going. I don’t know who exactly we’re dealing with, who we’re fighting, who has the power and influence needed to wipe the slate clean the way they did, so I have to be even
more
careful when approaching potential aids. There are a handful who escaped scrutiny and survived the sweep only because I hadn’t yet called upon them to act. I couldn’t then and can’t now because they’re still working their way up the ranks and aren’t yet in a position to find out what I need them to.”

“Any word on who this Emrys prick is?” Marcus broached, his voice tight with hostility.

It was a hostility shared by all those familiar with Ami’s past: Bastien, David, Darnell, Chris, and Seth. Melanie, too, he imagined, since she had been allowed into the loop.

Emrys had been one of the bastards responsible for Ami’s capture a few years ago, as well as the months of torture she had endured afterward. Bastien didn’t know how Emrys had escaped Seth’s and David’s wrath when they had rescued Ami, and hoped like hell he wouldn’t again. If
anyone
needed to pay for past sins, Emrys did. Preferably with blood.

“I’m getting closer, but still can’t say definitively.”

“Did you find out how he was connected to Keegan?” Bastien asked.

Fucking Montrose Keegan. Bastien wished he had never worked with the man. How the hell had Montrose known Emrys?

“They went to college together and were in the same fraternity, but appear to have parted company once they graduated,” Chris said and motioned to the file in front of Bastien. “Keegan pursued a teaching career. Emrys went to work in the military’s bioweapons program. Everything I could dig up tells me they lost contact and didn’t speak again until Montrose looked him up during the vampire king’s reign.”

“Is Emrys still military?” Sarah asked.

“I don’t know. All of the intel on him stops approximately four years ago. There’s no mention of him retiring or being discharged from the army. Nor is he on any active duty lists or stationed on any known bases. We know he reappeared briefly in Texas a couple of years ago. But I still haven’t been able to ascertain whether the facility he surfaced in was military or mercenary. And there’s a big void in his history between his army days and his days at the facility. I’m still digging, but . . . as I said, it’s taking time.”

“Just be careful,” Ami pleaded softly. “I don’t want you falling into their hands. I don’t want you disappearing like the others.”

“May I say something?” Melanie asked, looking around the table tentatively.

“Of course, Dr. Lipton,” David said.

“While I was waiting for Bastien to regain consciousness, I had Linda examine the darts Richart found and it appears the dosage of the drug they deliver has increased substantially.” She looked up at Bastien. “That’s why it didn’t take as many darts to fell you as it did Richart, Étienne, and Lisette.”

“Same drug, but more powerful?” Darnell said. “Emrys
must
have been behind this attack. He’s the one who gave Dennis the drug.”

Bastien wished he would have killed Dennis—the self-proclaimed vampire king who had led the last uprising—when he had first met him over a decade ago. He simply hadn’t perceived how crazy the bastard was. Or would become.

“And who else would know the original drug wasn’t powerful enough?” Darnell continued. “Only someone who had interacted directly with Montrose Keegan and had access to his notes and those damned movies Dennis made of the battles. As far as we know, Keegan didn’t talk to anyone else.”

“As far as we know,” Roland reiterated.

Chris shook his head. “I don’t know who he could have talked to. Anyone else would have had him committed if he had started rambling about vampires and immortals.”

“It’s worth looking into,” Bastien said, seeing where Roland was going and reluctantly agreeing. “When I worked with Montrose, he worked alone. I’m certain of it. Even when I pressured him to speed up his research. But I was sane.”

“That’s debatable,” Roland muttered.

Bastien ignored him. “Dennis wasn’t. If Montrose feared him even more than he did me—”

“He did,” Ami spoke up. “When Dennis took me to Keegan’s lab”—she swallowed as if just saying the word resurrected fears that threatened to choke her—“Montrose was terrified of him. And there was blood. Old blood. On some of the papers I rifled through looking for a weapon. And on the walls. I don’t know what happened down there, but . . .” She shook her head. “Montrose was visibly shaking while Dennis talked to him. He was terrified of him.”

Marcus drew Ami closer and kissed the top of her head.

Bastien nodded. “If Dennis was pressuring Montrose to find a drug that would incapacitate us or at least weaken us enough to defeat, I’m sure he was issuing more frightening ultimatums than I did. Montrose may have taken his plea for aid to others besides Emrys.”

Chris retrieved a small spiral notebook and a number two pencil from his jacket pocket. Flipping the notebook open, he began to scribble notes. “I’ll look into other med school chums. Hell, I’ll look into
all
of his old school chums, both those he kept in contact with and those he didn’t.”

Sarah pointed to Chris’s notebook. “You might want to check out the professors he studied with while pursuing his doctorate.” Until Roland had turned her, Sarah had been a music theory professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “His students, too. Particularly any grad students with whom he worked closely.”

Nodding, Chris continued to write.

“Did he have any family?” Darnell asked.

Bastien shook his head. “Just his brother Casey. Casey said their parents were killed in a car accident almost a decade ago. It’s why Montrose was so protective of him.”

“What about grandparents?” Sheldon asked.

Tracey snorted. “How the hell would grandparents fit into the equation?”

Sheldon shrugged. “Money? I don’t know.”

Chris kept writing. “I already looked into that. The grandparents are dead. Both sides of the family.”

“What about girlfriends?” Sarah suggested.

Étienne scoffed. “Who the hell would date Montrose Keegan?”

“Hey,” Sarah retorted, “some women choose brains over brawn.”

He tossed her a flirty grin.
“You
didn’t. But if you’re of a mind to . . . have I by any chance mentioned that at university I—” Étienne’s file folder flew up and hit him in the face a moment before his chair was telekinetically yanked out from under him, landing him on his ass.

Even Bastien had to laugh.

Grabbing the chair with a curse, Étienne regained his feet and once more seated himself beside his siblings. “Are you going to do this every time we have a meeting?”

“Are you going to flirt with her every time we have a meeting?” Roland ground out.

Étienne muttered something in French.

The chuckles quieted.

Seth leaned back in his chair. “All right. Now that we know a little more about the attack on Bastien last night, let us discuss how to address this latest threat while Chris pursues his leads.”

Chapter 3

Melanie listened quietly as their words flowed. She had never been privy to an Immortal Guardians’ meeting before and was surprised by the teasing banter the powerful men and women shared.

She hadn’t expected that. Even Seth and David smiled.

While the talk continued, Melanie wondered if meetings like this had even been necessary before Bastien had sought his revenge. Vampires may have launched occasional uprisings over the millennia, but none had been anywhere near as successful as his.

Or the subsequent uprising led by Montrose Keegan and the vampire king.

This really was a first for the immortals. The network, too. Without knowing the extent of the enemy they faced—who Emrys was, how many men he commanded in his shadow army, and what his ultimate goal may be aside from getting his hands on Ami again—she didn’t know how they would combat this threat. How could they even know what kind of attack the immortals would face next? The threat seemed to constantly evolve. As did the drug the enemy used. The
only
drug that affected immortals.

One by one, the immortals and their Seconds bounced ideas off each other that mostly entailed heightened security protocols.

Having a swift antidote to the drug would be a tremendous help if not an outright game changer, but Melanie had yet to test the one she had concocted. Had not even told them she may have found one. How could she when she didn’t know how to test it without significant risk?

“I think we should bring the vampires into the loop,” Bastien announced abruptly.

All conversation ceased.

“What?” Darnell asked as though he questioned what he had heard.

Melanie certainly did.

“I think we should bring the vampires into the loop, maybe even enlist their aid,” Bastien repeated.

Dead silence filled the room, so thick one could practically swim in it.

“Are you insane?” Chris demanded incredulously.

“Chris,” Seth warned.

Perhaps, like Melanie, he was growing tired of the hostility the network’s leader continually directed at Bastien. There must be more to it than Bastien’s breaching network headquarters.

Melanie touched Bastien’s arm. A
zing
of electricity zipped through her as it always did when she touched him. Or when he touched her.

His warm, brown eyes lowered to meet hers.

“Do you mean Cliff and Joe?” she asked.

He shook his head. “They’re already in the loop.”

Melanie felt Chris’s accusing gaze before he spoke. “Have you been discussing classified information with the vampires, Dr. Lipton?”

Trepidation claimed her. Chris Reordon could and would fire her if he thought she had circumvented the rules. And she feared what he might do to the vampires if he found out just how much they knew of the inner workings of the network.

Technically, it wasn’t her fault—Cliff and Joe knowing so much they weren’t supposed to. But she didn’t think that would matter to Chris, who fiercely fought any threat to those who worked for him or to those for whom he worked.

“Answer me, Dr. Lipton. If you’ve been sharing information—”

“Leave her alone, Reordon,” Bastien snarled.
“I’m
the one who has been talking to Cliff and Joe.”

Chris turned to Seth and motioned furiously to Bastien. “You see?
This
is why I tried to prevent him from visiting the vampires at the network, why I didn’t want him on the premises.”

“Yes, and look how well
that
worked out for you,” Bastien drawled.

Chris shot him a fulminating glare.

Melanie kicked Bastien under the table, then caught her breath. What the hell was she doing?