Phantom Shadows

Chapter 17

Ami led Seth, David, and Marcus through dense forest, following the unique energy signatures of Cliff and Joe.

“It’s different,” she murmured. “The energy. Not as strong. But it’s them. I’m sure of it. I think they’ve been drugged.”

“Can you still find them?” Marcus asked.

“Yes. It’s just taking me longer.”

“Don’t worry about time,” Seth told her. “We have plenty of that.”

She took off again, leading them through the trees and naked brush. Above their heads, branches, whose leaves had been stolen by winter, clacked together as they swayed with the wind.

Seth followed close behind Ami, David at his side. Marcus clung to Ami’s hand and observed everything in front of them with eagle eyes.

Ami paused, drew her weapon and sighted down the barrel, tapping her arm with three fingers and pointing ahead and to the right.

They slowed their approach.

David raised a thermal scope to his right eye and scanned the trees and ground ahead.

Marcus halted and stopped Ami. Eyes on the ground, he took two steps forward and crouched down.

Seth and the others looked where he pointed and saw the trip wire of a land mine poking up through the dead leaves.

They were close.

Wait here, Seth instructed.

He strode ahead, eyes sharp, until he reached a big enough break in the trees for him to shift and launch into the air.

Only a mile away, the compound was eerily similar to the one he and David had destroyed in Texas. A three-story brick and mortar structure, nearly devoid of windows, rested in the center of a sizable clearing. A large parking lot peppered with vehicles painted the ground in front of it black with white stripes.

Behind the building, narrow wooden structures he’d heard some call pigeon coops or shacks formed two rows. Barracks for his mercenaries?

Those without families anyway. Those with families probably lived in nearby towns. Darnell would have to uncover all of their names so Seth could either eliminate them or wipe their memories, depending on what he found housed in their thoughts.

Near the back of the clearing lay two hangars of roughly the same height with domed roofs. The doors of both were open, allowing Seth to see a couple of Black Hawk helicopters within one. The other brightly lit interior housed a few armored vehicles, being serviced by industrious mercenaries, and a lot of empty space where the vehicles they had lost in the skirmish at the network probably used to reside.

A similar structure had just been erected at Chris’s behest not far from the new network headquarters and housed the vehicles Seth had salvaged from the battle. Chris’s mechanical geniuses had been working furiously on them while the network’s soldiers who were military veterans practically salivated as each awaited his chance to get behind the wheel.

Which they did tonight. Three armored personnel carriers hid among the trees five miles distant. Should they be needed, they would have to take the main road and come right up the drive in order to avoid any other land mines the mercenaries might have placed along the compound’s perimeter.

The drive leading to the compound from the highway was a two-lane road the same black as the parking lot and parted dormant vegetation, allowing all visitors one way in and out after they passed through a gate guarded by men carrying automatic weapons. Those guards walked stiffly in the cold, shoulders high, hands tucked into the pockets of their thick jackets, asses no doubt as frozen as the ground beneath their boots or the breath that frosted the air in front of their mouths.

Other guards manned a fence strung with razor wire that circled the compound.

Seth flew past, looped around, and doubled back. One of the guards along the fence looked up and marveled at the big-ass owl soaring overhead.

Surveillance cameras clung to the corner of every roof and some of the fence poles, all with red lights and the faint hum of electricity indicating they were operational.

Seth rejoined Ami, David, and Marcus. Then they made their way to the immortals and Chris Reordon, who waited not-very-patiently for him amid the trees. Borrowing one of Chris’s ever-present notepads and pencils, Seth sketched a quick map that included placement of the guards and the land mines he had spotted.

Ami, Sarah, Melanie, and Lisette were maneuvered into the front, then the men peered over their shoulders at the drawing.

“Based on the heartbeats, I believe the vampires are being held in this area.” Seth indicated an area of the main building with his pencil.

Chris took the pencil and pad back when all had memorized the hasty schematic. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get you real-time satellite surveillance images, but my contacts in the agencies that could supply them are too new. I didn’t think this would be a good way to break them in and . . . we don’t know how closely Emrys might be watching for such things. His tentacles are far-reaching, so getting the satellite images could tip him off.”

“Understood,” Seth said. “David and I will enter the main building first. Bastien, you and Melanie follow and take out as many as you can, but focus on reaching the vampires as quickly as possible. Marcus, you and Ami enter next. Ami, I want you to concentrate on feeling the presence of anyone you remember from the Texas compound. The moment you find Emrys, summon me.”

Marcus’s eyes flared with fury and promised pain.

“Marcus, do not deliver a swift death to Emrys. Disarm and disable him, then summon me.”

When Marcus didn’t agree fast enough, Seth told him telepathically, I want him to suffer for what he has done.

Marcus gave an abrupt nod.

“Yuri and Stanislov, disable the helicopters.”

Chris held up a finger. “If you could do that without destroying them, I would appreciate it. Those things aren’t easy to come by without sparking scrutiny.”

“Won’t be as fun,” Stanislov grumbled, “but we’ll try.”

Seth smiled. “When you’re done with the helos, do the same with the armored vehicles in the next hangar. Ethan, you and Edward take out the guards on the grounds and make sure no one enters or exits. Lisette and Étienne, take the barracks. Scan the minds of the mercenaries before you kill them. If you think any are good men, knock them out and restrain them. Perhaps we can recruit them ourselves. If not, I’ll erase their memories.”

The siblings nodded.

“Richart, do your thing. You cause more chaos and fear than any of the others.”

Richart grinned and gave him a cocky salute.

Roland grunted. “You forgot us.”

Seth shook his head. “You and Sarah are free to wreak havoc where you will, though I’d prefer to have you in the building with us. There were a lot of heartbeats in there when I flew over, so the bulk of Emrys’s troops are likely there.”

Roland and Sarah nodded.

Chris held up a finger again. “My tech team will begin blocking outgoing cell signals on my mark, but they can’t block satellite phones. If you hear a call going out, take out the caller without damaging the phone so we can find out who the hell they’re calling.”

More nods.

“Okay,” Seth said. “We clear on our assignments?”

Everyone nodded.

“Then I’ll mention one more time that everyone here is to do everything in your power to ensure Ami is not taken by Emrys.”

Ami’s brow furrowed as she glanced at the warriors around her. “I’m sorry.”

Several large hands clapped her on the shoulders and patted her on the back with rough affection.

“You’re our sister,” Étienne said. “We protect our family.”

Her eyes shimmered suspiciously when she smiled at them.

Seth knew she must be terrified. She was about to enter the den of the monsters who had tortured her for six months and nearly robbed her of her sanity.

He nodded at Chris. “Make your call.”

Chris called his tech people. As soon as he disconnected the call, Seth led the immortals forward.

Melanie’s heart pounded so loudly she expected it to burst from her chest.

Seth and David moved phenomenally fast. Roland and Sarah were right on their heels. Melanie put on a burst of speed and kept up . . . until she realized she was leaving Bastien and the others behind. He had been right. Having Roland transform her had leant her the same strength and speed of a millennium-old immortal.

She fell back to run alongside Bastien and the d’Alençons. Ethan and Edward followed next, with Marcus and Ami bringing up the rear.

Ami ran just a bit faster than a human. Marcus could have carried her and kept up with Seth, but Melanie guessed he was hoping the others would clear a path for them and reduce the danger to her.

Over the fence the immortals bounded.

Even though she was scared as hell, Melanie couldn’t help but smile as she leaped easily over the twenty-foot fence. Her heart raced with excitement as she sailed through the air and landed smoothly on the other side. Barely a bend of the knees. No jostling of the joints. Then she was racing forward.

Seth and David plowed through the front doors of the main building before the mercenaries patrolling the grounds and manning the front gate even knew they were under attack. And they plowed through them literally. Neither stopped to open a door. They just burst through the heavy glass, bending back the metal frame as they went so that it looked as though it had imploded.

Melanie followed and paused just inside the door, shards of glass crackling under her boots. Bastien halted beside her.

There were three hallways. Seth raced down the one on the right. David took the left. Shouts erupted. Then howls of pain as the elder immortals’ weapons delivered death to their enemies. Gunshots ensued. Crashes. More of the same arose outside.

“Which way?” she asked.

Based on Seth’s drawing, it could be either the middle or the left.

“Cliff! Joe!” Bastien shouted.

Melanie heard nothing but the panicked bursts of speech spewing from the mercenaries’ mouths.

“Let’s try the middle,” he said, face grim, and took off.

She knew what he was thinking, because she thought the same thing: If the vampires hadn’t been sedated, the lack of response meant they were dead.

Humans in camouflage poured into the hallway, weapons raised. Bastien ducked this way and that as bullets and darts flew at them. Melanie tried to do the same as she drew her weapons, but was not yet as experienced. Two bullets hit her in the chest and were stopped by the vest. A dart hit the vest, too. Then another hit her in the arm.

Holstering one of her Sigs, she shoved her hand into her thigh pocket and withdrew one of the green-capped auto-injectors. Lethargy began to seep through her as she flipped open the cap. Raising her other Sig, she fired at the soldiers and shoved the auto-injector into her thigh.

Bodies fell. So many she lost count. Had the men not been doing their damnedest to kill her, she didn’t know if she would’ve been able to hurt them. She was a doctor. A healer. She repaired wounds. She didn’t inflict them.

At least not until now.

Energy flowed into her, extinguishing the sluggishness. Fortified, she dropped the other Sig in its holster and drew out the auto-injectors she had filled with the weaker human dose of the sedative.

With a burst of speed, she dashed from human to human, hitting them with the tranquilizer instead of killing them. She told herself it was so Seth could read their minds and unearth information, but she really just needed more time to grow accustomed to taking another person’s life. Some of these men could be innocent dupes. Some may relish the violence Emrys ordered them to perpetrate, the pain he told them to inflict. She couldn’t tell one from the other and didn’t like the idea of executing the first just to ensure they got the second.

Each man she sedated struggled. Melanie was shocked at how easily she disarmed and restrained them.

She could feel Bastien’s gaze and knew he was keeping an eye on her. “I’m fine,” she called, then remembered she didn’t have to raise her voice. Even over the gunfire and the explosion that just shattered the rest of the front windows, they both could hear normal speech.

“I’m fine,” she repeated. Ducking bullets, she dropped another unconscious soldier and chased down the next.

Bastien had never been so afraid in his life. He wanted to tell Melanie to stop tranqing the fuckers and just kill them. It was a hell of a lot faster and half as risky.

But he knew her. And he knew, though she had said nothing of it, that killing was difficult for her.

Hell, it had been difficult for him, too, in the beginning. It had been difficult when he had been a mortal and fought Napoleon’s—

He swore as two bullets struck him in the arm and shoulder. Knocking the gun that had fired them out of its owner’s hand, he struck out twice with his daggers and moved on as the shooter’s body thudded to the floor behind him.

No, killing wasn’t something that came easily. Hell, he’d heard that Sarah still shook like a leaf after she took out vampires, even though she did so with astounding expediency. And Sarah had been hunting for a couple of years now.

He saw Melanie jerk as blood spurted from her thigh.

Pain was something else she would have to grow accustomed to. He hated that. He never wanted her to have so much as a paper cut for the rest of her long—and it had better be damned long—existence.

Curses spilled from her lips.

Bastien smiled.

He rarely heard her curse and laughed as she now turned the air blue.

She glanced over at the sound, caught his expression, and smiled. “This shit hurts!”

“I’ll kiss it and make it better later,” he promised.

Her lovely lips stretched in a wide grin as she tranqed another mercenary.

Dropping the empty auto-injector, she drew her Sigs.

That must have been her last.

More men poured into the hallway.

What, was the fucking cafeteria down this way or something?

He and Melanie formed a united front. He sliced and diced with his daggers. She cut men down with her 9mms.

A second explosion rent the night outside. Then a third. And a fourth.

Bastien and Melanie stepped over bodies, forcing their way forward until they finally reached the first door.

Bastien looked inside. Unbelievable. It was a cafeteria.

They made their way to a door on the other side.

Melanie peeked inside. “Training room,” she announced.

Great.

Were there even any men left out in the barracks for Lisette and Étienne to worry about?

Melanie jerked again. Two holes appeared in her clothes, one in her hip and one above it at her waist, just beneath the lower edge of the damned vest. Blood quickly began to moisten her cargo pants.

Bastien swore.

“That’s my line,” she gritted and, eyes blazing amber with pain and fury, shot her assailant in the head.

Bastien eased closer to her.

“I’m fine,” she growled.

No, she wasn’t. Multiple wounds always slowed the healing. She was limping badly.

The mercenaries, like sharks drawn by chum in the water, all turned on her, sensing weakness.

“Richart!” Bastien called and dove in front of her as the men fired.

Half a dozen bullets hit him as he dropped his daggers, then drew and swung his katanas in sweeping arcs, severing heads, limbs, and arteries.

Richart appeared in the midst of the mercenaries, blades flashing. As soon as those he didn’t kill noticed him, he vanished and reappeared farther down.

Again and again he teleported, instilling fear and delivering death while Melanie’s guns and Bastien’s swords continued to claim lives.

The last man fell.

All three immortals swung around to face the entrance of the hallway.

No mercenaries rushed forward to save their comrades. All seemed to be occupied in battles in the other hallways.

Bastien let his shoulders slump. His torso riddled with bullet wounds, he turned to Melanie.

Breath ragged, she leaned against the wall. She nodded to him that she was okay. “It’s just going to take some getting used to,” she said through clenched teeth. “The pain. I’m not used to it.”

Richart shook some of the blood off his blades. “It took me a century to get used to it. You should feed.”

Melanie shook her head. Since her transformation, she had only sunk her new fangs into bagged blood, allowing them to draw it directly into her veins. She had not yet fed from a person. And, even though she wouldn’t actually be drinking it, she couldn’t help but feel a bit nauseated at the thought of it.

Or was the nausea simply a result of her wounds?

Either way . . . “We need to find Cliff and Joe. I’ll feed after that.” On bagged blood, back at David’s place.

Richart looked to Bastien.

That grated a little. It was her decision, after all.

Bastien nodded.

Melanie frowned, eyeing the holes in the front of his shirt. “Do you need to feed?”

“Later. Let’s find Cliff and Joe.”

The foundation of the building suddenly shook as thunder rumbled outside. The walls vibrated. Cracked.

All three fought for balance and dodged pieces of ceiling that fell down around them.

“Was that a bomb?” she asked, peering toward the front of the building. She had seen no flash of light.

Bastien shook his head. “I think Seth just found Emrys.”

Ami’s heart pounded so erratically she had difficulty breathing. Standing in the doorway, she stared inside. Not at the vampire manacled to the table, but at the two men standing over him.

Her feet glued themselves to the floor. Her body began to tremble.

“Ami?” Marcus crowded her side and rested a hand on her back.

She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t pry her tongue from the roof of her mouth. Or silence the screams that erupted in her head.

Marcus’s hand clenched, tugging her shirt tight.

Fear and hatred and remembered pain must have tumbled the barriers of her mind, allowing the screams to batter him through the mental channel she used to communicate with him.

The foundation of the building suddenly shook beneath their feet. Thunder rumbled outside.

Seth must have heard, too. And David. Somewhere in the building the latter emitted a roar of rage.

Wind buffeted her as two presences loomed behind her.

“Is that him?” Seth asked.

Yes.

“Which one?” Marcus demanded.

Both of them were there. In Texas. Both of these men tortured me.

Seth growled and shoved Marcus aside. In a blink, he was across the room, the older of the two humans shoved up against the wall two or three feet off the floor, a dagger at his throat. “Emrys, I presume?”

Marcus shot forward and claimed the other before David could. His prey tried to swing a bone saw at him. Marcus knocked it out of his hands, grabbed him by the throat, and spun him around so his back was pressed to Marcus’s chest. A dagger appeared in Marcus’s hand and pricked the man’s throat.

David touched Ami’s back.

Forcing herself to breathe, she took a jerky step forward. Then another. Then another until she stared up into the eyes of the man Marcus held. He was only a few inches taller than her. Paunchy. Pale.

“Remember me?” she asked, infusing the words with all of the loathing she felt for him.

“No,” he lied, voice high and tense.

“You will,” she promised.

Bastien followed Melanie, cursing the fact that she was faster than him. He skidded to halt beside her just inside the door of what appeared to be an operating room with an observation gallery overlooking it.

Seth was choking one human and applying enough pressure with his dagger to make him wet himself.

Marcus held another man against his chest while Ami addressed him.

Melanie made a sound of distress and hurried over to the form on the operating table. Dried blood from countless wounds covered Cliff’s bare flesh. A couple dozen of them hadn’t healed and oozed blood. His eyes were closed.

Melanie leaned over him, drew a hand over his dreadlocks. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled onto Cliff’s forehead and cheek. “Cliff?”

“How do we free him?” Bastien asked the humans

Seth rammed his victim against the wall. “Answer him.”

The man clamped his lips shut.

Seth offered him a sinister smile.

The man grimaced in agony, abandoned trying to pry Seth’s hand loose, and started to claw at his own head.

Seth turned to Melanie. “There are several buttons on the underside of the table that open and close the cuffs.”

Bastien found the buttons for her and pressed them.

“It’s okay, Cliff,” she whispered. “We’re going to take you home.”

Bastien lifted the young vampire into his arms. As Melanie headed for the doorway, Bastien looked down at his friend.

Cliff’s eyelids raised a fraction. Just enough to expose sleepy, glowing eyes devoid of recognition.

And brimming with madness.

Unconsciousness reclaimed him.

Bastien swallowed hard, fought the grief and fear that rose within him. The madness couldn’t vanquish Cliff. It was too soon. They needed more time. And would have had it if he hadn’t been tortured.

Bastien swung toward Seth with a snarl.

We’ve got it covered, Seth promised, dark anticipation in the glowing golden gaze that met his.

Bastien nodded and followed Melanie out into the hallway.

Seth spun around and slammed Emrys back-first onto the table hard enough to knock the wind out of him at the very least.

Emrys cried out.

David waved his hand. The manacles clamped down on the mercenary leader’s limbs.

“I can make you rich!” Emrys screeched. “I can make you all rich!”

Seth’s lips stretched in a smile that nearly made Bastien shiver. “I can make you scream.”

The man began to shout for help.

None would come.

Ami stepped away from the man Marcus held and approached the table.

As the door swung closed without visual assistance, Bastien saw her reach for a scalpel.

“Dr. Lipton.”

Melanie turned away from the door behind which screams arose.

The French immortals all faced her, expressions somber.

“Melanie,” she corrected mechanically. Pain still rode her hard and she was feeling a little shell-shocked by the night’s events.

“We’ve found Joe,” Richart announced. And the gentle way he spoke warned her of what would follow.

Lisette came forward and touched her arm. “He’s conscious. But . . . there is only madness in his thoughts.”

Étienne nodded, face full of regret. “Only the ravings of a lunatic.”

Melanie stared through them. She couldn’t do this. All the pain and death and . . .

She couldn’t lose Joe tonight. Couldn’t stand quietly by while Bastien drew his katana and swung it. Couldn’t watch Joe’s head leave his body and tumble to the floor. See his body shrivel up until nothing of him remained.

Tears welled in her eyes and spilled over her lashes as she turned to Bastien. She shook her head. “Please . . . Not tonight. Not here. Not . . . like this. Not without even trying to bring him back to us. Please.”

His eyes glowed a vibrant amber that illuminated the moisture shimmering in them. These were his friends. She knew she was making it harder on him by asking him to delay the inevitable, but . . .

The relief she felt when he nodded weakened her knees and nearly landed her on the floor.

The siblings motioned to a doorway down the hall.

Melanie limped forward and passed through it.

Joe lay still on a table identical to the one that had restrained Cliff. Manacles, coated with blood from his struggles and the wounds the butchers had inflicted, held his arms, legs, and head down. His chest rose and fell in quick bursts.

As Melanie crossed to his side, his eyes opened and rolled her way. Luminous blue, they speared her with hatred. Spittle flew from his lips as he shouted words so slurred she couldn’t understand them.

“Joe?” she said softly. “It’s Dr. Lipton. It’s Melanie.”

Nothing. No change.

She reached under the table and pressed the button that would open the manacle holding his head immobile.

The heavy metal clamp sprang open and slid apart.

Joe instantly raised his head and snapped at her like a feral animal.

“Joe.” She struggled to speak soothingly around the lump in her throat. “It’s okay, Joe. You’re safe now. Cliff is here. And Bastien. We’re going to take you home.”

He started to slam his head back against the table over and over again. His arms and legs flexed. The manacles dug deeper with every movement.

Melanie reached into her back pocket and withdrew one of the two auto-injectors she had loaded with the vampires’ dose. She flipped the yellow cap open.

“Everything will be okay,” she lied and pressed the pen to his shoulder.

His struggles slowed. His head fell still. His muscles relaxed.

She drew her hand over his tangled blond hair and met those burning eyes. “You’re with friends now.”

His lids drooped, then closed.

She circled the table to press the buttons on the other side. Bastien hovered in the doorway with Cliff in his arms.

As she raised her head and met his gaze, her chest hitched with a sob.

Both knew what the morrow would bring.