Phantom Shadows

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?

Bastien looked down at her, face full of surprise for a few heart-stopping seconds.

Melanie waited for a caustic comment.

Instead, the corners of his lips twitched before he looked away.

She heaved a silent sigh of relief and told her heart to stop pounding. Bastien was irresistibly handsome when he almost smiled.

Seth held up a hand. “Neither Bastien nor Dr. Lipton has betrayed the network, Chris.”

“Then how—”

“The vampires have hearing that is almost as sensitive as ours. They hear things while in their apartments, in the labs, and in the other areas they are allowed to frequent. Not that it matters. They never leave the building and neither possesses telepathic abilities, so who are they going to tell?”

Chris actually seemed to think about that as he turned back to Melanie. “You should have told me they could hear us.”

“To be honest,” she replied, “it never occurred to me that you didn’t know.”

He nodded. “You’re right, of course. I should have known and should have taken that into consideration.”

Melanie hoped he didn’t plan to soundproof everything at the network now. The restrictive lives the vampires led sometimes bored the pants off them. And Joe had once confided that listening to all of the “bullshit goings-on” at the network was a bit like watching a soap opera.

Would Janet finally agree to go out with Charles? Would Kevin get the promotion for which he and Sam competed? When would Tara tell Jack she’s pregnant?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.

Bastien shifted in his seat.

Realizing she was still holding his arm, Melanie flushed and withdrew her hand.

At David’s end of the table, Ami leaned forward. “Bastien, if you weren’t talking about Cliff and Joe, then what did you mean when you said we should bring the vampires into the loop? What vampires?”

“All of them.”

Melanie had to admit she could understand the What the hell? looks sent his way.

Darnell said, “You’re kidding, right?”

“There was no way those soldiers could have known whether they were hunting an immortal or a vampire,” Bastien said.

Tanner nodded. “No way they could have kept up with the chase from UNC to Duke at the speeds Bastien and the vamps traveled either. They had to have been waiting, hidden somewhere at Duke, hoping one or the other would happen to come along.”

Bastien didn’t seem pleased by the other man’s input, though Tanner had made a good point. Melanie wondered why. Cliff and Joe had mentioned Tanner nearly as often as they had Bastien and seemed to think the two men were good friends.

Chris began to scribble in his notebook again. “Did you make a phone call before you left to pursue the vamps, Bastien?”

“Who the hell would I call?”

“He didn’t,” Seth answered for him.

“What about you, Richart?”

“No. I took care of the vampires left behind, followed Bastien’s trail long enough to discern the others were leading him toward Duke, then teleported to the campus to search for them.”

Chris stopped writing.

Darnell leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Montrose Keegan told the vampire king to have his vamps stake out all of the garages with tow trucks and wait for an immortal to call for a cleanup. If Keegan told Emrys that college campuses are prime vampire hunting grounds, he may have done the same thing, just divided his soldiers amongst a few of the campuses and . . . waited.”

“Or all of the campuses,” Lisette added. “We don’t know how many men this Emrys commands.”

Bastien leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “Those men could have had no idea who would’ve made an appearance last night: a vampire or an immortal.”

Seth nodded. “The odds were greater of it being a vampire.”

Melanie looked up at Bastien. “Would they even know how to tell the difference between vampires and immortals?”

Vampires were humans who had been infected with the virus. Immortals were gifted ones—men and women born with extremely advanced DNA—who had been infected. That DNA, whose source remained a mystery, not only lent immortals special gifts, it gave them all certain similarities in appearance: namely black hair and brown eyes. Only Sarah had brown hair and hazel eyes, a result of the gifted ones’ DNA being diluted with human DNA over so many millennia.

“No,” Bastien responded, meeting her gaze. “Keegan only knew there were genetic differences, that immortals’ DNA is different.” Yet again, he had said immortals’ DNA rather than our DNA. “He wasn’t aware of the physical characteristics immortals share. Even vampires seem to be unaware of those. Hell, I wouldn’t have noticed it myself if Sarah hadn’t pointed it out to me. Vampires don’t survive encounters with immortals often enough to compare notes.”

Melanie considered the consequences of Emrys’s capturing a vampire. She had read the files on Ami, knew the gruesome details of her capture and subsequent torture. Their study of her.

They had justified the inhumane treatment in their notes by insisting they must study her in such fashion in order to protect themselves from a possible alien invasion. But no doctor would consider what they did to her merely studying her.

Melanie studied the vampires who lived at the network. She carefully scrutinized their blood, examined tissue samples, searched their DNA for anything dormant that could be stimulated to act as the immortals’ DNA did and protect humans infected with the virus from the brain damage it caused. She routinely ran tests—CT scans, MRIs, and more—to seek the same. But all of this was done with the express permission of the vampires. And none of it harmed them.

Ami had basically been dissected while she was still alive. They had cut her, burned her, removed fingers and toes, even entire organs . . . all while she lived, while she was alert, without anesthesia and with a complete disregard for the agony they inflicted. If her body did not have astounding regenerative capabilities, she would be dead.

And Ami had approached them in peace.

Melanie doubted Emrys and his crew would show any vampires they managed to corral more regard or handle them with more care than they had Ami. Particularly since, unlike Ami, there were plenty of other vampires around to torture, making them expendable.

“Emrys could learn almost everything he needs to know about you—your strengths and weaknesses—if he got his hands on a vampire,” she murmured. “I’m sure any doctors he employed would be utterly ruthless in their study.”

Bastien nodded. “Because he was too afraid to work with vampires when I knew him, there was much Montrose still didn’t know. But Emrys clearly doesn’t have such fears. He also may have the balls to go public with whatever he learns without worrying about facing the scorn or disbelief Montrose feared. That’s why we need to keep the vampires out of his hands.”

“By befriending them?” Roland asked dryly. “Hunting and destroying them will keep them out of Emrys’s hands just as efficiently.”

The other immortals all nodded.

“No, it won’t,” Bastien insisted. “There are too many of them. And you can’t divide your attention between hunting vampires and hunting Emrys’s men. Immortals are already stretched too thin because vampires continue to flock to this part of the country.”

“And whose fault is that?” Marcus queried.

“Marcus,” Ami stated softly, “Bastien was there for us when the vampire king took me. At least listen to what he has to say.”

The eight-century-old immortal frowned down at his wife. Seconds later, his eyes began to glow faintly and a decidedly not irritated look entered them. A slow smile slid across his features. “You don’t play fair,” he told her.

She grinned. “I know.”

Shaking his head, he motioned for Bastien to continue.

“The only way we can possibly succeed in keeping the vampires out of Emrys’s clutches is by bringing them into the loop and warning them that humans armed with this drug are now hunting them. Word of mouth is what keeps luring them here in the first place. They’ve heard about the uprisings and want to see what’s going on firsthand. Word of mouth can also warn them of the new threat and work to our advantage.”

“Have you never heard the saying the enemy of my enemy is my friend?” Roland drawled.

Bastien’s lips tightened. “We all have. That’s precisely my point. If we can convince the vampires that they have a new enemy—one the two of us share—who poses an even greater threat to them than we do, then perhaps we can work together to defeat Emrys. For whatever reason, the vampires today are more willing to band together.”

“Again, I think we know whose fault that is,” Roland drawled.

“Why not use that to our advantage?” Bastien persisted. Melanie silently applauded him for not rising to the bait. “Why not have them band together and work with us instead of against us? Find a way to make it worth their while?”

Roland emitted a bark of laughter. “If you think I’m going to work with vampires, you’re out of your bloody mind. And I’m sure as hell not going to let Sarah work with them.”

Sarah’s eyebrows flew up. “I’m sorry. Did you say you’re not going to let me?”

He cleared his throat. “I meant I’m sure as hell not going to let them work with you.”

“Shouldn’t that be my decision?”

He smiled. “Only if you agree with me, sweetling.”

Sarah laughed and shook her head. “You’re impossible.”

“I know.”

“Roland made a good point,” Marcus threw in. “How do you know the vampires won’t side with Emrys against us? It’s too great a risk.”

“They stand to lose as much as we do if Emrys gets his hands on them,” Bastien insisted.

“The vampire king didn’t think so,” David stated. “Emrys promised him an army if he would capture and hand over Ami. I’m sure there are many vampires out there who would leap at such an offer. And many others who might leap at less. Their mental instability does not leave them with the best judgment.”

“So we convince them the offer is bullshit,” Bastien persisted. “Tell them Emrys is the one who killed the vampire king. That we were only able to defeat the king’s army because Emrys got there before us and destroyed most of them. Make us seem like the lesser of two evils and make the point so clearly that even a complete psychopath can see it.”

Us? Melanie stared at him. That was a slip.

In the silence that followed, Tanner cleared his throat. “It worked before.”

Seth turned his attention on the blond. “Elaborate.”

“The vampires who served under Bastien feared him.”

That surprised Melanie. Not because she doubted Bastien was capable of inspiring fear. He had frightened her a bit the first time she had met him in person and had no trouble in the intimidation department. But Cliff and Joe spoke so highly of him. Vince had, too.

“Most of them did anyway,” Tanner qualified. “It was the only way Bastien could control those who were starting to lose it mentally. He had strict rules. And the vampires feared what he might do to them if they disobeyed those rules.” He held up a hand when Roland started to speak. “Yes, some of them broke the rules anyway, but a majority of them didn’t or else there would have been a hell of a lot more Missing Person reports.” He looked to Chris. “Am I right?”

Melanie wondered just how much it galled Chris to nod his agreement.

“My point is,” Tanner continued, “the vampires considered Bastien the lesser of two evils. They knew they had a greater chance of survival with him than if they were on their own. And they knew that defeating the immortals would increase their safety. If they think Emrys and his soldiers—or whoever the hell he commands—pose a greater threat to them than you do, they’ll get the word out to the other vamps and the more stable ones may work with you to defeat him and help keep the others out of his hands.”

Richart studied Tanner curiously. “How can you be certain the vampires will listen to us?”

“They’re vampires,” Tanner said. “You can’t be certain of anything with them. But, as you know, enough listened to Bastien that he was able to not only raise, but successfully maintain a vampire army for the first time in history. And word went global.”

“You must be a charismatic bastard,” Yuri droned, scrutinizing Bastien as though he were some peculiar new insect species.

“He is,” Melanie said. Honestly she didn’t know why that would surprise any of them. “Charismatic, that is.”

Richart turned narrowed eyes on Bastien. “I don’t see it.”

Melanie rolled her own. “Well, if any of you had bothered to visit the vampires living at the network, you would. Spend any time at all talking with them and you’ll see just how much they respect Bastien and how much they like him.”

“Dr. Lipton,” Bastien protested.

“What?” she said. “It’s true. Even Vince liked and respected you and Vince was already descending into madness when he surrendered.”

“You knew that?” Bastien asked.

“Not at first. But now that I know the more subtle signs . . . yes. I can see that the brain damage the virus causes was progressing more rapidly in him.” She looked around the table. “Even when they’re succumbing to madness, what the vampires experience during lucid moments can alter their behavior. I interacted with Vincent daily. Spoke with him. Made him feel less like a vampire or lab subject and more like an ordinary guy. He liked me. He trusted me. And when those swift psychotic breaks would come upon him with no warning, he didn’t hurt me. He never hurt me. Anyone else who happened to be in the room . . .” She shrugged. “But not me. Because he trusted me.”

Lisette pursed her lips. “I have noticed that the vampires who travel in groups no longer seem to prey upon each other as they have in previous centuries.”

“The vampire king did,” Ami corrected. “I saw him tear into his followers with a machete.”

Stanislov grimaced. “And Yuri, Bastien, and I all saw the mess he left behind.”

Sarah wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Yes, but the vampire king was crazy as a bedbug. He wasn’t descending into madness. He was already there. I seriously doubt he gave a rat’s ass about his followers. If he considered them expendable when he was lucid . . .”

Étienne shook his head. “Isn’t all of this moot? Even if we actually considered embarking upon this befriend the vampire plan, it would be impossible to implement. Vampires hate immortals. They would never listen to us if we attempted to converse with them and coax them into . . . I don’t know . . . joining forces with us. And, though they might have listened to Bastien the vampire leader, they certainly won’t listen to Bastien the Deceiver, as he is now known. They despise him as much as or more than they do us. Where does that leave us?”

“They don’t have to like you to listen to you,” Tanner insisted. “Most of the vampires in Bastien’s army hated my ass.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Lisette said with a glance at his ass and a flirtatious wink.

Melanie grinned when Tanner seemed to lose his train of thought for a moment while he stared at the lovely French immortal.

Étienne nudged him.

“What? Oh.” Tanner smiled. “Right. Anyway, ah, the vampires in Bastien’s army hated me, but none of them ever tried to hurt me.”

“They knew I would destroy them if they did,” Bastien said blandly.

“That’s part of it,” Tanner acknowledged. “But I think it was also because we were on the same side, working against common enemies.”

Melanie’s interest increased. This confirmed her own hypothesis about the vampires’ subconscious holding on to what they felt in lucid moments even when the madness directed their other actions.

Richart shook his head. “Even if we could sway some of the vampires to our side and get them to warn the other vamps to beware of Emrys and stay away from his men, such would require us to let the vampires live and continue to prey upon humans. I don’t think any of us here can in good conscience allow that.”

Melanie thought furiously. “You could continue to destroy those who have already succumbed to the insanity and only recruit the youngest vampires. Maybe offer them bagged blood so they wouldn’t feel the need to attack humans.”

“Such would put a strain on our resources,” Seth said.

True. The bagged blood that immortals utilized was donated by members of the network and their families. It was one of the reasons immortals were so strict about only eating organic foods. (The other reason, of course, being pure stubbornness. After eating nothing but organic foods for hundreds if not thousands of years, most simply refused to change their diets.) The virus repaired even the most minute damage done to the body, using blood to do so, and immortals wished to reduce their need as much as possible so they wouldn’t have to seek alternative sources.

“You could do what Bastien did,” Tanner suggested. “Assign them pedophiles to feed upon.”

Melanie had heard about that. Rather brilliant thinking, in her opinion. Bastien had lacked a steady supply of bagged blood, so he had enlisted Tanner’s aid to track down pedophiles through a little cyber sleuthing and ordered his vampire followers to feed upon them.

“We lack the resources necessary to ensure they don’t stray from their diet,” Seth responded.

David nodded. “Though his army feared and respected him, Bastien was still unable to keep some of his followers from killing the pedophiles’ families.”

“Drug them,” Melanie blurted.

All heads turned her way.

“What?” Bastien asked.

“Drug them,” she repeated. “I’ve been experimenting with Cliff and Joe—” She broke off, realizing what she had just said and hurriedly caught Ami’s eye. “Not the way you’re thinking, Amiriska. I promise you: Everything I do with them is with their consent.”

Marcus tightened his arm around Ami, whose brow remained furrowed with doubt.

Vowing to choose her words more carefully in the future, Melanie continued. “What I meant to say is, I’ve been working with Cliff and Joe, monitoring the effects of various doses of the tranquilizer. And my”—not experiment—“research has given me real hope that regular injections of a low dose can help suppress the vampires’ violent impulses. It leaves them sluggish . . . and they don’t like that part of it . . . but they have far fewer outbursts and maintain control better. I realize it’s a temporary fix, but it might be something you can use to your advantage if you decide to go through with this.”

Leaning back against his chair, Bastien touched her arm beneath the table. “The drug really helps them?”

Pulse picking up, she nodded. “Yes.”

“Emrys used it to gain the vampire king’s cooperation,” Seth mentioned.

“He did?” Melanie asked. “How?”

“Every time the vampire king flew into a rage, Emrys tranqed him. If he managed to hit him with the dart before the vampire gave the rage free reign, it seemed to stop it in its tracks . . . or at least left the vamp too tired to do anything about it. If the vampire king was already destroying everything around him, the drug stopped him and, again, left him too tired to continue acting on impulse.”

Hope rose. If the drug could work on someone as insane as the vampire king, perhaps she would have more time to find a cure for Cliff and Joe.

“Then that’s the answer,” Tanner said, his handsome face lit with triumph. “If you can suppress their impulses with drugs, you can control whom they feed upon.”

“My entire army consisted of men who were lucid when I recruited them and desired help,” Bastien said. “They didn’t want to become monsters. They didn’t want to prey upon the innocent.”

“But they did,” Roland said.

“Yes. Some of them. Because I had no way of curbing their madness. Dr. Lipton does. If this drug works as she says it does, we can seek out those few who can still benefit from it, recruit them if you will, and have them spread the word to other vampires themselves.”

“I still don’t like it,” Roland said.

Many of the others nodded.

Melanie cleared her throat. “With all due respect, the only ones at this table who are qualified to make this decision are Seth, David, and Bastien.”

Bastien’s head snapped around. His hand tightened on her arm.

The others all stared at her as if she had just shouted, “Peacocks like Pumpernickel!”

“I beg your pardon?” Richart said finally.

Étienne nodded. “Seth and David I could understand. But what makes Bastien so special?”

More than they knew, but she didn’t say that. “Seth, David, and Bastien are the only ones who regularly visit and interact with the vampires at the network.”

Bastien looked at Seth and David with surprise. “You visit Cliff and Joe?”

Seth inclined his head. “Yes.”

“Vincent, too, when he still lived,” David added.

“Why?” Bastien asked.

The other immortals seemed interested in knowing the answer to that one, too.

“Because they asked for our help,” Seth said simply, “and, by doing so, joined our cause.”

“We take care of our own,” David said, “regardless of their origins.”

Seth nodded. “We also hoped to extend the vampires’ lucid moments by trying to heal the brain damage the virus has wrought.” Both elders were extremely powerful healers, powerful enough to reattach severed limbs, if necessary.

Bastien returned his attention to Melanie. “Is it working?”

“Not as well as we had hoped,” she admitted with some reluctance. She suspected Seth and David knew as much. As long as they had lived, they must have tried such before. “The vampires do remain lucid for longer periods after Seth and David’s visits. But the healings only slow the progression of the virus, they don’t cure it or reverse the damage done.”

“David,” Seth said, eyeing the immortal at the other end of the long table, “what are your thoughts on Bastien’s proposed alliance?”

Silence reigned as everyone waited to hear what the immortal would say.

“Most of the immortals at this table are too young to remember times in the past when humans have banded together to hunt us,” David began. “Roland, you have an inkling of what such is like thanks to your fiancée’s deception a few hundred years ago.”

Roland’s countenance darkened. “I do.”

“Bitch,” Sarah muttered.

Roland barked out a laugh, then wrapped an arm around his wife and pressed a kiss to her hair.

Every person in the room stared. Even after two years, it was still a shock to see him smile and express affection.

“Vampires in the past may not have had the Internet vampires today adore so much,” David continued, “but word still managed to spread throughout the countryside that both vamps and immortals were being hunted by humans. And, as Dr. Lipton said, what the vampires learned when they were lucid lingered somewhere in the backs of their minds, so that even when the madness struck they exhibited more caution.”

Melanie nodded. “I think the fact that even the maddest vampires continue to use blades instead of guns when they fight immortals or hunt their prey is an indication that anything concerning their safety tends to linger when everything else falls away. They know they shouldn’t attract undue attention and take measures to avoid doing so, whether they do it consciously or not.”

David nodded. “Which is why I think Bastien may be right. I think we should find a way to turn this in our favor. These are new times with new troubles and, perhaps, new opportunities. The rules have changed. We should change accordingly.” He looked at Bastien. “Lie to the vampires. Let them believe Emrys is the real reason the vampire king and his followers fell. That he’s an even greater threat to vampires than we are.”

Seth drew Bastien’s gaze. “Find those who want our aid and offer it to them.”

“And those who don’t?” Bastien asked.

“Must be destroyed as usual. They will continue to kill innocents otherwise and are the most likely to fall for any bullshit Emrys or his men may feed them.”

Roland leaned forward. “You trust Bastien to do this? To meet with and conspire with vampires? Again?”

Seth met Roland’s gaze. “I trust you all to do this.”

Roland’s lips tightened. “I won’t risk Sarah’s safety by pausing to chat with vampires who most likely are only interested in severing our heads.”

Sarah leaned away enough to look up at him. “If you aren’t worried about your own safety, sweetie, then don’t worry about mine. I’m as strong as you are, remember, and just as unlikely to be caught off guard.”

“We shall discuss this later.”

“No, we won’t. If Seth and David think this is worth a try, then we should do it. They’ve been dealing with this crap a lot longer than we have. I trust their judgment, and you should, too.”

Scowling, he pulled her back against his side.

“I have a concern,” Lisette said, glancing from Seth to David and back. “Bastien’s followers were still able to deceive him despite his gift, convincing him to believe they followed his every order when they did not. Such could be true of any immortal who is not telepathic.”

“David and I will have no difficulty discerning who truly wishes our aid,” Seth murmured. “Nor will you or Étienne. Richart and I will have to make ourselves available to the rest of you. If any of you find a vampire who appears to be amenable to joining our cause, call me and I will teleport to you and read his thoughts. Or call Richart and he will teleport Lisette or Étienne to you to do the same.”

Only Tanner seemed satisfied with the plan.

“If you encounter Emrys’s shadow army and are tranqed,” Seth cautioned, “immediately move as far away as fast as you can and call your Second before you pass out. Do not try to capture the humans at your own expense.”

“This would all be far easier if we had an antidote to the tranquilizer,” Roland pointed out, looking at Melanie. “Have you devised one yet?”

Melanie’s heart flipped over nervously. She had, but . . . “We’re still working on it.” From the corner of her eye, she saw Bastien glance at her, but avoided his gaze. For some reason it was hardest to lie to him.

“As I said,” Seth instructed, “if you’re drugged, though it goes against your every instinct, leave the battlefield, call your Second, and secure your own safety.”

That did not go over well at all. Every man and woman present was trained to fight to the death if necessary, not to flee.

Guilt suffused Melanie. She could spare them what they no doubt considered such an indignity if she could just gather enough courage to test the damned drug she had manufactured to combat the tranquilizer.

Seth looked at David. “Anything else?”

David shook his head.

“That will be all for now.”

Chairs scooted back as immortals and their Seconds rose.

All gave both Bastien and Tanner a wide birth.

Melanie didn’t have time to draw any conclusions before the room around her blurred and she abruptly found herself standing in the middle of a field with Bastien, Seth, and Tanner.

Seth released the two mens’ shoulders and looked at Melanie with some surprise. “My apologies, Dr. Lipton. I didn’t realize Bastien was touching you or I would have waited to teleport him.”

“Oh.” That was what teleportation felt like? Cool.

Wintery wind buffeted her. A full moon illuminated the clearing enough for her to see a dirt drive overgrown with weeds and several large holes in the ground that looked as though dirt had erupted from them.

“Where are we?”

“My lair,” Bastien answered, dropping his hand from her arm. (Had his fingers lingered for a moment?) “Or what remains of it.”

The lair that had housed his vampire army?

Melanie surveyed the area again, unable to see beyond the dark trees that formed a small amphitheater around them. If Seth hadn’t meant to teleport her . . . “Should I leave?” She didn’t know where she would go, but . . .

“No,” Seth said. “I didn’t mean you weren’t welcome. I only wished to apologize for teleporting you without first warning you.”

“Apology accepted.”

Tanner held his hand out to her. “I’m Tanner Long, by the way.” He was an attractive man, perhaps in his midthirties and dressed in slacks and a dress shirt. His short blond hair really stood out against the darkness characteristic of the immortals. His wire-rimmed glasses also set him apart physically. He sort of looked like a banker or an accountant. Maybe a professor.

A hot professor, Linda would likely say before singing “Teach Me Tonight.”

Melanie shook his hand. “Melanie Lipton. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too. This is the first opportunity I’ve had to thank you for everything you’ve done for Vince, Cliff, and Joe. I think some of the immortals and humans at the network have been fighting vampires for so long that they’ve become numb to their plight. You haven’t.”

That meant a lot to her. “I wish I could have done more for Vince.”

“You tried to help him when no one else, save Bastien, would. He appreciated it, believe me.”

“Thank you.”

Bastien’s gaze swung from Melanie to Tanner, then shifted to Seth. “So why are we here?”

“I didn’t want to tell you in front of the others that I’ve chosen Tanner to be your Second. I thought you might say something stupid like—”

“I don’t need a Second,” Bastien protested.

“That,” Seth finished.

Tanner examined Bastien thoughtfully. “You needed a Second when you were working with the vampires.”

“That was different.”

“Not really.”

Seth held up a hand to forestall whatever Bastien intended to say. “If you want to execute your duties as an Immortal Guardian without a babysitter, as you put it, you need a Second.”

“No, I don’t.”

Tanner frowned and propped his hands on his hips. “I thought you were happy with my work.”

“I was.”

“If you’re worried that I won’t be able to fight by your side, you can relax. The network’s been training me for almost two years now.”

“It isn’t that.”

“Then what is it?”

Melanie was curious to know that herself. She would’ve thought Bastien would be happy with the arrangement.

“If you become my Second, you will be ostracized at the very least and—”

Tanner laughed. “Hell. Is that what’s worrying you? That I won’t be accepted by the other Seconds? This isn’t high school, Bastien. I don’t give a rat’s ass who likes me and who doesn’t.”