Phantom Shadows (Immortal Guardians #3)

Well, at least Stuart didn’t screw him over like certain other vampires had.

“Stuart’s behavior isn’t at issue here. Yours is,” Seth reminded him.

“I couldn’t reach you,” Bastien said. “And I knew Ami had the ability to find any of those soldiers again if we could just get her near them.”

“David could track them without detection.”

This again? Really? “I didn’t know he could shape-shift!”

“What’s going on?” Ami entered the training room. “My ears are burning.” She looked to Marcus. “That’s a saying, isn’t it? My ears are burning? Because someone’s talking about me?”

“Yes, love.”

“Well, Lisette, Étienne, and the others came upstairs, then everyone started looking at me funny. Marcus, you didn’t punch Seth again, did you?”

“No, sweetling. We were just . . . having a little discussion.”

She pursed her lips and eyed them with skepticism. “You’re picking on Bastien for inviting me to the battle, aren’t you?”

Seth moved toward her. “Ami—”

“It was a smart move,” she defended, thrusting out her chin.

“David was fully capable of tracking the soldiers who escaped without detection.”

“Yes, David can tell you where they went. But David can’t tell you if they stayed there or where they went if they didn’t. I can.”

“Ami—”

She held up a hand, craning her neck to look up at the eldest immortal. “I already told you I want to play an active role in bringing Emrys to justice and David agreed that I have that right. Marcus did, too.” She caught and held her husband’s gaze. “Didn’t you?”

Marcus sighed heavily. “Yes.”

“Then we don’t have a problem, do we? Now, let Bastien get back to Melanie. He’s been worried sick about her.”

Bastien waited a full minute. When no one objected, he cautiously exited the room and headed down the hallway to the second of two quiet rooms David had added recently.

Seth appeared in front of the closed door.

Bastien stopped in front of him and waited.

Seth reached out and gripped Bastien’s shoulder.

Bastien stiffened as the hallway around them fell away and was replaced by visions Seth implanted in his mind. Pain accompanied the visions. Hours of agony as men in scrubs and surgical masks cut him, burned him, removed bits of flesh. Over and over again. Hundreds of slices. Thousands of samples taken. Organs removed. Fingers and toes cut off. White hot bolts of electricity delivered to his head, his heart. A live dissection.

He had never experienced such suffering and opened his mouth to shout with it.

Seth released him. The visions vanished. The hallway resurfaced.

A cry died in Bastien’s throat before he could free it. The strength left his knees. Panting, he sank to the floor and waited for the pain to recede.

“What the hell was that?” he gasped. Bracing a hand against the wall, he struggled to regain his feet.

“That,” Seth said, “was a fraction of what you risked Ami being subjected to again when you called her to the battle.”

Horror suffused him. He had known that whatever had happened to her had been bad, but . . . “That’s what they did to her?”

“That and more. They spent six months torturing her and dissecting her without sedating her or giving her anything to numb the pain.”

Seth was right to want to kill him.

“I won’t make the same mistake twice,” Bastien vowed. Even if Ami hadn’t been the closest thing he’d had to a sister since Cat had died two centuries earlier, he wouldn’t risk her being caught and subjected to such atrocities again. He hadn’t wanted to risk it when he hadn’t known what she had suffered. If her safety had been threatened at the network and Marcus had failed to protect her, Bastien would not have hesitated to give his life to protect her himself, but . . .

Now that just didn’t seem like enough.

Seth moved away from the door and slapped Bastien on the back. “I knew you were worth saving.”

Bastien stared at him. “You said you wanted to kill me!”

The elder immortal shrugged. “Ask Roland how many times I’ve wanted to kill him. It’s a family thing.”

Bastien frowned. Did he really want to be a part of that kind of crazy-ass family?

“Yes, you do. Trust me.”

“I’d have an easier time doing that if you didn’t keep trying to choke me.”

“You pissed me off. I suggest you think twice about doing so again. As long as you always place Ami’s safety first, you and I will be good. She’s precious to me. If your stupidity should cause her death, you shall swiftly follow her into the afterlife.”

Which raised another question. “How precious is she to you?” Bastien had never seen any romantic moments pass between the two. But Seth was extremely protective of her.

Seth cuffed him on the side of the head. “Don’t be impertinent. Ami is in love with Marcus.”

“And that doesn’t really answer my question.”

“She’s like a daughter to me. Is that clear enough?”

Bastien nodded. “That’ll do.”

“Then we’re finished here. Keep me posted on Melanie’s transformation.” Seth smiled suddenly and waved at someone down the hallway.

Bastien glanced over his shoulder and saw Ami standing just outside the training room. Marcus loomed in the doorway behind her.

Ami squinted her eyes at Seth and crossed her arms over her chest.

Seth held his hands out to the sides, palms up with a What’d-I-do? expression.

Marcus grinned.

Ami shook her head, rolled her eyes, and headed upstairs.

Bastien decided he had had enough from his surrogate family and ducked into the room he now shared with Melanie.

Standing beside the bed, Melanie nearly wilted with relief when Bastien entered. “Are you okay?” Even though she wore nothing but one of Bastien’s large, black T-shirts, she had been prepared to leave the room in search of him.

“Yes.” He hurried to her side, his handsome brow creased with concern. “What are you doing out of bed?”

“Seth woke me when he said, ‘As you will.’ I opened my eyes just in time to see him teleport you away.” And she had not liked the murderous gleam in those luminescent, golden eyes.

“I’m fine. We were just . . .”

“Don’t tell me you were shooting the breeze.”

His eyebrows rose.

“I guessed right, didn’t I? That’s what you were going to say?”

“Yes. And it’s scary that you know me so well.”

She almost smiled. “He had his hand wrapped around your neck, Bastien.”

Bending, he swept her up into his arms. Melanie looped an arm around his neck as he turned to deposit her on the mattress.

“He was pissed about Ami.”

“What happened to Ami? She wasn’t captured, was she?”

“No. None of the soldiers got near her. But I was the reason she was there. I was the one who put her in harm’s way. I convinced Marcus to let Richart teleport them in so she could learn the mercenaries’ energy signatures.”

“That was smart.” Melanie patted the mattress.

“Seth didn’t think so.” Bastien sank down beside her. “How do you feel? Is your stomach still upset? Would you like me to get you some club soda?”

“No. I want you to stay here and snuggle with me.”

He smiled. “I can do that.”

He scooted closer and stretched out.

Melanie cuddled up against his side and rested her head on his chest.

Much better.

Curling her arm around his torso, she raised one knee and draped her leg across his groin. She smiled when his body reacted to the contact. “I can hear your heartbeat,” she murmured.

He brushed a hand over her hair. “Your ear is right above it.”

“I could hear it from across the room when you entered. And I could hear Seth’s out in the hallway before you closed the door.”

“You’ve almost finished transforming then.”

“I could hear Lisette and the others talking upstairs. They were betting on which immortal would kill you.”

“Yeah. I heard. Since you’re one of them now, you may as well know that those guys will wager on anything.”

She rolled onto her stomach, folded her hands on his chest, and propped her chin on them. “You’re one of them, too, Bastien.”

“I’ll never be one of them. My past won’t allow it.”

“Have they all had such perfect pasts, then?”

“As far as I know, I’m the only immortal who has ever killed another immortal. You may be able to get them to forgive that, but they’ll never forget it. I’ll always be the one who lived as a vampire. I’ll always be the outsider. They’ll never trust me.”

“Seth seems to trust you.”

He snorted. “Not anymore. Not after I endangered Ami.”

Melanie hoped he was wrong about that. He really needed Seth as an ally.

She studied Bastien’s face, the tightness around his mouth. “You seem tired.”

He gave her a weary smile. “I am.”

She drew a circle on his chest with her index finger and sent him a flirty look. “How tired?”

Some of the tightness in his features eased as his smile broadened. “What did you have in mind?”

“Well, now that my stomach is settled and my fever is down . . .”

“Yes?”

She drew in a deep breath. “You smell really good.”

His eyes began to glow. “So do you.”

“And I admit I’m curious about something.”

He wrapped his arms around her and shifted her so that she was stretched out on top of him. “What’s that?”