Phantom Shadows (Immortal Guardians #3)

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.