Phantom Embrace

by Dianne Duvall

  Still searching the room for a glimpse of Cat, Yuri felt his mouth fall open. What?

  “What?” Richart and Étienne demanded, echoing his thought, as their heads snapped toward Seth.

  Seth’s face remained impassive. “If you don’t want me near her, why did you bring her to me?”

  “I didn’t.” Zach looked at Melanie. “I came here for you.” His gaze shifted to Bastien. “And for you.”

  Bastien sheathed his weapons and strode forward, broken glass crunching beneath his boots. Melanie glanced at Seth and David, waiting for their approval, then followed with caution.

  Again, Yuri glanced around, hoping to spot Catherine.

  Melanie felt Lisette’s pulse, then peeled Lisette’s eyelid back. “Any major arteries severed?” She began checking them herself even as she asked.

  “No.”

  “So not a lot of blood loss?”

  “No. Most of the blood that coats her is vampire.”

  Seth took a step forward. “You didn’t give her your blood, did you?”

  Zach glared daggers at him. “Of course not. I’m not an idiot.”

  What the hell did that mean? Yuri wondered.

  More calmly, Zach told Melanie, “We were holding our own against them very nicely before she collapsed. She suffered no major injuries as far as I could see, hear, or smell.”

  Melanie glanced around at the debris-covered room, then motioned down the hallway. “Could I get you to place her on a bed in the infirmary so I can examine her more thoroughly?”

  Zach’s arms tightened around Lisette as his eyes flashed brighter.

  Melanie raised a hand. “Okay. It’s okay. I’ll just . . . see what I can learn here for now so you can have another minute to . . .” She floundered. “So you can have another minute.”

  Yuri wasn’t sure another minute would be enough. The male—Zach—appeared pretty savage. And disinclined to relinquish his toy. Or treasure.

  Zach looked as terrified for Lisette as Yuri felt for Cat.

  What the hell had that wave of power done to her?

  Melanie proceeded to run her fingers over Lisette’s arms and legs, across her abdomen, applying pressure here and there along the way. When her fingers slipped between Lisette and Zach’s chest, she gasped and jerked her hand back.

  Bastien stiffened. “What?”

  A bead of blood formed on the tip of one finger. Frowning, Melanie slowly felt along the same path, then drew her hand back.

  Utter sickening disbelief lashed Yuri when she held up a tranquilizer dart.

  It couldn’t be.

  Melanie listed to one side, eyelids drooping.

  Bastien hastily wrapped his arms around her, his face darkening with concern. “Melanie? Sweetheart?”

  She squeezed her eyes closed and shook her head. “I’m okay,” she said, but slurred her words as though drunk. Unsteady on her feet, she clung to the arms Bastien wrapped around her. “I just . . . I just pripped . . . pricked my finger.”

  Yuri swore silently. A pinprick had done that?

  “They must’ve . . . must’ve upped the dosage again,” she continued.

  Silence took the room. Men and women stiffened with shock.

  They, meaning the mercenaries who were all supposed to be dead, had upped the dosage again?

  Twice the Immortal Guardians had battled mercenaries in recent years. Mercenaries who had been intent on capturing an immortal and procuring the virus so they could build an army of supersoldiers they could then hire out to the highest bidder. Mercenaries who possessed the only sedative known to affect immortals and vampires, who—until then—had been unaffected by every drug in existence.

  The first time immortals had defeated the mercenaries, the elders had buried the survivors’ memories. The second time, the mercenaries had upped the dosage of the sedative so much that it had taken double the usual dose of the antidote Melanie had developed to enable immortals to rouse and function again. And they hadn’t functioned normally. They had functioned, at least briefly, as if they were high on cocaine. Juiced up. Heart racing. Not thinking clearly before they acted.

  Seth strode forward. “That isn’t possible.”

  “Stay back!” Zach barked.

  “Fuck off!” Seth barked back.

  Yuri tensed, ready to spring forward in an instant should Zach move to harm the Immortal Guardians’ leader.

  Seth took the tranquilizer dart from Melanie’s limp fingers and brought it to his nose. He drew in a deep breath. His eyes flashed gold again as thunder rumbled outside. “How the fuck can this be?” he growled. “We didn’t even bother to bury memories this time. We killed fucking everyone!”

  They had. Not one mercenary had been left alive. No one outside the Immortal Guardian family and the network of humans who aided them should possess that drug. How the hell had vampires gotten their hands on it?

  “It doesn’t matter how it happened,” Bastien spoke. “Not right now. We need to get Melanie a small dose of the antidote and see what, if anything, we can do to revive Lisette.”

  If anything. The two words filled Yuri with dread.

  Keeping one arm around his wife, Bastien shifted to stand at Zach’s side. He reached around and touched Zach’s back beneath his wings. “Come on. The infirmary is just down this hallway. Let’s make Lisette comfortable and see if we can’t help her.”

  Bastien had to give Zach a gentle push to get him moving.

  Stiffly at first, as though his feet had cemented themselves to the floor in front of the bay window and didn’t want to part with it, Zach allowed Bastien to lead him from the room.

  Seth followed.

  A raindrop hit the grass outside with a swish. Another followed. Then more, racing each other to their doom as the sky opened up and enveloped the house in a downpour.

  David eyed them sternly. “Not one word.”

  Étienne glowered at him. “David—”

  “Not. One. Word,” the elder repeated. “Your grievances will be heard at a more appropriate time. For now . . .” He motioned to the vampires. “Richart, take these two to the network and place them in separate holding rooms. Bring Chris back with you when you return. He needs to know what’s going on. And ask him to send someone out here to replace my window. The rest of you, see to your wounds, then clean up this mess.”

  He turned without another word and headed down the hallway, disappearing through the infirmary’s doorway.

  His and Lisette’s Seconds, Darnell and Tracy, followed, closing the door behind them.

  “You heard him,” Roland, nearly a thousand years old, said. Turning to his wife, he began to brush small shards of glass from her clothing. “Now isn’t the time for questions.” He speared the d’Alençon brothers with a warning glare. “Or for recriminations. Now is the time to circle our wagons. We don’t know who or what might come through that window next.”

  Hell, Yuri still wasn’t clear on who Zach was.

  “We should post guards,” Stanislav said, “in case another of his ilk should follow.”

  Roland nodded. “As the strongest present, Sarah and I will patrol the grounds. Stanislav, you and Yuri go below and keep your ears open. Ensure no one enters through the escape tunnels.”

  Every bedroom in the basement included a wardrobe with a false back that hid a subterranean tunnel that would provide safe passage into thick groves of evergreens for any immortal who might be forced to escape an attack during the day.

  Yuri nodded and zipped down to the basement, Stanislav on his heels.

  “You take this end,” Yuri instructed.

  Stanislav positioned himself at the base of the stairs.

  Yuri peered into the large training room. Upon finding it empty, he strode down the hallway opposite it.

  He opened every door he passed, giving each bedroom a quick once-over.

  Stanislav didn’t question him, so he must think Yuri searched for other intruders.

  In truth, Yuri sought Cat.
/>   He didn’t like the way she had disappeared. As though she had had no control over it.

  And her scream still echoed through his mind.

  Yuri found neither Cat nor additional intruders in the bedrooms.

  Concern rising, he positioned himself at the opposite end of the long corridor and struggled to remain calm as he waited.

  Chapter Four

  Twenty-four hours later, Cat still had made no appearance.

  Not knowing what else to do, Yuri waited for Marcus to stride past his bedroom, then yanked him inside.

  Marcus stumbled a bit as Yuri closed the door behind him. Straightening, he arched both brows. “You wanted to speak with me?”

  “Have you seen Cat?” Yuri blurted.

  “No. Not today.”

  Yuri swore.

  “Why?” Marcus frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  “I think something has happened to her.”

  “She’s a ghost, Yuri. Nothing can happen to her. Nothing tangible can harm her.”

  “That thing Zach did,” Yuri protested, “that odd blast of power or whatever the hell it was that knocked us all on our asses . . .”

  Marcus frowned. “Roland told me about that. He said it felt like the blast wave of a bomb hitting him. What about it?”

  “I think it did something to her,” Yuri told him, finally voicing his fear.

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. But she disappeared when it hit her and I haven’t seen her since.”

  “Maybe she’s at the network.”

  Hope rose. “Did you see her there last night, when you took Ami to the network to keep her safe?”

  “No,” Marcus replied with reluctance. “But I’ve seen her there other times. Maybe she went there after we left. Maybe she hasn’t been around because she’s afraid of Zach.”

  And the mysterious elder immortal Zach remained in David’s home, refusing to leave Lisette’s side until she awoke from what Melanie had begun to call a coma.

  “Cat wouldn’t stay away without telling me,” Yuri said with certainty. “She’d know how much I would worry.”

  Marcus studied him. “The two of you are really that close?”

  “Yes.” Yuri waited for Marcus to again question his sanity or to lambaste him for doing something so stupid as to fall in love with a ghost.

  He didn’t. “What exactly do you think has happened?” Marcus asked instead.

  Yuri shook his head, helplessness rising within him. “I don’t know. When that blast of power hit her, she seemed to . . . fragment . . . or shatter like the glass in a dropped picture frame, then vanished. I haven’t seen her since.”

  Marcus swore.

  “What? Do you know what it means?”

  “No. I’ve never seen that happen before.”

  Yuri’s anxiety rose. He didn’t know what to do. “Would Seth and David know?”

  “Possibly. But both are busy pouring all of their energy into healing Lisette and trying to wake her from the damned coma or whatever the hell it is that drug has done to her.” He thought for a moment. “I tell you what. I’ll have Richart teleport me over to the network after I get a few hours’ sleep. I’ll tell him I think I left something behind when I was there last night with Ami. And I’ll have a quick look around to see if Cat’s there.”

  “Thank you.” Yuri would go himself, but didn’t want to leave until he had to hunt in case Cat should return.

  “I can’t stay more than a few minutes,” Marcus added. “I don’t want to stray too far from Ami. But it shouldn’t take me long.”

  Yuri nodded and thanked him again.

  Marcus headed for the door and gripped the knob, but didn’t turn it. A minute passed, during which he seemed to debate over whether he wanted to say something more. “I understand, you know,” he murmured and looked at Yuri over his shoulder.

  Yuri frowned. “Understand what?” His concern for Cat?

  “The position you’re in. I can empathize,” the elder immortal said. “I loved a woman I couldn’t have for eight hundred years before I met Ami.”

  Yuri had almost forgotten Marcus’s peculiar history.

  “At least the woman you love can love you back.” Marcus turned the knob, then hesitated again and arched a brow. “She does love you back, right?”

  “I believe so,” Yuri said. “But ...”

  Marcus waited for him to finish.

  “We can’t ...” Yuri wasn’t sure what drove him to continue. “I can’t touch her.”

  “When she leaned against you at the meeting, it looked as though you could feel her.”

  “I feel a tingling sensation,” Yuri told him. “But I can’t touch her skin. Can’t feel the weight of her against me.” And how he longed to.

  Marcus sighed. “I’m sorry. I was going to say that sucks, but that just doesn’t cover it, does it?”

  “Not even close.”

  Marcus considered him, features thoughtful. “She was a gifted one when she lived, wasn’t she?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know what her gift was?”

  “She had psychometric abilities, could see the history of an object when she touched it. Still can, actually.”

  “Oh.” Marcus’s brow furrowed. “That’s too bad. I was hoping she might’ve been a telepath or a dream walker. Then perhaps she could’ve visited you in your dreams.” He smiled wryly. “Sex can be very real in dreams.”

  Yuri hadn’t even thought of that.

  “I’ll let you know what I learn at the network as soon as I return,” Marcus promised, again preparing to leave. “And, Yuri?”

  “Yes?”

  “If I had to choose between a woman who shared my love, but whom I couldn’t touch, and a woman I could touch, but who meant little to me . . . I’d choose the woman I loved every time.” Opening the door, he stepped out into the hallway, then closed it behind him.

  * * *

  Two long days and nights passed without Yuri catching so much as a glimpse of Catherine. Had whatever Zach had done that night banished her forever?

  Marcus had not seen her at network headquarters. Nor had he seen her here at David’s.

  Ami’s pregnancy had progressed far enough and was becoming so difficult that Marcus had stopped hunting entirely to remain close to her. And, sympathetic to Yuri’s plight, Marcus had been keeping an eye out for Cat while Yuri was out hunting.

  Several times, Yuri had wanted to seek Seth and David’s counsel. But both elders were exhausted from pouring healing energy into both Lisette, who had still not awakened from her coma, and Ami to help her carry her baby to term. And as much as Yuri loved Cat, he couldn’t bring himself to ask either elder to cease tending the living so they could help him locate a spirit.

  Yet.

  In truth, Yuri wasn’t sure what he would do if Cat remained absent much longer.

  Growing ever more desperate, Yuri had gone to the infirmary that afternoon to ask Zach what he had done to Cat, to ask him if he could reverse it and bring her back. But Zach had rendered himself unconscious pouring too much healing energy into Lisette in an attempt to wake her, his hand clutching Lisette’s to his chest, his head resting on the bed beside her.

  Despair rising, Yuri let the conversation of the immortals gathered together in David’s living room flow over and around him without paying it much heed. He slumped in his favorite wingback chair with his boots propped on a coffee table scarred from years of other boots doing the same. Yuri knew his somber silence worried Dmitry, but had no desire to explain himself.

  Marcus and Ami sat on a sofa catercorner to him. The pair had had a difficult day. Ami had begun experiencing contractions again, and Seth had had to use his healing gift to stop the premature labor.

  Everyone else present, like Yuri, had made it through another night’s hunt without incident. None had encountered any of the new skilled vamps. None had been seriously injured or tranqed. All had resolved to sleep at David’s place until Lisette awok
e.

  Yuri found himself wondering if the gun drawn by that big vampire he had fought the first night he’d spoken to Cat had been a tranquilizer gun. He hadn’t paid any attention at the time and—

  Marcus kicked Yuri’s feet.

  Scowling, Yuri glanced over at him.

  Marcus met his eyes, then looked pointedly toward a far corner of the living room.

  Yuri followed his gaze. His breath caught.

  Cat stood there. In the same place she had been standing the night the blast had hit her. Garbed in the same yellow dress. Brow creased.

  Relief rushed through him, so intense it damned near left him light-headed.

  Heart pounding, he rose.

  * * *

  Cat stared at the bay window in confusion, finding no evidence that it had ever been broken. Clean panes revealed darkness outside overlaid by reflections of light and the figures inside the room. No lingering shards of glass littered the floor. No splinters from the broken windowpane frames stuck out of upholstery. No stray feathers from the winged male who had leapt through the window rested upon the floor.

  Brow furrowing, she looked around the room. The coffee table that had been shattered by the first vampire’s body had been removed and replaced. The chairs and sofas that had been overturned in the immortals’ haste to get out of the paths of the shattering glass and the bodies hurled inside had been righted and now provided seating for Immortal Guardians and their Seconds as they engaged in casual conversation as though nothing had happened.

  Her eyes fell upon Marcus, seated next to his wife. For once he neither avoided meeting her gaze nor looked uneasy. Instead he appeared to . . . welcome her presence?

  A figure near Marcus rose.

  Yuri.

  Relief suffused her.

  He was all right, then, his face and form as perfect as ever.

  His eyes met hers and began to glow a faint amber. He cocked his head toward the hallway.

  Nodding, she started toward it, weaving her way through the men and women present. She had never grown comfortable with passing through the living, so she ducked and dodged them as she would have had she still been alive herself.