“So why haven’t you told him about Cat?”
“It just seems cruel to me now. I mean, Bastien has probably assumed all this time that, although she suffered a tragic death, his sister found peace in the afterlife. Isn’t that what we’re always told? Yes, she suffered, but she’s at peace now.” Marcus frowned. “Don’t you think it would pretty much kill him to find out that instead, she’s been stuck here—existing, but not really existing—for two damned centuries? That she’s likely had no one to talk to in all of that time? That she was there with him the seven or eight years he continued to pal around with her husband, not knowing he was giving his loyalty to her killer? Or that she was there with him throughout his entire crap-hole life with the vampires, witnessing every atrocity they committed? She was born in the eighteenth century. She lived an incredibly sheltered life, then spent what must have felt like an eternity with psychotic killers, seeing all of the sadistic shit they hid from Bastien. And she still hasn’t found peace.”
Yuri recalled again the way she always vanished when he encountered vampires.
What she must have seen during those two centuries.
“I just thought it kinder not to tell him,” Marcus finished.
Yuri had to agree.
Cat must also, because she had not once asked Yuri to let Bastien know she was there or to convey a message to him.
“Seth and David see her?” Yuri asked after a time.
“I’m sure they do.”
“Do they speak to her?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. At least, I’ve never seen them do it. Probably for the same reason I don’t talk to spirits. Because there really is always a downside.”
“Why do they let her stay?”
“I think they feel sorry for her. I mean, even though he can’t see her or hear her, Bastien is all she has left. What would she do if they banished her and took her brother away from her?”
Yuri swallowed. And if they had removed her from this house, Yuri would never have met her.
“So,” Marcus spoke after a pause, “have you found it yet?”
“Found what?” Yuri asked absently, his mind a maelstrom.
“The catch. The downside to speaking with her.”
Yuri responded with a slow nod.
“What is it?” Marcus asked curiously.
Yuri tried and failed to force a smile. “I’m falling in love with her.”
Marcus swore.
* * *
Yuri encountered no more of the unusually skilled vampires in the nights that followed, though slacker vamps continued to proliferate. Sometimes he hunted without Stanislav and asked Cat to accompany him so they could speak freely and enjoy the night—or most of it—together. Sometimes he hunted with Stanislav and counted the hours until he could end his hunt and return to David’s to spend time with Cat.
Seth had suggested that younger immortals hunt in pairs until the Immortal Guardians discovered the source of the new vampire uprising. Yuri had seen five hundred years and Stanislav four hundred. Both had no difficulty holding their own in battles with multiple slacker vampires. And Yuri felt confident they would also have no problem defeating any of the more skilled vampires they might encounter.
But something about this uprising left Yuri uneasy. And he found himself worrying about Stanislav when they hunted separately. The two had lived near each other and hunted either together or in the same area pretty much since Stanislav had been transformed and Seth had dropped him on Yuri’s doorstep, naming Yuri Stanislav’s mentor and trainer. Yuri loved Stanislav like a brother. And even though he knew his friend could handle himself exceedingly well in battle, Yuri just felt better hunting with him while this unknown army thrived around them.
Yuri opted to hunt with Stanislav again tonight. Cat didn’t mind and hied herself off to haunt network headquarters, where her brother and his wife, Melanie, spent most of their nights.
Damn, he couldn’t wait to get back to her.
It ended up being a good night. Yuri and Stanislav slew two different sets of vampires before the psychotic bastards could attack the humans they stalked. All were swift, clean kills. Neither immortal suffered more than the most inconsequential of injuries. And they managed to return to David’s earlier than usual only to discover that many of the other immortals in the area had also ended their hunts early, having had an easy night.
No immortals had suffered serious injuries.
No more skilled vampires had made an appearance.
Laughter and conversation flowed freely.
Yes, it was a good night.
The only thing that would make it better, Yuri thought as he followed Stanislav into the kitchen to raid the refrigerator, would be Cat’s return.
Dmitry and Alexei joined Yuri and Stanislav and helped them heap two huge platters high with fruits and breads and cheeses.
When the two Russian immortals carried their bounty into the living room, immortals and mortals alike pounced.
Over their heads, Yuri saw Cat appear on the opposite side of the room.
A moment later Bastien and Melanie entered through the front door.
Yuri gave the couple only a fleeting glance, his interest drawn to Cat.
She wore a pale yellow dress tonight, as demure as the others he had seen her wear, and looked as innocent as a girl in the first flush of womanhood. Her gaze searched the many immortals, humans, and gifted ones present until it fell upon him. Her face brightening with a smile, she offered him a little wave.
Yuri’s spirit lightened. Grinning, he winked and hurried to set his platter on the nearest coffee table so he could wade through the throng to sit with her. He might not be able to speak to her without raising eyebrows and prompting unwelcome questions, but he could enjoy her presence. He would have motioned for her to follow him down to his bedroom so they could be alone if he didn’t know how much she enjoyed the camaraderie these men and women shared. And all and sundry appeared to be in high spirits tonight.
Yuri found a love seat on the fringes of the room and claimed it for his own, his heart thumping madly as it always did when Cat seated herself beside him.
“Did your hunt go well?” she asked.
He nodded. Those delightful little tingles shot up his arm where it brushed hers, and he wished for the millionth time that they could truly touch. That he could hold her in his arms and feel her slight weight against him.
Laughter erupted, but Yuri missed whatever joke Darnell had cracked.
Cat watched it all with an envious smile.
As far as Yuri could tell, every immortal in the area was present save Lisette, whom he hadn’t seen very often of late. Even Seth and David had taken some time off, relaxing amongst the others and watching Ami with affectionate indulgence.
Yuri shook his head when Ami’s baby began to hiccup in the womb. He had never heard of such before. But then, he hadn’t spent any time around pregnant women since acquiring preternatural hearing.
He glanced at Cat, wondering if she could hear it, if seeing Marcus smooth his hand over his wife’s round tummy would spark that familiar sadness.
But Cat wasn’t looking at the couple. She was staring at the bay window that graced the front of the room. Unease swept her features as her throat moved in a swallow. She reached for his hand, forgetting she couldn’t grasp it.
Yuri frowned.
When she met his gaze, she looked terrified.
Alarm bells rang. “What is it?” he asked softly, uncaring if the others heard.
“Something’s coming.” Rising, she shook her head and began to back away, placing more distance between herself and the window. “Something’s coming, Yuri,” she repeated.
What the hell?
Before Yuri could ask her what was coming and why it frightened her so, Seth spoke.
“Marcus, Ami has spent too many days and nights cooped up inside. Why don’t the two of you go for a ride? Roll down the windows. Get some fresh air. Enjoy the night.�
��
“Sounds good to me,” Marcus replied. “Are you up to it, sweetling?”
Yuri kept his gaze on Cat, wishing like hell they were alone.
“Absolutely!” Ami said.
Cat glanced at the eldest immortals. “They know. They know something’s coming. They want Marcus to take Ami to safety.”
Yuri followed her gaze and saw David toss Marcus his keys.
“Take my car,” David said. “More room for you both to stretch your legs.”
Everyone called cheerful good-byes as the couple left through the back door.
Silence fell as the others in the room began to glean that all was not well.
Tension rose as all eyes went to Seth and David.
Outside, David’s car started and tore off down the drive, accompanied by Ami’s fading laughter.
The two elders rose as one. Their faces turned to stone.
“Everyone out,” Seth ordered.
“What’s going on?” Roland asked, rising.
Yuri rose, too.
Everyone rose.
But none left.
The air began to crackle with static electricity.
Cat wrapped her arms around her middle, her anxiety ratcheting up enough that Yuri could damn near feel it himself.
Yuri glanced down as the hair on his arms rose. The hair on the back of his neck did the same.
Thunder rumbled on the night.
Seth shook his head, his eyes beginning to glow. “No time. Just go.”
“Use the escape tunnels in the basement,” David instructed beside him, his eyes glowing a vibrant amber.
Yuri had known David, one of the most even-tempered immortals, for five centuries. It took a hell of a lot to spark the kind of fury he now saw in that one’s eyes.
“Don’t return until we summon you,” David finished.
“Fuck that!” Bastien blurted. “I don’t know what the hell is coming, but we aren’t going to leave you to face it alone!”
Yuri silently agreed and curled his fingers around the hilts of the daggers he always carried, even after disarming at the end of a night’s hunt.
“Just go!” Seth snapped. “Get the Seconds out while you can. They—”
The large bay window exploded inward. Shards of glass rocketed through the living room, finding purchase in mortal and immortal flesh, as something catapulted inside as though it had been shot from a cannon.
Instinct driving him, Yuri spun around, dove for Cat to protect her, and ended up passing right through her. As he hit the ground, he saw the married immortal men all do the same for their wives, trying to shield them from the threat.
The coffee table near Seth and David splintered as a bloody body struck it. The unconscious male who had been tossed through the window hit the floor and rolled twice before coming to a halt near Yuri, lips parted to reveal fangs. A second body flew bonelessly through the bay window, knocking more shards free as it went. It hit the floor just beyond the first. Another vampire. Unconscious. His face and form shredded and bloody.
“There!” a voice bellowed outside as wind whipped the curtains.
The word shook them all from their shocked paralysis. Everyone lunged for the weapons they had removed earlier, rose, and braced themselves for a fight.
Everyone except Seth and David, who glared into the night through the broken window.
Drawing his daggers, Yuri peered into the darkness outside and wished he had his katanas.
Cat stepped up beside him, her fear palpable.
Lightning streaked across the sky, momentarily illuminating a figure who strode toward the house, still yards away, a black silhouette with . . . wings? . . . carrying something or someone in his arms.
“There’s your fucking proof !” The male, damned near seven feet tall by Yuri’s estimate, leapt through the gaping hole in the window and faced them with furious defiance.
He did indeed bear wings. Huge, dark wings with partially translucent feathers that made him appear even larger when he spread them, and damned formidable.
An immortal, then. A shapeshifter? But one Yuri had never seen before.
Little bits of feather, sliced away by the fragments of glass that remained in the window frame, floated on the breeze and settled quietly on the floor.
The male’s eyes glowed golden like Seth’s, very unusual. Almost all immortals had brown eyes that glowed amber whenever they were in the grips of strong emotion.
The male’s face twisted with pure, animalistic rage.
Yuri’s astonished gaze fell upon the limp form cradled in the intruder’s arms.
Lisette.
“What the hell?” her brother Étienne shouted and leapt forward, swords flashing.
The winged immortal looked at Étienne.
Étienne seemed to hit an invisible wall and flew backward.
Shit!
Étienne’s twin, Richart, vanished and reappeared behind the intruder, daggers raised.
Without even turning around, the winged male sent Richart flying, too. “She tried to warn you it wasn’t me!” he snarled at Seth.
Yuri caught Stanislav’s eye.
Stanislav nodded.
Yuri looked just beyond him to Roland, older than Yuri by a good four hundred years.
Roland met his gaze and nodded, his face grim.
“She tried to tell you I couldn’t have raised the new vampire army,” the intruder bellowed, “because I was too busy being fucking tortured!”
Confident the three of them could take him, Yuri jerked his head toward the male.
As one, he, Roland, and Stanislav leapt forward.
That furious golden gaze speared Yuri.
A wave of power rippled through the room, the winged male at its epicenter.
Yuri swore as it hit him like the blast wave of a fucking A-bomb, sweeping him—and every other immortal and mortal present, save Seth and David—off his feet.
Yuri hit the floor hard and heard Cat scream. Looking up, he saw her form flicker, then vanish. Not the way she usually did: there one second, gone the next, like a teleporter. But like a hologram that had short-circuited, or a mirror that had shattered.
Fear rose within him, clamping a fist around his heart and making it difficult to breathe.
“I didn’t . . . fucking . . . do it!” the winged male roared. “And because you wouldn’t believe us, because you couldn’t believe one of your precious Immortal Guardians would betray you, the new vampire army I didn’t fucking raise grew unchecked!”
Had Seth accused this man of raising the new vampire army?
“Well, there’s your proof!” the intruder roared and nodded at the vampires. “Read their minds! Unbury their memories! You won’t find me in any of them!”
Yuri tightened his clasp on his daggers and glanced around frantically, hoping Cat would reappear—if only for a moment—to let him know she was okay.
Seth held out a hand to the intruder, palm facing out in a just stay calm motion, and slowly backed toward the vampires. Kneeling, he placed a hand on the first vampire’s blood-soaked head.
Yuri gained his feet, feeling as if he had been kicked in the chest by a mule. Minutes ticked past as he fought the urge to race through the house in search of Cat, his gut telling him something was wrong, that something had happened to her.
Seth touched the second vampire.
The other immortals rose to their feet, faces pained. Mortals rose more slowly, some requiring the aid of their immortals.
Finally, Seth stood.
“You see?” the winged male demanded, the two words filled with wrath.
Seth shared another look with David. “What have you done to Lisette, Zach?”
“Watched over her. Tried to protect her when you wouldn’t.”
Zach? Yuri couldn’t recall ever having heard any mention of an immortal named Zach. And this was clearly an elder.
“What happened tonight?” Seth asked.
“Lisette and I went hunting toget
her.”
Lisette knew this male?
Seth opened his mouth.
“That’s right! Together!” Zach bellowed before Seth could speak. “Did you think I was going to leave her unprotected while you pissed away your time and let the vampire army grow in strength and numbers? Let them get their shit together? Let them nearly capture her?”
Yuri stared. No one spoke to Seth like that. No one. Who the hell was this immortal?
“The two of you were hunting,” David said, his voice calm. “What happened next?”
“We took on a dozen of the new breed of vampires. I thought with me at her back she would be safe. But . . .”
“You can defeat a dozen vampires without lifting a weapon,” Seth pointed out.
“Killing one or two with a thought wouldn’t draw any notice,” Zach said. “But the kind of power it would take to kill a dozen would have alerted the Others to my location. If they found out about her, learned what she means to me—”
Others? Other what? Other vampires?
“You just exerted more power than that here,” Seth pointed out.
“They’ll assume it was you.”
“Fuck this,” Ethan, a young American immortal who had been trained by and had long been smitten with Lisette, blurted and clambered to his feet. “We don’t have time for if-I-woulda-coulda-shouldas. What’s wrong with Lisette?”
Yuri agreed.
Zach swallowed, nostrils flaring, moisture rising in his iridescent eyes. “I can’t wake her.” He clutched Lisette closer, rubbed his chin across her hair. “Her presence in my mind vanished, and when I turned around . . . she was falling.”
Seth took a step forward. “Give her to me.”
“Fuck you! I’m not letting you anywhere near her! Not after that little conversation you had with her.” His gaze circled the room. “Do your Immortal Guardians all know you accused her of collaborating with the vampires?”
Phantom Embrace Page 5
