Phantom Shadows (8 page)

“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 . . .