Phantom Shadows by Dianne Duvall Read Free Book Online Page A

various government agencies that were swathed in secrecy. Years tapping those contacts for information and enlisting their aid whenever the Immortal Guardians needed it. When those contacts had mysteriously disappeared a few weeks ago . . .
    It didn’t take much of an imagination to guess what had happened to them. The Immortal Guardians’ new enemy had gotten his hands on them. And the blame for it—all of what they were currently dealing with—could be laid squarely at Bastien’s feet. He had inadvertently set all of this into motion when he had begun his quest for revenge a lifetime ago.
    “Any luck finding new contacts?” Seth queried.
    Chris shook his head. “Some. But it’s slow going. I don’t know who exactly we’re dealing with, who we’re fighting, who has the power and influence needed to wipe the slate clean the way they did, so I have to be even more careful when approaching potential aids. There are a handful who escaped scrutiny and survived the sweep only because I hadn’t yet called upon them to act. I couldn’t then and can’t now because they’re still working their way up the ranks and aren’t yet in a position to find out what I need them to.”
    “Any word on who this Emrys prick is?” Marcus broached, his voice tight with hostility.
    It was a hostility shared by all those familiar with Ami’s past: Bastien, David, Darnell, Chris, and Seth. Melanie, too, he imagined, since she had been allowed into the loop.
    Emrys had been one of the bastards responsible for Ami’s capture a few years ago, as well as the months of torture she had endured afterward. Bastien didn’t know how Emrys had escaped Seth’s and David’s wrath when they had rescued Ami, and hoped like hell he wouldn’t again. If anyone needed to pay for past sins, Emrys did. Preferably with blood.
    “I’m getting closer, but still can’t say definitively.”
    “Did you find out how he was connected to Keegan?” Bastien asked.
    Fucking Montrose Keegan. Bastien wished he had never worked with the man. How the hell had Montrose known Emrys?
    “They went to college together and were in the same fraternity, but appear to have parted company once they graduated,” Chris said and motioned to the file in front of Bastien. “Keegan pursued a teaching career. Emrys went to work in the military’s bioweapons program. Everything I could dig up tells me they lost contact and didn’t speak again until Montrose looked him up during the vampire king’s reign.”
    “Is Emrys still military?” Sarah asked.
    “I don’t know. All of the intel on him stops approximately four years ago. There’s no mention of him retiring or being discharged from the army. Nor is he on any active duty lists or stationed on any known bases. We know he reappeared briefly in Texas a couple of years ago. But I still haven’t been able to ascertain whether the facility he surfaced in was military or mercenary. And there’s a big void in his history between his army days and his days at the facility. I’m still digging, but . . . as I said, it’s taking time.”
    “Just be careful,” Ami pleaded softly. “I don’t want you falling into their hands. I don’t want you disappearing like the others.”
    “May I say something?” Melanie asked, looking around the table tentatively.
    “Of course, Dr. Lipton,” David said.
    “While I was waiting for Bastien to regain consciousness, I had Linda examine the darts Richart found and it appears the dosage of the drug they deliver has increased substantially.” She looked up at Bastien. “That’s why it didn’t take as many darts to fell you as it did Richart, Étienne, and Lisette.”
    “Same drug, but more powerful?” Darnell said. “Emrys must have been behind this attack. He’s the one who gave Dennis the drug.”
    Bastien wished he would have killed Dennis—the self-proclaimed vampire king who had led the last uprising—when he had first met him over a decade ago. He simply hadn’t