Phantom Game (GhostWalkers 18)

There was far more to Middlemist Red than anyone—even Dr. Peter Whitney—could have imagined. The remarkable shrub possessed great healing properties; the oil from the plant helped to prevent cell damage and reduce inflammation due to its potent antioxidant properties. There were so many other uses, from skin care to hair strengtheners to antiaging. But that didn’t even begin to cover Middlemist Red’s secrets.

Red had the ability to form a network and use it to spread out in every direction, just as the mycelium connected underground to the trees in the forest. Camellia hadn’t fully developed that gift before she’d escaped the compound with the other women. She wished she had, and yet the fact that she hadn’t probably saved her from being shipped to one of Whitney’s other facilities. Had he known what she was capable of, she might never have managed to escape.

It was possible that being completely alone had forced her to develop her talents faster. She’d concentrated on them, practicing when she had no one to talk to but her plants.

When she fled, she’d broken into Whitney’s greenhouse and stolen some of his exotics. It had been a stupid thing to do, risking her life and freedom, but the compulsion had been too strong to resist. Camellia had waited in the greenhouse to make certain all the girls got away. The last one to make it out was Marigold. Mari’s man and his friends, all of whom were GhostWalkers, had aided the girls’ escape. While she waited, Camellia gathered up the plants that she wanted to bring with her, including Middlemist Red. She had known Middlemist Red wanted to leave with her. All along, the plant had been in on the escape plans the women had made together. Red had made it known to Camellia that it was essential the plant go with her. That was one thing that had made Camellia feel as if she wasn’t entirely alone.

Due to her ability to merge with any organic and biological network, Camellia was completely tuned to the entire area she claimed. When she couldn’t find a hidden threat, she expanded her search, using the mycelium beneath the ground to see outside her garden. She found the men camping. There were two of them. Hadn’t the owls and wolves reported three men?

Camellia puzzled over that discrepancy. She couldn’t reach out to any of her sentries because if she was right, and one of Whitney’s supersoldiers was close, he might feel the surge in energy that accompanied her “talking” to the owls or wolves. It wasn’t really speaking, more like pushing images into their heads, but she had established herself as the nucleus in a vast network of communication in the forest, and the creatures were used to interacting with her.

She needed to get close to those two men and ascertain if they were enhanced—if they were Whitney’s supersoldiers come to take her back—or if they were innocent hikers or hunters. It was impossible to tell from this distance. Moving meant possible detection. She considered the risks. Perhaps it would be better to move the mycelium closer to the surface right beneath them. The underground network could give her a better feel of their energy. Making up her mind, she tapped into the natural grid and sent the command.

She was very aware of the two men sitting close to the fire. She knew one was feeling ill and drinking water continually. The other man was looking after him and acting as a sentry, occasionally getting up to peer over the rocks surrounding them to ensure they were safe from any wild animals. Although they were close to the fire, they weren’t facing it directly. Just that small detail made her uneasy. A trained soldier would know not to look directly into flames at night if they wanted to keep their vision.

Her uneasiness increased without warning. Why? Both men rose and moved to the rocks, sitting on them, rather than on the ground. The taller of the two wrapped a blanket of some kind around the sick one and then faced out toward the forest alertly. Was that what made her so uneasy? She took a deep breath, inhaling the scents around her. The air was free of fragrance, giving her the ability to smell an intruder if he was close.

There was nothing but the fresh scent of the forest, the soil and exotic flowers she was familiar with and could catalog. Juniper? Cedar? She inhaled again to see if she could actually isolate those two scents and track them outside or inside her garden. The red cedar was common in the forest, but she’d never really isolated that scent. And juniper? Spruce? There were spruce trees. Why were the tree scents so much more prominent to her all of a sudden? Was it because she’d brought the mycelium so much closer to the surface and it was connected to the trees, trees she was unable to see?