Phantom Game (GhostWalkers 18)

The others heard her. She could tell they had enhanced hearing, just as both she and Jonas did. The two men exchanged a long look.

“Why would you think we would turn you over to Whitney?” the approaching man asked. “I’m Kyle Forbes, by the way. Whatever these two jokers told you about me is probably exaggerated or not true. I’m mostly a nice guy. Whatever you did to create this defense grid, by the way, is sensational.”

He gave her a lopsided smile that genuinely lit his bright blue eyes. He looked to be around six feet tall or just under, with a medium build, but she could see from the way he moved and the muscles rippling beneath his clothing that his build was deceptive. The man was strong. His short dark hair spilled down onto his forehead, making his blue eyes seem even bluer.

“I’m a doctor, and I tried to figure out what was making me feel so sick, but I couldn’t. Jeff wasn’t as sick, although he got a headache. I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t as ill as I was, and Jonas wasn’t ill at all. Are you going to enlighten me? I really need to know. If you don’t tell me, I might go insane just looping that shit in my head.”

In spite of the circumstances, Camellia burst out laughing. “You might already be a little insane.” She took a step toward him, but Jonas reached out and caught her wrist, anchoring her to him, holding her in the safety of the trees right at the edge of the clearing.

She glanced up at his set features. She felt the slightest of warnings moving from his nervous system to hers, yet other than that strange vague threat moving toward them, still very much in the distance, she couldn’t find any danger directed at her.

“Answer Kyle’s first question,” Jeff suggested. “Why would you think we would have anything at all to do with Peter Whitney after what he did to us? Not only did he completely ruin and betray us, but he set us up to be murdered because we weren’t his perfect soldiers. We’re an embarrassment to him.”

“He did pair you with his women. And he paired Lily, the one woman he still calls his daughter, with a member of your unit. I have to say, that doesn’t sound like he wants you all dead,” she replied, doing her best to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

Jeff arched a brow and narrowed his eyes consideringly at her. “You have to know he thinks Ryland is inferior to Lily’s intellect and wants to make her a widow. He’d like to pair her with someone else. Now that he has his near-perfect and perfect teams, he would also like to rid himself of the embarrassment of his mistakes, particularly Team One.”

“Do you have proof of that? I escaped some time ago,” Camellia admitted. “I haven’t heard much after I left. I didn’t dare try to contact anyone. It was too dangerous.”

“Would you believe me?” Jeff challenged back.

Would she? She could hear lies. Middlemist Red could hear lies. Red had protected herself for centuries. “Depends on whether or not you tell me the truth. Try me and see.”

“Whitney wants their son, and he’d like to pair Lily with someone else. Whitney has made three past attempts to acquire their son, and we know of at least two attempts he’s made to pair Lily to one of his supersoldiers. And yes, we did find proof that Whitney has been trying to send Ryland and the rest of us on suicide missions as well.”

Camellia turned that over in her mind. That would be like Whitney. He wouldn’t just kill the soldiers outright. They were his creations, and he would want even their deaths to be useful. He would put them in highly dangerous situations in order to test them. To see if they measured up. He would want them to succeed, and yet he would also want them to fail so he could go forward with his agenda.

That’s the reason it’s important for you to learn to create the fog and to use the mycelium network when you need it.

One of many reasons, Jonas said.

He pulled her closer to him. As always with her, in spite of his obvious strength, he was gentle, barely tugging, but he put enough pressure on her to force her to take the couple of steps to cover the distance between them. Immediately, his arm swept around her waist, locking her back to his front. That now-familiar sizzling sensation began along her nerve endings and moved to her veins, igniting a slow burn that spread through her body. He dipped his chin onto the top of her head and rubbed it so strands of her dark hair mixed with blond stubble, connecting them together.