Phantom Game (GhostWalkers 18)

“What would be the point of actually killing him, Jonas? If the spy is looking to acquire information on Lily’s child, they would need Jeff alive,” Camellia pointed out.

She was right. Whoever wanted to know about Ryland and Lily’s son needed Jeff alive. They needed Jeff to dreamwalk in order to get information from him. But who would have known to put a spy in Jeff’s dream to give the data to Whitney, if he was the one to send someone after Jeff? Jonas was no closer to that answer. In any case, he could be completely off target. It was only one possibility.

A soft, low-pitched hoot, the notes long and drawn out slowly over eight to ten seconds, slightly longer than Jonas knew a Great Gray owl would make to declare his territory, filled the night. Thirty seconds went by, and the male emitted the same call, letting all males know the territory was claimed and he would defend it. The owl was a distance away, yet he could be heard clearly, his low-pitched hoot traveling not only through the airwaves but along that communication center in the ground as well.

Jonas’s gaze jumped to Camellia’s. “You have this place wired.”

She nodded. “That’s why your friends are safer here.”

She began to walk from him, her pace unhurried but all purpose. He followed, watching the way the mist curled around her body, making her look as if parts of her were dissolving right in front of him. At times, it appeared as if her body had been cut in half, her middle gone, and he could see through her. He wasn’t shocked; he could hold his arm out and observe the same phenomenon in himself. The difference was, he was certain she knew why they could do it, but he didn’t.

“What is the owl saying to you? You have a mated pair of Great Grays, don’t you? The ghost owls. Phantoms. Like us. Nearly impossible to see if they don’t want to be seen.”

She nodded. “Yes, they come with me whenever I change locations. I tell them not to, but they don’t pay attention. Blue and Gray.” She sent him a little grin over her shoulder. “Really innovative names, right?”

He could see her having Great Gray owls. They flew low, just off the ground, no more than eighteen feet. They were silent, gliding mostly between perches. They preferred to sit on top of a broken tree stump and listen for prey with their acute hearing. They often flew just three feet above the ground with slow wingbeats, so silent even on the quietest nights they couldn’t be detected as they hunted for prey.

These particular owls perched on tree stumps where the roots went deep into the forest floor and were connected into the information web that spread throughout the area. Their raptor talons dug deep into the tree trunks they sat on. If they had news to convey, they could relay it through that web running under the ground.

Jonas was not yet adept at understanding everything he was hearing. He knew the male bird had conveyed a message and Camellia had instantly reacted to it. She was heading toward a particular part of her garden. He didn’t ask again what the owl had communicated. He did try to puzzle it out. He had to get skilled at reading the network, just as expert as she was.

“That threat we’re both feeling is creeping a little closer to us,” she said. “It’s not close enough to worry about,” she added when he reacted by lengthening his stride so he was breathing down her neck. Camellia was short, so that wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but he knew it was intimidating as hell.

She sent him a quick look over her shoulder again, this time, her eyes looking like a cat’s, a little wary, very feminine. “I would have told you immediately if your men were in trouble, Jonas.” There was a low note in her voice, a soft hint of rebuke.

He wasn’t going to apologize for needing to keep his brothers safe. “I told you, I have the same trust issues you do. You weren’t happy to see me—or them. We were trespassing. After what you told me about how you were treated, I can’t say that I blame you for how you feel about GhostWalkers or the program. On the other hand, that just makes it more likely that you’d do anything to protect yourself, including allow my men to be in harm’s way to provide yourself with an opportunity to escape.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” She sounded amused.

Jonas was tempted to reach out and grasp her shoulders to give her a little shake, but he didn’t. He was afraid if he touched her, it would turn into something altogether different from the reprimand he had in mind. He had to make an effort to repress the sudden amusement welling up out of nowhere. Since the moment he’d set eyes on her, his emotions had been all over the place, bouncing from anger and suspicion to amazement, desire and humor. She did that to him. And damned if he didn’t like it. Not that he would tell her that. She had way too many advantages as it was.