Christine Feehan: Predatory Game

The sixth book in the GhostWalker series, 2008

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I want to thank Domini Stottsberry for her help with the tremendous amount of research necessary to make this book possible. Brian Feehan and Morey Sparks deserve much gratitude for talking rescues and action and answering endless questions! As always, Cheryl, you are incredible! Thanks to Dr. Chris Tong for his patience in trying to teach me about everything from physics to biology, and to Tyler Grinberg and Cecilia Feehan for their help in working with impossible theories. And of course, I would never get anywhere without Manda!

SIGNIFIES shadow

SIGNIFIES protection against evil forces

SIGNIFIES the Greek letter psi, which is used by parapsychology researchers to signify ESP or other psychic abilities

SIGNIFIES qualities of a knight-loyalty, generosity, courage, and honor

SIGNIFIES shadow knights who protect against evil forces using psychic powers, courage, and honor

The lights from oncoming cars hurt his eyes and seemed to pierce right through his skull, stabbing at his brain until he wanted to scream. He quickly tuned the radio station until the soft, sexy voice of the Night Siren flooded the car. It was taped, but it helped. His vision tunneled, so that everything took on a dream-like quality. Buildings flashed by, cars appeared as streaks of light rather than solid matter.

“Where are we going?”

He jumped. For a moment he had forgotten he wasn’t alone. Throwing an impatient glance at the whore seated beside him, he felt the terrible pounding in his head, which had just begun to ease, return. In the dark she looked a little like the woman he needed. If she kept her mouth shut, he could pretend. Tempted to tell her she was going to hell very soon, he forced a slight smile instead. “You’re getting paid, aren’t you? What difference does it make if we drive around for a little bit?”

She leaned forward and fiddled with the radio.

He slapped at her hand. “Don’t touch anything.” He had the station tuned right where he wanted it-needed it. The Night Siren’s voice was drifting out over the airwaves, making his body hard and his head clear. The woman wasn’t going to make it through the hour if she touched that dial again.

He kept his eye on the car he was following. He knew what he had to do. He had a job and he was damned good at it. The whore was such a good cover, and gave him such an anticipation of the pleasure to come later. He hadn’t been caught yet. Damn Whitney for his interference. The doctor had threatened to send someone else again. Stupid man didn’t like his reports. Well, fuck him. The doctor thought he was so superior, so intelligent, and was worried- worried -about the situation deteriorating. What a crock of bullshit. There was no situation, nothing was deteriorating. He could handle surveillance on a GhostWalker any day of the week.

Whitney thought his precious GhostWalkers were supersoldiers to be revered. Well, screw that. GhostWalkers were genetic mutations, aberrations, abominations, not the fucking miracles Whitney purported them to be. The entire lot of them should be wiped from the face of the earth, and he was the man to do it. They were government experiments that should have been scrapped long before they were ever let loose on the world.

He saw himself as the guardian, the lone man standing between the mutants and the humans. He should be revered. Whitney should bow down to him, kiss his feet, thank him for his reports and his attention to detail…

“You never told me your name. What do I call you?”

The voice jerked him out of his reverie. He wanted to slap the little whore. To pound his fists into her face until there was nothing there but bloody pulp. To take her head between his hands and hear a satisfying crack just to shut her up, but that was for later. If she kept her mouth shut he could fantasize that she was the Night Siren.

The Night Siren belonged to him and he’d have her soon enough. He just had to get rid of the GhostWalkers once and for all. And then she’d do everything he told her.

“You can call me Daddy.”

The whore had the audacity to roll her eyes at him, but he resisted the urge to punish her. He had other plans for her.

“I am a naughty girl,” she said and leaned over to rub his crotch. “And you obviously like me that way.”

“Don’t talk,” he snapped, and sighed when she opened his jeans. Let her just go to work on him while he took care of business. It would keep her mouth and hands occupied. He could look at her skin and hair and everything would be all right. It was going to be a long night tonight, and at least he could look forward to later.

Up ahead the car he’d been following pulled to the curb. It was a strange thing to do, but he couldn’t get caught-and he couldn’t lose them. He pulled over as well and waited while the whore worked on him, the rush beginning to flood his veins like a drug.