by Lara Adrian
“Thanks.”
When the heavy wood doors clicked shut, Rio turned his full attention to the ringing phone line on the other end of his call. The compound’s computerized answering intercepted and he punched in the code for the tech lab.
Gideon picked up without hesitation. “Talk to me, buddy.”
“I’m at Reichen’s,” Rio said, unnecessary information since the compound’s system had certainly already confirmed the incoming phone number. But Rio’s head was pounding too hard for him to do a lot of extraneous processing. He needed to convey his relevant intel while he was still making sense. “The trip was uneventful, and I’m here with the woman at Reichen’s Darkhaven.”
“You got her contained somewhere?”
“Yeah,” Rio replied. “She’s cooling her heels in a guest room upstairs.”
“Good. Nice work, man.”
The unwarranted praise made him clamp his teeth together hard. And the combination of his churning hunger and the spin of his head made him suck in a ragged breath of air. He let it back out on a low curse.
“You all right, Rio?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, my ass,” Gideon said. Not only was the vampire a genius when it came to technology, but he also had the uncanny ability to smell a load of horseshit when it was being shoveled at him. Even when it was being shoveled at him from another continent away. “What’s going on with you? You don’t sound good at all, amigo.”
Rio rubbed his drumming temple. “Don’t worry about me. We’ve got a bigger problem over here. Turns out the female reporter is a Breedmate, Gideon.”
“Ah, fuck. Are you serious?”
“I saw her birthmark with my own eyes,” Rio replied.
Gideon murmured something urgent yet indiscernible to someone else apparently in the lab with him. The answering deep growl of a cool Gen One voice could belong to none other than Lucan, the Order’s founder and leader.
Great, Rio thought. Although it wasn’t as if he was planning to keep the news from the highest-ranking warrior of the group, so he might as well clue him in on all the facts now.
“Lucan’s here,” Gideon informed him, in case he missed that fact. “You alone over there, Rio?”
“Yep. Sitting all by my lonesome in Reichen’s study.”
“All right. Hang on. I’m gonna put you on video telecom.”
Rio’s mouth twisted grimly. “I thought you might.”
He glanced up as the large flat-panel blinked on across from him. Like a window opened on a next-door room, the screen filled with a real-time image of Gideon and Lucan seated in the Boston compound’s tech lab. Gideon’s eyes were intense as he gazed over the rims of his pale blue shades, his cropped blond hair a spiky, mad-scientist mess, as usual.
Under Lucan’s furrowed black brows, his gaze was also serious, his light gray eyes narrowed as he leaned back in one of the big leather chairs that circled the Order’s conference table.
“The female is safe here at the Darkhaven, and she has not been harmed in any way,” Rio began without preamble. “Her name is Dylan Alexander, and from what I’ve gathered off her computer files she lives and works in New York City. I’m guessing she is in her late twenties, but there’s a chance she could be near thirty—”
“Rio.” Lucan leaned forward, peering intently at the video screen where Rio’s image was being projected back home. “We’ll get to her in a minute. What’s going on with you, man? You’ve been out of contact since February, and no offense, but you look like hell.”
Rio shook his head, raked a hand through his sweat-dampened hair. “I’m good. Just want to take care of this problem and be done with it, you know?”
He wasn’t sure if he was talking about Dylan Alexander and her photos, or the other, longer-term problems he’d been dealing with since the warehouse explosion that might have killed him. Should have killed him, damn it.
“Everything’s cool with me, Lucan.”
The vampire’s expression held steady, measuring on the other end of the video feed. “I don’t appreciate being lied to, my friend. I need to know if the Order can still count on you. Are you still with us?”
“The Order is all I have, Lucan. You know that.”
It was the truth, and it seemed to satisfy the shrewd Gen One. For now.
“So, the reporter you’re holding over there is a Breedmate.” Lucan sighed, rubbing his palm over his strong square jaw. “You’re going to have to bring her in, Rio. To Boston. You need to explain a few things to her beforehand, about the Breed and about her link to us, and then you need to bring her in. Gideon will handle the transportation.”
The other warrior was already typing away furiously at his keyboard, making it happen. “I can have our private jet waiting to pick you up at Tegel Airport tomorrow night.”
Rio acknowledged the plans with a firm nod, but there were still a few loose ends to consider. “She was booked on a flight out of Prague to New York today. She has family and friends who’ll be expecting her home.”
“You’ve got access to her e-mail,” Gideon put in.
“Send a group message using her account, explaining that she’s been delayed for a few days and will be in contact as soon as possible.”
“What about the pictures she took of the cave?” Rio asked.
Lucan answered that one. “Gideon tells me you have the camera and her computer. She needs to understand that everyone who has copies of those pictures is a risk to us—one we can’t afford to let slide. So, she’ll have to help us by killing her story and destroying every copy of every photograph she’s let loose.”
“And if she won’t cooperate?” Rio could already imagine how well this conversation was going to go with her. “What do we do then?”
“We track down those individuals she’s been in contact with, and we obtain the images by whatever means necessary.”
“Mind-scrub them all?” Rio asked.
The set of Lucan’s mouth was grave. “Whatever it takes.”
“And the woman?” Rio wanted to be clear. “As a Breedmate, we can’t just scrub her arbitrarily. She would be given some choice in this, wouldn’t she?”
“Yes,” Lucan said. “She does have a choice. Once she knows about the existence of the Breed and the mark she bears that links her to us, she can decide whether she wants to be a part of our world, or return to her own and give up all knowledge of our kind. That’s the way it has always been done. It’s the only way.”
Rio nodded. “I’ll take care of it, Lucan.”
“I know you will,” he said, no challenge or doubt in the statement, just pure trust. “And, Rio?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed those livid glyphs on you, my man.” Narrowed silver eyes fixed on him over the distance. “Make sure you feed. Tonight.”
CHAPTER
Ten
Dylan sat near the head of the four-poster bed, staring intently at the illuminated digital display on her cell phone.
Looking for service … Looking for service…
“Come on,” she whispered softly under her breath as the message repeated in agonizing slow motion. “Come on, work, damn it!”
Looking for service…
No signal available.
“Shit.”
She’d lied to her abductor about having a cell phone. Her razor-thin mobile had been stashed in one of the side pockets of her cargo pants all this time, not that having it was doing her much good right now.
Her expensive international service was sketchy at best. Dylan had tried dialing out for help several times in the past hour, with the same frustrating result. All she was doing by refusing to give up was wasting precious battery time. She’d lost the cell phone charger and the power converter doohickey a few days into the trip; now she only had two bars of juice left, and this current ordeal seemed far from over.
As if to punctuate that fact, the lock on the door snicked free and someone twisted the crystal knob fr
om outside.
Dylan hurriedly powered the device down and stuffed it under the pillow behind her. She was just bringing her hand out as her posh prison door swung open.
Rio strode in carrying a wooden tray of food. The aromas of fresh sourdough bread, garlic, and roasted meat drifted in ahead of him. Dylan’s mouth watered as she caught a glimpse of a thick, grilled sandwich heaping with sliced chicken, marinated red peppers and onion, cheese, and crisp green lettuce.
Oh, God, did it look wonderful.
“Here’s your lunch, as promised.”
She forced a careless shrug. “I told you, I’m not going to eat anything you give me.”
“Suit yourself.”
He set the tray down on the bed next to her. Dylan tried not to look at the scrumptious sandwich or the cup of ripe strawberries and peaches that accompanied it. There was also a bottle of mineral water on the tray and a short cocktail glass with a generous two-and-a-half-finger pour of pale amber liquid that smelled sweet and smoky, like very pricey Scottish whisky. The kind her father used to pickle himself in nightly, despite that they couldn’t afford his habit.
“Is the liquor to help me wash down the sedatives you put in the food, or did you put the mickey in the drink?”
“I have no intention of drugging you, Dylan.” He sounded so sincere, she almost believed him. “The drink is there to relax you, if you need it. I’m not going to force anything on you.”
“Huh,” she said, noticing a subtle change in his demeanor from before. He was still immense and dangerous-looking, but when he stared at her now, there was a sober, almost pained resignation about him. Like he had some unpleasant business that he needed to get out of the way.
“If you’re not here to force anything on me, then why do you look like you’re delivering me my last meal?”
“I came to talk to you, that’s all. There are some things I need to explain to you. Things you need to know.”
Well, it was about time she got some answers. “Okay. You can start by telling me when you’re going to let me out of here.”
“Soon,” he said. “Tomorrow night we’ll be leaving for the States.”
“You’re taking me back to America?” She knew she sounded too hopeful, especially when he was still including himself in the scenario. “Are you going to release me tomorrow? Are you letting me go home?”
He walked slowly around the foot of the bed, over to the wall with the shaded window. He leaned one shoulder against the wall, his tattooed, muscular arms crossed over his chest. For a long minute, he didn’t say anything. Just stood there until Dylan wanted to scream.
“You know, I was supposed to meet someone in Prague this morning—someone who knows my boss and has probably already called him to ask about me. I’m booked on a flight back to New York this afternoon. There are people expecting me back home. You can’t just pluck me off the street and think no one is going to notice I’m gone—”
“No one is expecting you now.”
Dylan’s heart started to thud heavily in her chest, as if her body was aware something big was coming even before her brain was fully on board with it. “What … what did you just say?”
“Your family, friends, and your place of work have all been informed that you are safe and sound, but expect to be out of contact for a while.” At her certain look of confusion, he said, “They all received an e-mail from you a few minutes ago, letting them know that you were taking some extra time off to see more of Europe on your own.”
Anger flared in her now, even stronger than the wariness she knew just a second before. “You contacted my boss? My mother?” The job was of little concern to her at the moment, but it was the thought of this man getting anywhere near her mom that really set Dylan off. She swung her legs off the bed and stood up, practically shaking with rage. “You bastard! You manipulative son of a bitch!”
He drew back, out of her path as she charged at him. “It was necessary, Dylan. As you said, there would have been questions. People would have been worrying about you.”
“You stay the fuck away from my family—do you hear me? I don’t care what you do to me, but you leave my family out of this!”
He remained calm, considerate. Maddeningly so. “Your family is safe, Dylan. And so are you. Tomorrow night, I will be taking you back to the States, to a secret location that belongs to those of my kind. I think once you’re there, a lot of what you’re going to hear now will be easier for you to understand.”
Dylan stared at him, her mind stumbling over his odd choice of words: those of my kind.
“What the hell is going on here? I’m serious … I need to know.” Ah, hell. Her voice was quaking like she was about to lose it in front of him—this stranger who had stolen her freedom and violated her privacy. She would be damned before she showed any weakness to him, no matter what she was about to hear. “Please. Tell me. Give me the truth.”
“About yourself?” he asked, his deep, accented voice rolling through the syllables. “Or about the world you were born to be a part of?”
Dylan couldn’t find words to speak. Instinct made her hand move up to the back of her neck, where her nape seemed to tingle with heat.
Rio nodded soberly. “It’s a rare birthmark. Maybe one in half a million human females are born with it, probably less. Women bearing the mark—women like you, Dylan—are very special. It means that you are a Breedmate. Women like you have certain … gifts. Abilities that separate you from other people.”
“What kind of gifts and abilities?” she asked, not even sure she wanted to have this conversation.
“Extrasensory skills, primarily. Everyone is different, with different levels of capabilities. Some can see the future or the past. Some can hold an object and read its history. Others can summon storms or command the will of living things around them. Some heal with a simple touch. Some can kill with just a thought.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she scoffed. “Nobody has those kinds of abilities outside of tabloid magazines and science fiction.”
He grunted, his mouth lifting at the corner. He was studying her too closely, trying to peel her apart with that penetrating topaz gaze. “I’m certain that you have a special skill too. What is yours, Dylan Alexander?”
“You can’t be serious.” She shook her head and gave a dismissive roll of her eyes.
But all the while she was thinking about the one thing that had always made her different. Her unreliable, inexplicable link to the dead. It wasn’t the same thing as what he was describing, though. It was something else completely.
Wasn’t it…?
“You don’t have to confide in me,” he said. “Just know that there is a reason you are not like other women. Maybe you feel that you don’t fit in with the world at large. Many women like you are more sensitive than the rest of the human population. You see things differently, feel things differently. There is a reason for all of that, Dylan.”
How could he know? How could he understand so much about her? Dylan didn’t want to believe anything he was saying. She didn’t want to believe that she was part of anything he was describing, yet he seemed to understand her more intimately than anyone ever had.
“Breedmates are uniquely gifted,” Rio said when she could only look at him in incredulous silence. “But the most extraordinary gift possessed by each is the ability to create life with those of my kind.”
Jesus. There it was again—the deliberate reference to his kind. And now he was talking about sex and breeding?
Dylan stared at him, reminded swiftly and vividly of just how easily he’d been able to pin her beneath his powerful, fully aroused body in that hotel in Prague. It didn’t take much to recall the heat of all that muscle pressed against her, though why the thought should make her heart beat faster, breath come harder, she really didn’t want to know.
Was he setting her up here for a repeat performance? Or did he actually think she was gullible enough to be seduced into believing any of this stuff about bei
ng different, about belonging to some mysterious other world she knew nothing about until now?
And why should she believe it? Because of that tiny birthmark on the back of her neck?
One that still felt kind of warm and electric against her palm. She brought her hand down and tucked her arms around herself.
Rio tracked her movements with his keen, too-sharp gaze. “I think you’ve noticed that I’m not quite like other men either. There is a reason for that as well.”
A heavy silence filled the room as he seemed to take his time measuring his words.
“It’s because I’m not just a man. I’m something more than that.”
Dylan had to admit he was more man than any other she’d known before. His size and power alone seemed to put him in a separate class. But he was all male, that she knew by the way he looked at her, his eyes hot as they traveled over her face and down her body.
He stared at her, unblinking, heatedly intense. “I am one of the Breed, Dylan. In your lexicon, for lack of a better term, I am a vampire.”
For one stunned second, she thought she had misunderstood him. Then, all the unease and tension that she had been feeling since Rio had walked into the room vanished in a great rush of relief.
“Oh, my God!” She couldn’t hold back her laughter. It barked out of her almost hysterically, a flood of disbelief and amusement washing away all her anxiety in an instant. “A vampire. Really? Because, you know, that makes so much more sense than everything I was guessing you might be. Not military, not a government spy, or a terrorist operative, but a vampire!”
He wasn’t laughing.
No, he simply stood there, unmoving. Watching her. Waiting until she looked up and met his unsmiling eyes.
“Oh, come on,” she chided him. “You can’t possibly expect me to believe that.”
“I realize it must be difficult to grasp. But it’s the truth. That’s what you asked for, Dylan. What you’ve been asking for since the moment you and I first saw each other—the truth. Now you have it.”
Good Lord, he seemed so serious about all of this. “What about the other people living here? And don’t try to tell me that there’s no one else in this huge estate because I’ve heard them walking the hallways, and I’ve heard muffled conversations. So, what about them? Are they vampires too?”
