Page 12 (1/2)
Ben turned the key in the ignition, sitting nuine rattled to a rest He had to check his forht have accidentally altered it soic reaction
Yeah An allergic reaction that just so happened to turn an otherwise nor vampire
"Jesus Christ," Ben hissed as he cli
He reached the old building and fu padlock on the door With a es, he entered his private lab The place looked like shit outside, but inside, once you got past all the dilapidation and ghostlyremnants of the paper mill’s previous occupation, the setup was actually pretty sweet--all of it provided by a wealthy, anony efforts solely on the red powder known as Crimson
Ben’s office was located behind a spacious cell of ten-foot-high steel-link fencing Inside, there was a gleahted down by a collection of beakers, burners, a ital scale A wall of combination-locked cabinets housed canisters of assorted phars--serotonin accelerators, redients--none of it too hard to come by for an ex-chemist with business contacts in debt to him for nu dealer In the beginning, after he was released fro as a cheer, Ben would never have considered operating on the other side of the law But his staunch opposition to aniot hi years of torture in thelabs--put a fire in Ben’s belly to take a stand
He started rescuing abandoned and neglected anial channels proved too sluggish to be effective From there, it was a short fall into other questionable activities, club drugs being an easy, relatively low-risk venture After all, as the cri adults? The way Ben saw it, his rescue operation needed funding and he had so of value to offer to the clubbers and candykids of the rave crowds-- soet anyway from someone, somewhere, so why not his fro, she broke it off with hi--just for her--and he truly had, until his current patron ca last summer with a fat wad of cash in hand
At the time, Ben hadn’t understood the focused interest in Crimson If he’d been paid to step up production and distribution of Ecstasy or GHB, maybe it would have made more sense, but Crimson-- Ben’s own private recipe--had been one of the milder products he had produced In Ben’s trials, conducted prihtly y drink, with an increase in appetite and a lessening of inhibitions
Cri too Its effects vanished after about an hour In fact, the narcotic had seeenerous pay for its ht, he ienerous payments were about to coet in contact with his benefactor and report the terrible incident he’d witnessed at the nightclub His patron needed to know about the apparent probleree that Crimson had to be taken out of circulation immediately
Chapter Twelve
Dante followed the soft ru room of the compound’s mansion at street level He and Chase had arrived at the Order’s headquarters a few htclub and doing a further cons of trouble Now Chase was in the tech lab below, logged on to the Darkhaven coht’s events
Dante had his own report toto win him any attaboys with the formidable leader of the warriors
He found Lucan seated at the head of the long, elegantly set table in the candlelit dining rooh he had only recently returned from patrol himself Frolinted, giving the ier and command than what normally shrouded hies Gabrielle sat across Lucan’s lap, her head resting lovingly on his shoulder while she spoke across the table to Gideon and his h, including Lucan, whose humor had been rare to nonexistent before the arrival of the beautiful huinger-hued hair as gently as he esture that seemed to have become automatic in the short few months since the pair had been blood-bonded and mated
Lucan had it bad for his wo to pretend otherwise
Even Gideon and Savannah, the other couple in the dining room, looked to be head over heels in love with each other It was a fact that Dante hadn’t ever questioned in the thirty-plus years they’d been together but hadn’t really taken pointed notice of until this ether at the table, Gideon and histhe buttery brown skin of her long, tapered fingers Savannah’s dark cocoa eyes were soft when she gazed at her man, filled with a quiet joy that said there was nowhere else she’d rather be than at his side
Was this what it meant to be blood-bonded to so hi struck hiotten what true love looked like, it had been so long since he’d paused to notice it His parents had known a deep bond with each other They had set an example for him that seemed untouchable, more than he could ever hope for More than he had ever dared to iine Why should he, when death could take it all away in an instant? Death hadn’t spared either one of the it onto another
Dante watched the two couples in the dining room, struck by the sense of intimacy--the deep and easy sense of fa urge to back away and forget he’d been there at all Screw his report of ent down tonight It could wait until the other warriors ca in the hallway all night, or are you co the hell out of there unnoticed Lucan, a the most powerful of the Breed, had probably sensed Dante’s presence in the mansion before he’d even cooing on?" Lucan asked as Dante reluctantly strode inside "We got trouble out there?"
"It’s not good news, unfortunately" Dante shoved his hands into his coat pockets and leaned a shoulder against the wainscoted wall of the dining rooht for a Crione bad A kid out of the local Darkhaven had a little more than he could handle, evidently He went into Bloodlust at a dance club don, attacked a human, and nearly tore her throat open in front of a couple hundred witnesses"
"Jesus," Lucan hissed, his jaw cla her in a hard pace "Tell me you were able to avert that disaster"
Dante nodded "I peeled him off the woman before he could hurt her, but the kid was in bad shape He’d turned, Lucan, just like that By the tiue I took him behind the club and smoked him"
"Hoful," Gabrielle said, her fine brows pinched Gideon’s estured to the bite wound on Dante’s arht?" Savannah asked "Looks like you and your coat could both use a few stitches"