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The agent spoke to her, but his focus was centered wholly on Andreas, who loo off heat like a furnace "It’s okay," said the agent "I’ve got hient stepped farther into the rooth of Claire His weapon reet As he neared, Andreas let loose with a feral-sounding growl The heat that Claire felt co the fine hairs at the back of her neck stand on end "Please," she finally ed to croak "You don’t have any idea what you’re doing Put down your weapon" The agent’s eyes darted to her for only a fraction of a second, as though to gauge her sanity--or lack thereof "You need to step aside, Frau Roth I have specific orders here I mean to carry them out" Specific orders to kill Andreas on the spot The realization sank into her consciousness like poison They were a death squad, just as Andreas knew they would be Wilhelm had called for his death

Not only that, but he would have his ent’s voice was lethally cold now, and in the narrowing distance outside the bedroo a swift climb up the stairs "Step aside, Frau Roth I’ain" The rifle ca threat She had no intention of cooperating with the agent, but in that next instant she sensed, rather than saw, Andreas’s ar speed Heat traveled all along her side with theout an electrical current that vibrated deep in her bones Andreas locked his fist around the gun’s barrel His arers in rings of pulsing white-hot light The energy leapt froht undulations Instantly, the agent’s eyes ide His head lolled back on his shoulders and his body went into a violent spas skin and hair Sickened, she looked away as the Breed male dropped to the floor and convulsed from the sudden dose of lethal power Before he was dead, another agent ca into the room, his weapon at the ready "Claire, stay back!"

Andreas roared at her At that sa it like a cannonball that materialized out of the palm of his hand He threw the orb of fire at the newly arrived agent, killing him on the spot Flames erupted all around Fire crept up the far wall and onto the ceiling Andreas shot a fierce look over his bleeding shoulder to where Claire stood behind him, awestruck by the terrible power he possessed "Coet out of here" She followed hi Twoup the stairs to head the twin fireballs that exploded like bo a large bite out of the curving wooden staircase As they navigated to the ground level, Claire stayed close to hiy that rode every inch of his body When she got soThe incinerating glow that had covered hiain If she touched him now, even accidentally, she kneould kill her But as an inferno of his ed hotter upstairs and in the foyer, and as Andreas dispatched the rest of the death squad that had come to kill him on what could only have been Wilhel--this man she had possibly never fully understood--was her best chance of surviving the next few minutes So she ran when he told her to run She stuck as close as she dared It wasn’t until they both were out of the rass outside, that Claire allowed herself to drop to her knees and let the tears fall She pivoted around, choking on the crisp night air and her own strangling confusion of emotions Her house was ablaze More lives were lost She wanted to scream, but in the deepest corner of her heart, all she kneas a selfish, swa She swiveled her head to look at hi tears How many times in the past few months had she wished that he were still alive?

How many tears had she secretly shed for him and his perished kin? No matter what Andreas said, she could not allow herself to believe for one second that Wilhel to do with the destruction of Andreas’s Darkhaven She hoped with every shred of her being that his accusations rong But now, after what happened here tonight, she couldn’t dislodge the sharp pebble of doubt that had embedded itself under her skin And she knew she wouldn’t be able to rest until she knew of Wilheluilt or innocence for a fact She needed answers Now more than ever, she needed to understand just what kind of ht?" Andreas asked as she wiped her wet eyes and got to her feet Claire nodded, but inside she felt nu in the pit of her stoht," she murmured "I didn’t know, Andreas I swear to you, I didn’t know" He stared at her in silence, watching her through the pulsating glow of fire that still traveled his body He was bleeding and wounded, monstrous with heat, all because of Wilhel Wilhelht have to hined Andreas’s death warrant herself "They will send ," she said "When this unit doesn’t report in to Wilhelm, he will only send in ri "He will send in more men and I will kill them, too, until I take out so many that Roth has no choice but to face me himself I welcoet there" Claire shuddered internally at the thought of so much violence and death She was desperate for answers of her own from Wilhelm, and she wasn’t about to stand around and wait to witness more bloodshed and flames She walked past Andreas and headed toward the road that led off the estate "Claire," he called fro with a new kind of resolve Andreas’s deep voice reached out to her from the stretch of darkness in her wake "Claire where the hell do you think you’re going?" She paused, turned a weary look on hie on him Now I need the truth from him Most of his business is conducted froo there, we’ll both find the anse need"

Chapter Eight

Reichen wasn’t sure which orse: the persistent pain of his gunshot wound, or the way his gut twisted with the urgency to feed One thing would take care of both problems Blood He felt a snarl work its way up his parched throat as his nostrils filled with the led odors of dozens of huether in the tight colance up and single out viable prey--the need to quench his burning thirst--was al "Keep your head down," Claire whispered to hiainst his ear "Your eyes, too, Andre" Bad enough he was injured and bleeding, and that both he and Claire sood idea to let any of the passengers seated around theet a look at his transformed eyes or his rather unusual dental situation At least his fury had cooled He and Claire had walked for about an hour before the glow of his pyrokinesis had ebbed They’d had no choice but to travel on foot Until his ot too near him, would incinerate to ashes Claire seemed to pick up on that fact, and she’d kept a careful distance froet his internal syste shot, Reichen could have easily walked the entire two-hour distance fro He could have crossed the miles at a speed human eyes couldn’t possibly track, but no ould he have abandoned Claire to the night by herself Not after everything she’d been through Or, rather, everything that he had put her through

She eary and fatigued, even now, seated next to hiue station and asked her which line they needed to take They’d had no e with a little Breed-born sleight of hand At his suggestion, the iving them the opportunity to slip past the turnstiles and board the train with no one the wiser The trick had sapped just about all of his strength, but at least Claire was out of the cold and able to relax He, on the other hand, was as twitchy and tense as he could be Reichen tucked his chin down to his chest and hunched his shoulders to help conceal his assorted visible proble

It gnawed at him, always at its most fevered after the fire Under ordinary circuo a week or , but since the attack on his Darkhaven and the reawakening of the deadly power inside him, his thirst was persistent Al his kind fall into blood addiction It didn’t happen often,those of weaker minds and lesser years, or, on the other end of the spectruenerations of the Breed whose bloodlines were less diluted with huenes and closer to the Ancients--the alien fathers of the vampire race on Earth Reichen’s pyrokinetic curse was bad enough, but the thirst that rose in its wake horrified him every bit ashonest, with himself at least, he could hardly deny that the fires were beco part of who he was Since he’d begun his o, the fires were strengthening Now they sprang to life with barely a thought, burning deeper and longer, ripped with a blood thirst that could hardly be contained or sated He was losing himself to both, and he knew it If he stayed in Claire’s coravity of that thought coiled around hi in his periphery as a young hipster got up from his seat across the compartment from him and moved to a place that had been vacated at the last stop Reichen followed the hu s as he flopped down onto the seat White earbuds e into the human’s head Downcast, sullen eyes peeked out fros, all of the hipster’s focus rooted on the touch screen of his iPhone as he busied hi Reichen watched with the sa wildebeests at the watering hole, his hunting instincts prickling to attention, already separating the easiest prey from the pack of other commuters The train slowed As it pulled into a station, the huot up Reichen’shiently on his forearet off at the next station" He sat back down and tried not to let the irritated growl escape him as the train’s doors slid shut and his erstwhile meal ambled obliviously into the croly poured onto the platform A few ot off the train and walked the rest of the way to the Speicherstadt, Has pided by canal ays gloith incandescent light against the night sky The led aromas of coffee beans and spices rode on the crisp breeze as Claire led hie, then deeper into the historic district As the scents would indicate, sos appeared to still be in use as commodities warehouses; others had been converted to stores housing fine Oriental rugs Claire continued on for another couple of blocks before she paused in front of a brick-and-lihbors A trio of concrete steps flanked by delicate wrought-iron railings led up to an uns to Roth?" Reichen asked as they reached the top step She nodded "One of several private offices he keeps in the city Will you be able to open the locks?"

"If not by will, then by brute force," he said,in front of her to direct a mental command at the double dead bolts on the door He hit them hard with his mind, careful not to wake the fire that still lurked at the edge of his control, waiting for the excuse to burn again With a series of metallic clicks, the dead bolts twisted free and the door inched open When Claire started to pass him and walk inside, Reichen held her back with a look "Wait here while I look around It nized the irony in his protectiveness as he stepped into the dark building and searched for any signs of trouble Running into ents would be a definite problem, but he was by far the worst threat to Claire’s safety Especially in his current hungered state "All right," he told her when he was certain the quiet building was eht switch for her as she entered Roth’s tastes in this place were an incongruous lass pieces competed with exquisite antiques The art on the walls were beautifuldepicted a scene of horrific brutality Death scenes appeared to be a favorite, whether the subject was men, women, or animals Apparently Roth didn’t discriminate when it came to his appreciation for violence "How often does he stay here?" Reichen asked, notthe entire upper floor "Often At least, from what I understand," Claire said quietly but without any bitterness as she walked over to a computer workstation and turned on the machine As it fired up, she opened one of the desk drawers and began sifting through its contents "I do know that his work for the Agency has also taken him to Berlin fro the doubt in her soft brown gaze She ainst herwith at least some measure of uncertainty about Wilhel reood shoulder The bullet had passed through cleanly; once he fed, the healing would speed even faster "I’ll live," he said "Long enough to do what must be done" He could see her throat work as she sed "When will you stop all of this, Andre? How rim and resolute "Just one" She held his hard stare