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Would he be willing to accept the only thing she had left to offer him? Claire couldn’t be sure unless she tried Repulsed by what she was about to do, but feeling it was her last hope where Andreas was concerned, she leaned her head back and slowed her breathing She was adept at putting herself into a swift sleep, but finding Roth--hoping that hetoo--was not quite as easy She rode the tide away fro, praying she would find Roth there It took her several long h the veil of slunoring every instinct inside her that screamed for her to flee in the other direction as fast as she could She saw hi his way through what appeared to be some kind of earthen vault Claire followed hi her desperate appeal Ahead of him, a heavy door opened to let him pass Claire slipped in behind hiruible words filled with venom and frustration Inside another roo anterior chamber, he stormed past a counter lined with microscopes, dishes, and beakers As he neared the end of the long surface, he shot his hand out and swept a bunch of the equiplass crashed and shattered in front of her "What the fuck--" Roth wheeled around When he saw her there, his cruel eyes narrowed and he laughed, a brittle, dangerous rumble in the back of his throat "Well, well If it isn’t my faithless bitch of a Breedmate" She didn’t let his verbal slap hurt her "We need to talk, Wilhelreeo any further between you and Andreas" Now he chortled in true auess He sent you here to appeal to my mercy? My sense of honor?" "He didn’t send me, no He doesn’t even know I’ed on "I’ve come to ask you to stay away from Andreas Drop your animosity for him--and for me--and let Andreas move on with his life" Roth scoffed
"You can’t be serious" "I a I have to secure your word right here and noill come back to you, Wilhelm Do whatever you want to me--take your hatred for him out on me, I don’t care anymore Just leave hi her with their malice "Are you truly so naive, Claire? I could care less about him," he said, utterly devoid of emotion "You either, for thatBut then Wilhelh that made the hairs on the back of her neck rise "It’s never been about you, Claire
Didn’t you know that? Didn’t you ever suspect? You were just a prize I wanted because it wouldhis Darkhaven and the people closest to him was a pleasure I hadn’t anticipated One I relished, nevertheless" "You’re sick, Wilhelm" Her stomach twisted with contempt "My God You really are a monster" "And you, Claire, are already dead to rowl that chilled her to the bone "You and Andreas are both already dead You just don’t know it yet You are obstacles standing in the way of greatness, and you will be removed You and the Order, as well" "Is that your pro have you been doing his evil for hiust "Our revolution began even before Iyou astime on you, no matter how much it pleased ht have been just as gratifying to os with the other feled toOther fe feos For what purpose, she wondered, but only needed to guess for another moment From out of the ether of the dreahtless, terrible prisons And within them were captive women Breedmates Claire could see the teardrop-and-crescent-moon birthmark on a few of them even from where she stood The same birthmark she bore The sa with a BreedGood lord, there were upward of twenty woed in those cells Her stomach roiled even nant
"What’s going on here?" she asked, appalled and sickened "What the hell are you and Dragos doing?" As she said it, her voice rising in outrage, she caught the lol of an ani from somewhere deep within the place where she and Roth stood The howl rose to a roar--a pained, keening cry that vibrated through the soles of her feet and straight into hershe’d ever heard beforean utterly alien noise that put a knot of terror in her lungs God, as this place? What horrors were Dragos and Roth conducting in here? The terrible cry kept going, so loud it rattled the floor beneath her feet Roth threw his head back and howled along with the unseen creature,and sadistic Then he smiled a murderous smile "You’re dead, Claire Just like those Breed to tear you limb from tender limb Unless I have the pleasure first You think about that the next time you let Reichen touch you The next ti for you I’ it" Then just like that, Roth and the chaone He severed the web that connected the under the war her face into her wet palms Bile rose in her throat "Oh, God what have I done?"
It wasn’t until a few minutes after he woke that Wilhelm Roth realized the depth of the mistake he’d just made with Claire At first he’d been shocked to see her in his dreauts, putting herself in close proxily stoked his anger with her whoring for Andreas Reichen After the surprise of her sneaking up on hi her, baiting her fear with a good hard look at what he and Dragos were capable of He’d delighted in letting her hear the savage roars of the Ancient in his cage Her horror over seeing the captive Breed in all iven him a deliciously sadistic thrill Now that he ake, he had tiaround bunker where Dragos kept all of his secrets Would she understand what she’d seen? He hoped not Claire had an inquisitive e?
Tell the Order, of course, but the saving grace there was that Dragos was already anticipating aon the Order eventually finding hi they had disrupted near Montreal Dragos had beenpieces on the chessboard of his o untold If he did, he kneithout question that Dragos would somehow unearth the truth in no time He had to own up to the error and let the chips fall where theywith theos’s private line "Sire," he said as the other vaive the interruption, but I have news that, unfortunately, could not wait" "Speak" Roth told him about the encounter with Claire in his drealoss overthe fault on the weasly stealth of his Breede, sire
When I discovered her there in the drea the lab" "H silence "I’ that this fe, Herr Roth Now that you have things under way in Boston, perhaps it’s time you dealt with her as we discussed" "Yes, sire And I will" He cleared his throat, feeling the aggression pouring over the phone line despite Dragos’s outward calm "It will be my personal pleasure to choke the life out of the bitch--after I let her watch os said, his voice soft and venomous "I want you to come to the headquarters at sundown" "Sire?" Roth was confused "What about the blood bond?" "What about it?" "If she tells the Order what she saw today, what’s to say that the warriors won’t use her blood bond to find me and the lab?" There was only the briefest hesitation on the other end "Be here at sundown, Herr Roth Your instructions will be waiting for you"
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Order’s coical ravity of Claire’s reasons for being there, she couldn’t help but be i corridors and charand limestone mansion at street level The Order lived in unquestionable comfort, but it was clear that this was a tactical location Their headquarters’ priical center of the entire location--was the tech lab, with its banks of coical maps of key cities in the United States and abroad She had entered a war roouest by everyone she’d e conference table, she was acutely aware of the fact that she was still Wilhelm Roth’s mate and the closest link to an inpidual in alliance with the Order’s most treacherous enemy "Everyone’s on the way," Gideon said as he ended a call to summon the rest of the warriors and their mates to hear what Claire had to tell theal-looking, auburn-haired young woman, placed her hand over Claire’s in a show of feminine support Her name was Gabrielle, and she was the Breedmate of the Order’s leader, Lucan, who had been the first to learn of the disturbing news Claire had reported after her drea Gen One va him across the width of the place in no more than half a dozen strides while Rio and Dylan watched from the other side of the table Claire hadn’t knohat to expect of the Order, and frankly had been more than a little apprehensive when she’d first arrived at their Boston headquarters last night It surprised her to see that they were not the crude lot their reputation aeneral Breed population painted them to be, but rather a professional, close-knit cadre of brothers in arms With their Breedmates, who lived in the compound with them, the Order was a community not unlike any of the Darkhavens Claire had known
The warriors and their mates obviously looked out for one another, cared for one another They were a fa of envy for that, but even ht have anything to do with the danger threatening the warriors now After the horror of what she’d seen in her drealy, committed to the Order’s cause Whatever she could do to prevent Roth--or Dragos--fro more harm, she would Unfortunately, since sundown today, her blood-bond link to Roth see He was on the ht have been in Boston a couple of nights ago when she’d first arrived with Reichen froht, when they’d been driving up from Newport, but her senses told her that he wasn’t in the city any that very fact to Gideon and the others ere gathered in the tech lab before the start of the night’s patrols "Do you have any idea where Roth o?" Savannah, Gideon’s mate, sat beside him near the co presence in the rooood counterpoint to Gideon’s frenetic energy "Were there any recognizable land that I could point to, unfortunately I wish there were"
"Do you think he’s aware that you kneas in Boston?" Rio asked, his voice rolling with a rich Spanish accent, his dark broered over sht have suspected I was," Claire guessed "And if I sensed him, I have to assume he sensed my presence in the city as well" Gideon nodded "That could be reason enough for hiht be persuaded to turn over that inforos," Dylan piped in from next to Rio, "then it could be that he’s os’s lair Maybe if we find out where he is noe’ll find Dragos, too" Gideon scowled pensively, then glanced to Claire "Let’s go over again what you saw in your dream Maybe Roth left us some further clues to help us find hi As she recounted the details of her confrontation with Roth, the glass doors of the tech lab slid open and in walked Tegan with a few other warriors, all of them dressed for combat in head-to-toe black And behind the every bit as lethal as his heavily arht of hi to him directly after her dreamith Roth, but she didn’t think she could bear to be near him after the way they’d parted in the chapel And a more cowardly part of her knew that he would be furious to find out what she’d done The look he gave her as he entered the rooan could hardly be described as friendly Evidently he’d already been infor of the Order "What else do you recall, Claire?" Gideon asked her now "You said you saw chemistry equipment and tables lined with laboratory supplies" She nodded "Yes, there were microscopes, computers and beakers, and lots of chemical vials It all seemed very state of the art, but I couldn’t tell you what kind of experi conducted there" "And past the lab there were the barred cells," Gideon prole" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">