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"Yes Rows of cells containing captive wonant" Claire felt Andreas’s gaze fixed on her as she spoke It burned, the way he stared at her in siot the distinct iiven to the creature" "For an’s direction "A new generation of Breed males, spawned off an Ancient" Claire relived the sick feeling she’d had after seeing the what Roth had told her "He said he’d been supplying Dragos with Breedo" "Jesus," Tegan hissed "How many Gen Ones could he create over the course of a few decades?" "If he had a continuous supply of Breedine" "And who’s to say Roth was the only one supplying hilanced over to Dylan "Howpersons’ reports on Breedmates have you collected fro how far back?" she replied, her expression sober "Although the nunificantly in recent ti back to the turn of the last century That doesn’t even count the number of woht be Breedmates, as well" She turned to Claire to explain "A few o, when Rio and Idead people Well, dead people who happen to be Breedmates, that is I saw several at the shelter where my mom used to work They asked me to help their captive sisters--to save them before he killed the kept underground, in darkness They gave os" "Oh,them has become a bit of an obsession forpersons’ records, trying to follow up on leads to see where soht have gone Maybe we can find them If we can save just one life, it will be worth it" "I will help you however I can," Claire said "If I have to cover the entire length and breadth of the United States and Gerive up Dragos, then I’ll do it" Dylan smiled "I like you already" "That’s not a bad idea, you know" Gideon launched out of his swivel chair and jogged over to one of the large New Englandon the wall He pointed to a red pin stuck into a location near the New York and Connecticut border "We knohere Dragos has been seen recently We know that he once had a residence in New York under one of his aliases If we start searching in this region and sweep out toward the coast, " He looked at Claire
"It’s too close to dawn to do anything tonight yet, but would you be willing to co on a recon sweep and use your blood bond to see if you can get a reading on Roth’s whereabouts?" "Of course" She pretended she couldn’t hear the low, barely audible growl that emanated from Andreas’s direction He could try to dissuade her, but her mind was made up She was in this battle now, too, no matter if he liked it or not "I can be ready anytiht up to Claire as theback while the rest of the warriors filed out of the rooht’s last aze locked on to Claire in a volatile e and absolute fear "What the hell was that all about?" he deether "When Tegan told o that you had made contact with Roth, I didn’t believe hi, Claire? More to the point, were you thinking at all?" She sed hard under the verbal assault, but she didn’t flinch "It’s all right," she told the two Breed her "Andreas and I should talk alone" Reichen’s fury simmered as Lucan and Gideon’sin the corridor with a very defiant, very unfazed Claire
"My God," he said, feeling as though the wind had been knocked out of hian broke the news of Claire’s dreamwalk visit to her mate after the encounter that had ended so clumsily in the compound’s chapel "What did you think to acco Roth like you did?" "I had my reasons," she answered evenly "Such as?" "It doesn’tI’m sure that comes as little surprise to you" Reichen scoffed "Roth never negotiates He takes And where he can’t simply take, he steals He kills, Claire What the hell did you possibly think you could gain by seeking him out, even in a dream?" She started toin the hallithout an answer Before she could take two steps, he grabbed her by the arm and drew her back to him "What did you ask him for, Claire? Your freedom? His mercy?"
He scowled, as furious at her recklessness as he was relieved that she was alive and warripped hand "Did you think he would sio?" "No," she said, her proud chin hiking up with her reply "I didn’t ask hio, Andre I asked him to take ree to let you live" She ht as well have punched him in the sternuht of her going back to Roth--under any conditions--was enough to make his blood boil
That she would offer herself up to Roth in exchange for hie to the rafters "He doesn’t want me He never did" She shook her head as she extricated herself frorasp "He said he only took me as histo hurt you for a long time, Andreas" That Roth’s hatred spanned many years was no shock to hiravity of what Claire had done--what she’d been willing to subject herself to, for hi like hot oil in his heart "Do you have any idea hoould have hurt reed to your offer?" "Probably not asto destroy him" Reichen deserved that; he knew he did But it didn’t prevent hiain
"You’re not going anywhere near hioddamn army at your side I heard what you said in there, and I know you want to help take hi as Roth is out there soaped at him "You what? You forbid--" "I won’t let you do it" "And I don’t recall asking for your per in her pulse now, so sharp he could feel it echo in his own "After what I saw in Roth’s dream today, I have to help the Order take him down By whatever means I can I would think you of all people could understand that" Reichen shook his head, refusing to soit, Claire I can’t let you" She stared at hiht her eye past his shoulder, at the other end of the corridor "Your coan, Rio, and a couple of the other warriors standing near the elevator that would take the that he needed another er standing in front of hi at a determined pace down the corridor "Damn it," he whispered low under his breath Then he pivoted back to the warriors and fell into a jog to join up with theht’s patrols
Wilhelm Roth felt the cold, e at hios’s underground laboratory Everything was in place precisely as he’d been instructed, and now all he could do ait Wait and hope that Claire ith the Order right noailing over histhe warriors everything she saw in her damnable dreamwalk
As difficult as it os’s lair, the Order was resourceful and deter on to get them halfway into the trap that he and Roth had set for them Claire’s blood bond to Roth and her ridiculous sense of honor would do the rest Roth had noon the success of this pending offensive strike against the warriors If none of the assassins charged with aiding hios certainly would As he made his final inspection of the detonators and pounds of explosives, he wondered if he hadn’t been handed a suicidehere The warriors, howeverOnce they were led into his trap, there would be no chance of any one of the out alive
He could only hope that the Order sent their entire meroup of them perish in one fell swoop So much the better if that number included Claire and her reunited lover Satisfied that all was in readiness in the lab, Roth headed into the UV-light prison area to check the settings one final ti to be perfect for the Order’s i demise
It was too damned quiet Lucan and the rest of the Order had spent the better part of the night coos or the Gen One assassins he’d apparently loosed on the streets to bring the Order out Several hours of searching every deserted lot, warehouse, back alley, and rooftop, and Lucan was coht He’d just hung up with Niko and Renata, who’d been jointly sweeping the area down by the Mystic River with Dante and Hunter Not a trace of trouble, other than the usual bullshit perpetrated by ainst its brothers Frankly, the relative peace he was finding tonight didn’t sit ith hi seemed off Lucan could still feel it in hisup in the city the other night Those hunificant in their brutality and their brazenness The Order was being lured out to play in a very blatant os pull back his strikes now that he had their attention? As Lucan made one more visual sweep of his area in the final hour before dawn, he couldn’t help feeling that he and the rest of the Order were standing in the way of a pending tsuna an eerie, false state of calm It was quiet now, but at anyover the in its path
Chapter Twenty-Four
I still say we’re wasting precious time and opportunity if we don’t at least consider a daytime reconnaissance" Nikolai’s mate, Renata, hopped down off the counter in the weapons rooues Her chin- length black hair was loosened fro her patrols and noung freely around her face as she argued her point for the second ti thrown around here right now is only about keeping us safe, it’s a nonissue The worst we can run into during daylight hours are Minions, and I dare any one of you to tell me I can’t take out a human mind slave in rinned at his wo about a coather intel and report back so we canup from beneath his dark brows "I don’t like it" "I don’t like it, either," Rio put in "But I know Dylan will be safe with Renata If the wo this, then maybe we should let theht noe need all hands on deck" Reichen sat off to the side and listened in silence, biting back his own opinion, which was basically that whatever the Order decided was fine with hi as they left Claire out of the picture entirely Unfortunately for him and his opinions, Claire seemed to have other plans
He felt her in the doorway of the room before he actually saw her, the pull of his bond to her turning his head in her direction as if the core of him were connected to her by a wire She ca to the back of the room as the debate continued between Lucan and Renata "Think about it, Lucan If ork the daylight, that gives us an eight-to ten-hour advantage," she said "Eight to ten e to actually getting close to Dragos If the pullbacktonight in Boston is an indicator that they’re scared and running, then we don’t have any tireement with Renata "And if the pullback is an indicator of sorimly "If they’ve abruptly pulled out of Boston not because they’re worried about being found, but because they’re working on soer?" "Actually, I think we need to assuy" Claire’s voice drew everyone’s attention to the back of the weapons rooest on Reichen Her gaze was troubled, and he could feel the distress that had her heart pounding uncoos, but I know Wilhelh He never operates from a position of fear He believes himself invincible, sot an alternative plan to strike even harder than he has before" "All the better reason to use any advantage we can to find hiaze traveled from Claire to Renata to Dylan, the trio of Breed out the daytireement, then? You want to do this?" "Yes," they answered in unison He considered it for a long ht, then Gideon will grid the best area for you to start searching