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Let’s plan onfor one final review in the tech lab before you roll out" With a round of assenting coan to disperse Reichen started to move toward Claire, but before he could reach her and offer the dozen different apologies he’d been rehearsing in his mind since they’d last parted, Renata and Dylan swept her along in a rush of conversation She gave hiaze un to say about what she was doing He had refused to give her pro it back to him in spades The taste of his comeuppance was bitter as hell Claire turned away from him, then continued on with her two female companions to discuss the daytiut
By the time the sun rose, Claire’s frustration with Andreas had long dried up She understood his concern, and his anger She had been foolish to think she could negotiate with Roth Even more foolish to think that she could ever endure a return as his h She would have done anything to ensure Andreas’s well-being Especially after the vision she’d seen of his fiery dehtly to hiive up his quest to avenge his faht the battle with Roth and Dragos on the front lines
It had been a moment of keen and selfish desperation, one that hadelse but her love for him All she had knoas her need to keep hi and no one could take hiain But as Claire prepared to leave the co, she had co too much of him In the compound’s tech lab with the others, she watched from the periphery as the two females’ mates, Rio and Nikolai, spent a last few quietthe e for the day, Claire felt a sting of shame for what she’d expected of Andreas Their love was nohere The safety of either of them was no more important than that of any of the warriors or their Breedht to reject what she had asked of hiht have told him as much, but he hadn’t come to see her off with the rest of the Order Instead it was Tess and Savannah who pulled her into quick, warear for the day’s mission Lucan and Gabrielle ca her a somber nod as his Breedness in helping us try to track Roth," he said in his deep, co voice "I don’t expect it’s easy for you There is still tie your mind, if you’d rather not--" "No," Claire interrupted She gave a mild shake of her head "I want to do this After all I know about hirim nod was Lucan’s only reply as Gideon suh of the grid he’d mapped out for the females to follow Claire listened to the instructions that would take the a sweep of the area near the New York State line, where she’d learned that Dragos had once been confronted by Dylan’s ed to escape Froround as possible during daylight hours, hoping that so the way, Claire’s blood bond to Roth would pick up a solid trail that the Order could follow up on after dark
"I’ you each a phone equipped with GPS," Gideon was saying noalking away from the map he’d charted on the wall to retrieve three cell phones from the table He handed them out to Claire, Dylan, and Renata "Keep them turned on and secured on your person at all tiress froet a beat on Roth, you phone in ASAP Anything looks or feels off to any of you while you’re on this mission, you phone in If you have any reason to stop the vehicle, even for a two minute bathroom run, you phone in Understood?"
The three of the her eyes at Claire and Dylan Underneath her calf- length black trench coat, the ebony-haired Breed-soled boots, dark denih as street clothes, if one didn’t look too closely at the lued her slender hips A small arsenal of blades and pistols were sheathed and holstered on the leather belts that wrapped her waist To this impressive collection of weaponry, Nikolai added one th of Claire’s arm He handed it to Renata, then placed a clip of ammunition in her open palm "Your special titanium hollowpoints?" she iven her a bouquet of prize-winning roses Niko grinned, twin di says I love you like custo the clip and carefully slinging the gun’s strap over her shoulder "Unnecessary, but sweet Thanks, babe"
"Those Rogue-s vampires," Lucan said "They’ll take down a Minion just as well Don’t hesitate to shoot if you feel the situation warrants it at any time" Renata nodded "Trust me, no worries there" She sent a look at Claire and Dylan "Ready to hit the road, girls? Let’s rock and roll" Claire slipped the cell phone into the pocket of her loose jeans, thenwith the other tolass door of the tech lab She couldn’t keep her eyes fro for Andreas But he wasn’t there, and he wasn’t co either She didn’t know if she had driven him away or if she had already lost him before their fruitless confrontation a few hours earlier Not that it mattered He wasn’t there He wasn’t hers, and possibly never would be Claire supposed that noas as good a tiain
Chapter Twenty-Five
Reichen had been prowling the co, trying unsuccessfully to walk off the spas his body He padded barefoot down one of the long, twisting spokes of white marble hallway, forced to pause every twenty paces or so when the shakes and dry heaves got too bad for hi His chest was cla his skin like an arctic gust The jeans he wore felt like heavy weights on his legs, the fabric damp with sweat He shuddered and reached for the wall to stabilize hiripped hiht through the slits of his lids He tasted blood on his tongue and realized with soing into the flesh of his lower lip
His ders flooded dark with the colors of intense hunger "Shit," he hissed tightly, as fresh pain slaut and he dropped to his knees on the hard, polished floor Doubled over and panting, he crossed his arroan that curled deep in his throat His ears rang with the sound of his own blood racing through his veins, the pound of it practically driving hiainst the cold stone beneath hi in and out, in and out
God help hiain, worse than ever It had been pecking at hi, the only thing that had kept him away from Claire when she and the other two Breed trip for the Order Fortunately for him, most of the warriors and their mates were in the tech lab now or in their private quarters--a small mercy, as it would have only added insult to an already unbearable injury should anyone happen to see hi every ounce of his will, Reichen forced hian an unsteady shuffle out of the corridor He was near the weapons room, as it turned out, the darkness of the eed hiainst the nearest wall He sluh his bared teeth and fangs He ht have slept for a few seconds or even an hour; he had no idea howdoor jolted hie lit up all around hi area, and through the bleariness of his vision, he saw that Tegan was standing near the door, his hand just now coht switch The warriorabout d?j? vu, but Reichen’s brain was too beleaguered to try to co a warning for the other an scoffed and took a couple of long strides toward hireen eyes bore into Reichen with a cold brand of understanding "Feeling about as shitty as you look, I take it" Reichen sed, his throat too parched for words He glared up at the Gen One he considered a friend, his vision swiht the doard flick of Tegan’s gaze, knew that the warrior could read his agony in the churning colors of his exposed glyphs "That blood you took in the city a couple of nights ago should have held you long past now," he said, his deep voice flat as ha slightly with his indrawn breath as he crouched down on his haunches in front of Reichen "How long has the thirst been dogging you?" Heof one shoulder "All day it never really let up, even after I fed"
"Fuck" Tegan ran a hand through his loose tawny hair "You knohat this is, don’t you?" Reichen grunted, let his eyes fall shut when his lids got too heavy to keep open "It’s because of the pyro," he er sets in Happens every tian said, not even close to a question "Shit, Reichen Itis the first whiffs of Bloodlust, e yet, but you’re heading there fast And you know da on, don’t you?" Reichen attean was no fool When Reichen looked up into the warrior’s face, he saw bleak understanding there Hell, he saw athirst hirave look of him noas still haunted by the memory of an even deeper blood addiction than the one Reichen battled each time his pyro overtook hiht it--how he’d won against the fierce thirst that could turn even the strongest ut gave another violent twist He snarled with the spas in on his body "Breathe through it," Tegan coer than the thirst Don’t let it own you" Reichen did as he was told, willing to grasp at any advice if it would help alleviate soony It took several minutes before the worst of it passed Once it had, he nodded weakly, relieved by the sliver of peace that followed the pain "Tell an said when Reichen huffed out a breath and dragged hied it so well until now? Hell, we’ve known each other off and on for the better part of a couple centuries, and I had no clue about your ability" "I’m not proud of it," Reichen an’s expression was sober but not conderet? It’s hard to walk through even a year of life without hurting so when you didn’t intend it If I started telling you about all the shit I’ve done wrong or wish I could take back trust me, we don’t have that kind of tio first Tell ht only have been the warrior’s way of distracting hi the next round of agony, but whatever Tegan’show he’d lived e of the curse that lurked inside hian how he’d first coh Roth’s treachery sooand how abhorred he’d been to realize for that first, godawful tih to get near hian In nize her as huer but fro that hadn’t dampened and likely never would "After that, I was deterain And I worked damned hard to make sure it didn’t
Then Roth sent his death squad toI could do to hold the fires back He took away everything and everyone who e have you been in love with Claire?" Reichen expelled a deep sigh "So long, I don’t even recall what it was like not to be in love with her" "You’ve drunk fro it "How about after the pyro? You drink fro that first tiht in Roth’s office in Hale" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">