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"I want you to know," Kellan said, "I’ve done a lot of things I’ Mira, and deceiving you and the Order - s, Lucan, but ht the lab was destroyed, Mira and I were in the city, looking for leads on Ack that would lead us to hi and took Ackmeyer to ransom"

Lucan scowled "None of which excuses the fact that you abducted a high-profile civilian - Ackmeyer was practically a national treasure, for crissake And then you grab a ?"

"Taking Mira was never part of the plan I didn’t know she’d be there We had last-minute intel that Ackht away and closed in on hiot swept into the net unintentionally She was never part of it, andher back to the Order right away But if you ask ret the time I had with her these past few days, I can’t do that"

Lucan exhaled, studying the younger male That he loved Mira was obvious And Lucan couldn’t help thinking back to his own o, any one of which could have cost him the woman he cherished with all his heart, his Breed of a shared life together and a son they adored, who s Kellan and Mira would likely never know

His heart heavier than he wanted to ads that still needed answers "Why target Acked to o, a Breed civilian was shot dead in Boston One of the wo The Breed ht and alking up the side street when a governot out and killed hiaze intense, alive with an anger that siuns held UV rounds Liquid sunlight, neatly packaged into Breed-killing bullets The vampire didn’t stand a chance He was ashed on the spot"

"Holy hell" Lucan rocked back on his heels, enious, sometimes diabolically so, but the ra developed for arination, they could eventually wipe out the entire Breed race "And you tracked the tech back to Acked to put it together Ackmeyer had mentioned in a science journal interview last year that he orking on a pet project involving ultraviolet light At the tiricultural purposes"

"Until so paycheck in front of him, no doubt" Lucan raked his hand over his scalp, hissed another curse "Is that what happened? Ackht be put to better use as a weapon against the Breed?"

"That’s what I wanted to know," Kellan replied "I et answers, and if Ackmeyer didn’t prove cooperative, I was prepared to persuade hiy - by whatever means necessary Proble leaked outside his private lab When I questioned hi he was calling Morningstar - was still in testing stages, under lock and key He swore up and down that he’d never allow his work to be used to harm anyone I read the truth in hiured that out, the wheels were already in runted "You shouldn’t have acted alone You should’ve come to the Order with this"

"Corimly wry "Or as the coho’d turned his back on his brethren and his kin?"

Lucan kneas right His situation had been untenable either way It still was "Unfortunately, it may be too late to turn any of this back now"

Kellan nodded "There are a lot of things I wish I’d done differently, starting with how I left eight years ago" He glanced down, exhaled a short breath as he shook his head "Jeremy Ackave the co you here and now, I didn’t give the order to torch his lab or to har to have a hard tiive a shit about the public and what they believe," Kellan said, a flicker of a in his eyes "I need to know that you believe me That I haven’t lost your trust"

Lucan listened to the younger vampire - the once-sheltered, sullen Darkhaven youth who had becoe, only to vanish without a trace before he’d reached his prime

That warrior was still alive inside Kellan Archer He was still prepared for the good fight, still held his honor intact, even though he’d lost his way for a while What a waste it would be to see him slip away oncethat’s gone wrong here lately - and Jesus Christ, there’s enough to choose from - I’m not sure what bothers me the most The fact that you and Mira are blood-bonded under the worst circumstances, or that I have to be the one who tears you apart"

Chapter Twenty-Three

MIRA SAT ON THE EDGE OF A SOFT BED IN A ROOM THAT smelled of roses and lemon wax, surrounded by the love and support of the women of the Order

She was home Reunited with her parents, family, teammates, and friends - all the people who mattered in her life And yet she’d never felt so adrift So alone

Because the one she needed most was the one farthest out of her reach now

By his own choice

Kellan had proain, but he had They ht have stayed in the old Darkhaven in the Maine woods for weeks longer - a precious handful of ly put an end to their ti as possible

Instead, he’d let her go

The warrior in her refused to accept this defeat Blinded or not, she wanted to leap up and fight her way to wherever Kellan was being held She wanted to deether Take on the whole bloody world together, if they had to

But it wasn’t the Order or mankind or the world that stood between them

It was fate

Destiny had o Noas cohting, no ah to win out over an enemy as powerful as that

But that didn’t make the prospect of what lay ahead any easier to accept

Although she could see none of the Breedathered in the rooainst a field of darkness, Mira heard their voices close to her Heardback tears after she had explained everything that happened during her all-too-brief reunion with Kellan

"I’one," she ht is the only way to mute my visions, then it will have been worth it"