Ashes of Midnight

"Yes. Rows of cells containing captive women. Breedmates. Some of them were pregnant." Claire felt Andreas's gaze fixed on her as she spoke. It burned, the way he stared at her in simmering silence from across the room. "To hear Roth speak, I got the distinct impression that the Breedmates were being given to the creature." "For mating purposes," Gideon said, sending a grim look in Tegan's direction. "A new generation of Breed males, spawned off an Ancient." Claire relived the sick feeling she'd had after seeing them and hearing what Roth had told her. "He said he'd been supplying Dragos with Breedmates since well before I met him, which was thirty years ago." "Jesus," Tegan hissed. "How many Gen Ones could he create over the course of a few decades?" "If he had a continuous supply of Breedmates?" Gideon replied.

"I shudder to imagine." "And who's to say Roth was the only one supplying him?" Rio added gravely. He glanced over to Dylan. "How many missing persons' reports on Breedmates have you collected from the Darkhavens' records, babe?" "Going how far back?" she replied, her expression sober. "Although the numbers have increased significantly in recent times, we've found reports stretching back to the turn of the last century. That doesn't even count the number of women who vanish out of the human populations every year who might be Breedmates, as well." She turned to Claire to explain. "A few months ago, when Rio and I met, I discovered that my special talent is seeing dead 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 them all.

They told me there were more, still alive, being kept underground, in darkness. They gave me the name of their captor, too: Dragos." "Oh, my God," Claire whispered, astonished. "Finding them has become a bit of an obsession for me. Ever since then, we've been searching missing persons' records, trying to follow up on leads to see where some of these women might have last been seen, where they might 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 Germany combined to find Wilhelm Roth and force him to give 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 England maps that hung on the wall. He pointed to a red pin stuck into a location near the New York and Connecticut border. "We know where 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, maybe we'll find something." He looked at Claire.

"It's too close to dawn to do anything tonight yet, but would you be willing to come along 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 anytime."

Chapter Twenty-Three

Reichen caught up to Claire as the meeting in the tech lab dispersed. He hung back while the rest of the warriors filed out of the room to prepare for the night's last mission in the city, his gaze locked on to Claire in a volatile mix of outrage and absolute fear. "What the hell was that all about?" he demanded as she and Gabrielle and Savannah exited the lab together. "When Tegan told me a few minutes ago that you had made contact with Roth, I didn't believe him. What the fuck were you thinking, Claire? More to the point, were you thinking at all?" She swallowed hard under the verbal assault, but she didn't flinch. "It's all right," she told the two Breedmates accompanying her. "Andreas and I should talk alone." Reichen's fury simmered as Lucan and Gideon's mates departed and left him standing in the corridor with a very defiant, very unfazed Claire.

"My God," he said, feeling as though the wind had been knocked out of him. The same feeling he'd had when Tegan 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 accomplish by approaching Roth like you did?" "I had my reasons," she answered evenly. "Such as?" "It doesn't matter. He wasn't interested in negotiating. I'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 to move past him, as if she intended to leave him standing in the hallway without 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 warm in his tightly gripped hand. "Did you think he would simply release you if you asked him to let you go?" "No," she said, her proud chin hiking up with her reply. "I didn't ask him to let me go, Andre. I asked him to take me back... but only on the condition that he would agree to let you live." She might as well have punched him in the sternum with a lead fist. "You what?" Good Christ, the thought 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 him? He wanted to roar his outrage to the rafters. "He doesn't want me. He never did." She shook her head as she extricated herself from his grasp. "He said he only took me as his mate because he knew it would hurt you. He has been trying to hurt you for a long time, Andreas." That Roth's hatred spanned many years was no shock to him, but he could hardly process any of that when the gravity of what Claire had done--what she'd been willing to subject herself to, for him--was still settling like hot oil in his heart. "Do you have any idea how it would have hurt me if he'd agreed to your offer?" "Probably not as much as it will hurt me when you go to your death trying to destroy him." Reichen deserved that; he knew he did. But it didn't prevent him from blocking her path as she tried to dodge around him again.

"You're not going anywhere near him, Claire. Not with the Order, not with an entire goddamn army at your side. I heard what you said in there, and I know you want to help take him down, but you're not leaving the compound so long as Roth is out there somewhere. I forbid it." She gaped at him. "You what? You forbid--" "I won't let you do it." "And I don't recall asking for your permission," she said, anger spiking 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 so much as consider the idea. "You're not doing it, Claire. I can't let you." She stared at him for a long moment, then something caught her eye past his shoulder, at the other end of the corridor. "Your comrades are waiting for you." He turned to look and found Tegan, Rio, and a couple of the other warriors standing near the elevator that would take them topside. He nodded to them, indicating that he needed another minute. When he looked back to Claire, she was no longer standing in front of him but walking 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 them for the night's patrols.

Wilhelm Roth felt the cold, emotionless eyes of five Gen One assassins staring at him as he performed yet another systems check of Dragos's underground laboratory. Everything was in place precisely as he'd been instructed, and now all he could do was wait. Wait and hope that Claire was with the Order right now, wailing over his mistreatment of her and Andreas Reichen, and telling the warriors everything she saw in her damnable dreamwalk.

As difficult as it may be to find the hidden location of Dragos's lair, the Order was resourceful and determined. Those were the very qualities Dragos was counting 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 no misconceptions that his future was riding on the success of this pending offensive strike against the warriors. If none of the assassins charged with aiding him didn't finish him off should he fail, then Dragos certainly would. As he made his final inspection of the detonators and pounds of explosives, he wondered if he hadn't been handed a suicide mission. But he had no intention of dying here. The warriors, however ... Once they were led into his trap, there would be no chance of any one of them getting out alive.

He could only hope that the Order sent their entire membership after him. It would be such a pleasure to watch the group 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 time. He wanted everything to be perfect for the Order's imminent arrival... and their resulting demise.

It was too damned quiet. Lucan and the rest of the Order had spent the better part of the night combing the city, looking for any signs of Dragos 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 coming up empty. So were the rest of the teams on patrol tonight. 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 mankind against its brothers. Frankly, the relative peace he was finding tonight didn't sit well with him.

Something seemed... off. Lucan could still feel it in his marrow that some serious trouble had been ramping up in the city the other night. Those human killings were significant in their brutality and their brazenness. The Order was being lured out to play in a very blatant manner, so why would Dragos 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 tsunami. The tide and wind had sucked back hard, leaving an eerie, false state of calm. It was quiet now, but at any minute that mother of a wave was going to come pouring over them and consume everything 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 room and started pacing in her combat boots and black fatigues. Her chin- length black hair was loosened from the band that had held it back during her patrols and now swung freely around her face as she argued her point for the second time. "I mean, come on, you guys. If the he-man resistance being 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 my sleep.

With one hand tied behind my back." Niko grinned at his woman. "She's got a good point, Lucan. We're not talking about a combat situation, just sending them in to gather intel and report back so we can move in." Lucan grunted, looking up 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 women are open to doing this, then maybe we should let them help. You've said it yourself, Lucan: Right now we 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 him so long 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 came in with Dante's mate, both of them moving to the back of the room as the debate continued between Lucan and Renata. "Think about it, Lucan. If we work the daylight, that gives us an eight-to ten-hour advantage," she said. "Eight to ten more hours closer to Roth could be a crucial advantage to actually getting close to Dragos. If the pullback we saw tonight in Boston is an indicator that they're scared and running, then we don't have any time to waste." Several heads nodded in agreement with Renata. "And if the pullback is an indicator of something else?" Lucan asked grimly. "If they've abruptly pulled out of Boston not because they're worried about being found, but because they're working on something bigger?" "Actually, I think we need to assume that it's not fear so much as strategy." Claire's voice drew everyone's attention to the back of the weapons room.

She glanced around at the group, lingering the longest on Reichen. Her gaze was troubled, and he could feel the distress that had her heart pounding uncomfortably in her breast. "I don't know Dragos, but I know Wilhelm Roth well enough. He never operates from a position of fear. He believes himself invincible, smarter than everyone else. Wherever he is, he's got an alternative plan to strike even harder than he has before." "All the better reason to use any advantage we can to find him," Rio added. Lucan's gaze traveled from Claire to Renata to Dylan, the trio of Breedmates who would be carrying out the daytime mission. "You're all in agreement, then? You want to do this?" "Yes," they answered in unison. He considered it for a long moment, then gave a solemn nod. "All right, then. Gideon will grid the best area for you to start searching.