Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [170]
Then Dante and the rest of the Order could get back to the business of dealing death to the Rogues—preferably without an audience and a goddamn scorecard.
“I hold a BA in Political Science from Columbia University,” Chase finally said. “And, like my brother and my father before me, I have a law degree from Harvard, where I graduated at the top of my class. In addition, I am trained in three schools of martial arts and have an expert-marksman rating in a shooting range of eleven hundred feet. That measure being without the aid of a scope.”
“Is that right?” The résumé was impressive, but Dante hardly flinched in reaction. “So, tell me, Harvard, how many times have you used your training—martial arts or weapons—outside of a classroom? How much of your blood have you spilled? How much have you taken from your enemies in the heat of battle?”
The agent held Dante’s flat stare, the clean-shaven, square chin climbing up a notch. “I’m not afraid to be tested on the street.”
“That’s good,” Dante drawled. “That’s real good, because if you’re thinking about going to the dance with any of us, you sure as hell will be put to the test.”
Chase bared his teeth in a tight smile. “Thanks for the warning.”
He brushed past Dante, murmured his good-byes to Lucan and the others, then strolled out of the lab with his briefcase clutched hard in his hand.
When the glass doors slid closed behind the agent, Niko ground out a curse in his native Siberian tongue. “That’s some messed-up shit, Darkhaven pencil-pusher thinking he’s got balls enough to ride with us.”
Dante shook his head, sharing the same opinion, but his thoughts were churning on something else equally troubling. Maybe more so.
“I got jumped downtown tonight,” he said, meeting the tense faces of his brethren. “I thought it was a Rogue stalking prey outside a club. I fought with the son of a bitch, but he wasn’t going down easy. Ended up pursuing him down to the riverfront, where I ran into a whole new mess of trouble. A group of heavily armed suckheads came at me hard.”
Gideon slanted a narrowed gaze on him. “Damn, D. Why didn’t you call in for support?”
“There wasn’t time to do anything but try to save my own ass,” Dante said, recalling the viciousness of the attack. “The thing is, that suckhead I chased down there fought like a demon. Virtually unstoppable, like a Gen One Rogue—maybe worse. And titanium didn’t affect him.”
“If he was Rogue,” Lucan said, “the titanium should have smoked him on the spot.”
“Right,” Dante agreed. “He showed all the signs of advanced Bloodlust, but he hadn’t actually turned Rogue. And there’s more. That dried pink foam you can see in Chase’s morgue shots? That suckhead had it too.”
“Shit,” Gideon said, picking up the photographs and showing them to the other warriors. “So, in addition to dealing with the continuing problem of the Rogues, now we’re coming up against Breed vampires hopped up on Crimson too. In the heat of the fight, how’re we going to know what we’ve got in our crosshairs?”
“We won’t,” Dante said.
Gideon shrugged. “Suddenly things don’t seem so black and white.”
Tegan, his expression placid and cool, exhaled a wry laugh. “As of a few months ago, our problem with the Rogues became a war. Not a lot of room for gray in that picture.”
Niko nodded his head in agreement. “If a suckhead wants to get in my shit—Crimson eater or Rogue—he’s got one thing to look forward to: death. Let the Darkhavens sort through the rubble once it’s all over.”
Lucan turned his attention to Dante. “What about you, D? Care to weigh in on this?”
Dante crossed his arms over his chest, more than ready for that shower now and an end to a night that had only proceeded to go downhill since he got out of bed. “From what little we know of Crimson, it doesn’t sound good. All these missing civilians, with more all the time, is bound