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“Jesus Christ!” Kade hissed, clearly as shocked as anyone else by the unexpected reaction. “It was just a joke, man!”

Nikolai snarled. “Do you see me laughing? Do I look like I’m fucking laughing?”

Kade’s sharp silver eyes narrowed but he didn’t say anything else to provoke him.

“I could give a damn what you say about me,” Niko growled, “but if you know what’s good for you, lay the hell off Rio.”

Gideon might have guessed this wasn’t about Kade unintentionally insulting Nikolai. It was about Niko’s friendship with Rio. The two warriors had been as close as true brothers in the time before the warehouse explosion that left Rio scarred and broken. Afterward, it was Niko who made sure Rio fed, Niko who dragged Rio’s ass out of the infirmary to train in the compound’s weapons facility as soon as the wounded warrior was able to stand up.

It had been Nikolai who argued the most vehemently every time Rio announced that he was too far gone to be useful and he was pulling out of the Order. In the nearly five months that Rio had been currently off grid, not a week passed that Niko didn’t ask if there had been any word from him.

“Niko, damn, buddy,” Brock said. “Ease up.”

The huge black warrior moved in, looking like he was about to peel him off Kade, but Gideon held him back with a look. Although Nikolai relaxed his grip, his anger was still a palpable force filling the hallway.

“You don’t know dick about Rio,” he told Kade. “That warrior has more honor than the both of us combined. So this is the last time I want to hear you talking shit about him. Understand?”

Kade nodded tightly. “Yeah. Like I said, it was just a damn joke. I didn’t mean any offense.”

Nikolai stared at him for a long moment, then stalked away in silence.

CHAPTER

Eight

Dawn was inching up over the horizon as the delivery truck from Prague wheeled into a gated, heavily secured lakefront estate on the outskirts of Berlin.

The Darkhaven was held by a Breed vampire named Andreas Reichen, a civilian, but also a trusted ally of the Order since he’d assisted with the discovery of the mountain cave a few months ago. Rio had only met him briefly that past February, but the German greeted him like an old friend as he came around to the back of the truck and opened the trailer door.

“Welcome,” he said, then sent an anxious glance up at the pinkening sky overhead. “You made excellent time.”

The male was dressed in an impeccably tailored suit and a pristinely pressed white shirt that lay unbuttoned at the throat. With his thick chestnut hair loose around his shoulders, the perfect waves setting off his striking, angular features, Reichen looked like he’d just come off a photo shoot for a men’s designer ad.

One dark brow lifted slightly as he took in Rio’s negligent appearance, but he remained the consummate gentleman. With a nod, Reichen offered his hand in greeting as Rio climbed out of the truck. “No trouble along the way, I hope?”

“None.” Rio gave a brief shake of the vampire’s hand.

“We were stopped at the border into Germany, but they didn’t search the truck.”

“For the right price, they don’t,” Reichen said, smiling pleasantly. He glanced behind Rio into the darkened trailer, to where Dylan Alexander lay on the floor. She was curled up on her side and resting peacefully, her head cushioned by the lumpy edge of her backpack. “Tranced, I take it?”

Rio nodded. He’d put her out about an hour into the trip, when her endless, probing questions and the swaying motion of the truck had been too much for him to deal with. Even though he’d fed earlier that night, his body was still in need of nourishment and not yet operating on all cylinders. To say nothing of his other problems.

He had spent most of the five-plus-hour drive fighting off nausea and blackout—a weakness he wasn’t about to risk exposing to the woman he’d just forcibly abducted. Better that she spend the duration of the trip in a light, psychically induced doze than have her make some desperate bid to overpower him and attempt an escape while