Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [714]
Oh, God. He was right.
If the violence Andreas had orchestrated the past few weeks was not reason enough, in drinking from her, a blood-bonded Breedmate, he had just written his own death warrant.
Claire swallowed the lump of dread that crawled into her throat. “You’ve never loved me, Wilhelm. Have you? Why did you want me for your mate? Why do you care what I do now, when I have never truly been a part of your life? Our bond has never been anything but a farce—”
“If you are looking for a way to justify your actions, Claire, you are sorely mistaken. The fact is, you are my mate. If and when I get my hands on Andreas Reichen, I will demand the full rights due me. You may count on that.”
She could hear the danger in his tone and knew from the sharp way he’d cut her off that she would find no mercy in him whatsoever. She had never been one to cower, but the thought of him sending more of his death dealers into the city after Andre made her heart squeeze like it was in a vise. “Wilhelm, please …”
“Don’t beg me, Claire. Not for him,” he snapped, full of venom. “Put the agent back on the phone now. You’re going to go with the Enforcement Agents to their headquarters and help them in their pursuit of this … animal.”
“Wilhelm, no—”
“Put the agent on the phone, goddamn you!”
She didn’t have to get the armed guards’ attention. Both of them gaped at her as Wilhelm’s furious outburst ricocheted across the room. One of the agents came over to her and extracted the phone from her reluctant grasp. He listened for only a moment before he motioned the other guard over to Claire and instructed him not to let her leave their custody.
Claire’s heart banged in her chest as the agent wrapped up the private conversation. She could see the confusion and sympathy in the Breed male’s eyes as he hung up and came toward her with the steady calm of a soldier accustomed to handling difficult situations.
“You need to come with us now,” he told her gently but firmly “We have orders, Frau Roth. I’m sorry.”
“No.” He reached for her and Claire’s panic spiked. “I won’t go with you. Take your hands off me!”
The second agent moved in, his expression grave. “Let’s not make this difficult, all right?”
Claire wrenched her arm out of the bruising grasp. She took two lunging steps away from them, fully prepared to bolt if she could just reach the door. She didn’t even come close. One guard was there before she had a chance to blink. The other came up behind her and shoved something hard and cold against the small of her back.
She felt the searing bite of the taser for only an instant before the shock took her legs out from under her. She crashed to the floor on a broken scream, pain rippling through her.
“Pick her up,” she heard one of them say from above her. “I’ll go open the vehicle.”
Claire felt large, hard hands hoist her to her feet. She heard the apartment door open, felt the incoming chill of night air skate across the floor from outside. Then a low grunt and a sick, sodden sound of someone choking, gasping, sputtering for breath.
The agent holding on to Claire let go as he faced whatever it was that now stood on the threshold of the open door. “What the fuck!”
Claire lifted her head and couldn’t hold back her cry of stunned relief.
Andreas.
Oh, God… he came back for her.
His big body blocked the doorway, his eyes blazing, fangs glistening white with menace. At his feet lay the bleeding corpse of the agent who’d tasered her, his throat brutally skewered and all but severed by a length of twisted black wrought iron. As the second agent drew his weapon and prepared to fire, Andreas stalked inside and fired on him with his companion’s gun, killing him with the swift, deadly aim of a sniper.
Then he was at her side as if nothing else existed.
“Claire…Jesus Christ,” he said, his voice gruff, his expression