Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [719]
Ah, yes, he thought, disturbed by the depth of his relief Everything is still there.
The glow from the tightly spaced vertical UV bars stung his hypersensitive eyes, but he didn’t care. He zoomed in on the lethargic, half-starved creature contained inside the cell—the creature who shared the same bloodline as he. The lethal otherworlder who was, in fact, his grandfather. Not that bloodlines mattered to him personally. The Ancient’s powerful blood cells and DNA, on the other hand, had proven instrumental to Dragos’s goals.
After decades of work, after centuries of patience spent in hiding, arranging his pieces just so as he waited for the right time to make his move, Dragos’s crowning hour was almost at hand.
He’d be damned if he was going to let the Order snatch it out of his grasp before he had a chance to seize the glory that was meant to be his.
Steps were already under way to prevent the vision he’d witnessed from coming true. He was making a few changes to his operation. Taking expensive and somewhat drastic measures to protect his assets.
And he wasn’t at all content to sit by and let the warriors in Boston continue to disrupt his work. The Order was a problem he did not need—one he could not afford to risk when he was so close to knowing victory. They’d invited war when they raided his gathering outside Montreal this past summer, sending him and his private inner circle of high-ranking Breed associates fleeing into the woods like rats off a sinking ship. It had been a public sucker-punch that undermined his authority, not to mention cost him precious time. He would see the warriors pay for that.
But Dragos had another problem, too.
He brought up the teleconferencing program on his computer and dialed Wilhelm Roth’s quarters at the other end of the stronghold. The German vampire, a hard-edged director of the Hamburg Enforcement Agency, was doubtless unaccustomed to playing the subordinate, and Dragos took some amusement in the notion that the midmorning wakeup call would grate the male. To his credit, he picked up the call before the second ring, efficient as always. It was one of his saving graces as far as Dragos was concerned. That, and the fact that Roth was ruthless in his ambitions.
“Sire,” he said, his face moving in front of the monitor in his chambers. “How can I serve?”
“Status,” Dragos demanded, staring hard at his lieutenant.
Roth cleared his throat. “Everything is arranged. The operation’s first strike began last evening. It should not be long before we have engagement.”
Dragos grunted his approval. “And the other matter?”
There was a moment’s hesitation, but that was all. Dragos wondered if Roth knew that his honesty right now was the only thing keeping him alive. Roth cleared his throat. “I am dealing with something of a… a personal situation in Hamburg, sire.”
“Yes,” Dragos said, no need for coyness. He’d heard all about the devastating assault on two of the German’s residences from other contacts overseas. He’d also heard that Roth’s Breedmate was missing. After a confrontation with Enforcement Agents at Roth’s private office in Hamburg, she was presumed to have been abducted by the vampire who evidently had something of a bone to pick with Roth.
A vampire with rumored ties to the Order.
Dragos’s jaw went tight with anger as he considered the many ways a scenario like that could land a lot of troubles on his doorstep.
“What do you intend to do, Herr Roth?”
“It will be handled, sire.”
“See that it is,” Dragos hissed. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that the female is a liability now. If she’s in enemy hands, then she is nothing more than a weapon to be used against you. And against me.”
Roth stared, his shrewd eyes narrowed. “She has no idea where I am. I’ve never confided in her about anything of importance. Besides, she knows her place when it comes to my affairs.”
“And how long do you think it will