Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [732]
The warrior inclined his head in a slow nod. “I know the kind of hatred you’re feeling. I’ve been there myself. I’m the last one to tell you how to deal with your own demons, but just be careful, yeah? Plenty of bastards out there deserve a good killing, but vengeance will consume you if you don’t control it.”
It may be too late for that advice, Claire thought, watching Andreas’s rigid stance and haunted, hardened gaze as the four of them made their way toward the waiting SUV His need to avenge his family and his human lover only seemed to be growing stronger, more volatile, for the fact that the justice he craved had yet to be realized.
After the horrors he showed her in his dream, there was a part of her that understood his rage, even shared it. But from what she’d seen of him these past couple of days, she worried that his own life might mean nothing to him. Would he hold anything sacred if he finally got his chance to destroy the one who’d hurt him?
Wilhelm.
Just thinking about him turned her stomach with contempt. Claire couldn’t cling to any reasonable hope that Andreas’s accusations against Wilhelm had no basis. But what terrified her the most was that her involvement with Andreas now could bring no good—not to either of them. Her affection for him was something he didn’t seem to want or need. He had a single purpose in living now, and she knew him well enough to understand that if it came down to a choice between his own life and getting the justice he felt he needed, he would spend his last breath seeing that purpose through to the end.
The idea of Andreas dying—again, after the miracle of his resurrection and return to her life—was something Claire would be unable to bear. The thought nearly staggered her as she neared the vehicle and felt the cool night air coming in from the city beyond.
The feeling of unease dogged her now, and there was a mounting jangle swelling in her veins. A waking sense of a presence she hadn’t quite recognized until now, when it was clanging in her cells like an alarm.
Wilhelm was near.
Oh, God. How had she missed that? She’d been so wrapped up in Andreas and his friends, in her own confusion of emotions, that she hadn’t picked up on her body’s signals that her blood-bonded mate was somewhere in the area.
Somewhere in the city of Boston, she was certain of it.
What was he doing here?
“Claire, are you okay?” Elise placed her hand on her arm in concern. “What is it?”
She shook her head, more fervently when Andreas paused with Tegan and turned a questioning, suspicious look on her.
“I feel a little light-headed,” she said, casting for a reasonable excuse that didn’t involve telling Andreas that the enemy he intended to kill—who would be equally determined to kill him, as well—was probably only a few miles away from where he stood. Andreas couldn’t know that Wilhelm was so close now. She couldn’t let him know that, she thought, a sudden dread crawling into her throat.
“What’s wrong?” Andreas’s deep voice soaked into her, but it wasn’t enough to calm the alarm that was rising inside her now.
“Nothing’s wrong,” she said, lying only because the truth would send him storming straight into death’s hands. “I’m fine. I haven’t flown in a while, so it’s probably just a bit of air sickness. I’ll be okay. I need a moment to let it pass, that’s all. Is there a restroom somewhere?”
“Over there,” Elise said, gesturing toward the annex terminal nearby. “I’ll take you—”
“No,” Claire blurted. “I can find it on my own. Please … wait here. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”
All that kept her from running was Andreas’s dubious look. He knew she was distressed; the blood bond that linked him to her now would tell him that easily enough. But it was her other bond—the one that would shackle her to Wilhelm Roth for as long as he lived—that sent her