Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [751]
No, he thought fiercely, denying the heat that was so eager to leap to life, just waiting for his summons.
Reichen centered all of his focus on Claire, ignoring everything but the strong beat of her pulse against his tongue, and the gentle squeeze of her sex around his. He reveled in her soft cries as she came, memorizing every flush and quiver that traveled her body as he pleasured her time and again, loath to let the night—and their fleeting time together—come to its end.
CHAPTER
Eighteen
How’s Harvard doing?” Lucan asked as Gideon came out of the compound’s infirmary.
“Still unconscious, which is probably for the best right now. Fortunately the bullet passed clean through, but the holes it left behind in his chest and back are going to need some time to heal. He’s going to be okay, but he’ll be hurting for a while, and he’s down for a week, minimum.”
“Shit,” Lucan muttered. “The last thing we need is to lose any of our numbers while Dragos is apparently ramping up his operation.”
The altercation earlier that night in the city had proven to be one hell of a revelation. The Order had been aware of the fact that Dragos had other highly skilled assassins like Hunter at his beck and call, all of them presumably kept loyal by unremovable UV collars, programmed to detonate and sever the head of any who tampered with the device or disobeyed his command. But what Lucan and the Order hadn’t known for a fact—and, frankly, had dreaded to imagine—was that one or more of those assassins might be first-generation Breed, like Hunter.
And to take that disturbing thought one step further, it was easily feasible to assume that if Dragos had other Gen One assassins in his service, Gen Ones who looked remarkably like Hunter himself and with similar glyphs, then the son of a bitch had to be breeding them from scratch off one of the original, otherworldly fathers of the vampire race on this planet.
An Ancient.
Like the one that the Order recently discovered had been kept in hibernation deep within the rock of the Bohemian mountains for probably centuries. The one that Dragos had awakened and removed God only knew how long ago.
If that creature was in fact alive, being used to produce new sons with first-generation strength and abilities—if a breeding process like that had been going on for decades or longer—then it wasn’t only the Order and the vampire nation that had cause for concern, but all of humankind. Bred in great numbers, a force that brutal, that bloodthirsty and powerful, would be virtually unstoppable.
The dark thoughts followed Lucan as he and Gideon left the infirmary wing and walked the twisting corridors to the tech lab. The entire compound was gathered there, the warriors in from patrol, and all of the Breedmates. Hunter was also in attendance, the big Gen One looming at the back of the room, while the rest of the group had taken seats around the large table in the center.
Lucan gave the male a brief nod of greeting, silent acknowledgment of Hunter’s assistance tonight—assistance that had probably saved more than one warrior’s ass and also netted the Order an up-close look at the technological wonder of the dead assassin’s UV collar. Although it was smashed and detonated, Gideon had been playing with the device ever since it arrived, trying to get a handle on how the thing worked and how it could potentially be used against its wearer.
“How’s the arm?” Lucan asked, turning his attention to Brock, who sat between Kade and Nikolai at the table.
The bulky black warrior shrugged his wounded shoulder and cracked a broad grin. “It’ll feel a helluva lot better when I get a chance to smoke one of these Gen One freaks of nature.” He glanced over at Hunter. “No offense.”
The vampire’s golden gaze was as flat as slate. “None taken.”
Lucan took his place next to Gabrielle at the head of the table and addressed the assembled team. “Obviously, after what we learned a few