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He had stomped on her heart and now he was hurting her in still another way. Just as he feared he would do eventually.

He stepped past her and, with a few brisk strides, chewed up the distance to the door.

“Andreas,” she called out behind him.

He didn’t look back.

His body lethal with the heat of his fury, he stormed out of the room and leapt off the second-floor balcony to the foyer below. He heard her cry his name again, but he didn’t so much as pause for a second.

Glowing now, his pyrokinetic curse screaming through his veins and limbs, mind and soul, he threw open the front door with a sharp mental command. Then he stalked out into the crisp, cool night air without looking back.

CHAPTER

Nineteen

It took him the better part of an hour before he was able to rein in the worst of his pyrokinetic heat. He was still angry with Claire by the time he returned to the house, but at least he couldn’t hurt her further. Not that she wasn’t still feeling some pain, he acknowledged as he walked up the driveway and found her standing outside with the warrior who’d been sent from Boston to pick them up.

“Ah, you see?” Rio said when he spotted Reichen. “I told you he would come back.”

The Breed male’s rich voice rolled with his Spanish accent, and when he flashed a welcoming grin and thrust out his hand to Reichen in greeting, the scars that marred the left side of his face practically vanished. “Good to see you, my friend.”

“And you, as well,” Reichen said as he briefly clasped the warrior’s hand.

Rio’s pretty auburn-haired Breedmate, Dylan, was with him tonight. She strode up and gave Reichen a casual kiss on the cheek. “You had us all a bit worried here.”

“My apologies,” he murmured, slanting a look at Claire.

She would hardly look at him, and he could see that she was cradling her singed fingers close to her chest. Reichen felt sick that his curse had wounded her, even a little. He wanted to tell her as much, but it was a conversation best done privately.

She didn’t seem eager to talk to him anyway.

Nor did she seem inclined to argue anymore about going with him to the Order’s headquarters. She followed Dylan to the vehicle and started to climb into the backseat.

“Everything good?” Rio asked when the females were out of earshot. “You don’t look so well, amigo.”

“I’ll feel better once she’s safe in the compound,” he said.

In truth, he’d feel better once he had a chance to hunt and slake the thirst that was still riding him from the pyro. The last thing he needed was to be cooped up with Claire for the next hour or more on the drive back to Boston. Bad enough he craved blood to cool the final few embers that still burned inside him. It would be pure torture having to curb his need if he was seated mere inches away from the woman he thirsted for above all others.

Rio seemed to clue in on that as they walked together toward the SUV “Dylan won’t mind if you ride shotgun,” he said. “She and Claire can ride together in back and get acquainted. Dylan’s far better company than either one of us.”

Reichen wasn’t about to argue. He took the front passenger side and sat back as Rio wheeled the Rover down the driveway and headed for the road that would take them to the interstate.

He was right about the trip being one long exercise in patience and control. While Claire and Dylan chatted softly behind him about the things they loved most about New England, and where they’d each grown up, and a hundred other harmless pleasantries, Reichen stared out the dark-tinted glass of the window and tried not to think about his hunger.

It was a losing battle.

By the time they exited the tollway and reached the inner city limits of Boston, his feverish hunger was demanding to be fed.

“I need to walk for a while,” he told Rio as the warrior came to a stop at a traffic light. He didn’t wait for permission, just opened the door and jumped out. “I’ll meet up with you at the compound shortly I know how to find you.”

From the backseat, he caught Claire’s look of concern. He felt her worry rattle in his own