Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [757]
The stunned man stood up and wandered dazedly toward the other end of the alley.
“Tegan,” Reichen murmured thickly, voicing the name that finally sprang into his consciousness.
The warrior stalked over to him. “What are you doing down here? Last I heard, Lucan had sent Rio out to Newport to chauffeur your sorry ass into the compound.”
Reichen shrugged. “I had the sudden urge for takeout along the way.”
Tegan didn’t laugh. He kept that fierce gaze trained on Reichen, watching him as he might an armed grenade. “You look like shit.”
“I’m better now,” Reichen replied, feeling the new blood quenching his organs and cells. But it hadn’t been enough. His thirst was still gnawing at him, greedy for more. “I am fine.”
Tegan scoffed. “You’ve got the shakes and you can’t keep your eyes focused on a damn thing.”
“It will pass.”
This time a raw curse. “Give me your hand. Doesn’t look like you can get up on your own motor.”
Reichen took the offered help, clasping Tegan’s hand and letting himself be pulled to his feet. No sooner had he risen than Tegan drew in a sharp hiss. His fangs punched into view behind his lip, and the green of his eyes was suddenly shot with flecks of glowing amber. Reichen recalled the warrior’s ability to read emotion with a touch, and he could only guess at the torrent of disturbing things he’d just picked up from that brief contact.
“What the fuck is going on with you, man?” he demanded.
“It’s the pyro… does this to me afterward. No big deal.” Even as he said it, Reichen wondered if it was true. Summoning his power was getting easier all the time; coming out of its wake was another thing.
Maybe Claire was right when she challenged him about his fury. How many more times could he do this and hope to emerge from it in one piece? How soon before he reached the tipping point and the fires ate away the very last scrap of his humanity?
And if the fires didn’t do it, he had the sickening feeling that the nearly insatiable thirst left in their wake surely would.
“Shit,” Tegan exhaled, holding him in a narrowed, assessing look. He pulled a cell phone out of his jacket pocket and pressed a key. “Yeah, it’s me. I’m down in Jamaica Plain. I’ve got Reichen here with me, I’m bringing him in to the compound.”
The women of the Order made Claire feel as welcome as she ever had by her contemporaries in the Darkhavens. Three of the warriors’ Breedmates, Savannah, Gabrielle, and Elise, had prepared her a lovely dinner of creamy soup and homemade biscuits, and Dylan had shown her to a private apartment down the maze of marbled corridors that Claire was offered for her own while she was at the compound.
They had told her to make herself at home, and she couldn’t resist spending a few minutes nosing around the massive headquarters that spread out seemingly endlessly. It was fascinating—and a bit unsettling—to realize that an organization like the Order not only existed but needed to exist. She felt so naive, reflecting on how Wilhelm Roth and his Enforcement Agency cronies strutted around, professing to be the protectors of the Breed, when they had been as corrupt as a cancer, slowly chewing away at the foundation of what was truly good and just. Wilhelm Roth had been a villain all along, and Claire had been too blind to see it.
But what hurt much worse than that was the fact that she’d been in love with Andreas Reichen for most of her life, and now that she had been given a miraculous second chance with him, it might be Wilhelm Roth who tore them apart once more. She could only hope that good would win out over evil like him and Dragos. She could only pray that once the worst was over, she and Andreas could begin to smooth over the fear and anger that stood between them now.
The drive from Newport to Boston seemed to take years instead of an hour. She’d hated that she and Andreas hadn’t been able to talk before Rio and Dylan had arrived to bring them to the compound. And she still weathered the knot of cold anxiety that had settled in her heart in that instant when