Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [759]
“How awful.” And now Claire felt worse for having inadvertently taken something away from her. “I had no idea—”
“You couldn’t have, so please don’t feel bad,” Tess said, kindly absolving her of her guilt. “The vampire who had Mira before she came here to the compound used her talent constantly. Niko and Renata took her out of that bad situation just a few weeks ago. It’s our hope that her sight can be restored in time.”
“I hope so, too,” Claire murmured, feeling sorry for the girl, but her own thoughts were miles away.
She had to tell Andreas what she’d seen.
She didn’t kid herself that he would listen to anything more she had to say, or even that he would want to see her after the way they’d left things between them in Newport. But she had to try to get through to him, if only so that he had the knowledge and could decide on his own what to do about it.
Claire felt the other Breedmate watching her closely as if she understood the weight of her thoughts. “When I walked past the weapons room a short while ago, he was in there with Tegan and Rio. I believe they’d just come in. Would you like me to walk you down there?”
“Thank you,” Claire said, then fell in step beside Tess, her heart squeezed tightly in her chest.
CHAPTER
Twenty
In the few short minutes it took Claire and Tess to reach the Order’s weapons room, Andreas was no longer there. Tegan and Rio were standing near the firing range with Gideon, reviewing a cache of ammunition and firearms laid out on a table near a large cabinet filled with more of the same. Tegan looked up as Tess led Claire into the room.
“Have you seen Andreas?” Claire asked the formidable Gen One male.
He nodded gravely. “I’ve seen him. And I sure as hell wouldn’t recommend it. At least not for a few more hours. He’s not exactly fit for company.”
“I need to talk to him, Tegan. It’s important.”
When the warrior looked like he was going to shut her down flat, Tess chimed in. “I was swimming with Mira at the pool. She didn’t have her lenses in, and… Claire saw something.”
“Ah, fuck.” Tegan wasn’t the only vampire in the room to mutter a dark curse. He ran a hand over his jaw, then followed it through with a gesture toward the corridor outside. “His quarters are up that hallway. Fifth door after the first turn.”
Claire nodded her thanks to both Tess and Tegan, then pivoted around and hurried out to the corridor. She found the curve in the marbled walkway and glanced ahead to count the closed doors as she walked quickly toward the fifth one.
Before she even reached the halfway point, she felt the fine hairs at the back of her neck begin to stir. The sensation traveled her skin like a low-current electrical charge. She would know the feeling anywhere.
Andreas.
She paused in front of an arched open entryway on her right. The chamber was dark, lit only by the flicker of a single pillar candle deep inside the room. It was a sanctuary of some sort. A chapel, with carved stone walls and twin rows of benches that faced a simple, unadorned pedestal altar.
Andreas was on his knees before that altar, his dark head bowed low.
Tiny pulses of light skated all over his body. It wasn’t the full-scale heat and fire that she’d witnessed before, but a smaller kind of energy. Less volatile by far, but yet strong enough to make her limbs and neck prickle in reaction. As she watched, the pulses began to slow and lessen in strength. Before long, they had faded completely.
Andreas was so still and meditative, Claire was loath to disturb him.
Too late, however. He swiveled his head and opened his eyes, piercing her with a blast of amber that swamped his irises.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said, his voice deadly low and thickened by the presence of his fangs. “Go, Claire. I don’t want you to see me like this.”
She didn’t have to