Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [762]
He could see it in her eyes, as she stood before him with flushed cheeks and dark brown eyes gone even duskier for the velvety blackness of her passion-drenched pupils. “Have you already spoken with them about how you mean to help the Order?”
No sense in trying to shield her from the truth when it was plain that she still knew him better than anyone else ever had. Or ever would. “Tegan and I discussed a few things on the way back in tonight. Starting tomorrow evening, I’ll be joining the patrols in place of the warrior that was injured. Since we now know Roth is in Boston, we’ll be sweeping the city with an eye on locating him, as well.”
She nodded briefly, then moved past him to collect her clothes. She dressed expediently, hastily, as if she couldn’t get away from him fast enough now.
Reichen gave a feeble shake of his head, lost for the right words. “I’m sorry, Claire.”
“I know,” she replied quietly. “I’m sorry, too.”
He didn’t try to stop her as she walked out of the chapel and disappeared down the winding corridor. As hard as it was to keep his feet rooted to the floor, he stood there as still as a statue, until he was certain she was gone.
Then he dropped back down onto his knees and continued to pray for the strength he would need to see his vengeance through to its necessary end.
CHAPTER
Twenty-one
It was sometime after daybreak when Claire stood outside the shower in her compound quarters and reached in to turn on the water. She stared, unseeing, into the warm mist that began to rise on the other side of the glass.
She was losing him again.
Again, because of Wilhelm Roth.
Cold all over when she thought of everything Roth had already taken from Andreas, and from her, she stepped under the steaming spray and stood there, trembling from the chill that permeated down into her bones. In just a few hours, the sun would be setting again and Andreas would be joining the Order on their combat patrols—heading right into the very city where Roth was now. Heading potentially into death.
He’d made it very clear that nothing she said would keep him from lending his help to the Order. Just as nothing would stop him from pursuing the justice he felt he needed, no matter the cost to him. Or the cost to the love they were rediscovering after being kept so long apart.
At least this time he wasn’t walking away without any explanation at all. He had his reasons. Good, noble reasons. None of which made the truth any easier to accept.
Some desperate, selfish part of her had wanted to run back immediately to the Order’s chapel and beg him to reconsider. She would offer him anything. Say anything.
But she knew he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, change his mind.
He was too honorable a man.
And she loved him too much to try to make him bend his integrity just to satisfy her breaking heart. But God, it hurt to think of letting him go. Of possibly losing him forever.
Grief and anger swamped her.
She felt so confused and afraid… so alone already.
Claire sank down onto the tile floor of the shower and let the hot water and steam engulf her. She closed her eyes and thought about how difficult it was going to be when he left with the warriors that night. Being at the compound to await his return would assuage some of the ache in her heart, but only until she considered that he would also be out there looking to have his battle with Roth. And if she added Dragos to that equation, too?
She could hardly bear to imagine the outcome of a confrontation of that magnitude.
But what could she do to prevent it?
A small, desperate voice in the corner of her mind whispered that there was something. Something she hadn’t yet considered. Something so distasteful that it caused bile to rise in the back of her throat.
She could go directly to Roth himself.
Not for mercy because she knew he had none, particularly not now. Not where she or Andreas were concerned. But as certain as she was of that fact, she was also certain of just how deeply Wilhelm Roth despised losing.
He had always been consumed with winning, even the most