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“Oh, God,” she whispered. “Please, don’t stop.”
But he did stop—not even a second later. He went still above her, his head snapping up. Then she heard it, too.
The roar of a fast-approaching vehicle outside the fleet hangar. The garage door opened and one of the Order’s other black SUVs came flying inside. It screeched to a halt a few spaces away from them, and one of the warriors leapt out of the driver’s seat.
“It’s Chase,” Brock murmured, frowning as he watched out the back window. “Shit. Something’s wrong. Stay in here, if you’d rather not let him know we were together just now.”
“Forget it. I’m going with you,” she said, then pulled herself together and followed him out of the Rover to meet the other Breed male. Sterling Chase was heading for the compound elevator at an urgent clip. He glanced over at Brock and Je
“What’s going on?” Brock asked, nothing but business in his deep voice.
Chase was equally grim, hardly slowing down to talk. “You haven’t heard?”
Brock gave a curt shake of his head. “We just came in ourselves.”
“Got a call from Mathias Rowan a few minutes ago,” Chase said. “There’s been an abduction at one of the Boston area Darkhavens tonight.”
“Oh, my God,” Je
Chase shook his head. “A young male, fourteen years old. He also happens to be the grandson of a Gen One elder named Lazaro Archer.”
“Gen One,” Brock muttered, instincts prickling with alarm. “That can’t possibly be a coincidence.”
“Doubtful,” Chase agreed. “The Enforcement Agency is questioning witnesses, trying to grab any leads they can on where the kid might have been taken, and why. Meanwhile Lazaro Archer and his son, Christophe, the boy’s father, are making noise that they want to meet with his abductors personally—whoever they are—to negotiate for his release.”
“Ah, Christ. Bad fucking idea,” Brock said, sliding a tense look at Je
“So do I. And so does Lucan.” Chase paused with them in front of the hangar’s elevator and pressed the call button. “He’s arranged a meeting with the Gen One and his son here at the compound. Tegan’s going to pick them up within the hour.”
CHAPTER
Twenty-two
Lucan and Gideon were waiting for them as soon as Brock came off the elevator with Je
“Hell of a goddamned day,” Lucan muttered, taking them in with a glance. “You both all right?”
Brock stole a look at Je
Lucan raked a hand through his dark hair. “Dragos is getting bolder all the time. Minions in the fucking FBI, for crissake.”
“What the hell?” Chase frowned, shooting an incredulous look between Brock and Je
“He belonged to Dragos,” Brock replied. “He and another of Dragos’s mind slaves grabbed her inside the building and took off with her. I pursued the vehicle but wasn’t able to catch up to them until they crashed on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge.”
Chase exhaled a low curse. “You two are lucky to be alive.”
“Yeah,” Brock agreed. “Thanks to Je
“No shit?” Some of the edge left Chase’s hard blue gaze as he looked at her. “Not bad for a human. I’m impressed.”
She shrugged off the compliment. “I should have known something wasn’t right with the agent I met with. I did know, actually. I had a certain … sense, I guess you could say. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but all through the meeting I kept thinking something was odd about him.”
“What do you mean?” Gideon asked.
She frowned, considering. “I don’t know exactly. It was just something instinctual. His eyes made me uncomfortable, and I kept getting a weird feeling that he wasn’t quite … normal.”
“You knew he wasn’t quite human,” Brock suggested, as surprised as the rest of the warriors to hear her admission. “You sensed he was a Minion?”
“I suppose I did.” She nodded. “But I didn’t know to call him that at the time. All I knew was he made my skin crawl the longer I was near him.”
Brock didn’t miss the silent glance that passed between Gideon and Lucan.
Neither did Je
“Human beings don’t have the ability to detect Minions,” Brock answered. “Homo sapiens senses aren’t acute enough to pick up on the difference between a mortal and someone whose will belongs to a Breed master.”
She arched her brows. “You think this is also related to the implant, don’t you? The alien gift that keeps on giving.” She huffed out a sharp laugh. “Just how crazy have I become, that this can all just seem par for the course now?”
Brock narrowly resisted the urge to wrap his arm around her. Instead he turned a serious look on Gideon. “Have you found anything more in the blood work results?”
“Nothing significant beyond the anomalies we’ve already discovered. But I would like to run a few more samples, as well as conduct another stress test and further strength and endurance measurements.”
Je
“The tests are going to have to wait a while,” Lucan interjected. “I want everyone gathered in the tech lab in ten minutes. A lot of shit went down today, and I need to make sure we’re all up to speed before our Darkhaven guests arrive.”
The Order’s leader slid an approving look toward Je
Je
Lucan grunted. “Maybe not, but finding out that Dragos has Minions embedded in human government could prove to be even more valuable to us in the long run. It’s sure as hell not good news, but it’s something we needed to be aware of.”
“He’s stepping things up big-time,” Gideon added. “Between this discovery today and now the kidnapping of Lazaro Archer’s grandson, it’s pretty clear that Dragos isn’t about to give up.”
“And nothing is beneath him,” Brock remarked, grave with the possibilities. “That makes him more dangerous than ever. We’d better be prepared for the worst when it comes to this bastard.”
Lucan nodded, his gaze sober, reflective. “For now, we’ll take it one crisis at a time. Chase, come with me. I want you to ride shotgun with Tegan when he goes topside to collect the Archers. Everyone else, tech lab in ten.”
Lazaro Archer was rumored to be close to a thousand years old, but like any other Breed male, outwardly the jet-haired Gen One looked to be no more than thirty. The lines around his stern mouth and the shadows under his dark blue eyes, although pronounced, were just evidence of his distress over the abduction of his young grandson. Those shrewd but weary eyes sca