Kade leaned back and chuckled into his satellite phone as Brock caught him up on everything he was missing in Boston the past couple of nights.
"I'm telling you, man, if we aren't careful, these females around here are gonna show our asses up. The way they've been tackling daytime missions topside, they're starting to make the rest of us look bad." Since Kade had phoned in to the Order's compound headquarters a few minutes ago, Brock had been regaling him with stories about some of the other warriors' Breedmates and their current efforts to assist in what had been, until very recently, something of an all-boys club. Now Order missions had become allhands-on-deck kinds of operations--solely devoted to stopping a power-hungry Breed maniac named Dragos from unleashing his personal brand of hell on both humankind and Breed alike. Dragos's resources were as deep as his pockets and, so it happened, as black as his plans. His most heinous act had been the capture and imprisonment of an unknown number of Breedmates, whom he'd been collecting for decades and using to give birth to an army of savage assassins. With Dragos's headquarters sacked by the Order just a few weeks ago, his operation had been disrupted--disassembled and perted, the Order suspected.
Finding the captive Breedmates before he could harm any more of them was the Order's primary objective now. Because timing could mean the difference between lives lost or saved, Lucan had agreed to utilize every weapon in the Order's arsenal, which included the very special, uniquely gifted, females who'd taken some of the warriors as their mates.
There was Rio's mate, Dylan, who had the ability to see the spirits of other Breedmates who'd passed and, when she was lucky, obtain critical information from them. There was Elise, who was mated to Tegan and who had a talent for hearing corrupt, dark human intentions. She accompanied Dylan to area shelters, private homes, and flophouses, her ability helping her assess the motives of the folks they met with along private homes, and flophouses, her ability helping her assess the motives of the folks they met with along the way.
Gideon's mate, Savannah, used her tactile skill for reading the history of an object, hoping to find traceable links to some of the missing. Nikolai's mate, Renata, whose power to mind-blast even the strongest vampire made her a formidable ally on any mission, provided armed bodyguard service to the other Breedmates for their daytime missions.
Even Andreas Reichen's mate, Claire, who'd only recently recovered from her own ordeal at the hands of Dragos and his associates, was apparently getting involved in Order business. Using her gift for dreamwalking, she'd been trying to make contact with some of the known Breedmates who'd been reported missing over the years.
"You know," Brock added wryly, "when Niko recruited me for this gig a year ago, I was expecting it to be just a great excuse to kick some Rogue ass."
Kade grinned, recalling their initial patrols around Boston, which typically involved taking out the city's feral blood addicts and making things go boom. "Kind of makes you miss the simplicity of the first few months on the job, doesn't it?"
Brock grunted in agreement. Then, "Speaking of Rogues, how's it going up there in the icebox?
Been two days and counting. You got that situation swept up yet?"
"I'm following up on a few leads, but nothing solid right now. I'll probably be here another few days, maybe a week."
Brock's exhaled curse told Kade what he thought of that prediction. "Better you than me, my man. Better you than me." There was a pause before he asked, "You have a chance to see your family yet?"
"Yeah," Kade said, tipping his head back to stare at the thick beam rafters of the cabin. "My arrival home went over about as well as I expected."
"That good, huh?"
"Put it this way, I get a warmer reception stepping outside in the twenty-below darkness."
"Harsh," Brock said. "I'm sorry, man. Seriously." Kade shook his head. "Forget it. I don't need to talk about my welcome homecoming. Just wanted to touch base and pass along another bit of info that Gideon might find interesting."
"Okay, shoot."
"I found the ass**le who posted the video clip of the attacked humans. His name is Skeeter Arnold, local burnout, probable small-time dealer. I watched him leave a bar and take off in a shiny new chauffeured Hummer. He was brought to some kind of mining company office out in the sticks. The name on the gate was Coldstream Mining Company. Put Gideon on that when he gets a chance. I'm curious to know what kind of business this loser might have with them."
"You got it," Brock said. "You take care out there. Don't freeze off anything you might need later." Kade chuckled despite the unease he felt just thinking about this whole assignment. "I'll be in touch," he said, and ended the call.
As he set the phone down on the lamp table beside him, a firm rap sounded on the cabin's front door.
"Yeah, it's open," he said, expecting to see his father. He steeled himself for the disapproval that would follow. "Come on in."
Maksim entered instead, sparking a relief Kade could hardly hide. He rose, smiling, and gestured for his uncle to join him in front of the fire.
"I didn't think you'd come back," Max said. "At least, not so soon. I hear it did not go well between you and my brother the other day. I wish he wasn't so hard on you."
Kade shrugged. "We've never seen eye to eye. I sure as hell don't expect us to start now."
"Now that you are one of the Order's warriors," Max said, his eyes lighting with eager conspiracy, his deep, slightly accented voice edged with unhidden admiration, "I am proud of you, nephew. Proud of the work you are doing. There is honor in it, just as there has always been honor in you." Kade wanted to dismiss the praise as unneeded, but hearing it--particularly from Max, who, although he was a couple centuries older than Kade, had always felt like a brother to him--felt too damn good to pretend it didn't matter.