He could only hope that the Order sent their entire membership after him. It would be such a pleasure to watch the group of them perish in one fell swoop. So much the better if that number included Claire and her reunited lover. Satisfied that all was in readiness in the lab, Roth headed into the UV-light prison area to check the settings one final time. He wanted everything to be perfect for the Order's imminent arrival... and their resulting demise.
It was too damned quiet. Lucan and the rest of the Order had spent the better part of the night combing the city, looking for any signs of Dragos or the Gen One assassins he'd apparently loosed on the streets to bring the Order out. Several hours of searching every deserted lot, warehouse, back alley, and rooftop, and Lucan was coming up empty. So were the rest of the teams on patrol tonight. He'd just hung up with Niko and Renata, who'd been jointly sweeping the area down by the Mystic River with Dante and Hunter. Not a trace of trouble, other than the usual bullshit perpetrated by mankind against its brothers. Frankly, the relative peace he was finding tonight didn't sit well with him.
Something seemed... off. Lucan could still feel it in his marrow that some serious trouble had been ramping up in the city the other night. Those human killings were significant in their brutality and their brazenness. The Order was being lured out to play in a very blatant manner, so why would Dragos pull back his strikes now that he had their attention? As Lucan made one more visual sweep of his area in the final hour before dawn, he couldn't help feeling that he and the rest of the Order were standing in the way of a pending tsunami. The tide and wind had sucked back hard, leaving an eerie, false state of calm. It was quiet now, but at any minute that mother of a wave was going to come pouring over them and consume everything in its path.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I still say we're wasting precious time and opportunity if we don't at least consider a daytime reconnaissance." Nikolai's mate, Renata, hopped down off the counter in the weapons room and started pacing in her combat boots and black fatigues. Her chin- length black hair was loosened from the band that had held it back during her patrols and now swung freely around her face as she argued her point for the second time. "I mean, come on, you guys. If the he-man resistance being thrown around here right now is only about keeping us safe, it's a nonissue. The worst we can run into during daylight hours are Minions, and I dare any one of you to tell me I can't take out a human mind slave in my sleep.
With one hand tied behind my back." Niko grinned at his woman. "She's got a good point, Lucan. We're not talking about a combat situation, just sending them in to gather intel and report back so we can move in." Lucan grunted, looking up from beneath his dark brows. "I don't like it." "I don't like it, either," Rio put in. "But I know Dylan will be safe with Renata. If the women are open to doing this, then maybe we should let them help. You've said it yourself, Lucan: Right now we need all hands on deck." Reichen sat off to the side and listened in silence, biting back his own opinion, which was basically that whatever the Order decided was fine with him so long as they left Claire out of the picture entirely. Unfortunately for him and his opinions, Claire seemed to have other plans.
He felt her in the doorway of the room before he actually saw her, the pull of his bond to her turning his head in her direction as if the core of him were connected to her by a wire. She came in with Dante's mate, both of them moving to the back of the room as the debate continued between Lucan and Renata. "Think about it, Lucan. If we work the daylight, that gives us an eight-to ten-hour advantage," she said. "Eight to ten more hours closer to Roth could be a crucial advantage to actually getting close to Dragos. If the pullback we saw tonight in Boston is an indicator that they're scared and running, then we don't have any time to waste." Several heads nodded in agreement with Renata. "And if the pullback is an indicator of something else?" Lucan asked grimly. "If they've abruptly pulled out of Boston not because they're worried about being found, but because they're working on something bigger?" "Actually, I think we need to assume that it's not fear so much as strategy." Claire's voice drew everyone's attention to the back of the weapons room.
She glanced around at the group, lingering the longest on Reichen. Her gaze was troubled, and he could feel the distress that had her heart pounding uncomfortably in her breast. "I don't know Dragos, but I know Wilhelm Roth well enough. He never operates from a position of fear. He believes himself invincible, smarter than everyone else. Wherever he is, he's got an alternative plan to strike even harder than he has before." "All the better reason to use any advantage we can to find him," Rio added. Lucan's gaze traveled from Claire to Renata to Dylan, the trio of Breedmates who would be carrying out the daytime mission. "You're all in agreement, then? You want to do this?" "Yes," they answered in unison. He considered it for a long moment, then gave a solemn nod. "All right, then. Gideon will grid the best area for you to start searching.
Let's plan on meeting for one final review in the tech lab before you roll out." With a round of assenting comments, the meeting began to disperse. Reichen started to move toward Claire, but before he could reach her and offer the dozen different apologies he'd been rehearsing in his mind since they'd last parted, Renata and Dylan swept her along in a rush of conversation. She gave him only the briefest look as she passed, the message in her gaze unmistakably clear. He had nothing to say about what she was doing. He had refused to give her promises he couldn't keep, and now she was dealing it back to him in spades. The taste of his comeuppance was bitter as hell. Claire turned away from him, then continued on with her two female companions to discuss the daytime mission that had put a lump of icy dread in Reichen's gut.