"I saw her birthmark with my own eyes," Rio replied.
Gideon murmured something urgent yet indiscernible to someone else apparently in the lab with him. The answering deep growl of a cool Gen One voice could belong to none other than Lucan, the Order's founder and leader.
Great, Rio thought. Although it wasn't as if he was planning to keep the news from the highest-ranking warrior of the group, so he might as well clue him in on all the facts now.
"Lucan's here," Gideon informed him, in case he missed that fact. "You alone over there, Rio?"
"Yep. Sitting all by my lonesome in Reichen's study."
"All right. Hang on. I'm gonna put you on video telecom."
Rio's mouth twisted grimly. "I thought you might."
He glanced up as the large flat-panel blinked on across from him. Like a window opened on a next-door room, the screen filled with a real-time image of Gideon and Lucan seated in the Boston compound's tech lab. Gideon's eyes were intense as he gazed over the rims of his pale blue shades, his cropped blond hair a spiky, mad-scientist mess, as usual.
Under Lucan's furrowed black brows, his gaze was also serious, his light gray eyes narrowed as he leaned back in one of the big leather chairs that circled the Order's conference table.
"The female is safe here at the Darkhaven, and she has not been harmed in any way," Rio began without preamble. "Her name is Dylan Alexander, and from what I've gathered off her computer files she lives and works in New York City. I'm guessing she is in her late twenties, but there's a chance she could be near thirty - "
"Rio." Lucan leaned forward, peering intently at the video screen where Rio's image was being projected back home. "We'll get to her in a minute. What's going on with you, man? You've been out of contact since February, and no offense, but you look like hell."
Rio shook his head, raked a hand through his sweat-dampened hair. "I'm good. Just want to take care of this problem and be done with it, you know?"
He wasn't sure if he was talking about Dylan Alexander and her photos, or the other, longer-term problems he'd been dealing with since the warehouse explosion that might have killed him. Should have killed him, damn it.
"Everything's cool with me, Lucan."
The vampire's expression held steady, measuring on the other end of the video feed. "I don't appreciate being lied to, my friend. I need to know if the Order can still count on you. Are you still with us?"
"The Order is all I have, Lucan. You know that."
It was the truth, and it seemed to satisfy the shrewd Gen One. For now.
"So, the reporter you're holding over there is a Breedmate." Lucan sighed, rubbing his palm over his strong square jaw. "You're going to have to bring her in, Rio. To Boston. You need to explain a few things to her beforehand, about the Breed and about her link to us, and then you need to bring her in. Gideon will handle the transportation."
The other warrior was already typing away furiously at his keyboard, making it happen. "I can have our private jet waiting to pick you up at Tegel Airport tomorrow night."
Rio acknowledged the plans with a firm nod, but there were still a few loose ends to consider. "She was booked on a flight out of Prague to New York today. She has family and friends who'll be expecting her home."
"You've got access to her e-mail," Gideon put in.
"Send a group message using her account, explaining that she's been delayed for a few days and will be in contact as soon as possible."
"What about the pictures she took of the cave?" Rio asked.
Lucan answered that one. "Gideon tells me you have the camera and her computer. She needs to understand that everyone who has copies of those pictures is a risk to us - one we can't afford to let slide. So, she'll have to help us by killing her story and destroying every copy of every photograph she's let loose."
"And if she won't cooperate?" Rio could already imagine how well this conversation was going to go with her. "What do we do then?"
"We track down those inpiduals she's been in contact with, and we obtain the images by whatever means necessary."
"Mind-scrub them all?" Rio asked.
The set of Lucan's mouth was grave. "Whatever it takes."
"And the woman?" Rio wanted to be clear. "As a Breedmate, we can't just scrub her arbitrarily. She would be given some choice in this, wouldn't she?"
"Yes," Lucan said. "She does have a choice. Once she knows about the existence of the Breed and the mark she bears that links her to us, she can decide whether she wants to be a part of our world, or return to her own and give up all knowledge of our kind. That's the way it has always been done. It's the only way."
Rio nodded. "I'll take care of it, Lucan."
"I know you will," he said, no challenge or doubt in the statement, just pure trust. "And, Rio?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't think I haven't noticed those livid glyphs on you, my man." Narrowed silver eyes fixed on him over the distance. "Make sure you feed. Tonight."
Chapter Ten
Dylan sat near the head of the four-poster bed, staring intently at the illuminated digital display on her cell phone.
Looking for service...Looking for service...
"Come on," she whispered softly under her breath as the message repeated in agonizing slow motion. "Come on, work, damn it!"
Looking for service...
No signal available.
"Shit."
She'd lied to her abductor about having a cell phone. Her razor-thin mobile had been stashed in one of the side pockets of her cargo pants all this time, not that having it was doing her much good right now.