"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," Jenna whispered, stricken. "Not another Breedmate?"
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 f**king idea," Brock said, sliding a tense look at Jenna as they followed Chase across the garage. "There's only one person I can think of who'd have any cause to snatch a Gen One's family member. It's a trap, Harvard. I smell Dragos all over this."
"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 Jenna and Chase.
"Hell of a goddamned day," Lucan muttered, taking them in with a glance. "You both all right?"
Brock stole a look at Jenna, who stood calm and steady beside him.
She was a little scraped up and bruised, but thankfully she was whole.
"Could've been worse."
Lucan raked a hand through his dark hair. "Dragos is getting bolder all the time. Minions in the f**king FBI, for crissake."
"What the hell?" Chase frowned, shooting an incredulous look between Brock and Jenna. "You mean the Fed you met with today--"
"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 Jenna. She took out both Minions, then saved my bacon from going crispy, as well."
"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 Jenna. "What is it? Tell me why you're so quiet all of a sudden."
"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."
Jenna nodded in agreement. "Whenever you're ready, I'm in. Since it appears there's no way to get rid of the damned thing, I guess I'd better start trying to understand it."
"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 Jenna, then Brock.
"Glad to have you back in one piece. Both of you."
Jenna murmured her thanks, but her expression was pinched with disappointment. "Unfortunately, since the meeting was a setup, we didn't come away with any information on TerraGlobal."
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."