"That's not like him at all." Elise glanced at Tegan as he reached out to draw her hand into his. "He's too responsible to just take off like this without any explanation."
"Is he?" Tegan's question was gentle, but there was tension in his jaw - a fierce protectiveness - as he looked at his troubled Breedmate beside him. "I know you want to think the best of Chase, but you need to look at him through clear eyes now. You saw him last night, Elise. You told me how he acted with you in the chapel. Was that the Chase you think you know?"
"No," she answered quietly, her eyes downcast as she slowly shook her blond head. Earlier that day, Elise had relayed to everyone her confrontation with Chase in the moments before he'd left the compound, how he'd lashed out at her, full of anger and crudeness. Lucan had bristled to hear about the whole thing, but no worse than Tegan. The other Gen One still vibrated with palpable malice toward Chase's actions, despite the care with which he handled his beloved mate's feelings for her former kinsman.
"I shouldn't have struck him," Elise murmured. "I knew he was upset. I should have walked away and left him alone. That's what he told me to do. I shouldn't have pushed him - "
"Hey," Tegan said, tenderly lifting her chin with his fingertips. "You didn't push him out that door last night. He went willingly." Tegan glanced Lucan's way then. "Let's face it, Harvard's been walking a damn thin line for a while now. Maybe it's time we all start looking at him with clearer eyes. Time we stop making excuses for Chase and acknowledge what I'm sure more than one of us has been thinking about him lately."
Lucan caught the meaning in Tegan's knowing stare and in the statement that hung over the room like a funeral shroud. Hell, how could he mistake Tegan's point, considering Lucan's own recent history and the battle he'd waged not so long ago to resist falling victim to the weakness that plagued all of the Breed?
"Bloodlust," Lucan said, grim with the thought. He glanced up at the faces of his Breed brethren seated around the table, more aware than any of them - except Tegan, that is - of what it meant to become addicted to the thirst. Once a vampire stepped foot on that path, the decline was swift. Plummet too far and you never came back. "No offense, T, but I hope you're wrong."
Tegan's stare remained steady, too certain. "And if I'm not?"
When no one else filled the answering silence, Dante hissed a curse. "Either way, we need to haul Harvard's ass back into the compound and set him straight. Someone needs to tell him to pull his shit together before it's too late. I'll pound it into his thick skull personally, if that's what it takes."
Lucan wanted to agree with Dante's argument but found himself shaking his head the longer he considered it. "Chase knew what he was doing when he walked out of here. And if he didn't, then he sure as hell knows now. We've got bigger problems to deal with than cleaning up another of Harvard's messes. He's AWOL, and that's coming on the heels of a fucked-up mission that might have gone even further south if not for Hunter having been with Chase on patrol. Let's not forget it was Chase who failed to keep Lazaro and Christophe Archer safe during Kellan's rescue last week. He's been screwing up left and right. Frankly, he's becoming a liability."
"I can go after him, try to bring him around," Dante insisted. "I mean, Christ, Lucan. He's proved to be solid in combat. He's saved my ass more than once, and he's done a lot of good for the Order since he's been on board. Don't you think he deserves some benefit of doubt here?"
"Not if his behavior jeopardizes the Order's objectives," Lucan replied. "And not if his presence here endangers the security of this compound or anyone within these walls. Like Tegan said, nobody pushed Chase out of the fold. He walked out of here on his own free will."
Dante stared in grim silence, along with the others seated around the table. This wasn't a call Lucan wanted to make, but he was leader here, and, ultimately, his word was law. None of the warriors would argue the subject any further. Not even Dante, who slumped back into his seat and muttered a low curse.
Lucan cleared his throat. "Now, let's get back to Murdock - "
Before he could finish the thought, the tech lab's glass doors hissed open and Rio's Breedmate, Dylan, rushed into the room. Her freckle-spattered face was pale against the fiery color of her hair, her eyes wide with panic.
"Tess sent me," she blurted, skidding to a sharp halt. "She's in the infirmary. She needs help quick!"
Dante shot out of his seat. "Oh, fuck. Is it the baby?"
"No." Dylan shook her head. "Nothing like that - Tess is fine. It's Kellan Archer. Something's wrong with him - really wrong. He's in a lot of pain. We can't get him to stop convulsing."
The meeting broke up in a rush of movement, Lucan and Dante leading the way. Everyone scrambled down to the infirmary at the other end of the corridor. Dylan hadn't been exaggerating when she said the situation with young Kellan Archer was bad. The Breed youth was doubled over on his infirmary bed, clutching at his abdomen and moaning in obvious agony.
"His nausea started worsening about half an hour ago," Tess volunteered as the group crowded into the room. Kellan's grandfather, the Gen One civilian Lazaro Archer, stood at one side of the bed, Tess at the other. Her hand rested lightly on the teen's back as another deep convulsion rippled through his body.
"What's wrong with Kellan?" asked little Mira, who stood nearby with Gideon's mate, Savannah. The girl clutched an opened book to her chest, as though she'd recently been reading from it. Her eyes were wide and anxious. "Is he going to be okay?"
"Kellan's got a bad tummyache," Savannah told her, glancing to Gideon and Lucan as she guided the child away from the bed. She spoke and moved with utter calm, but her dark brown eyes were grave with concern.
The fact was, no one knew what was wrong with Kellan Archer. Instead of rebounding after he'd been abducted and tortured on Dragos's command, he seemed to be getting weaker. He needed to feed, that much was certain, but he wasn't yet in any shape to venture topside and find a Host on his own.
Bad enough Lucan had been forced to open the Order's headquarters to Lazaro Archer and his grandson after Dragos razed their Darkhaven and obliterated their kin. If things didn't improve with Kellan damn soon, Lucan was going to have to break yet another rule of the compound and bring a human inside to feed the kid.
Renata reached out to take Mira's hand. "Come on, Mouse. Why don't you come with Savannah and me for a little while? We can come back when Kellan feels better, all right?"
Mira nodded but kept her head turned toward the youth suffering on the bed until the other two Breedmates had removed her from the room. No sooner had they gone, the young vampire doubled over into a deeper spasm, saliva dripping from his open mouth.
"Please," Lazaro Archer said. "Please, do something to help my boy. He's all I have left - "
A terrible groan ripped out of the Breed youth's throat. He gagged and wheezed, then, with a great heave of his torso, he leaned across the infirmary bed and began to vomit. A stream of liquid shot out of his mouth as he pitched forward and retched again. Dante leapt forward and pulled Tess out of the way, sheltering her against him. Dylan and Rio rushed to grab paper towels from the cabinet nearby while Elise stepped in to comfort the youth and help clean him up.
He kept heaving, spasms racking him even after his body had expelled what little it had to give up. He tried to speak, an embarrassed moan of apology, but only managed a raw rasp of sound.
"Shh," Elise whispered, stroking his damp hair where he'd crumpled on the mattress. "It's okay now, Kellan. Don't worry about anything except feeling better."
Dylan was on her hands and knees below, mopping up the mess on the floor as Rio worked on stripping away the soiled blanket and sheet. Lucan heard Dylan's indrawn gasp and watched as she suddenly went very still next to Kellan Archer's bed.
"Um ... you guys?" She stood up then, a wad of wet paper toweling in her hand. "I think I know what was making Kellan sick."
Lucan stared, a feeling of sickness opening up in his own gut as Dylan held out the soiled, soggy clump. In the center of it was a coin-size silver disc.
"Ah, Christ. Ah, fuck me," Gideon murmured. His face went slack as he reached out to take the object out of its wet nest of spittle and stomach acid. "I don't believe this. Son of a bitch!"
"What is it?" Tegan asked, grim as the rest of them.
"It's a GPS chip," Gideon replied. "A goddamn tracking device." He raked a hand over the top of his head and turned to face Lucan. "We've been compromised."
Lucan exhaled, the magnitude of his mistake hitting him like a freight train plowing into the center of his being.
Now it all made sense. The abduction of Kellan Archer. The too-easy rescue. The simultaneous attack on Archer's Darkhaven - an attack that was so thorough, it would have ensured the boy had no place else to go but back to the compound and into the protection of the Order.
Dragos had staged the entire thing, all for this purpose.
He knew where they lived now. He'd known for days, ever since Lucan had made the decision to allow the civilians into the Order's home.
The only question that remained was how long it would be before Dragos or his army of homegrown killers brought this war right up to the mansion's front gates.
Chapter Seven
Are you hungry, darling? I've asked Tilda to prepare something nice for you, but if you'd like anything to eat before the dining room is ready, you need only ask and I'll get it for you. Anything you wish - "
"I'm fine." Corinne turned away from the window in the room she'd been brought to a short while ago, after her mother had ushered her into the house and her father had disappeared into his study to confer with Mason and the other Darkhaven guards. The fuss and activity were making Corinne uncomfortable. Now that she was home, all she wanted was a few private moments alone with her parents. Time enough to tell them how badly she'd missed her family ... and how desperately she needed their help. When her mother began to wonder aloud about calling the kitchen for a tray of food to be brought up to the room, Corinne walked over and clasped hold of her hands. "I'm all right, really. Please, don't feel you have to fuss over me."
"But I can't help it. Do you know how many times I prayed for the chance to fuss over you again?" Regina Bishop's skin was moist and cool, her fingers trembling as they gripped Corinne's in an urgent hold. Tears swam in her kind eyes. "Good lord, are you really here? I'm looking at you - I feel you, alive and beautiful as ever, but I can hardly believe this is happening. We lived a nightmare after you went missing."
"I know," Corinne acknowledged softly. "I'm sorry for what all of you went through too."
"Lottie cried for weeks after you disappeared. She'll be so happy to learn that you're home again."
Corinne smiled at the thought of reuniting with her little sister. Although both were born with the Breedmate birthmark, she and Charlotte were not blood related. Nevertheless, they'd been fiercely devoted to each other - perhaps all the more so, having been born into neglect and abandonment as infants, only to become family as wards of the Bishops.
"Is she here, Mother?"
"Oh, no, darling. Charlotte has her own Darkhaven in London with her mate and their two sons. In fact, her youngest and his Breedmate just celebrated the birth of their first son a few weeks ago."
Corinne felt a bittersweet jolt in her core. Five years Corinne's junior, Lottie had been a gawky adolescent at the time of Corinne's abduction. Now she was grown up with a mate and adult children of her own. Corinne should have been happy for her sister; deep down, she was. But the news only drove the point more sharply that time had marched on while Corinne was gone.
Far more painful was the reminder of all the things she had lost - the precious things that had been taken from her - while Dragos held her imprisoned. Now that she was here, back in her parents' home, she could put all of her energy into reclaiming the pieces of her own broken life.
"I didn't see Sebastian when we came in earlier," she said, recalling the handsome, studious Breed youth who'd been so patient with his adopted sisters. He'd been twenty the year Corinne was abducted. Now he was probably leader of his own Darkhaven, with a beautiful Breedmate and half a dozen sons of his own as well.
The long silence that met her question made Corinne draw in an anxious breath. Regina Bishop's mouth quivered. "Of course, you wouldn't know. We lost Sebastian to Bloodlust more than forty years ago now."
Corinne closed her eyes. "Oh, God. Not our sweet Sebastian."
"I know, darling." Her mother's voice was small, still rife with grief over her son all these decades later. "Sebastian had changed in the years after you went missing. We knew he was struggling, that his thirst was consuming him, but he withdrew from us. He tried to hide his problems from us, wouldn't accept help. He'd been on a terrible killing spree in the city that night. When he came home, he was covered in blood. None of us could reach him. He was Rogue by then, too far gone to be saved. And he knew it. Sebastian was always so perceptive, so smart and sensitive. He locked himself in your father's study. We heard the gunshot not even a moment later."
"I'm so sorry." Corinne hugged her, feeling the anguish as the other woman stifled a tight sob. "It must have been awful."