The five youths had gone silent now, their faces ashen, eyes unblinking as they huddled together in the back of the sacked jewelry store.
Rafe nodded. “I’ve already called in for an evac.”
As he spoke, an engine roared outside as a black SUV screeched to a hard stop on the pavement. The driver’s side window slid down, revealing Rafe’s beautiful mate, Devony.
The Breed female’s long dark hair was scraped back into a sleek ponytail. Like Rafe and Darion, she wore black combat gear and her face bore evidence of the battles she’d fought tonight as an active member of the patrol team. As one of a handful of daywalkers in existence--and a skilled warrior in her own right--Devony had quickly proven to be a valuable asset to the Order.
She also had Rafe wrapped around her finger, something that amused Darion to no end.
“You two going to stand around shooting the shit all night?” Devony called from inside the vehicle. “Round up the civilians and let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Rafe grinned. “Damn, I love it when she’s bossy. Gets me hot every time.”
Darion grunted, shaking his head. “That’s a mental picture I could’ve lived without.”
“Says the one who’s got a hard-on for nothing less than an actual fucking immortal queen,” Rafe shot back, chuckling now. “Don’t even try to say you haven’t noticed how jaw-droppingly gorgeous Selene is--assuming you can look past her icy personality and homicidal leanings. Not to mention a ten-thousand-year age gap, give or take.”
Darion felt his scowl darken. “The Atlantean queen is our enemy. She’s made that clear on numerous occasions.” In fact, in a contest between Selene, Opus Nostrum, and the newer threat that had exploded out of the Deadlands several nights ago, Darion wasn’t sure which posed the greater risk to the entire planet and its inhabitants. To say nothing of himself and every member of the Order. “It doesn’t matter how beautiful Selene is. If anything, that only makes her more dangerous.”
“So, youhavenoticed, then.”
As much as he may want to deny it, yeah, he’d noticed how attractive she was. Jaw-droppingly gorgeous and then some. He had only seen Selene once, and not even in person. Ever since she’d overridden the Order’s command center technology to deliver an impromptu, drive-by threat to their existence, Darion had thought of little else.
He’d also spent an inappropriate amount of time wondering if the icy platinum blonde immortal had ever met a man she couldn’t freeze out with that temper of hers.
Darion glowered at his friend. “Aren’t you supposed to be helping to round up the humans? Or are you waiting for Devony to snap your slack ass to attention?”
“Looks like I’ve hit a nerve.” Rafe winked, cuffing him on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s evac these stupid kids before more Rogues start to swarm the place.”
They hustled the young humans out to the SUV and situated them inside. Rafe held the open passenger door, ready to jump in beside Devony at the wheel.
“You coming, Dare?”
He shook his head. The mention of the Atlanteans and their beautiful, volatile queen, paired with the reminder of all the chaos and violence that Opus Nostrum had dealt the Order in recent years, lit a fire in Darion’s already simmering veins. He wanted the madness to stop--no matter the price.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do, nothing he wouldn’t sacrifice, to make that happen.
All around him now, distant howls, screams, and sirens filled the night.
“I’m not finished here,” Darion said. “I’ll see you back at base after patrols.”
Rafe stared at him for a moment, then gave a nod. He climbed into the vehicle. As soon as he’d closed the door, Devony hit the gas and the black SUV sped off with a roar.
Darion cocked his head, listening to the raw terror that still tore through his city. Pivoting on his boot heels, he drew his titanium blade from its sheath.
Then he disappeared into the night to deal more death.
CHAPTER 2
A human scream carried from a remote chamber located beneath the Order’s D.C. mansion headquarters. The sound was pathetic, full of terror and desperation, and hearing it gave Lucan Thorne an unhealthy amount of satisfaction.
“Sounds like Hunter’s introduced himself to our guest,” Gideon quipped, glancing over from his flotilla of monitors and keyboards in the tech lab.
Lucan frowned in response. “I should’ve called Hunter in immediately to deal with the situation. We don’t have hours to waste on interrogations, let alone days.”
The Order’s human “guest” was a minor foot soldier of Opus Nostrum, one of many. This particular one had the misfortune of being captured by the Order after participating in a brutal attack on a theater full of Breed and human civilians a few nights ago.
After trapping everyone inside the building using semiautomatics and Opus’s recent weapon of choice, firearms equipped with Breed-killing ultraviolet rounds, the gunmen demanded Lucan’s surrender in exchange for releasing the hostages. Lucan had no designs on negotiating, never mind surrendering. He and his warriors had arrived ready for battle, something Opus had been prepared for, probably even intended.
