But it was the unsettling, persistent silence in his heart—in his very being—that disturbed him the most. The internal quiet chilled him all the way to his marrow. Part of him felt almost untethered, as if a crucial piece of his soul had gone adrift while he was sleeping.
Ah, fuck.
“Willow.”
He vaulted to his feet, ignoring the excruciating protests of his injured body. His steps dragged as he made his way out of the guest room, then shakily down the attic steps to the main floor of the house.
He found everyone gathered in the living room. Leni was seated on one of the cushioned chairs, Knox standing at her side. Nikolai and his leather-clad, ebony-haired Breedmate, Renata, sat on the sofa next to another couple from the Order. Although Razor had never met Order commander Sterling Chase or Tavia Fairchild, the rare Breed female Chase had taken as his mate, Razor knew enough about the Order’s power couple from Boston to realize who they were.
As he approached, the group was talking about Serenicure and the doctor whose initial experimentations had been the basis for UWSI’s newer, insidious purpose for the formula.
“As soon as we heard Henry Lewis’s sick chemical cocktail was back in circulation, we wanted to see the flash drive for ourselves,” Sterling Chase was saying, his hand locked around Tavia’s. “Far as I’m concerned, that formula is a declaration of war. Lucan and the rest of the Order are in agreement too. We—”
The warrior’s words cut short as he, along with everyone else in the room, saw Razor.
Based on the looks he was getting, he realized he had to look like death warmed over. Possibly not even that good.
“She’s gone.” The statement sounded flat in his scorched throat, but inside he was a tempest of exploding fury. “Something’s happened to Willow. I can hardly feel her anymore.”
Knox’s face went grave with alarm. “You don’t mean she’s—”
“Not dead,” Razor cut in. No, thank fuck, she hadn’t been killed. But something had changed drastically in the time he’d been unconscious. “My bond with her . . . it’s muffled. Something’s dulling the connection.”
The group from the Order exchanged confused, concerned glances. Nikolai stood up, staring at Razor in question. “You and this female are mated?”
“Long story,” Razor growled. “I drank from Willow today even though I had no right.”
Niko gave a somber nod, a grim sort of sympathy in his icy blue eyes. “Where is she?”
“As soon as she realized I’d been lying to her about something, she left.”
“We don’t know where she’s gone,” Knox added. “Near as we can guess, she hitched a ride with a freezer delivery truck driver. She could’ve been on the interstate within a couple of hours after leaving here.”
“She’s in danger,” Razor snarled. “I can feel it. I have to find her.”
The rest of the Order members rose, Chase glancing at Nikolai. “It’s going to be a needle in a haystack, trying to locate her. She could be anywhere by now.”
“I don’t give a fuck how far I have to go,” Razor muttered. “I’m not going to rest until she’s safe.”
Sterling Chase rested his hand lightly on Razor’s shoulder. “I know. And you don’t have to do it alone. Don’t think any of us are unaware of how often you’ve lent a hand to the Order over the years without asking for anything in return. Whatever we can do to help now, you’ve got it.”
“Me too, brother,” Knox added. “We’re all in this together.”
The unexpected support shouldn’t have hit him so hard, yet it did. After being born and bred for nothing but destruction and evil, he’d tried to live his life doing the right thing. Helping good people. Using his skills to make the world a little better. Now, feeling it come back to him like this at a time when he needed help the most was almost more than he could process.
He gave his friends a stiff, uncomfortable nod. It was all he could manage by way of expressing his profound gratitude. Everything in him was focused on the echoing silence in his veins. The cold dread that told him his woman, his mate,his everything, was in mortal danger.
“They’ve got her,” he said, his voice scraping like gravel in his throat. “They’ve done something to her, I can feel it.”
Nikolai glanced at Chase. “Too bad Lars and Simon Scrully are already dead. We could’ve shaken those trees for information.”
It was Tavia who answered. “Then we go straight to UWSI instead.” Her eyes flashed with amber light, and behind her lips the sharp points of her fangs gleamed. “I’d personally love to get my hands on the sick fucks who think they can profit off genocide against the Breed.”
The other Order members nodded in agreement.
“I’ll phone ahead to the command center and tell my team to suit up and be ready to roll when we get there,” Niko said, already pulling his comm unit from his pocket to make the call.
Knox helped Leni up from her chair and gently pulled her into his embrace. “I’ll be home as soon as I can. You going to be okay until then?”
