AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"It nearly destroyed Regina, losing Corinne. She kept hoping for a miracle. She held on to that hope for longer than I imagined could be possible. Eventually, she did let go." Bishop ran his palm over his creased brow and slowly shook his head. "And now ... thanks to God and the Order, tonight she finally has her miracle. We all do."
Hunter did not acknowledge the praise, nor the outstretched hand of the Darkhaven vampire in front of him. He kept his eyes trained on Corinne's retreating form as she and her mother walked the remainder of the long driveway, then entered the open front door of the warmly lit house up ahead. He watched until the door was closed behind them and he was assured that his temporary ward was fully transferred to the shelter of her family's arms. In the lengthening quiet, Victor Bishop cleared his throat as he let his hand drift back down to his side. "How can I ever repay the Order for what you've done here tonight?"
"Keep her safe," Hunter said, then he turned away from Bishop and walked to his waiting vehicle at the street.
A furious throb was drumming in Lucan's veins as he sat with several members of the Order in the compound's tech lab. His elbows planted on the edge of the long conference table, he and the others listened in disgust as Gideon reviewed his findings concerning Murdock, the Enforcement Agent who'd fled the scene last night at the private club in Boston and had yet to surface anywhere.
"In addition to the sip-and-strip clubs he tends to frequent, our boy Murdock also seems to prefer his blood Hosts on the rare side - as in very young. There's more than one blemish in his records with the Agency for solicitation of an underage human, and not just solicitation with intent to feed. Also some citations for excessive force among both Darkhaven civilian populations and humankind. Keep in mind, this is just the shit in his general file. If I dig any deeper than the surface, there's bound to be a whole other pile of nasty on this guy."
Gideon had hacked in and pulled up the vampire's records from the IID, the information database that logged nearly every known Breed individual in existence. There were exceptions, of course, namely Lucan and an untold number of other early-generation Breed born centuries before any kind of technology had been in place. Lucan glanced at the flat-panel monitor where a photograph of a prissy brown-haired male with an oily, too-smug smile filled the screen.
"What about family? Anyone we can squeeze for intel on this asshole's possible whereabouts?"
Gideon shook his head. "Never took a Breedmate, and there is no recorded kin on file anywhere. Another thing, Murdock's only been local for the past fifty-odd years. Before that, back around the time of his documented problems with kids and violence, he was part of the Agency in Atlanta. Looks like the director of that region personally recommended Murdock for transfer and promotion to his position up here."
Across the table, seated in black fatigues and patrol gear like the gathered male warriors, Nikolai's mate, Renata, scoffed. Her chin-length brunette hair swung around her jaw line as she leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. "What easier way to get rid of a problem than packing it up and shipping it somewhere else? I saw plenty of that going on among the orphanage staffs in Montreal."
"Sounds like this scumbag Murdock needs to be put down," Rio said from the other side of Niko and Renata. His topaz eyes smoldered with contempt, making the web of combat scars that riddled the left side of his face look all the more savage.
Another of the warriors, Kade, gave a nod of his spiky-haired dark head. "Too bad Hunter and Chase didn't finish him off at the club last night. Might've done the world a favor."
"Murdock is scum," Lucan agreed, "but if there's any chance he might be connected to Dragos or his operation - even remotely connected - then we need to make sure he keeps breathing long enough to lead us there."
"What about Sterling?" It was Elise who spoke, her voice tentative as she turned to look at Lucan from her seat between him and her mate, Tegan. While the rest of the assembled group had been occupied with talk of their missions and the new priority of locating Agent Murdock, Elise had been quiet, pensive. Now she wore her worry in the flat press of her mouth and in the stormy lavender of her eyes. "He's been gone for nearly twenty-four hours. Has there been any word from him at all?"
For a moment, no one said a thing. Sterling Chase's absence was the elephant in the room, the topic on everyone's mind, if not their tongues.
"No word," Gideon answered. "His cell rings straight to voicemail and he's not returning my calls."
"Same here," Dante put in from the other side of the conference table. Of all the warriors, Tess's mate was easily Chase's tightest ally. Just a year or so ago, when Chase had come on board with the Order, he and Dante had been at each other's throats. In the time since, they'd had each other's backs as friends and brethren. But even Dante seemed doubtful about Chase now. "I tried him just before we came into this meeting but got no answer. Harvard's dodging us hardcore this time.">Chapter Six
The female was safe and his job here was done.
That's what Hunter told himself as Corinne Bishop was taken into the hands of her father's security detail. The guards immediately opened the gates to her amid repeated apologies for the inadvertently hostile way she had been met. The one named Mason had moist eyes as he stared at her, his voice cracking with barely restrained emotion as he rubbed a hand over his face and murmured his disbelief at seeing her standing before him. Waving the other guards ahead, Mason wrapped a protective arm around Corinne's petite shoulders and started to walk her up the cobbled drive.
Hunter hung back just inside the gate, watching her make her way toward the mansion ahead.
The task of seeing her safely delivered home was met, which left him free to return to the airport where the Order's private plane waited to take him back to Boston. In a moment, Corinne Bishop would be ensconced inside her family's Darkhaven, and in just a few short hours, he could resume the more urgent business of pursuing Dragos and the army of Gen One killers who served him.
Yet there was still the matter of Mira's vision ...
Corinne turned around to look at him as she was led farther up the driveway by her father's guards. Her long ebony hair caught in the cold breeze, whipping dark strands across her pale cheek and brow. Her lips parted as though she meant to speak, but the words were lost, clouding as her breath caught on the wind and flew away. Her gaze lingered on him. He felt that prolonged, haunted glance reach out to him across the distance, as palpable as a touch. As he watched Corinne Bishop being guided away from him, he saw instead the tearstained face and wild desperation of the woman in Mira's precognitive vision. He heard her voice, wrenched with fear and anguish.
Please, I'm begging you ...
I love him ...
You have to let him live ...
Beneath the logic that reminded him the child seer's gift had never been wrong yet, something unfamiliar tugged at Hunter from inside. The stealth tactician in him was quick to suggest that the vision was a puzzle demanding to be resolved. The assassin in him cautioned that Mira's precognition might lead him to an enemy to be discovered and destroyed. But there was another part of him that looked at Corinne Bishop in that moment, with her tender beauty and the steely resilience that had carried her out of Dragos's dungeons with her spine held straight, and he couldn't fathom being the one to finally crush her as he had in Mira's vision.
He felt an odd respect for her, for what she might have suffered at Dragos's hands. Odder to him still, he realized that he didn't want to be the one to cause Corinne Bishop's pain and tears. It was that illogical, far-too-human part of him that made him glance away from her and begin to pivot back toward his waiting vehicle at the end of the drive. If he left now, the chances were good that he might never cross paths with the female again.
He could go back to Boston, and the vision be damned.
As he took the first steps, the front door of the mansion was flung open on a keening feminine wail. "Corinne! I have to see her! I want to see my daughter!"
Hunter paused to look over his shoulder as an attractive brunette female raced out of the house. She hadn't stopped to grab a coat, had apparently left whatever she'd been doing and run outside in just a white satiny blouse and a narrow, dark skirt. Her high-heeled shoes clicked and skidded as she flew over the cobbled drive, sobbing as she hurried toward the guards and Corinne in the center of the long driveway.
