Once he was certain they were gone, Nikolai dialed a remote access number that was maintained by the Order's Boston headquarters. He typed in Jack's cell phone number and a code that would identify him to Gideon, then waited for the callback.
Midday in a compound that housed a bunch of vampires was generally a dead zone of inactivity, but none of the seven warriors gathered in the weapons room of the Order's subterranean headquarters seemed to notice the time, not even the handful of them blessed enough to have loving Breedmates warming their beds. Since regrouping at the compound before daybreak, the warriors had kept themselves busy reviewing current mission statuses and laying out objectives for the night to come. Hashing out Order business for hours on end was nothing new, but this time there had been none of the usual good-natured smacktalk or joking squabbles over who was grabbing up the best assignments.
Now, a few yards away, at the area used for target practice, a quintet of pistols were being fired one after the other, paper bull's-eyes at the other end shredded into minuscule confetti. The compound's shooting range was used more for entertainment than necessity, since all of the warriors had dead-on aim. Even so, that never stopped any of them from testing one another and busting asses just to keep things lively.
There was none of that today. Only the steady hail of all that thundering noise. The racket was oddly comforting, if only because it helped mask the silence, and the fact that the entire compound was vibrating with a low-level current of unrest. For the past thirty-six hours, the mood there had been sober, draped in a collective, if unspoken, dread.
One of their own was missing.
Nikolai had always tended to be something of a maverick, but that didn't mean the male was unreliable. If he said he was going to do something - or be somewhere - you could damn well count on him to follow through. Every time, no exceptions. And now, when he should have been back from Montreal a full day and a half ago as planned, Niko was off-grid and out of contact.
Not good, Lucan thought, sensing he wasn't alone in that sentiment as he looked at the other warriors who also waited for word of Nikolai and dreaded what it eventually might be.
As a Gen One Breed and the founder of the Order in the Middle Ages, Lucan was the de facto leader of this cadre of modern-day vampire knights. His word was law in this compound. In times of crisis - for better or worse - it was his response that set the tone for the other warriors. He was well conditioned not to show worry or doubt, a skill that came naturally to that part of him that was virtually immortal, a powerful predator who'd been walking this Earth for some nine hundred years.
But the part of him that was human - the part of him who had come to appreciate life all the more for having met his Breedmate, Gabrielle, just a summer ago - could not pretend that the potential loss of one more soldier in this private war within the vampire nation would be anything but catastrophic. To say nothing of the fact that the warriors of the Order, both the ones who had been with him from the start and the newer members who'd joined the fight in the past year, had become like family to him. So much had changed in that time. Now there were several females living in the compound too, and for one of the warriors and his mate - Dante and Tess - a baby several months on the way.
The stakes were higher than ever for the Order now, one evil defeated only to see another, even more powerful, rise in its place. In just a year's time, the warriors' primary mission had gone from hunting down Rogues in an effort to keep the peace, to pursuing a dangerous enemy who'd been hiding in plain sight for many long decades. An enemy who had been patiently constructing his strategy while concealing a deadly secret and waiting for the opportunity to unleash it. If he were to succeed, it wouldn't be just the Breed populations in peril, but all of humankind as well.
It didn't take much for Lucan to recall the savagery of the Old Times, when the night was ruled by a handful of bloodthirsty creatures from another world, creatures who dealt in wide-scale terror and death. They fed like locusts and wreaked destruction like the deadliest marauders. Lucan had made it his life's mission to eradicate the beasts from existence, even though it had meant slaying the Ancient who was his own father.
The Order had declared war, had wielded swords and ridden into battle to take them all out...or so they'd believed. The idea that one had survived put a deep chill in Lucan's immortal bones.
He looked at the warriors who served alongside him and couldn't help feeling some of his age. He couldn't help feeling that they had all been handed a test last year - perhaps their first true test since the Order's formation - and the worst of it was still to come.
Lost in dark thoughts as he paced the back of the weapons room, Lucan didn't realize the training area's doors were sliding open until Gideon came rushing through them. The blond vampire's vintage Chucks skidded to a squeaking halt on the white marble in front of Lucan.
"Niko's back on grid," he announced, visibly relieved. "His ID just came up on a cell phone with a Montreal exchange." "About fucking time," Lucan said, the snarled reply betraying none of his concern. "You got him on the line?"
Gideon nodded. "He's on hold back in the tech lab. I thought you'd want to talk to him personally."
"Damn straight I do."
The gunfire at the range came to an abrupt stop as one of the other warriors, the Order's only other Gen One member, Tegan, jogged back and delivered the news of Niko's contact to the five males shooting at targets. The warriors at the range - Dante and Rio, longtime members; Chase, who'd left the Enforcement Agency to join the Order last summer; and the two newest recruits, Kade and Brock, both brought in by Niko - put down their weapons and strode forward behind Tegan, all of them a knot of muscle and grim purpose.
Rio, one of the warriors who was tightest with Nikolai, was the first to speak. His scarred face was taut with concern. "What happened to him up there?"
"He's only given me the Reader's Digest version so far," Gideon said. "But it's all sorts of fucked up, starting with Sergei Yakut's murder two nights ago."
"Holy hell," Brock muttered, raking his dark fingers over his skull-trimmed black hair. "This Gen One assassination shit is getting way out of hand."
"Well," Gideon added, "that's not exactly the worst of it. Niko was arrested for the killing and taken into Enforcement Agency custody."
"Ah, shit," Kade replied, his pale silver eyes narrowing. "You don't suppose he - "
"No way," Dante said without a second's hesitation. "I doubt he shed a tear for blood-clubbing scum like Yakut, but there's no way Nikolai had a hand in his death.">Niko held the old man's stare. "I'm sure she appreciates that. We both do."
"Yeah," Jack drawled, steely eyes narrowing. "But I am curious about something. She's been MIA for the past couple of years...you got anything to do with that?"
It wasn't phrased as an overt accusation, but it was obvious that the old man had been concerned about Renata and also had the sense that her long absence hadn't necessarily been good for her. Man, if he only knew what she'd been through. The gunshot wound she was sporting now was just the icing on what had been a very nasty cake.
Nikolai shook his head. "I've only known Renata for a few days, but I can tell you that you're right about her being too smart to fall into problems with drugs. That's not what this is about, Jack. But she is in danger. The only reason I'm standing here is because she risked her neck to pull me out of a shitload of trouble yesterday."
"That sounds like Renata," Jack said, his expression lost somewhere between pride and concern.
"Unfortunately, because she stepped in to help me, now there's a target on both our backs."
Jack grunted as he listened, wiry brows knitting together. "She tell you how we know each other?"