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."
Gideon shook his head. "Nope. And it wasn't the work of an assassin, either. Niko says Yakut's own son brought in a Rogue to kill his father. Unfortunately for Nikolai, Yakut's son has some kind of alliance with the Enforcement Agency. They hauled Niko in and threw him into a containment facility."
"What the fuck?" This time it was Sterling Chase who spoke up. Being a former Agent himself, he was as aware as any of the warriors in the room how unpleasant a visit to one of those Agency-managed Rogue holding tanks could be. "Since he's conscious enough to phone in, I assume he's not still being held there."
"He escaped somehow," Gideon said, "but I don't have all the details yet. I can tell you that there's a female involved, a Breedmate who was a member of Yakut's household. She's with Niko now."
Lucan didn't comment on that troublesome newsflash, although his dark expression probably spoke plainly enough for him. "Where are they?"
"In the city somewhere," Gideon replied. "Niko wasn't sure of the exact location, but he says they're secure for now. Are you ready for the real kicker?"
Lucan arched a brow. "For fuck's sake. There's more?"
"Afraid so. The guy who tossed Niko's ass in the containment facility and personally oversaw his torture? Apparently during one of his chattier moments, the son of a bitch admitted a connection to Dragos."
Chapter Twenty
Nikolai was in the middle of a cell phone conversation when Renata came out of the bathroom from her long, much-needed soak. She'd evidently fallen asleep in the tub at some point because the last thing she remembered was hearing Jack's voice in the garage apartment after Nikolai had gone out to meet him, and there was no sign of him now. She stepped into the room, her hair damp at the ends and clinging to her neck, her body wrapped in the towel Nikolai had set out for her.