But that had all been based on lies. Now she had the truth--incredible as it was--and she would give just about anything to pretend it wasn't real.
Vampires and blood bonds. A mounting war between creatures who shouldn't exist outside the realm of the imagination, of nightmares.
It was all true, though.
It was real. As real as her feelings for Dante, which only made his deception cut deeper. She loved him, and she'd never been more terrified of anything in her life. She had fallen in love with a dangerous vigilante. A vampire.
The admission weighed her down as she stepped off the subway car and made her way up to street level in her North End neighborhood. The local shops were bustling with morning patrons, the outdoor market enjoying a steady flow of regular customers. Tess passed a knot of tourists who'd stopped to browse autumn melons and squash, weathering a chill that had little to do with the crisp fall air.
The closer she got to home, the deeper her sense of dread grew. One of the tenants came out as she reached the front stoop. Although she didn't know the old man by name, he smiled at her and held open the door for her to enter. Tess went inside and climbed the flight of stairs to her unit. Before she got within ten feet of the door, she realized that it had been broken into. The jamb was chewed up near the doorknob, as if it had been jimmied open and then closed to make it appear that nothing was out of place.
Tess froze, panic dousing her. She took a backward step, ready to turn around and bolt. Her spine connected with a solid mass, someone standing right behind her. A strong arm snaked around her waist, yanking her off balance, and a length of cold, sharp steel pressed meaningfully below her jaw.
"Morning, Doc. About fucking time you showed up."
"You can't be serious, Dante."
Although all of the warriors, including Chase, were gathered in the training facility watching him gear up for battle, Gideon was the first to challenge him.
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Dante took a pistol out of one of the gun cabinets and grabbed a handful of rounds. "I've never been more serious in my life."
"Jesus Christ, D. In case you hadn't noticed, it's just after ten o'clock in the morning. That means full-on daylight."
"I know what it means."
Gideon exhaled a low curse. "You're going to fry, my man."
"Not if I can help it."
Having been around since the eighteenth century, Dante was beyond old by human standards, but as a Breed vampire, he was fairly average, his lineage being several generations distant from the Ancients and their hypersensitive alien skin. He couldn't stay topside for very long in the daytime, but he could take a small hit of UV rays and live to tell about it.
For Tess, he would be willing to walk into the core of the sun itself if he thought it might save her from the death he knew was waiting for her.
"Listen to me," Gideon said, putting his hand on Dante's arm to get his attention. "You may not be as vulnerable to the light as a Gen One, but you're still Breed. You spend more than thirty minutes in direct sunlight and you're toast."
"It's not like I'm gonna be sightseeing up there," he said, refusing to be swayed. He shrugged off his brethren's well-meaning caution and grabbed another weapon from the cabinet. "I know what I'm doing. I have to do this."
He had told the others about what he'd seen, the vision that was still tearing his heart in pieces. It killed him to think that he'd let Tess leave the compound without his protection, that he hadn't been able to stop her. That she might be in danger this very moment, while his vulnerable vampire genes forced him to hide belowground.
"What if the time you saw in your vision--eleven thirty-nine--is actually twenty-one minutes to midnight?" Gideon asked. "You can't be sure the event you saw was taking place during the morning hours. You might be putting yourself at risk for nothing--"
"And if I wait and it turns out I'm wrong? I can't take that chance." Dante shook his head. He'd tried to reach her by phone but got no answer at her apartment or the clinic. And the searing ache in his chest told him that she wasn't ignoring him purely by choice. Even without the benefit of his hellish precognition, he knew his Breedmate was in danger. "No goddamn way am I taking a chance on waiting around here ' til dark. Would you, Gideon? If Savannah needed you--I'm talking life-and-death needed you--would you even consider taking that kind of gamble? Would you, Lucan, if it were Gabrielle out there alone?"
Neither warrior denied it. There wasn't a blood-bonded male alive who wouldn't walk through a sea of fire for the woman he loved.
Lucan came toward him and held out his hand. "You honor her well."
Dante clasped his leader's strong Gen One hand--his friend's hand--and shook it firmly. "Thank you. But to be honest, I'm doing this as much for myself as I am for Tess. I need her in my life. She has become... everything to me."
Lucan nodded soberly. "Then go get her, my brother. We can celebrate your pairing when you and Tess return safely to the compound."
Dante held Lucan's regal gaze and slowly shook his head. "That is something I need to discuss with you. With all of you," he said, looking to the other warriors as well. "Assuming I survive at all, if I am able to save Tess, and if she will have me as her mate--I intend to relocate to the Darkhavens with her."
A long silence answered, his brethren staring at him in measured quiet.
Dante cleared his throat, knowing his decision must come as a shock to the warriors he'd fought alongside for more than a century. "She's been through enough already--even before I met her and dragged her into our world against her will. She deserves happiness. She deserves a hell of a lot more than I can ever hope to give her. I just want her to be safe now, far away from any danger."
"You would quit the Order for her?" Niko asked, the youngest only behind Dante, and a warrior who relished his duty perhaps even more than Dante had himself.