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.
"I would quit breathing for her, if she asked it of me," he replied, surprising even himself with the depth of his devotion. He looked to Chase, who still owed him that second favor from last night. "What do you think? You got any pull left in the Boston Darkhaven to help me get a spot with the Agency?"
Chase smirked, lifting his shoulder in a casual shrug. "I might." He strode toward the weapons cabinet and took out a SIG Sauer. "But first things first, eh? We have to get your female back here in one piece so she can decide if she wants your sorry ass for a mate."
"We?" Dante said, watching the former Darkhaven agent suit up with the SIG and another semiauto. "Yeah, we. I'm going with you."
"What the--"
"Me too," Niko said, sauntering over and pulling out his own cache of weapons. The Russian grinned as he nodded toward Lucan, Gideon, and Tegan. "You're not going to leave me down here with these Gen One geezers, are you?"
"No one's coming with me. I wouldn't ask it--"
"You never have to," Niko said. "Like it or not, D, Chase and I are all you've got on this mission. You 're not doing this alone."
Dante swore, humbled and grateful for the show of support. "All right, then. Let's get moving."
Chapter Thirty-five
With the knife biting into her neck to keep her silent, Ben forced Tess out of her building and into a waiting car on the street. He smelled bad, like soured blood and sweat and a hint of decay. His clothes were filthy and wrinkled, his normally golden hair unkempt, hanging lank and unwashed into his brow. As he shoved her into the backseat of the car, Tess caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were dull and flat, staring at her with a cold detachment that made her skin crawl.
And Ben wasn't alone.
Two other men waited in the car, both seated in the front, both sharing the same vacant glint in their eyes.
"Where is it, Tess?" Ben asked as he closed the door and shut them inside the dark vehicle. "I left a little something at the clinic the other day, but now it's not there. What did you do with it?"