Midnight Awakening (Midnight Breed 3)

He looked at her, stricken, and let go at once. I'm sorry. Now I'm the one who's overstepped my bounds. This won't happen again, I promise you.

Damn right it won't, Tegan said, his tone oddly protective even though he hadn't moved from his position across the corridor. As Sterling backed off, clearly distressed by his uncharacteristic display, Tegan finally glanced away from him to look at Elise. The plane is ready. Are you coming or not?

Elise swallowed, and gave a wobbly nod of her head. I am.

Awkwardly, she inched away from Sterling. She felt his eyes on her as she slipped out into the hallway. The weight of her brother-in-law's sullen stare remained with her as she fell in beside Tegan and walked the length of the corridor at his side.

Chase stood in the hallway long after Elise and Tegan disappeared from view. He couldn't pretend he was surprised that Elise rejected him. That hurt had been a long time coming, and one he knew he'd brought upon himself.

She had never been his, no matter how he had wished things to be different. She had belonged to his brother. In her heart she probably still did, even though she'd finally traded her mourning widow's whites for street clothes.

And now a part of her belonged irrevocably to Tegan. That was the truth that stunned him most. Tegan, the deadliest of the Order, the coldest. The one with the least regard for life--his own, or anyone else's.

Yet in her need, Elise had turned to him.

Had Tegan bedded her in the process? Chase refused to consider that likelihood, although it would be virtually unheard of for a Breed vampire to put a female to his vein and not be overcome with the sexual impulse to take her body in return. Tegan wasn't one to brag about his conquests--in all the months Chase had been among the Order, he'd never once heard a single boast of any kind from the warrior--but the many nights Tegan spent unaccounted for outside the compound left little doubt that the warrior had his own private itches to scratch. A sheltered female like Elise was probably no more than a moment's amusement to an icy inpidual like Tegan.

Goddamn it, Chase muttered, pounding the corridor wall with his fist. It was a futile exercise that only brought him more pain. But right now, he welcomed the hurt. He wanted to bleed. So much the better if he could take out a few Rogues in the process.

He stalked up the hallway and found Dante hanging outside the tech lab with Niko, Brock, and Kade. All of them were armed like Chase, suited up for the night's patrol topside.

Dante gave him a cautious nod of greeting as he approached, his whiskey-colored eyes narrowing thoughtfully. They're gone, he said, as if Chase ought to be relieved to hear it. You okay, Harvard?

Do I look like I need a fucking group hug? he snapped. I'll be a hell of a lot better once my feet are on pavement and my hand's stained with Rogue blood. Anyone game to smoke some suckheads tonight, or would you all rather stand around here thinking about it?

He didn't wait for an answer, just headed off for the compound's elevator with dark, deadly purpose, the other warriors falling in behind him.

Chapter Fifteen

Elise dozed most of the nine hours in flight to Berlin. Tegan, however, remained awake. He'd never particularly enjoyed the modern modes of transportation, and while he could appreciate the efficiency of jet travel, propelling himself more than thirty thousand feet above ground at five hundred miles an hour while trapped inside several tons of metal ranked about dead last on his list of favorite things to do.

He was relieved to feel the private jet begin its gradual descent once they reached Berlin's Tegel Airport. A few minutes later, the sleek aircraft's wheels touched down on terra firma.

We're here, he told Elise when the soft bump of the landing roused her awake.

She stretched demurely, hiding a yawn behind her hand. Was I asleep all this time?

Tegan shrugged. You needed the rest. Your body is still adjusting to the blood you consumed. It can take a day or two to level out.

She blushed a shade much deeper than the pink color that had come back into her cheeks from her feeding the night before. Turning her face as if to hide her reaction from him, she lifted the shade on the small oval window beside her and looked out over the predawn cityscape below. It's beautiful, she said, her voice pleasingly rough from sleep. I've never been to Berlin. Have you?

Once. It was a long time ago.

She shot him a half-smile of acknowledgment from across the minimalist elegance of the fuselage, then glanced away again. They hadn't spoken of what happened between them, and Tegan had zero interest in cracking open the topic himself. Bad enough he'd been unable to get the sight of her--the incredibly silken feel of her--out of his head in the time he'd been gone from the compound. He'd been hoping like hell she'd back out of the Berlin trip, and he'd even considered a change of plans that would leave her behind.

He didn't want to think about why he'd been compelled to go looking for her, and then intervene when he found Chase and her together in the corridor. The jolt of protectiveness he'd felt seeing the other male's hands on her had come up on him fast. He'd like to blame it on the power of the blood bond, but the problem there was that the connection was only half-complete. He hadn't taken any of Elise's blood, so he shouldn't be feeling possessive of her at all.

For several long centuries, he'd been perfecting his general state of apathy like armor that had long since meshed into his own skin, so unless he willed it, he shouldn't feel a goddamn thing.

But he did.

Just looking at Elise triggered off a storm of unwanted feelings, not the least of which being a lust that tightened every inch of his skin and made his cock stir to aching life. He could hardly reconcile his want of the woman. Seeing her come undone while she suckled at his wrist had only amplified the desire that was already there. Now he craved her with a need that was bound to prove disastrous.

Because if he ever had her naked beneath him, there would be no stopping him from taking her tender Breedmate vein at the same time.

She caught him staring as she suddenly turned away from the window. A long black Rolls-Royce just pulled up next to us on the tarmac.

That'll be Reichen.