As soon as the jet's wheels touched ground that evening, Elise's determination to find Tegan-- and bring him home safely--redoubled. She ran out of the terminal and met Lucan outside at the curb, where he waited with one of Reichen's vehicles.
You realize that if we do find him, Tegan's going to kill me for bringing you in on this, Lucan said as she approached the car. He said it kind of jokingly, but she didn't miss the fact that there was no humor at all in his gray eyes.
When we find him, Lucan. There can't be any ifs. She tossed her carry-on bag into the back and climbed into the passenger seat. Let's get started. I don't want to rest tonight until we cover every street in this city.
Dante, Reichen, and the rest of the Order pulled the two SUVs to a stop just off a moonlit, wooded stretch of road an hour outside Prague. The forest was thick here, only the smallest light from a few remote homes glowing in the darkness. They got out, all seven of them garbed in black fatigues and armed to the teeth with guns, thousands of titanium rounds, and a healthy cache of C-4 explosives.
Each Breed male also carried a sheathed broadsword strapped on his back--unconventional weaponry for modern warfare, but totally necessary hardware when you were dealing with something as nasty and powerful as the creature they were intending to rouse out of its slumber.
That's got be the place, Dante said, pointing to the jagged silhouette of the mountains ahead of them. The outline is a perfect match for the design in Kassia's tapestry.
Probably take us a couple of hours to make the hike up there, Niko put in. His cheeks dimpled with his eager grin, the white glint of his teeth bright against the cover of night. What are we waiting for? Let's go bag the motherfucker.
Dante held him back with a firm hand, scowling at the young warrior's zeal. Hold up, all of you. This is not a fucking game. It's not like any other mission we've done. That thing that was sealed away in this mountain is not your garden- variety vampire. You take Lucan and Tegan and put them together--shit, throw Marek in there too--and you still aren't coming close to what this creature can do. He's Gen One times a hundred.
But his head can be separated from his body, same as any one of us, Rio pointed out in a low, deadly voice. The fastest way to kill a vampire.
Dante nodded. And we're gonna have one shot at him, no more. Once we find the crypt and get inside, first priority is putting three feet of razor-sharp steel through the bastard's neck.
And we'll need to do it before it has a chance to get up, Chase added. If we let this thing rouse before we're in place and ready to kill it, there's very good odds we won't all make it out of there.
Someone remind me why I didn't want to be an accountant when I grew up, Brock drawled.
Niko chuckled. Because accountants don't get to make things go boom.
They don't get to smoke many suckheads either, Kade added, sharing in the joke.
Brock's answering grin was big and bright white. Oh, yeah. Now I remember.
Dante let everyone settle in to the plan, the younger males blowing off nervous energy with humor and smacktalk. But as the team of them started up the wooded side of the rocky incline, they fell silent and serious. None of them were certain what lay at the end of this journey, but they were all prepared to meet it together.
Elise wasn't sure how long they'd been driving. Easily hours. They navigated through each section of the city, the affluent and the derelict, stopping at regular intervals to let her listen to the darkened streets and alleyways. Waiting for her veins to prickle with the awareness--the fervent hope--that Tegan was near.
She didn't want to give up.
Not even as the night began to wane toward dawn.
We can make another circuit through town, Lucan said, the Gen One warrior no more inclined to abandon Tegan than she was. Even though the coming daylight was as much a threat as any deadly enemy.
Elise reached over and touched the large hand that turned the steering wheel onto yet another street. Thank you, Lucan.
He nodded. You love him a great deal, do you? Yes, I do. He is...everything to me.
Then we'd better not lose him, eh?>And nearby, the odor of a recent death. The cloying scent of spilled, coagulating Breed blood-- a lot of it--hung like a thick shroud. He didn't have to attempt to move his limbs to know that he was restrained. The weight of heavy manacles and chains hung from his wrists and ankles, his body drawn spread-eagle between two large wooden beams.
Overhead, coming from outside whatever structure it was that imprisoned him, he heard the chatter of crows as they flew by. Even though it was dark where he was being held, it was daylight outside, his brain reasoned as the cawing grew distant. He must have been here--wherever here was--for hours.
He cracked one eyelid open, hardly able to lift it. His vision swam, instant vertigo making him sag deeper into his restraints.
Awake at last, mused a voice Tegan recognized, even in his half-drugged state. Those idiots employed by Kuhn almost killed you with their tranquilizer darts. And that is a privilege I intend to save for myself.
Tegan didn't respond. He wouldn't have, even if he'd been able to make his sluggish tongue form words. Marek deserved no respect whatsoever.
Wake up, came the terse command. Wake the fuck up, Tegan, and tell me where he is!
Hard fingers gripped a handful of his hair, lifted his head roughly when he didn't have the strength to do it on his own. A heavy, closed-fisted blow landed on the side of his face, but he barely registered it through the fog of his sedation.
Need a little convincing, do you?