Midnight Rising (Midnight Breed 4)

"Yeah," Rio said, knowing Lucan was right. Dylan had a decision to make, and time was getting crucial now that the Order had other things to contend with.

Lucan put a hand on Rio's shoulder. "I think it's time I should meet Dylan Alexander personally."

"Janet - hello? I didn't get Mom's room number. Hello...Janet? Are you still there?"

Dylan pulled her cell phone away from her ear. Signal failed.

"Shit."

She held the device out in front of her and started pacing the room, looking for a spot where she might get a stronger signal. But...nothing. The damn thing was dead, just cut out on her even though the battery hadn't quite choked yet.

She could hardly think straight for the panicked drum of her pulse.

Her mom was in the hospital.

Relapse...Oh, God.

She narrowly resisted the urge to pitch the dead cell phone into the nearest wall. "Damn piece of shit!"

Frantic now, she headed out to the living room to try the call again -

And nearly jumped out of her skin when the apartment door flew inward like it had been blown open by a storm force gale in the corridor. Rio stood there.

And good Lord, he was pissed off.

"Give it to me."

His flashing amber eyes and emerging fangs put a knot of fear in her stomach, but she was pissed off too, and torn in pieces over her mother's turn for the worse. She needed to see her. Needed to get the hell out of this unreality she'd been kidnapped into and get back to the things that really mattered to her.

Jesus Christ, she thought, on the verge of losing it. Her mom was sick again, and alone in some city hospital room. She had to get there.

Rio strode into the room. "The phone, Dylan. Give it to me. Now."

It was then that she noticed he wasn't alone. Standing behind him in the corridor was a tank of a man - easily six-and-a-half feet tall, with a mane of black hair and an air of menace that belied his calm exterior. He hung back as Rio stalked inside and approached Dylan.

"Did you do something to my phone?" she demanded hotly, more than a little terrified of Rio and this new threat but too worried about her mom to care what might happen to her in the next minute. "What did you do, make it stop working? Tell me! What the hell did you do!"

"You lied to me, Dylan."

"And you fucking abducted me!" She hated the tears that suddenly ran down her cheeks. Almost as much as she hated her captivity and cancer and the cold ache in her chest that had opened up during her call to the shelter.

Rio put his hand out as he walked up to her. The man in the corridor prowled into the apartment now too. No question about it, he was a vampire - a Breed warrior, like Rio. His gray eyes seemed to penetrate her like blades, and in the same way an animal sensed a predator on the wind, Dylan sensed that where Rio was dangerous, this other man was exponentially more powerful. Older despite his youthful appearance. And more deadly.

"Who were you calling?" Rio demanded.

She wasn't about to tell him. She clutched the slim cell phone in her fist, but at that very instant she felt an energy force pulling at her fingers, prying them open. She couldn't keep them closed no matter how hard she tried. Dylan gasped as her cell phone flew out of her hand and onto the palm of the vampire now standing beside Rio.

"There's a couple of messages here from the newspaper," he announced darkly. "And several outgoing calls to other New York numbers. Residence of one Sharon Alexander, a cell number for the same, and a connected call to a blocked number in Manhattan. That's the one we shut down."

Rio swore vividly. "Did you tell anyone about us just now? Or about what you've seen?"

"No!" she insisted. "I haven't said anything, I swear. I'm no threat to you - "

"There is the matter of the pictures you distributed, and the story you sent to your employer," the dark one reminded her, the way you might remind the condemned of why they were heading for the gas chamber.

"You don't have to worry about any of that," she said, ignoring Rio's harsh scoff as she spoke. "That message from the newspaper? That was my boss, letting me know I was fired. Well, technically it was an involuntary resignation, on account of the fact I no-showed an appointment in Prague because I was busy being abducted."

"You lost your job?" Rio asked, slanting her a scowl.