Dylan watched the warriors absorb that bit of news. She could see from nearly every hard face in the room that Eva had no friends among them. And no wonder, considering what she'd done to Rio. What she'd done to them all through her betrayal.
"Tonight Dylan saw another dead female," Rio said.
"She saw another Breedmate, actually. This time the apparition appeared in her mother's hospital room. The dead girl said something I think you're all going to want to hear."
He turned to Dylan and gave her a nod to continue the explanation herself. She met the grave stares and carefully relayed everything Toni's spirit had told her, line for line, recalling every word in case it might help make sense of the warning from the Other Side.
"Jesus Christ," said the warrior over at the bank of computer equipment as Dylan finished speaking. He raked his fingers over his scalp, further mussing the cropped blond spikes. "Rio, remind me again what you said the other day about someone potentially breeding another population of first generation Breed vampires?"
Rio nodded, and the grim look on his face put a chill in Dylan's spine. "If the Ancient has been awakened successfully from its hibernation, what's to say it's not procreating? Or being made to procreate?"
As Dylan listened to them talk, pieces of a puzzle she'd been mulling over for the past several days - ever since she set foot in that cave - now clicked into place in her mind. The hidden crypt with its open tomb. The strange, otherworldly symbols on the walls. The unshakable sense of evil that permeated the dark cavern, even though its original occupant was gone...
The cave had been a holding tank - a hibernation chamber, just like Rio had inadvertently told her.
And the dangerous creature that had been sleeping inside it was now loose somewhere.
Breeding.
Killing.
Oh, God.
From across the long table, Nikolai shot a frown in Rio's direction. "With the last of those alien savages back in the baby-making business, the question then would be, how long has he been going at it?"
"And on how many Breedmates," Lucan added soberly. "If we truly have a scenario here where Breedmates are being captured and held somewhere, and, in at least a few cases, killed, then I hate to even consider where this could be heading. Gideon, you wanna run a check on Darkhaven records, see if there are any missing persons reports on Breedmates over the past decade or so?"
"On it," he replied, hitting the keyboard and firing off what appeared to be multiple searches on multiple computers.
The warrior at the conference table who looked like something out of Soldier of Fortune , spoke up next. "Well, nothing short of a miracle, but the Enforcement Agency's Regional Director has actually agreed to a meeting tonight. You want me to mention this newsflash from the dead Breedmate to Director Starkn?"
Lucan seemed to ponder the idea, then he gave a vague shake of his head. "Let's hold off on that for now, Chase. We're not sure precisely what we're looking for yet, and we'll be upsetting the Agency's apple cart bad enough when we tell them we think the population's few remaining Gen Ones are being targeted for assassination."
Chase nodded in agreement.
As the group began talking amongst themselves, Lucan walked over to speak with Rio and Dylan privately.
"I appreciate the information," he told her. "But as valuable as it may prove to be, this compound is no place for a civilian." He glanced at Rio, those silvery eyes studying him closely. "She was given a choice and she made it. You know we can't permit her to stay. Not as a civilian."
"Yeah," Rio said. "I know that."
Lucan waited, obviously tuned in to the fact that something intimate had passed between Dylan and Rio. He cleared his throat. "So, if you've got something to tell me, my man..."
Through the lengthy silence that answered, Dylan unconsciously held her breath. She didn't know what she was waiting for Rio to say: That he was prepared to challenge Lucan's rule? That he loved her and would fight to keep her at his side, no matter what the rest of the Order thought of her?
But he didn't say anything like that.
"I need to talk to Dante," he told Lucan. "And I need to talk to Tess. There's something important I need to ask her."
Lucan considered him through narrowed eyes. "You know what I expect, Rio. You let me know if anything changes."
"Yeah," Rio replied.
When Lucan turned and strode back to converse with Gideon, Rio lifted Dylan's chin on the edge of his hand. "I promised you that I was going to try to help your mother," he reminded her gently. At her nod, he went on. "I don't know if it can be done, but before we can talk about you and I, that question needs to be answered. I know I can't ask you to stay with me when you're hurting to be near your family. I wouldn't ask that of you."
Hope flickered in her chest. "But do you...want to ask me to stay with you?"
He caressed her cheek, smoothing her hair back behind her ear. "God, yes. I want that, Dylan, very much."