Midnight Rising (Midnight Breed 4)

His voice was thick below her ear, not quite his own now, but sexy as hell. He rocked against her as she drank from him, her climax already screaming to a peak.

As she shattered beneath him in that next blinding second, Rio buried his face into her neck and bit down into her vein.

Chapter Thirty-one

It was damn hard to watch Dylan get showered and dressed that next morning, knowing that she was leaving.

But Rio didn't try to stop her. She was going somewhere he couldn't follow - into a daylight world that would probably keep her away from him longer than he wanted to admit. Maybe longer than he could actually bear.

The hours they had shared in his bed, forging a bond through mingling blood and promises that this wasn't really good-bye, had to be enough for him. At least for now.

He couldn't keep her from the life that waited her outside, as much as it killed him to walk her to the compound's elevator and ride the long distance up to the Order's fleet garage above.

They paused together as they stepped out of the elevator. Rio held out the keys to one of his cars. Not one of the sports coupes with the barely legal engines, but a nice, safe Volvo sedan. Hell, he would have put her in an armored tank if he had one to give her. He clicked the remote lock entry button and the Volvo five vehicles back responded with a little chirp.

"You call me every hour and let me know you're okay," he said, putting the keys and her cell phone in her hand. "The encrypted number I programmed into your phone comes directly to me. I want to hear from you every hour, just so I know everything's good."

"You want me to risk getting a ticket for operating a motor vehicle while talking on a cell phone?" She smiled and arched a brow at him. "Maybe you want to plug me with a GPS chip before I go too?"

"The car's already equipped with GPS," he said, glad she was keeping it light, especially since he was feeling anything but. "If you wait here for a second, I'm sure Gideon or Niko could come up with something for you as well."

Dylan's quiet laugh was a bit hollow. She reached up and smoothed her fingers into the hair at his nape. "It's killing me to leave you too, you know. I miss you already."

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. "I know. We'll figure this out, work it all out somehow. But I wasn't joking about having you call me every hour from the road. I want to know where you are, and that you make it back safely."

"I'll be fine." She shook her head and smiled up at him. "I'll call you when I get to the hospital."

"Okay," he said, knowing he was being unreasonable. Concerned over nothing. Just making one weak excuse after another to cover for the deep need he had to hold her close and keep her there. He released her and took a step back, shoving his hands into the pockets of his loose jeans. "Okay. Call me when you get there."

Dylan came up on her toes and kissed him again. When she tried to pull away, he couldn't resist wrapping his arms around her one more time.

"Ah, hell," he swore harshly under his breath. "Get out of here before I take you back to my quarters and shackle you to the bedpost."

"That could be interesting."

"Remind me later," he said, "when you come back."

She nodded. "I have to go."

"Yeah."

"I love you," she said, and pressed a tender kiss to his cheek. "I'll call you."

"I'll be waiting."

Rio stood there, fists thrust deep into his pockets as he watched her head for the car. She climbed in and started it up, then slowly rolled the car out of its parking space in the hangar. She gave him a little wave, too smart to slide the window down and give him more time to try to talk her out of leaving.

He hit the button on the hangar's automatic door, and had to shield his eyes from the light pink wash of dawn that filtered in through the estate's surrounding thicket of trees. Dylan drove out into the daylight. Rio wanted to wait until the taillights turned the bend in the property's long drive, but the glare of UV rays was too much for him to take, even for his late-generation Breed eyes.

He punched the keypad again and the wide door closed.

When he got off the elevator back down in the compound, Nikolai was coming up the corridor from the weapons range like hell on wheels. Rio could practically see steam pouring out of the vampire's ears, he was so furious.

"What's going on?" he asked, meeting the cold blue eyes.

"I just got fucked," Niko replied, and evidently not in a good way.

"By who?"