"What's wrong with Kellan?" asked little Mira, who stood nearby with Gideon's mate, Savannah. The girl clutched an opened book to her chest, as though she'd recently been reading from it. Her eyes were wide and anxious. "Is he going to be okay?"
"Kellan's got a bad tummyache," Savannah told her, glancing to Gideon and Lucan as she guided the child away from the bed. She spoke and moved with utter calm, but her dark brown eyes were grave with concern.
The fact was, no one knew what was wrong with Kellan Archer. Instead of rebounding after he'd been abducted and tortured on Dragos's command, he seemed to be getting weaker. He needed to feed, that much was certain, but he wasn't yet in any shape to venture topside and find a Host on his own.
Bad enough Lucan had been forced to open the Order's headquarters to Lazaro Archer and his grandson after Dragos razed their Darkhaven and obliterated their kin. If things didn't improve with Kellan damn soon, Lucan was going to have to break yet another rule of the compound and bring a human inside to feed the kid.
Renata reached out to take Mira's hand. "Come on, Mouse. Why don't you come with Savannah and me for a little while? We can come back when Kellan feels better, all right?"
Mira nodded but kept her head turned toward the youth suffering on the bed until the other two Breedmates had removed her from the room. No sooner had they gone, the young vampire doubled over into a deeper spasm, saliva dripping from his open mouth.
"Please," Lazaro Archer said. "Please, do something to help my boy. He's all I have left - "
A terrible groan ripped out of the Breed youth's throat. He gagged and wheezed, then, with a great heave of his torso, he leaned across the infirmary bed and began to vomit. A stream of liquid shot out of his mouth as he pitched forward and retched again. Dante leapt forward and pulled Tess out of the way, sheltering her against him. Dylan and Rio rushed to grab paper towels from the cabinet nearby while Elise stepped in to comfort the youth and help clean him up.
He kept heaving, spasms racking him even after his body had expelled what little it had to give up. He tried to speak, an embarrassed moan of apology, but only managed a raw rasp of sound.
"Shh," Elise whispered, stroking his damp hair where he'd crumpled on the mattress. "It's okay now, Kellan. Don't worry about anything except feeling better."
Dylan was on her hands and knees below, mopping up the mess on the floor as Rio worked on stripping away the soiled blanket and sheet. Lucan heard Dylan's indrawn gasp and watched as she suddenly went very still next to Kellan Archer's bed.
"Um ... you guys?" She stood up then, a wad of wet paper toweling in her hand. "I think I know what was making Kellan sick."
Lucan stared, a feeling of sickness opening up in his own gut as Dylan held out the soiled, soggy clump. In the center of it was a coin-size silver disc.
"Ah, Christ. Ah, fuck me," Gideon murmured. His face went slack as he reached out to take the object out of its wet nest of spittle and stomach acid. "I don't believe this. Son of a bitch!"
"What is it?" Tegan asked, grim as the rest of them.
"It's a GPS chip," Gideon replied. "A goddamn tracking device." He raked a hand over the top of his head and turned to face Lucan. "We've been compromised."
Lucan exhaled, the magnitude of his mistake hitting him like a freight train plowing into the center of his being.
Now it all made sense. The abduction of Kellan Archer. The too-easy rescue. The simultaneous attack on Archer's Darkhaven - an attack that was so thorough, it would have ensured the boy had no place else to go but back to the compound and into the protection of the Order.
Dragos had staged the entire thing, all for this purpose.
He knew where they lived now. He'd known for days, ever since Lucan had made the decision to allow the civilians into the Order's home.
The only question that remained was how long it would be before Dragos or his army of homegrown killers brought this war right up to the mansion's front gates.
Chapter Seven
Are you hungry, darling? I've asked Tilda to prepare something nice for you, but if you'd like anything to eat before the dining room is ready, you need only ask and I'll get it for you. Anything you wish - "
"I'm fine." Corinne turned away from the window in the room she'd been brought to a short while ago, after her mother had ushered her into the house and her father had disappeared into his study to confer with Mason and the other Darkhaven guards. The fuss and activity were making Corinne uncomfortable. Now that she was home, all she wanted was a few private moments alone with her parents. Time enough to tell them how badly she'd missed her family ... and how desperately she needed their help. When her mother began to wonder aloud about calling the kitchen for a tray of food to be brought up to the room, Corinne walked over and clasped hold of her hands. "I'm all right, really. Please, don't feel you have to fuss over me."
"But I can't help it. Do you know how many times I prayed for the chance to fuss over you again?" Regina Bishop's skin was moist and cool, her fingers trembling as they gripped Corinne's in an urgent hold. Tears swam in her kind eyes. "Good lord, are you really here? I'm looking at you - I feel you, alive and beautiful as ever, but I can hardly believe this is happening. We lived a nightmare after you went missing."
"I know," Corinne acknowledged softly. "I'm sorry for what all of you went through too."
"Lottie cried for weeks after you disappeared. She'll be so happy to learn that you're home again."
Corinne smiled at the thought of reuniting with her little sister. Although both were born with the Breedmate birthmark, she and Charlotte were not blood related. Nevertheless, they'd been fiercely devoted to each other - perhaps all the more so, having been born into neglect and abandonment as infants, only to become family as wards of the Bishops.
"Is she here, Mother?"
"Oh, no, darling. Charlotte has her own Darkhaven in London with her mate and their two sons. In fact, her youngest and his Breedmate just celebrated the birth of their first son a few weeks ago."