She'd seen more than one photograph and news video that had captured the feral, bloodstained faces of some of the attackers. The vampires, as the whole of mankind now knew them to be.
They were Rogues, all of them.
For what hadn't been the first time since the word of the attacks, she thought back to what Chase had said about the rehabilitation facilities controlled by the Enforcement Agency. He'd mentioned how widespread the violence would be, how total the carnage, should blood- addicted Rogues suddenly break loose on the human world.
And now Dragos had instigated that very nightmare overseas, Tavia was sure of it.
He had to be stopped. Before he had the chance to wreak any more terror or to put the planet's inhabitants in any more danger.
If only she could find a way to get close to him, she would find a way to kill him.
The seeds of a plan to do just that had been forming in her mind for the past few hours.
She hurried into the Back Bay residential area on foot, sundown having just kissed the city in cool shadows. A light snow fell, muting some of the din from the traffic-clogged streets and anxious, chattering pedestrians on the sidewalks and alleyways.
Tavia saw the familiar brownstone mansion up ahead on the other side of the street. She waited for a mass transit bus to pass, then stepped into the one-way street to cross.>As for the assassins who'd once worn the assortment of collars on Gideon's table? Not so fortunate. Hunter had been collecting the devices from every one of Dragos's personal army that he killed. Most of the polymer rings had been detonated beyond repair - a hazard of retrieval.
But there were a couple that Gideon had reengineered. It was one of those he fetched now.
"Thanks to Tavia, I was able to get past some password-protected, encrypted files," he explained as he carried the collar over to a lidded, large metal box beside his workstation and placed it inside. Then he picked up a cell phone he'd jury-rigged as a remote control. He started typing a sequence on the keypad. "If my calculations are correct, this code should reset the detonator to neutral."
The device in the box emitted a low hum in response.
"Ah, shit." Gideon's expression went a bit slack. "Archer, hit the deck!"
Before Jenna knew what was happening, she and Dylan were whisked to the floor beneath the sheltering bulk of two Breed males - just as a beam of intense UV light burst from under the lid of the metal box. It was gone just as quickly, evaporating like a brilliant ray of sunlight doused by shadow.
"Holy hell," Gideon said, rising to let Jenna loose from beneath him. The protection was unnecessary for Dylan and her, but Gideon and Archer were a different story. Gideon raked a hand through his mussed spiky blond hair, giving his geeky genius look an added dose of dishevelment. "Well, I'll be damned. That's a first."
"You've never seen one of those things detonate before?" Archer asked, giving Dylan a hand up from the floor beside him.
Gideon grunted, shook his head. "No. I've never been wrong before." He cracked a cockeyed smile a second later. "But now I know how to blow these suckers up on demand."
Just then, Tess appeared in the open doorway of the tech lab. She glanced at all of them, then looked around the room as if she sensed something recently amiss. "Savannah said you wanted to see me, Jenna?"
"Yeah," she said, meeting the Breedmate's gentle aquamarine gaze. "I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about your father."
"Sure, but there's not much to tell. He died back in Chicago when I was fourteen."
"Car accident," Dylan said from beside Jenna.
Tess nodded. "That's right. Why do you want to know?"
"Are you sure it was a car accident?" Jenna pressed.
"Positive. He was in a convertible, speeding. My father always loved driving too fast." She smiled sadly. "He was larger than life. Utterly fearless."
Jenna felt sorry for the young girl who lost a parent she obviously adored. "How did the accident happen?"
"Witnesses said he dodged to avoid hitting a dog that ran in front of him. He swerved into oncoming traffic. There was a semi coming the opposite way."
Jenna had seen enough head-on collisions in her work as a Statie in Alaska. She could imagine what had happened. But she still needed to hear the answer from the Breedmate herself. "How did he die, Tess?"
"He was decapitated. He died instantly."
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
"I SURE HATE TO SEE a pretty woman drinking alone." Tavia didn't bother to glance up when the middle-age suit down the bar from her at the hotel lounge finally worked up the nerve to saunter over and attempt to strike up a conversation. Her drink was long gone and her burger-and-fries lunch sat barely touched in front of her. "I'm not looking for company."