"Quite the clusterfuck of problems you bring into this house," Lucan remarked, bypassing unnecessary niceties and getting right to the point of this unexpected reunion. "Nathan briefed me on everything that's gone down these past several days. Bowman's one helluva busy guy. Kidnapping, obstruction, conspiracy, aiding a rebellion, and general defiance of the law. Let's not forget betrayal and usury. Apparently your strongest suits, judging from the condition you left Mira in out there. If you deserve to suffer for anything you've done, hurting that girl ranks right at the top as far as I'm concerned. Jesus Christ. And then to cap everything off, you bound her to you."
Kellan's stoic expression didn't crack until the mention of Mira's name. His deep voice was raw with a pain Lucan couldn't deny. "I wouldn't have given her my blood if I hadn't thought the bond might help repair the damage to her eyesight." Frowning, he gave a remorseful shake of his head. "It didn't work. I need to try again, Lucan. I need to give her some more. See if she gets better."
Lucan scoffed. "You've done enough, haven't you?"
"Then maybe Rafe or Tess - "
"Mira's where she belongs now," Lucan said, knowingly curt. He wasn't even close to sympathy over the obvious concern Kellan felt for the mate he'd claimed well beyond his rights. "The Order will see that Mira gets all the help we can provide. She's with family now. You have problems of your own to deal with."
Kellan held his gaze. "As long as Mira's safe, my problems mean nothing."
"Do you want to die, son?"
Kellan's response was immediate. "No." Then again, more vehemently. "Hell no. I want to live - with Mira beside me. I didn't realize how much I wanted that until I had her back in my arms again." He blew out a sharp curse. "But it doesn't matter what I want."
"Because of the vision," Lucan said. "Nathan informed me about that earlier too. You and I both know Mira's gift is a powerful thing. Unerring. But with or without that prophesied end hanging over your head, your involvement with rebels - for fuck's sake, your having led them as their commander - has all but tied my hands in this. Ackmeyer's death has been blamed on rebels, rebels under the direction of an outlaw called Bowman. It's given the public a cause to rail against, and they're doing it loudly. They're calling for blood - your blood. When word gets out that you're not only Breed but also a former warrior with the Order? The humans won't be satisfied until they have your head, son. I'll have little choice but to give it to them, or undermine all the strides we've made toward any kind of peace with mankind."
Kellan's steady gaze said he understood the impossible position. "If it comes down to that, I'll be ready to face whatever penalty is required."
Lucan raked a hand through his dark hair. "Shit, Kellan. This sure as fuck isn't how I imagined things would go with you when you first showed up at the Boston compound twenty years ago. Not how I imagined your life heading when you sailed through training with flying colors. Making the call to JUSTIS to come and pick you up tonight isn't going to be easy."
"I appreciate that," Kellan replied soberly. "Before you make that call, Lucan, if I could ask one thing for my crew? Their freedom, if you see fit to grant it to them. Don't turn them over to JUSTIS with me. I take total responsibility for my actions and those of the people under my command."
Lucan inclined his head at the request, feeling more than a little respect for the leader willing to bear the full brunt for those who followed him into battle.
"I want you to know," Kellan said, "I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of these past eight years. Worst of all, hurting Mira, and deceiving you and the Order - my family - about my death. I'm guilty of many things, Lucan, but murder isn't one of them. The night the lab was destroyed, Mira and I were in the city, looking for leads on Ackmeyer. We hoped to find something that would lead us to him, or to the member of my crew who defected that morning and took Ackmeyer to ransom."
Lucan scowled. "None of which excuses the fact that you abducted a high-profile civilian - Ackmeyer was practically a national treasure, for crissake. And then you grab a member of the Order besides? What the fuck were you thinking?"
"Taking Mira was never part of the plan. I didn't know she'd be there. We had last-minute intel that Ackmeyer would be on the move that day. We mobilized right away and closed in on him. Mira got swept into the net unintentionally. She was never part of it, and my mistake where she was concerned was not sending her back to the Order right away. But if you ask me to regret the time I had with her these past few days, I can't do that."
Lucan exhaled, studying the younger male. That he loved Mira was obvious. And Lucan couldn't help thinking back to his own mistakes and fuck-ups not so long ago, any one of which could have cost him the woman he cherished with all his heart, his Breedmate, Gabrielle. They'd been fortunate. Had the blessing of a shared life together and a son they adored, who made them both proud. Things Kellan and Mira would likely never know.
His heart heavier than he wanted to admit, Lucan cleared his throat and focused on the things that still needed answers. "Why target Ackmeyer? How had he managed to make enemies of you or your rebels?"
"Three months ago, a Breed civilian was shot dead in Boston. One of the women in my crew, Nina, witnessed the slaying. The Breed male was her lover. He'd left her apartment that night and was walking up the side street when a government vehicle rolled up. Two human men got out and killed him, unprovoked." Kellan stared at Lucan, his gaze intense, alive with an anger that simmered just below the surface of his outward calm. "Their guns held UV rounds. Liquid sunlight, neatly packaged into Breed-killing bullets. The vampire didn't stand a chance. He was ashed on the spot."
"Holy hell." Lucan rocked back on his heels, more grim than astonished. Mankind had always been ingenious, sometimes diabolically so, but the ramifications of ultraviolet technology being developed for arms and weaponry could be staggering. Given time and imagination, they could eventually wipe out the entire Breed race. "And you tracked the tech back to Ackmeyer?"
"Took some time and a lot of digging, but we managed to put it together. Ackmeyer had mentioned in a science journal interview last year that he was working on a pet project involving ultraviolet light. At the time, he'd said he thought it would be ideal for agricultural purposes."
"Until someone wagged a big paycheck in front of him, no doubt." Lucan raked his hand over his scalp, hissed another curse. "Is that what happened? Ackmeyer sold his tech to someone who thought it might be put to better use as a weapon against the Breed?"
"That's what I wanted to know," Kellan replied. "I meant to get answers, and if Ackmeyer didn't prove cooperative, I was prepared to persuade him to destroy the technology - by whatever means necessary. Problem was, Ackmeyer didn't know anything about his work being leaked outside his private lab. When I questioned him while he was in my custody, he said his project - something he was calling Morningstar - was still in testing stages, under lock and key. He swore up and down that he'd never allow his work to be used to harm anyone. I read the truth in him, Lucan. He was innocent. By the time I figured that out, the wheels were already in motion."
Lucan grunted. "You shouldn't have acted alone. You should've come to the Order with this."
"Come to you as Bowman?" Kellan asked, his expression grimly wry. "Or as the coward who'd turned his back on his brethren and his kin?"
Lucan knew he was right. His situation had been untenable either way. It still was. "Unfortunately, it may be too late to turn any of this back now."
Kellan nodded. "There are a lot of things I wish I'd done differently, starting with how I left eight years ago." He glanced down, exhaled a short breath as he shook his head. "Jeremy Ackmeyer is dead because of me, Lucan. Because ultimately I gave the command to abduct him. I accept that blame. But I'm telling you here and now, I didn't give the order to torch his lab or to harm him in any way."
"You're going to have a hard time convincing the public of that."
"I don't give a shit about the public and what they believe," Kellan said, a flicker of amber lighting in his eyes. "I need to know that you believe me. That I haven't lost your trust."
Lucan listened to the younger vampire - the once-sheltered, sullen Darkhaven youth who had become a formidable, stalwart warrior under Lucan's tutelage, only to vanish without a trace before he'd reached his prime.