Kiss of Crimson (Midnight Breed 2)

Savannah laughed. "Welcome to my world."

"Too bad you can't read computer files with your touch," he told her. "Then we wouldn't need to put up with this guy."

"Alas," she sighed dramatically. "Psychometry doesn't work that way, at least not for me. I can tell you what Ben Sullivan was wearing when he handled the flash drive, describe the room he was in, his state of mind, but I can't penetrate electronic circuitry. Gideon's our best hope for that."

Dante shrugged. "Just our luck, eh?"

Over at the computer, Gideon hit one last series of keystrokes, then sat back in his chair, hands clasped behind his head. "I'm in. Looks like one minute, forty-nine seconds, to be exact."

Dante walked around to look at the screen. "What have we got?"

"Data files. Spreadsheets. Flow charts. Pharmaceutical tables." Gideon rolled the mouse and clicked one of the files open. "Looks like a chemistry experiment. Anyone need a recipe for Crimson?"

"Jesus Christ. This is it?" "I'm betting so." Gideon scowled, clicking through more files on-screen. "There's more than one formula stored on the drive, however. We can't know which of them is valid until we obtain the ingredients and test each one."

Dante raked a hand through his hair and began pacing. He was curious to know more about the formulas Ben Sullivan had stored on the drive, but at the same time he was damn itchy to be back in his quarters. He could sense Tess's restlessness too, the connection they now shared through the blood bond like an unseen tether linking him to her as though they were one.

"How is she doing?" Savannah asked, obviously aware of his distraction.

"Better," he said. "She's awake and healing. Physically, she's fine. As for the rest, I've been trying to fill her in on everything, but I know she's confused."

Savannah nodded. "Who wouldn't be? I thought Gideon was a crazy fool when he first told me about all of this."

"You still think I'm a crazy fool most of the time, love. That's part of my charm." He bent toward her and faked a bite of her denim-clad thigh, his fingers not skipping a beat on the keys.

Playfully batting him away, Savannah stood up and came over to where Dante was trying to wear a track in the rug. "Do you think Tess might be hungry? I've got breakfast started in the kitchen for Gabrielle and me. I can prepare a tray for Tess, if you'd like to bring it to her."

"Yeah. Thanks, Savannah. Food would be great."

God, he hadn't even considered that Tess would need to eat. What a stellar mate he was proving to be already. He hardly took decent care of himself and now he had a Breedmate to think about, with human wants and needs that were well outside his areas of expertise. Oddly enough, where the thought might have given him doubts in the not-so-distant past, now he found the idea almost... pleasant. He wanted to provide for Tess, in every way. He wanted to protect her and make her happy, spoil her like a princess.

For the first time in his long life, he felt as if he'd found true purpose. Not the honor and duty that drove him as a warrior, but something equally compelling and righteous. Something that called to everything male in him.

He felt as if this bond he'd found--this love he had for Tess--might actually be strong enough to make him forget about the death and anguish that had been stalking him. Some hopeful part of him wanted to believe that with Tess beside him, maybe he could find a way to thwart it.

Dante hadn't even begun to enjoy that slender hope before a scream ripped through him like a blade. He felt it physically, but the assault was on his senses, a fact he realized when neither Savannah nor Gideon reacted to the terrified shriek that froze Dante's heart to ice in his chest.

It tore through him again, leaving him shuddering in its wake.

"Oh, Jesus. Tess!"

"What's wrong?" Savannah paused on her way to the kitchen. "Dante?"

"It's Tess," he said, already training his mind on her, homing in on her location in the compound. "She' s somewhere in the compound--the infirmary, I think." "I'll get a visual." At the computer, Gideon quickly brought up the display for one of the corridor's video monitors. "I've got her, D. Ah, hell. She's run into Rio down there. He's got her cornered--"

Dante took off at a dead run before the words were out of Gideon's mouth. He didn't need to see the screen to confirm where Tess was or what was giving her such a fright. He bolted out of Savannah and Gideon's apartments, hauling ass into the heart of the compound. Knowing the layout of the place inside and out, he took the shortest route down to the medical wing, using all the preternatural speed at his command.

Dante heard Rio's voice even before he reached the set of swinging doors that led into the medical wing.

"I asked you a question, female. What the fuck do you think you're doing down here?"

"Get away from her!" Dante shouted as he entered the infirmary, hoping like hell he wasn't going to have to do battle with one of his own. "Back off, Rio. Now."

"Dante!" Tess cried, panting with fear. Her face was ashen, her body trembling uncontrollably from behind the massive wall of Rio's body. The warrior had her trapped against the corridor wall, animosity radiating off him in blasting pulses of heat.

"Let her go," Dante ordered his brethren.

"Dante, be careful! He'll kill you!"