Allegiance(37)

A full feeding might have killed him.

Ashton, too, from the looks of it. She was holding on to Reynolds like he was a life raft and she was about to go under for the third time.

No, it hadn’t been sexual. It had been powerful. Addictive, even. Harnessing that kind of power for an extended period? Hell, you’d either conquer the world or self-combust and smile as your heart stopped beating.

Something was going on between Ashton and Cage Reynolds, and Mirren couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if Reynolds mated with her, or worse, just took her as a regular feeder. Did they know the guy well enough to entrust him with that much power?

Then again, it might kill him, and Penton couldn’t afford to lose him.

“Mirren.” Aidan’s voice cut through the mental fog, and Mirren looked up. “We’ve only got a couple of hours until sunrise and we need to talk. You with us?”

More with them by the second. The afterglow of whatever had happened was fading fast, thank God. He sat heavily on the chair opposite Aidan. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“Robin? Nik?”

Robin still hadn’t said anything, but she’d quit shaking. She nodded and pulled away from Reynolds, who didn’t look like he wanted to let her go. In fact, he had that look on his face—the one a vampire got after being flattened by a dose of mating hormones.

Poor fucker; he probably didn’t even know it yet. And Mirren wasn’t going to be the one to share it with him.

He shifted his focus back to Aidan. The man had been on edge all evening, waiting for all this other shit to get done. Now, he leaned forward in his chair and repeated his warning: “What’s said in this room stays between us until I say otherwise. Everyone agree?”

No one spoke until Reynolds finally asked, “What about Hannah?”

With Will Ludlam out of town, their resident child vampire psychic was the only one of Aidan’s lieutenants unaccounted for. “She’s been having too many issues adjusting,” Aidan said. “I want to keep this stuff away from her as long as I can.”

Which meant something bad. Something else bad. Some days, Mirren wanted to drive Glory out of here, go somewhere in the mountains where they could live alone, and never look back. The only things keeping him here were his loyalty to Aidan, his respect for Glory’s need to be around other people, and his own refusal to let the Tribunal assholes win.

“First, I talked to Colonel Thomas tonight.” Aidan took a sip of his whiskey. “He’s devastated; no surprise there. Tough as old boots, of course, so he tried to cover, but I could tell. He wanted to call Randa himself, but I thought Will needed to tell her. He’s the one she’ll need to rely on.”

Cage leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, his posture mirroring Aidan’s. “Are they still in Atlanta?”

Aidan nodded. “The surgeon told Will pretty much what Krys told him, and what Mirren has said from the beginning. The leg he broke in the Omega cave-in is not going to improve without going in and rebreaking it in at least two places. Even then, there’s no guarantee he’ll regain his full range of motion. He’s probably done as far as Omega Force goes, and it goes without saying that he’s pissed as hell.”

No shit. Junior wanted to be in the thick of everything and was usually damned good at whatever he tackled, not that Mirren would ever say that aloud. Will had a big-enough ego without Mirren’s input.

“He’s not necessarily out of Omega Force.” Nik stood in the doorway to the kitchen. “Our background on you guys says he’s a computer whiz, right?”

“He is,” Aidan said. “Mostly self-taught, but he’s probably the smartest guy I’ve ever met. Why?”

Nik came back into the sitting area and snagged the chair next to Cage. “Our Omega team in Houston had a tech guy—also crazy smart. He figured out ways to get us around security systems, tracked Internet chatter, monitored surveillance footage, conducted background intel, that kind of thing. He’s good with a weapon, but doesn’t do the fieldwork unless it’s an emergency. I don’t know Will, of course, but it sounds like a perfect role for him. I’m sure Gadget—our Texas techie—would talk to him if he’s interested. We did Ranger School together.”

Mirren looked at Zorba with renewed interest. He’d stayed in the background up until now, but he seemed like a straight-up guy. In fact, he reminded Mirren of Rob Thomas, which was a good thing.

Aidan seemed to be reaching the same conclusion. “Thanks, that sounds perfect for him, and I think he’d like doing it. I’ll take you up on that conversation with your Gadget guy as soon as Will gets back. It’ll be a relief for him to know he has a role, and an important one.”