Midnight Rising(56)

“You live here?” Dylan asked. “With…them?”



Tess nodded. “I live with Dante. He’s a warrior of the Order, like Rio and the others who live here at the compound.”



Dylan gestured to the tiny birthmark between Tess’s thumb and forefinger. “You’re his…Breedmate?” she asked, recalling the term Rio had used after he’d seen Dylan’s identical birthmark. “You’re married to one of them?”



“Dante and I were mated last year,” Tess said. “We’re blood-bonded, which connects us in a way that’s even deeper than marriage. I know Rio’s told you a bit about the Breed—how they live, where they come from. After what happened in here with him, I’m sure you have no doubt about what they are.”



Dylan nodded, still incredulous that any of this could actually be true. “Vampires.”



Tess smiled gently. “That’s what I thought too, at first. It’s not that simple to define them. The Breed is a complicated race, living in a complicated world full of enemies. Things can be very dangerous for them, and for those of us who love them. For the few males who’ve pledged themselves to the Order, every night is a risk to their lives.”



“Was it an accident?” Dylan blurted out. “The explosion that injured Rio…was it some kind of terrible accident?”



Something pained moved across the other woman’s expression. She stared at Dylan for a long moment, as if she wasn’t quite sure how much to say. But then she gave a slight shake of her head. “No. It wasn’t an accident. Someone close to Rio betrayed him. The explosion happened during a raid on an old warehouse in the city. Rio and the rest of the Order were ambushed.”



Dylan glanced down and she realized she was staring at the broken picture frame that Rio had hurtled across the room in his fit of rage. She carefully picked it up, flipped it over in her palms. Sweeping away the spiderweb of broken glass over the color snapshot, she stared down at the exotic dark eyes and the smile that didn’t quite reach them.



“Eva,” Tess confirmed. “She was Rio’s Breedmate.”



“But she betrayed him?”



“She did,” Tess said after a long pause. “Eva made a deal with one of the Order’s enemies—a powerful vampire who was also the brother of the Order’s leader, Lucan. For information that would help this vampire kill Lucan, something Eva wanted as much as Lucan’s brother, she was assured of two things. That Rio would live, and that he would be wounded badly enough that he would never be able to fight again.”



“Jesus,” Dylan gasped. “So she got what she wanted?”



“Not exactly. The Order was ambushed, based on information Eva delivered, but the vampire she bargained with had no intention of upholding his part of their deal. He sent in a bomb. The explosion might have killed them all, but ironically, Rio took the biggest hit. And then he had to learn afterward that it was Eva who made it happen.”



Dylan couldn’t speak. She tried to absorb the weight of what it must have been like for him—not only the physical pain of his injuries, but also the emotional hurt of a deception like the one dealt to him.



“I saw her.” Dylan glanced over at Tess and saw her frown deepen, confusion evident in her questioning gaze. Dylan hadn’t known this woman for more than a few minutes, and she wasn’t used to sharing herself with anyone, especially not the secret that made her so different from other people. But something in Tess’s caring eyes let her know that she was safe. She felt an instant affinity that made her trust she was with a friend. “The dead come to me from time to time—well, women do, anyway. Women who are no longer living. Eva came to me a few days ago when I was hiking with friends on a mountain outside Prague.”



“She…came to you,” Tess said cautiously. “How do you mean?”



“I saw her spirit, I guess you’d say. She led me to a hidden cave. I didn’t know it, but Rio was inside. She—Eva—led me there and asked me to save him.”



“My God.” Tess slowly shook her head. “Does he know this?”



Dylan glanced meaningfully at the destruction lying at her feet. “Yeah, he knows. When I told him, that’s when he really lost it.”



Tess’s look was apologetic. “He has a lot of anger where Eva’s concerned.”



“Understandably,” Dylan replied. “Is he okay, Tess? I mean, considering what he’s gone through, is Rio going to be…okay?”