CHAPTER 18
The surprise raid on Angus Mackie was a bust. Aric sensed it even before he entered the gang leader’s seedy tavern in the armpit of Dorval. He and Kaya and Rafe had accompanied Nikolai into the vacated establishment while a few miles away, Mira and her three warrior teammates had just called in the same disappointing situation when they closed in on Big Mack’s rundown house near the river.
“Find anything back there?” Niko asked Aric as he came out with Rafe after their search of the empty rear office and store room.
“No trace of Mackie, but yeah, we found something.”
Aric held out his hand. Resting in his palm was a bullet that made even a seasoned warrior and custom-crafted munitions expert like Nikolai take a step back. This was no spent casing like the ones they had recovered from the Darkhaven murders; this was a live round. Inside the diamond-glass body of the bullet glowed a small, but lethal dose of liquefied ultraviolet light.
“It was lying near the back door that dumps out on the alley.”
“Holy hell.” Niko slowly shook his head, his gaze riveted on the milky blue color of the fluid within the small cylinder. “I guess we don’t need to wonder if any of Riordan’s UV arms and ammo made it out of Ireland anymore.”
“No,” Aric said. “The only question is, how much are we talking about? There are muddy wheel marks from a hand truck rolling over the dirt and concrete out there. Someone made a lot of trips back and forth carting something out of here in a hurry today.”
“Shit.” The commander scraped a hand over his squared jaw. “All it takes is one of these rounds to ash even the strongest of our kind. Every bullet our enemies hold is one too many.”
On that, they all agreed.
Even if Aric’s memory wasn’t as flawless as his mother’s, he would never forget the sight of black ash piles that had once been living, breathing Breed civilians. Aside from a rare handful like him who’d been born impervious to sunlight, for most of their race there was no coming back from a UV assault.
Fury smoldered in Rafe’s eyes. “Mackie was tipped off that we were on to him.”
“Probably,” Nikolai muttered. “But there’s a chance he pussied out and ran after his comrade got fileted during that Darkhaven assault. It’s no secret that the Order was on scene at Mercier’s wedding where another of his longtime cronies ended up dead, so even a blunt instrument like Big Mack might’ve been able to guess we’d come knocking on his door with questions sooner or later.”
Rafe grunted. “Hell of a lucky guess, in that case. Rats like Mackie run in packs, and we all know hate is an insidious bitch that can hide in any crowd. It’ll even have the audacity to smile at you while it hides a blade behind its back.”
“Or a gun loaded with these,” Aric replied.
Nikolai gave a grim nod. “Okay, we’re done here. We don’t need anything more to know we’re on the right track with Mackie. The son of a bitch just made himself our top priority. Let’s head back to base and--”
“Commander,” Kaya said from behind the bar, her voice grave. “I found something. There’s a safe hidden down here.”
She had seemed to be doing her best to avoid Aric since the teams departed tonight. Pensive on the ride out to Dorval, she’d sat in back with him in silence while Niko drove and Rafe rode shotgun in the Order’s black SUV. In spite of the fact that she was surrounded by a team of three Breed warriors, she seemed equally solitary now, continuing her search of the establishment while Aric and their comrades conversed on the other side of the room.
Nikolai pivoted an approving glance at her. “Good eye. Let’s crack it open and have a look inside.”
She stepped back to let him move in. Aric and Rafe followed, watching as Niko hunkered down and disabled the combination lock with a mental command. He started to open the safe’s door, then paused. His cool ice-blue gaze flicked up to Aric. “Maybe you ought to do the honors. Just in case there’s any more of that shit in here.”
“Sure.” Aric returned Nikolai’s grin as he carefully laid the UV bullet on top of the bar’s scarred surface. There would be no quips about the Order elder’s caution. As one of the Breed, only an outright fool or a tragic hero would be cavalier enough to dismiss the killing power of that kind of weaponry. In the end it wouldn’t matter which category applied because either one would leave behind nothing but ashes.
Aric waited to investigate until Niko and Rafe had stepped around to the safety on the other side of the long bar. Kaya remained, and he heard her indrawn breath as he pulled open the safe’s door.
“Be careful,” she whispered, the first words she’d spoken to him since they arrived.
He nodded, struck to see true concern in her expression. It warmed him more than he wanted to admit. How had he gotten so tangled up in this female that a simple utterance of kindness from her as his fellow comrade should affect him as profoundly as her embrace?
With more effort than it should have required, he put aside his awareness of her and concentrated on doing his job. He peered inside the safe.
“Couple of handguns,” he reported as he pulled out the weapons and inspected them. “Basic nines, standard rounds. No UV.”
“Thank fuck for that,” Rafe muttered.
“There’s something else in here.” Aric reached toward the back, his fingers closing around a brick-sized block of substance that was wrapped in thick cellophane. “Narcotics. Ah, shit,” he said once he had the object out of the safe and in his hand. “It’s Red Dragon.”
Nikolai hissed a curse in his native Russian. “How much you got?”
“About a kilo,” he guessed, judging by the weight of the package in his palm. He stood up and placed it on top of the bar next to the live UV round and the pair of pistols.
“Christ.” Rafe’s mouth pressed flat as he picked up the brick and stared at the packed red powder concealed within the plastic shrink wrap. “Like with UV, it doesn’t take much of this shit to do the job.”
Kaya glanced at it, too, her fine brows pinched with confusion. “What’s Red Dragon?”
“Instant bloodbath,” Rafe replied. “If you want to turn the mildest Breed civilian into a violent killer, give him a dose of this garbage then stand back.”
“It’s a drug we’ve recently linked to Opus,” Aric explained. “When the Order took out Fineas Riordan, they blew up a large cache of ultraviolet weaponry and cartons of sealed narcotics like this one. We know some of it is already in circulation around the world for the simple fact that we’ve been seeing an uptick in Rogue activity lately. There have been Breed slayings of humans in different areas all over the world.”
“Oh, God.” Her face went a bit slack. “You’re saying this red powder is making law-abiding Breed vampires turn into bloodthirsty murderers?”
Aric nodded. “Nothing Opus would like better than to fan the flames of paranoia by creating an epidemic of Breed-on-human attacks.”
“Which usually results in retaliation from the other side,” Rafe added. “Not to mention the power it gives to hate-based gangbangers like Angus Mackie to keep bringing in fresh recruits to their cause.”
Nikolai grunted. “Vicious circle. One we’ve been fighting for a long damned time.”
Aric and Rafe agreed in unison. Although they were new to the battle, both of their fathers had been engulfed in it along with Niko and the rest of the Order since the beginning.
The Order’s work had been tremendous, as was their success, but the war was far from over. Aric had a feeling this new fight was going to get a hell of a lot uglier than anything the world had seen before. He intended to meet it on the front lines, and that was just one more reason to be glad that Kaya had slammed the brakes on whatever it was that had been taking shape between them.
Still, that didn’t keep his gaze from straying to her as she stood next to him behind the bar, her arms crossed and pretty brown eyes distant, troubled. As haunted as he’d ever seen them.
“Nikolai,” she murmured after what seemed the longest time. “Do you think I could talk to you priv--”
The commander’s sudden, sharp groan cut her question short. His expression constricted into one of agony. “Ah, Christ.” He bit off a curse and thrust out his hand, gripping the edge of the bar.
“Are you okay?” Rafe reached for his arm. “Niko, let me help you.”
“Can’t.” He shook his head, pain radiating off him.
“What’s happening?” Kaya asked, rushing around from behind the counter with Aric.
The immense Breed warrior staggered, sweat popping out on his brow. “Renata.” He uttered his mate’s name through gritted teeth and fangs. “Holy hell. It’s the baby. He’s coming. Right now.”
Aric shot an urgent glance at Rafe. “I’ll get the vehicle.”
“No time.” Niko gave a harsh shake of his head. And through his anguish, an excited grin pulled his lips away from his emerged fangs. He chuckled, wonder shining in his ice-blue eyes despite the intense physical pain he shared with his Breedmate through their blood bond. “Holy fuck, it’s really happening. I’m outta here. I’ll get home faster on foot.”
He didn’t waste another second. In a blur of movement, Nikolai bolted out of the bar and vanished into the night.