The front doors opened and Tegan and Chase got in. Tegan glanced into the back, his gaze lighting on Tess's arm--on her limp right hand, which had slipped out from under the cover of Dante's jacket. The hand that bore the teardrop-and-crescent-moon mark. The warrior's eyes narrowed, then came up to Dante's in question as much as caution.
"She's a Breedmate."
"I know what she is," Dante told his brother-in-arms. He didn't even attempt to mask the grave concern in his voice. "Drive, Tegan. Get us to the compound as fast as you can."
As the warrior threw the Rover into gear and gunned it, Dante placed his wrist against Tess's slack lips and watched as his blood trickled into her mouth.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Tess thought she must be dying. She felt weightless and leaden at the same time, floating in a neverland between the pain of one world and the deep unknown of the next. The dark undertow of that further, unfamiliar place tugged at her, but she wasn't afraid. A soothing warmth enveloped her, as if strong angel 's wings were folded around her, holding her aloft over the rising tide that lapped gently at her limbs.
She sank into that warm embrace. She needed that abiding, steady strength.
There were voices around her, pitched low and urgent in tone, yet the words were indistinct. Her body vibrated with the constant hum of motion beneath her, her senses gone sluggish with the occasional sway of her limbs. Was she being carried somewhere? She was too exhausted to wonder, too content to simply drift away in the protective warmth that cocooned her.
She wanted to sleep. Just melt away and sleep, forever...
A droplet of something hot splashed against her lips. Like silk, it ran along the seam of her mouth in a slow trail, its enticing fragrance drifting up into her nose. Another drop fell against her lips, warm and wet and heady as wine, and her tongue drifted out to taste it.
As soon as her mouth parted open, it was flooded with liquid heat. She moaned, uncertain what she was tasting but full with the knowledge that she needed more. The first swallow roared through her like an enormous wave. There was more for her to take, a steady flow that she latched on to with her lips and tongue, drawing from the font as though she were dying of thirst. Maybe she was. All she knew was that she wanted it, needed it, and couldn't get enough.
Someone murmured her name, softly, deeply, as she drank the strange elixir. She knew the voice. She knew the scent that seemed to bloom all around her and spill into her mouth.
She knew that he was saving her, the dark angel whose arms protected her now.
Dante.
It was Dante with her in this peculiar void; she knew it with every particle of her being.
Tess was still floating, held aloft over the churning sea of the unknown. Slowly, the dark water rose up to engulf her, thick as cream, warm as a bath. Dante eased her into it, his arms holding her steady, so strong and gentle. She dissolved into the rolling tide, drinking it down, feeling it soak into her muscles, her bones, her smallest cells.
In the peace that washed over her, Tess's consciousness slipped into another world, one that came to her in shades of deep scarlet, crimson, and wine.
The drive to the compound took an eternity, even though Tegan had to have set a few land speed records navigating through Boston's busy, winding streets to the private drive leading to the Order's headquarters. As soon as the Rover came to a stop in the fleet garage, Dante threw open the back door of the vehicle and carefully brought Tess out in his arms.
She was still in and out of consciousness, still weak from blood loss and shock, but he felt some hope that she would live. She had taken only a small amount of his blood; now that she was safe at the compound, he would make sure she got as much as she needed.
Hell, he'd bleed himself out completely if that's what it would take to save her.
God, that wasn't just some bullshit noble idea; he really meant it. He was desperate that Tess survive, so much that he would die for her. The physical ties of their completed blood bond ensured that he felt protective of her, but this was something stronger than that. It went deeper than he could ever have guessed.
He loved her.
The ferocity of his emotion struck Dante as he carried Tess into the garage elevator, Tegan and Chase on his heels. Someone hit the button to descend and they began the smooth, silent ride down the three hundred-some feet of earth and steel that sheltered the Breed's compound from the rest of the world.
When the doors slid open, Lucan was standing in the corridor outside the elevator. Gideon was next to him, both warriors armed and wearing grave expressions. No doubt Lucan had been alerted to the others' urgent arrival when the Rover showed up on the compound gate's security camera.
He took one look at Dante and the savaged female in his arms and exhaled a dark curse. "What happened?"
"Let me through," Dante said as he moved past his brethren, careful not to jostle Tess in the process. " She needs to rest someplace warm. She's lost a lot of blood--"
"I can see that. Now, what the hell happened out there?"
"Rogues," Chase put in, taking over the explanation to Lucan while Dante stepped out into the corridor, all his focus on Tess. "A group of them were sacking the Crimson dealer's apartment. I don't know what they were looking for, but the woman must have come up on them somehow. Maybe she got in their way. She's got bite wounds on her arm and throat, from more than one attacker."
Dante nodded at the facts, grateful for the Darkhaven vampire's verbal assist since his own voice seemed to have dried up in his throat.
"Jesus," Lucan said, turning a grim glance on Dante. "This is the Breedmate you spoke of? This is Tess?"
"Yeah." He looked down at her, so still and colorless in his arms, and felt a piercing chill bore into his chest. "Another few seconds and I might have been too late... "