Wilhelm Roth had given her a strong shoulder to lean on. Not long afterward it had been Claire's turn to offer him support, when he lost Ilsa to a Rogue vampire attack. Claire had known even then that compassion and sympathy were hardly the same thing as love. Wilhelm hadn't seemed to mind that her heart was still broken and bleeding for Andreas when he pressed her to be his mate later that year. Then again, it wasn't even a week after they were blood bonded and mated that Wilhelm moved her out to the country while he remained in Hamburg. What a terrible, foolish mistake she'd made. She knew that now--a bitter lesson when her head was filled with doubts about Wilhelm and her heart was breaking all over again for Andreas. Claire was still reeling from that understanding as a black SUV screeched to a halt at the curb below her.
Two heavily armed Enforcement Agents climbed out of the vehicle and caught her in the blinding beam of a flashlight. "Frau Roth?" one of them asked, clearly surprised to find her there. "We were alerted by silent alarm to a break-in at the office. Are you all right?" She didn't know if she responded or not. She felt numb, adrift... bereft. "Is anyone else in the building?" the other guard asked her. "Are you alone here, Frau Roth? How did you manage to escape the madman who's been wreaking bloody havoc the past couple of nights?" Claire had no answers for them. All she wanted to do was run after Andreas, but the two big, well-armed agents kept her close as they ushered her back inside and began a search of the place. "Don't worry," one of them assured her. "This nightmare is all over now. We, along with Director Roth, are going to get the bastard who attacked your home and put him down like the rabid dog he is." "That's right," agreed the second man, smiling as if to reassure her. "You'll see. Soon you'll be someplace safe, as if none of the past two nights ever happened." Claire excused herself to the bathroom and sat in the darkness, trying not to scream.
In an underground facility hidden below an unspoiled forest in southern New England, a creature that did not belong to this age-- or, in fact, this Earth--bared its enormous fangs and let out a bone-jarring roar. Seven feet tall, hairless and na**d except for the thick tangle of undulating skin markings that covered it from head to toe, the Ancient was an awesome, terrible sight to behold. All the more so as it paced the cylindrical UV prison that confined it, murder blazing from the thin pupils nestled in pits of fiery amber. Watching from a safe distance above in the observation room of the high-tech laboratory wing, Wilhelm Roth was distracted by a sudden, simple truth: His Breedmate was betraying him with Andreas Reichen. Roth's senses told him the instant she'd bled for Reichen. The taste of it was acid on his tongue. Like the captive Ancient in the other room, Roth shook with the sudden urge to bellow in wild rage, but he clamped his molars together and bit back his fury. Even now he could feel Claire's torment, the spike of her emotions--her confusion and despair--reverberating in his own veins. That she still pined for Reichen came as no surprise to him. She'd tried very hard to banish her feelings for him all these years, but her will was weak and her blood had easily given her away. Not that Roth had ever particularly cared about Claire's faithless heart. Love was a fleeting, fickle emotion that he'd never had much use for. Ambition and drive, possessions and winning... these were the things he valued. And he was a damned sore loser.
"The Ancient has been denied feeding for twenty-one days," said the Breed male who watched with Roth from the windowed observation room above. His name was Dragos, although he'd gone by another name, one of several aliases, when he first approached Roth about joining his revolution. Or, rather, his evolution, as Dragos's plan was intended to elevate the Breed from the shadowy underworld they were forced to inhabit now, to a place of supreme power over mankind. One that would see Dragos and a few of his hand- picked associates at the helm.
"The prolonged lack of sustenance is painful, of course," Dragos continued, "but in another few days, his bodily functions will begin to slow to a suitable level. We've been administering regular doses of sedatives to speed the process along, but unfortunately with this type of operation, time is the only proven, most certain method... do tell me if I'm boring you, Herr Roth." Roth snapped himself out of his distraction. He inclined his head in a nod that was full of careful respect. "Not at all, sire." It was suicide to piss Dragos off, and based on the Breed male's outwardly pleasant tone, he was positively seething. "You're beginning to concern me, Roth.
Is the trouble you've been having lately with that pest back home in Germany perting your attention away from more important matters?" Although it grated, he lowered his head even farther. "No, sire. Not in the least." Dragos knew about the destruction of Roth's Darkhaven in Hamburg and the country house. He knew Roth's mate had been caught up in the violence, but he knew nothing of the fact that she and the one perpetrating the assaults had a history together. Roth had his own history with Reichen, too. A hatred that began months before Claire entered the picture, though he often wondered if Reichen understood the depth of his enmity, or the lengths to which Roth had been willing to go in order to see Reichen suffer for it. He had to rein in the current situation back home in Hamburg, and that meant making sure that Andreas Reichen met a swift, certain, and preferably painful, demise. Roth lifted his head to meet the hard stare of his commander. "You've no cause for concern whatsoever, sire. Our mission is my only priority."
"Good." Dragos's shrewd gaze drilled into him. "See that it is, Herr Roth." On the other side of the viewing window, the Ancient let loose with another agonized howl. Dragos watched, unflinching, as the creature who was his father's father clawed at himself and shrieked in pain. "I've no further need of you at this time," Dragos murmured without looking at Roth.