Headstrong
Tegan looked at the pictures with growing disbelief. He knew these kind of double crescents. He knew the exact injuries, the self-caused ones – but that woman – if she was even still alive – couldn't be this one. The Breedmate he was remembering had been born over 500 years ago. – He clenched his teeth at the thought of her being dead – he was on his best way of insulting the honor of a Breed member he had met back then. A member of the Breed who had pledged his allegiance to this woman, even without being her Mate, protecting her with all what was given to him, risking everything for her – maybe, after all, she had become his Mate.
Lucan looked at Tegan as the vampire with the tawny hair clenched the photograph with his big hands.
"What's wrong, Tegan?"
Tegan hissed. God damn it, she even looked like her a bit.
"I know these injuries. – But that can't be. The woman I am talking about was born over 500 years ago – and she was a Breedmate."
Lucan nodded.
Tegan was right that couldn't be. Breedmates, once joined with their Mate could, due to a genetic defect, only give birth to sons – and if she wasn't joined with a vampire, she would be dead for sure. No human could live that long – and the other possibility that she had betrayed her Mate, was so extremely unlikely and out of any honorable discussion, he didn't consider it for even one second.
"Still, T, who are you talking about?"
Gideon asked, curiously.
"… Can't remember her name."
It was a lie. He could recall her name very well, for heaven's sake, every man would have been recalling her name after what he had helped her with – giving birth to her son. But truth was he wasn't too keen on the idea about finding out if his old friend had managed. Tegan had left him in the city with his personal war and his personal hell, protecting a woman who didn't know what she was, loving her with all his heart, but being too honorable to say anything about it, since she was still waiting for her husband who had gone missing – who may not even know about his son. – A man who had left her days after the child had been conceived.
Lucan frowned at him, but didn't say a word. The other Gen One vampire was like a brother to him and they knew each other inside out – well, they hadn't been so friendly with each other all the time.
Lucan had killed Tegan's Breedmate, Sorcha.
Not because he had been cruel. But because she hadn't been herself anymore.
Sorcha had been kidnapped by the Rogues, raped, all life sucked out of her – and send back then, as an empty body without a soul, a minion under the control of a much more powerful vampire, the leader of the Rogues.
Tegan hadn't been willing to accept his loss and had given Sorcha his blood, had drunken her blood, telling himself if she had enough of his blood in her system, she would come back. But she didn't. She couldn't.
And he had crossed the border to Bloodlust.
If it hadn't been for Lucan, Tegan would have turned Rogue, a slave to his thirst for blood, a junkie, feeding of humans remorselessly, endangering the whole Breed.
No, he was in Lucan's debt. He had saved him and he had shown Sorcha more mercy than he had been able to himself.
Just half a year ago he had finally found Elise, his Breedmate, the woman who had put his torture to an end. And a good one.
Gideon sighed.
"Well, can't be helped then, just – "
He interrupted himself when his cell started ringing and he picked up, his expression worried.
"Savannah, what's wrong?"
The call was short and Gideon cursed, jumping to his computers, checking the security cameras with quick glances.
"Gid, what's…"
"Our guest decided to wander off that's wrong!"
Milena knew she didn't have much time. Whatever all this meant, she wasn't going to stay here. Not with those people who were just as dangerous as the ones, she was tracking down. She wasn't so foolish to not believe what the women had told her or to question the reality of what she had seen the men doing. Her gift was preventing her from that. They hadn't been lying. But they would not hold her captive here, not while she could still walk and fight.
Her bare feet were fast; her steps steady as she walked back to the medical station, reclaiming what she could still use of her equipment, raiding the cupboards for the rest. She was fully dressed in her "damaged-but-better-than-nothing" bullet-proof uniform again quickly, reattaching her belt around her hips when she accidently looked into a mirror.
Her eyes widened as she saw her long, blond hair, blood sticking the lower strands together – horror gripped her as she was taken back to a place filled with blood and pain, a place she had left only a week ago. With her teeth clenched, she looked around – and found a scalpel.
Determinedly she bunched the bloody hair to a pony tail – and cut it off with only a few resolute cuts of the scalpel.
She threw it away, leaving the hair on the ground, knowing she would not have the time to clean up behind herself – but there was still one thing keeping her from leaving this place. She needed weapons. Her knife was lost, surely one of the warriors had picked it up from the floors, her gun and her rifle were gone – but this place here was screaming military base. And she had seen a floor map with the room, so she was now heading into the direction of her room of interest.
The Training and Weapon room.
Gideon could not believe his eyes when he spotted her in the Training and Weapon Room – and he cursed again, unusually for the usually calm and collected British vampire.
Lucan growled when he saw her as well.
"Get going!"
Milena was quick, her movements efficient as she grabbed a few of the titanium blades, attaching them to her belt, fastening a Beretta 92 FS with modified bullets, which contained titanium powder in the warheads, at her hip – and releasing the security catch of a second, as she heard the noise of heavy feet quickly coming nearer.
The door flew open – and the tall, massive man standing in the doorway was the one who had hold her back once already. Nikolai.
This time he was standing there more calmly, more collected and wary, watchful – he had felt her knife once already, he would not be so stupid to let her hurt him a second time – and she wasn't planning on doing so when he simply let her go. – Just that wasn't likely to happen.
Nikolai looked at her calmly and waited. – Milena pointed the gun at him.
"Move it.", she said, her voice clear and calm, but commanding somehow too.
The voice of a leader.
But Niko stood unmoving like a rock.
"I won't."
"I will shoot at you then."
He laughed and it sounded hard.
"Oh, will you?"
BANG!
The sound of the fired gun was still audible in the hallways in which Tegan, Gideon and Lucan were running, followed by the sound of a growling warrior and the smell of blood.
When they arrived at the Training and Weapon room, they found Milena in Niko's hands again – or not so much his hands, actually.
He was sitting on her legs, holding her on the floor, her face pushed down to the floor, hands tied together at her back – and, Jesus Christ, she was still wriggling, still fuming and fighting. Blood was dripping from Niko's left shoulder, soaking his shirt, darkening the black cloth further.
She hissed at them, her head framed with short, spiky and wild hair now, messy, her eyes glowing furiously.
Tegan growled.
"Seems we can't go easy on you, Captain, can we?"
"Niko, be careful with her ribs, they are bruised. – How's your shoulder?"
Gideon stepped up to them.
"She is a beast, guys. Just look at her!", Niko answered grimly.
And they did.
Even captured again, it was impressing what she had managed to do in such a short time – and it got them worried.
She snarled.
"Let me go…!"
Lucan let himself down to one knee next to her to look her in the eye.
"What do you want to do outside here, woman? – Do you want your own vendetta? That's suicide."
"Do I look like I am scared about dying in a fight?", she counter questioned.
Before Lucan could answer, Tegan did.
"No. You don't mind dying as long as you can take enough Rogues with you."
"Exactly so."
"Well, what shall we do with you then?"
"Take me with you."