of the dream that he regretted. Equally impossible to curb, he'd had no intention of bringing Claire into the center of the carnage at his Darkhaven.
Nor had he meant to expose her to the other bit of nightmarish truth that had haunted him for a long time, and always would. No one needed to witness that kind of horror, least of all her. She wasn't to blame for any of it, but that hadn't stopped his mind from projecting her into the carnage and, worse, into the role of Helene. His guilt over everything that had happened to his kin and to Helene was still a raw ache in his soul. And yes, perhaps in some paranoid corner of his heart he worried that, like Helene, Claire could be used against him--that her blood bond might betray him in some way to Roth. There was little more Roth could do to hurt him; he'd already taken everything Reichen had. But he could hurt Claire. Reichen had endured and survived more than he'd thought himself capable of. If any harm were to come to Claire, especially because of her unwilling involvement in his search for vengeance, he knew without a doubt that it would send him over the edge. It would kill him, no question. "She's been gone too long," he murmured, an odd sense of emptiness beginning to expand in his chest. "Something's not right." Elise pivoted to face him from the front passenger seat.
"It has been a while. I'll go make sure she's okay." Tegan's Breedmate got out of the SUV and headed for the terminal where Claire had gone. She came back out not even a minute later, a look of concern tightening her mouth as she hurried back to the car. "She's not in the bathroom. I checked all the stalls and the area just outside in the terminal. She's not there." "Damn. Get in, babe," Tegan told Elise. "She can't be far. We'll drive until we find her." "No." Reichen opened the back door and climbed out. "I'll take care of this. I think I know where she might have gone." He grasped for the blood bond that had told him she was moving farther away from him, focusing his senses on her like a beacon.
The bond would lead him to her, but even without it, he had a feeling he knew where Claire would run to if she was feeling overwhelmed and confused. Tegan put his window down and fixed his intense emerald stare on him. "You sure you don't need a hand?" Reichen shook his head. "Go on without me. I have to go after her." Tegan gave him a nod, then reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a cell phone. "Take this. The last two speed dials will connect you to the compound." "Thanks," Reichen said. "I'll be in touch as soon as I can."
Chapter Fifteen
Claire's footsteps echoed hollowly off the bare floors of her grandmother's house. It had been a long time since she'd last been in the grand old Victorian that stood on the rough shore of Narragansett Bay, but it still felt the same. It still smelled the same, like old wood and furniture polish and crisp salt air. Of course, in the time since she was last here, before she'd left as a young woman to begin her studies abroad in Germany, much had changed. Her grandmother had since passed away, and now the estate was held in trust in Claire's name, as she was the sole heir and last of her mother's line. Not even Wilhelm knew about this place. She had kept its existence all to herself, a secret she was glad to have from him now. The caretakers who'd been hired out of the trust had done a superb job looking after the house and the extensive grounds after her grandmother's passing. As stipulated in the agreement, a spare key was kept behind a loose foundation brick next to the veranda--the same spot that had been used since the time when Claire's mother was a little girl growing up in the grand old house. Claire had been counting on that key's safekeeping when she'd fled the airport in Boston and hopped on the bus that took her down to Newport. Finding it where it had always been had given her hope that maybe everything would be all right again.
Maybe she would still find some peace--find her true home--when all of the dust settled from the