Defy the Dawn (Midnight Breed #14) - Lara Adrian Page 0,8

warriors. The women’s reaction was quieter, a couple of the Breedmates sniffling as they struggled to hold back tears. Most affected of them all was Sterling Chase’s mate, Tavia.

Her half-sister, Brynne Kirkland, worked in London as a JUSTIS investigator. Tavia had been frantically trying to reach her ever since the first news of the attack surfaced.

“Has there still been no word?” Gabrielle asked the other female.

“Nothing yet.” Tavia’s worry drew her mouth into a flat line. “Brynne emailed me before heading in to JUSTIS headquarters this morning. She said she expected to be in debriefing meetings at least all day about Fielding’s death. She said she’d call me after she was out. I’ve called her several times and emailed, but…” She drew in a shaky breath. “Brynne’s flat is in that same neighborhood. If she wasn’t still at the JUSTIS building tonight, then she was probably home when…”

Her words trailed off again, her voice constricted. Chase drew her against him and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. He offered no words or false hope, just held his mate as his grim gaze met Lucan’s.

“We have to stop Opus before they grow any bolder,” the Boston commander said.

Lucan nodded. “Yes, we do. And we will.”

He was well aware that this assault would not be the last. Nor would it be the worst still to come, based on their dealings with the cabal whose main goal seemed to be global chaos and terror. The type of kindling that never failed to spark war.

And every man and woman in the room with Lucan now also knew that Opus Nostrum was only one enemy they had to contend with.

The other force that had declared itself the Order’s enemy was even worse for the fact that it was unseen—unknown thus far, except for her name.

Selene.

The exiled queen of the hidden race of immortals whom legend and myth had called Atlanteans.

If the Order’s information was to be trusted, Selene was preparing for a strike of her own. According to what they knew, she had been plotting, waiting to make her move. What they didn’t know was how or when. Perhaps if they did, they would know how best to stop her. Failing that, Lucan and his warriors would have no choice but to destroy her.

Before she had the chance to destroy them.

And to accomplish that, the Order was prepared to utilize every advantage they had over the Atlanteans and their mad queen.

As Lucan contemplated all of the grave work ahead of him and his warriors, his comm unit vibrated with an incoming call on his private, encrypted line.

He could count on one hand the number of people who had direct access to him—most of them gathered in the war room with him now.

Except for one recent addition.

He put the phone to his ear and heard a deep voice of an individual he’d only come to know a few days ago. A man the Order had little choice but to trust as a much-needed ally.

“Lucan, it’s Zael.” Sirens screamed in the background, punctuated by the low, distant percussions of explosive aftershocks. “I’m in London with Brynne. We need help.”

CHAPTER 5

Brynne wanted to pretend the humiliation of having propositioned Zael—and been rejected—hadn’t actually happened. She wanted to pretend a lot of things hadn’t truly happened tonight, chief among them the heinous attack on her colleagues at JUSTIS.

But it was impossible to ignore anything that had occurred these past several hours as she sat alone with Zael inside the luxury cabin of the Order’s private jet en route to Washington, D.C.

Opus Nostrum had destroyed the entire London headquarters in one fell swoop.

No survivors. Nearly a hundred JUSTIS officers and officials incinerated in the blast, all but a dozen or so of the victims Breed. Men and women Brynne had worked with for the bulk of her career with the organization. People she liked, simply gone in an instant.

The rubble from the explosion was burning as the jet had taken off from outside the city. It would likely take days before the two-block diameter pyre finally cooled.

Her city would never be the same.

Around the whole world, nothing would ever be the same now.

Opus had made that point clear tonight.

Brynne jiggled the ice in her glass then took a long drink of the cold liquid. Water this time, even though her grief and fury called for something stronger. Witnessing the inferno that had devoured her longtime workplace—former workplace, she reminded herself grimly—had been enough to sober her on