Edge of Dawn Page 0,53

farther into his embrace. His chest was a wall of solid heat against her nipples, his ridged abdomen like sun-warmed granite against her belly. And lower still, his arousal was quite obviously apparent, nudging into her hip, stiff and hot. Much too tempting for her roaming hands.

Mira carefully traced her fingers along the smoothness of his chest and abs, past his navel, to the bristly thatch of crisp hair and the jutting girth of his sex. She stroked him once, marveling at the softness that encased so much rigid steel. And the fat plum that crowned his shaft, already weeping with a bead of moisture as she ran her fingertips over the head of his penis.

She flicked her gaze up to see if she’d woken him.

Ember-bright eyes stared back at her, blazing with wide-awake desire.

“Pleasant dreams?” she asked him, attempting innocence.

He wasn’t buying it. His dark goatee stretched wickedly around his mouth, lips peeled back in a smile that was purely carnal. “Who needs dreams when reality is fondling me so sweetly?”

He rolled her beneath him, moving with a speed that startled her, even though she was well aware of the power and agility that was always at his command. Mira spread her thighs to accommodate him, ready for him again. Her heart knocking like a hammer in her breast.

Kellan bent to take her earlobe between his lips and teeth, murmuring blush-worthy plans for all the ways he intended to enjoy her in those next moments.

Mira’s pulse was clamoring so urgently, her body so ripe for his taking, it took her a second to realize he’d gone suddenly still and tense above her. He lifted his head, stock-still now.

“What the fuck—”

Someone was in the corridor outside, banging on the door. The rapping came again, fast and hard. Panicked.

“Bowman! Are you in there?” A female voice, pitched high with worry. Not Candice, but the other woman of the rebel base. “Bowman, come quick!”

“It’s Nina,” Kellan murmured, already rolling off Mira and throwing on his pants. He sent her a sober look. Mira scrambled out of the bed and hurried into his T-shirt and sweatpants. He glanced to make sure she was clothed, then flipped the lock with his mind and opened the door on Nina’s ashen face.

“Oh, my God,” the human woman gasped. “It’s Vince. He—oh, my God!”

“What’s going on?” Kellan demanded. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know!” Nina shook her head, indigo hair tossing, sending the dozens of tiny metal loops swinging in her pierced earlobes. She was sobbing now. “Vince is gone. He took the van. He’s got Ackmeyer with him.”

Although Mira tried to stay in the background, she couldn’t bite back her gasp of alarm. Even Kellan seemed to take the news with no small amount of shock. He went still for an instant, silent. Then seemed to shake it off like the leader he now was.

“Where?” His voice was a roll of thunder, dark and lethal, fully Breed. He stepped out into the corridor. “Where did he take him?”

“I don’t know,” Nina cried. “But Chaz and Candice tried to stop him. Oh, God . . . he killed Chaz. He’s dead, Bowman. Vince slit his throat—”

“Jesus Christ,” Kellan muttered. His shoulders slumped a bit, but when he spoke, his voice was level with cold command. “When did this happen? How long has the bastard been gone?”

Nina shook her head. “I don’t know. A little while ago, not long. He killed Chaz, then he stole the van and took off.”

Mira closed her eyes, absorbing the weight of all she was hearing. Jeremy Ackmeyer in the hands of a cold-blooded killer. Kellan betrayed by one of his own. A death among the ranks of his comrades.

“And Candice,” Nina went on. She sucked in a hitching breath, then dissolved into more tears. “Vince stabbed her too. Doc’s trying to take care of her, but she’s bleeding really bad. He says the blade nicked an artery in her thigh. He can’t get it to stop.”

Kellan’s answering curse was quiet but savage. He swung a look over his shoulder at Mira, somewhere between misery and apology. Mira’s own guilt gnawed at her with sharp teeth. All of this violence and betrayal had happened while she and Kellan were making love.

Her body was still humming from the pleasure of Kellan’s touch, but her chest was heavy with the knowledge that one life had been cut short today, another stolen away with Vince’s escape. If anything happened to Candice now, Mira could see in Kellan’s