monstrosity of a desk and opened a small hidden panel built into the polished mahogany surface.
He pushed a button on an electronic keypad, which made two of the tall bookcases across the room begin to separate, revealing a large, flat panel screen mounted behind them.
"Video teleconferencing, available if you wish," he said, as Rio came farther into the room. "Dial an eight to reach our operator for a secure outside line. And take as long as you like in here. You'll have complete privacy."
Rio nodded his thanks.
"Do you need anything else right now?" his generous host asked. "Or anything for our, ah, guest upstairs?"
"Yeah," Rio said. "Actually, I told her I'd bring her something to eat."
Reichen smiled. "Then I'll go have something special prepared for her."
"Thank you," Rio said. Then, "Hey, Reichen. There's something you probably should know. That female up there...she's a Breedmate. I didn't realize it until just a few minutes ago, but she's got the mark. It's on the back of her neck."
"Ah." The German vampire considered that for a moment. "And does she know what that makes her? What that makes the rest of us?"
"No. Not yet." Rio picked up the cordless phone on Reichen's desk and hit the number eight on the keypad. Then he started dialing the private line that would route him to the Order's compound. "She doesn't know anything about any of that. But I have a feeling I'm going to be spelling it all out for her real soon."
"Then perhaps I'd better have a cocktail prepared for the lady as well. A strong one." Reichen strode to the open double doors of the study. "I will let you know when her meal is ready. If there is anything you need, just ask and it is yours."
"Thanks."
When the heavy wood doors clicked shut, Rio turned his full attention to the ringing phone line on the other end of his call. The compound's computerized answering intercepted and he punched in the code for the tech lab.
Gideon picked up without hesitation. "Talk to me, buddy."
"I'm at Reichen's," Rio said, unnecessary information since the compound's system had certainly already confirmed the incoming phone number. But Rio's head was pounding too hard for him to do a lot of extraneous processing. He needed to convey his relevant intel while he was still making sense. "The trip was uneventful, and I'm here with the woman at Reichen's Darkhaven."
"You got her contained somewhere?"
"Yeah," Rio replied. "She's cooling her heels in a guest room upstairs."
"Good. Nice work, man."
The unwarranted praise made him clamp his teeth together hard. And the combination of his churning hunger and the spin of his head made him suck in a ragged breath of air. He let it back out on a low curse.
"You all right, Rio?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, my ass," Gideon said. Not only was the vampire a genius when it came to technology, but he also had the uncanny ability to smell a load of horseshit when it was being shoveled at him. Even when it was being shoveled at him from another continent away. "What's going on with you? You don't sound good at all, amigo."
Rio rubbed his drumming temple. "Don't worry about me. We've got a bigger problem over here. Turns out the female reporter is a Breedmate, Gideon."
"Ah, fuck. Are you serious?"
"I saw her birthmark with my own eyes," Rio replied.
Gideon murmured something urgent yet indiscernible to someone else apparently in the lab with him. The answering deep growl of a cool Gen One voice could belong to none other than Lucan, the Order's founder and leader.
Great, Rio thought. Although it wasn't as if he was planning to keep the news from the highest-ranking warrior of the group, so he might as well clue him in on all the facts now.
"Lucan's here," Gideon informed him, in case he missed that fact. "You alone over there, Rio?"
"Yep. Sitting all by my lonesome in Reichen's study."
"All right. Hang on. I'm gonna put you on video telecom."
Rio's mouth twisted grimly. "I thought you might."
He glanced up as the large flat-panel blinked on across from him. Like a window opened on a next-door room, the screen filled with a real-time image of Gideon and Lucan seated in the Boston compound's tech lab. Gideon's eyes were intense as he gazed over the rims of his pale blue shades, his cropped blond hair a spiky, mad-scientist mess, as usual.
Under Lucan's furrowed black brows, his gaze was also serious, his light gray eyes narrowed as he leaned back in