Kiss of Crimson by Lara Adrián Page B

to the riverfront, where I ran into a whole new mess of trouble. A group of heavily armed suckheads came at me hard.‖
    Gideon slanted a narrowed gaze on him. ―Damn, D. Why didn‘t you call in for support?‖
    ―There wasn‘t time to do anything but try to save my own ass,‖ Dante said, recalling the viciousness of the attack. ―The thing is, that suckhead I chased down there fought like a demon. Virtually unstoppable, like a Gen One Rogue—maybe worse. And titanium didn‘t affect him.‖
    ―If he was Rogue,‖ Lucan said, ―the titanium should have smoked him on the spot.‖
    ―Right,‖ Dante agreed. ―He showed all the signs of advanced Bloodlust, but he hadn‘t actually turned Rogue. And there‘s more. That dried pink foam you can see in Chase‘s morgue shots? That suckhead had it too.‖
    ―Shit,‖ Gideon said, picking up the photographs and showing them to the other warriors. ―So, in addition to dealing with the continuing problem of the Rogues, now we‘re coming up against Breed vampires hopped up on Crimson too. In the heat of the fight, how‘re we going to know what we‘ve got in our crosshairs?‖
    ―We won‘t,‖ Dante said.
    Gideon shrugged. ―Suddenly things don‘t seem so black and white.‖
    Tegan, his expression placid and cool, exhaled a wry laugh. ―As of a few months ago, our problem with the Rogues became a war. Not a lot of room for gray in that picture.‖
    Niko nodded his head in agreement. ―If a suckhead wants to get in my shit—Crimson eater or Rogue—he‘s got one thing to look forward to: death. Let the Darkhavens sort through the rubble once it‘s all over.‖
    Lucan turned his attention to Dante. ―What about you, D? Care to weigh in on this?‖
    Dante crossed his arms over his chest, more than ready for that shower now and an end to a night that had only proceeded to go downhill since he got out of bed. ―From what little we know of Crimson, it doesn‘t sound good. All these missing civilians, with more all the time, is bound to start a panic in the Darkhaven populations in general. Bad enough we‘ve got this new complication of Crimson users to deal with, but can any of you imagine the clusterfuck situation of having the streets overrun with a bunch of Darkhaven agents trying to ID
    missing persons and apprehend them on their own?‖
    Lucan nodded. ―Which brings us back to Agent Chase and his request to participate in this operation. He‘s come to us with the same concerns, not wanting to cause widespread panic yet needing to recover the missing and find a swift solution to the problem Crimson seems to be causing among the Breed. I think he could be a benefit to us, not only in the operation itself but down the road as well. It might be good for the Order to have an ally in the Darkhavens.‖
    Dante could not contain his scoff of incredulity.
    ―We‘ve never needed them. We‘ve been pulling their nancy assess out of fires for centuries, Lucan. Don‘t tell me we‘re going to start kissing up to them now. Fuck that, man! If we let them into our business, next thing you know, we‘ll have to ask their permission to take a piss.‖
    He‘d gone too far. Lucan said nothing, but a glance to the other warriors and then the door sent all but Dante out of the room. Dante stared at the white marble floor beneath his sodden boots, getting the sense that he‘d just stepped into a pit of misery.
    No one lost control in front of Lucan.
    He was the leader of the Order, had been since the initial formation of the elite cadre of warriors nearly seven hundred years ago, long before Dante or most of the other current members had been born. Lucan was first-generation Breed, his blood flowing with the genes of the Ancients, those vicious otherworlders who came to this planet millennia past, bred with human females, and started the first line of the vampire race. Gen Ones like Lucan were few now and remained the most powerful—and most volatile—of all the Breed. He