She can't hear me.
Dylan froze at the sudden sound of a female voice in the room.
It wasn't her mother's.
It wasn't an earthly voice at all, she realized in the split second before she processed the static-filled whisper and then turned around to face the spirit of a young woman.
I tried to tell her, but she can't hear me...can you...hear me?
The ghost's lips didn't move, but Dylan heard her speak as clearly as any other specter her Breedmate gift had allowed her to see. She held the sorrowful gaze of a dead girl who looked to be less than twenty years old.
A distant familiarity sparked as Dylan took in the goth clothing and the pair of black braids that hung over the girl's shoulders. She'd seen her before at the shelter. The girl had been one of her mother's favorites - Toni. The runaway who'd no-showed at the job Dylan's mom had gotten for her. Sharon had been so disappointed when she told Dylan about losing Toni to the streets. Now, here that poor lost child was, reaching out at last, but from the grave and truly too far gone for anyone to help her.
So, why was she trying to communicate with Dylan?
In the past, she might have tried to ignore the apparition, or deny her ability to see it, but not now. Dylan nodded when the ghost asked again if she was being heard.
Too late for me, said the unmoving lips. But not for them. They need you.
"Need me for what?" Dylan asked quietly, knowing her own voice never carried into the afterlife. "Who needs me?"
There are more of us...your sisters.
The young woman tilted her head, exposing the underside of her chin. Riding on the slender line of her ethereal skin was the birthmark Dylan knew well.
"You're a Breedmate," she gasped.
Holy shit.
Had they all been Breedmates? All the ghosts she'd ever seen were exclusively female, always young, seemingly healthy-looking women. Had they all been born with the same teardrop-and-crescent-moon stamp that she had?
Too late for me, the ghost of Toni said.
Her form was beginning to break up, fading in and out like a weak hologram. She was becoming transparent, little more than a detached crackle of electricity in the air. Her voice was less than a whisper now, growing weaker as Toni's image dissolved to nothingness.
But Dylan heard what she said, and it chilled her.
Don't let him kill any more of us...
Dylan's face was ashen as she came out of her mother's room.
"What happened? Is she okay?" Rio asked, his heart knotting at the thought of Dylan possibly facing her mother's passing all alone. "Did anything - "
Dylan shook her head. "No, my mom's fine. She's asleep. But there was...Oh, God, Rio." She lowered her voice and pulled him to a private corner of the hallway. "I just saw the ghost of a Breedmate."
"Where?"
"In the room with my mom. The girl was a runaway from the shelter, one my mom was very close to until she went missing recently. Her name was Toni, and she - " Dylan broke off, wrapping her arms around herself. "Rio, she just told me she was murdered, and that she's not alone. She said there are more like her. She showed me her Breedmate mark and then she told me not to let any more of 'my sisters' be killed too."
Holy...hell.
Dread coiled in Rio's gut as Dylan relayed the unearthly message of warning. Instantly he thought of Dragos's corrupt son, and the very real possibility that the bastard had unleashed the Ancient from its crypt, just as the Order feared. He could be breeding the creature right now, creating multiple new Gen One vampires on multiple females.
For crissake, Dragos's son could be harvesting Breedmates from the four corners of the world for that very purpose.
"She said 'don't let him kill any more of us ,' like I was in danger as well."
Rio's skin went tight with foreboding. "You're sure this is what you saw - what you heard?"
"Yes."
"Show me." He took a step toward the room. "I need to see this for myself. Is it still in there?"
Dylan shook her head. "No, she's gone now. The apparitions are like mist...they don't stay visible for very long."
"Did you ask her where the others might be, or who it was that killed her?"
"It doesn't work that way, unfortunately. They can speak, but I don't think they can hear me wherever they are. I've tried, but that never works." Dylan stared at him for a long moment. "Rio, I think every one of these visitations I've had - from the very first, when I was just a kid - has been the spirit of a dead Breedmate. I always thought it was odd that I only saw females, young females, who should have been in prime health. When I saw the birthmark under Toni's chin, it all clicked into place in my mind. Rio, I get it now - I feel it. They've all been Breedmates."
Rio ran a hand over his scalp, letting a sharp oath hiss through his teeth. "I need to call Boston and fill them in on this."
Dylan nodded, still staring up into his eyes. When she spoke, her voice was a little shaky. "Rio, I'm scared."
He pulled her close, knowing what it cost her to admit that, even to him. "Don't be. I'll keep you safe. But I can't leave you here tonight, Dylan. I'm taking you back with me to the compound."
She frowned. "But my mom - "
"If I can help her too, I will," he said, putting it all out there for her now. "But first I need to know that you'll be safe."
Dylan's eyes pleaded with him, then, at last, she gave a small nod of her head. "All right, Rio. I'll go back with you."
Chapter Twenty-eight
Rio didn't trance Dylan for the ride back to Boston.
Despite sidelong looks from Nikolai and Kade in the front of the SUV that suggested he was an idiot to break protocol on that, Rio couldn't treat Dylan with anything but total faith. He knew he was taking one hell of a gamble that she could be trusted with the location of the Order's headquarters, even though he wasn't sure how long - or in what capacity - she'd be staying with him there, but he did trust her.