by J. R. Ward
He forced himself to breathe deeply. Only managed one breath before he went back to panting.
“Cop, I need you. I need…you.”
Chapter Forty-eight
Mr. X floored the minivan. He couldn’t believe it.
He absolutely couldn’t believe it.
He had the queen. He had abducted the queen.
This was the chance of a lesser’s lifetime. And it had happened so smoothly, as if it was all meant to be.
When he’d approached the house, he’d merely been on a scouting mission. It had seemed far too coincidental that the address the vampire had given him last night in the alley was the same as that of the warrior he’d blown up. After all, why would the Blind King hang around the mansion of a dead warrior?
Assuming it had to be a setup, Mr. X had fully armed himself and gone to Darius’s before dark. He’d wanted to survey the house’s exterior, see if any of the upstairs windows were blacked out, and check the cars in the drive.
But then he’d noticed the dark-haired woman in the kitchen. With the Saturnine Ruby on her finger. The queen’s ring.
Mr. X still couldn’t fathom why she was able to go around in the daylight. Unless she was part human. Although what were the chances of that?
At any rate, he hadn’t hesitated. Even though he hadn’t planned on infiltrating the place, he’d broken down the door, surprised and grateful when the security system didn’t go off. The woman had been quick on her feet, but not quick enough, and the darts had worked perfectly now that he’d calibrated the dosage correctly.
He glanced into the back.
She was out cold on the minivan’s floor.
This evening was going to be intense. There was no doubt that her male would come after her. And because the Blind King’s blood was surely in her veins, he'd be able to find his mate no matter where Mr. X took her.
Thank God it was still daylight and he had time to fortify his barn.
And he was tempted to call in for reinforcements. Though he was confident in his skills, he knew what the Blind King was capable of. Total destruction of the property, a complete razing of the house, the barn, and everything in them, would be the very least of it.
The problem was, if Mr. X summoned other members, he’d have to pierce the veil of his infallibility.
Besides, he did have his new recruit.
No, he would do this without a lot of hangers-on. Anything that drew breath could be killed, even that warrior. And Mr. X was willing to bet that, with the female as a bargaining chip, he had some serious leverage.
Undoubtedly, the king would trade himself for the safety of his queen.
Mr. X chuckled. Mr. R was going to have one hell of a first night.
Butch left the chamber and ran up to the guest room he and Vishous had crashed in again.
V was pacing, trapped on the second floor because there was no way to get downstairs without being hit with light. Clearly, the mansion was meant for use as a private residence, not as a battle station.
And the defect was a serious problem in this kind of emergency.
“What’s happening?” V demanded.
“Your man Wrath’s in one hell of a state, but he managed to tell me about the guy you met in the Hummer last night. That blond sounds like an instructor I met a couple of days ago at a local martial-arts academy. I’m heading there now.”
Butch grabbed for the keys to the unmarked.
“Take this, man.” Vishous threw something into the air.
Butch caught the gun with a swipe of his hand. Checked the chamber. The Beretta was fully loaded, but with nothing he’d ever seen before.
“What the hell kind of bullets are these?” They were black and transparent at the tips, gleaming like they had oil inside.
“You’re not going after a human, cop. If one of those lessers comes at you, you shoot them in the chest, got it? Don’t pussyfoot around, even if it’s broad daylight. You go right for their chest.”
Butch looked up. He knew he was crossing a line if he took the gun, going over to another side of the world.
“How will I know them, V?”
“They smell sweet, like baby powder, and they’ll look right through you, right into your soul. They tend to have pale hair, eyes, and skin, but not always.”
Butch tucked the semiautomatic into his waistband. And put his old life into the ground permanently.
Funny, the decision was an easy one.
“You clear on this, cop?” Vishous clapped him on the arm.
“Yeah.”
As Butch bolted for the door, V said something in a foreign language.
“What?” Butch asked.
“Just aim straight, true?”
“I’ve never missed yet.”
Chapter Forty-nine
Marissa couldn’t wait to see Butch. She’d been thinking about him all day long, and it was finally time to go to him.
Except even though she was in a rush, she was going to stop on her way out and speak with Havers. She’d waited for him to come back home the night before, passing the time by helping out the nurses in the clinic and then reading in her room. Finally, she’d given up and left him a note on his bed, asking him to come find her when he got in. He hadn’t stopped by, however.
And this failure of communication had gone on long enough.
She went to the door of her bedroom, surprised when it wouldn’t open. She frowned. The handle wouldn’t move. She tried again, jiggling the thing, then throwing her strength into the brass. It was jammed or locked.
And her bedroom walls were lined with steel, so she couldn’t dematerialize.
“Hello!” she called out, banging on the door. “Hello! Havers! Someone! Would someone kindly let me out? Hello!”
She eventually gave up, a chill condensing in her chest.
As soon as she fell silent, Havers’s voice drifted into her room, as if he’d been waiting on the other side the whole time.
“I’m sorry it has to be this way.”
“Havers, what are you doing?” she said against the door panels.
“I have no other choice. I can’t have you going to him anymore.”
She made sure her words were loud and clear. “Listen to me. Wrath is the not the reason I’ve gone out. He’s been mated to someone whom he loves, and I feel no ill will toward him. I’ve…I’ve met a male. Someone I like. Someone who wants me.”
There was a long silence.
“Havers?” She hit the door with her fist. “Havers! Did you hear what I said? Wrath is mated, and I’ve forgiven him. I wasn’t with him.”
When her brother finally spoke, he sounded as though someone were choking him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You didn’t give me a chance to! I’ve tried for the last two nights!” She banged the door again. “Now let me out. I’m supposed to meet my…someone at Darius’s.”
Havers whispered something.
“What?” she demanded. “What did you say?”
“I can’t have you going there.”
As the anguish in his voice snuffed out her anger, the back of her neck grew tight with alarm. “Why not?”
“It’s no longer safe in that house. I…Dear God.”
Marissa splayed her hands out flat. “Havers, what did you do?”
There was only more silence.
“Havers! Tell me what you have done!”
Beth felt something hit her face hard. A hand. Someone had slapped her.
With a groggy jerk, she opened her eyes. She was in a barn. Strapped down to a table with metal bands around her wrists and ankles.
And Billy Riddle was standing over her. “Wake up, bitch.”
She struggled, straining against the cuffs. As he watched her, his eyes lingered on her breasts and his mouth pressed into a tight line.
“Mr. R?” Another male voice. “You do recall that you’re out of the rape business.”
“Yeah. I know.” Billy’s glare got worse. “Makes me wan
t to hurt her just thinking about it.”
The blond-haired man who’d abducted her came into Beth’s line of sight. He had a shotgun on each shoulder, muzzles up.
“I’ll let you kill her, how’s that? She can be your first.”
Billy smiled. “Thanks, sensei.”
The blond man turned toward the barn’s double doors. They were wide open, revealing the dimming light in the sky.
“Mr. R, we need to keep focused,” he said. “I want these guns loaded and lined up with boxes of ammo on that work-table. We should put out knives, too. And go get the can of gasoline from the garage as well as the butane blow torch that’s next to the Hummer.”
Billy slapped her one more time. And then did as he was told.
Beth’s mind turned over slowly. The drugs were still in her system, making everything seem like a dream, but with every breath she took, the fog was lifting. And she was getting stronger.
Wrath’s violence was so deep, so vicious that it put frost on the walls of his chamber, and his breath came out in cloud bursts. The candles flickered slowly in the dense air, throwing off light, but no measurable heat.
He’d always known he was capable of great rage. But what he would bring down on those who had taken Beth from him would be for the history books.
There was a knock on the door. “Wrath?”
It was the cop, and Wrath willed the door open. The human seemed momentarily thrown by the temperature in the room.
“I…ah, I went to the Caldwell Martial Arts Academy. Guy’s name is Joseph Xavier. No one’s seen him today. He called in and got a replacement for his classes. They told me where he lived, and I did a drive-by. Condo on the west side of town. I broke in. It was clean. Too clean. Nothing in the fridge, nothing in the garage. No mail, no magazines. No toothpaste in the bathroom. No evidence that someone pulled out in a hurry, either. He may own it, but he doesn’t live there.”
Wrath was having a hard time concentrating. All he could think about was getting free of this godforsaken hole in the earth and locating Beth. Once he was outside, he’d sense her. His blood running through her veins was like a GPS chip. He’d be able to find her anywhere on the planet.
He grabbed his cell phone and dialed. As Butch made a move to go, Wrath said, “Don’t leave.”
The cop settled on the leather couch, eyes alert, body calm. Ready for anything.
When Tohrment’s voice came through, Wrath pulled the trigger on the brotherhood. “At ten o’clock tonight, you will take the brothers and you will go to the Caldwell Martial Arts Academy. You will infiltrate and search the place, and then you will throw the security alarm. You will wait until the lessers arrive and then you will slaughter them and burn the building to the ground. Do you understand me? Ashes, Tohr. I want fucking ashes.”
There was no hesitation. “Yes, my lord.”
“Watch Zsadist. Keep him with you at all times, even if you have to chain him to your side.” Wrath glanced over at Butch. “The cop will monitor the building from now until sundown. If he sees anything of significance, he will call you.”
Butch nodded, already getting to his feet and heading to the door. “I’m on it,” he said over his shoulder.
There was a pause on the cell. “My lord, do you need us to help you find—”
“I will take care of our queen.”
Chapter Fifty
For the next hour, Beth watched her two captors run around as if they were convinced Wrath was coming at any minute. Except how would he know where she was? It wasn’t like the blond guy had left a ransom note. Or at least, not that she’d been aware of.
Pulling against the metal bands once more, she looked across the barn. The sun was just going down, the shadows long on the grass and the gravel drive. As Billy shut the double doors, she caught a last glance of the darkening sky and then watched as he slid home a series of thick bolts on the doors.
Wrath would absolutely look for her. She had no doubt of that. But surely it would take hours for him to find her, and she wasn’t sure she had that kind of time left. Billy Riddle stared at her body with such hatred, she had to believe he would snap. Sooner rather than later.
“And now we wait,” the blond man said, checking his watch. “It shouldn’t be long. I want you armed. Put a gun on your belt and strap a knife on your ankle.”
Billy was only too happy to gear up, and he had a lot to choose from. There were enough semiautomatics, shot guns, and sharp blades to outfit an army unit.
As he picked up a six-inch hunting knife, he turned and looked at her.
Her palms, clammy before, ran wet with sweat.
He took a step forward.
Beth frowned, looking to the right just as the other two did. What was that sound?
Some kind of rumble. Thunder? A train?
Whatever it was, it was getting louder.
And then she heard an odd tinkling noise, like wind chimes. She glanced across the barn. On the table where the ammunition was laid out, loose bullets were jumping around, knocking into one another.
Billy stared at his leader. “What the hell is that?”
The man took a deep breath as the temperature dropped a good twenty or thirty degrees.
“Get ready, Billy.”
By now, the sound was a roar. And the barn was shaking so violently, dust from the rafters was falling, a fine snow that clouded the air.
Billy reached up to cover his head.
The barn doors splintered apart, blown open by a cold blast of fury. The whole building swayed under the force of the impact, beams and boards shifting, groaning.
Wrath filled the doorway, the air around him warping with vengeance, with menace, with the promise of death. Beth felt his eyes on her, and then a booming battle roar came out of him, so loud it hurt her ears.
From then on, Wrath reigned.
In a movement so fast her eyes couldn’t track it, he went at the blond, grabbing the man and hammering him into a stall door. The blond wasn’t even stunned and nailed Wrath with a hard uppercut to the jaw. The two battered and rammed and hit each other, slamming into walls, knocking out windows, breaking tables. In spite of the weapons they carried, they stuck with hand-to-hand combat, their faces harsh, their lips peeled back, their tremendous bodies doing damage and being injured by turns.
She didn’t want to watch, but she couldn’t turn away.
Especially as Billy grabbed a knife and launched himself onto Wrath’s back. With a vicious twist, Wrath peeled the guy off of him and pitched Billy into the air. Riddle’s body flew across the space to the other end of the barn, landing in a pile of arms and legs.
Billy struggled to his feet, dazed. Blood streamed down his face.
Wrath took tremendous kicks to the body, but he didn’t slow. And he was able to hold the blond off long enough to flip open one of the metal bands that held Beth’s wrists in place. She went to work on the opposite side, freeing her other hand.
“The dogs! Let loose the dogs,” the blond man cried out.
Billy staggered from the barn. A moment later, two pit bulls came shooting around the corner.
They went right for Wrath’s ankles, just as the blond unsheathed a knife.
Beth freed both her feet and popped off the table.
“Run!” Wrath yelled to her, ripping one dog off his leg while blocking a blow to the face.
Screw that, she thought, picking up the first thing she found. It was a ball-peen hammer.
Beth went after the blond man just as Wrath lost his balance and went down. Lifting the hammer as high as she could, she threw every ounce of strength that she had into the damn thing. And brought it down square on the back of the blond’s head.
There was a crack of bone and a burst of blood.
And then one of the dogs wheeled around and bit her in the thigh.
She screamed as its teeth tore through her skin and sank into her muscles.
Wrath tossed the lesser’s body off him and leaped to his feet.
One of the dogs was on Beth, its mouth around her upper leg. The animal was trying to roll her on to the ground so it could go for her throat. Wrath lunged forward only to pause. If he pulled the dog free, the thing was liable to take a whole hunk of her thigh with him when it went.
Vishous’s voice came to Wrath in a rush: Two guards tortured will fight each other.
Wrath tore the dog off his own ankle and threw it at the one that was attacking Beth. The other animal was knocked free. And the two pit bulls went after each other.
Wrath ran over as she fell. She was bleeding. “Beth—”
A shotgun went off.
Wrath heard a high whistle and felt his neck burn as though he’d been hit with a torch.
Beth screamed as he wheeled around. Billy Riddle repositioned the gun on his shoulder.
Fury made Wrath forget everything. He stalked toward the new recruit, not stopping even when the shotgun was up and pointed at his chest. Billy pulled the trigger, and Wrath moved to one side before diving forward. He took the lesser’s neck in his teeth and ripped it open. Then he snapped Billy’s head around until it cracked loose.
Wrath turned around to go back to Beth.
But fell to his knees instead.
Confused, he looked down at himself. There was a hole the size of a melon in his abdomen.
“Wrath!” Beth limped over.
“I’m…hit, leelan.”
“Oh, God.” She ripped the robe from her body, stuffing it against his stomach. “Where’s your phone?”
He lifted one hand feebly as he fell over on his side. “Pocket.”
She grabbed the cell and dialed the house. “Butch? Butch! Help! Wrath’s been shot in the belly! I—I don’t know where we are—”
“Route 22,” Wrath murmured. “Ranch house with a black Hummer in front.”
Beth repeated his words, pressing the robe into his wound. “We’re in the barn. Come fast! He’s bleeding.”
A low growl came from the left.