He was about to put the thing back when he caught sight of something flashing as it fell onto the floor at his feet. He bent down. Bella's little necklace. Left behind.
He fingered the fragile chain for a while, just watching the diamonds sparkle; then he put it on and got out his weapons. As he stepped back into the bedroom he meant to leave right away, but his eyes caught sight of the Mistress's skull sitting next to his pallet.
Crossing the room, he knelt in front of the thing and stared into the eye sockets.
A moment later he went to the bathroom, grabbed a towel, and headed back for the skull. Draping the thing in terry cloth, he picked it up and moved fast, racewalking and then jogging down the hall of statues. He took the grand staircase to the first floor, cut through the dining room and the butler's pantry, then crossed the kitchen.
The basement stairs were way in the back, and he didn't turn the light on as he took them downward. As he descended, the roaring sound of the mansion's old-fashioned coal-burning furnace got louder.
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Approaching the great iron beast he felt its warmth, as if the thing were alive and fevered. He leaned down and looked through the little glass window in the hutch. Orange flames licked and gnawed at the coal they'd been given, always hungry for more food. He flipped the latch, opened the door, and got a blast in the face. Without hesitating he tossed the skull in with the towel.
He didn't wait around to watch it burn, just turned and headed back upstairs.
When he got to the foyer he paused, then walked up to the second floor. At the head of the stairs he took a right, went down the hall, and knocked on one of the doors.
Rhage opened the thing, a towel around his waist. He seemed surprised to see who it was. "Hey, my brother."
"Can I talk to Mary for a minute?"
Hollywood frowned, but said over his shoulder, "Mary, Z wants to see you."
Mary was pulling a silk dressing gown closed and tying it with a sash as she came to the door. "Hi."
"You mind if I do this in private?" Z said, glancing at Rhage.
As the brother's eyebrows got real low, Z thought, Yeah, bonded males didn't like their females alone with anyone else. Especially not him.
He rubbed his skull trim. "It'll just be here in the hall. Won't take long."
Mary stepped between them and nudged her hellren back into the room. "It's all right, Rhage. Go finish getting the tub ready."
Rhage's eyes flashed white as his beast checked in with its own bonded reaction. There was a weighty pause; then Mary was kissed soundly on the throat and the door shut.
"What is it?" she asked. Z could smell her fear of him, but she met him in the eye.
He always had liked her, he thought. "I heard you taught autistic kids."
"Ah... yes, I did."
"Were they slow at learning things?"
She frowned. "Well, yes. Sometimes."
"Did that..." He cleared his throat. "Did that get on your nerves? I mean, did you get frustrated with them?"
"No. If I got disappointed at all, it was with myself for not figuring out the way they needed to learn."
While he nodded, he had to look away from her gray eyes. He focused on the door panel next to her head.
"Why do you ask, Zsadist?"
He took a deep breath and then threw himself off a ledge. When he was finished speaking, he risked a glance Page 282
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at her.
Her hand was over her mouth and her eyes were so kind they were like sunlight on him. "Oh, Zsadist, yes...
Yes, I will."
Phury shook his head as he got into the Escalade. "It has to be ZeroSum."
He so needed to go there tonight.
"Figured as much," V said as he slid behind the wheel and Butch hopped in the back.
As they made the trip into town, the three of them were totally silent. Not even music was banging in the car.
So much death, so much loss, Phury thought. Wellsie. That young female, Sarelle, whose body V had returned to her parents.
And Tohr's disappearance was like a death, too. So was Bella's.
The agony of it all made him think about Z. He wanted to believe that Zsadist was on the road to some kind of recovery or something. But the idea that that male could turn himself around was completely baseless. It