it was tried to leave, and then any vampires were to be taken alive, male or female. No exceptions. The way O figured it, if he were his woman's family, he'd send feelers out first before letting her dematerialize anywhere near the house. And if she was dead and her relatives were moving her things out, then he wanted her kin captured in working order so he could find her grave.
After making it clear the Betas' heads were on the line, O went through the forest to his truck, which was hidden in a stand of pines. As he came out onto Route 22, he saw that the lessers had parked the Explorer they'd come in right on the road less than half a mile from the turnoff to the farmhouse's lane.
He called the idiots and told them to use their fucking heads and get that car good and concealed. Then he drove to the cabin. As he went along, images of his woman flickered through his mind, dimming his eyes to the road in front of him. He saw her at her loveliest, in the shower with wet hair and skin. She was especially pure like that...
But then the visions shifted. He saw her naked on her back, underneath that ugly-ass vampire who'd taken her away. The male was touching her... kissing her... pumping inside of her... And she liked it. The bitch liked it.
Her head was back and she was moaning and coming like a slut and wanting more.
O's hands curled around the steering wheel until his knuckles nearly popped out of his skin. He tried to calm himself, but his anger was a pit bull on a paper chain.
He knew then with absolute clarity that if she wasn't dead already, he was going to kill her when he found her.
All he had to do was picture her with the Brother who'd stolen her and his higher reasoning clicked off completely.
And didn't that put O in a bind. Living without her would be horrible, and though going out in a suicidal rush after she died had a lot of appeal, pulling a stunt like that would just land him with the Omega for eternity.
Lessers, after all, went back to the master if they were extinguished.
But then a thought occurred to him. He imagined his woman many years from now, her skin paled out, her hair blonded, her eyes the color of clouds. A lesser just like him. The solution was so perfect, his foot slipped from the accelerator, and the truck coasted to a stop right in the middle of Route 22.
She would be his forever that way.
As midnight neared, Bella put on a pair of her old blue jeans and that thick red sweater she liked so much.
Then she went into the bathroom, pulled the two towels down from the mirror, and looked at herself. Her reflection was of the female she had always seen staring back at her: Blue eyes. High cheeks. Biggish lips.
Lots of dark brown hair.
She lifted the edge of the sweater and peeked at her stomach. The skin there was flawless, no longer bearing the lesser's name. She smoothed her hand over where the letters had been.
"You ready?" Zsadist asked.
She glanced up into the mirror. He loomed behind her, dressed in black, weapons hanging off his body. His coal eyes were pegged on the skin she exposed.
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"The scars have healed," she said. "In just forty-eight hours."
"Yeah. And I'm glad."
"I'm scared to go to my house."
"Phury and Butch are coming with us. You've got plenty of protection."
"I know..." She lowered the sweater. "It's just... what if I can't bear to go inside?"
"Then we try again another night. However long it takes." He held out her parka.
Shrugging into the thing, she said, "You have better things to do than watch over me."
"Not right now I don't. Give me your hand."
Her fingers trembled as she reached out. She had some vague thought that it was the first time he'd asked her to touch him, and she hoped the contact would lead to an embrace.
But he wasn't interested in hugging. He put a small gun in her hand without even brushing her skin.
She recoiled in distaste. "No, I-"
"Hold it like-"
"Wait a minute, I don't-"
"-this." He positioned the little butt against her palm. "Here's the safety. On. Off. Got it? On... off. You need to be in tight to kill with this, but it's loaded with two bullets that will slow a lesser