martial-arts academy six months ago.
Dust... ashes... gone. And they had taken his wife.
Oh, God... Had she been alive when they'd found her? Or had they taken her body with them? Was she dead?
This was his fault; this was all his fault. He'd been so hellbent on punishing her, he'd missed the implications of that civilian getting loose. The male had gone to the Brotherhood and told them where she was, and they had come at the first shades of night and taken her away.
O wiped desperate tears out of his eyes. And then he stopped breathing. He swiveled his head around, taking in the landscape. U's silver Ford Taurus was gone.
The checkpoint. The fucking checkpoint. That scary-ass man behind the wheel had in fact been no man at all. He'd been a member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Had to be. And O's wife had been in the back, either barely breathing or dead. That was why the cop had freaked out. He'd seen her as he'd looked into the rear of the car, but the Brother had brainwashed him into letting the Taurus through.
O lurched into the truck and hammered the accelerator, driving east, heading for U's place.
The Taurus had a LoJack system.
Which meant with the right computer equipment, he could find that POS anywhere.
Chapter Seven
Bella had some vague thought that she was in a car. Except how was that possible? She must be hallucinating.
No... it really sounded like a car, with that steady hum of an engine. And it felt like a car, a subtle vibration that at times condensed into a bump as something in the road went under the tires.
She tried to open her eyes, found she couldn't, and tried again. As the effort exhausted her, she gave up. God, she was tired... like she had the flu. Ached all over, too, especially at her head and stomach. And she was nauseated. She tried to remember what had happened, how she'd gotten free, if she was free. But all she had was an image of the lesser who loved her coming through the door, covered in black blood. The rest was fog.
Patting her hand around, she found something covering her shoulders and pulled it closer. Leather. And it smelled... not at all like the cloying sweetness of a lesser. It was the scent of a male of her race. She took more breaths in through her nose. When she caught the baby-powder scent of the slayers, she was confused until she pressed her nose into the seat. Yes, in the upholstery. This was a lesser's car. But then why was a male vampire's sweat on what she was wearing? And there was something else, another smell... a dark musk with an evergreen spice.
Bella started to tremble. She remembered the scent well, remembered it from the first time she had gone to the Brotherhood's training compound, remembered it from later, when she had been to their mansion.
Zsadist. Zsadist was in the car with her.
Her heart pounded. She struggled to open her eyes, but either her lids refused to obey or maybe they were already open and it was just too dark for her to see.
Am I rescued? she asked. Did you come for me, Zsadist?
Except no sound came out of her mouth, though she moved her lips. She formed the words again, forcing air through her voice box. A hoarse groan was released, nothing more.
Why weren't her eyes working?
She started to thrash around and then heard the sweetest sound that had ever reached her ears.
"I got you, Bella." Zsadist's voice. Low. Full of strength. "You're safe. You're out of there. And you're never going back."
He had come for her. He had come for her...
She started to sob. The car seemed to slow, but then their speed redoubled.
Her relief was so great, she slid into blackness.
Zsadist kicked open the door to his room, busting the lock mechanism clean off. The crack of sound was loud, and Bella stirred in his arms, moaning. He froze as her head turned from side to side in the crook of his arm.
This was good, he thought. This was very good.
"Come on, Bella, come back to me. Wake up." But she didn't regain consciousness.
He went over to his pallet and laid her down where he slept. When he glanced up, Wrath and Phury were in his doorway, the two huge males blocking out most of the light from the hall.
"She needs to go to Havers's," Wrath said. "She needs to be treated."
"Havers can