The Beast (Black Dagger Brotherhood #14) - J. R. Ward Page 0,54

law and a vampire pusher addict could not.

With a groan, he put his face in his hands and called her to mind. Yes, oh, yes, he could remember her dark hair and her lithe body, her skin and her dark eyes with a certain clarity. But the passage of time … he worried he would forget some nuance at first and then ever larger and more significant details.

And the loss of that was a death by inches even as he continued to breathe.

“Enough,” he muttered as he dropped his arms and leaned back.

Refocusing on himself, he thought about what the King had laid out for him. It would be a change of endeavor, for certain. But he had enough money. He had enough time. And finding another network of middlemen dealers to farm out his product on the streets of Caldwell and Manhattan abruptly seemed too much like work.

Besides … having fought side by side with the Brotherhood? He found himself respecting those males. Respecting their leader, too.

It was quite the about-face for an otherwise avowed Libertarian—rather like an atheist considering the existence of God following a near-death experience.

Plus, he owed Vishous his life; that much he was sure of. As worthless as his existence was, he would not be sitting upon this chair, in this glass mansion on the Hudson River, feeding his cocaine habit, unless that Brother had thrown him over his shoulder and run like hell.

Twice.

Oh, that beast. Had he not seen it, he would ne’er have believed its existence.

Assail pushed his chair around with his foot such that he could peer out the windows to the river beyond. A subtle chiming rang from the corner of the room where an old French clock was placed. In the background, over in the rear part of the house, he could hear his cousins moving around in the kitchen.

When he decided to use his cell phone, all he had to do was reach into the pocket of his shredded leather jacket. He had neglected to remove the ruined outerwear even though his house was well-heated against the cold October night.

Then again, all he had cared to do when he had arrived back home was sequester himself in private so he could play catch-up with his little problem.

He could not abide doing lines in front of his cousins. Not that he had any intention of altering his behavior for anybody.

Summoning a number up out of his contacts, he hesitated before initiating the call. As his thumb hovered over the screen, he was acutely aware that if he followed through on this, he was going to become something he had always disdained.

An agent of the King.

Or more to the point … an agent of another.

With a strange feeling of dread, he gave into the impulse and put the device to his ear, listening to the ringing commence. In the end, he decided to give himself up to Wrath’s demand for the simple reason that it seemed like the only good thing he could do with himself.

A right thing.

A positive thing.

He was beginning to feel as if it were about time. And mayhap he was taking a page from his Marisol’s book because it was the only way he could be close to her now.

No more drug dealing for him.

Although what he was about to do might well prove to be just as dangerous. So at least he would not grow bored.

“Hello, darling,” he said when the call was answered by a female. “Yes, I do need to feed, thank you. Tonight would be preferable, yes. And I have missed you as well. Indeed, very much so.” He let her go on a bit as she took his lie and swallowed it whole. “Actually, at your main house, please. No, the cottage does not suit a male such as myself. I was willing to make the accommodation at first due to your hellren’s presence, but now that he has taken unto his bed, I find myself unable to make that concession any further. You understand.”

There was a long pause, but he knew that she would relent. “Thank you, nalla,” he intoned evenly. “I shall see you very soon—oh, be in something red. No panties. That is all.”

He hung up on her because she was a female who required schooling if one was to capture and hold her attention. Too easygoing? Too charming? She would lose interest, and that couldn’t happen until he had acquired what he needed from her.

His next call was