He tried to remember the last time he'd fed. It had been a while, but surely not that long ago?
He forced himself to calm down. Get control. It was like trying to slow down a train with a hand brake, but eventually a cooling stream of sanity replaced the whacked-out, blood-lust spins.
As he came back to reality he felt uneasy, his instincts crying out for airtime.
That female was dangerous to him. If she could affect him like this without even being in the damn room, she might just be his pyrocant.
His detonator, so to speak. The express-lane EZ Pass to his self-destruction.
Wrath dragged a hand through his hair. How goddamned ironic that he wanted her like no other female.
But maybe it wasn't irony. Maybe that was precisely how the pyrocant system worked. The urge to cozy up to what could annihilate you ensured the damn thing got a chance to go to work on your ass.
After all, what kind of fun would it be if you could easily avoid your inner hand grenade?
Damn him. He needed to get Beth off his plate of responsibilities. Fast. As soon as she was through her transition, he was going to put her in the hands of an appropriate male. A civilian.
In gory flashback, he pictured that young male's bloody, beaten body.
How the hell would a civilian keep her safe?
He didn't know the answer to that one. But what other option was there? He wasn't going to keep her.
Maybe he could give her to one of his brothers.
Yeah, and who would he pick out of that bunch? Rhage? Who'd just add her to his fuck pool, or worse, eat her by mistake? V with all his problems?
Zsadist?
And did he really think he could handle knowing one of his warriors was doing her?
Not fucking likely.
God, he was tired.
Vishous materialized in front of him. The vampire was running without his baseball cap tonight, and Wrath could dimly make out the complex markings around his left eye.
“Found Billy Riddle.” V lit up one of his hand-rolled cigarettes, his gloved fingers steady. When he exhaled, the fragrance of Turkish tobacco perfumed the air. “He was arrested for sexual assault forty-eight hours ago. Lives with his daddy, who happens to be a U.S. senator.”
“High-profile background.”
“Hard to get higher. And I took the liberty of doing some research. Billy boy's been in and out of trouble as a juvenile. Violent stuff. Sexual shit. Got to imagine daddy's campaign manager loves the fact that the guy's hit eighteen. Everything Billy pulls now is public record.”
“You nail a street address?”
“Yeah.” Vishous grinned. “You gonna put a hurt on the guy?”
“Like you read about.”
“So let's go.”
Wrath shook his head. “I'll meet you and the rest of the brothers back here later tonight. I've got to go somewhere first.”
He could feel V's eyes sharpen, the vampire's fierce intellect churning over the situation. Among the brothers, Vishous had the most raw brainpower, but he paid for the privilege.
Man, Wrath sure had his own demons, and they were no walk in the park, but he wouldn't have wanted Vishous's cross to bear. Seeing what had yet to come was a terrible burden.
V drew on the hand-rolled and exhaled slowly. “I dreamed of you last night.”
Wrath stiffened. He'd been kind of waiting for this. “I don't want to know, brother. I really don't.”
The vampire nodded. “Just remember something, okay?”
“Shoot.”
“Two guards tortured will happily fight each other.”
Black Dagger Brotherhood 1 - Dark Lover
Chapter Thirteen
“Dinner was great,” Beth said as Butch pulled up in front of her building.
He thoroughly agreed. She was smart and funny and sit-forward-in-your-chair beautiful. And if he stepped out of line, she never failed to knock him back where he should be.
So she was also incredibly sexy.
He put the car in park, but didn't turn the engine off. He figured killing the ignition would make it look like he wanted to be invited in.
Which he did, of course. But he didn't want her to feel awkward if that wasn't where she saw things heading.
Well, wasn't he turning into a nice guy.
“You sound surprised you enjoyed yourself,” he said.
“I am, a little.”
Butch ran his eyes over her, starting with her knees that were just barely showing under the hem of her skirt. From the dashboard's glow, he could make out the lovely lines of her body, her long, exquisite neck, her perfect, perfect lips. He wanted to kiss her, here in this dim light, in the front seat of his unmarked, just like they