with the male's shoulders. "You will shut the shut up or you will be six inches shorter. Your pick, Hollywood."
His brother was just playing, but there was something unholy about taking that experience with Beth and getting it anywhere near Rhage's sex life.
And maybe Wrath was feeling just a little possessive.
"Have we made our choice?" he drawled.
"I'm feeling you." The other vampire grinned, his teeth a flash of white in his striking face. "But come on, lighten up. You don't usually waste time with the females, and I'm just glad to know you got off, that's all."
Wrath let go.
"Although Jesus, she couldn't have been all that - "
Wrath unsheathed a dagger and buried the thing into the wall an inch from Rhage's skull. The sound of steel punching through plaster had a nice ring to it, he thought.
"You do not push me on this one. Got it?"
The brother nodded slowly as the dagger handle vibrated next to his ear. "Ah, yeah. I'm thinking we're clear on that."
Tohrment's voice cut through the tension. "Whoa! Rhage, you been poppin' shit again?"
Wrath stayed still for one more moment, just to make sure the message had gotten through. Then he yanked the knife out of the wall and stepped back, prowling around the room as the other brothers arrived.
When Vishous came in, Wrath took the warrior aside. "I want you to do me a favor."
"Name it."
"Human male. Billy Riddle. I want you to work your computer magic. I need to know where he lives."
V stroked his goatee. "He in town?"
"I think so."
"Consider it done, my lord."
When they were all there, even Zsadist, who'd graced them with being on time, Wrath got the ball rolling.
"What do we have from Strauss's phone, V?"
Vishous whipped off his Sox cap and dragged a hand through his dark hair. He spoke as he repositioned the hat. "Our boy liked to hang with muscleheads, military wannabes, and Jackie Chan fans. We've got calls to Gold's Gym, a paint-ball arena, two martial-arts places. Oh, and he liked cars. There was a mechanics shop in the log, too."
"Any personals?"
"Couple. One to a landline that was disconnected two days ago. The others were cellular, untraceable, not local. I tried them all repeatedly and no one picked up. Ain't caller ID a bitch?"
"You check his priors online?"
"Yeah. Typical juvie shit with a violent edge. He fits the lesser profile perfectly."
"What about his home?" Wrath looked over his shoulder at the twins.
Phury glanced at his brother and then did all the talking. "Three-room apartment over the river. Lived alone. Didn't have a lot of shit. Couple of guns under the bed. Some silver ammo. Kevlar vest. Porn collection he obviously wasn't using anymore."
"Did you grab his jar?"
"Yeah. It's back at my place. I'll take it to the tomb later tonight."
"Good." Wrath regarded the group. "We split up. Case the businesses. I want to get inside those buildings. We're looking for their center of ops in this area."
He paired up the brothers, taking Vishous with him. He told the twins to go to Gold's and the paintball arena. Gave Tohr and Rhage the martial-arts joints. He and Vishous were going to scope out the mechanics shop, and he hoped they'd get lucky.
Because if someone were going to wire a bomb to a car, wouldn't a hydraulic lift be handy?
Before they all left, Hollywood came over, looking uncharacteristically serious.
"Wrath, man, you know I can be an asshole," Rhage said. "Didn't mean to offend. Not going there again."
Wrath smiled. The thing with Rhage was, he had piss-poor impulse control. Which explained both his fly mouth and his sex addiction.
And the problem was bad enough when he was himself. Forget about the minute the curse flipped his psycho switch and the beast came roaring to life.
"I'm serious, man," the vampire said.
Wrath clapped his brother on the shoulder. On the whole, though, the SOB was a total keeper. "Forgiven, forgotten."
"Feel free to hammer me anytime."
"Believe me, I do."
Mr. X drove to an alley downtown that was unlit and open to streets at both ends. After parking the minivan face out behind a Dumpster, he threw Cherry Pie over his shoulder and walked twenty yards away from the car. She moaned a little as she bounced on his back, as if she didn't want her high disturbed by movement.
He laid her out on the ground, and she didn't fight him as he slit her throat. He watched for a moment as her glossy blood seeped from her neck. In the darkness