“No.” She struggled. “Stop it. I want to stay with him.”
Rhage glanced over at her, and immediately that odd, fixated look came back. Then his white eyes shifted to Vishous. Rhage's lips pared off his teeth and he growled, loud as a lion.
“V, man, let go of her. Right now,” Phury said.
Vishous dropped his hold, but whispered to her, “You need to get out of here.”
Screw that , she thought.
“Rhage?” she said softly. “Rhage, what's going on?”
He shook his head and broke their eye contact, backing himself up against the marble fireplace. Sweat gleamed on his face as he grabbed on to the stone, and he strained as if he were trying to lift the whole damn mantelpiece off the wall.
Time slowed to a crawl as he battled with himself, chest pumping, arms and legs trembling. It was a long while before he sagged and the tension left his body. Whatever the fight had been, he'd won. But not by much.
As he looked up, his eyes were back to normal, but he was pasty as hell.
“I'm sorry, my brothers,” he mumbled. Then he glanced at her and opened his mouth. Instead of speaking, he hung his head as if ashamed.
Mary walked through the barrier of male bodies and put her hands on his face.
As he gasped in surprise, she kissed him on the mouth. “Let's see the cherry thing. Come on.”
The men standing around them were stunned; she could feel it in their stares. Rhage was shaken, too. But when she just looked at him pointedly, he started chewing, working the stem over with his teeth.
She glanced back at the warriors. “He's tine. We're fine. Go back to doing whatever, okay? He needs a minute, and all you guys staring at him like this isn't helping.”
Phury laughed a little and walked over to the pool table. “You know, she's fabulous.”
V picked up his cue and his glass. “Yeah. True.”
As the party resumed, and Bella and Wellsie came back, Mary stroked Rhage's face and neck. He seemed to have trouble looking her in the eye.
“Are you okay?” she said softly.
“I'm so sorry—”
“Cut out the sorry bit. Whatever that is, you can't help it, right?”
He nodded.
“So there's no sorry.”
She wanted to know what had just happened, but not here, not now. Sometimes, pretending to be normal was the very best antidote to weirdness. Fake-it-until-you-make-it was more than psychobabble bullshit.
“Mary, I don't want you to fear me.”
For a moment, she watched his mouth and jaw work the stem.
“I'm not afraid. V and Phury might have been in a little trouble, but you wouldn't have hurt me. No way. I'm not sure how I know that, I just do.”
He took a deep breath. “God, I love you. I really, really love you.”
And then he smiled.
She laughed in a loud crack that brought every head in the room around.
The cherry stem was tied neatly around one of his fangs.
Black Dagger Brotherhood 2 - Lover Eternal
Chapter Forty
Bella was staring, and it had to stop. Except she couldn't help herself. Zsadist was the only thing she could see.
Not that he was really involved in the party. Except for when that episode with Rhage had happened, Zsadist stayed away from them all. He talked to no one. Drank nothing. Ate nothing. He was a statue over by one of the long windows, and the stillness in him was fascinating. He didn't even seem to be breathing. Only his eyes moved.
And always to get away from hers.
Bella gave them both a break by heading over for some more wine. The billiard room was a dark, luxurious space, covered in forest-green silk wallpaper and festooned with black-and-gold satin drapes. Over in the corner where the bar was set up, the shadows were even thicker, and she took shelter in them.
Maybe she could be more discreet if she watched him from here.
Over the past few days she'd asked around and heard every Zsadist story there was. The rumors were downright gruesome, especially the ones about him and females. People said he killed her sex for sport, but it was hard not to wonder how much of that was lore. A male who looked as dangerous as he did, people were bound to talk. Her brother was the same way. She'd heard whispers about Rehvenge for years, and God knew, all of them were false.
There was just no way all the chatter about Zsadist was accurate. For heaven's sake, folks maintained he lived off the