got near her... well, that's what they made knives for.
As he carried the female through the door, he looked down at her face. She was so like his Jennifer. Different-colored eyes, but that heart-shaped face. The thick, dark hair. And the body - lean, perfectly proportioned.
Actually, she was more beautiful than Jennifer had been. And she hit harder, too.
He laid the female on the table and fingered the bruise on her cheek, the split lip, the marks on her throat. The fighting had been tremendous: all-out, nothing spared, no stopping until he won and held her spent body in his arms.
Staring at the vampire, he thought back to the past. He'd always been afraid he'd be the one to kill Jennifer, that some night all the hitting would cross the line. Instead he'd ended up murdering the drunk driver who'd nailed her car head-on. The bastard had been liquored up at five in the afternoon, and she'd just been coming home from work.
Taking her killer out had been easy. He'd found where the guy had lived and had waited for him to come home shit-faced. Then he'd beaten the man's head in with a tire iron and pushed him down the stairs. With the body cooling, O had driven north and east, all the way across the country.
Where he'd fallen into the Society.
A car pulled up outside. Quickly he picked up the female and carried her over to the holes. After slipping a halter around her chest, he opened the lid of one and dropped her inside.
"You got another?" U asked as he came inside.
"Yeah." O made a show of looking into the other hole, at the male Mr. X had worked on the night before. The civilian was shifting in the pipe, making little scared, mewing noises.
"So let's get to work on the fresh capture," U said.
O put his boot on the cover over the female. "This one is mine. Anyone touches her and I will skin them with my teeth."
"Her? Excellent. Sensei will be psyched."
"You say nothing to him about this. We clear?"
U frowned, then shrugged. "Sure. Whatever, man. But you know he's going to find out sooner or later. When he does, just don't think it came from me."
O could actually see U keeping the secret, and on impulse he gave the slayer the address of the converted barn he'd been breaking into. A little boon in exchange for the lesser's integrity.
"The name of the female who lives there is Mary Luce. She was seen with a brother. Go get her, my man."
U nodded. "Will do, but it's close to dawn and I need to crash. I've been up for two nights too long, and I'm getting weak."
"Tomorrow then. Now leave us."
U cocked his head and glanced down at the pipe hole. "Us?"
"Get the fuck out of here, U."
U took off and O listened as the sound of the lesser's car faded.
Satisfied, he look down at the mesh cover. And couldn't stop smiling.
Chapter Forty-three
Rhage did not return to the main house until five in the afternoon. As he walked through the tunnel, he made no sound. He'd taken his shoes off because they'd been soggy and then forgotten where he'd left them.
He was a live wire, the burn in him a roar he couldn't get rid of no matter how exhausted he was or how much weight he lifted or how far he ran. At this point, not that he'd even consider it, he couldn't imagine that having sex with a hundred different females would bring him down.
There was no escape for him, but he had to talk to Mary. He dreaded telling her he'd been condemned a century ago and had no idea how to explain that the beast wanted to have sex with her. But she needed to know why he stayed away.
He braced himself and opened their bedroom door. She wasn't there.
He went downstairs and found Fritz in the kitchen.
"Have you seen Mary?" he asked, doing his best to keep his voice level.
"Yes, sire. She departed."
Rhage's blood went glacial. "Where was she headed?"
"She didn't say."
"Did she take anything with her? Purse? Overnight bag?"
"A book. A bagel. A parka."
Outside. Rhage hit the underground tunnel and was at the Pit in half a minute. He pounded on the door.
Vishous took his damn time answering and was sporting boxer shorts and bed head when he did. "What the - "
"Mary's out of the house. By herself. I need to find her."