Dark Lover

'Nah. Necessary nutrients in it. but we need food, too.'

'How about garlic?'

'Bring it on.' He leaned back in the chair, munching happily. 'I love the stuff roasted with a little olive oil.'

Jeez. The guy was almost easygoing, she thought.

No, that wasn't right. His sharp eyes kept scanning the windows and the glass door, as if he were monitoring the periphery. She knew without a doubt that if he didn't like something he saw, he was going to be out of that chair in a heartbeat. And it wouldn't be to check locks. It'd be to attack.

He put another cookie in his mouth.

But at least he was relaxing to be around. Relatively speaking.

'You're not like Wrath,' she blurted.

'No one's like Wrath.'

'Yeah.' She bit into her own cookie and sat down on the futon.

'He's a force of nature,' Tohr said, tilting back his beer. 'And he's deadly, no mistaking that. But there's no one who will take better care of you, assuming he chooses to do so. Which he has with you.'

'How do you know?' she whispered, wondering what Wrath had told him.

Tohr cleared his throat, a flush hitting his cheeks. 'He's marked you.'

She frowned, looking down at herself.

'I can smell it,' Tohr said. 'The warning's all over you.'

'Warning?'

'As if you were his shellan.'

'His what?'

'His mate. That scent on your skin sends a powerful message to other males.'

So she'd been right. About the sex they'd had and what it meant.

That really shouldn't please me as much as it does, she thought.

'You don't mind it, do you?' Tohr said. 'Being his.'

She didn't want to answer that. On one level she wanted to be Wrath's. On another, she felt much safer being as she had always been. On her own.

'Do you have one?' she asked. 'A mate?'

The vampire's face lit with devotion. 'Her name's Wellsie. We were promised to each other before our transitions. It was dumb luck that we fell in love. Truth is, if I'd met her on the street, I would have chosen her. How's that for fate?'

'Occasionally it works for us,' she murmured.

'Yeah. Some males take more than one shellan, but I can't imagine ever being with another female. Which is evidently why Wrath called me.'

She cocked an eyebrow at him. 'Sorry?'

'The other brothers, they have females they drink from, but they don't have any emotional ties. There'd be nothing to prevent them-' He stopped and bit into another cookie. 'Well, given that you're…'

'I'm what?' She felt as though she hardly knew herself. And she was willing to even take hints from strangers at this point.

'Beautiful. Wrath wouldn't have wanted to put you in any of the others' care, because if they'd been tempted to make a move on you, there would be serious trouble.' Tohr shrugged. 'Well, and a couple of the brothers are just flat-out dangerous. You wouldn't want to leave any female alone with them, at least not one you cared about.'

She wasn't sure she wanted to meet any of the brothers.

Wait a minute, she thought.

'Does Wrath have a shellan already?' she asked.

Tohr finished his beer. 'I think you'd better talk to him about that.'

Which was not a no.

A sick feeling of disappointment set up shop in the middle of her chest, and she went back into the kitchen.

Damn. She was getting emotional over Wrath. They'd had sex twice, and already her head was a mess.

This one is going to hurt, she thought as she cracked open another beer. When things went sour between them, it was going to hurt like hell.

Notwithstanding the whole turning-into-a-vampire thing.

Oh, God.

'More munchies?' she called out.

'That would be great.'

'Beer?'

'Naw. I'm good.'

She brought the bag in from the kitchen, and they were silent as they polished off the cookies. Even the broken ones at the bottom.

'You got anything else around here to eat?' he asked.

She stood, feeling peckish herself. 'I'll see what I can dig up.'

'You have cable?' He nodded toward her TV.

She tossed him the clicker. 'Sure do. And if I remember, there's a Godzilla marathon on TBS tonight.'

'Sweet,' the vampire said, kicking his legs out. 'I always root for the monster.'

She smiled at him. 'Me, too.'

Chapter Twenty-two

Butch woke up because someone was driving a gutter spike into his head.

He cracked open one eye.

No, that was the phone ringing.

He picked up the receiver and put it in the vicinity of his ear. 'Yeah?'

'Good morning, sunshine.' Jose's voice brought back the spike.

'Time?' he croaked.

'Eleven o'clock. Thought you'd want to know that Beth just called here looking for you. She sounded okay.'

Butch's body went limp with relief. 'Guy?'

'Didn't mention him. But she did say she wanted to talk with you sometime today. I canceled the APB on her because she was calling from home.'

Butch sat up.

And then lay right back down.

He wasn't going anywhere for a while.

'Not feeling too good,' he muttered.

'I figured that. Which is why I told her you'd be tied up until this afternoon. Just so you know, I left your place at seven this morning.'

Ah, Christ.

Butch tried the whole vertical thing again, forcing himself to stay upright. The room swam. He was still drunk as shit. And he had a hangover.

Talk about multitasking.

'Coining in now.'

'I wouldn't do that. The captain's gunning for your ass. Internal Affairs showed up here asking about you and Billy Riddle.'

'Riddle? Why?'

'Come on, Detective.'

Yeah, he knew why.