Lover Eternal

'I'm going to take you home,' he murmured into her hair.

'Mercedes's back at her place,' Butch said as he rose from the black stains he'd been looking at. He tossed a set of keys at Rhage.

Phury cursed while righting a chair. 'What've we got?'

The cop shook his head. 'I think they took her alive, based on this pattern of scorched streaks to the door. Her blood trail burned up when the sun hit it—'

Even before Butch stopped short and glanced at Mary, Rhage started for the door with her. The last thing she needed was to hear the god-awful details.

The cop continued, 'Besides, she's no use to them dead—Zsadist? You okay, man?'

In passing, Rhage glanced over his shoulder at Z.

Z was in a shaking fury, his face twitching along the scar under his left eye. Hell, he looked as if he were going to blow up, except it was hard to believe the capture of a female would matter one way or the other to him.

Rhage paused. 'Z, what's doing?'

The brother turned away as if he didn't want to be seen, then leaned closer to the window he was in front of. With a low growl, he dematerialized.

Rhage glanced outside. All he could see was Mary's barn across the field.

'Let's go,' he said to her. 'I want you out of here.'

She nodded and he gripped her arm, leading her from the house. They said nothing as they walked quickly through the grass.

Just as they stepped onto her lawn, glass shattered with a crash.

Something—someone—was thrown out of Mary's house. Right through the slider.

As the body bounced on the terrace, Zsadist jumped through the opening, fangs bared, face contoured with aggression. He launched himself onto the lesser, catching the thing by the hair and lifting its torso off the ground.

'Where is she?' the brother snarled. When the thing didn't answer, Z switched his hold and bit it on the shoulder, right through its leather coat. The slayer howled in pain.

Rhage didn't stick around to watch the show. He raced Mary around the side of the house, only to run into two more lessers. Forcing her behind him, he protected her with his body while he went for his gun. Just as he got it into firing position, popping sounds rang out from the right of him. Bullets whizzed by his ear and pinged into the house and hit him in the arm and the thigh and…

He'd never been so glad to have the beast emerge. He threw himself into the vortex with a roar, embracing the change, welcoming the flash of heat and the explosion of his muscles and bones.

As a blast of energy came out of Rhage, Mary was thrown against the house, her head snapping back and banging into the clapboards. She slid to the ground, dimly aware of a huge presence taking Rhage's place.

There were sounds of more gunshots, screams, a deafening roar. Dragging herself over the ground, she hid behind a juniper bush just as someone turned the outdoor lights on.

Holy… Christ.

It was the tattoo come to life: a dragonlike creature covered with iridescent purple and lime-green scales. The thing had a slashing tail with barbs, long yellow claws, and a wild black mane. She couldn't see the face, but the sounds it was making were horrific.

And the beast was deadly, making quick work of the lessers.

She covered her head with her arms, unable to watch. She hoped like hell the beast wouldn't notice her, and that if it did, it would remember who she was.

More roaring. Another scream. A terrible grinding crunch.

From the back of the house, she heard a rapid splatter of gunshots.

Someone yelled, 'Zsadist! Stop! We need them alive!'

The fighting went on and on and probably lasted only five or ten minutes. And then there was just the sound of breathing. Two breaths in. One slow breath out.

She looked up. The beast was looming over the bush she hid behind, that steady white gaze trained on her. Its face was huge, its jaw carrying a shark's load of teeth, its mane falling over its broad forehead. Black blood ran down its chest.

'Where is she? Where's Mary?' V's voice traveled from around the corner. 'Mary? Oh… shit.'

The beast's head whipped around as Vishous and Zsadist pulled up short.

'I'll distract it,' Zsadist said. 'You get her out of the way.'

The beast turned on the brothers and positioned itself in an attack stance, claws up, head forward, tail waving steadily. The muscles in its hindquarters quivered.

Zsadist kept coming as V started to close in on where she was.

The beast snarled and snapped its jaws.

Z cursed in its direction. 'Yeah, what you gonna do to me that hasn't already been done?'

Mary shot to her feet. 'Zsadist! Don't!'

Her voice froze everything like a tableau: Zsadist walking forward. The beast preparing to lunge. Vishous sidling up to her. All three of them looked at her for a split second. And then refocused on one another, going right back to the collision course they'd been on.

'Will you two get out of here!' she hissed. 'Someone's going to get hurt. You're just pissing it off!'

'Mary, we need to get you out of its way.' V's tone was that awful let's-be- reasonable one men pulled out at traffic accidents.

'It won't hurt me, but it's about to tear the two of you apart. Back off!'

No one was listening to her.

'God, spare me from heroes,' she muttered. 'Back the fuck off!'

That got their attention. The two brothers stopped moving. And the beast looked over its shoulder.

'Hey,' she murmured, stepping out from behind the bush. 'It's me. Mary.'

The great dragon's head shook up and down like a horse's, its mane flashing black. The massive body swung a little toward her.

The beast was beautiful, she thought. Beautiful in the way a cobra was, its ugliness overshadowed by graceful, shifting movements and a predatory intelligence you had to respect.

'You are really huge, you know that?' She kept her voice low as she approached it slowly, remembering how Rhage liked her to talk to him. 'And you did an excellent job keeping those lessers from me. Thank you.'

When she was right next to the beast, the jaws opened and it called out to the sky while keeping its eyes on her. Abruptly the great head lowered, as if it were seeking her touch. She reached out, stroking smooth scales, feeling the great tensile strength in the thickness of its neck and shoulder.

'You are scary as hell up close, you really are. But you feel nice. I didn't think your skin would be so soft or warm.'

Those white eyes flickered to the left and narrowed, its lips curling up into a snarl.

'Tell me someone isn't coming closer,' she said without varying her tone or turning away. She kept her eyes locked on that huge face.

'Butch, hang back, man,' V muttered. 'She's talking him down.'

The beast growled low in its throat.

'Hey, now, don't bother with them,' she said. 'They're not going to do anything to either one of us. Besides, haven't you had enough tonight?'

The creature heaved a great breath.

'Yeah, you're done,' she murmured, stroking under the mane. Heavy muscles ran in great ropes under the skin. There was no fat, nothing but power.

It eyed the vampires once again.

'No, they're nothing you and I need to worry about. You just stand right here with me and—'

Without warning, the beast whirled around and knocked her to ground with its tail. It leaped into the air at