Lover Awakened

'You bi, then?'

'Butch, drop it. If any of the Brothers are down with the kinky shit, it's your roommate.' At the cop's bug- eyed look, he muttered, 'Come on, you have to know about V by now. You live with him.'

'Obviously not—Oh, hey, Bella.'

Phury wheeled around. Bella was standing on the threshold of the room, dressed in that black satin robe. He could not look away from her. The glow of health was back in her lovely face, the bruises gone, her beauty revealed. She was… astonishing.

'Hello,' she said. 'Phury, do you think I could talk with you for a moment? After you're finished?'

'Butch, you mind if we take a breather?'

'That's cool. See you later, Bella.'

As the cop left, Phury put his pool cue away with unnecessary precision, sliding the slick, blond wood into the wall rack. 'You look well. How do you feel?'

'Better. Much better.'

Because she'd fed from Zsadist.

'So… what's going on?' he asked, trying not to imagine her at his twin's vein.

Without replying, she went over to the French doors, the robe trailing across the marble floor behind her like a shadow. As she walked, the ends of her hair brushed against the small of her back and moved with the sway of her hips. Hunger hit him hard, and he prayed she didn't catch the scent.

'Oh, Phury, look at the moon, it's almost full.' Her hand went to the glass and lingered on the pane. 'I wish I could…'

'You want to go outside now? I could get you a coat.'

She smiled at him over her shoulder. 'I have no shoes.'

'I'll bring you those, too. Stay here.'

In no time he came back with a pair of fur-lined boots and a Victorian cape that Fritz, homing pigeon that he was, had pulled out of some closet.

'You work fast,' Bella said as he draped the bloodred velvet around her shoulders.

He knelt in front of her. 'Let me get these on you.'

She lifted one knee, and as he slid the boot on her foot, he tried not to notice how soft the skin of her ankle was. Or how much her scent tantalized him. Or how he could just part the robe out of the way and…

'Now the other one,' he said hoarsely.

When he had her booted up he opened the door, and they walked out together, crunching through the snow that covered the terrace. At the lawn's edge she tugged the cape in tight around her and looked up. Her breath left her mouth in puffs of white, and the wind teased the red velvet around her body, as if stroking the cloth.

'Dawn is not far,' she said.

'Coming soon.'

He wondered what she wanted to talk about, but then her face grew serious and he knew why she'd come. Zsadist. Of course.

'I want to ask you about him,' she murmured. 'Your twin.'

'What do you want to know?'

'How did he become a slave?'

Oh, God… He didn't want to talk about the past.

'Phury? Will you tell me? I would ask him, but…'

Ah, hell. There was no good reason not to answer her. 'A nursemaid took him. She sneaked him out of the household when he was seven months old. We couldn't find them anywhere, and as far as I was able to find out, she died two years later. He was sold into slavery at that point by whoever found him.'

'That must have been so hard on your whole family.'

'The worst. A death with no body to bury.'

'And when… when he was a blood slave…' She took a deep breath. 'Do you know what happened to him?'

Phury rubbed the back of his neck. As he hesitated, she said, 'I'm not talking about the scars or the forced feedings. I want to know about… what else might have been done to him.'

'Look, Bella—'

'I need to know.'

'Why?' Even though he knew the answer. She wanted to lay with Z, had probably already tried to. That was the why of it.

'I just have to know.'

'You should ask him.'

'He won't tell me, you know he won't.' She put her hand on his forearm. 'Please. Help me understand him.'

Phury stayed quiet, telling himself it was because he was respecting Z's privacy, and that was mostly true. Only the smallest part of him didn't want to help land Z in her bed.

Bella squeezed his arm. 'He said he was tied down. And that he can't stand to have a female on top when—' She stopped. 'What was done to him?'

Holy shit. Zsadist had talked about his captivity with her?

Phury cursed softly. 'He was used for more than just his vein. But that's all I'm going to say.'

'Oh, God.' Her body sagged. 'I just needed to hear it from someone. I needed to know for sure.'

As a cold gust of wind came up, he took a deep breath and still felt suffocated. 'You should go in before you get cold.'

She nodded and started for the house. 'Aren't you coming?'

'I'm going to have a smoke first. Go on now.'

He didn't watch her head into the house, but heard the door click shut.

Putting his hands in his pockets he looked out over the rolling white lawn. Then he closed his eyes and saw the past.

As soon as Phury went through his transition, he searched to find his twin, canvassing the Old Country, seeking out households that were wealthy enough to have servants. Over time he heard a repeated rumor that there was a warrior-sized male being kept by a female high up within the glymera. But he wasn't able to pin it down.

Which made sense. Back then, in the early nineteenth century, the species was still relatively cohesive, and the old rules and social customs remained strong. If anyone had been found harboring a warrior as a blood slave, they would have faced death under the law. That was why he had to be discreet in his quest. If he'd demanded a congregation of the aristocracy and put out a call for his twin's return, or if he was caught trying to find Zsadist, he might as well put a dagger in the male's chest: Killing Zsadist and disposing of the body would be the captor's best and only defense.

By the late 1800s, he'd almost given up hope. His parents had both died of natural causes by then. Vampire society had fragmented in the Old Country, and the first of the migrations to America had begun. He was rootless, roaming Europe, chasing after whispers and innuendoes… when suddenly he found what he'd been looking for.

He was on English soil the night it happened. He'd gone to a gathering of his kind at a castle on the cliffs of Dover. Standing in a darkened corner of the ballroom, he overheard two males speaking of the hostess. They said she had an incredibly endowed blood slave and that she liked to be watched and sometimes even shared him.

Phury had courted the female starting that very night.

He wasn't worried that his face would give him away, even though he and Zsadist were identical twins. First of all, his clothes were those of a wealthy male, and no one would suspect someone of his station to be coming after a slave that had been rightfully purchased on the market as a small child. And second, he was always careful to keep disguised. He grew a short beard to dull his features, and he hid his eyes behind dark spectacles, which he explained away by claiming his vision was poor.