Lover Awakened

Then O saw something weird: a black ribbon tied to the gate. No, two of them, one on each side, waving in the wind.

Like they were for mourning?

Fixated by his own dread, he got out of the truck and crunched over the ice, heading for the ribbon on the right. It was mounted seven feet off the ground, so he had to stretch up his arm to finger it.

'Are you dead, wife?' he whispered. He dropped his hand and looked through the gates into the black night beyond.

He went back to the truck and reversed down the driveway.

He needed to get past that wall. Had to find someplace to dump the F-150.

Five minutes later he was cursing. Damn it. There was nowhere to park on Thorne that wasn't totally conspicuous. The street was nothing but walls, with barely any shoulder. Fucking rich people.

O hit the gas and looked left. Right. Maybe he could leave the truck down at the bottom of the hill and jog up from the main drag. It was a half mile at an incline, but he could cover the distance quickly enough. The streetlights he'd have to pass under were a bitch, of course, but it wasn't like anyone living on this road could see out from their ivory towers.

His cell phone went off and he answered it with a nasty, 'What.'

U's voice, which he was beginning to hate, was tense. 'We've got a problem. Two lessen were arrested by the police.'

O squeezed his eyes shut. 'What the hell did they do?'

'They were taking down a civilian vampire and an unmarked patrol car went by. Two policemen engaged the slayers and more cops showed up. The lessers were taken into custody, and I got the call just now from one of them.'

'So bail them out,' O snapped. 'Why are you calling me?'

There was a pause. Then U's tone had the stench of well, duh all over it. 'Because you need to know this. Listen, they were packing plenty of concealed weapons, none of which they had permits for, all of which had come off the black market, with no serial numbers on the barrels. No way they're going to get bail in the morning. No public defender is that good. You need to get them out.'

O scanned left and right and then turned around in a driveway the size of a football field. Yeah, there was definitely noplace to park around here. He had to go down to where Thorne Avenue dumped out on Bellman Road and leave the truck in that little village.

'O?'

'I have things I have to do.'

U coughed as if he were choking back a boatload of pissed-off. 'No offense, but I can't imagine anything's as important as this. What if those slayers get into a fight in general holding? You want black blood flowing so that some EMT type figures out they're not human? You have to contact the Omega and get him to call those two home.'

'You do it.' O accelerated even though he was headed down the hill now.

'What?'

'Reach out and touch the Omega.' He came to a rolling stop at the bottom of Thorne and picked left. There were all kinds of cutie-pie, homey-ass shops on the street, and he parked in front of one called Kitty's Attic.

'O… That kind of request needs to come from the Fore-lesser. You know that.'

O paused before turning off the ignition.

Terrific. Just what he wanted. More quality time with the bastard master. Goddamn it. He couldn't live with not knowing the fate of his woman any longer. There wasn't time for this Society bullshit.

'O?'

He put his head down on the steering wheel. Banged it a couple of times.

On the other hand, if that contact with the humans down at the police station exploded in his face, the Omega was going to come looking for him. And then where would he be?

'Fine. I'll go see him now.' He cursed as he put the truck in gear. Before he pulled out he looked up Thorne Avenue again.

'And O, I have a concern about the membership. You need to meet with the slayers. Things are slipping.'

'You're handling the check-ins.'

'They want to see you. They're questioning your leadership.'

'U, you know what they say about messengers, right?'

'Excuse me?'

'Too much bad news will get you shot.' He turned off the phone and flipped it shut. Then hit the gas.

CHAPTER 33

As Phury sat on his bed, he was so strung out from the need to have sex, he could barely pour himself another shot of vodka. The bottle shook, the glass shook. Hell, the whole mattress was shaking.

He looked at Vishous, who was leaning back against the headboard beside him. The brother was just as twitchy and miserable as he nodded his head to 5 °Cent's The Massacre.

Five hours into Bella's fertile time and they were both a mess, their bodies mostly instinct, their minds mostly fog. The compulsion to stay at the mansion couldn't be overridden, the needing pulling them in tight, paralyzing them. Thank God for the red smoke and the Grey Goose. The numbing out helped a lot.

Though not with everything. Phury tried not to think about what was going on in Z's room. Because when the brother hadn't come back, it was obvious that his body was being used, not the morphine.

Dear God… the two of them. Together. Over and over again…

'How you doing?' V asked.

' 'Bout the same as you, my man.' He took a deep drink from his glass, his body swimming, lost, drowning in the erotic sensations trapped under his skin. He eyed the bathroom.

He was about to get up and head for a little privacy again when Vishous said, 'I think I'm in trouble.'

Phury had to laugh. 'This won't last forever.'

'No, I mean… I think there's something wrong. With me.'

Phury narrowed his eyes. His brother's face looked strained, but otherwise it was the same as always. Handsome lines, goatee around the mouth, swirling tattoos at the right temple. Those diamond eyes were sharp, undimmed even by the Grey Goose, the blunts, the needing. Their superblack centers shined with a vast, incomprehensible intelligence, a genius so powerful it was unnerving.

'Like what kind of trouble, V?'

'I, ah…' Vishous cleared his throat. 'Only Butch knows this. You don't tell anyone else, true?'

'Yeah. No problem.'

V stroked his goatee. 'My visions have dried up.'

'You mean you can't see—'

'What's coming. Yeah. I'm getting nothing anymore. The last thing I received was about three days ago, right before Z went after Bella. I saw them together. In that Ford Taurus. Coming here. After that, there's been… nothing.'

'You ever have something like this happen before?'

'No, and I'm not getting anyone's thoughts anymore, either. It's like the whole thing dried up on me.'

Abruptly the brother's tension seemed to have nothing to do with the needing. He seemed rigid from… fear. Holy shit. Vishous was scared. And the anomaly was downright jarring. Of all the brothers, V was the one who never was afraid. It was like he'd been born without fear receptors in his brain.

'Maybe it's just temporary,' Phury said. 'Or you think maybe Havers could help?'