freaked out and didn’t know what the repercussions were. But the trouble was, in the hours since Payne had taken off, he’d come to realize that however true that shit was, there was a more fundamental thing going on at the core of him: He was being a little bitch. What the go-away had really been about was the fact that he was shitting in his pants because he’d actually fallen in love with a woman . . . female . . . whatever. Yeah, there was a tremendous overlay of metaphysical stuff he didn’t understand and couldn’t explain, blah, blah, blah. But at the center of it all, he felt so much for Payne that he didn’t know himself anymore, and
He’d pussied out when he’d had the chance.
But that was done now. “She and I are in love,” he said clearly.
And damn him to hell, he should have had the balls to tell her. And hold her. And keep her.
“So like I said, what the
“Excellent question.”
“Jesus . . . Christ.”
“Listen, how can I help—I can be out in daylight, and there is nothing I won’t do to get her back.
“Cormia and Phury went there.
“So . . .” He hated thinking like this. “What about your enemies. Where are they during the day—I’ll go there.”
Cursing. More exhaling. Pause. Then a flicking sound and an inhale, as if the guy were lighting up another cigarette.
“You know, you shouldn’t smoke,” Manny heard himself say.
“Vampires don’t get cancer.”
“Really?”
“Yup. Okay, here’s the deal. We don’t have a specific locale for the Lessening Society. The slayers tend to imbed themselves in the human population in small groups so it’s nearly impossible to find them without serious disturbance. The only thing . . . Go to the alleys by the riverfront downtown. She might have met up with some
“I need to be able to reach you. You need to give me your number.”
“I’ll text you with it. Do you have a gun? Any weapon?”
“Yeah. I do.” Manny was already taking the licensed forty out of his closet. He’d been living in the city all his adult life and shit happened—so he’d learned his way around a gun about twenty years ago.
“Tell me it’s bigger than a nine.”
“Yup.”
“Get a knife. You’re going to need a stainless-steel blade.”
“Roger that.” He headed for the kitchen and took out the biggest, sharpest Henckels he had. “Anything else?”
“A flamethrower. Nunchakus. Throwing stars. Uzi. You want me to go on.”
If only he had that kind of arsenal.
“I’m going to get her back, vampire. Mark my fucking words—I’m getting her back.” He grabbed his wallet and was heading for the door when dread stopped him. “How many of them are there. Your enemies.”
“An endless supply.”
“Are they . . . male?”
Pause. “Used to be. Before they got turned, they were human men.”
A sound came out of Manny’s mouth . . . one that he was very sure he had never uttered before.
“Nah, she can handle herself with the hand-to-hand,” her brother said in a dead tone. “She’s tough like that.”
“Not what I was thinking.” He had to scrub his eyes. “She’s a virgin.”
“Still . . . ?” the guy asked after a moment.
“Yeah. It wasn’t right for me to . . . take that from her.”
Oh, God, the idea she could be hurt . . .
He couldn’t even finish the sentence to himself.
Snapping into action, he stepped out of his place and went over to call the elevator. As he waited, he realized that there had only been silence on the other end of the phone for a while. “Hello? You there.”
“Yeah.” Her twin’s voice cracked. “Yeah. I’m here.”
The connection between them remained open as Manny got into the elevator and hit P. And the entire trip down to his car was passed with the two of them saying absolutely nothing at all.
“They’re impotent,” her twin finally muttered just as Manny was getting into the Porsche. “They can’t have sex.”
Well, didn’t that do nothing to make him feel better. And going by the tone of her brother’s voice, the other guy was thinking the same way.
“I’ll call you,” Manny said.
“You do that, my man. You frickin’ do that.”
FIFTY-TWO
When Payne came back to consciousness, she did not open her eyes. No reason to give away the fact that she was aware of her surroundings.
Bodily sensation informed her of her situation: She was on her feet, with her wrists shackled and pulled out to the sides and her back against a stone wall that was damp. Her ankles were likewise tethered and stretched apart and her head had lolled forward into a very uncomfortable position.
When she drew breaths in, she smelled musky dirt, and the voices of males percolated up from the left of where she was.
Very deep voices. Cast with drumming excitement, as if a benefit had fallen into their clutches.
She was it.
As she gathered her strength, she was under no illusions of what they were going to do to her. Soon. And as she drew herself together, she shied away from thoughts of her Manuel . . . of how, if these males had their way, they would spoil her many times over before they murdered her, taking what rightly should have been her healer’s —
Except she could not and would not think of him. That cognition was a black pit that would suck her in and trap her and render her defenseless.
Instead, she pulled at the threads of memory, melding the images of the faces of her kidnappers with what she knew from the bowls in the Sanctuary.
Why? she wondered. She had not a clue why the one with the ruined lip had set upon her with such hatred —
“I know you wake.” The voice was impossibly low and heavily accented and right next to her ear. “Your breathing pattern has changed.”
Lifting her lids along with her head, she shifted her eyes unto the soldier. He was in the shadows beside her so she could not see him properly.
Abruptly, the other voices silenced, and she sensed many stares were upon her.
So this was what prey felt like.
“I’m hurt that you remember nothing of me, female.” At that, he brought a candle close to his face. “I have thought of you every night since we first met. A hundred and a hundred years afore.”
She narrowed her eyes. Black hair. Cruel eyes of dark blue. And a harelip that he had obviously been born with.
