John swayed. Heard voices coming at him from a distance.
On the inside of him, in his chest, down deep in the chambers of his beating heart, he felt a splintering, like he'd split in half. He was losing her... he was losing the dark-haired woman... he was...
He felt his mouth go wide, working as if he were trying to speak, but then spasms overtook him, jerking through his little body, flopping him off the soles of his feet, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Zsadist knew it was time to get Bella out of the tub, because she'd been in it for almost an hour and her skin was pruning up. Except then he glanced through the water at the towel he kept pulling into place over her body.
Shit... getting her out with that thing on was going to get messy.
With a wince, he reached over and pulled it off.
Looking away quickly, he slung the wet load to the floor and grabbed a dry one, which he put right next to the tub. Gritting his teeth, he leaned forward and pushed his arms into the water, going for her body. His eyes ended up right on the level of her br**sts.
Oh, God... They were perfect. Creamy white with little pink tips. And the water flirted with her ni**les, teasing them with rippling kisses that made them glisten.
He squeezed his lids shut, pulled his arms out of the tub, and sat back on his heels. When he was ready to try again, he focused on the wall ahead and arched over... only to feel a quick shot of pain at his hips. He looked down, confused.
There was a swollen bulge in his pants. The it was so hard, a tent had popped out of the front of his warm-ups. Clearly the thing had gotten squeezed against the side of the tub when he'd leaned over, and that was what the stinger was about.
Cursing, he pushed the it around with the heel of his hand, hating the feel of the heavy weight, the way the hard length got tangled in his sweats, the fact that he had to deal with it at all. Except no matter how much he tried, he couldn't get the thing arranged right, at least not without putting his hand inside and working it around, which he was damn well not going to do. Eventually he gave up and left the erection caught at an angle, twisted and hurting.
Served the bastard right.
Zsadist took a deep breath, slid his arms into the water, and wrapped them under Bella's body. He lifted her out, shocked anew at how light she was; then he propped her against the marble wall using the outside of his hip and a hand on her collarbone. He picked up the towel he'd left on the Jacuzzi's edge, but before he put it around her, his eyes shifted to the letters on the skin of her stomach.
Something odd lurched in his chest, a heavy weight... No, it was a descending sensation, as if he were falling down, though he was on a level. He was astonished. It had been so long since anything had broken through the anger or the numbness. He had a feeling he was... sad?
Whatever. She had goose bumps, was covered in them. So now was not the time to get all into himself.
He wrapped her up and carried her to the bed. Shoving the comforter aside, he laid her out flat, taking the damp towel off of her. As he covered her with the sheets and blankets, he caught sight of her belly again.
That weird tilting sensation came back, like his heart had taken a gondola ride into his gut. Or maybe his thighs.
He tucked her in and then went to the thermostat. Facing the dial, looking at numbers and writing he didn't understand, he had no idea what to turn it to. He moved the little pointer from all the way to the left to somewhere right of center, but he wasn't sure exactly what he'd done.
He glanced over to the bureau. The two syringes and the glass vial of morphine were sitting where Havers had left them. Z went over, picked up a needle, the drug, and the dosage instructions, then paused before leaving the room. Bella was so still in that bed, so small against all the pillows.
He imagined her in that pipe in the ground. Frightened. In pain. Cold. Then he imagined the lesser doing what he'd done to her, holding her down while she struggled and screamed.
This time Z knew what he felt.
Vengeance. Icy cold vengeance So much of it the shit ran straight into infinity.
Chapter Ten
John woke up on the floor with Tohr by his side and Wrath staring down at him.
Where was the dark-haired woman? In a rush he tried to sit up, but heavy hands held him in place.
"Just chill for a little longer, my man," Tohr said.
John craned his neck around and there she was, looking anxious by the door. The moment he saw her, every neuron in his brain started to fire, and the white light came back. He began to shake, his body knocking against the floor.
"Shit, he's doing it again," Tohr muttered, bearing down to try and control the seizure.
As John felt himself getting sucked under, he threw a hand toward the dark-haired woman, trying to get to her, straining.
"What do you need, son?" Tohr's voice above him was fading in and out like a radio station with static. "We'll get it for you..."
The woman...
"Go to him, leelan" Wrath said. "Take his hand."
The dark-haired woman came forward, and the instant their palms touched everything went black.
When he came to again, Tohr was talking. "... going to take him to see Havers anyway. Hey, son. You're back."
John sat up, head swimming. He put his hands to his face, as if that would help him stay conscious, and looked to the doorway. Where was she? He had to... He didn't know what he had to do. But it was something. Something involving her...
He signed frantically.
"She's gone, son," Wrath said. "We're going to keep you two apart until we have an idea of what's doing."
John looked at Tohr and signed slowly. Tohr translated, "He says he needs to take care of her."
Wrath laughed softly. "I think I've got a handle on that job, son. That's my mate, my shellan, your queen."
For some reason John relaxed at that piece of news, and gradually he recalibrated back to normal. Fifteen minutes later he got to his feet.
Wrath pegged Tohr with a hard stare. "I want to talk strategy with you, so I need you here. Phury's going to the clinic tonight, though. Why doesn't he take the boy?"
Tohr hesitated and looked at John. "That okay with you, son? My brother's a good guy. All around."
John nodded. He'd already caused enough problems by checking out on the floor like he had a case of the vapors. After that stunt, he was way into being user-friendly.
God, what had it been about that woman? Now that she was gone, he couldn't remember what the big deal was. He couldn't even recall her face. It was like he had a snapshot case of amnesia.
"Let me take you down to my brother's room."
John put his hand on Tohr's arm. When he was finished signing, he looked at Wrath.
Tohr smiled. "John said it was an honor to meet you."
"Good to meet you, too, son." The king returned to the desk and sat down. "And Tohr? When you come back, have Vishous with you."
"No problem."
O kicked the side of U's Taurus so hard, his boot left a dent in the quarter panel.
The damn shit box was parked at the side of the road in the sticks. On a random, nothing-special part of Route 14, twenty-five miles away from downtown.
It had taken him a good hour of sitting in front of U's computer to find the car, because the LoJack signal had been blocked for God only knew what reason. When the damn responder finally popped up on the screen, the Taurus had been moving swiftly. If O had had backup, he'd have made someone stay glued to the computer while he hit the truck and went after the sedan. But U was hunting downtown, and pulling him or anyone else off patrol would have caused a lot of attention.
And O already had trouble... trouble that was back again as his cell phone rang for the eight hundredth time. The thing had started going off about twenty minutes ago, and ever since then the calls had been nonstop. He took the Nokia out of his leather jacket. Caller ID showed the number as untraceable. Probably U, or worse, Mr. X.
Word must already be out that the center had been incinerated.
When the cell shut up, O dialed U's number. As soon as it was answered, O said, "You looking for me?"
"Christ, what happened out there? Mr. X said the place is gone!"
"I don't know what went down."
"But you were there, right? You said you were going there."
"You tell Mr. X that?"
"Yeah. And listen, you better watch yourself. The Fore-lesser is pissed off and looking for you."
O leaned against the cold body of the Taurus. Holy hell. He didn't have time for this. His wife was somewhere away from him, either breathing or being buried, and regardless of what state she was in, he needed to get her back. Then he had to go after that scarred Brother who'd stolen her and put that ugly bastard into the ground. Hard.