While she ate, she looked out the kitchen window at a maple tree. Its dark green leaves were totally lifeless. Summer still. There wasn't a breath of wind, as if the air itself had heat exhaustion.
No, something was moving.
A man was coming through the hedge, approaching the house from the property next door. Her skin prickled in warning.
Which was ridiculous. The guy had on a gray Caldwell Gas & Electric uniform and was carrying a clipboard in one hand. He didn't look particularly threatening, what with his pale hair and his relaxed demeanor. He was big, but he moved casually, just another bored meter reader who was wishing he had a desk job because of all the heat.
The phone on the wall rang and she jumped.
She reached over and picked up, still keeping her eyes on the man. He stopped as he saw her.
"Hello?" she said into the receiver. The CG&E guy started walking again, coming up to the back door.
"Beth, get down here now," Wrath barked.
At that moment, the meter man looked through the kitchen door's glass panels. Their eyes met. He smiled and lifted his hand.
Chills went over her flesh.
He's not alive, she thought. She wasn't sure how she knew it; she just did.
She dropped the phone and ran.
There was a crashing noise behind her as the back door splintered, and then she heard popping sounds. Something hit her in the shoulder with a sting. And then she felt another prick of pain.
Her body began to slow.
She fell facedown onto the kitchen tile.
Wrath yelled as he felt Beth hit the floor. Bolting up the stairwell, he burst into the drawing room.
The sun hit his skin and burned like a chemical spill, forcing him back into the darkness. He flashed down to his chamber, picked up the phone, and called upstairs. It rang and rang and rang.
His breath pumped in and out of his mouth, his chest moving in a series of rough contractions.
Trapped. He was trapped. He was trapped downstairs while she was...
He let out a roar that was her name.
He could sense her aura dimming. She was being taken away, taken somewhere away from him.
Fury poured out of his heart, a black, deep freeze that made the mirror in the bathroom fracture in a series of cracking sounds.
Fritz picked up. "We've been broken into! Butch is - "
"Get me the cop!" Wrath screamed.
Butch came on the line a moment later. He was breathless. "I couldn't catch whoever it was - "
"Did you see Beth?"
"Isn't she with you?"
Wrath let out another roar, feeling the walls press in around him. He was utterly helpless, caged by the sunlight that washed over the earth above him.
He forced himself to breathe deeply. Only managed one breath before he went back to panting.
"Cop, I need you. I need... you."
Chapter Forty-eight
Mr. X floored the minivan. He couldn't believe it. He absolutely couldn't believe it.
He had the queen. He had abducted the queen.
This was the chance of a lesser's lifetime. And it had happened so smoothly, as if it was all meant to be.
When he'd approached the house, he'd merely been on a scouting mission. It had seemed far too coincidental that the address the vampire had given him last night in the alley was the same as that of the warrior he'd blown up. After all, why would the Blind King hang around the mansion of a dead warrior?
Assuming it had to be a setup, Mr. X had fully armed himself and gone to Darius's before dark. He'd wanted to survey the house's exterior, see if any of the upstairs windows were blacked out, and check the cars in the drive.
But then he'd noticed the dark-haired woman in the kitchen. With the Saturnine Ruby on her finger. The queen's ring.
Mr. X still couldn't fathom why she was able to go around in the daylight. Unless she was part human. Although what were the chances of that?
At any rate, he hadn't hesitated. Even though he hadn't planned on infiltrating the place, he'd broken down the door, surprised and grateful when the security system didn't go off. The woman had been quick on her feet, but not quick enough, and the darts had worked perfectly now that he'd calibrated the dosage correctly.
He glanced into the back.
She was out cold on the minivan's floor.
This evening was going to be intense. There was no doubt that her male would come after her. And because the Blind King's blood was surely in her veins, he'd be able to find his mate no matter where Mr. X took her.
Thank God it was still daylight and he had time to fortify his barn.
And he was tempted to call in for reinforcements. Though he was confident in his skills, he knew what the Blind King was capable of. Total destruction of the property, a complete razing of the house, the barn, and everything in them, would be the very least of it.
The problem was, if Mr. X summoned other members, he'd have to pierce the veil of his infallibility.
Besides, he did have his new recruit.
No, he would do this without a lot of hangers-on. Anything that drew breath could be killed, even that warrior. And Mr. X was willing to bet that, with the female as a bargaining chip, he had some serious leverage.
Undoubtedly, the king would trade himself for the safety of his queen.
Mr. X chuckled. Mr. R was going to have one hell of a first night.
Butch left the chamber and ran up to the guest room he and Vishous had crashed in again.
V was pacing, trapped on the second floor because there was no way to get downstairs without being hit with light. Clearly, the mansion was meant for use as a private residence, not as a battle station.
And the defect was a serious problem in this kind of emergency.
"What's happening?" V demanded.
"Your man Wrath's in one hell of a state, but he managed to tell me about the guy you met in the Hummer last night. That blond sounds like an instructor I met a couple of days ago at a local martial-arts academy. I'm heading there now."
Butch grabbed for the keys to the unmarked.
"Take this, man." Vishous threw something into the air.
Butch caught the gun with a swipe of his hand. Checked the chamber. The Beretta was fully loaded, but with nothing he'd ever seen before.
"What the hell kind of bullets are these?" They were black and transparent at the tips, gleaming like they had oil inside.
"You're not going after a human, cop. If one of those lessers comes at you, you shoot them in the chest, got it? Don't pu**yfoot around, even if it's broad daylight. You go right for their chest."
Butch looked up. He knew he was crossing a line if he took the gun, going over to another side of the world.
"How will I know them, V?"
"They smell sweet, like baby powder, and they'll look right through you, right into your soul. They tend to have pale hair, eyes, and skin, but not always."
Butch tucked the semiautomatic into his waistband. And put his old life into the ground permanently.
Funny, the decision was an easy one.
"You clear on this, cop?" Vishous clapped him on the arm.
"Yeah."
As Butch bolted for the door, V said something in a foreign language.
"What?" Butch asked.
"Just aim straight, true?"
"I've never missed yet."
Chapter Forty-nine
Marissa couldn't wait to see Butch. She'd been thinking about him all day long, and it was finally time to go to him.
Except even though she was in a rush, she was going to stop on her way out and speak with Havers. She'd waited for him to come back home the night before, passing the time by helping out the nurses in the clinic and then reading in her room. Finally, she'd given up and left him a note on his bed, asking him to come find her when he got in. He hadn't stopped by, however.
And this failure of communication had gone on long enough.
She went to the door of her bedroom, surprised when it wouldn't open. She frowned. The handle wouldn't move. She tried again, jiggling the thing, then throwing her strength into the brass. It was jammed or locked.
And her bedroom walls were lined with steel, so she couldn't dematerialize.
"Hello!" she called out, banging on the door. "Hello! Havers! Someone! Would someone kindly let me out? Hello!"
She eventually gave up, a chill condensing in her chest.
As soon as she fell silent, Havers's voice drifted into her room, as if he'd been waiting on the other side the whole time.
"I'm sorry it has to be this way."
"Havers, what are you doing?" she said against the door panels.
"I have no other choice. I can't have you going to him anymore."