The dark lover....

Chapter 03

Beth took a forty-five-minute shower, used half a bottle of frame wash, and almost melted the cheap wallpaper off the rest room partitions because she stored the water so warm. She dried off, threw on her bathrobe, and tried not to capture any other shot of her reflection in the replicate. Her lip turned into a multitude.

She stepped out into her cramped studio condo. The air conditioner had died more than one weeks in the past, so the room become nearly as smothering because the

lavatory. She eyed her home windows and the sliding door that led out to a wilted courtyard. She desired to open them all, however checked the locks as an alternative.

Even though her nerves were shot, as a minimum her body become rebounding speedy. Her urge for food had returned with a vengeance, as though it have been pissed on the diversion of dinner, and she went round to her galley kitchen.

The chicken leftovers from four nights in the past even appeared inviting, but while she cracked the foil package, she caught a whiff of sweat socks. She pitched the load and tossed a Lean Cuisine into the microwave. She ate the macaroni and cheese standing up, maintaining the little plastic tray in her palm with a pot holder. It wasn’t enough, didn’t even make a dent in her starvation, so she had any other one.

The idea of setting on twenty kilos in a single night time became damned appealing; it

truly changed into. She couldn’t assist the manner her face regarded, however she turned into inclined to wager that Neanderthal misogynist attacker of hers preferred his sufferers with a decent a*s.

She blinked her eyes, seeking to get his face out of her thoughts. God, she may want to

still experience his hands, those awful, heavy fingers bruising her breasts. She had to report a file. She ought to go all the way down to the station. Except she didn’t want to depart her condominium. At least no longer until morning.

She went over to the futon she used as a sofa and a mattress and curled her legs in tight to her body. Her stomach became doing a sluggish churn activity at the mac and cheese, waves of nausea observed via marching rows of shivers passing over her

pores and skin.A smooth meow brought her head up.

“Hey, Boo,”

she stated, wiggling her fingers listlessly. The bad guy had run for cover when she’d come thru the door tearing her clothes off and throwing them across the room.

Meowing once more, the black cat padded over. His extensive inexperienced eyes regarded concerned as he leaped into her lap with grace.

“Sorry approximately the drama,”

she murmured, making room for him. He rubbed his head against her shoulder, purring. His frame become warm, his

weight grounding. She didn’t realize how long she sat there stroking his exceptional, gentle fur, but whilst the smartphone rang, she jumped.

As she reached for the receiver, she managed to keep pace with the petting.

Years of residing with Boo had honed her cat/cellphone coordination talents to

perfection.

“Hello?”

she said, wondering it turned into past night time, which dominated out telemarketers and counseled either work or some sicko crank-calling her.

“Yo, B-woman. Get your dancing shoes on. Some guy’s car blew up outside of Screamer’s. With him in it.”

Beth closed her eyes and wanted to weep. José de la Cruz turned into one of the

metropolis’s police detectives, however he was also a friend of kinds. As were maximum of the males and females in blue, come to think of it. Because she spent a lot time at the station, she’d gotten to realize them all pretty nicely, despite the fact that José become considered one of her favorites.

“Hey, you there?”

Tell him. Tell him what came about. Just open your mouth. Shame and remembered horror tightened her vocal cords.

“I’m right here, José.”

She pushed her dark hair out of her face and cleared her throat.

“I can’t come this night.”

“Yeah, proper. When you ever turn down an awesome tip?”

He laughed effortlessly.

“Oh, however take it smooth. Hard-a*s is at the case.”

Hard-a*s became Homicide Detective Brian O’Neal, higher referred to as Butch. Or simply simple sir.

“You getting busy with someone?”

Curiosity spiked his voice. José become

married. Happily. But she knew down on the station that they all speculated approximately her. A female who appeared like her with out a person? Something had to be up.

“Well, are you?”

“God, no. No.”

There turned into a stretch of silence as her friend’s cop radar glaringly kicked in.

“What’s up?”

“I’m excellent. Just worn-out. I’ll come to the station day after today.”

She’d record the record then. Tomorrow she’d be sturdy enough to undergo what had occurred without breaking down.

“Do I need to do a force-by means of?”

“No, but thanks. I’m okay.”

She hung up. Fifteen minutes later she became in a pair of freshly laundered denims and a floppy shirt that included her butt after which a few. She called for a cab. Before she

left she rummaged thru her closet until she found her other purse.

She grabbed the pepper spray and held it tough in her hand as she stepped out of her

rental. In the 2 miles between her the front door and the bomb scene, she changed into going to discover her voice.

And she became going to inform José the whole lot. As tons as she hated the concept of reliving the assault, she wasn’t going to permit that asshole walk free and do the same issue to a person else. And despite the fact that he turned into never caught, at the least she might have finished her part to attempt to nail him.

Wrath materialized in the drawing room of Darius’s residence. Damn, he’d forgotten how properly the vampire lived. Even although D became a warrior, he had the tastes of an aristocrat and it made sense.

He’d began lifestyles as a highborn princeps, and exceptional living became still of price to him. His 19th-century mansion become well cared for, packed with antiques

and works of art. It became also comfortable as a bank vault. But the drawing room’s soft yellow walls harm Wrath’s eyes.

“What a pleasant surprise, my lord.”

Fritz, the butler, got here in from the the front hall and bowed deeply at the same time as shutting off the lighting to ease Wrath’s squint. As normal, the old male become wearing black livery. He’d been with Darius for about a hundred or so years and was a doggen, which intended he may want to go out inside the day but elderly faster than vampires did. His subspecies have been serving aristocrats and warriors for millennia.

“Will you be with us for lengthy, my lord?”

Wrath shook his head. Not if he may want to assist it.

“Hour, tops.”

“Your room is prepared. Should you want me, I am here.”

Fritz bent at the waist once more and walked backward out of the room, final the double doorways behind him. Wrath went over to a seven-foot-tall portrait of what he’d been told became a French king. He placed his hand on the right aspect of the heavy gold body, and thecanvas pivoted to expose a darkish stone corridor lit with fuel lamps.

Stepping interior, he took a fixed of stairs deep into the earth. At the bottom touchdown there were two doors. One went to Darius’s luxurious quarters. The different opened to what Wrath meant changed into a home far from home for him. Most days he slept in a warehouse in New York City, in an interior room made out of metal with a lock machine along the traces of Fort Knox’s.

But he might never invite Marissa there. Or even any of the brothers. His privacy changed into valuable. As he stepped interior, candles set up into the partitions flared across the room at his will. Their golden glow slightly made headway against the darkness.

In deference to Wrath’s eyesight, Darius had painted the walls and twenty-foot-excessive

ceiling black. In one nook there was a big mattress with black satin sheets and a thicket of pillows. Across the manner was a leather couch, a extensive-screen TV, and a door that opened right into a black marble rest room. There become additionally a closet complete of weapons and garments.

For a few motive, Darius become always bugging him to stay on the mansion.

It was a goddamned mystery. There wasn’t aprotection trouble, due to the fact Darius could take care of himself. And the concept that a vampire like D could be lonely became

ludicrous. Wrath sensed Marissa earlier than she got here into the room. The heady scent of the ocean, a easy breeze, preceded her.

Let’s get this over with, he idea. He turned into itching to get back to the streets. He’d had most effective a taste of conflict, and tonight he desired to gorge himself. He turned around.

As Marissa bowed her mild frame to him, he sensed devotion and uneasiness weaving together in the air around her.

“My lord,”

she stated. From what little he could see, she was sporting a few type of flowing white

chiffon component, and her long blond hair cascaded over her shoulders and down her

again. He knew she dressed to try to please him, and he wished like hell she wouldn’t take the time.

He took off his leather jacket and the chest holster he carried his daggers in. Damn his mother and father. Why had they given him a woman like her? So…fragile. Then again, thinking about the shape he’d been in before his transition, maybe they’d concerned all people sturdier could have hurt him.

Wrath flexed his hands, his biceps curling up thick, one shoulder cracking from the force.

If they might handiest see him now. Their little boy had became a righteous, bloodless killer.Probably better they have been useless, he concept. They wouldn’t have accepted of

what he’d turn out to be.

Then once more, if they’d been allowed to live into old age, he might had been extraordinary. Marissa shifted nervously.

“I’m sorry to disturb you. But I can not wait any longer.”

Wrath headed for the toilet.

“You want me, I come.”

He grew to become at the water and rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt. With steam growing from the rush of the faucet, he cleaned the dirt, sweat, and loss of life from his hands. Then he labored the bar of soap up his fingers, overlaying with suds the ritualistic tattoos that ran down the insides of his forearms.

He rinsed, dried himself, and walked over to the couch. He sat and waited, grinding his tooth. They’d been doing this for how long? Centuries. But on every occasion it took

Marissa some time earlier than she could method him. If it had been anyone else, his

patience would have snapped within moments, however he reduce her a few slack.

Truth turned into, he felt sorry for her due to the fact she’d been compelled to emerge as his shellan. He’d informed her again and again that he’d launch her in their covenant, loose her to find a real mate, person who would now not only kill anything that threatened her, however would love her, too.

Funny element became, Marissa wouldn’t give up on him, as fragile as she might be. He figured she likely feared no other woman would have him, that none could feed the beast when he wanted it after which their race might lose their most powerful line. Their king. Their chief who wasn’t inclined to steer.

Yeah, he turned into one hell of a capture. He stayed away from her until he had to

drink, which wasn’t frequently due to his lineage. She never knew wherein he turned into or what he turned into doing. She surpassed the lengthy days by myself in her brother’s residence, sacrificing her existence to keep alive the remaining purebred vampire, the best one with now not

a unmarried drop of human blood in him.

Frankly, he didn’t know how she stood it—or him. Abruptly, he felt like cursing. Tonight was stacking up to be a actual celebration for his ego. Darius. Now her. Wrath’s eyes followed her as she moved around the room, circling him, getting nearer.

He compelled his face to loosen up, saved his respiration even, made his frame nonetheless. This was the toughest part of being with her. He panicked at not being free to transport, and he knew when she began to feed, the choking sensation might get worse.

“You were busy, my lord?”

she stated softly. He nodded, wondering that if he turned into fortunate, he changed into going to get even busier before sunrise came.Marissa eventually stood earlier than him, and he may want to feel her hunger cutting via her uneasiness.

He sensed her desire, too. She desired him, but he blocked out that unique emotion of hers. There become no manner he changed into going to have i*********e with her.

He couldn’t imagine setting Marissa through the things he’d completed to different female bodies. And he’d by no means wanted her that way. Not even in the beginning.

“Come here,”

he said, gesturing along with his hand. He dropped his forearm on his thigh, wrist up.

“You’re ravenous. You shouldn’t wait goodbye to call on me.”

Marissa reduced herself to the floor at his knees, her gown pooling around her frame and his toes. Her fingers were heat on his skin as she softly ran her give up his tattoos, stroking the black characters that exact his lineage inside the vintage language.

She was near sufficient so he caught the movement of her mouth opening, her fangs flashing white before she sank them into his vein.

Wrath closed his eyes, laying his head back as she drank. The panic came on him rapid and hard. He curled his free arm around the edge of the couch, his muscle groups straining as he gripped the nook to hold his body in location.

Calm, he had to stay calm. It became going to be over quickly, after which he’d be free.

When Marissa lifted her head ten mins later, he bolted upright and walked off the tension, feeling a sick alleviation that he could now pass around. As quickly as he had his s**t together, he went over to her.

She turned into replete, soaking up the electricity that got here to her as their blood combined. He didn’t just like the appearance of her mendacity on the ground, so he picked her up and become thinking about calling Fritz to take her returned to her brother’s residence whilst there was a rhythmic knock on the door.

Wrath glared across the room, carried her to the mattress, and laid her down.

“Thank you, my lord,” she murmured. “I will take myself home.”

He paused. And then pulled a sheet over her legs before taking walks over and cracking open the door. Fritz became all jazzed up approximately some thing.

Wrath slid out of doors, last the door tight. He become about to ask what the hell would warrant the disruption while the butler’s fragrance permeated his inflammation.

He knew without asking that demise had paid some other visit. And Darius became gone.

“Master—”

“How?”

He growled. The pain he might address later. First he needed information.

“Ah, the auto…”

Clearly the butler changed into having problem maintaining it collectively, his

voice reedy and thin as his old body.

“A bomb, my lord. The car. Outside of the

membership. Tohrment called. He saw it manifest.”

Wrath idea of the lesser he’d taken down. He wanted he knew whether it have been the only who’d done the deed. The bastards had no honor anymore. At least their precursors, going lower back for centuries, had fought like warriors. This new breed have been cowards who concealed at the back of generation.

“Call the brotherhood,”

he floor out.

“Tell them to come now.”

“Yes, of route. And grasp? Darius requested me to provide this to you”

—the butler held something out—

“in case you have been no longer with him while he died.”

Wrath took the envelope and went lower back into the chamber, having no compassion to offer Fritz or everybody else. Marissa changed into long gone, which became exact for her.

He tucked Darius’s final missive into the waistband of his leather pants. And permit his rage out. The candles exploded and fell to the ground as a whirlwind of viciousness

swirled around him, growing tighter, faster, darker till the furniture flipped off the ground and traveled in a circle around him. He leaned back his head and roared.