The Black Dagger Brotherhood_ An Insider's Guide - J. R. Ward [113]
Meanwhile, in the basement laboratory under another mansion in town, Marissa’s brother Havers looks up from his work on vampire blood typing. The grandfather clock in the corner has started to chime. It’s time for a meal and Havers goes to his sister’s room. He finds her staring off into the night and her sorrow cuts at his heart. Marissa is incredibly precious to him, especially since his shellan died. He feels as if, because of his sister’s gentle nature, she needs to be with a civilian male who will care for her, not just use her for her blood. He asks her to come down to eat but she declines. He senses that she’s been to see Wrath, even though she just fed the night before. He asks her why she puts herself through this. She tells him it’s fine. Havers counters that Wrath shows her no respect, no doubt forces her to feed in some back alley. That’s not true, she protests. She tells him that they meet at Darius’s a lot of the time because Wrath stays there. You don’t have to do this to yourself, he says. She doesn’t answer him and he leaves her, feeling his own brand of loneliness as he goes down to a sumptuous table and finds himself having another meal by himself.
In her apartment, Beth stirs when she feels something soft on her face. It’s Wrath. He’s running his fingertips over her features, desperately wishing he could see her. He tells her she’s beautiful and for once the comment doesn’t turn her off. Wrath’s cell phone goes off and he leaves the bed. It’s one of the brothers. There’s a number of businesses in the call log of the phone Wrath lifted off the lesser he’d killed the night before. They’re going to go check them out and want Wrath to come in the event they find a facility and all hell breaks loose.
Wrath starts to dress. Beth watches him and is surprised when her cat, Boo, leaps up into his arm and purrs. A low sound comes out of this menacing man as he purrs back. Beth asks what his name is. He tells her and recites his cell phone number, making her repeat it until she remembers it. He tells her he has to go and may not be able to get back to her tonight but she should call him if she gets followed or if she feels afraid at any time. Wrath drops Boo and straps on a shoulder holster. That’s when it hits her. Obviously, Wrath’s been sent by the boys at the police station to protect her. She asks him if Butch sent him. Wrath comes over and sits next to her. He debates telling her it was her father but he has to meet his brothers and doesn’t want to open that issue without having the time to really talk to her. Wrath kisses her and asks her to come to him in the day. He gives her Darius’s address and she agrees to drop by in the morning. He figures that they’ll be able to talk in the chamber and there’ll be time to answer all of her questions then.
After he leaves, she falls asleep, totally sated. She wakes up in the morning, and when she steps out into the sunlight, her eyes ache. She figures it’s a hangover from whatever he was smoking around her. She goes to her office because it’s too early to go see Wrath. She gets a call from Jose. A prostitute was killed in an alley over night. When Beth arrives at the police station, Butch is there and he tells her that there was a throwing star found in the alley, similar to one found around the car bomb. There’s probably some kind of turf war going on between the pimps, he says. They talk a little more and he asks her out to dinner again. She tells him no but thanks him for sending his friend to her. Butch asks what the hell she’s talking about.
Beth leaves, disturbed by the ramifications of what she did the night before. She’s had sex with a total stranger. Who looks like a trained killer. It felt somehow different if Butch or one of the cops was involved and suddenly the idea of going to some address to meet that man strikes her as foolhardy.