The Black Dagger Brotherhood_ An Insider's Guide - J. R. Ward [116]
Back at the mansion, Beth wakes up in Wrath’s arms. He’s been awake and holding her for hours. She asks softly what her father was like. Wrath tells her that Darius was brave and strong, everything a warrior should be. She asks him what it is that he and Darius are fighting against. He tells her about the Lessening Society and its history of hunting vampires. He tells her that her half-brothers were slaughtered by lessers. She asks him who he’s lost and he shares with her the horrible deaths of his parents. She strokes his face and says she’s sorry. His anguish is utterly apparent and so is his self-hatred. When he tells her he blames himself, she helps him see how powerless he was, given his physical stature and the fact that he was locked in by his father. She tells him that no one in that situation could have stopped the deaths. No one.
There’s a knock on the door. Wrath pulls on a robe, puts his sunglasses back on, and answers it. Boo, her cat, bounds through the room and throws himself into her arms. She laughs and hugs him. While she’d been asleep, Wrath had asked the butler to go and get Boo from her apartment.
Wrath thanks the butler and catches sight of her father’s door. When they’re alone, he tells her he wants to show her something and draws her from the bed. He takes her across the hall to Darius’s bedroom. She walks in and is awed by the sight of dozens of photographs of her at various ages. They’re everywhere in beautiful frames. (She finds out later that Fritz the butler had taken them.) She also finds a picture of her mother. Wrath waits by the door as she explores her father’s room. As he watches her, he realizes that he wants to take her as his uta-shellan, his one and only mate. His wife. The thought then occurs to him that she may not survive her transition. He’s filled with a cold dread.
Beth is incredibly touched at both her father’s obvious adoration of her as well as Wrath’s quiet support as she goes through the room. He answers her questions thoughtfully and each bit of information he shares is a precious gift to her. When she finds a diary, she asks him to come over. She can’t read the writing because it’s in a language she doesn’t know. As she holds the journal out to him, she realizes that he’s not even looking at it. She puts the book down and reaches to his face. She slowly takes off his sunglasses. Whenever he’s been without his glasses previously, it’s been dark. Here, in the light from a lamp, she sees that his irises are a pale, milky green, the pupils tiny, unfocused pinpoints. You’re blind, she says softly. Wrath feels an instinctive shame at his disability and tries to push her hands away. He worries that she’ll think he can’t protect her and tells her that he can still take care of her. Somehow, I don’t doubt that at all, she whispers while kissing him.
Out in town, Butch arrives at the martial arts academy and sees Billy Riddle leave. Butch goes inside and talks to one of the instructors, a guy named Joe Xavier. Butch can’t put his finger on it but there’s something not right about the man. Xavier answers his questions about throwing stars and then casually asks Butch who he’s looking for. No one in particular, Butch replies. He asks if Mr. Xavier would mind if he bought one of the stars. They’re not for sale, the man says, but I’ll give you one. Butch takes the star and puts it in his pocket. He leaves and drives over to the newspaper to see if Beth’s come in. No one’s seen her.
Beth leaves the mansion later that day, thinking she should go to work. She stops by her apartment, changes, and heads downtown. When she gets to the paper, her editor demands to know where she’s been. She’s missed two deadlines and he threatens to fire her. She sits down and writes two columns but her mind is really on Wrath. As fantastically unbelievable the