The Black Dagger Brotherhood_ An Insider's Guide - J. R. Ward [123]
Out in the suburbs, Mr. X and Billy, who’s now known as Mr. R, leave Mr. X’s farmhouse. Mr. C doesn’t show because he’s been killed by another lesser in a fight over territory. Their plan is to stake out Darius’s house and wait for the legendary warrior vampire who’s taken up residence there to return at dawn. Mr. X has brought the net and the darts. He finds it ironic that the house of the warrior he blew up is where he’s going. He’d assumed that because the vampire who’d owned it had been killed, no other vampire would stay there because the place is hot. When they arrive, they scope out the mansion. They sense that the warrior vampires have left but there appears to be at least one female in there.
Inside, Marissa arrives and she and Butch sit with Beth. Beth feels like a third wheel and begs them to go upstairs. She’ll be fine. Butch thinks it over, and after checking the windows and doors and activating the security system, he allows as how he and Marissa will go into the living room across the hall. That’s as far as he’s willing to compromise. Beth curls up on the couch in the drawing room.
Mr. R trains his binoculars on the house and sees Beth. I’m going to really take that bitch down this time, he says to Mr. X. I want to beat her until she bleeds. Mr. X considers him thoughtfully and suggests a change in plan. How would you like to get her right now, he asks Mr. R.
Beth hears something hit the window. She goes over and looks out. There’s no one there. A moment later, an explosion racks the mansion. She’s thrown against the wall. As Butch runs into the room, two men come through the hole where the window used to be. One of them calmly shoots Butch. And the other is Billy Riddle.
Wrath and the brothers are battling with lessers inside the martial arts academy when he gets a terrible feeling in the center of the chest. He pulls out of the battle as soon as he can and flashes to the mansion. He finds chaos. Butch is down, the security system is going off, Marissa is hysterical, and Beth is gone.
Mr. X and Mr. R arrive at the farmhouse with Beth, having tied her hands and legs together. Mr. X is happy about the unexpected direction things have taken. Given that she’s a female, she offers certain new avenues for torture. Besides, the warrior will come after her. She’s obviously either his wife or his girlfriend or his sister. So it’s a win/win. Two for one. They take her inside.
Because Beth has fed from him, Wrath is able to sense where she is and he materializes in front of the farmhouse. Breaking through the door, he takes both lessers on in a ferocious fight. Beth works herself free of her holds, and with a physical strength she’s never had before, she attacks Billy Riddle. She slams him down and when Wrath throws a dagger at her, she stabs Billy and he disintegrates. Although Wrath prevails with Mr. X, Wrath is critically wounded. Beth rushes to his side. Using Wrath’s phone, she frantically calls Butch’s cell phone, hoping someone will answer it.
Marissa picks up. When she hears what’s happened to Wrath, Marissa, who’s already called upon her brother to help treat Butch’s wound, demands that Havers go to Wrath. As her brother refuses to meet her eyes, she has a terrible suspicion that he had something to do with the attack. Filled with rage, she confronts him and demands that he help Wrath. Havers, who’s been conflicted all along with his course of action, admits his culpability and flashes out to the farmhouse. It’s clear that Wrath is close to death and the only hope is for him to feed. Havers begins to role up his sleeve when Beth pushes him out of the way. Use your wrist, Havers tells her. Wrath eventually takes Beth’s blood and stabilizes enough for them to get into a car. They have to drive him because he’s unable to project himself. Darius’s place is too dangerous to stay in and dawn is coming. They decide to go Havers’s house. It takes both