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CHAPTER TWO
The BDB Underground Housing Complex, a.k.a. The Wheel
Suburbs of Caldwell, New York
The Black Dagger Brother Zsadist, son of Ahgony, mated of the beloved Bella, sire of Nalla, fucking hated cell phones. He didn’t like all the notifications, the vibrating, thebing’ing, the ringing. Also, they were breakable, and every two weeks, you had to charge them. Worst, he was required to carry one.
He hated being forced to do anything, especially when the albatross came with a marching band of irritations.
But there was another reason he despised the Samsung. As it went off with a text, he finished holstering his black daggers on his chest, picked up the unit from the midst of his weapons, and cursed at the images that had been sent to members of the Brotherhood and the fighters who stalked the night along with them.
Annnnd there it was: Never good news.
Another murder scene with contractor buckets from Home Depot, puddles of black oil on a concrete floor, and no bodies—because everything that had been killed had been reanimated and walked the fuck back out onto the streets of Caldwell. To hunt vampires.
He checked his old Timex—
“I thought you were off tonight.”
He glanced across from the display of gunmetal on the kitchen countertop. Over in the living area, standing beside his baby grand Steinway, Bella was in her favorite robe. No fussy silk for hisshellan. She was in the flannel one that she’d given him last year when they’d all celebrated the humans’ Christmas. He never wore it, but not because he didn’t like the gift.
All that Black Watch tartan had better things to cover than him.
Pulling his leather jacket over what was on his pecs, he regretted arming himself here. He didn’t like his female anywhere near his SIG Sauers, his explosive packs, the length of chain he wore around his shoulder when he was in the field.
“I love the way you look in that robe,” he said as he stepped around the center island and blocked her view with his body.
His mate pushed some of her gleaming brown hair back and fiddled with the tie at her waist. “It was supposed to be a gift for you.”
“Everything I have is yours.”
Bella smiled, her blue eyes warming. For a moment, he went back, way back, to the first time he’d seen her down in the gym at the training center under the mountain. He’d been alone with just a punching bag and his inner demons. She’d stepped through the door… and brought the world to him.
Then again, shewashis world.
Even now, after decades, he still felt like the luckiest male on the planet, in spite of what he’d been through back in the Old Country, and the triggers that still stalked him, and the separation from people that, no matter how many times he talked things through with Mary, he couldn’t quite shake.
“Why are you looking at me like that,” Bella murmured.
“You’re unforgettable.”
His mate laughed. “Shouldn’t that mean you don’t have to stare?”
“On the contrary, you always catch my eye.”
Bella leaned to the side to see around him. “Your phone is ringing.”
“Is it.”
He walked over to her, a predator brought to heel by the female who could overrule even his kill instinct with just a whisper. Brushing his dagger hand over her hair, he followed a strand down onto the robe’s collar, which she’d turned up against her throat. Peeling back the soft flannel, he inspected the bite mark over her jugular.
And felt a familiar shaft of self-hatred puncture his lungs.
She kissed his hand, sending a shot of pure lust into his gut. “I’m perfectly fine, and you know it.”
“I should have been more gentle when I mounted you.”
“I would have been disappointed,” she shot back in a guttural voice. “You were hungry and I wanted to feed you. That is not the time to be gentle.”
