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The low sound of an engine filled the silence between them. A large black Mercedes with tinted windows pulled up. Real drug-lord time.
"Ah, f**k, Beth." He squeezed her arm, desperate to get her attention. "Don't do this. You're aiding and abetting a suspect."
"Let go of me, Butch."
"He's dangerous."
"And you aren't?"
He dropped his hold.
"Tomorrow," she said, stepping back. "We'll talk tomorrow. Meet me here after work."
Getting frantic, he put his body in her path. "Beth, I can't let you - "
"Are you going to arrest me?"
Not as a cop, he couldn't. Not unless he was reinstated to the force.
"No. I won't take you in."
"Thank you."
"I'm not doing it as a favor," he said bitterly as she walked around him. "Beth, please."
She paused. "Nothing is as it seems."
"I don't know. I've got a pretty f**king clear picture. You're protecting a killer, and there's a serious chance you're going to get stuffed into a pine box. Do you understand what this guy is? I've seen his face up close. When his hand was around my neck and he was squeezing the life right out of me. A man like that has murder in his blood. It's his nature. How can you go to him? Hell, how can you let him walk the streets?"
"He's not like that."
But the words were phrased as a question.
The car door opened, and a little old man in a tuxedo got out.
"Mistress, is there a difficulty?" the man asked her solicitously, while at the same time shooting Butch the evil eye.
"No, Fritz. No problem." She smiled, but it was a shaky one. "Tomorrow, Butch."
"If you live that long."
She paled, but rushed down the stairs, sliding into the car.
After a moment Butch got into his. And trailed them.
When Havers heard footsteps coming toward the dining room, he looked up from his plate with a frown. He'd been hoping to make it through his meal without an interruption.
But it wasn't one or the doggen coming in with news that a patient had arrived to be treated.
"Marissa!" He rose from his chair.
She marshaled a smile for him. "I thought I would come down. I'm tired of spending so much time in my room."
"I'm very pleased to have your company."
As she came up to the table, he pulled out her chair. He was happy that he'd insisted her place was always set, even after he'd lost hope she would join him. And tonight it seemed as though she was making an effort with more than just coming to eat. She was wearing a beautiful dress made of black silk that had a jacket with a stiff, stand-up collar. Her hair was down around her shoulders, flashing spun gold in the candlelight. She looked lovely, and he felt a flush of animosity. It was a total insult that Wrath couldn't appreciate all she had to offer, that this exquisite female of noble blood was not good enough for him.
Other than for use as a feeding trough.
"How is your work?" she asked as she was served wine by one doggen. A plate of food was set in front of her by another. "Thank you, Phillip. Karolyn, this looks wonderful."
She picked up a fork and gently prodded the roast beef.
Good heavens, Havers thought. This was almost normal.
"My work? Fine. Actually better than fine. As I mentioned, I've had a bit of a breakthrough. Feeding may soon be a thing of the past." He lifted his glass and drank. The burgundy should have been a perfect accompaniment to the beef, but it tasted off to him. Everything on his plate was sour on his tongue as well. "I transfused myself with stored blood this afternoon, and I feel fine."
Actually, that was a bit of an overstatement. He didn't feel sick, but something wasn't right. That normal rush of strength had yet to hit him.
"Oh, Havers," she said softly. "You still miss Evangaline, don't you?"
"Painfully. And the drinking is simply not... agreeable to me."
No, he would no longer stay alive the old-fashioned way. From now on it would be clinical. A sterilized needle in his arm, hooking him up to a bag.
"I'm so very sorry," Marissa said.
Havers reached out, laying his palm faceup on the table. "Thank you."
She put her hand in his. "And I'm sorry that I've been so... preoccupied. But it will be better now."
"Yes," he said urgently. Wrath was just the kind of barbarian who would want to continue to drink from the vein, but at least Marissa could be spared the indignity. "You could try the transfusion as well. It will free you, too."
She took her hand back and reached for her wineglass. As she lifted the burgundy to her mouth, she spilled some on her jacket.
"Oh, bother," she muttered, brushing the wine off the silk. "I'm terribly uncoordinated, aren't I?"
She removed the jacket and laid it on the empty chair next to her.
"You know, Havers, I would like to try it. Drinking is no longer palatable to me, either."
A delicious relief, a feeling of possibility, overtook him. The sensation seemed wholly unfamiliar because he hadn't felt it in so very long. The idea that something might change for the better had become a foreign concept to him.
"Truly?" he whispered.
She nodded, pushing her hair over her shoulder and picking up her fork. "Yes, truly."
And then he saw the marks on her neck.
Two inflamed puncture wounds. A red blaze where she had been sucked. Purple contusions on the skin of her collarbone where she'd been gripped by a heavy hand.
Horror curdled his appetite, blurred his vision.
"How could he have treated you so roughly?" Havers breathed.
Marissa's hand went to her neck before she quickly pulled some hair forward. "It's nothing. Truly, it's not... anything."
His eyes stayed in place as he continued to see clearly what she had hidden.
"Havers, please. Let's just eat." She picked up her fork again, as if she were prepared to demonstrate exactly how one did that. "Come now. Eat with me."
"How can I?" He threw down his silverware.
"Because it's over."
"What is?"
"I have broken the covenant with Wrath. I am no longer his shellan. I will see him no more."
Havers could only stare for a moment. "Why? What has changed?"
"He has found a female he wants."
Anger congealed in Havers's veins. "And just who does he prefer to you?"
"You do not know her."
"I know all females of our class. Who is it?" he demanded.
"She is not of our class."
"She is one of the Scribe Virgin's Chosen, then?" In the vampire social hierarchy, they were the only ones above a female of the aristocracy.
"No. She is human. Or at least half-human, from what I could tell from his thoughts about her."
Havers turned to stone in his chair. Human. A human?
Marissa had been forsaken for a... Homo sapiens?
"Has the Scribe Virgin been contacted?" he asked in a brittle voice.
"That is his duty, not mine. But make no mistake, he will go to her. It is... over."
Marissa took a small piece of beef and put it between her lips. She chewed carefully, as if she'd forgotten how. Or perhaps the humiliation she was obviously feeling made it difficult to swallow.
Havers gripped the arms of his chair. His sister, his beautiful, pure sister, had been ignored. Used. Brutalized as well.
And all that was left of her mating with their king was the shame of being cast aside for a human.
Her love had never meant anything to Wrath. Neither had her body or her impeccable bloodlines.
And now the warrior had done away with her honor.
The hell it was over.
Chapter Twenty-four
Wrath pulled on the Brooks Brothers jacket. It was tight in the shoulders, but he was hard to fit, and he'd given Fritz no notice.
Then again, the thing could have been custom-tailored and he would still have felt shackled. He was much more comfortable in leather and weapons than this worsted-wool crap.
He walked into the bathroom and squinted at himself. The suit was black. So was the shirt. That was all he could really see.
Good God, he probably looked like a lawyer.
He stripped off the jacket and put it on the marble counter. Pulling his hair back with impatient hands, he tied the length with a strap of leather.
Where was Fritz? The doggen had left to get Beth nearly an hour ago. The two of them should be back by now, but the house above still felt empty.
