J. Ward - Lover Eternal

"Actually, Butch, will you take me by my house on the way home? I want to pick up some medicine I left there." Those low-dose sleeping pills were going to come in handy.

"I'd like to avoid heading over there if we could. Any chance you could pick up what you want at a CVS or something?"

"They're prescription."

He frowned. "All right. But you make it quick, and I'm coming in with you."

Fifteen minutes later they parked in her driveway. In the golden glow of the setting sun, her place looked deserted. There were leaves blown up against the front door, her chrysanthemums were half-dead, and there was a tree limb down in the yard.

She hoped whoever bought it would love the place as much as she had.

When she walked into the house, a cold gust shot through the living room, and it turned out that the window over the kitchen sink was cracked about three inches. As she shut it, she assumed V must have left it open when he'd come over to work on the alarm system before she'd moved out She locked the thing and then went upstairs to get the Ambien.

Before they left, she paused at the rear sliding door and looked at her backyard. The pool was covered with a patina of leaves, the surface dull. The meadow beyond was an undulation of pale grass—

Something was flashing over at Bella's house.

Her instincts flared. "Butch, do you mind if we check that out?"

"Not a chance. I need to get you home."

She slid the door back.

"Mary, it's not safe."

"And that's Bella's. There shouldn't be anything moving at her house this time of day. Come on."

"You can call her from the car."

"I'll do it from here." A moment later she hung up and headed back for the door. "No answer. I'm going over."

"The hell you are—Mary, hold up! Christ, don't make me throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here."

"You pull something like that and I'll tell Rhage you had your hands all over me."

Butch's eyes flared. "Jesus, you're as bad a manipulator as he is."

"Not quite, but I'm learning. Now, are you coming with me or am I going it alone?"

He let out a juicy curse and palmed a gun. "I don't like this."

"Duly noted. Look, we'll just make sure she's okay. Shouldn't take more than ten minutes."

They walked through the meadow, Butch scanning the field with hard eyes. As they got closer to the farmhouse, she could see Bella's back French door swinging in the wind and catching the sun's last rays.

"Stay tight with me, okay?" Butch said as they walked onto the lawn.

The door bounced open again.

"Oh, shit," he muttered.

Its brass lock had been splintered and several panes had been broken.

They stepped cautiously inside.

"Oh, my God," Mary breathed.

Chairs were strewn about the kitchen along with broken plates and mugs and a shattered lamp. Burn marks streaked the floor and so did some kind of black, inklike substance.

As she bent down to look at the oily smears, Butch said, "Don't get near that stuff. It's the blood of a lesser ."

She closed her eyes. Those things in the park had Bella.

"Her bedroom in the basement?" he asked.

"That's what she told me."

They jogged down to the cellar and found the double doors to her room wide-open. A few of her dresser drawers had been thrown about, and it looked as if some of her clothes had been taken. Which didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Butch flipped open his cell phone as they went back up to the kitchen.

"V? We've had a break-in. Bella's." He eyed the black stains on a cracked chair. "She put up a good fight. But I think she's been taken by the lessers ."

As Rhage pulled on a set of leathers, he pinned the cell phone between his shoulder and his ear. "Cop? Let me talk to Mary."

There was a shuffling sound and then he heard, "Hello? Rhage?"

"Hey, my female, you okay?"

"I'm fine." Her voice was shaky as hell, but what a flicking relief just to hear it.

"I'm coming for you." He grabbed his chest holster as he pushed his feet into his shitkickers. "Sun's just going down now, so I'll be right there."

He wanted her safe and at home. While he and the brothers went after those assholes.

"Rhage… Oh, God, Rhage, what are they going to do to her?"

"I don't know." Which was a lie. He knew exactly what they were doing to Bella. God help her. "Listen, I realize you're worried about her. But right now I need you to focus on yourself. I want you on Butch like a screw cap, understand?"

Because it was faster for Rhage to dematerialize to her than have the cop drive her home to him. But he hated her being so exposed.

As he inserted his daggers into the holster, he realized there was only silence coming over the phone. "Mary? Did you hear what I said? Think about yourself. Stay next to Butch."

"I'm right beside him."

"Good. Keep it that way. And don't worry, one way or the other we'll get Bella back. I love you." He hung up and pulled on the heavy weight of his trench coat.

As he shot out into the hall, he ran into Phury, who was in leather and fully armed.

"What the fuck is going on?" Zsadist came down the corridor. "I get this hot and bothered message from V about a female—"

"Bella's been taken by the lessers ," Rhage said, checking his Glock.

A cold draft came out of Z like a blast. " What did you say ?"

Rhage frowned at the brother's intensity. "Bella. Mary's friend."

"When?"

"Don't know. Butch and Mary are at her house—"

Just like that, Zsadist was gone.

Rhage and Phury were right behind him, dematerializing to Bella's. The three of them ran up the farmhouse's front steps together.

Mary was in the kitchen, right by Butch who was checking out something on the floor. Rhage thundered over and grabbed on to her, holding her against him so hard their bones met.

"I'm going to take you home," he murmured into her hair.

"Mercedes's back at her place," Butch said as he rose from the black stains he'd been looking at. He tossed a set of keys at Rhage.

Phury cursed while righting a chair. "What've we got?"

The cop shook his head. "I think they took her alive, based on this pattern of scorched streaks to the door. Her blood trail burned up when the sun hit it—"

Even before Butch stopped short and glanced at Mary, Rhage started for the door with her. The last thing she needed was to hear the god-awful details.

The cop continued, "Besides, she's no use to them dead—Zsadist? You okay, man?"

In passing, Rhage glanced over his shoulder at Z.

Z was in a shaking fury, his face twitching along the scar under his left eye. Hell, he looked as if he were going to blow up, except it was hard to believe the capture of a female would matter one way or the other to him.

Rhage paused. "Z, what's doing?"

The brother turned away as if he didn't want to be seen, then leaned closer to the window he was in front of. With a low growl, he dematerialized.

Rhage glanced outside. All he could see was Mary's barn across the field.

"Let's go," he said to her. "I want you out of here."

She nodded and he gripped her arm, leading her from the house. They said nothing as they walked quickly through the grass.

Just as they stepped onto her lawn, glass shattered with a crash.

Something—someone—was thrown out of Mary's house. Right through the slider.

As the body bounced on the terrace, Zsadist jumped through the opening, fangs bared, face contoured with aggression. He launched himself onto the lesser , catching the thing by the hair and lifting its torso off the ground.

"Where is she?" the brother snarled. When the thing didn't answer, Z switched his hold and bit it on the shoulder, right through its leather coat. The slayer howled in pain.