Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood #3)(128)

The whole time Zsadist struggled against her, urging her to run, to leave them.

“Shut up,” she told him, and bit into her own wrist. “Drink this or die, your choice. But make up your mind quick, because I need to check on Phury and then I’ve got to get the two of you out of here.”

She held her arm out to him, right over his mouth. Her blood welled and dripped onto his closed lips.

“You bastard,” she whispered. “Do you hate me so much—”

He lifted his head and latched onto her vein, his cold mouth telling her all she needed to know about how close to death he was. He drank slowly at first and then with increasing greed. Little sounds came out of him, sounds at odds with his big warrior body. He sounded as if he were mewing, a starved cat at a font of milk.

When he let his head fall back, his eyes closed with satiation. Her blood seeped into him; she watched him breathe through his open mouth. But there was no time to stare. She raced across the shed to Phury. He was unconscious, chained to the table, bloody as hell. But his chest was going up and down.

Damn it. Those steel chains had Master locks dangling from them. She was going to have to cut him free with something. She went over to the left, to a horrific selection of tools—

And that was when she saw the body in the corner. A young female with short blond hair.

Tears welled and flowed as she checked to make sure the girl was dead. When it was obvious she had passed unto the Fade, Bella swiped her own eyes clear and forced herself to focus. She needed to get the living out of here; they were her first priority. Afterward…one of the Brothers could come back and…

Oh…God…oh…God…oh…God.

Shuddering, close to hysterical, she picked up a Sawzall, fired the thing up, and made quick work of Phury’s restraints. When he didn’t come around after all the shrill noise, she got terrified again.

She looked at Zsadist, who had fought to get his upper body off the floor.

“I’m going to go get that truck by the cabin,” she said. “You stay here and conserve your strength. I need you to help me move Phury. He’s out cold. And the girl…” Her voice choked up. “We’ll have to leave her….”

Bella ran across the snow to the cabin, desperately hoping to find the truck’s keys, trying hard not to think what she would do if she didn’t.

Merciful Virgin, they were on a hook by the door. She grabbed them, raced for the F-150, started the damn thing, and gunned it around to the shed. A quick skidding turn and she backed it bed-first to the doorway.

She was just getting out of the driver’s side when she saw Zsadist weaving like a drunk between the jambs. Phury was in his arms, and Zsadist wasn’t going to last long holding up all that weight. She popped the lip on the bed and the two fell in, all tangled limbs and blood. She shoved at their bodies with her feet, then jumped up and pulled them farther back by their belts.

When they were in far enough, she threw one leg over the gunwale of the truck and hopped to the ground. She slammed the lip shut and met Zsadist’s eyes.

“Bella.” His voice was a mere whisper, just a movement of his lips backed up by a sigh of sadness. “I don’t want this for you. All this…ugliness.”

She turned away from him. A moment later she hit the gas.

The one-lane road that led away from the cabin was her only option, and she prayed she didn’t meet anyone on the way. When she came out onto Route 22, she said a prayer of thanks to the Scribe Virgin and headed for Havers’s at a dead run.

Tilting the rearview mirror, she looked into the truck bed. It must have been freezing back there, but she didn’t dare slow down.

Maybe the cold would slow the blood loss for both of them.

Oh…God.





Phury was aware of an icy wind blowing over his bare skin and across his bald head. He moaned and curled up into himself. God, he was cold. Was this what you had to go through to make it into the Fade? Then thank the Virgin it only happened once.

Something moved against him. Arms…there were arms coming around him, arms that took him in close to a kind of warmth. Shivering, he gave himself up to whoever it was who held him so gently.

What was that noise? Close to his ear…a sound other than the roaring wind.

Singing. Someone was singing to him.

Phury smiled a little. How perfect. The angels that were taking him unto the Fade truly did have beautiful voices.

He thought of Zsadist and compared the lovely melody he heard now with the ones he had listened to in real life.

Yes, Zsadist had had a voice like an angel, as it turned out. He truly had.





Chapter Forty-seven


When Zsadist came awake, his first instinct was to sit up. Bad f*cking idea. His shoulder let out a holler and nailed him with a shot of pain so intense, he blacked out again.

Round two.

This time when he woke up at least he remembered what not to do. He turned his head slowly instead of trying to get vertical. Where the hell was he? The place seemed halfway between a guest bedroom and a hospital setup—Havers. He was at Havers’s clinic.

And someone was sitting in the shadows across the unfamiliar room.

“Bella?” he croaked.

“Sorry.” Butch leaned forward, into the light. “Just me.”

“Where is she?” Man, he was hoarse. “Is she all right?”