Lover Arisen (Black Dagger Brotherhood #20)(90)

She’d pulled on a pair of jeans and shoved her feet into some boots. Her hair was tied back as well. Meanwhile, he was still in a towel and barefoot—but he could dematerialize out if he had to. Not that he would leave her.

“You have the keys to the Honda,” he said, even though he already knew the answer.

“Yes.”

He had a brief idea that he could bunk her in at the Black Dagger Brotherhood mansion. He wasn’t using his bedroom, for fuck’s sake. But how would that work? They drive there and he’d just throw her out the car door and tell her to ask for Fritz to take her upstairs to his crib?

Besides, he had no idea what he was picking up on. He felt as though there were a thousand of some enemy outside the townhouse, but—

The subtle noise was so soft, it was almost impossible to hear over the aggression roaring in his ears, in his blood, in his body. When it repeated, though, it gave him something to track, and he turned around and looked through into the living room. He had to wait an interval before it recurred, and this time, he went over to where Erika’s purse was.

“I think it’s your phone,” he said gruffly. “On vibrate.”

Erika hustled past him and glanced around before putting her weapon down on the coffee table. “I don’t have mine on silent, though.”

Opening the bag, she went in with her hands, taking out a practical brown wallet, a packet of Kleenex, a roll of Certs. A notepad. Couple of pens. Receipts. Lipstick. And was that—

“Is that a parking ticket?” he asked.

“I had no choice. I had to get some coffee.”

“Isn’t there a professional courtesy thing?”

“No, and there shouldn’t be. If you park wrong, you should get ticketed.”

As more crap emerged out of the purse, he decided it was like a clown car for debris, and in spite of his on-alert routine, he found the mess endearing. She was so damned put together, her house so neat, her opinions so direct, her professionalism so obvious, the idea that there was some chaos under the facade made him feel like he didn’t have to be so perfect.

And good job on that, as he was far from an A+ on anyone’s grading scale.

“No, it’s not mine.” She held up an iPhone. “And I only have one—oh, wait.”

She seemed to unzip something. And then she took out a Samsung phone he recognized.

As it vibrated in her hand, she frowned. “I don’t know whose this—”

“It’s mine.” So V knew where he was. Then again, was it really that hard to guess Balz wouldn’t leave her? “That’s my phone.”

“How did it get in my purse?”

She turned the thing over to him—and the second he went in and read the text, he was glad he’d taken all those guns from the garage with them.

“What is it?” she asked.

“We need to stay here.” Shelter in place… which was V’s formal way of saying hang-wherever-the-fuck-you-were. “And I have to find out what’s going on—is there somewhere you can lock yourself in? A bathroom with no windows?”

Although like that was really going to help if there were shadows popping up all over Caldwell, particularly around vampires?

Erika stepped right up into his face. “You’ve got the wrong woman if you think I’m going to damsel-in-distress in some tub while you stomp around and get shot in the back because you’re undefended.”

Balz blinked. And then one and only one thing went through his mind.

Do not tell her you love her right now.

Even though it was his God’s honest truth—

Oh, shit, he really didn’t want that coming out of his mouth right now.

“What,” she demanded. “You might as well tell me because somehow, I don’t think tonight could get any worse.”

His eyes traced her face and he shook his head ruefully. What the hell was he going to do with her?

What the hell was he going to do without her?

“Don’t bet on it,” he muttered. “Worse is always a possibility.”

“Well, all I know is, where you go, I’m going.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And if you have a problem with that, I’m not really interested in hearing about it.”

He cursed. Then he thought of her upstairs, guarding his six.

With another round of swearing, he went to the living room and came back with the duffle bag full of weapons. “Fine. I want to go clear your basement.”

Erika nodded once. “The door’s right behind you. And I’ll go first.”





CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE




How had the Omega changed its mind?

As the male walked down the city street, he was naked and impervious to the cold. He was also invisible to the few humans who were passing in cars. But he was alive.

With the wind blowing through his blond hair and across his bare skin, the sensations were distant and also foreign—and he wondered how long he had been in the miasma, the torturous void, the black oily Hell where he had known pain to the point where he had become pain.

No form, no function, just an agony that was somehow self-aware…

In spite of who he’d been sired by, he’d never thought much about Dhunhd. Now that he’d died, he knew firsthand that it existed—and not in terms of his father’s private quarters, but rather the eternal damnation that humans waxed poetic about and that vampires, too, sought to avoid.