The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #13)(166)
Just like that, the cousins dematerialized out of the backseat … and the Forelesser arrived, coming to a stop. As usual, Assail and his business associate both put their windows down at the same time.
“Where’s your Range Rover, vampire?”
“In the shop.”
“Be f*cking real. Have you been trailed?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
The slayer frowned, his dark brows falling down over his dark eyes. For a moment, Assail mourned the Old Country, where you knew the bastards not just from their stench, but because they had been in the Lessening Society long enough for their coloring to pale out. Not in the New World. No, here, in the disposable culture of American humans, the undead did not last long enough to have their pigments fade.
“ATF?” the slayer demanded. “Or CPD.”
As if during his years as a human he had often found inconvenience from those two organizations.
“By the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And the Blind King, Wrath.”
The undead threw his head back and laughed. “Whatever, my man, that’s on you.”
“No, I’m afraid that shall be on you, mate.”
Without warning, Assail lunged out of his window and stabbed the slayer in the eye, using the dagger he had discreetly placed upon his thigh. As the Forelesser screamed, Assail wrenched the blade free and slashed across the front of the throat. Gurgling sounds and copious amounts of black blood filled the interior of the slayer’s SUV, and Assail was forced to awkwardly extract his upper body or be drenched in the mess.
Ehric rematerialized with his cousin and made quick work of searching the vehicle as Assail looked around, ensuring that there were still no witnesses. As the slayer choked and clawed at the second mouth that had been made in his neck, Ehric emerged with three AKs and many rounds of ammunition. Without conversation, the weapons and lead were placed in the trunk of the Taurus, and the cousins opened both rear doors and got back into that vehicle.
Assail reached through the window and pulled one of the Forelesser’s arms out. Finding an unstained section of sleeve, he wiped off his dagger, reholstered the thing … and extracted a serrated hunting knife from his belt.
Quick work to sever the head completely.
He left the body where it was, behind the wheel of the SUV, its hands and feet as yet moving, the right hand even flopping up and gripping the wheel.
Going to be rather difficult to drive, considering there was no brain and no vision to direct things.
No, he had the CPU by the hair.
Walking around to the front passenger’s-side door, he opened things up and placed the still-blinking, still-mobile head into the cardboard Amazon.com box that had been lined with Hefty bags.
Then he went across and got back behind the wheel of the Taurus. Before the interior lights extinguished themselves, he peered over the lip of the box and met the rolling, shocked eyes.
“You were a fine partner,” Assail murmured. “Such a shame we must needs part association.”
With that, he put the sedan in drive and headed off.
SIXTY-SIX
Trez let himself fall back on his brother’s bed, his arms flopping out to the sides, his eyes focusing on the ceiling above. Goddamn it, that frickin’ curse of his was never going to stop haunting him. Here he was, trying to do right by the one female who had ever mattered to him … and that s’Hisbe shit was, as ever, a noose around his neck.
“You have been … without a female?” Selena asked. “Since…”
He lifted his head and stared across the empty bedroom at her. “Why would I have been with one? Ever since I had you? Nobody’s been of interest.”
There was a long pause. “Really?”
“Really.”
She put her hands to her face. “That is…” She shook her head. “Pretty fantastic, actually.”
Pushing against the mattress, he sat up on his elbows and regarded her. “Do you remember what you said? After you … well, you know, when we were down in the clinic the first time? That you were worried you were just another obsession for me to sink into?”
“Yes.”
“Well, if you are? I sank into you before we even hooked up. You probably don’t remember this, but…” He shook his head. “I used to wait for you in the foyer every night.”
“What?”
“Yeah, pathetic. I know. But see, you’d come here to feed V or Rhage, or Luchas, and I’d linger by the front door just in case you came up from the training center—or went down to it from somewhere else in the house. One night—shit, I can remember it clear as anything—you finally made an appearance. I rushed down the big staircase—you were, like, in the foyer when I caught your attention. I stared at you, and thought … this is the most amazing female I have ever seen.” He shrugged and sat all the way up. “You got me then and there, my queen. I’ve been obsessed with you, for good or not so good, waaaaaay before I knew you were sick.”
She smiled a little. “I had no idea. I mean, I knew, when we were up at Rehv’s together and you … well, I knew that … um, you liked me.”
He blinked and saw her naked in that bed of hers at the Great Camp. “Yeah, I was into you then. Way into you.” Grimacing, he said, “Look, I haven’t handled everything well. I should have told you about the particulars of the s’Hisbe stuff, but I was worried it was going to freak you out and make you want to have nothing to do with me. I’ve lost years of my life imprisoned in that palace, and I’ve ruined iAm’s entire existence—I was not going to lose a shot at you because of that crap on top of all of that. And as for my businesses? They’re not legal according to human laws, but I’ve always believed people have a right to make their living in any way they want, as long as they don’t hurt anyone. That’s why, unlike Rehv, I don’t allow drugs to be sold on my premises. The human women are protected when they’re under my roof, they practice safe sex, and they keep ninety percent of what they make. The ten percent I take goes to my electric bills and my bouncers. So, yeah … that’s where I’m at with that.”