The Beast

V whistled back and his brothers came jogging over.

He kept his eyes on Tohr, and as soon as the fighter was within range, V pointed his gun directly at that leather-clad chest. “Stop. Right there.”

Tohr pulled up short. Lifted his palms. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Butch, roll him over,” V gritted, nodding to the vampire at his feet.

The instant Tohr saw who it was, his hands dropped and his fangs got good and bared.

“Now do you get it,” V muttered. “I know it’s your right to kill him, but you can’t. Do we understand each other. You’re not going to off him here, true.”

Tohrment growled. “That’s not your call to make, V. Fuck you, that fucker is mine—”

“I will fucking shoot you. Are we clear? Stop right there.”

Apparently, the Brother wasn’t aware of having stepped forward. But Butch and everyone else caught it right away—and the cop approached Tohr cautiously.

“The kill can be yours,” Butch said. “But we take him back with us first. We talk to the bastard, get the intel—then he’s yours, Tohr. No one else is going to do the final deed but you.”

Phury nodded. “V’s right. You kill him now, we lose the interrogation. Be logical about this, Tohr.”

Vishous glanced around. The four of them had returned to the campus with the idea of stabbing as much as they could back to the Omega and doing what clean-up they were able—but this little discovery changed that immediate goal.

“Butch, you drive him back in the Hummer. Now.” V shook his head at Tohr. “And no, you’re not going with him as back-up.”

“You got me all wrong,” Tohr said grimly.

“Do I? Are you aware you have a dagger in your hand? No?” As his brother looked down with some surprise, V shook his head. “Don’t think I’m the one with the head wedge. You stay with us, Tohr. The cop’s got this.”

“I’m calling in Qhuinn and Blay,” Butch said as he got out his phone. “I want them with me.”

“And this is why I love you,” V muttered as he kept his eye on Tohr.

The Brother hadn’t put the dagger away yet. And that was fine. Soon as Xcor was on the way out, V was going to make sure that Tohr got to put that murderous impulse to good use.

A moment later, Blay and Qhuinn materialized onto the scene, and both of them cursed when they saw the ugly, scarred face that was staring up sightlessly from the out-cold body.

Butch made quick work of handcuffing Xcor, and then he and Qhuinn footed-and-handed the bastard, carrying him like a sack of potatoes toward the bulletproof, black-on-black Hummer that had been parked behind one of the classrooms. The nasty-looking machine was actually Qhuinn’s second version of the SUV, the first having been stolen when he’d hysloped it in front of a drugstore the previous winter.

V didn’t move a muscle until he saw that the damn thing was headed off the property at pedal-to-the-metal speed.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” he said to Tohr. “I just don’t—”

Vishous shut up. And went motionless again.

“What is that?” Phury asked.

V had no clue. And that was not good. The only thing he was sure of was that the landscape had abruptly changed in some subtle yet undeniable way, a wave of buffering extending out over the bodies of the slain like a shadow had been cast over the campus.

“Shit,” Vishous hissed. “The Omega is coming!”

TEN

Beauty was in the ears of the beholder.

As Rhage ran his hands up and down Mary’s thighs, he might have been blind, but he knew exactly how gorgeous his shellan was as she sat on his hips and balanced her weight on the palms she’d planted on his pecs.

“So what’s it going to be?” he prompted as he rolled his pelvis.

With his erection stroking her core, even through the bed covers and the slacks she was wearing, her reply was husky.

“How can I ever,” she whispered, “say no to you?”

God, those words . . . and even more than that, her voice. They made him think of the first night he’d met her. It had been down here in the training center, right after the beast had made an appearance. He’d been blind then, too, and walking down the corridor, looking for a workout to distract him from his recovery boredom. She had come to their facility with John Matthew and Bella, as an interpreter for the boy who’d been mute and needed ASL to communicate.

The second she had spoken to him, her voice had chained him sure as if every syllable she’d uttered had come with steel links. He’d known that moment he was going to have her.

Of course, at the time, he hadn’t planned on her being the love of his life. But his bonding had had other ideas, and thank God for that.

Thank God, too, that she’d been willing to have him.

“Come here, my Mary—”

She shifted to one side. “But I’m hooking you back up the instant you finish.”

Rhage smiled so wide, his front teeth got a chill. “Fine by me—wait, what? Where are you going?”

Even with his protests, Mary didn’t stop what turned out to be a full on dismount, not just an unplug.

“We need to keep this partially discreet.” The beeping stopped. “And I’m serious about putting that thing back to work.”

Twisting to the side, he reached out in his blindness, grabbing for her waist and pulling her back in his direction. “Come here—”