Bella took a deep breath and smelled dirt. God, her head hurt. And her knees were killing her. They were jammed against something hard. And cold.

Her eyes flew open. Darkness. Blackness. Blindness.

She tried to lift a hand, but her elbow ran into a bumpy wall. There was another wall at her back and in front of her and to the sides. She banged around in the small space, panicking. Opening her mouth until it gaped, she found she couldn't breathe. There was no air, only the smell of damp earth, clogging... nose... she¡ª

Screamed.

And something above her moved. Light blinded her as she looked up.

"Ready to come out?" a man's voice said softly.

It all came back: the race for her house across the meadow, the fight with the lesser, the blacking out.

With a quick jerk she was lifted by a chest harness from what she realized was a pipe in the ground. As she looked around in terror, she had no idea where she was. The room was not large and the walls were unfinished. There were no windows, just two skylights in the low ceiling, which were both covered with black cloth. Three bald lightbulbs hung from wires. The place smelled sweet, a combination of fresh pine boards and the lesser's baby-powder scent.

When she saw a stainless-steel table and dozens of knives and hammers, she trembled so badly she started to cough.

"Don't worry about all that," the lesser said. "That's not for you as long as you behave."

His hands burrowed into her hair and fanned it out over her shoulders. "You're going to take a shower now, and you're going to wash this. You're going to wash this for me."

He reached over and picked up a bundle of clothes. As he pressed them into her arms, she realized they were her own.

"If you're good, you get to put these on. But not until we get you clean." He pushed her toward an open door, just as a cell phone started to ring. "Into the shower. Now."

Too disoriented and petrified to argue, she stumbled into an unfinished bathroom that had no toilet. Like a drone, she shut herself in and turned the water on with hands that shook. When she pivoted around, she saw the lesser had opened the door and was watching her.

He put his hand over the bottom of the cell phone. "Take off the clothes. Now."

She glanced over at the knives. Bile rose in her throat as she stripped. When she was finished, she covered herself with her hands and shivered.

The lesser hung up and put the phone down. "You do not hide from me. Drop your arms."

She backed up, shaking her head numbly.

"Drop them."

"Please, don't¡ª"

He took two steps forward and slapped her across the face, sending her into the wall. Then he grabbed her.

"Look at me. Look at me." His eyes glittered with excitement as she met his stare. "God, it is so good to have you back."

He put his arms around her, holding her close. The sweet smell of him overwhelmed her.

Butch was one hell of an escort, Mary thought as they departed the Saint Francis oncology suite. Wearing a black wool coat, a 1940s-style hat, and a terrific pair of aviator sunglasses, he looked like a very chic hit man.

Which was not deceiving. She knew he was armed to the teeth, because Rhage had inspected the man's weapons before he'd let the two of them out of the house.

"You need anything before we go back?" Butch asked when they were outside.

"No, thanks. Let's head home."

The afternoon had been grueling and inconclusive. Dr. Delia Croce was still conferring with her partners and had ordered Mary to have an MRI as well as another physical. More blood had been drawn also because the team wanted to recheck a couple of liver functions.

God, she hated that she was going to have to come back tomorrow and had yet another night of not knowing to go through. As she and Butch went over to the open lot and got into the Mercedes, she was that horrible combination of wired and tired. What she really needed to do was go to bed, but she was so anxious, sleep was not in her future.

"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¡ª

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¡ªMary, 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¡ª"

"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¡ª"

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¡ª"

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¡ªZsadist? 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¡ªsomeone¡ªwas 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.

Rhage didn't stick around to watch the show. He raced Mary around the side of the house, only to run into two more lessers. Forcing her behind him, he protected her with his body while he went for his gun. Just as he got it into firing position, popping sounds rang out from the right of him. Bullets whizzed by his ear and pinged into the house and hit him in the arm and the thigh and...

He'd never been so glad to have the beast emerge. He threw himself into the vortex with a roar, embracing the change, welcoming the flash of heat and the explosion of his muscles and bones.

As a blast of energy came out of Rhage, Mary was thrown against the house, her head snapping back and banging into the clapboards. She slid to the ground, dimly aware of a huge presence taking Rhage's place.

There were sounds of more gunshots, screams, a deafening roar. Dragging herself over the ground, she hid behind a juniper bush just as someone turned the outdoor lights on.

Holy... Christ.

It was the tattoo come to life: a dragonlike creature covered with iridescent purple and lime-green scales. The thing had a slashing tail with barbs, long yellow claws, and a wild black mane. She couldn't see the face, but the sounds it was making were horrific.

And the beast was deadly, making quick work of the lessers.

She covered her head with her arms, unable to watch. She hoped like hell the beast wouldn't notice her, and that if it did, it would remember who she was.

More roaring. Another scream. A terrible grinding crunch.

From the back of the house, she heard a rapid splatter of gunshots.

Someone yelled, "Zsadist! Stop! We need them alive!"

The fighting went on and on and probably lasted only five or ten minutes. And then there was just the sound of breathing. Two breaths in. One slow breath out.

She looked up. The beast was looming over the bush she hid behind, that steady white gaze trained on her. Its face was huge, its jaw carrying a shark's load of teeth, its mane falling over its broad forehead. Black blood ran down its chest.

"Where is she? Where's Mary?" V's voice traveled from around the corner. "Mary? Oh... shit."

The beast's head whipped around as Vishous and Zsadist pulled up short.

"I'll distract it," Zsadist said. "You get her out of the way."

The beast turned on the brothers and positioned itself in an attack stance, claws up, head forward, tail waving steadily. The muscles in its hindquarters quivered.

Zsadist kept coming as V started to close in on where she was.

The beast snarled and snapped its jaws.

Z cursed in its direction. "Yeah, what you gonna do to me that hasn't already been done?"

Mary shot to her feet. "Zsadist! Don't!"

Her voice froze everything like a tableau: Zsadist walking forward. The beast preparing to lunge. Vishous sidling up to her. All three of them looked at her for a split second. And then refocused on one another, going right back to the collision course they'd been on.

"Will you two get out of here!" she hissed. "Someone's going to get hurt. You're just pissing it off!"

"Mary, we need to get you out of its way." V's tone was that awful let's-be-reasonable one men pulled out at traffic accidents.

"It won't hurt me, but it's about to tear the two of you apart. Back off!"

No one was listening to her.

"God, spare me from heroes," she muttered. "Back the fuck off!"

That got their attention. The two brothers stopped moving. And the beast looked over its shoulder.

"Hey," she murmured, stepping out from behind the bush. "It's me. Mary."

The great dragon's head shook up and down like a horse's, its mane flashing black. The massive body swung a little toward her.

The beast was beautiful, she thought. Beautiful in the way a cobra was, its ugliness overshadowed by graceful, shifting movements and a predatory intelligence you had to respect.

"You are really huge, you know that?" She kept her voice low as she approached it slowly, remembering how Rhage liked her to talk to him. "And you did an excellent job keeping those lessers from me. Thank you."

When she was right next to the beast, the jaws opened and it called out to the sky while keeping its eyes on her. Abruptly the great head lowered, as if it were seeking her touch. She reached out, stroking smooth scales, feeling the great tensile strength in the thickness of its neck and shoulder.

"You are scary as hell up close, you really are. But you feel nice. I didn't think your skin would be so soft or warm."

Those white eyes flickered to the left and narrowed, its lips curling up into a snarl.

"Tell me someone isn't coming closer," she said without varying her tone or turning away. She kept her eyes locked on that huge face.

"Butch, hang back, man," V muttered. "She's talking him down."

The beast growled low in its throat.

"Hey, now, don't bother with them," she said. "They're not going to do anything to either one of us. Besides, haven't you had enough tonight?"

The creature heaved a great breath.

"Yeah, you're done," she murmured, stroking under the mane. Heavy muscles ran in great ropes under the skin. There was no fat, nothing but power.

It eyed the vampires once again.

"No, they're nothing you and I need to worry about. You just stand right here with me and¡ª"

Without warning, the beast whirled around and knocked her to ground with its tail. It leaped into the air at her house, crashing its upper body through a window.

A lesser was pulled out into the night, and the beast's roar of outrage was cut off as it took the slayer between its jaws.

Mary tucked into a ball, shielding herself from the tail's barbs. She covered her ears and closed her eyes, cutting off the juicy sounds and the horrible sight of the killing.

Moments later she felt her body being nudged. The beast was pushing at her with its nose.

She rolled over and looked up into its white eyes. "I'm fine. But we're going to have to work on your table manners."

The beast purred and stretched out on the ground next to her, resting its head between its forelegs. There was a brilliant flash of light and then Rhage appeared in the same position. Covered in black blood, he shivered in the cold.

She shrugged out of her coat as the brothers ran over. Each one of the men took their jackets off and laid them down on Rhage, too.

"Mary?" he croaked.

"I'm right here. Everyone's fine. The two of you saved me."