Lover Unbound(81)

V looked in that direction and frowned. "Phury? Oh, come on, he would never pull any Clive Barker shit. Must have been one hell of a fight."#p#分页标题#e#

"We're talking field-dressed, V. Surgical cuts. And it's not like the thing had swallowed the brother's car keys and he was looking to get 'em back. I think he did it for no good reason."

Well… shit. Among the Brotherhood, Phury was the gentleman, the noble fighter, the one who was Boy Scout—tight about things. He had all kinds of standards for himself, and honor in the combat arena was one of them, even though their enemies didn't deserve the favor.

"I can't believe it," V muttered. "I mean… shit."

Rhage took a Tootsie Pop out of his pocket, peeled off the wrapper, and pieholed the thing. "I don't give a crap if he wants to shred those fuckers like tax returns. What I'm not into is what's driving the behavior. If he's knifing like that, there's some high-level frustration going on. Plus if the reason he got cracked in the face tonight was because he was so busy playing Saw II, then it's safety issue."

"You tell Wrath?"

"Not yet. I was going to talk to Z first. Assuming everything goes okay with Bella tonight at Havers's."

"Ah… that's Phury's why, then, true? Anything happens to that female or the young inside her and we're going to have to deal with both of them like you read about." V cursed to himself, suddenly thinking of all the pregnancies in his future. Fuck. That Primale shit was going to kill him.

Rhage bit down on the Tootsie Pop, the crunch muffled by his flawless cheek. "Phury's got to cut that obsession with her."

V looked down at the floor. "No doubt he would if he could."

"Listen, I'm going to go find Z." Rhage pulled the white stick out of his mouth and wrapped it in the purple wrapper. "You two need anything?"

V glanced at Jane. Her eyes were on Rhage and she was sizing him up as a doctor would, taking note of the composition of his body, doing his internal math in her head. Or, at least, V hoped that was what was doing. Hollywood was a good-looking bastard.

As V's fangs throbbed in warning, he wondered if he was ever going to get his calm and cool back. It seemed like he was jealous of everything in pants with Jane around.

"No, we're good," he said to his brother. "Thanks, man."

After Rhage left and closed the door, Jane shifted around on her bench, stretching her legs out. With a ridiculous surge of satisfaction, he realized they were sitting in exactly the same position.

"What's a lesser?" she asked.

He called himself a loser as he looked over at her. "An undead killer who's trying to hunt my kind into extinction."

"Undead?" Her forehead bunched up, as if her brain were rejecting what she'd heard. Like it was a widget that hadn't passed quality control. "Undead how?"

"Long story."

"We have time."

"Not that much." Not much at all.

"Was that what shot you?"

"Yup."

"And what attacked Phury?"

"Yup."

There was a long silence. "I'm glad he cut one of them up, then."

V's eyebrows danced with his hairline. "You are?"

"The geneticist in me abhors extinction. Genocide is… utterly unforgivable." She got up and went to the door to look in at Phury. "Do you kill them? The… lessers?"

"That's what we're for. My brothers and I were bred to fight."

"Bred?" Her dark green eyes shifted to his. "What do you mean?"

"The geneticist in you knows exactly what I mean." As the word Primale pinged around his skull like a loose bullet, he cleared his throat. Shit, he was so not in a big hurry to talk about his future as the Chosen's stud with the woman he actually wanted to be with. Who was leaving. At, like, sundown.#p#分页标题#e#

"And this is a facility for training more of you?"

"Well, soldiers to support us. My brothers and I are a little different."

"How so?"

"Like I said, we were specifically bred for strength and endurance and healing."

"By whom?"

"Another long story."

"Try me." When he didn't reply, she pressed, "Come on. We might as well talk, and I'm really interested in your kind."

Not him. His kind.

V swallowed a curse. Man, if he were any more chicked-out about her, he'd be wearing nail polish.

He really wanted to light the cigarette in his hand, but he wasn't about to around her. "Standard stuff. The strongest males were mated to the shrewdest females. Which resulted in guys like me, who are the best bet for the protection of the race."