The Viper (Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp #3)

by J.R. Ward

See, this was why it was better not to get involved with other people. Their suffering became your own.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

“Welcome back, Kotter.” Kane blinked. “Who?” “Guess you don’t watch a lot of TV in this place.”

V glanced back at his screens. “That’s the point,” he murmured as he pulled his jacket back on. “It hasn’t been fucking fair, and what the hell good are we if we can’t fix shit that’s wrong.” As he headed for the exit, Butch chuckled. “Look at you, caring about your fellow man. Vampire. Whatever.” “Don’t get it twisted.” V held open the way out. “I still think people are stupid.”

As she fell silent, he studied her, and when her scars and her baldness registered, he thought of how much he wasn’t aware of either. It wasn’t that he didn’t see her disfiguration and hated what it represented. It was that he saw through the damage. Attraction was physical. Connection was soul to soul.

“So, what are we doing here?” Payne glanced around. “Other than reenacting Back to the Future.” V snapped his fingers. “Oh, shit. That’s what it is. Rhage was watching Marty McFly the other night, and I came in during the skateboard scene.

When she turned back to refocus on what was ahead, her Lara Croft braid swung back and forth across her tight waist. The fact that she’d mated a human had been as miraculous as the fact that she’d gotten out of their mahmen’s private quarters up in the Sanctuary where she’d been kept in suspended animation, like a Barbie collectible, instead of a living person.

“Thank you—what did you say your name was?” “Vinnie Sanguerossa.” As V ended the call, he glanced over at his sister.

As Apex approached the exit, he could see outside to where Kane stood with his precious cargo. But he didn’t put his focus there: He only had eyes for the wolven who was right in front of him. And that was a huge change, wasn’t it.

They had no idea what a rarity it was, that the Gray Wolf presented herself as corporeal, that she welcomed anybody into her place of repose. That she was willing to be of aid. But then that was his clan’s spiritual tradition. Not the vampires’.

Staring down at his sex, he gave it a quick pep talk to not get peppy. This was medicine, he told the damn thing. “I’m going to lie with you now.”

Moving her hips forward, she felt the bump of his erection, and the heated length was a brand she didn’t mind the burn of. Especially as he sucked in a breath. “Is this okay?” she asked. “Are you fucking kidding me.” At his dry response, she had to laugh.

Do what you can with what you have, whenever and wherever you are.

As he recalled the way the father and son had embraced, he wondered why life seemed determined to show him clips of family wholesomeness when he had no interest in it. He so wasn’t looking for Tim the Tool Man Taylor to come and make his little Jonathan Taylor Thomas feel better about things.

Butch put another chip in his mouth. “And do you need a Snickers?” “No, I’m actually most myself when I’m hangry.”

“What the hell happened to that angel,” Butch murmured. “It’s like he’s running out of battery strength.” Shaking his head, V went back into his phone. “Betty White did die. Maybe that’s why he’s in a decline.”

As a now familiar arm settled on her shoulders, Nadya glanced up at Kane. “Hi.” “Hi.” It was something they did, this greeting that was both silly and profound. Then again, when the world had been reborn all around you, you did kind of feel as if everything was new and fresh. Especially as you looked, once again, into the eyes of your lover.

As Nadya re-formed in the back of the prison camp, she was escorted into the facility by the biggest, most beautiful blond male vampire she had ever seen—who introduced himself as the Black Dagger Brother Rhage.

It was the scent that brought it all back. Wasn’t that always true, though, the nose like an amplifier for long-term memories, sharpening the focus, the accuracy, the emotions, of them.

“Now go,” the Gray Wolf said, “and stand at the precipice and stare out over the valley. You will not find your future in the view, though, however beautiful it is. It is the one beside you who is your horizon. But you already know that, don’t you.”

“I’m going to keep bringing you pebbles,” he said as he stroked the flyaways from her hair tie back. “For the rest of our lives.” It wasn’t like he had any kind of net worth, so it was never going to be diamonds. But diamonds were just rocks, weren’t they, and to his female, his little stones were just as precious. She told him so every time he presented her with a new one. “I’m going to cherish each and every one,” she said with a smile.