The Black Dagger Brotherhood Novels 5-8

by J. R. Ward

  Lash laughed. “Yeah.”

  “Here is what I shall offer you. A quarter of the product that I shipped monthly to the Reverend. If you are able to safely move it on the streets, then we shall look at increasing the trade. Are we in accord?”

  It was such a pleasure dealing with a professional, Lash thought. “We are.”

  After they discussed the money and the delivery side of things, they hung up.

  “We’re good,” he said with satisfaction.

  As all kinds of backslapping went on in the car, he allowed himself to grin like a motherfucker. The prospect of setting up labs was proving more difficult than he’d expected—although he was still moving forward on that, he needed a big-league, reliable supplier and this relationship with Benloise was the key to that. With the cash it was going to generate, he could recruit, acquire state-of-the-art weapons, buy more real estate, target the Brothers. As it stood now, he felt like the Lessening Society had been in neutral since he took over, but that was over, thanks to the old man with the accent.

  Back in Caldwell proper, Lash dumped Mr. D and the other lessers off at that nasty-ass ranch and then proceeded across to the brownstone. As he parked in the garage, he was flushed from possibilities of the future, the buzz making him aware of how fucking bummed out he’d been. Money mattered. It was freedom to do what you wanted, buy what you needed.

  It was power stacked in orderly piles and rubber-banded with authority.

  It was what he required to be who he was.

  As he came in through the kitchen, he took a moment to savor the improvements he’d already been able to make. No more empty counters and cabinets. There were espresso machines and Cuisinarts and dishes and glasses, none of which had been purchased from Target. There was also gourmet food in the refrigerator and fine wines in the cellar below and top-shelf booze at the bar.

  He walked out into the dining room, which was still bare, and hit the stairs two at a time, loosening his clothes as he went, his cock getting stiffer with every step. Upstairs his princess was waiting for him. Waiting for him and ready. Bathed and oiled and perfumed by two of his slayers, prepared for his use like the sex slave she was.

  Man, he was glad all lessers were impotent; otherwise there would have been a rash of castrations in the Society.

  As he hit the first of the landings, he unbuttoned his shirt, revealing the scores of scratches that ran across his chest. They had each been made by his lover’s nails, and he smiled, ready to add to the collection. After about two weeks of having her tied down completely, he’d started releasing one of her hands and one of her feet. The more they fought the better.

  God, she was a hell of female—

  He froze as he got to the top of the stairs, the scent coming down the hall stopping him dead. Oh…God, the sweet saturation was so heavy, it was as if a hundred perfume bottles had been smashed open.

  Lash raced for the door to the bedroom. If anything had happened to—

  The carnage was stunning, black blood staining the new rug and the fresh wallpaper: The two lessers he’d left to guard his female were propped up on the floor across from the canopy bed, each with a knife in his right hand. Both had multiple, glistening gashes to their necks, having stabbed themselves over and over again until they lost so much blood, they went lax.

  His eyes shot to the bed. The satin sheets were rumpled, and the four chains the symphath king had given him to subdue her were lying slack from their corners.

  Lash wheeled on his men. Slayers didn’t die unless you got them in the chest with some stainless steel, so both were incapacitated, but still alive.

  “What the fuck happened?”

  Two mouths worked, but he couldn’t understand a thing—the bastards had no air supply to their voice boxes, thanks to the shit escaping out of all the holes they’d made in themselves.

  Weak-minded fools—

  Oh, hell no. Oh, no, she didn’t.

  Lash went over to the messy sheets and found the collar of his old dead rottweiler. He’d put the thing on his princess’s neck to mark her as his, keeping it on her even when he took her vein during sex.

  She’d slit it up the front instead of unbuckling the thing. She’d ruined it.

  Lash tossed the collar on the bed, rebuttoned his shirt, and shoved the silk tails into his slacks. Over at the antique Sheraton bureau he’d bought three days ago, he took out another gun and a long knife to add to what he’d worn to meet Benloise.

  There was only one place she would go.

  And he was going up there and bringing his bitch back.

  With George guiding the way, Wrath left his study at ten p.m. and hit the stairs with a confidence that surprised him. The thing was, he was starting to trust the dog and anticipate the signals that George transmitted through the harness handle: Each time they got to the head of the stairs, George would stop and allow Wrath to find the first step. And as they came to the bottom, the dog would pause again so that Wrath was aware they’d reached the foyer. And then there would be a wait until Wrath announced what direction they would go in.

  It was…a very good system, actually.

  As he and George descended, the Brothers gathered down below, checking their weapons and talking. In the midst of the group, V was smoking his Turkish tobacco and Butch was saying some Hail Marys under his breath and Rhage was unwrapping a Tootsie Pop. The two females were with them, and he recognized them by their scents. The nurse was nervous, but not hysterical, and Xhex was itching for a fight.

  When Wrath stepped off onto the mosaic floor, he gripped the handle in his palm hard, the muscles in his forearm cranking tight. Shit, he and George were staying behind. And that just sucked.

  Ironic, wasn’t it. Not so long ago, he’d been upset about leaving Tohr home like a dog. What a role reversal. The Brother was the one going out into the night…and he was the guy staying behind.

  A sharp whistle from Tohr shut everyone up. “V and Butch, I want you with Xhex and Z on team one. Rhage, Phury, and I are on team two and will be backing up you four with the boys. According to the text I just got from Qhuinn, he and Blay and John have arrived up north and are in position about two miles from the entry to the colony. We’re ready to go—”

  “What about me,” Ehlena said.

  Tohr’s voice was gentle. “You’re going to wait with the boys in the Hummer—”

  “The hell I am. You’re going to need a medic—”

  “And Vishous is one. Which is why he’s going in first with the others.”

  “Along with me. I can find him—he fed from—”

  Wrath was about to jump in when Bella’s voice cut through the argument.

  “Let her go in with the others.” There was a quick, breathless silence from everyone as Rehvenge’s sister spoke sharply. “I want her to go in.”

  “Thank you,” Ehlena said in a small voice, like it had been decided.

  “You’re his female,” Bella murmured. “Aren’t you.”

  “Yes.”

  “You were on his mind the last time I saw him. It was clear how he felt about you.” Bella’s voice grew even stronger. “She has to go. Even if you can find him, he’ll live only for her.”

  Wrath, who’d never really been on board with that nurse joining the team, opened his mouth to can the idea…but then he thought back a year or two, remembering when he’d been shot in the stomach and Beth had been beside him. She had been the reason he’d survived. Her voice and her touch and the power of their connection had been the only things that had pulled him through.

  God knew what the symphaths had been doing to Rehv up there in the colony. If he was still breathing, chances were good he was hanging by a thread.

  “She should go,” Wrath said. “It might be all that gets him out alive.”

  Tohr cleared his throat. “I don’t think—”

  “That’s an order.”

  There was a long, disapproving pause. Which was broken only when Wrath raised his right hand and
flashed the massive black diamond that had been worn by every king of the race.

  “Okay. Fine.” Tohr cleared his throat. “Z, I want you guarding her.”

  “Roger that.”

  “Please…” Bella said roughly. “Bring my brother home. Bring him back where he belongs.”

  There was a beat of silence.

  Then, Ehlena vowed, “We will. One way or the other.”

  No clarification was needed for that. The female meant alive or dead, and everyone, including Rehvenge’s sister, knew it.

  Wrath said some things in the Old Language, things that he could remember hearing his father speak to the Brotherhood. Wrath’s voice had a different tone to it, though. His father hadn’t minded staying home to be on the throne.

  It ate Wrath alive.

  After some good-byeing, the Brothers and the females left on a chorus of boots hitting the mosaic floor.

  The vestibule’s door shut.

  Beth took his free hand. “How you doing?”

  By the tightness of her voice, she knew exactly how he was, but he didn’t begrudge her the question. She was concerned and worried, just as he would have been in her position, and sometimes the only thing you could do was ask.

  “I’ve been better.” He pulled her against him, and as she fit her body to his, George pressed his head in for a stroke.

  Even with both of them, Wrath was lonely.

  It seemed to him, as he stood in the grand foyer whose depths and colors and wonder he could no longer see, that he had ended up in the very place he hadn’t wanted to ever find himself: Going out to fight even though he was king had not been just about the war and the species. It had been for himself, too. He’d wanted to be more than a paper-pushing aristocrat.

  Evidently, however, fate was bound and determined to shove him in that peg hole of a throne one way or the other.

  He squeezed Beth’s hand, then released it and gave the command to move forward to George. When he and the dog got to the vestibule, he opened the way through the various doors until they stepped free of the house.

  Facing the courtyard, Wrath stood in the cold wind, his hair getting swept out and away from his head. Breathing in, he smelled snow, but felt nothing on his cheeks. Just the promise of a storm, apparently.

  George settled into a sit as Wrath searched the sky he could not behold. If it was going to snow, was it cloudy yet? Or were the stars still out? What phase was the moon in?

  The yearning in his chest made him strain his dead eyes in an attempt to pull out shapes or forms from the world. It used to work…gave him a headache, but it used to work.

  Now he just got the headache.

  From behind him, Beth said, “Do you want me to get you a coat?”

  He smiled a little and looked over his shoulder, imagining her standing in the mansion’s great portal, the glow of the lights from inside framing her.

  “You know,” he said, “this is why I love you so much.”

  Her tone was heartbreakingly warm. “What do you mean?”

  “You don’t ask me to go inside because it’s cold. You just want to make it easier for me to be where I want to stand.” He shifted around to face her. “To be honest, I ask myself why the hell you stay with me. After all the shit…” He motioned around at the facade of the mansion. “The constant interruptions of the Brotherhood, the fighting, the kingship. My being an asshole about keeping things from you.” He briefly touched his wraparounds. “The blindness…I swear, you’re going for sainthood.”

  As she came over, the night-blooming rose of her scent grew stronger even in the stiff breeze. “That’s not it.”

  She touched both his cheeks, and as he leaned in to kiss her, she stopped him. Holding his head steady, she lifted his sunglasses off his face and caressed his brows with her free hand.

  “I stay with you because, whether you have sight or not, I see the future in your eyes.” His lids fluttered as she brushed gently across the bridge of his nose. “Mine. The Brotherhood’s. The race’s…such beautiful eyes you have. And you’re even braver to me now than ever before. You don’t need to fight with your hands to have courage. Or be the king your people need. Or be my hellren.” She put her palm in the center of his broad chest. “You live and lead from here. This heart…here.”

  Wrath blinked hard.

  Funny, transformative events were not always scheduled and not always expected. Yeah, sure, your change turned you into a male. And when you went through the mating ceremony, you were part of a whole, no longer just yourself. And the deaths and births around you made you view the world differently.

  But every once in a while, from out of the blue, someone reaches the quiet place where you spend your private time and changes the way you see yourself. If you’re lucky it’s your mate…and the transformation reminds you once again that you are absolutely, positively with the right person: because what they say doesn’t touch you because of who they are to you, but because of the content of their message.

  Payne nailing him in the face woke him up.

  George brought him back his independence.

  But Beth handed him his crown.

  The thing was, if she could reach him in the mood he was in, she proved that it could be done. You could tap into what others needed to hear when they needed to hear it. The heart was the answer. She proved her own point.

  He had ascended to the throne and done some things since then. But in his soul, he had been a fighter stuck in a desk job. Resentment had made him edgy, and even though he hadn’t been aware of it, he had had his eye on the exit every single night.

  No sight. No exit.

  And what if that was actually…okay. What if those Hallmark motherfuckers were right. Door closes, window opens. What if losing his vision was exactly what he needed in order to be…the true king of the race.

  Not just a son bearing the obligations of his father.

  If it was true that the loss of sight heightened other senses, maybe his heart was what made up the difference. And if that were true…

  “The future,” Beth whispered, “is in your eyes.”

  Wrath snatched his shellan to him hard, holding her so close he absorbed her all the way inside his body. As they stood together, united against the winter wind, the darkness in his body was pierced by a warm glow.

  Her love was the light in his blindness. The feel of her was the heaven he didn’t need to see to know. And if she had this much faith in him, she was his courage and his purpose, too.

  “Thank you for staying with me,” he said hoarsely into her long hair.

  “There is no place I would rather be.” She put her head on his chest. “You’re my man.”

  SIXTY-SEVEN

  As Ehlena materialized up north along with the Brothers, she couldn’t get Bella out of her mind. The female had seemed strangely transparent as she’d stood in that grand, regal foyer, surrounded by males who were strapped with weapons. Her eyes had been vacant, and her cheeks pale and hollow, as if her will had been tested horribly.

  But she wanted her brother back.

  The nature of lying was such that its working components were always the same: The objective truth was twisted or hidden or downright overwritten with the intent to deceive. What was murkier were the motivations behind the falsifications, and Ehlena thought of what she’d done in getting those pills for Rehvenge. She had intended to do good, and although that didn’t make her actions right or proper or get her out of deserving the consequences, at least she hadn’t had malice in her heart. The same was true with Rehvenge’s choices. They weren’t right or proper, but he’d been protecting Ehlena and his sister and the other people in his life, given what the Old Law mandated and how destructive the princess was.

  This was why Ehlena chose to forgive Rehvenge—and she hoped his sister would do the same.

  Of course, that forgiveness didn’t mean Ehlena was going to end up with the male—the stuff about Rehv being her hellren had been to make sure she went to th
e colony; it didn’t reflect reality. Besides, who knew whether they were even going make it back to Caldwell in one piece.

  Lives could be lost tonight.

  Ehlena and the Brothers took form in the lee of a thick stand of pines, a protected spot chosen after Xhex had detailed the area. Up ahead, just as the female had described, was a picturesque white farmhouse with a sign that read, TAOIST MONASTICAL ORDER, EST. 1982.

  On the surface, it was hard to believe anything other than jam and quilt making went on inside those pristine clapboard walls. Harder still to think that the charming place was the entry to the colony of symphaths. But there was something very wrong about the whole setup, as if a force field of dread surrounded all the come-on-in.

  As Ehlena looked around, she could feel that Rehv was close, and just before Xhex spoke, she focused on an outbuilding that was about a hundred yards away from the farmhouse. There…yes, he was there.

  “We’ll enter through that barn,” Xhex said quietly, pointing where Ehlena was drawn to. “It’s the only way into the labyrinth. Like I said last night, they’ll already know we’re here, so when we go face-to-face, our best shot is to approach this in an ostensibly diplomatic fashion—we’re merely taking back what is ours and want no bloodshed. They’ll understand and respect the reasoning—before they start fighting—”

  A stench of sweetness drifted over on the cold breeze.

  As all heads turned, Ehlena frowned at the sight of the male who had appeared out of nowhere on the farmhouse lawn. His blond hair was slicked back from his forehead, and his eyes glowed with an odd shining blackness. As he strode toward the front porch, his gait was anger in motion, his powerful body tight, as if he were ready for battle.

  “What the fuck,” V breathed. “Is that Lash I’m looking at?”

  “Apparently,” Butch answered.

  Xhex cut in. “You didn’t know?”

  All the Brothers stared back at her as V said, “That he was alive and a lesser? Er, that would be a hell no. And why are you not surprised?”

  “I saw him a couple of weeks ago. Just assumed the Brotherhood knew.”