Tohr wiped his black blades off on his thighs. Took a deep breath. Seemed to pull out of an inner suck hole. “Ah… the only thing that makes sense is Manhattan. You need a big population. With a lot of bad seeds on the periphery.”
“Who the hell is this Fore-lesser?”
“A little shit, last I heard.”
“Right up the Omega’s alley.”
“Smart, though.”
Just as John was going to broach the whole Cinderella-turning-into-a-pumpkin thing, his head shot around.
“More,” Tohr said on a growl.
Yeah, but that wasn’t the problem.
John’s shellan was out in the alleys.
Instantly, everything went from his mind; his toilet bowl flushed. What the hell was she doing out? She wasn’t on rotation. She should be home—
As the stench of fresh, breathing lesser entered his nose, a deep inner conviction clawed into his chest: She shouldn’t be out here at all.
“I need to get my coat,” Tohr said. “Stay here and I’ll go with you.”
Fat. Chance.
The instant Tohr dematerialized back to the bridge, John took off, his shitkickers pounding the asphalt as Qhuinn shouted something that ended with, “You cocksucker!”
Whatever, unlike Tohr’s wild, crazy, maniac diversions, this was important.
John cut through the alley, shot down a side street, jumped across two lines of parked cars, bolted into a detour.…
And there she was, his mate, his lover, his life, squaring off against a quartet of lessers in front of an abandoned rooming house—flanked by a big, loudmouthed blond traitor.
Rhage should never have recruited her. John had said reinforcements—he sure as shit hadn’t meant his Xhex. And second of all, he’d told them to stay home, at Tohr’s request. What the fuck were they—
“Hey!” Rhage called out cheerfully. Like he was inviting them to a party. “Just thought we’d take the air tonight in beeeeautiful downtown Caldwell.”
Right. This was one moment when being mute sucked. You fucking ass—
Xhex turned her head around to look at him—and that was when it happened. One of the lessers was tucking a knife, and the sonofabitch had both a good arm and great aim: The blade flew through the air, hilt over point.
Until it came to a sudden stop… in Xhex’s chest.
For the second time in one evening, John screamed without making a sound.
As his body surged forward, Xhex whipped around to the slayer, an expression of rage tightening her features. Without losing a beat, she grabbed onto the handle and tore the weapon out of her own flesh—but how long would her strength last? That was a direct hit—
Jesus Christ! She was going to try to take care of the bastard. Even injured, she was going to go after him tooth and nail… and get herself killed in the process.
The one thought that shot through John’s mind was that he didn’t want to be like Tohr. He didn’t want to walk that stretch of hell on earth.
He didn’t want to lose his Xhex tonight, tomorrow night, any night. Ever.
Opening his mouth, he roared all of the air out of his lungs. He wasn’t conscious of dematerializing, but he was on that lesser so fast that going ghost and re-forming was the only explanation. Locking onto the thing’s throat with his palm, he pushed the piece of shit backward off its feet and let his own weight follow. When they hit the ground, he head-butted its face, smashing the nose, and likely breaking a cheekbone or an eye socket.
No stopping there.
As black blood splashed up all over him, he bared his fangs and tore into the enemy with his teeth while he held the thing down. The destructive instinct was so finely tuned and focused, he would have kept going until he was chewing on pavement—but then his rational side sent up a hi-how’re-ya.
He needed to assess Xhex’s injuries.
Taking out a dagger, he raised his arm high and locked eyes with the slayer. Or what was left of the lesser’s pair of peepers.
John buried that blade so deep and hard that after the flash and bang faded, he needed a two-handed grip and a full-body pull to free the weapon out of the asphalt. Scrambling around, he prayed to see Xhex—
She was more than up on her feet. She was engaging another one of the quartet—even though there was a growing red stain on the front of her chest, and her right arm was hanging loose.
John nearly lost his mind.
Leaping up, he threw his body between his mate and the enemy, and as he shoved her out of the way, he took a hit meant for her—a solid swing with a baseball bat that rang his church bell and made him momentarily lose his balance.
Exactly the kind of thing that would have knocked her flat and put “paid” to her coffin.
With a quick shift, he reestablished equilibrium, and then caught the second try at turning him into a homer with both hands.
Quick punch forward and he slammed the lesser in the face with its own Louisville slugger, giving the undead a split second of show tunes in its head. Then it was domination time.
“What the hell!” Xhex hollered at him as he forced the slayer onto the ground.
No good way to communicate, considering his hands were locked on the lesser’s throat. Then again, it wasn’t going to help them for her to know what was on his mind.
With a quick stab, John dispatched the slayer back to the Omega and got up. His left eye, the one that had gotten corked with the bat, was starting to swell, and he could feel his heartbeat in his face. Meanwhile, Xhex was still bleeding.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” she hissed.
He wanted to jab his finger in her face, but if he did, he couldn’t talk. Then don’t fight when you’re injury-injer-injured!
Christ, he couldn’t even communicate, his fingers clogging up over words.
“I was just fine!”
You’re fucking bleeding—
“It’s a flesh wound—”
Then why can’t you lift up your arm!
The pair of them were closing in on each other, and not in a good way, their jaws jacked forward, their bodies hunched in aggression. And when she didn’t counter him on his last potshot, he knew he’d guessed right—knew, too, that she was hurting.
“I take care of myself, John Matthew,” she spat. “I don’t need you looking over my shoulder because I’m a female.”
I would have done the same for one of the Brothers. Well, mostly he would have. So don’t push that feminist bullshit on me—
“Feminist bullshit?!”
You’re the one making it about your sex, not me.
Her eyes narrowed. “Oh, really. Funnily enough, I’m not persuaded. And if you think my standing up for myself is a goddamn political statement, you mated the wrong goddamn female.”
This is not about your being female!
“The fuck it isn’t!”
On that note, she inhaled deep, as if to remind him that his bonding scent was so strong, it knocked out even the stench of all the lesser blood splattered around.
John bared his fangs and signed, It’s about your stupidity creating a liability on the battlefield.
Xhex’s mouth cranked open—but then, instead of countering, she just stared up at him.
Abruptly, she crossed her good arm over her chest and focused out over his left shoulder, slowly shaking her head back and forth.