The Shadows

by J. R. Ward

  Ah, yes, that was right, Abalone remembered. Some time ago, Throe had been discovered by the Brotherhood, left for dead with a stab wound to the gut not inflicted by a lesser. In fact, from what Abalone had heard, the male had been injured by the Band of Bastards' own leader. Throe had been taken in by the Brotherhood who had sought to gather information from him, and then released back out into the world with a message for Xcor.

  Word had it that Layla had fed the fighter whilst he had lingered on death's door, the Chosen offering her vein to one whom she had assumed to be a noble soldier instead of her King's enemy.

  Quite a messy affair it all had been.

  Wrath's nostrils flared as if he were testing the male's scent. "So what do you expect me to do with this little news flash? No offense, but where you're at and who you're affiliated with doesn't affect my world one way or the other."

  "But learning the location of where the Band of Bastards sleeps would."

  "And you're going to tell me," the King said in a bored voice.

  "Do you think I'm lying?"

  "Ever heard of the Trojan Motherfucker?" V spat. "'Cuz I'm looking at him."

  Wrath's jaw got tight. "Give us an address if you want. But just as with your political alliances, the B.o.B crib is not high on my list of shit to do."

  "You're a fool then--"

  All at once, the members of the Brotherhood jumped forward, and clearly Wrath's powerful shout was the only thing that kept Throe's skin still on his bones.

  The King leaned forward and dropped his voice to a pseudo-whisper. "Do yourself a favor, asshole, and play it cool. This bunch of rabid cocksuckers has a serious hearing problem even when it comes to orders from me, and they don't like you any more than I do. You want to live long enough to see another nightfall? You'll dial back on that attitude."

  "You should care about Xcor," Throe said, undeterred. "He is capable of anything, and the soldiers who fight under him suffer from the same single-minded devotion to him that your males show you."

  Wrath chuckled a little, the sound somehow more evil and deadly than the naked aggression the Brothers had just shown. "Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Abalone?"

  Abalone let out a squeak and jumped forward. "Yes, my lord."

  "Do you plan on letting this male stay with you? Relation to relation?"

  "No, I told him he must leave this night."

  "Don't kick him out on my account. It doesn't matter to me whether he stays or goes."

  Abalone frowned--and had to wonder if he was getting a demotion. "My loyalty is to you and you alone. He is tainted in mine eyes no matter what he says his affiliations are."

  Wrath made a noncommittal sound in the back of his throat, and realigned his face toward Throe. "You say Xcor's priorities are not your own."

  "Aye."

  "And you do not intend to pursue his goals."

  "Nay, I do not. Very definitely, nay."

  There was a pause where Wrath's nostrils flared as if he were testing the male's scent.

  "Very well then." Wrath nodded at his private guard. "Let's get out of here. I have real work to do."

  Nobody moved. Not the Brothers. Throe. Certainly not Abalone, who was feeling as though his loafers had been nailed to the floor.

  "V," the King snapped. "Let's get out of here."

  There was an awkward moment, and then the Brother Vishous and the Brother Butch stepped in beside the King. Standing close to his shoulders, they promenaded out with Wrath, Zsadist falling in behind the group.

  The others stayed behind, clearly guarding Throe until the King was safely gone from the property.

  "Abalone," Wrath said as he stopped at the front door.

  At the sound of his name, Abalone scurried out of the library and across the foyer, his heart pounding. He had long been aware of how much he loved his King, but the idea that he would lose his vocation as well? Helping civilians meet with and find aid was--

  "No, you're not fired," Wrath whispered. "For fuck's sake. What would I do without you?"

  "Oh, my lord, I--"

  "Listen up, Abalone. I want you to let him stay here for as long as he likes. I'm not buying any of this bullshit. He might well have left Xcor and the Bastards, but I don't trust him, and I'm a male who believes in keeping my enemies close."

  "Of course, my lord. Yes, yes, of course." Abalone bowed even though a sudden unease shocked through his system. "I shall do anything and everything you wish."

  As if the King once again read minds, Wrath said, "I know you're worried about your daughter. Until this sorts out, why don't you let her stay at my audience house? She can have a chaperone, and security is monitored twenty-four/seven there."

  V stepped in close. "We got two different underground tunnels leading out from the basement suites, and we'll send our doggen over to take care of her. She'll be perfectly safe."

  Oh, dearest Virgin Scribe, Abalone thought.

  Except then he reflected that Paradise was getting antsy, and not because she was in love or anxious to be mated. She was a young, vibrant female with so much going for her, and yet as an aristocrat, her options were limited.

  Perhaps getting her out of the house for a bit would be beneficial.

  And he certainly didn't want her around Throe.

  Torn between parental concern, a duty to his King, and sadness that his one offspring was in fact growing up, he found himself nodding through a surge of nausea. "Yes, please. I believe she will enjoy that."

  "I'll personally make sure she's safe," Zsadist said, inclining his head once, as if he were taking a vow. "I got a daughter. I know where you're at."

  Yes, Abalone thought. He had heard that the Brother Zsadist, in spite of his most fearsome affect, was in fact a settled family male with a beloved young of his own.

  Suddenly, Abalone felt better, and bowed low to the scarred fighter. "Thank you, sire. She is my most precious love."

  "Good. Settled." Abruptly Wrath's face changed positions, as if he were staring over Abalone's shoulder toward the library. "Xcor is predicable in his brutality, a real old-schooler right out of the Bloodletter's playbook. But the final salvo against my throne was a tactical one involving the law and my beloved half-breed Queen. That's the way an aristocrat fights. Xcor didn't pull that plan out of his ass--it had to have been something cooked up by Throe. Only explanation there is. So he may in fact be done with Xcor, but even though he wasn't lying in anything he said in there? We're not going to know where his allegiances truly lie for a while."

  Abalone didn't mean to, but before he knew it, his hands were reaching forward and clasping Wrath's palm. Bringing the King's black diamond to his lips, he kissed the ring.

  And thought once again, Thank the Scribe Virgin that the right male was on the throne.

  "My loyalty is to you, my lord," he breathed. "And you alone."

  *

  Once Wrath was not just off the property, but out of the zip code, it was time to give Throe the middle finger and go Hardy Boys with the addy the bastard had given them.

  Rhage was the last to leave the library, and just for shits and giggles, as he filed by Throe, he pulled a Boo! move that left the fucker jumping back and putting his arms up to shield his face.

  Pussy.

  Out on the lawn, he front-and-centered his phone and texted: All well. Wrath et al ok. Off to secure 2ary local. He paused. And then typed, Wat r u wearing?

  He was putting the thing away again when he frowned and sent a second one to somebody else. How r u? Need anything?

  "Okay, we ready?" Vishous asked.

  Phury and Z nodded as Rhage disappeared his cell and cracked his knuckles. "I want the Bastards to be there. I need some good hand-to-hand. Need to get it in."

  "Feel you," someone muttered.

  One by one, they disappeared and traveled in jumbles of molecules, heading for a very different kind of neighborhood. When they re-formed, it was at the head of a cul-de-sac in a real estate development f
ull of two-to three-hundred-thousand-dollar homes that were probably lived in by people who were popping out kids, working two white-collar jobs at the bottom of the corporate ladder, and desperately wanting to upgrade their three-series BMWs to fives.

  Yuppies on the rise.

  Spare him.

  No one made a sound as they went from passively armed to palmed up but good. The approach to the house in question was multi-fronted, the four of them splitting up and coming at the darkened colonial from each of the compass points.

  Putting up his black hood so that the blond hair wasn't such a screamer in the dark, Rhage took the back left corner, dematerializing through the woods, closing in while assuming cover behind trees. Sending his instincts out, he probed what might be under that roof, behind those solid walls, staying out of sight of the black windows.

  Nothing alerted him to any presence. There were no flashes of light. No shadows moving inside. No sound, inside or out on the periphery.

  Checking in with Z, who he could see out of his left eye, and Phury, who he tracked out of his right, he motioned upward . . . then dematerialized onto the roof.

  The asphalt shingles gave good traction and he stayed in a crouch, well aware of what a good target he was, silhouetted against the night sky. There wasn't a moon out, which was a bonus, but he was a goddamn sitting duck up here. Heading over to the chimney, he shouldered into the stack of bricks and mortar and listened.

  No sounds again.

  When the whistle came, it was from down below, and he closed his eyes and ghosted back to the ground.

  Z, Vishous, and Phury were standing together in the rear.

  "Nothing up there," Rhage whispered.

  "I don't see anything inside," Phury agreed.

  V stared at the house. "Then we have to assume that it's booby-trapped."

  Yup. That was exactly what he was thinking.

  "You have anything to disarm shit with?" Rhage asked.

  V rolled his diamond eyes. "I'm a fucking Boy Scout. What do you think."

  "What's the approach?"

  They decided to enter through one of the windows in the kitchen. Doors were too obvious, as was the chimney, and anything through the garage.

  Going around to the back porch, V removed his lead-lined glove, got out his black dagger, and went over to the window above the sink. Putting the tip of the weapon to the glass, he moved the blade in a circle; then placed his glowing fingers on the inside of the cutout and removed the section so that it didn't fall in.

  Three. Two.

  One--

  Silence.

  Rhage glanced around, listening for anything: footsteps in the undergrowth, the click of a safety being taken off a gun, a whisper of clothing.

  Nothing.

  V snaked his normal hand through the hole he'd made and clicked on his penlight. Inside, a nothing-special kitchen was illuminated in the thin beam: refrigerator, stove, cabinets. More to the point, there was nothing suspicious, no boxes or bags with wires coming out of them in the middle of the room, no beeping lights, not even an alarm panel that was obvious.

  "Ready?" V asked.

  Rhage breathed in deep, testing the air that was escaping from the house. The scents were of male sweat, booze, tobacco, gun cleaner . . . a pizza . . . cooked meat.

  And it was all fresh.

  "I'm going first," Rhage said. With his beast, he was the most likely to survive a bomb blast: any extremes of temperature, pain, or aggression, and his other side would be triggered in a split second, providing him with a set of scales that was better than any kind of Kevlar.

  "Be careful, my brother," Phury said.

  "Always. I got meals to look forward to."

  Rhage ghosted in and took form on the linoleum. Cue the waiting. Again.

  But there were no alarms going off. No ambushes. Nothing that screamed or even whispered attack.

  He took a step forward. Another. A third, waiting for a hidden mine to get triggered.

  Under his shitkickers, floorboards creaked and groaned.

  That was it.

  "Far enough, Hollywood," V ordered through the window's cutout. "Let me get in there."

  Vishous joined him as the twins stayed outside to monitor the exterior. With quick, practiced moves, V put on a headset and looked around. Took out an aerosol spray can and hit the go nozzle, moving in a circle.

  "It's clear, as far as I can see."

  Rhage glanced to the back door. "So that's where the security pad is."

  The ADT panel had no lights glowing on its face, no green means go. No red means armed.

  "We have to go through the whole house," V said grimly.

  Rhage nodded. "I'll take care of the first floor."

  "We do it together."

  With careful steps, they headed into the front of the house, V sporting his gogs, Rhage's skin prickling across his back as his beast joined the instinct parade.

  The front room was clearly where the Bastards spent most of their time. There were a number of couches set at angles so they formed a circle, and the scents were the strongest in here--to the point that Rhage guessed the fighters had pulled the drapes and actually slept aboveground during daylight hours.

  Detritus littered the floor: Empty ammo boxes that suggested they had both shotguns and forties. Dead-soldier bottles of Jack and Jim. Hannaford plastic bags filled with crushed protein-bar wrappers and Motrin bottles with the lids off and wads of surgical gauze marked with dried blood. An open Papa John's box had a single slice left in it--that was cold, but not moldy.

  "They do not live here anymore," V said.

  "And they up and left fast," Rhage muttered as he poked at another Hannaford bag with the steel tip of his shitkicker.

  There wasn't a single backpack. Duffel. Piece of luggage. And although he wouldn't have counted the Band of Bastards as any kind of Town & Country types with the personal effects, there wasn't even a stray sock, backup set of combat boots, or a fucking comb left behind.

  As Rhage came around to the base of the stairs, he felt his phone vibrate in the inside pocket of his leather jacket. No checking the thing, though. He wasn't about to get goat-fucked in this shell of a house, and the farther he and his brother went in, the greater the chances that they'd run into something that could cost them an arm. A leg.

  Their lives.

  That was the reality of their jobs, and something he accepted, because one, he wasn't about to let nobody push around his race or its King, whether it was a bunch of shitty-smelling slayers or Xcor's circle of douches. And two, it wasn't like he was suited to do anything else.

  Well, other than eat and fuck, and God knew he took care of business on those two fronts very, very well during his time off.

  Hell, even with all the high alert going on here, in the back of his mind, he was already counting down the hours until he could get his Mary really fucking naked.

  Nights like tonight made him think fondly of going down on her for about seven hours straight.

  Shaking himself back into focus, he approached the base of the stairs.

  "I'm going up," he told his brother.

  "Wait for me."

  But of course, he didn't. He just headed on up, one foot after the other after the other. Probably a stupid move, but he'd never been good at waiting.

  Just not part of his nature.

  SEVENTEEN

  As Trez stood in the corner of Selena's hospital room, he felt . . . shit, totally cornered.

  He didn't want to be angry with the female. For fuck's sake, she'd nearly died in front of him.

  "What?" she said. "What's on your mind."

  The good news was that he had watched, over the last twenty minutes or so, as her coloring had returned in full, how her eyes were now sharp as tacks, as her body, though still stiff, was so much closer to normal.

  The bad news was that her little dissertation there about the nature of his sex addiction and him trying to do right by her was not anything he was going to he
ar. And he prayed to God she didn't keep pushing the subject.

  "Selena, I think you need to rest."

  "Don't tune me out, Trez."

  He shoved his hand across his head. Wished he had some long-ass hair like Wrath's just so he had something to pull at. "Look, I don't want to argue with you."

  "So tell me I'm wrong. Even though I don't believe that. But say something. Anything."

  Trez grimaced and shook his head. "I'ma go now and--"

  "Trez--"

  "No, we're not going to do this."

  "Why? If we have a thousand nights, what's one awkward conversation."

  "This is a helluva lot more than awkward, sweetheart." God, he could hear the sharpness in his own voice. Feel the ramp-up in his body. "Yeah, I think I'll come back--"

  "It's still going to be here when you return." She motioned between them with her hand, and for a moment, he was so damned grateful for the movement, he forgot what they were talking about. "Distance is not going to help this."

  His heart started to pound. Like he was afraid or some shit.

  But that wasn't what was happening.

  Really. It wasn't.

  "What do you want me to say?" he muttered. "Give me the words and the inflection and I'll do it. Anything to make this go away."

  "What aren't you telling me?"

  "Nothing."

  Long pause. "All right," she said with defeat.

  Oh, great. That made him feel soooo much better.

  How had they traveled the distance between relief at her survival to all this tension so fast?

  He wasn't about to tell her about the news from the s'Hisbe. She had more than enough to worry about on her own, and he didn't want her concerned that the Queen's executioner was going to put him in chains and drag him back to the Territory at any moment.

  "Selena, listen . . ." He shook his head. "Am I embarrassed about what I did with all those humans? Absolutely. Do I have regrets? All the time. Do I believe that I'm tainted? According to my culture, I'm completely contaminated. But you need to know that sometimes, a slut is just a slut. A whore is nothing more than a whore. I had a drive and I had nowhere else to go with it."

  He looked away, tracing the floorboards with his eyes.

  The silence grew louder than a scream.