by J. R. Ward
Moving across the tile floor, he approached the place he needed to get to and bent down, intending to lay her flat. Except, no--her body didn't shift to accommodate the repositioning.
It nearly killed him to ease her onto her side.
Crouching down so she could see him, he took her hand, the one that was as yet extended to him, the one with his ring on it. "It's okay, my queen. It's all right--you got out of this last time, you're going to do it again. You're going to come out of this."
He never looked away from her panicky eyes. Not when machines were hooked up to her, and IVs started, and X-rays taken. Not while the two doctors and Ehlena worked feverishly, administering drugs and taking her pulse and blood pressure. Not as she began to tear up, the crystal drops forming and dropping off the bridge of her nose and the side of her face.
"I got you, my queen. I'm not going anywhere. Stay with me. You've come out of this many times before, and the same thing's going to happen tonight. Believe with me, come on . . . you've got to believe with me. . . ."
He had to open his mouth, because he was breathing so hard his nose couldn't keep up with the demands. And he kept having to swallow--it was either that or run the risk of needing to tilt to the side and throw up on the tile.
This can't be it, he thought.
I'm not ready.
I can't say good-bye.
I can't let her go tonight.
This can't be it . . .
SIXTY-SEVEN
As Rhage stared up at Assail's glass house, he knew in his gut something was in all-wrong territory. Ever since he and V had arrived, nothing had changed. The interiors, whether it was the kitchen, that football field-size living room, or the office, were each exactly right--except there was no one moving through them.
"Maybe Assail's doing his toenails underground," Rhage muttered. "A lilac, perhaps. Or a cherry red."
"Sooner or later," V bitched, "if he's going to stay in business, he'll have to leave by car. You can't transport the kind of money or drugs he deals in while ghosting."
"Unless they all overdosed together."
They both had to assume Assail and his boys had been drafting in and out since nightfall, and there was nothing they could do to stop that. V had, however, set up tiny cameras before they'd left the dawn before, and there had been no activity during the daylight hours--no duffels left out for pickup, nothing dropped off. So, as V said, there was no way they were moving any product--
Like they were being choreographed, he and his brother went for their phones at the same time.
AH911.
From Phury.
Without hesitation, they both dematerialized, traveling back across the river and re-forming at the rear door of the audience house. V entered the code and they burst into the kitchen, startling the doggen who was at the stove.
The fact that Paradise's maid, Vuchie, didn't seem alarmed was a good sign. There was also no loud beeping of an alarm having been triggered in the air.
Nonetheless, they outted their guns and jogged for the dining room, punching through the flap door in the back corner--
Just in time to see Assail pull a head out of a cardboard box by the hair.
"Thought you'd like to join the party," Phury whispered out of the corner of his mouth. "He just showed up."
"I should like to introduce you," Assail was saying, "to my partner. My former partner."
The undead's brown eyes lolled around the room, the black bloodstained lips gaping slowly like a fish's would if it had landed on the bottom of a boat in the sun.
The various Brothers standing around the room cursed.
And as George growled next to Wrath's chair, the King reached down and soothed the dog. "How do we know that's not just some slayer off the streets?"
"Because I'm telling you."
"Your credibility is not something anyone should fall on a sword for."
"But I will." Assail disappeared the head and put the box down on the floor. "I know where all the lessers are staying."
Everyone went silent.
Wrath sat forward in his arm chair, his wraparounds trained in the drug dealer's direction. "Do you."
"Aye."
Wrath's nostrils flared as he tested the male's scent. "He's telling the truth, boys."
Annoyance tightened the drug dealer's arched brows. "Of course I am. You informed me I was not to do business with the Lessening Society. I have obeyed your command. If the Brotherhood goes and eradicates them where they stay, I shall no longer have to prove that I have complied with your orders whilst I continue my pursuits. Our interests are therefore aligned, and if you need strong backs to fight alongside, I hereby volunteer myself and my cousins."
"I am touched by your magnanimity."
"It has naught to do with you. As I have told you, I am a businessman. There is nothing I will not do to protect my endeavors and it is very clear to me that you and the assembled herein are capable of shutting that which is precious to me down. Therefore, I have taken the necessary steps to ensure I may continue--even though it is coming at great inconvenience and my revenue stream will suffer as I am forced to reestablish my network on the streets."
As the air in the room began to hum, Rhage glanced around at his brothers. He was so fucking ready for a full-on war, for a chance to pay those undead bastards back for what they did during the raids.
This was an unexpected boon.
"It is my understanding"--Assail pointed to the box--"that that is the Forelesser. I attacked him in private and deliberately did not send him back to his Maker. There will be a short period of time during which his absence will be tolerated."
V spoke up. "So where is this den of iniquity."
"The Brownswick School for Girls. Its campus has been abandoned for some time and they are living in the dorms."
"And trying to learn long division," someone muttered.
"Or writing the slayer version of Our Bodies, Ourselves," somebody else said.
Assail cut through the chatter. "I learned of their location many, many months ago. After all, it is important that one know the particulars of one's business partner's life. My cousins have investigated the grounds this night and have confirmed that they are still in place. I imagine you will wish to scout the property as well prior to any coordinated siege."
Immediately, all the Brothers started speaking up, volunteering to go--but Wrath put a hand out, silencing them.
"Will you let us keep that," he asked, nodding in the direction of the box. "Or is that a souvenir you want to put on your mantel."
"As with the information I have provided, it is yours to do with as you wish."
"Where's the rest of the body."
"Out on Route 149. There's an abandoned dairy farm. Go into the south pasture to the woods, you'll find the rest of the body and his SUV there."
Wrath sat back and crossed his long legs knee to ankle. "This is a much better outcome than us having to kill you."
"I am not pleased with this."
"It's better than a coffin," Rhage said.
The drug dealer glanced over. "That is correct." With that, Assail turned on his heel and headed for the door. "You know where to find me if you have further inquiries or require assistance with a raid."
Butch let the male out, escorting him to the house's front door.
It wasn't until the Brother was back and had reshut them all in together that anyone said a thing.
"If that is the Forelesser," Wrath said, "the Omega will know instantly."
"But he changes them every fifteen minutes," V said. "And one of us didn't kill him. Maybe he'll just anoint the next one and move along."
"Maybe." Wrath nodded to the cardboard box. "Get rid of that when you go to confirm the corpse."
"I can go," Butch offered. "And take him out of the game permanently."
V shook his head. "You can't dematerialize. Too dangerous--"
All at once, everyone's phone went off, the collective pings, bongs, and w
histles like someone had cranked up a Sesame Street epi.
As everyone went for their pockets, Rhage wondered what the hell it could be about. Tohr was off rotation at home. Rehv hated phones. And Lassiter had been forced to give up group-texting after V had disabled the function on the idiot's Samsung--besides, it would have been a chorus of Denis Leary's "I'm an Asshole," which everyone had put as the angel's ringtone.
"Oh, shit," someone said.
Rhage had to read twice what had been sent. Then he let his arm fall down to his side and closed his eyes.
"Somebody had better fucking tell me what the mourning is all about," Wrath said roughly.
"It's Selena," Rhage heard himself reply. "She's gone down."
*
Sitting on the rumpled bed at his place at the Commodore, iAm found himself checking maichen's robing, looking for anything that was out of place, wrinkled, cockeyed. He was not sending her back to the Territory looking as if she had been sexed but good.
Even if she had, in fact, been.
"Tomorrow night," he said.
"Yes."
"Good." Shit, he wasn't sure whether he could wait that long. "That's tight."
Motioning her closer, he arranged the hood in his hands so that, as he put it over her head, the mesh was in the right place. He hated covering her features once again. It was as if he were imprisoning her even though she was free to come or go as she pleased.
Relatively free, that was.
"Until the morrow," she said, her beautiful voice muffled.
He reached out and took her hand. He intended to squeeze it and let her go, but he found himself not able to release the grip.
"maichen." He took a deep breath. "What would you say if I offered you a place here? Here in Caldwell, I mean. If I took care of you and kept you safe here in the city."
It definitely wouldn't be in this condo; that was for sure--s'Ex was no doubt going to resume using the four walls and a roof as a fuck palace as soon as the mourning was over--
Oh, wait. That was when they were going to want Trez.
Whatever.
It would be somewhere else.
As she hesitated, he said, "You wouldn't have to serve anyone. You could be free."
You could be with me, he thought.
Which was, yeah, nuts, but time was feeling really damn short lately, and he just didn't want to wait about anything. Especially anything that was on the feel-good instead of the get-you-in-the-nuts scale.
"You'd be safe," he repeated. "On my life, I would keep you safe. And there's a whole world out here, things for you to do and places to explore, schools to attend. The humans are mostly idiots, but they'd leave you alone."
In a flash, the fantasy spun out like a gold thread, images of him cooking for her at Sal's, introducing her with pride to his waiters, maybe bringing her to the compound for a meal.
He studiously ignored the whole run-from-the-s'Hisbe thing.
"iAm," she whispered.
Shit. That tone of hers said it all.
And he wasn't going to hear it. "You could have a real life out here. You're so much better than just a maid for other people. You could really live."
With me, he finished to himself.
Oh, God, he was so done-for with her. And whereas he might have chalked it up to his finally getting laid, it was so much more than that. In his soul, he somehow knew her.
Over on the side table, his phone went off with a text.
"Think about it," he said. "I know it's a lot--so don't give me any kind of answer right now. Head home, and be safe--I'll see you tomorrow."
Getting to his feet, he escorted her out to the living area and over to the glass sliders. A moment later, she was gone as if she had never been--and for a moment, he wondered if he wasn't imagining all this.
It just seemed surreal.
Was he really falling in love here?
Closing things up, he intended to go back to his room and make the bed--mostly so that if s'Ex showed up, there wouldn't be a lot of awkward convo. Instead, he just stayed at the sliders, staring out into the night, his brain chewing on what-ifs and how-'bouts.
The sound of his phone ringing back in the bedroom got him refocused, and he strode to the thing, going down the hall and through the doorway, heading over to the bedside table, reaching out for the glowing screen.
Picking it up, he accepted the call. "Rhage? Everything okay--"
"Trez needs you. Right now."
"Is it--"
"Yeah. She's in the clinic."
iAm closed his eyes. "Tell him I'm on the way."
As he hung up, he fucked off the messy bed and ran for the glass doors. Once out in the cold air, he tried to dematerialize, but his pounding heart and scattered emotions got in the way of his focus.
It was only by picturing Trez having to deal with a tragedy alone that he was able to pull his shit together, and a moment later, he was on the front steps of the Brotherhood mansion. Bursting into the vestibule, it took for-flippin'-ever for a doggen to answer the door, and iAm barely said two words to the male as he broke into a run.
It was a case of full-tilt down to the training center, and when he finally leapt out of the supply closet and careened through the office--
iAm skidded to a halt in the corridor.
There must have been . . . forty people outside the exam room, some sitting on the hard floor, others walking around. V was smoking while Butch was tapping one foot like someone had plugged his ankle into a socket. Phury was pacing like crazy; Z was stock-still. Bella was rocking Nalla in her arms. Payne was shuffling cards incessantly. John Matthew was holding hands with Xhex. Qhuinn had his arm around Blay. Autumn was holding Tohr around his waist as if she were the only thing keeping him off the concrete floor. Rhage was alone, standing far from the others. Even Wrath was there with Beth and L.W. and George.
All of the Chosen were present. Every single one of them, including Amalya.
And Rehvenge was closest to the door into the clinical space.
iAm closed his eyes. He couldn't believe they had all shown up.
When he started walking forward, people embraced him, reached for his hands, squeezed his shoulders. He did his best to thank them and respond, but his head was spinning. When he got to Rehv, he just shook his head.
"What happened?"
"She collapsed--or whatever you want to call it--about twenty minutes ago. They're working her up. He's been asking for you."
Those amethyst eyes had a sheen of red in them.
iAm could have used a minute to collect himself, but he'd already missed how much? God only knew what was going on in there, and there was only one way to find out.
Pushing his way inside, he recoiled. Selena was on the table once again, but seeing her all contorted was a stab in the heart.
Trez was right by her head, his eyes staring into hers. His lips were moving as he talked to her softly against a backdrop of beeping medical equipment and wires and tubes and cuffs. The clothes she'd been wearing had been cut off, and a thin white blanket had been spread over her.
Nodding at Ehlena, Jane, and Manny, iAm went over and crouched down. Trez jumped and then looked around as if he'd forgotten there was anyone else in the room.
"You're here," the male said.
"Yeah, I am."
Trez turned back to Selena. "Look who's here, it's iAm."
That normally strong voice was reedy and choked, as if being funneled through a synthesizer.
"Hey, Selena," iAm said.
As her eyes shifted over to his, he forced himself to smile against a tide of sorrow and fear. She was terrified. Utterly terrified.
Why wouldn't she be.
Trez began to murmur again and iAm glanced over at Manny, cocking an eyebrow in inquiry. The healer slowly shook his head.
Shit.
SIXTY-EIGHT
Trez waited for a miracle.
For the next six to eight hours, he waited and he prayed and he talked until h
e lost his voice. He even blanketed his beloved with his energy not once, but twice. And still she remained where she was, trapped inside her frozen body, her vitals slowly fading . . . her eyes beginning to shut from time to time.
Only to have them pop open and her gasp through her ever-paling lips.
Later, he would remember the moment when they reached the point of no return.
It was when the medical staff turned off the alarms that had at first been beeping with warning every now and again, but which had subsequently begun to go off constantly.
"Is it--" As his voice cracked, he cleared his throat. "Time for more X-rays?"
Jane came around to him and spoke quietly. "Trez, I think we'd like to speak with you."
Manny nodded. "Maybe out in the hall."
"No, I'm not going to leave her." He smoothed his beloved's hair back and was relieved when her eyes focused on his. "I'm not leaving you, my queen."
iAm bent in and said into his ear, "You want them to talk to me?"
It was a while before Trez answered. He didn't want to hear what they were going to say. Even though in his heart, he knew . . . he knew that things were not changing this time . . . he didn't want the words out in the air.
But the cycle of gasping and fright that kept happening to her was wearing on him.
"Yes, please," he said politely. "Thank you."
The bunch of them, including Ehlena, went into the room next door.
And it dawned on him that he and Selena were alone with each other. Leaning into her, he stroked her hair and brushed her mouth with his.
Shit, her lips were so cold.
He wanted to close his eyes, but he was terrified he'd miss something. Instead, he let a couple of heartbeats go by.
I want to be free. The thing that scares me most is getting trapped in my body.
"Selena," he said in a voice that was as thin as his skin. "Selena, can you focus on me? Can you hear me?"
She blinked twice, which was the code he'd established with her for "yes."
"I need to know . . ." He swallowed hard. "I need to know if you want to go . . . do you want to go?"
In response, her eyes . . . her magnificent blue eyes . . . welled with tears, and he began to cry, too. With a sense of profound pain, he reached up with his free hand and brushed the wetness from her nose and her cheeks. He left his tears where they were.
"My queen, is it time for you to go? Tell me if it is."
Her stare never left his.