The Black Dagger Brotherhood Novels 5-8

by J. R. Ward

  Closing his eyes, he took it all in, the scent and the taste and the feel of her shuddering against him as she peaked and came apart. Behind the fly of his leathers, his cock was screaming for attention, the rasp of the buttons not nearly sufficient to satisfy what it was demanding, but tough shit. His erection was going to have to chill for a while, because this was too sweet to stop anytime soon.

  When Beth’s knees wobbled, he took her down to the floor and stretched one of her legs up, keeping to his pace while shoving her fleece to her neck and putting his hand under her bra. As she orgasmed again, she grabbed onto one of the desk legs, pulling hard and bracing her free foot into the rug. His pursuit pushed them both farther and farther beneath where he discharged his kingly duties until he had to crouch down to fit his shoulders.

  Eventually her head was out the other side and she was gripping the pansy-ass chair he sat in and dragging it with her.

  As she cried out his name once more, he prowled up her body and glared at the stupid, nancy chair. “I need something heavier to sit in.”

  Last coherent thing he said. His body found the entrance to hers with an ease that spoke of all the practice they’d had and…Oh, yeah, still as good as the first time. Wrapping his arms around her, he rode her hard, and she was right there with him as the storm rolling through his body gathered in his balls until they stung. Together, he and his shellan moved as one, giving, receiving, going faster and faster until he came and kept going and came again and kept going until something hit his face.

  In full animal mode, he growled and swiped at it with his fangs.

  It was the drapes.

  He’d managed to fuck them out from under the desk, past the chair, and over to the wall.

  Beth burst out laughing and so did he, and then they were cradling each other. Easing onto his side, Wrath held his mate against his chest, and tugged her turtleneck and fleece back into place so she wouldn’t be cold.

  “So what did happen at the meeting?” she said eventually.

  “None of the council showed.” He hesitated, wondering where the lines were with respect to Rehv.

  “Not even Rehv?”

  “He was there, but the others didn’t make it up. Evidently, the council is scared of me, which is not a bad thing.” Abruptly, he took her hands. “Listen, ah, Beth…”

  Tension threaded through her reply. “Yes?”

  “Honesty, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Something did go down. It involves Rehvenge…his life…but I don’t feel comfortable telling you the ins and outs because it’s his biz. Not mine.”

  She exhaled. “If it doesn’t involve you or the Brotherhood—”

  “It does only because it puts us in a difficult position.” And Beth would be in the same tight spot if she were in on the info. The thing was, protecting the identity of a known symphath was only half the problem. Last time Wrath had checked, Bella didn’t have a clue what her brother was. So Beth would have to keep the secret from her friend, too.

  His shellan frowned. “If I ask exactly how it presents an issue for you guys, I’m going to know what it is, right?”

  Wrath nodded and waited.

  She ran her hand down his jaw. “And you would tell me, wouldn’t you.”

  “Yeah.” He wouldn’t like it, but he would. Without hesitation.

  “Okay…I’m not going to ask.” She leaned up to kiss him. “And I’m glad you gave me the choice.”

  “See, I’m trainable.” He held her face and pressed his mouth to hers a couple of times, feeling the smile that lit her lips by the way the stroking sensation changed.

  “Speaking of training, how’d you like some food?” she said.

  “Oh, how I love you.”

  “I’ll deliver.”

  “I think I’d better clean you up first.” He whipped off his black shirt and carefully stroked up her thighs to her core.

  “You’re doing more than cleaning me up,” she drawled as he let his hand rub between her thighs.

  He surged up, making a move to mount her again. “Can you blame me? Mmmm…”

  She laughed and held him back. “Food. Then more sex.”

  He nibbled at her mouth, thinking that eating was so overrated. But then her tummy rumbled, and he was instantly all about getting her fed, his instinct to protect and provide overriding the sexual one.

  Putting his wide palm on her flat belly, he said, “Let me get it for—”

  “No, I want to wait on you.” She touched his face again. “Stay here. I won’t be long.”

  As she got to her feet, he rolled onto his back and stuffed his well-used, but still very stiff cock in his leathers.

  Beth bent down to pick up her jeans, giving him a hell of a view and causing him to wonder if he could wait even five minutes before getting into her again.

  “You know what I feel like?” she murmured as she pulled her Sevens into place.

  “Like you’ve been making love with your hellren and are about to do some more of that good ol’ bump-and-grind?”

  God, he loved making her laugh.

  “Well, yes,” she said, “but when it comes to food…I want homemade stew.”

  “Is it already made?” Please let it be—

  “There’s beef left over from—Look at that face!”

  “Rather have less of you in the kitchen and more of you on my…” Okay, he so wasn’t finishing that sentence.

  She seemed to filled in the blank just fine, though. “Hmm, I’ll be fast.”

  “You do that, leelan, and I’ll give you a dessert that’ll make your head spin.”

  She showed him some serious hip sway as she went across the room, a sexy little dance that left him growling, and in the doorway, she paused and looked back at him, the brighter light from the hall illuminating her.

  And what do you know, his blurry vision gave him the loveliest parting gift: In the glow, he saw her long dark hair down over her shoulders and her flushed face and her tall body with all its curves.

  “You are so beautiful,” he said quietly.

  Beth positively glowed at him, the scent of her joy and happiness intensifying until all he smelled was the fragrance of night-blooming roses that was hers alone.

  Beth brought her fingertips to the mouth he’d ravished and blew him a soft, slow kiss. “I’ll be right back.”

  “And I’ll see you then.” Although considering how sexed-up he was, they were both likely to just see more under-the-desk time.

  After she left, he lay for a bit, his keen ears listening to her going down the grand staircase. Then he dragged himself off the floor, put the pansy chair back where it had been, and parked his ass behind the desk. He reached for his wraparounds to spare his eyes the dim light of the fire and let his head fall back—

  The knock on the door made his temples sting in frustration. Man, he couldn’t get two seconds of peace, could he…and by the scent of Turkish tobacco, he knew who it was.

  “Come in, V.”

  As the Brother entered, the scent of that tobacco joined the subtle smoke of hardwood burning across the room.

  “We have a problem,” Vishous said.

  Wrath closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose, hoping like hell his headache wasn’t pulling in for the whole night, like his brain was a TraveLodge. “Talk to me.”

  “Someone e-mailed us about Rehvenge. Gave us twenty-four hours to deliver him to the symphath colony or they’re going blow his cover to the glymera and make it clear that you and all of us knew about his identity and failed to take action.”

  Wrath’s eyes popped open. “What the fuck?”

  “I’m already digging around on the e-mail addy. With some broken-field running through IT land, I should be able to access the account and find out who it is.”

  “Shit…so much for that document not being read by anyone else.” Wrath swallowed hard, the pressure in his head making him nauseous. “Look, contact Rehv, tell him what was sent. See what he
says. The glymera’s scattered and scared, but if that kind of shit gets out to them, we’d have no choice but to do something—otherwise we could have a riot on our hands not just of the aristocracy, but of the civilians as well.”

  “Roger that. I’ll report back.”

  “Move fast.”

  “Hey, you okay?”

  “Yeah. Go call Rehv. Goddamn it.”

  After the door closed again, Wrath groaned. The gentle light of the fire made the agony at his temples worse, but he wasn’t into putting the flames out: Total darkness was not an option, not after this afternoon’s little wake-up call, when midnight was all he had.

  Shutting his lids, he tried to get past the pain. Little rest. That was all he needed.

  Just a little rest.

  FIFTY-ONE

  When Xhex returned to ZeroSum, she went in the back door to the VIP section and kept her hands in her pockets. Thanks to her vampire side, she didn’t leave fingerprints, but bloody hands were bloody hands.

  And she had Grady’s shit on her pants as well.

  But that was why, even in these modern times, the club had an old-fashioned, fire-breathing furnace in the basement.

  She did not check in with anyone, just slipped into Rehv’s office and headed through to his bedroom beyond. Fortunately, there was plenty of time to change and clean up, though, because it was going to take the CPD a while to find Grady. The command she’d given to de la Cruz was to leave for the whole night—although with a guy like him, it was possible that his conscience could override the thought she’d planted. Still, she had at minimum a couple of hours.

  In Rehv’s apartment, she locked the door and went directly to the shower. After she turned on the hot water, she disarmed and put all of her clothes and her boots down a chute that dumped directly into the furnace.

  Fuck the Maytag man. That was the kind of laundry bin people like her needed.

  She took her long blade under the water with her and washed her body and the knife with equal care. Her cilices were still on, the soap stinging where the barbed bands dug into her thighs, and she waited until the pain faded before releasing one and then the other—

  The wet agony was so great it numbed her legs cold and shot up into her chest, causing her heart to palpitate. As an exhale barreled free of her mouth, she sagged against the marble, knowing there was a good chance she was going to pass out.

  Somehow she kept conscious.

  Watching all the red bloom around the drain beneath her feet, she thought of Chrissy’s dead body. In that human morgue, the woman’s blood had been black and brown under her mottled gray flesh. Grady’s had run the color of wine, but sure as shit he was going to look just like the girl he killed in a couple of hours—dead on a stainless-steel table with what had once drummed through his veins setting like concrete.

  She’d done her job well.

  The tears came from nowhere and everywhere, and she despised them.

  Ashamed of her weakness, Xhex covered her face with her hands, even though she was alone.

  Someone had tried to avenge her death once.

  Only she hadn’t been dead—just wishing for it while her body was worked on with all kinds of “instruments.” And the whole chivalrous, hero-on-a-white-horse act hadn’t gone well for her avenger. Murhder had been driven mad. He’d thought he was rescuing a vampire, but surprise! He was actually risking his life to bring home a symphath.

  Oops. Guess she forgot to tell her lover that little part.

  She wished she had revealed herself. Considering what she was, he’d had a right to know, and maybe if he had, he’d still be in the Brotherhood. Maybe mated to a nice female. Definitely wouldn’t have lost his sanity and taken off for God only knew where.

  Avenging was dangerous business, wasn’t it. In the case of Chrissy, it was fine. Everything had worked out. But sometimes what you sought to honor wasn’t worth the effort.

  Xhex hadn’t been, and it hadn’t just cost Murhder his mind. And Rehv was still paying for her mistakes.

  She thought of John Matthew and wished like hell she hadn’t fucked him. Murhder had been a casual thing for her. John Matthew? Going by the ache in the center of her chest every time she thought of him, she suspected he was a lot more than that—which was why she was trying to lock out of her mind what had happened between them back at her basement place.

  The problem was how John Matthew had been with her. The tenderness he had shown threatened to crack her in half, his emotions everything that was soft and gentle and respectful…loving—even though he knew what she was. She’d had to shut him down hard because unless he’d cut that shit, she’d been in danger of pressing her lips to his and losing herself completely.

  John Matthew was her well of soul, as the symphaths called it, or her pyrocant, to the vampires. Her essential weakness.

  And she was very weak when it came to him.

  With a wave of pain, she pictured him on that security monitor with his hands all over Gina. Like the barbed bands she wore, the image overwhelmed her with agony, and she couldn’t help thinking that she deserved what it was going to be like to watch him drown himself in mindless, empty sex.

  She turned off the shower, picked up her cilices and the knife from the slick marble flooring, and stepped out, dumping all her metal in a sink to drip-dry.

  As she put one of Rehv’s superluxurious black towels to use, she wished it—

  “Were sandpaper, right?” Rehv drawled from the doorway.

  Xhex paused with the towel across her back and looked into the mirror. Rehv was lounging against the jamb, his sable coat turning him into a great bear of a male, his mohawk and his sharp purple eyes testifying to his warrior side in spite of all the metrosexual clothes he wore.

  “How did tonight go?” she asked, putting one foot up on the counter and running the black terry cloth down to her ankle.

  “I might ask you the same thing. What the fuck’s going on with you?”

  “Nothing.” She put her other leg up. “So how was the meeting?”

  Rehv kept his eyes on hers, not because he was respecting the fact that she was buck-ass naked, but because he honestly didn’t care one way or another. Hell, he’d be the same with Trez or iAm flashing their ass: She’d long ago ceased to be female to him even though they fed from each other.

  Maybe that was what she liked about John Matthew. He’d looked at her and touched her and treated her like she was a female. Like she were precious.

  Not because she wasn’t as strong as he was, but because she was rare and special—

  Christ. Spare her from the estrogen. And that would all be in the past tense now, anyway.

  “The meeting?” she prompted.

  “Fine. Be that way. As for the council? They didn’t show, but this did.” Rehv took a long flat envelope out of his breast pocket and tossed it onto the counter. “I’ll let you read it later. Needless to say my secret’s been known for quite some time. Stepdad blabbed on the way to the Fade, and it was a miracle the shit didn’t get out before now.”

  “Son of a bitch.”

  “That’s an affidavit, by the way. Not some kind of random scribble on the back of a napkin.” Rehv shook his head. “I’m going to have to get into that house of Montrag’s. See if there are any more copies around.”

  “I can do it.”

  Those amethyst eyes narrowed. “No offense, but I’ll pass on the offer. You don’t look right.”

  “That’s just because you haven’t seen me without clothes on in a while. Get me in leather and you’ll be back to knowing I’m a hard-ass.”

  Rehv’s eyes went down to the ragged wounds around her thighs. “Hard to imagine you got on me about what I was doing to my arm, considering what those pins of yours look like.”

  She covered herself up with the towel. “I’ll go over to Montrag’s place today.”

  “Why were you taking a shower?”

  “Because I was all bloody.”

  The smile that stre
tched Rehv’s mouth and revealed his fangs was all about the throw-down. “You found Grady.”

  “Yup.”

  “Niiiiiiice.”

  “We should expect a visit from the CPD sometime very soon.”

  “Looking forward to it.”

  Xhex patted dry her cilices and her knife, then walked past Rehv and went into the two square feet of his closet that were hers. Taking out a fresh pair of leathers and a black muscle shirt, she glanced over her shoulder.

  “You mind giving me a little privacy.”

  “You’re putting those damn things on again?”

  “How’s your dopamine supply?”

  Rehv chuckled and headed for the door. “I’ll take care of searching Montrag’s place. You’ve done enough dirty work for other people lately.”

  “I can handle it.”

  “Doesn’t mean you should have to.” He reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone. “Fuck, I forgot to turn this thing back on.”

  When the screen lit up, he looked down and his emotions…flickered.

  His emotions actually flickered.

  Maybe it was because her cilices were off and her symphath side didn’t take long to come forward, but she couldn’t keep herself from focusing on him hard, the weakness he sported making her curious.

  What she noticed, though, was not so much his emotional grid…but the fact that his scent was different.

  “You’ve fed from someone,” she said.

  Rehv froze, giving himself away by the stillness of that big body of his.

  “Don’t even try to lie,” she murmured. “I can smell it.”

  Rehv shrugged, and she got ready for a whole lot of no-big-dealing. He even opened his mouth, his hard face assuming the bored expression he used to distance people.

  Except he didn’t say a thing. Didn’t seem to be able to muster the blow-off.

  “Wow.” Xhex shook her head. “Serious stuff, huh.”

  Ignoring the question was evidently the best he could do. “When you’re ready, let’s meet with Trez and iAm and do the status update before closing.”