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"Did you think it was about Tohrment?"

The sound of the name made John&039;s eyes burn and he refused to look up as Wrath sighed

"You thought I was coed

"Well I don&039;t believe he&039;s gone unto the Fade"

John&039;s stare shot up to those wraparounds

"I can still feel this echo in my blood and it&039;s him When we lost Darius I couldn&039;t feel him anymore in my veins So, yeah, I believe Tohr lives"

John felt a shot of relief, but then went back to s the chair&039;s arm

"You think he doesn&039;t care about you because he hasn&039;t called or come back?"

John nodded

"Look, son, when a bonded male loses his mate he loses hiine¡ªharder, I&039;ve heard, than losing a young for ahappened to her yeah, as I said to Tohr once, I can&039;t even go there in the hypothetical" Wrath reached out and put his hand on John&039;s shoulder "I&039;ll tell you so If Tohr coh you were his kid Maybe he could walk away from the Brotherhood, but he won&039;t be able to leave you behind You have my word"

John&039;s eyes welled, but he was not going to cry in front of the king As he set his spine along with his teeth, the tears dried in place, and Wrath nodded as if he approved of the effort

"You are a male of worth, John, and you will o see about Layla"

The king went to the door, then looked back over his shoulder "Z tells ht Good I want you to keep that up"

When Wrath left, John leaned back in the chair God, those walks with Z were so strange Nothing being said, just the two of theht before dawn ca for the Brother to ask questions, to poke and prod, to try and dig around the inside of his head But there had been nothing like that yet All it had been was the two of the in silence beneath tall pines

Funny, though he&039;d come to rely on those little forays And after this talk of Tohr, he was really going to need one tonight

Butch was screae He threw himself at the lip and looked down, but couldn&039;t see anything because he was so far up and there were no lights on this side of the building As for the sound of a body drop? God kneas hollering loud enough to drown out that kind of distant thunch

"Vishous!"

Oh, God et V to Havers¡ªor so He wheeled around, ready to run to the elevator¡ª

Vishous appeared before hihost, a perfect reflection of what the brother had been, an ethereal vision of Butch&039;s one true friend

Butch stu out of his host said

Butch frowned "V?"

"As much as I hate myself I don&039;t want to die"

Butch went cold Then ran as white-hot as his roo bastard!" Butch shot forithout thinking and grabbed Vishous by the throat "You fucking bastard! You scared the shit out of ht in the face, his fist cracking against jawbone As he braced himself for a return shot, he was absolutely livid Instead of fighting back, though, V locked his arms around Butch, put his head down, and just crumpled Shook all over Tre the brother to hell and back, Butch absorbed Vishous&039;s weight, holding the guy&039;s naked, glowing body tight while the cold hirled around them both

When he ran out of sords, he said into V&039;s ear, "You ever pull a stunt like that again, I&039;ll kill youthat&039;s always saved one It&039;s the only thing that&039;s saved "

As Butch squeezed harder, he beca inside of hi Except he didn&039;t thinkhot and wet seeped into his collar He had a feeling it was tears, but he didn&039;t want to draw attention to as doing V was no doubt totally horrified by the shoeakness, assu

Butch put his hand on his roo until you get your head back, how about that? I&039;ll keep you safe"

When Vishous finally nodded, solohole lot of the glow but he wasn&039;t on fire or in pain In fact yeah, he could feel the blackness in hi into the white light that was Vishous: That was the relief he&039;d noticed just now

Except asn&039;t he burning up?

From out of nowhere, a feht and the dark together, two halvesa whole"

Butch and V yanked their heads around The Scribe Virgin was floating above the terrace, her black robes unstirred despite the frigid gusts that blew all around

"That is why you are not consumed," she said "And that is why he saw you froh he didn&039;t kno he knew it "This is the reason destiny brought you to us, Butch, descended of Wrath son of Wrath The Destroyer has arrived and you are he"

"Now the new era in the war begins"