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Qhuinn was absolutely sure his nuts were on Wrath&039;s ht of the Brotherhood&039;s training center The thing was the size of a s as a male&039;s torso, s that looked like they were reinforced with titaniuoyles around the roof and all the shadoere perfect Exactly what you&039;d expect
"Sire?" the butler said as he indicated the cathedral-worthy front door "Shall we go in? I ?"
The doggen slowed his speech down as if he were addressing a moron "I cook for the Brotherhood as well as tend to this, their ho center; this was the Brotherhood&039;s digs
Well, duh Check out the security There were cameraswall of the courtyard was like so out of a movie about Alcatraz Hell, he expected a fleet of Dober around the corner with their chos were probably still gnawing on the bones of the last guest they&039;d turned into pulled pork
"Sire?" the butler repeated "Shall we?"
"Yeah yeah, sure" Qhuinn sed hard and walked forward, prepared to face theto leave my stuff in the car"
"As you wish, sire"
Man, thank God Blay didn&039;t have to see as about to go down¡ª
One side of the mammoth double doors opened and a familiar friend lifted a hand
Oh Great Blay woulda front-row seat, evidently
The guy was dressed in the blue jeans and one of the deconstructed button-downs they&039;d gotten at Abercrombie His bare feet were pale on the black stone stairs, and he see The bastard could at least have had the grace to sport a cold sweat or a case of the syned
"Hey"
John stepped back, clearing the way How are you doing?
"I wish I were a smoker" Because then he could put this off for the duration of a cig
No, you don&039;t You hate s squad, I may rethink that hard line"
Shut up
Qhuinn walked through a vestibule that made him feel totally underdressed, ith its black-and-white old? Probably¡ª
Holy fuck, he thought as he stopped dead
The foyer in front of him was palatial Total Russian royalty, with its brilliant colors and its incredible gold-leafed everything and itsor, shit,out of a Danielle Steel novel, with all its ro expanse
Not that he&039;d read any of her books
Well, okay, there had been that one, but he&039;d been twelve and sick and had focused just on the sex parts
"Up here," a deep, echoing voice said
Qhuinn looked to the top of an ornate staircase Standing with shitkickers planted like he owned the world, dressed in black leathers and a black T-shirt, was the king
"Come on, let&039;s do this," Wrath co hard, Qhuinn followed John to the second floor
As they got to the top, Wrath said, "I just want Qhuinn John, you stay here"
John started to sign, I want to be his witness¡ª
Wrath turned away "Nope There&039;s going to be none of that"
Shit, Qhuinn thought He wasn&039;t going to be allowed any defense testined
"Thanks, man"
Qhuinn stared beyond the open doors the king had gone through The room before him was well, it looked like the kind of place his irly furniture and drippy crystal light fixtures that looked like earrings
Not exactly what you&039;d expect Wrath to hang out in
As the king went in and planted it behind a delicate desk, Qhuinn stepped inside, shut the doors, and linked his hands in front of hi struck him as surreal He could not possibly fathom how his life had come down to this
"Did you mean to kill Lash?" Wrath asked
Sostatements "Ah"
"Did you or didn&039;t you?"
In quick succession Qhuinn reviewed his answers: No, of course not, the knife was acting of its own volition, I was actually trying to stop it No, I only ive hi open so to lead to death
Qhuinn cleared his throat once Twice "Yeah I did"
The king crossed his arone for John&039;s pants, would you have done the sa for aknew exactly what had gone down, but shit, hearing the words was kind of shocking Plus, talking about the whole thing was hard, given what Lash had said and done It was, after all, John
"Well?" caone for his pants, would you have throated hihts "Look, John toldas it was a fair fight I was prepared to let it ride But" He shook his head "Nah That shit Lash pulled wasn&039;t fair It was like using a concealed weapon"
"But you didn&039;t have to kill him, did you You could have peeled him off John Clocked him a couple of times Rolled him out"
"True"
Wrath stretched his arm to the side as if to loosen it, and his shoulder let out a crack "You&039;re going to be totally fucking honest with me now If you lie, I&039;ll know it, because I&039;ll smell it" Wrath&039;s eyes burned behind his wraparounds "I&039;m well aware you hated your cousin Are you sure you didn&039;t use deadly force for your own agenda?"
Qhuinn dragged his hand through his hair and reone down There were holes in his le of e forward, but he reh
"To be honest shit, I couldn&039;t let John get hurt and humiliated like that See, he froze When Lash went for his pants, he froze The two of theainst the tile and all of a sudden he went dead still I don&039;t knohether Lash would have followed through with well, you know because I wasn&039;t in his head, but he was just the type ould try it" Qhuinn sed hard "I saw it happen, saw that John couldn&039;t do anything and it was like everything went blank I just¡ªfuck¡ªthe knife was in my hand and then I was on Lash and the slice was quick For real? Sure, I hated Lash, but I don&039;t give a fuck who pulled that shit on John I would have gone gunning for theoing to be"
"And your answer is"
"Yeah, I would do it again"
"Would you now"
"Yes" Qhuinn looked around at the pale blue walls and thought it didn&039;t seeliness in a roo lovely "Guess thatto do to me? Oh, and you probably know this already, but my family has disowned me"
"Yeah, I&039;ve heard that"
There was a long silence, and Qhuinn passed the ti his heart skip in his chest
"John wants you to stay here"
Qhuinn&039;s eyes shot to the king "What?"
"You heard me"
"Shit You can&039;t approve that No way can I stay here" Black eyebrows crashed down "Excusehi, whichbut not li that people had to salute hi roadkill like Qhuinn under his roof if he were so inclined
King was spelled c-a-r-t-e b-l-a-n-c-h-e in the vampire world
Plus, why the fuck say no to so that would help hiht not to take a step back even though they were separated by about twenty-five feet of Aubusson
Jesus, the h
"I spoke to Lash&039;s father about an hour ago," Wrath said "Your fa to pay the restitution As they&039;ve disowned you, they say that you owe the money Five million"
"Five million?"
"Lash was abducted by the lessers last night No one thinks he&039;s co back You&039;re up for proximal murder, as the assumption is that the slayers wouldn&039;t have bothered snatching a dead body"
"Whoa" God, Lash and, shit, that was a lot of green "Look, I got the clothes on my back and a spare set in my duffel They&039;re welcome to the shit if they want it¡ª"
"Lash&039;s father is aware of your financial situation In light of it, he wants you to become an indentured servant in their household"
The blood rushed out of Qhuinn&039;s head A slave for the rest of his life? For Lash&039;s parents?
"This would," Wrath tacked on, "be after you went to prison, of course And actually, the race still has one in operation Up north of the Canadian border"
Qhuinn just stood there, utterly numb Man, your life could end in so ht Death wasn&039;t the only way out of it
"What do you say about all this?" Wrath murmured
Prison in God only knehere for God only kne long Slavery in a household that would forever hate hiht of that walk through the tunnel at Blay&039;s and the decision he had come to on the far side
"I havehis fucked-up stare to the king "But I have honor I&039;ll do whatever has to be done to th, "that no one ize That I can&039;t do that What Lash did was beyond wrong It was intentionally cruel and done to ruin John&039;s life I Am Not Sorry"
Wrath came around the desk and strode across the rooht answer, son Wait out there with your boy I&039;ll be with you in a few"
"Excuse What?"
The king opened the door and impatiently nodded "Out There"
Qhuinn stuned as he juainst the hall wall What happened?
As Qhuinn looked at his friend, he was not about to tell the guy that he was going to jail and then being released into the custody of Lash&039;s parents to be tortured for the rest of his days "Ah, not too bad"
You lie
"Do not"
You&039;re the color of fog
"Well, hello, I had surgery, like, yesterday"
Oh, please What&039;s happening?
"To tell you the truth, I have no clue¡ª"
" &039;Scuse rave expression In her hands was a long, flat leather box "Boys? I need to get in there"
As they stepped apart, she ducked into the study and shut the door
John and Qhuinn waited Then waited some more and so Guess it took a while for the king and queen to draw up his Go to Jail, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect 500 papers
John took out his phone, like he needed so to do with his hands, and frowned as he checked the thing After he texted someone, he put it back in his pocket
Weird that Blay hasn&039;t checked in yet
Not really, Qhuinn thought, feeling like a son of a bitch The king threw the doors wide "Getcha asses back in here"
There was a scraether The king returned to his desk, parked it in the doll-like chair, and propped his huge shitkickers on the mound of paperwork When Beth fell in by the side of where he sat, he reached up and took her hand
"You boys familiar with the term ahstrux nohtrum?" When the two of them shook their heads like idiots, Wrath srin "It&039;s an antiquated position It&039;s like a private guard, only they&039;re allowed to use deadly force when protecting their master They&039;re killers with a pass"
Qhuinn sed hard, wondering what the hell that had to do with hi continued "Ahstrux nohtrum may be commissioned only by royal decree, and the standard is kind of like the US Secret Service&039;s for protection The subject uard must be capable" Wrath kissed his queen&039;s hand "A person of interest is so Which isin the world, and there is nothing that I won&039;t do to make sure her heart is protected Also, in terms of the race as a whole, she is queen Therefore her only brother ory
"As for the qualified-guard part I happened to know, Qhuinn, that out of the training class, you were the best fighter, aside froreat shot on the range"¡ªthe king&039;s voice grery¡ª"and we&039;re all aware of how good you are with a knife, aren&039;t we"
Qhuinn felt a weird rush go through hi had lifted and revealed an unexpected path out of the wilderness He reached for John&039;s arh it totally slapped the Hello! My Nah," the king said "Ahstrux nohtrum are expected to sacrifice their own lives for the one they protect If shit comes down to it, they will take acommitment, unless I say different I&039;m the only one who can issue a pink slip, feel me?"
Qhuinn&039;s mouth talked of its own accord: "Of course Absolutely"