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"Where the hell are they finding all these recruits?" Qhuinn asked as he walked around the fight scene, his boots slapping through the black blood

John barely heard the guy, even though his ears orking just fine With the departure of those bastards, he was sticking by Tohr&039;s side The Brother seemed to have recovered from that uncalled-for kick in the nuts Xcor had just nailed him with, but it was still waaaaay break tihs Took a deep breath See thatpopulation With a lot of bad seeds on the periphery"

"Who the hell is this Fore-lesser?"

"A little shit, last I heard"

"Right up the Oh"

Just as John was going to broach the whole Cinderella-turning-into-a-pu, his head shot around

"More," Tohr said on a growl

Yeah, but that wasn&039;t the problem

John&039;s shellan was out in the alleys

Instantly, everything went from hisout? She wasn&039;t on rotation She should be ho lesser entered his nose, a deep inner conviction clawed into his chest: She shouldn&039;t be out here at all

"I need to get o with you"

Fat Chance

The instant Tohr dee, John took off, his shitkickers pounding the asphalt as Qhuinn shouted so that ended with, "You cocksucker!"

Whatever, unlike Tohr&039;s wild, crazy, maniac diversions, this was ih the alley, shot down a side street, jumped across two lines of parked cars, bolted into a detour

And there she was, his ainst a quartet of lessers in front of an abandoned roo, loude should never have recruited her John had said reinforcements - he sure as shit hadn&039;t meant his Xhex And second of all, he&039;d told them to stay home, at Tohr&039;s request What the fuck were they -

"Hey!" Rhage called out cheerfully Like he was inviting theht in beeeeautiful don Caldwell"

Right This was oneass -

Xhex turned her head around to look at him - and that hen it happened One of the lessers was tucking a knife, and the sonofabitch had both a good arh the air, hilt over point

Until it came to a sudden stop in Xhex&039;s chest

For the second ti a sound

As his body surged forward, Xhex whipped around to the slayer, an expression of rage tightening her features Without losing a beat, she grabbed onto the handle and tore the weapon out of her own flesh - but how long would her strength last? That was a direct hit -

Jesus Christ! She was going to try to take care of the bastard Even injured, she was going to go after hiet herself killed in the process

The one thought that shot through John&039;s mind was that he didn&039;t want to be like Tohr He didn&039;t want to walk that stretch of hell on earth

He didn&039;t want to lose his Xhex tonight, to his s He wasn&039;t conscious of dehost and re-for&039;s throat with his palm, he pushed the piece of shit backward off its feet and let his oeight follow When they hit the ground, he head-butted its face, s a cheekbone or an eye socket

No stopping there

As black blood splashed up all over his and tore into the ene down The destructive instinct was so finely tuned and focused, he would have kept going until he was chewing on pavement - but then his rational side sent up a hi-how&039;re-ya

He needed to assess Xhex&039;s injuries

Taking out a dagger, he raised his arh and locked eyes with the slayer Or as left of the lesser&039;s pair of peepers

John buried that blade so deep and hard that after the flash and bang faded, he needed a two-handed grip and a full-body pull to free the weapon out of the asphalt Scra around, he prayed to see Xhex -

She wasanother one of the quartet - even though there was a growing red stain on the front of her chest, and her right ar loose

John nearly lost hisup, he threw his body between his mate and the enemy, and as he shoved her out of the way, he took a hithis church bell and made him momentarily lose his balance

Exactly the kind of thing that would have knocked her flat and put "paid" to her coffin

With a quick shift, he reestablished equilibriu him into a homer with both hands

Quick punch forward and he slaiving the undead a split second of show tunes in its head Then it was domination time

"What the hell!" Xhex hollered at hiood way to co his hands were locked on the lesser&039;s throat Then again, it wasn&039;t going to help them for her to knoas on his mind

With a quick stab, John dispatched the slayer back to the Ootten corked with the bat, was starting to swell, and he could feel his heartbeat in his face Meanwhile, Xhex was still bleeding

"Don&039;t you ever do that to er in her face, but if he did, he couldn&039;t talk Then don&039;t fight when you&039;re injury-injer-injured!

Christ, he couldn&039;t even co up over words

"I was just fine!"

You&039;re fucking bleeding -

"It&039;s a flesh wound - "

Then why can&039;t you lift up your ar in on each other, and not in a good way, their jaws jacked forward, their bodies hunched in aggression And when she didn&039;t counter hiht - knew, too, that she was hurting

"I take care of myself, John Matthew," she spat "I don&039;t need you looking over my shoulder because I&039;m a female"

I would have done the same for one of the Brothers Well, mostly he would have So don&039;t push that feminist bullshit on me -

"Fe it about your sex, not h, I&039; up for odda female!

"The fuck it isn&039;t!"

On that note, she inhaled deep, as if to re, it knocked out even the stench of all the lesser blood splattered around

John bared his fangs and signed, It&039;s about your stupidity creating a liability on the battlefield

Xhex&039;s , she just stared up at hiood arm over her chest and focused out over his left shoulder, slowly shaking her head back and forth

Like she was regretting not just what had happened ahim in the first place

John cursed and went to pace around, only to find that everyone else in the alleyway - and that would be Tohr, Qhuinn, Rhage, Blaylock, Zsadist, and Phury - atching the show And what do you know, each of the ested he was really, truly, colad that John&039;s last statement hadn&039;t come out of his piehole

Do you

lare

On cue, the bunch of the up at the dark sky, down at the pave floated over on the stinky breeze, as if they were a convention ofwhat had just been screened

He didn&039;t care what their opinions were

And in this er, he didn&039;t care what Xhex&039;s was, either

Back at the Brotherhooddress in her ar her quest for directions to the second-story laundry room The former elcoain "I shall take care of this"

"Mistress, please, it is a sioill be no probleen&039;s face fell so far, it was a wonder he didn&039;t have to look up to meet her eyes "Perhaps I shall just check with Superior Perlmutter - "

"And perhaps I shall tell hi supplies - and how much I appreciated your fine service untoher face, the doggen seeh: She wasn&039;t budging Not to this member of the staff or any other His only option was to throw her over his shoulder and carry her off - and that would never happen

"I am - "

"Just about to lead the way, aren&039;t you"

"Ah yes, mistress"

She bowed her head "Thank you"

"May I take the - "

"Lead? Yes, please Thank you"

He was not holding the dress for her Or cleaning it Or hanging it up Or redelivering it

This was between her and her daughter

With dejection worthy of a castaway, the servant spun about and started walking, taking her down the long corridor that was marked by beautiful marble statuary of h a pair of swinging doors at the end, to the left, and through another set of doors

At this point, everything changed The runner on the hardwood flooring was no longer an Oriental, but a plain, well-vacuumed cream There was no art on these pristine creareat swaths of color with fringe and tassels, but heavy bolts of cotton in the same pale color

They had entered the servant portion of the mansion

The juxtaposition had been the same at her father&039;s manse: One standard for the family One standard for the staff

Or at least she had heard it was as such She had never gone to the back side of the house when she had lived therein

"This should be" - the doggen opened a pair of doors - "everything you seek"