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Goddamn it, but Tohr noticed a difference in himself Much as he hated to admit it, as he, John, and Qhuinn headed into their quarter of the don area, he was stronger, nimbler clearheaded as a motherfucker And his senses were back: No more wonky balance probleood he could catch the scratching paws of rats as they scrambled for cover in the alleys

You never realized how thick your fog was until it lifted

Feeding was undeniably powerful, especially given his kind of work, and yup, he clearly needed a new profession Accountant Lint picker Dog psychic Anything where you sat on your ass all night long

Then again, he couldn&039;t ahvenge his Wellsie doing any of those And after everything that had happened last night, froone down in the pantry, to what he&039;d done to hione to bed, he felt like he had things to make up to her for

Christ, the fact that No&039;One had given hith made him think that Wellsie&039;s memory had been violated in some manner Stained Eroded

When he&039;d fed from the Chosen Selena, it hadn&039;t bothered him as much - maybe because he&039;d still been in shell-shock mode htest, before, during or afterward

Fucking hell, he was so ready for a fight tonight

And fewer than three blocks later, he found what he was in search of: the scent of lessers

As he and the boys fell into a silent jog, he didn&039;t get out any of his weapons With the , hand-to-hand hat he was after, and if he was lucky -

The screah the dull sounds of distant traffic was not ed, it could only have come out of a masculine throat

Screw the quiet-approach routine

Breaking into a sprint, he shot around the corner of an alley and ran s: vampire blood - two kinds, both male Slayer blood - one kind, rank and nasty

Sure enough, up ahead, there was a male vampire down on the asphalt, two slayers up on their feet, and one lesser lurching around, having obviously just been nailed in the face Which explained the holler

That was all the intel he needed to go on

Bolting forward, he sent hi the bastard around the neck with his arravity took care of biz and slammed the enemy down onto the pavement faceup, the temptation was to kick the crap out of him - but with soency situation He outted one of his daggers, nailed the fucker in the chest, and reestablished his fighting stance before the flash faded

Over on the left, John was taking care of the lesser with the leak in his cheek, stabbing him back to his unholy maker And Qhuinn had picked up on nu him headfirst at a wall

With no ged over to the downed ot a load of the guy

The soldier was on his back, clutching his gut with the hand that wasn&039;t on his dagger Lot of blood Lot of pain, given that tortured expression

"John! Qhuinn!" Tohr called out "Keep your eyes peeled for coot a whistle and a "Roger that" in reply, he got down on his haunches, and felt for a pulse The flickering he found was not a good sign

Easing back, he onna tell me who did this to you? Or let me play Q and A all by hed some blood, and closed his eyes

"Okaaay, I&039;?" Tohr lifted up the guy&039;s hand and got a gander at the gut wound Make that wounds "You know, you never belonged with that uy wasn&039;t out cold - his respiration was too quick, the panting indicating the kind of pain that cah Xcor was the only explanation The Band of Bastards always fought in a single squadron, and they never would have left a soldier behind - unless Xcor had ordered them to

Besides, two kinds of vaer conflict

"What happened? The pair of you get into it over what to have for Last Meal? Dress code? Or was it so more serious Homer versus Fred Flintstone?"

He ood, serviceable guns, plenty of a wire, and -

"Watch it," he barked as Throe&039;s ar it easily, he forced it back doith hardly any effort "Quickto make me finish the job Xcor started"

"Shin blade" came the croaked response

Tohr popped up the pants, and, hello, more metal

"At least he kept you well supplied," Tohr ot out his cell phone and dialed the compound

"I have a situation," he said when V picked up

After some quick back-and-forth with his brother, he and Vishous decided to bring the SOB to the training center After all, the eneht circumstances Besides, thefrom GPS to Santa Claus No way the Band of Bastards would find the guy, if this happened to be a setup

Ten minutes later, Butch arrived with the Escalade

Throe didn&039;t havelifted up, carried over, and laid down in the backseat: The fucker was finally out cold The good neas that it meant he wasn&039;t an iet hi chip? Intel source? Footstool

The repurposing options were endless

"Just the kind of passenger I like," Butch said as he got behind the wheel again "No chance he&039;s going to try to backseat drive"

Tohr nodded "I&039;unshot that went off came frohtthe Escalade&039;s door shut, at the same time he went for his oeapon

Second shot was fro for cover behind the bulletproof SUV, Tohr nonetheless pounded on the quarter panel to get the cop to take the fuck off Throe was too valuable to lose over so as ho-hum as a squadron of lessers Worse, it could be the Bastards

As the brother hit the gas, Tohr was left with his ass in the breeze, but he took care of that quick, ducking into a roll, becoet that would be harder to hit

Bullets followed hier didn&039;t kno to lead prey - the pinging off the paveh And as he ca, prepared to return fire, as soon as he knehere his boys were

Silence in the alley -

No, that wasn&039;t quite right

Dripping, like so out of the iron belly of the massive trash bin, made him frown and take a quick look down

It wasn&039;t the Dumpster

Shit He&039;d been hit

Like a co a scan, he went into his body and identified the sources of the dae Torso, left side, at the ribs Upper arm, underside, four inches below his pit And that was about it