As the air in the room began to hum, Rhage glanced around at his brothers. He was so fucking ready for a full-on war, for a chance to pay those undead bastards back for what they did during the raids.
This was an unexpected boon.
“It is my understanding”—Assail pointed to the box—“that that is the Forelesser. I attacked him in private and deliberately did not send him back to his Maker. There will be a short period of time during which his absence will be tolerated.”
V spoke up. “So where is this den of iniquity.”
“The Brownswick School for Girls. Its campus has been abandoned for some time and they are living in the dorms.”
“And trying to learn long division,” someone muttered.
“Or writing the slayer version of Our Bodies, Ourselves,” somebody else said.
Assail cut through the chatter. “I learned of their location many, many months ago. After all, it is important that one know the particulars of one’s business partner’s life. My cousins have investigated the grounds this night and have confirmed that they are still in place. I imagine you will wish to scout the property as well prior to any coordinated siege.”
Immediately, all the Brothers started speaking up, volunteering to go—but Wrath put a hand out, silencing them.
“Will you let us keep that,” he asked, nodding in the direction of the box. “Or is that a souvenir you want to put on your mantel.”
“As with the information I have provided, it is yours to do with as you wish.”
“Where’s the rest of the body.”
“Out on Route 149. There’s an abandoned dairy farm. Go into the south pasture to the woods, you’ll find the rest of the body and his SUV there.”
Wrath sat back and crossed his long legs knee to ankle. “This is a much better outcome than us having to kill you.”
“I am not pleased with this.”
“It’s better than a coffin,” Rhage said.
The drug dealer glanced over. “That is correct.” With that, Assail turned on his heel and headed for the door. “You know where to find me if you have further inquiries or require assistance with a raid.”
Butch let the male out, escorting him to the house’s front door.
It wasn’t until the Brother was back and had reshut them all in together that anyone said a thing.
“If that is the Forelesser,” Wrath said, “the Omega will know instantly.”
“But he changes them every fifteen minutes,” V said. “And one of us didn’t kill him. Maybe he’ll just anoint the next one and move along.”
“Maybe.” Wrath nodded to the cardboard box. “Get rid of that when you go to confirm the corpse.”
“I can go,” Butch offered. “And take him out of the game permanently.”
V shook his head. “You can’t dematerialize. Too dangerous—”
All at once, everyone’s phone went off, the collective pings, bongs, and whistles like someone had cranked up a Sesame Street epi.
As everyone went for their pockets, Rhage wondered what the hell it could be about. Tohr was off rotation at home. Rehv hated phones. And Lassiter had been forced to give up group-texting after V had disabled the function on the idiot’s Samsung—besides, it would have been a chorus of Denis Leary’s “I’m an Asshole,” which everyone had put as the angel’s ringtone.
“Oh, shit,” someone said.
Rhage had to read twice what had been sent. Then he let his arm fall down to his side and closed his eyes.
“Somebody had better fucking tell me what the mourning is all about,” Wrath said roughly.
“It’s Selena,” Rhage heard himself reply. “She’s gone down.”
Sitting on the rumpled bed at his place at the Commodore, iAm found himself checking maichen’s robing, looking for anything that was out of place, wrinkled, cockeyed. He was not sending her back to the Territory looking as if she had been sexed but good.
Even if she had, in fact, been.
“Tomorrow night,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Good.” Shit, he wasn’t sure whether he could wait that long. “That’s tight.”
Motioning her closer, he arranged the hood in his hands so that, as he put it over her head, the mesh was in the right place. He hated covering her features once again. It was as if he were imprisoning her even though she was free to come or go as she pleased.
Relatively free, that was.
“Until the morrow,” she said, her beautiful voice muffled.
He reached out and took her hand. He intended to squeeze it and let her go, but he found himself not able to release the grip.
“maichen.” He took a deep breath. “What would you say if I offered you a place here? Here in Caldwell, I mean. If I took care of you and kept you safe here in the city.”
It definitely wouldn’t be in this condo; that was for sure—s’Ex was no doubt going to resume using the four walls and a roof as a fuck palace as soon as the mourning was over—
Oh, wait. That was when they were going to want Trez.
Whatever.
It would be somewhere else.
As she hesitated, he said, “You wouldn’t have to serve anyone. You could be free.”
You could be with me, he thought.
Which was, yeah, nuts, but time was feeling really damn short lately, and he just didn’t want to wait about anything. Especially anything that was on the feel-good instead of the get-you-in-the-nuts scale.
“You’d be safe,” he repeated. “On my life, I would keep you safe. And there’s a whole world out here, things for you to do and places to explore, schools to attend. The humans are mostly idiots, but they’d leave you alone.”
In a flash, the fantasy spun out like a gold thread, images of him cooking for her at Sal’s, introducing her with pride to his waiters, maybe bringing her to the compound for a meal.
He studiously ignored the whole run-from-the-s’Hisbe thing.
“iAm,” she whispered.
Shit. That tone of hers said it all.
And he wasn’t going to hear it. “You could have a real life out here. You’re so much better than just a maid for other people. You could really live.”
With me, he finished to himself.
Oh, God, he was so done-for with her. And whereas he might have chalked it up to his finally getting laid, it was so much more than that. In his soul, he somehow knew her.
Over on the side table, his phone went off with a text.
“Think about it,” he said. “I know it’s a lot—so don’t give me any kind of answer right now. Head home, and be safe—I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Getting to his feet, he escorted her out to the living area and over to the glass sliders. A moment later, she was gone as if she had never been—and for a moment, he wondered if he wasn’t imagining all this.
It just seemed surreal.
Was he really falling in love here?
Closing things up, he intended to go back to his room and make the bed—mostly so that if s’Ex showed up, there wouldn’t be a lot of awkward convo. Instead, he just stayed at the sliders, staring out into the night, his brain chewing on what-ifs and how-’bouts.
The sound of his phone ringing back in the bedroom got him refocused, and he strode to the thing, going down the hall and through the doorway, heading over to the bedside table, reaching out for the glowing screen.
Picking it up, he accepted the call. “Rhage? Everything okay—”
“Trez needs you. Right now.”
“Is it—”
“Yeah. She’s in the clinic.”
iAm closed his eyes. “Tell him I’m on the way.”
As he hung up, he fucked off the messy bed and ran for the glass doors. Once out in the cold air, he tried to dematerialize, but his pounding heart and scattered emotions got in the way of his focus.
It was only by picturing Trez having to deal with a tragedy alone that he was able to pull his shit together, and a moment later, he was on the front steps of the Brotherhood mansion. Bursting into the vestibule, it took for-flippin’-ever for a doggen to answer the door, and iAm barely said two words to the male as he broke into a run.
It was a case of full-tilt down to the training center, and when he finally leapt out of the supply closet and careened through the office—
iAm skidded to a halt in the corridor.
There must have been … forty people outside the exam room, some sitting on the hard floor, others walking around. V was smoking while Butch was tapping one foot like someone had plugged his ankle into a socket. Phury was pacing like crazy; Z was stock-still. Bella was rocking Nalla in her arms. Payne was shuffling cards incessantly. John Matthew was holding hands with Xhex. Qhuinn had his arm around Blay. Autumn was holding Tohr around his waist as if she were the only thing keeping him off the concrete floor. Rhage was alone, standing far from the others. Even Wrath was there with Beth and L.W. and George.
All of the Chosen were present. Every single one of them, including Amalya.
And Rehvenge was closest to the door into the clinical space.
iAm closed his eyes. He couldn’t believe they had all shown up.
When he started walking forward, people embraced him, reached for his hands, squeezed his shoulders. He did his best to thank them and respond, but his head was spinning. When he got to Rehv, he just shook his head.