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The Black Dagger Brotherhood Mansion
Caldwell, New York
AS A CELLphone went off like a car alarm two feet from her head, Xhex, mated of the Black Dagger Brother John Matthew, had two thoughts: One, she was actually sleeping—and this was good news. Number two? If the fucker who was reaching out and trying to touch her was a telemarketer, she was going to reach through her fucking Samsung and let her fingers walk all over them.
Throwing her hand out into the darkness, her speed was better than her grab-accuracy, and instead of palming the Samsung, the thing went eight ball in the corner pocket.
Except she didn’t sleep next to a pool table, so it shot off into thin air.
“Sonofa—”
Beside her, her mate came alive, jumping out of the bed and landing buck naked in an attack crouch. In his dagger hand? A black, finely honed blade capable of gutting anything that lived and breathed. In the other, a nine millimeter, the lasersight of which was trained on the door that opened out into the hall. Then into the dim marble confines of the bathroom. Then at the panels of their walk-in closet.
“It’s okay,” she said as she stretched out her arm. “I just knocked the phone off trying to answer it.”
As if the Samsung didn’t want any of that smoke, it rang again to remind everybody why it was in the room—and the electronic bell was enough to get John off the boil. That black dagger slowly lowered as Xhex reached down to find…
In the dim light from the bathroom, her mate’s naked body was illuminated with a lover’s touch, his broad shoulders and tight pecs, his ribbed abs and winged hips, his heavy thighs and strong calves thrown into relief with shadows cast by the contours of his power and strength—
The third ring cattle-prodded her back into focus. Cursing, she promptly over-extended herself, slipped off the side of the mattress, and dropped from the waist-high antique bed frame. As gravity got greedy and snatched her in a hard hold, she tried to catch herself before she face-planted—
The electrical cord to the lamp somehow got tangled in her carpet fend-off, and she managed to pull the heavy crystal block and its hot-air-balloon-sized shade onto herself. Fortunately, the top half was what hit her top half, so things were cushioned. Unfortunately, her hips and legs followed.
It was like being in a car crash without the bumpers and the airbags.
As John willed the overhead fixture on, there was a blazing light, sure as if the Scribe Virgin were still around and had decided to check on all the commotion.
“Fuck…”Blinded, Xhex covered her eyes with the crook of her elbow. Which was easy to do considering she’d nearly knocked herself out with the damned thing. “And who the hell is calling us at this hour?”
It had to be, what, three in the afternoon? Fine and dandy if you were a human, an absolute ungodly interruption when you were a vampire.
As the fourth ring registered, and John Matthew came around the base of the bed, she pushed a hand under the inlaid three-drawer stand—and finally, her phone was ready to be found. Snagging the thing, she answered it on the way to her ear.
“What.”If this was some asshole talking about buying a piece of property she didn’t own, a car warranty she didn’t have, or school loans that she—“You better start talking or I will reverse-search this bitch and find you—”
The female voice was instantly recognizable. But the torrent of words that came through the connection was nearly indecipherable.
“Whoa, whoa—slow down. What…?”
Shoving herself up, Xhex leaned back against thehorizontal rail of the bed frame. As John Matthew knelt beside her, she switched to speaker.
“You need to slow down,” she said to the phone. “What’s going on?”
In a tinny tone, Lydia Susi announced: “I need to get in touch with your brother.”
Xhex closed her eyes. The wolven might as well have asked to hold a grenade with the pin out in her palm.
“Mind if I ask why?” Or, more bluntly:Are you fucking insane?
The story rolled out as most drama did: A good guy in a bad situation with no better options. Except throwing Blade into anything other than a bonfire was guaranteed to make things go totally tits up.
“Lydia, I don’t know what to tell you.” Well, she had a list of dumb-idea expletives. But what was that thing—is it useful, is it kind? “Other than you need to look for another solution.”
As she tossed out the advice, she glanced at herhellren. When John Matthew motioned back and forth between them, she shook her head.
No way did they need to volunteer for the complications.
“Gus is our doctor.” The female cleared her throat. “But more than that, he’s a good man. He doesn’t deserve to be hurt or—worse.Please.Can you ask your brother to meet me up on the mountain?”
