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As she glanced up into the mirror again and focused on Rahvyn over her shoulder, she thought back to doing the same with Bitty, when thefemale had been sitting on her own bed back at home. Things felt like they had changed irrevocably, and she wished lives were like clothes… that you could put them into a Maytag with some OxiClean and have everything come out fresh-smelling, warm, and ready to wear out of the dryer.
“You really aren’t going to ask me what happened?” she said roughly.
Rahvyn shook her head and spoke in that formal way of hers. “You will tell me if and when you are ready. All I know is that you are alive, and we can work with that. I would like to know if there is anyone else who needs something, however.”
Between one blink and the next, Nalla returned to that alley. “After what I saw tonight, that’s another thing I’m not sure how to answer.”
“Was medical support contacted?”
“Yes, but they weren’t needed. As it turned out.”
“Okay. I am glad whoever was with you did not need treatment.”
Nalla turned the water off and reached for a hand towel that was looped, plump and fragrant, through a chrome circle.
“Yeah, that’s not the half of it. But you wouldn’t believe me if I told you the whole story.”
“Try me.” Rahvyn put her palm forward. “But no pressure.”
“I saw a male get shot first in the stomach, and then in the heart—and he died in front of me.” As there was a gasp, Nalla pivoted and dried things off. “Except then he sat up. Stood up. And was perfectly fine. So no, he didn’t need any help, although I sure as hell need some time to try to put that into perspective.”
Rahvyn stared down at the floor for a long moment. Then she rubbed her eyes like her head hurt. “Hop in the shower. I will get you what you need.”
“See? I knew you wouldn’t believe me. But it’s the truth.”
The other female glanced back over, and God, she seemed as ancient as Nalla was feeling. “Oh, I realize you speak the truth.”
“So you know who I’m talking about? He obviously keeps it mostly to himself. My father knew, though. And so did Dr. Manello.”
Nalla shouldn’t have been surprised. The female was mated to Lassiter, who was the spiritual head of the race. She probably knew a lot of things, about a lot of people.
“Can you tell me anything about Nate?” Nalla asked. “How… he is what he is?”
Rahvyn seemed to blanch, and a sadness came over her. But all she did was shake her head.
“I will leave some clothes at the end of the bed while you are in the shower,” the female said before stepping away. “Take your time in the hot water. Sometimes it is a balm for so much more than what ails the battered body.”
As the door was closed, Nalla glanced at the faucet of the sink and thought of her hands under the cold rush. “If you can feel anything, that is.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Umm, hi, Uncle V. Do you have a minute?”
As Bitty hovered in the doorway of the steel and glass office, she had to talk loudly to project over the old-fashioned Post Malone, but she knew she wasn’t surprising the Brother who was staring so intently at the bank of computer monitors. Vishous, son of the Bloodletter, mated of the healer Jane, was in charge of security for all the sites the Black Dagger Brotherhood maintained, and he’d known the instant she’d materialized onto the Audience House’s driveway and approached the entrance to his this-is-just-an-old-barn.
F.T. Headquarters was the hub for security, and she’d had to be cleared to get through its door.
The Brother swiveled around in his chair and exhaled a stream of Turkish tobacco as he turned down the music. “What do you need. Name it.”
For as long as she had known the male—and it had been decades—he’d had a goatee, tattoos at one temple, and a black glove—and always a hand-rolled cigarette with a little orange glow at the tip close by. He alsohad a razor-sharp stare that had taken her a while to get comfortable around. He wasn’t exactly a softie under the hard shell. But his reply was his whole character: For those he considered his own, he would do anything.
“Can I talk to you?” She glanced over her shoulder, at all the people sitting in front of computers out in the open area. “I mean, I know you’re busy—”
With that black leather glove, he motioned for her to come in, and as soon as she did, the frosted glass door shut by itself.
“Not too busy for you.”
“Thank you.”
