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THIRTY-SEVEN
ALTRUISM WAS NOTthe hallmark of asymphath. Not even close.
After night fell more than sufficiently, Blade finally got up off the pallet he’d spent the day on, and to burn a little more time, he immersed himself in the heated spring’s gentle embrace. Just as the water reached his pecs, he heard an approach through the cave’s passageway, the footfalls powerful and undisguised.
It was not who he wanted to see, although certainly someone he had expected.
“Sister mine,” he said before Xhex strode into the cave, before he sank beneath the surface to wet his hair.
When he reemerged, he discovered she was not alone, her mate, John Matthew, standing at her side. The two of them looked good together, her so powerfully built and dressed in black, him the same. And though their bodies weren’t touching, theirconnection was obvious, the kind of thing that was a second fire burning within the cave.
“Oh, I got both of you,” Blade murmured. “How lucky.”
“I came to see if you’re dead,” Xhex announced.
He lifted his hands. “Disappointed?”
“Yeah, kind of.”
“At least that’s honest.” He smiled at her male. “John. How are you. Thanks for last night.”
The Brother lowered his chin in a nod, but that was all that came back. Which proved he was a smart male.
“We need to know something.” His sister glanced around the stark furnishings. “But first, I know Lydia’s been by here, hasn’t she.”
The question was bullshit, nothing but a fishing expedition to light up his grid and test whether he’d been a good boy, whether he’d kept to his word.
“She stopped by this morning, but I haven’t seen her since.”
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He’d seen her in his mind all day long. The replay of her and Daniel shouting at each other, their grids glowing like forest fires, their voices clashing, had stuck with him in ways few other things could have.
“What is going on with you and her?” Xhex demanded. “I don’t get it.”
Wasn’t that the question of the hour. And there was only one answer he could give: “Absolutely nothing.”
“You’ve bonded with her. I could scent it last night—and it’s still true as I bring up her name now. FYI, I don’t think she knows what that means for a vampire male.”
Blade said nothing. And as his sister’s eyes narrowed on him, he sensed that it wasn’t just the shift in his scent that told her where he was at with the female wolven. She was reading his grid, and why should he feel like that was a violation when he was doing the same to her?
And she wasn’t doing well. Her superstructure was still all wrong. Was she even aware of it, though?
“Perhaps you’ll move on to the real reason you’re here?” he prompted.
Xhex rolled her eyes like she was sick of him, and he knew how that felt. He was rather sick of himself as well.
“That cyborg thing we took off the mountain last night.” She nodded over her shoulder, like he didn’t remember where the biomechanical soldier had been, out by the summit. “The Brotherhood and I—we want to know what it is.”
“I would think that is self-explanatory to a certain point.”
“The hell it is. It was part human, part machine.”
“No, there is no human in them. Not that I’ve been able to find, at least.”
“So you know what they are.”
“I have encountered one or two in my time. But before you pepper me with inquiries, I will tell you quite truthfully that I know nothing of their origin. They are out in the darkness—working for some kind of master. Their larger, ultimate purpose, however, escapes me as of now.”
“We’re going to have to drill down on this. The Brotherhood doesn’t like surprises in their territory.”
