Just as he started to come, at the moment his ejaculations began to fill her up and mark her as his own, he caught one last sight of her face. Her lids had partially opened and only the whites of her eyes were showing.
And then he lost all sense of time and place and self as well.
It was a perfect little death for them both.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Lassiter had always refused to carry a cell phone.
Okay, fine. Sometimes he took one with him, but it was only really when he was in the mood to share TikToks or YouTube shorts. Some of the shit on the Internet was funny or instructional or cute as fuck, and he knew that the brothers needed a pick-me-up from time to time. Tonight, when he’d left the Brotherhood mansion to come to Havers’s clinic, he’d deliberately not taken his with him because he hadn’t wanted to be interrupted.
As he stepped out of Rahvyn’s hospital room, however, he still managed to get a text from the Brotherhood. A group text, as it were: Even though he was invisible, and no one else knew he was on-site, somehow a cadre of brothers had formed a lineup on the wall outside. Like they knew he was in there.
Rhage was over on the left, a Tootsie Pop stick locked between clenched teeth like he’d just finished getting to the center without much licking. Next to him was Zsadist, the brother’s skull trim especially tight, his scarred face as always a thing of nightmares. And then there was Butch, in his fancy threads, and V, who was not smoking, for once. Phury was at the far end.
Lassiter didn’t need to ask where Tohr was. With Wrath, of course, as no doubt were the Band of Bastards. The King was not going to be left unguarded, especially not on a night like tonight.
“I know you’re there,” V muttered.
As Lassiter revealed himself, he put his palms forward, all halt-and-desist. “I wasn’t hiding myself.”
Not from them, at any rate.
“You missed our meeting.”
As V put the condemnation out there, the other brothers were silent, but they were looking like a firing squad, all that black leather hiding bulges so the medical staff and the civilians weren’t alarmed. But come on, as if anybody could look at them and not know that they killed things for a living?
“I’m sorry,” he said to V. “I had to take care of something.”
“Who the hell is she.” Vishous pointed at the closed door to the hospital room. “And what did she do to Nate.”
Lassiter glanced over his shoulder. To his eyes, the panel fell away and he could see Rahvyn as clearly as when he’d been by her side. She was still asleep, but not peacefully so. Her brows were tight over the bridge of her nose and she twitched in her hands and her feet, like she was running in her dreams.
“What did she do to that kid,” V snapped.
“The same thing that she did to your brother Sahvage,” Lassiter murmured. Then he refocused on the group. “It’s not dissimilar to what your shellan enjoys, Rhage. Nate’s outside the scope of mortality now. Nothing can kill him, which is a blessing and a curse that he will have to balance out for himself.”
V stepped up close, those diamond eyes of his narrowing. “My mahmen saved his Mary.”
“She did. Yup.”
The brother jabbed his finger at the door again. “You’re saying that female is as powerful as my mahmen.”
“No, I’m not.”
“So she just pulled that kind of hat trick out of nowhere? Twice.”
Lassiter leaned forward. “She’s no comparison to your mom.”
“So what is she—”
“She’s more powerful.” As all kinds of you’re-shitting-me hit that harsh, goateed face, Lassiter shrugged. “She is the Gift of Light. And if you want the vampire species to survive with Devina on the planet, you’re going to need her.”
“Why have we not heard of her before,” Phury asked. “The Chosen have never spoke of such a—”
“This is bullshit,” V announced. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Lassiter had to smile at the brother. “Get your panties in a wad if you want, V, but I’ve got news for you. Your sign-off is not required when it comes to the universe. The Creator does what he wants, not what you approve of.”
Phury spoke up again. “Maybe it’s somewhere in the Sanctuary’s library. Or maybe the Chosen who didn’t survive the raid all those years ago knew about it.”
“Or maybe the Scribe Virgin didn’t want anybody to know,” Lassiter countered. “No offense to her, but she wasn’t much for challenges to her power. And the female who brought back Nate tonight is unlike anything else in the universe.”
“Motherfucker,” V muttered.
“What are you pissed about. She saved that young male. Brought him back and healed the pain of your brother and his shellan. You should be thanking her.”