Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood 7)

She swallowed and looked up into the Brother's scarred face, drawing strength from how steady he was. "Okay. Okay...I'm all right."

"Good girl."

"Over here," Xhex said as she headed for the stall and opened its two-part door.

The floor inside was concrete and marked with an odd geometric pattern.

"Open sesame." Xhex bent down and lifted what turned out to be a slab of stone, the Brothers coming forward to help her with the weight.

The staircase that was revealed was lit with a soft red glow.

"I feel like I'm walking down into a  p**n  movie," V muttered as they took the steps with care.

"Wouldn't that require more black candles for you," Zsadist cracked.

At the bottom of the landing, they looked left and right down a corridor carved out of stone, seeing nothing but row after row of...black candles with ruby-colored flames.

"I take that back," Z said, eyeing the display.

"We start hearing chick-a-wow-wow shit," V cut in, "can I start calling you Z-packed?"

"Not if you want to keep breathing."

Ehlena turned to the right, overwhelmed by a sense of urgency. "He's down here. I can feel him."

Without waiting for the others, she took off at a jog.

Of all the miracles that could have been granted on the planet, of all the, OMG, you're alive!s, or, Thank you, Scribe Virgin, he's cured!s, the resurrection John was staring at was a total nut-buster.

Lash was standing in front of a Martha Stewart white colonial, dressed in slick clothes, looking like he was not only perfectly alive and as impressed with himself as ever, but as if he'd been turbocharged somehow: He smelled like a lesser, but as he stared down from the porch it was as if he were the Omega itself-nothing but evil power that was unimpressed by any mortal displays of strength.

"Hey, John-boy," Lash drawled. "I can't tell you how great it is to see your pansy-ass face again. Almost as good as my rebirth."

Jesus...Christ. Why couldn't Wellsie have been the recipient of this kind of gift? But no...psychotic ass-wipe with the narcissistic disorder got fingered to do the Lazarus shuffle.

The irony was that John had prayed for this. Shit, immediately after Qhuinn had sliced the guy's throat, John had prayed that somehow Lash would live through the massive blood loss. He could remember getting down onto the wet tile in the training center's shower and trying to plug up the wound with his shirt. He'd begged God, the Scribe Virgin, whoever would listen, to somehow fix the situation.

Lash's becoming the vampire equivalent of the Antichrist was not exactly what he'd been going for, however.

As snow started to ease down from the cloudy sky, some words were exchanged between Rhage and Lash, but the buzzing in John's head drowned most of them out.

What he did hear clearly was Qhuinn's voice right behind him: "Well, look at it this way. At least we get to kill him again."

Then the world exploded. Literally.

From out of nowhere, a meteor formed in Lash's palm and went flying, coming straight at John and the Brothers, a metaphysical bowling ball from hell. As it made contact, its glowing shock waves knocked all of them off their feet, a full strike.

Flat on his back with the others, John struggled to catch his breath as flakes settled softly on his cheeks and lips. The next blast was coming. Had to be.

Either that or something worse.

The roar that lit off across the landscape originated from in front of him, and at first he assumed Lash had transmogrified into some kind of five-headed horror that was going to eat them all alive.

Except...well, it was a beast, but as purple scales flashed and a barbed tail swept through the air, John was relieved. It was their Godzilla, not the Omega's: Rhage's alter ego had come out of him, and the massive dragon was good and pissed off.

Even Lash seemed a little surprised.

The dragon inhaled with a great dragging pull on the night air, and then it stretched its neck forward and let out a burst of fire that was so intense the skin on John's face tightened like shrink-wrap-even though he was well out of range.

When the flames dissipated, Lash was standing between porch supports that were singed, his clothes steaming, his body otherwise unharmed.

Great. Fucker was flame-retardant.

And ready to serve up another round of H-bomb. Like something out of a video game, he palmed up another serving of hot-and-heavy and sent the energy rolling right at the beast.

Who took it like a man. Rhage's other half stayed strong against the onslaught and gave the rest of them the break they needed to get on their feet and be ready to shoot. It was a bold, sweet move-but then again, when you could spit out a bonfire, you had to be able to stand the heat or your burps were going to immolate your ass.

John started shooting, as did the others, even though he suspected that they were going to need more than bullets to take down the new and improved Lash.

He was slipping another clip in when two carloads of lessers showed up.

Chapter SIXTY-EIGHT

Xhex was willing to follow Ehlena directionally, but she didn't feel comfortable having the female in the lead as they hotfooted along. In a burst of speed, she overtook Rehv's mate.

"You tell me if we take a wrong turn, 'kay?" As Ehlena nodded, the Brothers fell in behind her to guard against a rear ambush.

As they went down the rock corridor, Xhex didn't have a good feeling about any of this. She couldn't sense Rehv at all, which from a vampire standpoint was not surprising-Ehlena had been the last female he'd fed from, so her blood superceded Xhex's. The problem was that symphath to symphath she couldn't get a bead on him. In fact, she was unable to pinpoint where he or anyone else in the colony was. It didn't compute. Symphaths could pick up on anything with emotions, anywhere. So she should have been finding all kinds of grids.

She glanced at the wall as she hurried along. When she'd been here last, it had all been rough-cut stone, but now it had a smooth surface. Guess they'd improved things over the decades.

"The corridor is going to branch out in another hundred yards," she whispered over her shoulder. "They keep the prisoners to the left, and their quarters and common rooms are all to the right."

"How do you know?" Vishous asked.

She didn't answer the Brother. No reason to mention she'd been in one of their jail cells. She just kept going, following the rows of black candles, going deeper into the colony, closer to where its inhabitants slept and ate and played with one another's minds. And still she sensed nothing.

No, that wasn't quite true. There was a strange kind of static. At first she'd assumed it was the softly flickering red flames atop all that black wax, the subtle currents in the air fluffing the lit wicks. But no...it was something else.

When they got to the hall's three-way branch, she automatically headed to the left, but Ehlena said, "No, straight ahead."

"Doesn't make sense." Xhex stopped and kept her voice down. "That's where the HVAC rooms are."

"That's where he is."

Vishous shoved his way to the front. "Look, let's go where Ehlena says. We need to find him before the battle going on outdoors ends up down here."

As the Brother shot off, Xhex's ass was frosted that he was out in front. But short of throwing down over it, which was a waste of time, she was in the number two position and that was that.

They went at a clip, going into a network of smaller tunnels that led to the heating system and the air draw and all the blowers. The colony was built along the lines of an ant farm, a sustainable, underground living environment that had grown and expanded over time, with more offshoots burrowing deeper and deeper through the earth. The construction and the upkeep rested on the backs of the working class of symphaths, who were nothing more than slaves who were encouraged to breed so their numbers doubled over time. There was no middle class. Next up from the servants was the royal household and the aristocrats.

And never the twain would meet.

Xhex's father had been of the servant class. Which made her beneath Rehvenge, and not just because he was royal. Technically, she was one step up from dog shit.

"Stop!" Ehlena called out.

They pulled up short, facing...the stone wall.

As one, they reached forward, running their hands over the smooth surface. Zsadist and Ehlena found fissures at the same time, the nearly hidden seam forming a tall square.

"How the f**k do we get in here," Z said as he prodded the rock.

"Move back," Xhex barked.