Lover Mine (Black Dagger Brotherhood 8)

Smelled like spices.

"That feels divine," Saxton murmured.

Blay closed his eyes and breathed deep. "I agree. "

Chapter Fifty

"What the hell are you two doing here?" Xhex hissed as she lowered her dagger.

Trez's expression gave her a big-ass helping of well, duh. "Rehv called us. "

Characteristically, iAm stayed quiet at his brother's side; he just nodded and crossed his arms over his chest, doing an excellent impression of an oak tree that was going nowhere. And as the twin Shadows stared down at her, they were shielding themselves, revealing their bodies and voices only to her.

For a moment, she regretted their discretion. Hard to knee the busy- bodies in the balls when they were in their ghosting form.

"No hugs?" Trez murmured while he searched her face. "Been a lifetime since we saw you. "

Answering him back on a frequency the humans and any lessers wouldn't be able to hear, she muttered, "I'm not a hugger. "

Except then she cursed and wrapped her arms around the two steak- heads anyway. The Shadows were notoriously private with their emotions and harder to infiltrate than humans or even vampires, but she could feel their pain over what she had been through.

As she went to pull back, Trez tightened his hold and shuddered. "I'm. . . Jesus Christ, Xhex. . . we didn't think we were ever going to see you again--"

She shook her head. "Stop. Please. There's never a good time for that and here is certainly not the place. I love you both, okay, and I'm tight. So let's drop it. "

Well, sort of tight. As long as she didn't think about John stuck back at that mansion, no doubt going insane. Thanks to her.

Ah, how history repeated itself.

"I'll stop before we get morbid. " Trez smiled, his fangs showing bright white against his ebony face. "We're just glad you're all right. "

"Stipulated. Or I wouldn't be here. "

"Not sure about that," he said under his breath as he and his brother looked through the window. "Wow. Someone had fun in there. "

A stiff breeze whiffled through, bringing a fresh blast of baby powder from a new direction, and all three of their heads turned.

Out on the dirt lane in front of the house, a car rolled by that had no business anywhere near cornfields. The thing was all Fast & Furious, a Honda Civic that had been to the automotive plastic surgeon's and gotten a Play-boy makeover: With a whale tail and an air dam that left about a three- inch ground clearance as well as a paint job that was gray and pink and a retina-burning yellow, it was like a Midwestern girl who'd fallen into porn.

And what do you know. . . the lesser behind the wheel had an expression that didn't match the juice he was driving. Unless someone had just pissed in his gas tank.

"I will bet my forties that's the new Fore-lesser," Xhex said. "No way Lash would allow a second in command that kind of ride. I spent four weeks with that fucker and everything was all about him. "

"Switch at the top. " Trez nodded. "Happens a lot with them. "

"You've got to follow that car," she said. "Quick, get on him--"

"Can't leave you. Orders from the boss. "

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Xhex looked from the Civic to the crime scene, then back to the departing whale tail. "Go! We need to track him--"

"Nope. Unless you want to. . . and then we'll hit it with you, right, iAm. "

As the other Shadow nodded once, Xhex felt like punching the aluminum siding she'd been leaning against. "This is fucking ridiculous. "

"Hardly. You're waiting for Lash to show up here and I know you're not going to want to just talk to him. So no way we're leaving you--and don't bother hitting me with the you're- not-the-boss-of-me shit. I have selective deafness. " iAm actually spoke up. "He really does. "

Xhex locked eyes on the license plate of that ridiculous Honda, thinking, Oh, for fuck's sake. . . Then again, if the two Shadows weren't here, she would have stayed put; just taken the numbers down and stayed right where she was. She could always trace them later.