Lover Mine (Black Dagger Brotherhood 8)

The fallen angel had simply nodded and wished him good luck. Like he knew precisely what ring of fire Tohr was about to walk through.

God, the sense that nothing surprised the guy was almost as annoying as everything else about him.

The thing was, though, John had come in about a half hour ago and shared his joyous news. Personally. The kid had been grinning so wide, there was a good chance his face was going to freeze in that position, and that was a pretty goddamn fantastic thing.

Shit, life was so strange sometimes. And all too often this meant that bad things mowed good folks down. Not in this case, though. Thank God, not this time.

And it was hard to think of two people who deserved it more.

Leaving his room, Tohr strode down the hall of statues. The happy announcement about John and his Xhex getting mated had spread throughout the household, bringing a much- needed shot in the arm to everybody. Especially Fritz and the doggen, who loved to put on a big party.

And man, from the sounds down below, they were in the throes of preparations. Either that or West Coast Choppers was doing a Harley over in the foyer.

Nah. Turned out the buzzing wasn't some pimp job on a cycle, but a fleet of floor buffers going to town.

Pausing, Tohr braced his hands on the balustrade and looked down at the mosaic depiction of the apple tree in full bloom. As he watched the doggen with their whirling machines go over the branches and the trunk, he decided life was right and fair on occasion. It truly was.

And that was the only reason he could summon the strength to do what he had to.

After descending the grand staircase at a jog, he waved at the doggen while dodging in and out of their paths and ducking out through the vestibule. In the courtyard, he took a deep breath and braced himself. He had a good two hours before the ceremony, which was a bene. He wasn't sure how long this was going to take.

Closing his eyes, he sent his atoms scattering and took form. . . on the terrace of his mated home, the place where he and his beloved had lived out a good fifty years.

As he lifted his lids, he didn't look at the house. Instead, he tilted his head back and searched the night sky above the roofline. The stars were out, their shimmering brightness undimmed by the moon which had yet to reach any appreciable height.

Where were his dead? he wondered. Which among the tiny lights were the souls of those whom he'd lost?

Where were his shellan and their young? Where was Darius? Where were all the others who had pared off from the trudging path his boots still strode so that they could take residence in the velvet ever-afterlife of the Fade?

Did they watch what happened down here? Did they see what transpired, both the good and bad?

Did they miss those they'd left behind?

Did they know they were missed?

Tohr slowly brought his head to level and steeled himself.

Yup, he was right. . . hurt like a motherfucker just to look at the place.

And the metaphor was too frickin' obvious: What he was staring at was a huge hole in his house, the glass slider to John's old room blown clean out of its frame, a whole lot of nothing left where there was meant to be something.

As a breeze blew by, the drapes that hung on either side of the casing wafted gently.

So very obvious: House was him. Hole was what remained after he'd lost. . . Wellsie.

Still difficult to think her name. Much less say it.

Over to the side, there were half a dozen sheets of plywood along with a box of nails and a hammer. Fritz had brought them over as soon as Tohr had learned about the accident, but the doggen had been under strict orders not to fix the problem himself.

Tohr fixed his own house. Always.

As he walked forward, the soles of his shitkickers crushed the glass shards into flagstone, the crackling sound following him as he got to the door's threshold. Taking a key fob out of his pocket, he pointed it into the house and pressed the disarm button on the remote. There was a distant beep-beep, which meant the security system had registered the signal and was now off.

He was free to go in: Motion detectors were deactivated and he could open any exterior door or window in the place.

Free to go in.

Yup.