eyes fixated on the door, his hands gripping the arms of his chair.
As the knob turned, voice mail kicked in and the sound of Wellsie's voice came out of the receiver. "Hi, this is Wellsie and Tohr. We can't get to the phone right now..."
Every one of the Brothers was out in the hall. And Wrath was in front of the grim, silent group.
There was a clatter and John looked back at Tohr. The man had jacked up onto his feet and knocked his chair over. He was trembling from head to foot, sweating through his shirt in great patches under his arms.
"My brother," Wrath said. There was a helpless tone to his voice, one totally at odds with his fierce face. And that powerlessness was terrifying.
Tohr moaned and grabbed at his sternum, rubbing in fast, desperate circles. "You... can't be here. Not all of you." He put one hand out as if to push them all away and then he backed up. Except there was nowhere to go.
He banged against a file cabinet. "Wrath, don't... my lord, please, don't... oh, God. Don't say it. Don't tell me...
"
"I'm so sorry..."
Tohr started to rock back and forth, arms going around his middle as if he were going to throw up. His short breaths went in so fast he began to hiccup, and he didn't seem to exhale at all.
John burst into tears.
He didn't mean to. But reality was dawning and the horror was too hard to bear. He dropped his head in his hands, and all he could think about was Wellsie backing out of the driveway like it was just another day.
When a big hand pulled him up out of the chair and he was held against a chest, he thought it was one of the Brothers. But it was Tohr. Tohr was holding him hard, clinging.
The male started to murmur like a crazy man, his words fast and incomprehensible until they finally coalesced into some kind of meaning. "Why wasn't I called? Why didn't Havers call me? He should have called me...
Oh, God, the baby took her... I knew we shouldn't have gotten her pregnant..."
Abruptly everything changed in the room, as if someone had turned up the lights or maybe the heat. John felt Page 255
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the shift in the air first, and then Tohr's words dried up as he obviously sensed it, too.
Tohr's arms loosened. "Wrath? It was... the baby, right?"
"Get the boy out of here."
John shook his head and held on to Tohr's waist with a death grip.
"How did she die, Wrath?" Tohrment's voice went flat and his hands fell from John. "You tell me now. Right fucking now."
"Get the kid out of here," Wrath barked at Phury.
John fought as Phury grabbed him around the waist and picked him up off the floor. At the same time Vishous and Rhage positioned themselves on either side of Tohr. The door closed.
Outside of the office, Phury put John down and held him in place. There was a moment or two of silence... and then a raw scream shattered the air as sure as if the oxygen were a solid.
The burst of energy that followed was so strong it shattered the glass door. Shards splintered and sprayed out while Phury sheltered John from the shrapnel.
One by one down both lengths of the hall, the fluorescent ceiling lights exploded, flashing bright and leaving streamers of sparks to bleed down from the fixtures. Energy vibrated up through the concrete floor, leaving cracks that ran into the cinder-block walls.
Through the busted door John saw a whirlwind in the office, and the Brothers were backing away from it, arms in front of their faces. Pieces of furniture whipped around a black hole in the center of the room, one that was vaguely shaped like Tohr's head and body.
There was another unearthly howl and then the inky void disappeared, the furniture came crashing down, the trembling in the floor stopped. Papers fluttered to a gentle rest over the chaos like snow over a traffic accident.
Tohrment was gone.
John pushed himself out of Phury's arms and ran into the office. As the Brothers looked on, his mouth opened and he screamed without making a sound:
Father...father...father!
Chapter Forty-four
Some days lasted forever, Phury thought much later. And when the sun went down, there was still no end to them.
As the shutters lifted for the evening, he took a seat on a spindly sofa and looked across Wrath's study at Zsadist. The other Brothers were just as speechless