apart until we have an idea of what's doing."
John looked at Tohr and signed slowly. Tohr translated, "He says he needs to take care of her."
Wrath laughed softly. "I think I've got a handle on that job, son. That's my mate, my shellan, your queen."
For some reason John relaxed at that piece of news, and gradually he recalibrated back to normal. Fifteen minutes later he got to his feet.
Wrath pegged Tohr with a hard stare. "I want to talk strategy with you, so I need you here. Phury's going to the clinic tonight, though. Why doesn't he take the boy?"
Tohr hesitated and looked at John. "That okay with you, son? My brother's a good guy. All around."
John nodded. He'd already caused enough problems by checking out on the floor like he had a case of the vapors. After that stunt, he was way into being user-friendly.
God, what had it been about that woman? Now that she was gone, he couldn't remember what the big deal was. He couldn't even recall her face. It was like he had a snapshot case of amnesia.
"Let me take you down to my brother's room."
John put his hand on Tohr's arm. When he was finished signing, he looked at Wrath.
Tohr smiled. "John said it was an honor to meet you."
"Good to meet you, too, son." The king returned to the desk and sat down. "And Tohr? When you come back, have Vishous with you."
"No problem."
O kicked the side of U's Taurus so hard, his boot left a dent in the quarter panel.
The damn shit box was parked at the side of the road in the sticks. On a random, nothing-special part of Route 14, twenty-five miles away from downtown.
It had taken him a good hour of sitting in front of U's computer to find the car, because the LoJack signal had been blocked for God only knew what reason. When the damn responder finally popped up on the screen, the Taurus had been moving swiftly. If O had had backup, he'd have made someone stay glued to the computer while he hit the truck and went after the sedan. But U was hunting downtown, and pulling him or anyone else off patrol would have caused a lot of attention.
And O already had trouble... trouble that was back again as his cell phone rang for the eight hundredth time. The thing had started going off about twenty minutes ago, and ever since then the calls had been nonstop. He took the Nokia out of his leather jacket. Caller ID showed the number as untraceable. Probably U, or worse, Mr. X.
Word must already be out that the center had been incinerated.
When the cell shut up, O dialed U's number. As soon as it was answered, O said, "You looking for me?"
"Christ, what happened out there? Mr. X said the place is gone!"
"I don't know what went down."
"But you were there, right? You said you were going there."
"You tell Mr. X that?"
"Yeah. And listen, you better watch yourself. The Fore-lesser is pissed off and looking for you."
O leaned against the cold body of the Taurus. Holy hell. He didn't have time for this. His wife was somewhere away from him, either breathing or being buried, and regardless of what state she was in, he needed to get her back. Then he had to go after that scarred Brother who'd stolen her and put that ugly bastard into the ground. Hard.
"O? You there?"
Goddamn it... Maybe he should have fixed it up so it looked like he'd died in the blast. He could have left the truck at the site and walked out through the woods. Yeah, but then what? He'd have no money, no vehicle, and no backup against the Brotherhood as he went after the one with the scar. He'd be an AWOL lesser, which meant that if anyone figured out his disappearing act, he'd be hunted down like a dog by the whole Society.
"O?"
"I honestly don't know what happened. When I got there, it was dust."
"Mr. X thinks you torched the place."
"Of course he does. The assumption's convenient for him, even though I had no motive. Look, I'll call you later."
He clipped the phone shut and shoved it into his jacket. Then he took the thing back out and turned it off.
As he rubbed his face, he couldn't feel anything at all, and it wasn't because of the cold.
Man, he was in deep shit. Mr. X was going to need to blame someone for that ash pile,