The Beast (Black Dagger Brotherhood #14) - J. R. Ward Page 0,163

as if her calves ran directly down into her feet.

She should not have gone hunting for any information.

For now what did she do? How did she explain why she had looked?

Pushing herself onto her feet, she pulled her nightgown down and moved her hair back behind her shoulders. With a curse, she took one step forward—

Wetness. Down the insides of her legs again.

Great. Just what she needed in the middle of all this.

Waddling forward, she was preoccupied with Xcor and irritated with her bladder. But at least she could take a shower and relax knowing that everything was okay with the young. And didn’t they make adult diapers for this sort of thing?

She was pivoting around to shut the bathroom door when she looked back—

Blood. Blood on the floor … bloody footprints on the floor.

Lifting her gown, there was blood on the inside of her legs.

As she screamed, someone came running—and Ehlena burst in.

The nurse took one look at what was going on—and immediately went into professional mode. “Come with me. Back to bed. Back to bed we go.”

Layla was dimly aware of the female taking her by the arm and depositing her back on the mattress.

“The young—what about the young—”

“Hold on, I’m calling for Doc Jane.” Ehlena hit the summoning button. “I’m just going to hook you up to the machines, okay?”

Everything happened so fast. Wires set upon her, monitors engaged, Doc Jane rushing in. The ultrasound rolled into the room. Manny arriving. Qhuinn and Blay nearly breaking down the door as they came in.

“The young,” she moaned. “What about the young…?”

It was as the wind blew o’er the land.

Consciousness returned to Xcor in the manner of a gust that traveled around and over a landscape, bypassing some things, rustling others, penetrating through still more. Accordingly, he was aware of many aches, and yet there were great patches of numbness, too—he could feel measures of agony and stretches of tingles … twitches and jerks … but then nothing at all in great swaths of his flesh.

Smell registered with acuity, however.

The scent of dirt confused him.

Behind his closed eyes, he oriented himself as best he could using his ears and his nose. He was not alone. There was the scent of one—no, two other male vampires with him. Further, they were speaking in low tones—well, one of them was. The other said naught that Xcor could ascertain.

He did not know them. Or, more accurately, he did not recognize them as being his soldiers—

The Brotherhood. Indeed, yes, he had scented them before. When the Brotherhood had come to speak unto the glymera at that meeting of the Council.

Had he been captured?

Hazy details of the night came back to him. Of him being in that alley next to that burned-out car shell. Of him following a food truck … following where? Where had he gone?

Was this a dream?

Images filtered across his mind’s eye, but they did not stay long enough for him to grasp—

“He’s frowning,” the male voice said. “His hands are moving. Are you awake, bastard?”

He could not have answered if his life depended upon it—and in fact, his life did depend on it. If he had been captured, the how’s and where’s were—

Campus.

He had not followed the food truck. No, he had been on top of the vehicle, riding through the night as the slayers he had been hunting had proceeded out of downtown, past the suburbs, unto an abandoned college or preparatory school’s campus.

Whereupon he had witnessed the aftermath of a great battle, a devastating loss for the Lessening Society.

Waged by the Brotherhood.

He had found a human. Upon a roof.

And then he himself had been struck upon the back of the head.

How long had he been unconscious? His body ached all over, not as if it had been beaten, but rather as if it hadn’t been used in a while.

“Are you finally awake?” the voice demanded.

Finally…? Yes, it must have been some time that he had been unconscious. In fact, he felt as though he had been lying in this position for a prolonged period.

What was that beeping—

Ringing. All of a sudden there was ringing—cell phones going off. The male who had been doing the speaking answered.

“What? When? How much? Oh, God … yes. Right away. Can Lassiter come and sit with him? Where is he? We’ll both come then.” There was a pause. “John—yes, it’s happening now and they need us for blood. We have to go. I don’t want to leave him, either, but what are we