about the sparring the two of them would do in the gym. As if the guy felt the heat, Lash turned, his diamond earring sparkling. His lips lifted into a nasty little smile, then pursed as he blew John a kiss.
"John?" Zsadist's voice was hard as a hammer. "Mind showing me some respect here?"
As John flushed and looked up front, Zsadist continued, tapping the board with a long forefinger. "Once a mech like this is activated it's triggered by a variety of things, sound frequency being the most common. You can call in from a cell phone, a computer, or use a radio signal."
Zsadist started drawing again, the scratch of chalk loud in the room.
"Here's another kind of detonator." Zsadist stepped back. "This one is typical of car bombs. You wire the action box into the car's electrical system. Once the bomb's armed, whenever the car's started, tick, tick, boom."
John's hand suddenly gripped his pen and he started to blink fast, feeling dizzy.
The redheaded trainee named Blaylock asked, "Does it go off right away after ignition?"
"There's a delay of a couple of seconds. I'd note also that because the car's wiring has been redirected, the engine won't catch. The driver will turn the key and hear nothing but a series of clicks."
John's brain began firing in a rapid, flickering sequence.
Rain... black rain on a car's windshield.
A hand with a key in it, reaching forward toward a steering wheel column.
An engine turning over but failing to catch. A feeling of dread, that someone was lost. Then a bright light-John flipped out of his chair and hit the ground, but he was unaware he'd gone into a seizure: Too busy screaming in his head, he didn't feel a thing physically.
Someone was lost! Someone... was left behind. He'd left someone behind...
Chapter Ten
As dawn arrived and the steel shutters came down all around the mansion's billiards room, Vishous bit into an Arby's roast beef sandwich. Thing tasted like a phone book, through no fault of the ingredients.
At the soft smack of pool balls, he looked up. Beth, the queen, was just straightening from the felt.
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"Nice shot," Rhage said as he lounged against a silk wall.
"Careful training." She walked around the table, sizing up her next stroke. When she leaned down again and braced the cue on her left hand, the queen's Saturnine Ruby flashed on her middle finger.
V wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. "She's going to beat you again, Hollywood."
"Probably."
Except she didn't get the chance. Wrath plowed through the doorway, clearly in a mood. His long black hair, which was down almost to his leather-covered ass now, flared behind him, then came to rest on his thick back.
Beth put her cue down. "How is John?"
"Who the hell knows." Wrath went over and kissed her on the mouth, then on both sides of her neck over her veins. "He won't go to see Havers. Refuses to get anywhere near the clinic. Kid's asleep in Tohr's office now, just exhausted."
"What was the trigger for the seizure this time?"
"Z was doing a class on explosives. Kid just whacked out, ended up on the floor. Same as before, when he first saw you."
Beth wrapped her arms around Wrath's waist and leaned into her hellren's body. Their black hair mixed together, his straight, hers wavy. God, Wrath's was so damn long now. But word had it that Beth liked the stuff so he'd grown it out for her.
V wiped his mouth again. Weird, how males do shit like that.
Beth shook her head. "I wish John would come stay in the house with us. Sleeping in that chair, staying in the office... He spends so much time alone and he doesn't eat enough anymore. Plus Mary says he won't talk about what happened with Tohr and Wellsie at all. He just refuses to open up."
"I don't care what he talks about as long as he goes to the damn doctor." Wrath's wraparound sunglasses shifted over to V. "And how's our other patient? Christ, I feel like we need an in-house physician around here."
V reached for the Arby's bag and took out sandwich number two. "Cop's healing up. I think he'll be out in a day or so."
"I want to know what the fuck was done to him. The Scribe Virgin's giving me nothing on this one. She's silent as stone."
"I started the research yesterday. Began with the Chronicles." Which were eighteen volumes in the Old Language of vampire history. God, talk about your