to be here long enough to get settled somewhere else."
"Settled somewhere-what the hell? This stuff with your brother is permanent!"
"It'll be fine. Listen, Rehvenge, I... need you. I need to try again to..." She put her head in her hand. She hated Page 163
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using him, but who else could she go to? And Butch... God, Butch... she felt like she was betraying him.
Except what was her alternative?
Rehvenge growled, "When, tahlly? When do you want me?"
"Now."
"Just go to-ah, hell, I've got to meet the Princeps leahdyre. And then I've got some work-related issues I have to take care of."
She gripped the phone. Waiting was bad. "Tomorrow, then?"
"At nightfall. Unless you want to come and stay at my home. Then we could have... all day long."
"I'll see you first thing tomorrow evening."
"I can't wait, tahlly."
After she hung up, she stretched out on the bed and sank into utter exhaustion, her body becoming indistinguishable from the sheets and blankets and pillows, just another inanimate object on top of the mattress.
Oh, hell... maybe waiting until tomorrow was better. She could rest up then talk to Butch and let him know what was going on. As long as she wasn't sexually charged, she should be able to control herself around him and this was one conversation that was better to have in person: If humans who were in love were anything like bonded male vampires, Butch wasn't going to handle the fact that she needed to be with someone else well.
With a sigh, she thought about Rehv. Then the Princeps Council. Then her sex in general.
God, even if that sehclusion motion was defeated by some miracle, there really was no safe place for females to go if they were threatened at home, was there? With the disintegration of vampire society and all the fighting with the lessers, there were no social services for the race. No safety net. No one to help females and their young if the hellren in their house was violent. Or if the family turned the female away.
Good Lord, what would have happened to her if Beth and Wrath hadn't taken her in? Or if she didn't have Rehvenge?
She might well have died.
* * *
Down in the compound's training center, John was the first in the locker room after the in-class session was done. He changed quickly into his jockstrap and his ji, impatient for the fighting practice to begin. "What's the hurry, John? Oh, wait, you like to get your ass kicked."
John looked over his shoulder. Lash was standing in front of an open locker, taking off a fancy silk shirt. His chest was no bigger than John's and his arms just as thin, but as the guy stared back, his eyes burned like he was the size of a bull.
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John met that glare head-on, his body heating up. Man, he was jonesing for Lash to open his mouth and say something else. Just one more thing.
"You gonna pass out on us again, John? Like the pansy you are?"
Bingo.
John launched himself at the kid but didn't get far. Blaylock, the redhead, caught him and held him back, trying to derail the fight. But Lash didn't have any such deadweight. The bastard drew his fist back and threw a right hook so hard that John spun out of Blaylock's hold and hit the bank of lockers with a metal bang.
Stunned, breath knocked out of him, John reached out blindly.
Blaylock caught him again. "Jesus Christ, Lash-"
"What? He was coming at me."
"Because you were begging for it."
Lash's eyes narrowed. "What did you say?"
"You don't have to be such an asshole."
As Lash pointed at Blaylock, his Jacob & Co. watch sparkled under the lights like it was a battery-powered twinkler.
"Careful, Blay. Playing on his team ain't such a hot idea." The guy shook out his hand and dropped his pants.
"Man, that felt good. How was it on your end, John-boy?"
John let that one go and pushed himself free. As his face throbbed to the beat of his heart, he thought of a car blinker for some absurd reason.
Oh, Lord... how bad was the damage? He stumbled over to the row of sinks, and in the long mirror that ran down the length of the wall, he got a look at his puss. Great. Just great. His chin and lip were already swelling.
Blaylock appeared behind him with a cold bottle of water. "Put this on it."
John took the icy Aquafina and eased it onto his face.