of
paperwork. Rhage was pacing around, unable to settle-a sure sign that he hadn't found a fight
during the night hours.
And Vishous… V was the worst of them. He stood by the door, staring into space. Icy before, he
was glacial now, a sinkhole in the room. Shit, he was even more grim than he'd been the night
before.
As Phury lit up, he thought about Jane and V and idly wondered what the sex they'd had had
been like. He imagined that, while they had had plenty of pummel sessions, there had been
lovely moments of communion, too.
Yeah, nothing like the stuff he'd had in that bathroom. With that prostitute.
He pushed his free hand through his hair. Were you still a virgin if you'd been in a female, but
hadn't finished? He wasn't sure. Either way, he wasn't going to ask anyone. It was all just too
skeevy.
Man, he'd hoped being with someone would help him move on, but it hadn't. He felt even more
trapped, especially as the first thing he'd done when he'd walked through the mansion's door was
think of Bella: He'd prayed she didn't catch him coming back smelling of that human woman.
Distance was going to require something else, evidently.
Unless… damn, maybe it just required itself. He probably should move out of the house.
«Let's do this,» Wrath said, convening the meeting. In quick succession he reviewed some issues
concerning the glymera; then Rhage, Butch, and Z reported on events in the field. Which wasn't
much. The slayers had been relatively quiet of late, likely because the Forelesser had been killed
about two weeks ago by the cop. This was typical. Any shift in Lessening leadership usually
resulted in some downtime in the war, although it never lasted for long.
As Phury lit up his second blunt, Wrath cleared his throat. «Now… about the Primale ceremony.»
Phury drew in hard as V's diamond eyes lifted. Damn… the male looked like he'd aged a
hundred and fifty years in the last week, his skin sallow, his brows down, his lips tight. He'd
never been a party to begin with, but now he looked death-knell drawn.
«What about it,» V said.
«I will be there.» Wrath glanced over. «Phury, you too. We'll go at midnight tonight, okay?»
Phury nodded, then braced himself, because it looked as if Vishous was going to say something.
The brother's body tensed up, his eyes darting around, his jaw working… but then nothing came
out of his mouth.
Phury exhaled a stream of smoke and stamped the blunt out in a crystal ashtray. It was brutal to
watch your brother bleed, to know he suffered while you couldn't do anything about it-
He froze, an eerie calm coming over him, one that had nothing to do with the red smoke.
«Christ on a crutch,» Wrath said, rubbing his eyes. «Get out of here, all of you. Go relax. We're
all losing it-«
Phury spoke up. «Vishous, if it weren't for the Primale shit, you would be with Jane, right?»
V's diamond eyes shifted over and narrowed into slits. «What the fuck does that have to do with
anything?»
«You would be with her.» Phury looked over at Wrath. «And you would let him, right? I mean, I
know she's a human, but you let Mary come into-«
V cut him off, voice hard as a his eyes, like he couldn't believe Phury was being so thoughtless.
«There's no making it work. So just fucking drop it.»
«But… there is.»
Vishous's eyes flashed violent white. «No offense, but I'm on my last nerve. Backing off would
be a really good plan for you right about now.»
Rhage surreptitiously moved over next to V, while Zsadist came to stand beside Phury.
Wrath rose to his feet. «How about we drop this.»
«No, hear me out.» Phury got up from the chair. «The Scribe Virgin wants a male from the
Brotherhood, right? For the purposes of breeding, right? Why does it have to be you?»
«Who the fuck else would it be?» V growled as he leaned into a charging stance.
«Why not… me?»
In the silence that followed, a grenade could have gone off under Wrath's desk and no one would
have noticed: The Brotherhood just stared at him like he'd sprouted horns.
«Well, why couldn't I? She just needs DNA, right? So anyone who's a Brother should be able to
do it. My line is strong. My blood is good. Why couldn't it be me?»
Zsadist breathed, «Jesus… Christ.»
«There's no reason I couldn't be the Primale.»
V's aggression bled out of him, leaving him with an expression like someone had nailed him in
the back of the head with a frying pan. «Why would you do that?»
«You're my brother. If I can fix what's wrong, why
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