"But you shall undo it, is that correct? Fine, I gave you your freedom a year ago. Let your ambition exercise your destiny if you wish, but once you walk out that door, it is a permanent closure. You are dead to us, your deeds your own and no one else's."
Throe nodded once. "So be it."
The male marched across and picked up his holsters and his coat; then went to the door. Pivoting, he addressed the group. "He is wrong about much, but most especially the throne. A war with a thousand fronts? I think not. All that must needs be done is eliminate Wrath. Then the mantle shall be assumed by the strongest hand--and that male is no longer among this group."
The fighter closed the door behind himself with a clap.
Xcor ground his molars, knowing damn well Throe must have set up a contingency plan before he made his bid to them all--or he wouldn't have been so nonchalant about leaving with mere minutes before dawn.
Throe had gambled and lost--except only when it came to the lot of them. Where would this take him next? Xcor had no idea.
But Wrath should well be worried.
There was some shuffling around. Throat clearing. And then, of course, commentary.
"So," Zypher blurted. "You gonna tells us what color her eyes are?"
"'Tis the least you could do," Balthazar interjected. "Paint us a picture."
"A Chosen?"
"How in the world did you--"
All at once, the house was back to normal, male voices crowding the air, drinks being summoned and poured, bandages coming out to wrap up those injured fighting hands.
Xcor exhaled in a relief he was shocked to feel--but he wasn't fooled. Though his fighters had stood by him, he now had a new enemy against whom to fight--and Throe, thanks to Xcor's very own training of the male, was dangerous indeed.
Taking out his phone, he glanced down . . . and found that his call had not been returned.
Given the state of Throe's defection? It was imperative that he get hold of his Chosen--and now he worried that mayhap Throe had gotten to her first and that was why there had been a no-show.
"So?" Zypher said. "Whatever is she like?"
Cue a sudden silence, which seemed to have crashed through the noise.
And he was shocked to find that he wanted to tell them. He had held this in for how long?
With halting words, he said, "She is . . . the moon in my night sky. And that is the beginning, middle, and end of it. There is no more to be told than that, and never shall I speak of her again."
As he departed and went o'er to the stairs, he could feel their eyes on him--and they were not regarding him with disdain. No, try as they might to hide it, there was pity flowing from them all--an acknowledgment of the ugliness of his face, and the mismatched nature of a romance for him with any female, much less one of Chosen status.
He paused with his hand on the balustrade. "By sunset tomorrow, have all provisions and property packed up. We must needs leave this location and find another. This house is no longer secure."
Mounting the stairs, he heard the acquiescence of his fighters. And felt a stinging gratitude that they had picked him to continue to lead them.
In opposition to Throe's more obvious intelligence, breeding, background . . . and looks.
Let us hear it for the deformed, he thought as he shut himself in his bedroom. Though much had been lost to him over the centuries of his life, courtesy of his harelip and his coarseness, those soldiers below valued him.
And he valued them in return.
NINE
IAm returned to the Brotherhood's great stone mansion just before sunrise, jogging up the steps to the cathedral-like entrance, and pushing his way into the vestibule. Following protocol, he put his face into the security camera's eye and waited.
A moment later, the inner door opened and a cheery old puss greeted him--along with the rich scents of a well-cooked Last Meal.
"Good late evening, sire," Fritz, the butler, said with a bow. "How ever are you?"
"Hey, listen, have you seen my brother? I'm trying to find--"
"Yes, he's returned."
iAm nearly cursed with relief. "That's great. Just great."
At least the poor bastard was home safe and in a secure environment. But, Christ, Trez could at least have shot a text back that he was alive. How many times had that cell of his been unanswered--
From over on the left, a fast-moving shadow leaped up from the mosaic floor, going full-blown missile right at him.
iAm caught Goddamn Cat, also known as Boo, in his arms. He absolutely despised the animal--especially lately, as the fleabag had started sleeping with him during the day. All that cuddling. Purring.
Worse? He was getting used to the torture.
". . . clinic."
"Sorry?" iAm scratched the cat's throat and made Boo's eyeballs roll back. "I didn't hear a thing that you just said."
"My apologies." The butler bowed again even though it was not his fault. "The Chosen Selena has fallen ill and been taken unto the clinic. Trez is attending her as she is being treated--I believe the Primale and Cormia have gone down there as well? I'm sorry to say, but her condition appears to be quite serious."
"Damn it . . ." iAm closed his eyes and let his head fall back on his spine. They'd been waiting for the other shoe to drop, but that was supposed to have been about the s'Hisbe. Not the Chosen his brother had been so attracted to. "What's wrong with her?"
"I do not believe a diagnosis has been ascertained."
Shit. "Okay, thanks, man, I'll go--"
The Chosen Layla appeared in the archway of the billiards room, Qhuinn and Blay tight on her heels. "Forgive me, but did I just hear something about Selena?"
Letting the butler field that one, iAm headed off for the hidden door beneath the grand staircase--and he was not surprised when the others quickly fell in behind him.
Just as he punched in the code to open the sealed panels, a cell phone went off.
"Is that you again?" Qhuinn asked.
Layla silenced the ringer. "It's just a human misdialing."
"You want V to block the number?"
"Oh, there's no reason to bother him."
"Here, give it to me, and I'll see--"
Layla returned the phone to the folds of her robing. "They won't call again. Let's go."
After a subtle beeeeep sounded, iAm pulled things open and they descended a shallow staircase to a second locked door. On the far side of that was the underground tunnel that ran from the mansion to the training center, and farther still to the Pit, where V and Butch lived with their mates.
With each stride down the concrete-walled, short-ceilinged stretch of here-to-there, the tightness in iAm's shoulders increased, the muscles along his spine clamping up so hard that the pain reverberated all the way to his temples.
When they emerged into the office, Tohr looked up from the computer. "It's a convention down here tonight."
"Selena's sick," Qhuinn muttered.
The Brother got to his feet. "What? I just saw her like an hour ago. She was going to feed Luchas and . . ."
Which was how they ended up with five sets of shoes and shitkickers heading into the corridor.
The training center was a huge subterranean facility that included everything from an Olympic swimming pool, a target range, a weight room, a PT suite, and a full-size gym, to equipment rooms and a complement of classrooms that had been used for trainee teaching before the raids. There were also extensive medical facilities, with surgical suites and recovery rooms--and that was what they were gunning for.
The fact that people were clustered around the closed door of the examination room was not a good sign: Phury, Cormia, Rhage and Vishous were in anxious-wait mode, pacing, staring at the floor, twitching.
"Oh, thank God," Phury said as he saw iAm. "Trez is going to be glad you're here. We were trying to get hold of you."
Probably why his own phone had been going off--but he'd been ignoring the thing while leaving the condo and going
to try to find Trez at shAdoWs.
"They're X-raying her," V said. "That's why we're out here. Trez isn't leaving her."
Layla frowned. "Why are they doing that? Did she break a--"
Cormia went over to the other Chosen and took Layla's hands. Soft words were exchanged and then Layla gasped and weaved on her feet. As Qhuinn steadied her, iAm decided that whatever it was, he needed to get in there.
"I'm not waiting," he said, putting the cat down and pushing the door wide.
At first, he couldn't figure out what he was looking at. As the heavy panel shut behind him soundlessly, he focused on what looked like table legs on the examination platform. Except . . . it was Selena. Her slender calves and thighs were bent, separated abnormally and held rigid at bad angles, as if she were in great pain--and it wasn't just her lower body that was affected. Her head position was all wrong, and her arms were twisted up against her chest, even her fingers cranked into claws.
She looked as if she were in some kind of seizure.
Doc Jane was moving a large piece of machinery into position over Selena's shoulder, and her nurse, Ehlena, was following behind so that the various cords didn't get tangled. Trez was by Selena's head, his trembling hands stroking that black hair.
He didn't even look up. Didn't seem to be aware that someone else had entered the room. Wasn't even breathing.
"Okay, Ehlena, the plate?" The doctor accepted something that was the size of an eight-and-a-half-by-eleven piece of paper, but had the thickness of a finger. Wires connected to one end of it led to a laptop that sat on a rolling table. "I'm going to try to get the elbow here."
The plate was slid under the joint, and then Doc Jane glanced at Trez. "Do you want to hold this one as well?"
He nodded and reached over, doing the duty. "I won't move this time."
"These are digital X-rays, so we can just do it over, okay?" The doctor gave Trez's arm a quick squeeze. "We're going to step behind the partition now."
Doc Jane looked up and jumped a little, as if she, too, were so intent on her patient, she hadn't known he'd come in, either. "Oh, iAm, good--but listen, you might want to leave while we--"
"I'm going nowhere."
"I can't . . ." Trez cursed. "I can't keep this steady."
Without a word, iAm went across the tiled floor and put his hand on his brother's, stopping the vibration. "Let me help."
Trez didn't jump. Didn't start. But his eyes shifted over, and oh, God, those eyes . . . they were black pits of sadness.
And that was when iAm knew that this was not bad, but BAD.
The male wasn't terrified.
He was already in mourning.
*
Trez wasn't immediately sure who his savior was. Didn't recognize the hand that joined his own, even though it looked almost exactly like his. Didn't track the new scent in the room. It wasn't until he looked up that he saw . . .
iAm, of course.
As if it would be anyone else.
The image of his brother got wavy. "iAm, she's . . ."
He couldn't say the words. His thought processes literally flatlined sure as if he'd had a stroke or something.
"Let's hold the plate," iAm said. "Together."
"You should be behind the lead thing."
"No."
Trez wasn't surprised iAm hung in, and he mouthed a thank-you, because he didn't think his voice was functioning any better than his brain or that hand of his was.
"Let's get as still as we can," Doc Jane said. Then there was a brief whirring sound from the machine and Doc Jane and Ehlena came back at the table.
iAm was the one who handed the plate over--and good thing, because Trez would have dropped it. Screw his hands, his whole body was shaking.
"Thank you," Doc Jane said. "I think we have enough now. Do you want to call the others in?"
Trez shook his head. "May I have a moment with her?"
"We need to stay in to look at the X-rays."
"Oh, yeah, I know. I just . . ." He glanced to the door, and knew those people had as much right to be in here as he did. Actually, they had more.
"Trez," Doc Jane said gently. "However you want it, that's how we'll do it."
But what did Selena want? he wondered, not for the first time.
"Look," Doc Jane murmured, "there doesn't seem to be an emergency issue right now. There will be time for the others to come in later--and if her condition changes? We'll make different choices depending on where we're at."
"Okay." He nodded toward his brother. "But iAm. I want him to stay."
His brother nodded and brought over a chair--but not for himself, as it turned out. He shoved it under the backs of Trez's knees, and functioning joints being what they were, a total collapse of the vertical happened but quick. As his ass smacked into the seat, he thought, yeah, he had been feeling a little light-headed. Probably a good idea to get off his feet.
With not a single word, iAm took a load off on the floor beside him, and it was incredible how just having the male in the room calmed him.
Trez refocused on Selena. She still had not moved from the position he'd found her in, and all those hard angles of her body were a total nightmare.
In fact, this whole thing just seemed so . . . devastating.
From what Cormia had said, the Arrest was a disease that struck a tiny minority of Chosen females. In all of history, there had been only a dozen, maybe fewer, who had suffered from it--which meant the statistical chance of getting the disorder was very small. Unfortunately, the condition had been uniformly fatal.
Goddamn it, he didn't want any of those females to be sick, but why her?
Of all of them, in the entire history of the Race, why did Selena have to be one of the ones cut short like this?
And it was a horrible way to die. Frozen in your own body, unable to communicate, trapped in a fading prison until everything went dark and you . . .
He closed his eyes.
Shit, what if she didn't want him here? He had bonded, yes--and everyone else was treating him with the respect that a bonded male would have in this situation, even as they wondered how it had happened without them knowing.
The problem was, he and Selena weren't mated. In a relationship. Even dating.
Hell, they hadn't even spent two minutes together in months--
"Trez?"
With a jerk, he popped his lids. Doc Jane was in front of him, her forest-green eyes alert and grave. "I've looked at the X-rays."
He cleared his throat. "Maybe the others would like to be here for this?"
Shit, should he step aside so Cormia or someone could hold her hand? Would that be better? His body would hate that and so would his soul. But this was not about him.
A lot of people came in, more than there had been, and he nodded at Tohr, Qhuinn and Blay--and was glad that Layla was there, along with Cormia and Phury. Forcing himself to his feet, he went to step back, but the Primale came over and eased him down into that chair again.
"You stay where you are," Phury said, squeezing his shoulder. "You're right where you need to be."
Trez let out some kind of croak. It was the best he could do.
Doc Jane cleared her throat. "I've never seen anything like this." She called something up on the big computer screen by the desk. "It's as if the joints themselves have turned to solid bone."
The black-and-white image was of what appeared to be Selena's knee and Doc Jane indicated different areas with the head of a silver pen. "On X-ray, bones register white and pale gray, whereas connective tissue like ligaments and tendons don't offer that kind of contrast. Here"--she drew a circle around the joint--"there should be dark patches in between the cap and the socket. Instead it's just . . . solid bone. The same is true for the joints in her feet, her elbow, her . . ."
More of those images flashed up on the screen, one after another, and all he could do was shake his head. It was as if someone had poured cement into all the junctures.
"What's parti
cularly worrisome is this." A new picture became visible. "This is her arm. Unlike the other joints, the bone growth appears to be spreading and invading into the musculature. If this continues, her entire body--"
"Stone," Trez whispered.
Oh, God, those marble statues in that place he'd found her.
That wasn't a courtyard--that was a cemetery. Full of the females who had suffered and died from this.
"The only thing I'm aware of that is remotely like this is a human disease called fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. It's an extremely rare genetic condition that causes bone to form where muscles, tendons, and ligaments are, and it results, over time, in a total restriction of movement--to the point where patients must choose the position they want to be locked into. The growth of the bone happens sporadically and can be triggered by trauma or viruses, or can be spontaneous. There are no treatments for the disease, and surgical removal of the growth just triggers further genesis. What Selena's going through is like that--only it seems to have occurred all over her body at once."
Trez twisted around to the two healthy Chosen in the room. "Has this ever been treated? At any time in the past, did someone try to find a way to stop it?"
Layla looked at Cormia and the latter spoke up. "We prayed . . . that was all we could do. And still the attacks came."
"So this is . . . an episode of some sort?" Doc Jane asked. "Not the terminus?"
"I don't know how many of these she's had." Cormia brushed a tear off her cheek. "Usually there is a period of them before the final one from which they do not recover."
Doc Jane frowned. "So the body unlocks? How?"
"I do not know."
Trez spoke up to the Chosen. "Did either of you have any idea she was sick?"
"No one did." Cormia leaned against her hellren as if she needed his support. "But considering the condition she's in now . . . I believe she must be toward the end of the disease. It's my understanding that the early episodes affect only parts of the body. This is all of hers."
Trez deflated on his exhale, his strength expelling out of his mouth. The only thing that kept him from breaking down was the possibility that Selena might be aware of what was happening--and he wanted to appear to be strong for her.
Doc Jane leaned her hip against her desk and crossed her arms. "I can't imagine how the joints can recover from this kind of state."
Cormia shook her head. "The attacks, those few I've seen, come on fast and then . . . I don't know what happens. Hours or a night later, they start to be able to move again. After a period of time, they regain mobility--but it always happens again. Always."