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John had to tear himself away froic and the need to crack open that lesser, he wouldn&039;t have been able to budge his boots an inch

He could have sworn he felt her presence but he knew that was a mind trick born out of his quest She wasn&039;t in the roos and his only chance at finding out what had happened to her was downstairs in the kitchen

As he headed for the first floor, he rubbed his eyes and his face and found that one hand wanted to linger over his cheek The skin there was tingling kind of like it did when Xhex had touched him the few times she had

God the blood in that roo Lash off, and though it was a source of pride to think she&039;d shanked the fucker a good number of times, he couldn&039;t stand the reality that had rolled out in that bedrooh the dining roo as if he&039;d had his skin stripped off and been thro into the ocean Pushing through the butler&039;s door into the kitchen--

The instant his eyes locked on the lesser, an earthquake ripped through hi open all the way down to his hot core

His mouth stretched wide and he let loose a e punched his fangs out into his h the space, taking for Blay off the slayer, John&039;s bonded vampire attacked with a kind of ferocity he&039;d heard about but never seen

Certainly never experienced

With his vision on whiteout and his ht as he attacked, his hands cranking into claws, his fangs slicing like daggers, his inner wrath so great he was an ani it took hiistered was the dim awareness that a sweet stench was all he could smell

Sometime later much later a lifetime later he paused to catch his breath and found that he was down on all fours, his head dangling off the top of his spine, his lungs burning from exertion His palms were planted on tile that was slick with black blood and so off his hair and out of his et rid of a foul taste, but whatever it was, the shit wasn&039;t just around his tongue and teeth; it was down the back of his throat and into his gut His eyes were also stinging and blurry

Was he crying again? He didn&039;t feel sad anymore he felt empty

"Jesus Christ" someone said softly

Abruptly overcoo lax and let his weight shift to the side Laying his head down in a cooling puddle, he closed his eyes He had no strength It was all he could do to breathe

A while later, he heard Qhuinn talking to hi on, made him nod when there was a pause

He was momentarily surprised when he felt hands on his shoulders and his legs and his lids ed to flicker open as he was lifted up

Weird The countertops and cabinets had been white when they&039;d first coloss black

With delirium, he wondered why so color

Closing his eyes, he felt the bumps and shifts as he was carried out and then there was a final hefting followed by his body landing in a heap Car engine turned over Doors shut

They were en route No doubt back to the Brotherhood compound

Before he passed out completely, he took his hand and raised it to his cheek Which otten the pillow

Co aith a flash, he jacked himself up, all Lazarus back froht there hat he&039;d taken, however "Here I made sure we didn&039;t leave without it"

John took what still se body around it And that was the last thing he remembered of the trip back home

When Lash woke up, he was in precisely the same position he&039;d been in when he&039;d fallen asleep: flat on his back, arms crossed over his chest like a corpse laid out in a coffin Back when he&039;d been a va up on his side with his head under a pillow

As he sat up, the first thing he did was look at the lesions on his chest and stoy level hadn&039;t inificantly

In spite of the fact that he&039;d slept Jesus Christ, three hours? What the hell?

Thank fuck he&039;d had the sense to postpone that appointment with Benloise You didn&039;t meet a man like that when you looked and felt like you&039;d been on a bender for a week and a half

Shifting his legs off the bed, he braced hi all the way vertical As his body weaved, he heard nothing but silence fro up Which a had finished his biz with the new recruit and the kid was starting on a fun-filled six to ten hours of vo

Lash picked up his stained shirt and his suit and wondered where in the hell his wardrobe change was It didn&039;t take three hours for Mr D to get his ass over to Benloise&039;s, reschedule things, and then head over to the brownstone to feed Xhex and pick out a new set of threads from the closet

On his way down the stairs, Lash dialed the idiot, and as voice mail kicked in, he snapped, "Where the fuck areup and stared through the hall into the dining room The new recruit was not on the table anymore; he was partially underneath, and huddled over a bucket, dry heaving like there was a rat in his gut that couldn&039;t find either exit

"I&039; you here," Lash said loudly This caused a pause and the recruit looked over His eyes were bloodshot and there was so out of his opento me?" Small voice Small words

Lash&039;s hand went to the sore on his chest and he found it difficult to breathe as he thought once again that the recruits were never told the full story They never knehat to expect or the full value of what they gave up and what they received

He&039;d never thought of hi in the Oa&039;s machine But how much did he really know?