Page 61 (1/2)

Xhex woke up screaht on, so she had at least half a chance at convincing her brain where her body was: in fact, she was not back in that hu worked on like a lab rat She was here in the Brotherhood mansion with John

Who had leaped out of bed, and pointed a gun at the door to the hall like he was prepared to blow a hole right through the frickin&039; thing

Slapping a hand over her mouth, she prayed she&039;d shut herself up in ti she needed was a bunch of Brothers showing up at the doorstep with a whole lot of what&039;s- doing

In a silent shift, John swung the forty&039;s muzzle around to the shuttered s, and then he swept it over to the walk- in closet As he finally lowered his weapon, he whistled an inquiry

"I&039; her voice "Just a bad--"

The knock that cut her off was about as subtle as a curse in a quiet room Or the scream she&039;d just let rip

As she pulled the sheets up to her collarbones, John opened the door a crack and Z&039;s voice drifted in "Everything all right in here?"

Nope Not even close

Xhex rubbed her face and tried to replug into reality Tough assignhtless and disconnected, and rounded front

It didn&039;t take a genius to figure out why her subconscious had burped up that shit about her first trip through the abduction park Staying in the OR while John had had his lead-ectomy had obviously been like a hot, spicythe cranial version of acid reflux

Christ, she had a case of the fop sweats, her upper lip beading, her pal damp

In desperation, she focused on what she could see through the partially open door to the bathroom

Turned out the toothbrushes on theup in the silver cup between the two sinks, looking like a couple of kibitzers who&039;d tilted their heads together to swap gossip Both were John&039;s, she was guessing, because guests were on the whole not welcome in this house

One was blue The other red Both had the green bristles in the center that turned white over tiet new ones

Nice Nor Maybe if she&039;d had a littlefor life&039;s exit door Or having nightmares that turned her voice box into a bullhorn

John bade Z good-bye and caun on the bedside table and slipping under the covers His warainst hers, and she went to hi lovers

But so she&039;d never had with anyone before

As he pulled his head back so she could see his face, he mouthed, What was it?

"Dream Very bad dream From back when" She took a deep breath "When I was in that clinic"

He didn&039;t press her for details Instead, she just felt her hair getting stroked

In the silence that followed, she didn&039;t intend to talk about the past-- especially when the last thing she needed was htmare But somehoords formed in her throat and she couldn&039;t hold them back

"I burned the facility down" Her heart thumped as she remembered, but at least the recall of what had happened wasn&039;t as bad as being back there in a dreaht they were doing anything wrong--they treatedI needed to survive while they poked and prodded at ood to roup" She shook her head "They kept ive , but they could read the clinical indicators that I was getting weaker and weaker I got free because one of them set me loose"

John rolled over on his back and put his hands into the shaft of light Shit, I&039;lad you dusted the place

In her mind, she pictured her return trip to where she&039;d been held--and the sooty after down I&039;d been free for a while when I went back and did it--but I couldn&039;t sleep for the nightmares I lit the facility up after they&039;d left for the day Although," she held a forefinger up, "there ht have been one rather nasty death But the son of a bitch deserved it I&039;irl"

John&039;s hands reappeared to sign, That&039;s pretty obvious-- and not a bad thing at all

Provided it wasn&039;t Lash, she thought to herself

"Mind if I ask you soht you took me around town had you been back to any of those places before?"

Not really John shook his head I don&039;t like to dwell on the past I go forward

"How I envy you Me, I can&039;t seeet free of history"

And it wasn&039;t just about the clinic shit or Lash&039;s little love-nest nightmare For some reason, the fact that she&039;d never fit in--not with the faer vah her, defining her even when she wasn&039;t consciously thinking about it Her lock-and-key ically seeone out on jobs as an assassin

Except then she thought of her ti arithether, that fit But it was kind of a parallel to herfor all involved Hell, look at what had just happened: She woke up screa and John was the one eaponed up and faced off while she played poor widdle scared female with the sheet clutched to her widdle scared heart

That wasn&039;t her Just wasn&039;t

And God, that she&039;d fallen so easily into the role of being protected that frightened her even ht her one thing, it was that your best bet was to take care of your own biz The last thing in the world she wanted was to chick out and rely on anyone--even somebody as honorable and worthy and kind as John

Although ood Seemed base and a little crude to put it like that, but it was so very true

When they&039;d come up here after their little tete a tete in the tunnel, they hadn&039;t even bothered with the lights No ti hard She&039;d ended up passing out, and sootten up to use the loo and left the light on Probably to make sure she didn&039;t feel lost if she woke up

Because that&039;s the kind of male he was

There was a click and whirl and the steel shutters began to lift for the night, the darkened sky revealed, her yrationsNever solved anything and onlyus," she said, forcing her body upright The delicious aches in herbed next to John Maybe weeks But that wasn&039;t their destiny, was it

She leaned over and looked down into his shadowy face After tracing his handso up her hand and caress his cheek

I love you, she o," she said roughly

The kiss she gave hiht they finally got Lash, and that would mean an end to ripped her upper ar, but then, as if he read her mind and knew all too well the score, he released her

As she got up and walked away from the bed, his eyes followed her she could feel it

In the bathrooet some towels out of the cupboard

She stopped as she saw her reflection in the mirror over the sink

Her body was the saht of the way it felt when she and John were together She&039;d gotten so used to thinking of her corporeal for that was useful and necessary to accos Hell, she&039;d fed it and cared for it the sauns and her knives--because that was how she ether, John had taught her differently, had shown her that there was profound pleasure to be had fro not even her relationship with Murhder had ed to do

As if he&039;d been suht and shoulder width dwarfing her reflection

Meeting his eyes, she put her hand to her breast and rubbed her own nipple, reue, his mouth The instant shethe bathroo out of his hips

Reaching behind herself, she pulled hie forainst her ass, his waring his head to her shoulder, his fangs flashed white as he delicately dragged the back to hih his thick dark hair Although he&039;d cut it short, it was growing in, which was nice She preferred it long because it felt so daers, so silky, so smooth

"Come inside me," she said hoarsely

John swept his hand up and captured the breast she&039;d stroked for hiled himself, and eased into her sex At the sas across her throat to her vein

He didn&039;t need to feed She knew this So she was strangely thrilled when he struck because itit just because he wanted to: He wanted her in hi, she watched as he took her fro, his erection pushing in and pulling out, pushing in and pulling out She watched herself, too Her breasts were tight at the tips, her nipples rosy, not just because that was the color of the on thelow all over, her cheeks blazing, her lips puffy fro, her eyes low-lidded and erotic

John broke the seal he&039;d for over the punctures, sealing the her head, she captured his ues as their bodies followed the sa for the sex to grow urgent and raw, no longer sensual, but powerful As John&039;s hips pistoned against her, their bodies slapped and their breath roared Her orgasrip on her hip bones, she would have lost her knees and fallen from him And just as she cah her, the ripples eh her body and her soul

And then it happened

At the pinnacle of their release, her vision flipped into red and went flat--and as ectascy eventually faded, the unsummoned appearance of her bad side was a wake-up call she&039;d been subconsciously waiting for

Gradually, she beca hu sound of falling water and the thousand points of contact between thes were in shades of blood

John reached up to her face and touched next to her red eyes

"Yeah, I need ht his hands forward in front of her and signed, I have them

"You do?"

I saved them He frowned But are you sure you have to--

"Yes," she bristled "I ahtened his face re out of that bed as she&039;d screa she could do to help him out of his current disapproval She had to take care of herself, and whether or not he was dohat she did to keep herself in a "nore her reality

Man, they just weren&039;t ether, no matter how compatible they could be sometimes

John withdrew froers down her spine as a kind of a thank-you and given the dark knowledge in his eyes, probably a good-bye of his own Turning away, he headed for the sh--

"Oh my God"

Xhex&039;s heart stopped as she looked at hilorious spread of black ink in a declaration that didn&039;t whisper, but shouted in a billboard-size font with flourishes

Her nae

Xhex wheeled around as John froze "When did you get that done?"

After a tense ed and she was captivated by the way the inkhis head, he reached in to test the warlass door, put his back to the running water and grabbed the soap, frothing up the bar in his hands

As he refused to look at her, he sent a clear e that her name in his skin was none of her business Which was the same kind of line she&039;d draith her cilices, wasn&039;t it

Xhex went up to the glass door that separated the her hand up, she knocked hard

When, she mouthed

His eyes squeezed shut, as if he were re that ned slowly and broke her in half:

When I thought you weren&039;t co home

John made quick ith the soap and the sha on the cold side of the glass, staring at hiiven where things stood between them, he was so not about to throw his

Or the tattoo needle, as it were

When he&039;d asked her about the cilices, she&039;d been pretty clear about shutting him out--and that had rebooted his brain Since he&039;d been injured the night before, they&039;d fallen back into their sex connection, and that had a way of blurring reality But no more

After he was finished with his wash-up, he stepped out of the shower and went past her, nabbing a towel fro it around his hips In the et your cilices, he signed

"John"

When she didn&039;t say anythingthis was the pair of the three feet away fro separated byup a pair of jeans and pulling theht in with hiht before and he&039;d left it there Somewhere

In his bare feet, he walked past the rand staircase, and around the corner to duck through the hidden door Man going back into the tunnel was a total crusher; all he could think about was Xhex and hiether in the dark