Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood #7)(199)

“Your what?”

On impulse, to give her position some added weight, she said, “That is my hellren.” In her peripheral vision, she caught Xhex’s head whipping around toward her, but she’d jumped into the pool and couldn’t get any wetter. “That’s my mate and…he fed from me a month ago. If they’ve hidden him, I can find him. Also, if they’ve done what they”—oh, Jesus—“probably have to him, he’s going to need medical attention. And I’m going to give it to him.”

The king played with his dog’s ear, rubbing his thumb on the soft, pale brown flap. The animal clearly liked the way it felt, and leaned into his master’s leg with a sigh.

“We have a medic,” Wrath said. “And a physician.”

“You don’t have Rehvenge’s shellan, though, do you.”

“My brothers,” Wrath called out abruptly. “Getcha asses in here.”

When the study doors opened wide, Ehlena stared over her shoulder, wondering whether she’d pushed it too far and was about to be “escorted” out of the mansion. Sure as hell, any one of the ten tremendous males who came in would be up to the task. She’d seen them all before at the clinic, except for the one with the blond-and-black hair, and she was not at all astonished to find that they were fully armed.

To her relief, they did not perform a cash-and-carry on her, but settled around the dainty, light blue room, filling the place up to the rafters. It seemed a little odd that Xhex did not look at any of them, staying focused on Wrath instead—although maybe that made sense. As hard-core as the Brothers were, the king was the only one whose opinion truly mattered.

Wrath looked around at his warriors, his wraparounds shielding his eyes so that there was no way to tell what he was thinking.

The silence was a killer, and Ehlena’s heart thundered in her ears.

At last, the king spoke. “Gentlemen, these lovely ladies want to make a trip up north. I’m prepared to let them go up there to bring Rehv home to us, but they’re not going in alone.”

The response was immediate from the Brothers.

“I’m in.”

“Sign me up.”

“When do we go.”

“About f*cking time.”

“Oh, man, there’s a marathon of Beaches running tomorrow night. Can we go after ten so I can see it once all the way through?”

Everyone in the room turned to the blond-and-black haired guy, who was propped up in the corner, massive arms over his chest.

“What,” he said. “Look, it’s not Mary Tyler Moore, ’kay? So you can’t give me shit.”

Vishous, the one with the black glove on his hand, glared across the room. “It’s worse than Mary Tyler Moore. And to call you an idiot would be an insult to half-wits around the f*cking world.”

“Are you kidding me? Bette Midler rocks. And I love the ocean. Sue me.”

Vishous glanced at the king. “You told me I could beat him. You promised.”

“As soon as you come home,” Wrath said as he got to his feet, “we’ll hang him up by his armpits in the gym and you can use him as a punching bag.”

“Thank you, baby Jesus.”

Blond-and-Black shook his head. “I swear, one of these days I’m just going to leave.”

As one, the Brothers all pointed at the open door and let silence speak for itself.

“You guys suck.”

“Okay, enough.” Wrath came around the desk and—

Ehlena sat up sharply. His palm was gripping the handle of a harness that went around the dog’s chest, and the king’s face was forward, his chin held high, so that he couldn’t have been looking at the floor at all.

He was blind. And not in the sense of being unable to see very clearly. Given the way he was now, he couldn’t see anything at all. When had this happened, she wondered. He’d appeared to have some vision when she’d last seen him.

Respect rolled through Ehlena’s chest as she and everyone else in the room looked up at him.

“This is going to be tricky,” Wrath said. “We need to send in enough fighters to provide both cover as well as search and rescue, but we don’t want to create more disturbance than absolutely necessary. I want two teams, with the second on standby. We’re also going to need car support in the event Rehvenge is incapacitated and we have to transport him back—”

“What are you talking about?” came a female voice from the doorway.

Ehlena glanced over her shoulder and recognized who it was: Bella, mate of the Brother Zsadist, who frequently helped with Safe Place patients. The female was standing between the ornate jambs with her young in her arms, her face drained of color, her eyes hollow.

“What about Rehvenge?” she demanded, voice rising. “What about my brother?”

As Ehlena started to connect the dots, Zsadist went to his shellan.

“I think you two need to talk,” Wrath said carefully. “In private.”

Z nodded and escorted his mate and young from the room. As the pair went down the hall, Bella’s voice could be heard still, her questions peppered with increasing panic.

And then there was a “What?!” that seemed to indicate a bomb had just been dropped on the poor female.

Ehlena stared down at the lovely blue carpet. God…she knew exactly what Bella was going through right at this moment. The ripples of shock, the recasting of what she knew, the feeling of betrayal.