Lover Mine (Black Dagger Brotherhood #8)(77)

he slumped against the cupboards that ran under the sink. Kicking the door shut, he balanced his forearms on his knees and played witness to the whore flailing around.

So weak.

So f*cking weak.

It should have been his Xhex. He should have done this to her and not 200

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some random, skank-ass human.

Putting his hands to his face, he hung his head as his elation washed out of him. This was not how it was supposed to be. This was not what he'd planned.

On the run. Hunted. Scrambling in the world.

What the hell was he going to do without his father.

201





J. R.Ward

TWENTY-EIGHT

While John waited for Xhex to respond to his question, he focused on the words he'd written, tracing them with his pen, darkening them as he passed over them again.

He probably shouldn't be making demands given the shape she was in,

but he needed something back from her. If he was going to expose his

blanket chest of not-so-hot, he couldn't be the only one getting that kind of naked.

He also really wanted to know what was doing with her, and she was

the only one who was going to tell him.

As the silence droned on, all he could think of was . . . shit, she was shutting the door on him. Again. On one level it so wasn't a surprise and therefore shouldn't have mattered. God knew he'd been on the receiving end of her rejections plenty of times.

The reality was that it felt like another death for him to face--

"I saw you. Yesterday."

Her voice yanked his head up. What? he mouthed.

"He kept me in that bedroom. I saw you. You came in and went to the bed. You left with a pillow. I was . . . beside you the whole time you were there."

John's hand lifted to his cheek and she smiled a little. "Yes, I touched your face."

Jesus Christ . . .

How, he mouthed.

"I'm not sure precisely how he does it. But that was the way he got me in the first place. We were all in that cave where Rehv was being kept in the colony. The symphaths had come in and Lash got me--it happened so damned fast. I was suddenly off my feet, being dragged out, but I couldn't fight and no one could hear me scream. It's like a force field. If you're inside, and you try to breach it, the shock is painful and quick--but it's more than aversion. There's a physicality to the barrier." She lifted her palm and pushed at the air. "A weave. The strange thing is, though, you can have other people in the same space. Like when you came in."

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John was dimly aware that his hands hurt for some reason. Glancing

down, he saw that he'd cranked them into fists and the pad was digging into his flesh. So was the Bic he'd been writing with.

Flipping to a new page he scribbled, I wish I'd known you were there.

I would have done something. I swear I didn't know.

When she read what he wrote, she reached out and put her hand on his

forearm. "I know. It's not your fault."

Sure felt like it on his end. To have been right with her and not had a clue that she was--

Oh. Shit.

He wrote fast, then flashed, Did he come back. After we'd been there.

When Xhex shook her head, his heart started beating again. "He drove by, but kept on going."

How did you escape, he signed without thinking.

While he scrambled for a fresh page, she said, "How did I get out?"

As he nodded, she laughed. "You know, you're going to have to teach me sign language."

He blinked. Then mouthed, Okay.

"And don't worry. I'm a fast learner." She took a deep breath. "The barrier had been strong enough to keep me in since the moment that he took me. But then you came and left and . . ." She frowned. "Were you the one who did in that slayer downstairs?"

As his fangs punched out into his mouth, he mouthed, Fuck, yeah.

Her little smile had the edge of a dagger. "Nice job. I heard the whole thing. Anyway, it was after everything went quiet that I knew I had to get out or . . ."

Die, he thought. Because of what he'd done in that kitchen.

"So I was--"

He held his hand up to stop her, then wrote fast. When he showed her

his words, she frowned and then shook her head.

"Oh, of course you wouldn't have done it if you'd known I was in there. But you didn't. And it sounded as if you couldn't help it. Trust me, I'm the last person you need to apologize to for slaughtering one of those bastards."

True, but he still got a case of the cold sweats thinking of how he'd inadvertently endangered her.

She took another long inhale. "So anyway, after you left, it became apparent the barrier was weakening, and when I was able to punch my fist through a window, I knew I had a shot." She lifted one of her hands and looked at the knuckles. "I ended up taking a runner through the doorway. I 203

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figured I was going to need the extra force working with me and I was right."

Xhex shifted around in the bed, wincing. "I think that's where I got the tear. On my inside. I got wrenched badly breaking out--it was like pulling my body through concrete that was about set. I hit the hallway wall hard as well."

There was the temptation to believe the bruises he'd seen on her skin were a result of her escape. But he knew Lash. He'd stared into the face of the guy's cruelty enough times to be absolutely sure that she'd been put through a lot at the hands of the enemy.