J.R. Ward the Black Dagger Brotherhood Novels 1-4 - J. R. Ward [289]
“You’re going to be fine here, son. It might take some getting used to, but you’re going to be fine.”
John looked across the room. Shoring up his courage, he walked over to Tohrment and opened his mouth. Then he pointed up to the man.
“You sure you want to do this now?” Tohrment murmured.
When John nodded, Tohrment slowly parted his lips. And bared a set of fangs.
Oh…man. Oh…
John swallowed and put his fingers to his own mouth.
“Yeah, you’re going to get them, too. Sometime in the next couple of years.” Tohrment crossed the room and sat on the bed, plugging his elbows into his knees. “We go through the change around age twenty-five. After that you’re going to need to drink to survive. And I’m not talking about milk, son.”
John cocked his eyebrows, wondering from whom.
“We’ll find you a female to get you through the change, and I’ll tell you what to expect. It’s no party, but once you have it behind you, you’ll be so strong, you’ll think it was all worth it.”
John’s eyes flared as he measured Tohrment. Abruptly he spread his hands apart horizontally and lengthwise, then put his thumb to his own chest.
“Yeah, you’ll be my size, too.”
John mouthed the words get out.
“Really. That’s why the transition is a bitch. Your body goes through a big change in a period of hours. Afterward you’re going to have to relearn things, how to walk, how to move.” Tohr looked down at himself. “These bodies of ours are hard to control at first.”
John absently rubbed his chest, where the circular scar was. Tohrment’s eyes tracked the movement.
“I have to be honest with you, son. There’s a lot we don’t know about you. For one thing, there’s no telling how much of us is in your blood. And we have no clue what line you descend from. As for that scar, I can’t explain it. You say you’ve had the thing all your life, and I believe you, but that marking is given, not something we’re born with.”
John took out his paper and wrote, Everyone has it?
“No. Just my brothers and me. That’s why Bella brought you to us.”
Who are you? John wrote.
“The Black Dagger Brotherhood. We’re warriors, son. We fight to keep the race alive, and that’s what we’re going to train you to do. The other males in your class will become soldiers, but you, with that marking, you may end up being one of us. I don’t know.” Tohrment rubbed the back of his neck. “Sometime soon I’m going to take you to meet Wrath. He’s the boss in charge, our king. I’d also like to have you checked out by our doctor, Havers. He might be able to get a read on your bloodline. Would that be cool with you?”
John nodded.
“I’m glad we found you, John. If we hadn’t you’d have died, because there would have been no one to give you what you needed.”
John went over and sat down next to Tohrment.
“You got anything you want to ask me?”
John nodded, but couldn’t marshal his thoughts into any coherent pattern.
“Tell you what, you think on it tonight. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
John was dimly aware that his head was nodding in response. Tohrment got up and walked to the door.
From out of nowhere a bullet of panic ricocheted through John’s chest. The idea of being alone seemed terrifying, even though he was in a pretty house, with kind people, in a very safe area. He just felt…so very small.
Tohrment’s shitkickers came into his line of sight.
“Hey, John, maybe I’ll hang for a while in here with you. You like that? We can channel surf.”
Thank you, he signed without thinking. I feel a little weird.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Tohrment propped himself up on the pillows, grabbed the remote, and turned on the TV. “Vishous, one of my brothers, wired this house. I think we get about seven hundred stations on this thing. What do you like to watch?”
John shrugged and shuffled back against the headboard.
Tohrment clicked around until he found Terminator 2. “You like?”
John whistled softly through his teeth and nodded.
“Yeah, me, too. This is a classic, and Linda Hamilton is hot.”
Chapter Thirty-eight
Rhage slept late, very late, and