J.R. Ward the Black Dagger Brotherhood Novels 5-8 - J. R. Ward [597]
Made a male want to take a sandblaster and go to town up there.
Truth be told, he was in desperate need of fresh air, except he didn’t dare move any faster. Between his cane and the carved handrail, he was managing okay, but after seeing his mother wrapped in linen, he wasn’t just numb of body; he was head numb, too. Last thing he needed was to do an ass-over-ears down to the marble foyer.
Rehv took the last step off the staircase, switched his cane to his right hand, and all but lunged to open the door. The cold wind that hustled in was a blessing and a curse. His core temperature went into a free fall, but he was able to take a deep, icy breath that replaced some of what plagued him with the stinging promise of coming snow.
Clearing his throat, he put his hand out to the race’s physician. “You treated my mother with incredible respect. I thank you.”
Behind his tortoiseshell glasses, Havers’s eyes were not professionally compassionate, but honestly so, and he extended his palm as a fellow mourner. “She was very special. The race has lost one of its spiritual lights.”
Bella stepped forward to hug the physician, and Rehv bowed to the nurse who had assisted, knowing that she would no doubt prefer not having to touch him.
As the pair went out the front door to dematerialize back to the clinic, Rehv took a moment to stare up into the night. Snow was indeed coming again, and not just the dusting sort of the night before.
Had his mother seen the flurries last evening, he wondered. Or had she missed what had proven to be her last chance to see delicate crystal miracles drift down from the heavens?
God, there were not a countless number of nights for anyone. Not an innumerable host of flurries to be seen.
His mother had loved falling snow. Whenever it appeared, she had gone into the sitting room, turned the outdoor lights on and the inside lights off, and sat there staring out at the night. She would stay for as long as it fell. For hours.
What had she seen, he wondered. In the falling snow, what had she seen? He had never asked her.
Christ, why did things have to end.
Rehv shut out the winter show and leaned back against the stout wooden panels of the door. Standing before him, beneath the overhead chandelier, his sister was hollow-eyed and listless as she cradled her daughter in her arms.
She hadn’t put Nalla down since the death, but the young didn’t mind. Daughter was asleep in mother’s arms, brow tight in concentration, as if she were growing so fast, even in her repose she didn’t get a break.
“I used to hold you like that,” Rehv said. “And you used to sleep like that. So deep.”
“Did I?” Bella smiled and rubbed Nalla’s back.
The onesie tonight was white and black with an AC/DC LIVE tour logo on it and Rehv had to smile. It was so not a surprise that his sister had ditched the whole cutesy-cutesy ducky-and-bunny shit for a newborn wardrobe that was kick-ass. And God bless her. If he ever had any young—
Rehv frowned and put the brakes on that thought.
“What is it?” his sister asked.
“Nothing.” Yeah, only the first time in his life he’d ever thought about having offspring.
Maybe it was his mother’s death.
Maybe it was Ehlena, another part of him pointed out.
“You want something to eat?” he said. “Before you and Z head back?”
Bella glanced up at the stairs, where the sound of a shower running drifted downward. “I would.”
Rehv put a hand on her shoulder and together they walked down a hall hung with framed landscapes, and through a dining room that had walls the color of merlot. The kitchen beyond, in contrast to the rest of the house, was plain to the point of utilitarian, but there was a nice table to sit at, and he parked his sister and her young in one of the chairs that had a high back and arms.
“What do you fancy?” he said, going to the fridge.
“You have any cereal?”
He went over