J.R. Ward the Black Dagger Brotherhood Novels 5-8 - J. R. Ward [709]
“No!” Lash screamed, racing forward. He caught his lover as she fell, holding her gently. “No!”
He looked across the chamber. Xhex was lowering a gun, a slight smile on her lips, as if she’d just enjoyed a good meal.
The princess gripped the lapels of Lash’s singed coat, the sharp yank on the fabric bringing his eyes back to her face.
She was not looking at him. She was staring at Rehvenge…reaching out to him.
“My love…” The princess’s last words drifted up into the room.
Lash snarled and threw her body against the nearest wall, hoping the impact was what killed her, needing the satisfaction of knowing he was the one who’d fucked her up last.
“You”—he pointed to Xhex—“owe me twice now—”
The chanting was quiet at first, nothing but an echo reverberating down the corridors outside, but it grew louder and more insistent, louder…and more insistent, until he heard each syllable spoken by what had to be a hundred mouths. He understood nothing, the language not one he knew, but the shit was reverent, that was for sure.
Lash turned and faced the direction from which the chant came, being careful to get his back against the wall. He had a vague sense that the others were likewise bracing themselves for what was coming.
The symphaths arrived in two-by-two formation, their white robes and long, thin bodies not so much walking as swaying along. They were each wearing a contoured white facial mask, the kind that gave them black holes to see through and left their chin and jaws free. As they entered the chamber and began to circle Rehvenge, they didn’t seem concerned in the slightest about the vampires or the princess’s body or Lash himself.
Filing in, they gradually filled up the room, forcing the others to step back until all the interlopers were up tight against the walls, as Lash and the dead princess’s body already were.
Time to get the fuck out of Dodge. Whatever this was wasn’t something he needed to be involved with. Anger made his powers weaker, for one thing. For another, this situation could spiral out of control in an instant, and only part of it was his fight.
He wasn’t leaving alone, though. He’d come for a female and he was leaving with one.
In a quick burst, he cut through one of the precise breaks in the symphaths’ front-to-back ranks and came around to where Xhex stood. The female was looking up at Rehvenge all awestruck, like the assembly meant something. Which was just the kind of distraction a guy needed at a time like this.
Putting forward both his hands, Lash summoned a shadow out of thin air and spread it wide until it fell to the floor like a cloak.
With a quick sweep, he cast it up and over Xhex’s head, disappearing her though in fact she was still in the room. As expected, she struggled, but one sharp fist to the head and she went lax, making the exodus so much easier.
Lash just dragged her out of the cave, right from under everyone’s noses.
Chanting…chanting that rose up and filled the air with a rhythmic drumming.
But first, there had been gunshots, too.
Rehvenge peeled open his eyelids and had to blink his red vision clear. The spiders were gone from his body, gone from the chamber…replaced by the assembling masses of his symphath brethren, their ceremonial masks and robes making their features anonymous so that the power of their minds could shine through all the more clearly.
There was fresh blood.
His eyes shot over to—Oh, thank you, Virgin Scribe, Ehlena was still standing, and Zsadist was on her tight as Kevlar. That was the good news. Bad news? The pair was directly opposite the door, with, oh, maybe a hundred sin-eaters between them and the safe way out.
Although given the way she held his eyes, she wasn’t leaving without him.
“Ehlena…” he whispered hoarsely. “No.”
She nodded and mouthed, We’re getting you free.
He looked away in frustration, watching the sway of the robes, knowing more than Ehlena could about what exactly this procession