The Black Dagger Brotherhood_ An Insider's Guide - J. R. Ward [109]
The Band of Brothers
Darius, Tohrment, Rhage, Vishous, Zsadist and Phury are a band of warriors who revere Wrath. They are a deadly group who have sworn their lives to protect their race and they are revered and somewhat feared by other vampires. Darius had an affair with a human woman twenty-five years ago and the woman died in childbirth. He’s lost two sons to his enemies and he’s worried that his half-human daughter, Beth, won’t survive her transition. Tohrment is the only one with a living uta-shellan, or first and only wife, and he worries about the safety of his family. Zsadist has a scar running down his face from having been tortured after his own brother betrayed him. Rhage is fiery in his personality, capable of flying off the handle at any moment, and he loves women. Vishous is the strategist of the group, possessing a frighteningly powerful mind but being haunted by dark visions which often come true. Phury had his children and uta-shellan killed by his enemies fifty years ago and has an artificial leg as a result of a battle injury.
A note on the names. The English words such as rage, fury, vicious, sadist, torment and wrath are derived from the traditional vampire warrior names which came first.
The Lessening Society
The Lessening Society is a totally self-contained, self-supported group of vampire hunters that operates outside of the law. Members of the society, called lessers, are humans who have traded their souls in return for a hundred years of sanctioned killing. They are vicious sociopaths, soulless killers with violent backgrounds or psychiatric pathologies who hunt for pleasure and like to torture. They have a high death rate so there is a constant demand for new society members. These recruits are drawn from a number of arenas, typically self-defense- or sports-related because the society favors the physically strong. In this book, a martial arts academy provides a fertile training and proving ground for new recruits.
Lessers can move around freely during the day. On occasion, they fight with each other over territory. They are physically stronger after their indoctrination and live to be a hundred while showing no signs of aging. They are also impotent and smell a little like baby powder.
Joe Xavier, a.k.a. Mr. X
Mr. X is an up and coming leader in the Lessening Society. He started training in the martial arts when he was in his teens, and when he was indoctrinated as a lesser, he went through a spec ops military program and then returned to the Society. He’s brought a new level of technology and violence to the society’s endeavors.
RULES OF THE WORLD
-Vampires are a completely different species from humans
-They live much longer lives than humans but are not immortal
-At around age 25, they ‘turn’, meaning they must feed from a vampire of the opposite sex to survive
-They will feed from humans but the strength they take from a man or woman doesn’t last long
-After their transition, they are sensitive to light and blinded and burned by the sun
-Vampires can dematerialize at will but only if they are at the height of their strength
-When they dematerialize, they may not take others with them
-Vampires can read emotions in others
-Vampires are able to sense the geographic location of their mate
-Vampires heal quickly but maybe killed by a catastrophic injury
-They reproduce very infrequently and sometimes with humans
-Half-breeds, if they survive the transition, are subject to all of the above
STORYLINE
Darius, one of the band of brothers, asks Wrath to meet