Free Black Dagger Brotherhood 11 - Lover at Last by J.R. Ward Page A

put a bullet into the Blind King’s throat.
    Undoubtedly, they were going for proof.
    The question was, of what? He did not know as of yet whether the king lived or had died, and
    neither did the Council, from what he understood. In fact, the glymera knew not that the attempt had even occurred.
    Had Wrath survived? Or had he been killed and the Brotherhood was at the moment busy trying to
    fill the vacancy? The Old Law was very clear about the rules of succession—provided the king had
    offspring, which he did not. So it would be his next nearest kin—assuming there were any.
    Xcor wanted to know, but he made no inquiries. All he could do was wait until word presented
    itself—and in the meantime, he and his soldiers kept killing lessers , and he continued to shore up his power base within the glymera . At least both of those endeavors were going well. Every night, they stabbed slayers back to the Omega. And his limp-wristed contact on the Council, the not-particularly-venerable Elan, son of Larex, was proving quite naive and malleable—two characteristics very
    useful in a disposable tool.
    Xcor was, however, growing tired of the information void. And indeed, this business with that
    female Throe had found was necessary but fraught with danger. A female capable of selling her veins and her sex to multiple users was certainly able to trade information for cash—and though Throe had kept their identities quiet, the number of them had been given. The Brotherhood must have
    appropriately guessed that none of the Band of Bastards were mated, and that sooner or later, in this new land, they would require what they had had a sufficiency of in the Old Country.
    Mayhap this female was put up by the king and his private guard.
    Well, they would find out on the morrow. Ambushes were easily set, and there was nary a more
    vulnerable moment than when a hungry male was at the throat and between the legs of a female. Yet it was time. His soldiers were willing to fight, but their faces were drawn, their eyes sunken, their skin stretched too tightly across their cheeks. Human blood, that weak substitute, was not providing enough strength, and his bastards had been living off of it for too long. Back in the Old Country, there had been enough females to be of service when needs must. But e’er since they had come to the New
    World, they had had to make do.
    If this was a trap, he was willing to fight the Brothers. Then again, he had been properly serviced
    —
    Dearest Virgin Scribe, he could not think of that.
    Xcor cleared his throat as pain in his chest made it hard to swallow. “Tell the female, first
    darkness is too early. We shall come instead at midnight unto her. And arrange for human feedings as soon as the night falls. If the Brothers are there, we shall engage with them from a position of relative strength.”
    Throe’s eyebrows rose as if he were impressed with Xcor’s thinking. “Aye. I shall do just that.”
    Xcor nodded and looked away.
    In the silence, the events of the autumn crowded in between them, cooling the frigid December air
    even further.
    That sacred Chosen was always with them both.
    “The daylight is coming fast upon us,” Throe said in his perfect accent. “It is time to depart.”
    Xcor glanced over to the east. The predawn glow had yet to arrive, but his second in command
    was correct. Soon…very soon…the deadly light of the sun would rain down, and no matter that it was
    at its weakest, with the winter solstice so recently passed.
    “Call the soldiers off the field,” Xcor said. “And meet them at base.”
    Throe typed in some combination of letters into a message that Xcor would not have been able to
    read. And then the soldier put his phone away with a frown.
    “Are you not coming back?” Throe asked.
    “Go.”
    There was a long pause. And then the other soldier said softly, “Wither thou goest?”
    In that moment, Xcor thought of each of his fighters. Zypher, the sexual conqueror.