As Lash kept going, those sorry-ass humans came into sight again, and they looked like corpses, all pale and stiff to the point where she was amazed they could make any noises at all. Their car, she thought. Lash was going to try to take the two of them back to whatever ride those boys had come in. And although he was compromised on some levels, his grip on her was viciously strong, and that knife? Steady and ready.
Xhex stared down at John and knew she would remember the magnificent sight of his warrior's vengeance forever--
She frowned as she sensed his emotions. How... strange. That shadow she had always sensed in the lee of his grid wasn't a mere second- stringer anymore--it was as tangible and vivid as that which had always been the primary construct within his psyche.
In fact, as he stared up the alley, the two parts of him... became one.
After John had been hit with that bomb of energy, he was dazed and disoriented, but he forced his head to get back in the game and somehow managed to heave himself off the ground. He couldn't feel some portion of his body, and the other half that wasn't numb screamed in pain, but neither mattered. Deadly purpose animated him, replacing the beat of his heart as the driver of his physical form.
Locking his eyes on the scene before him, his hands twitched and his shoulders tightened. Lash was using Xhex as a living shield, all his best target points hidden behind her as he pulled her away.
That knife to her throat was right on her vein. Pressing against her...
In a quick twist, reality warped and distorted on him, his sight fuzzing out and becoming clear, only to lose its grip on the alley they were all in once more. Blinking hard, he cursed the tricks that Lash had at his disposal--
Except the problem wasn't what John had been hit with. It was something inside of him--a vision. A vision was boiling up from somewhere deep in his mind, wiping out what he was actually seeing....
A field by a barn. In the dark of night.
He shook his head and was relieved when the alley in Caldwell came back--
A field by a barn. In the dark of night... a female who mattered held in an evil lock, a knife to her throat.
And then he was abruptly back in the present, returning here to the warehouse district... where a female who mattered was held in an evil lock, a knife to her throat.
Oh, God... he felt like he had done this before.
Fuck that... he had done this before.
The epileptic fit came over him as it always did, scrambling his neurons, sending him flying in his own skin.
Usually he ended up on his ass, but the bonded male in him kept him upright, giving him a kind of power that came from the soul, not the body: His female was in the arms of a killer and every cell in John's body was going to rectify the situation in as violent and fast a manner as possible.
Or maybe even a little bloodier and quicker than that.
He moved his hand into his coat for his gun... but shit, what was there to shoot at? Lash wasn't taking any chances with his own vital organs and his grotesque head was so close to hers, there was no room for error.
John's fury screamed inside of him--
In his peripheral vision, he saw a gun muzzle come up.
Blink.
A field by a barn. In the dark of night. A female who mattered held in an evil lock, a knife to her throat. A gun brought to bear--
Blink.
Back here in Caldwell, the love of his life in the hands of his enemy.
Blink.
A gun going off--
The explosion right next to John's ear shocked him firmly back into reality, and he let out a wordless scream, lunging forward as if he could catch the bullet.
No! he screamed soundlessly. Noooo--
Except it was a perfect shot. The slug caught Lash in the temple-- about two inches away from Xhex's own head.
In slow motion, John glanced over his shoulder. Tohrment's forty was held straight out from the guy's body, the weapon unwavering in the cold air.
For some reason, neither the shooter nor the accuracy was a surprise even though it had been a one-in-a-million Hail Mary.
Oh, God, they'd done this before, hadn't they. Just... like this.
Real time snapped back into place and John whipped his head around again. Across the way, Xhex was brilliant as Lash staggered. She ducked down into a crouch to give Tohr a bigger target and was almost totally out of the way as the second bullet got sent flying.
Impact number two popped Lash right off his precious little loafers, landing him flat on his back.
John threw off the vestiges of his vertigo and pounded down to his female, his shitkickers grabbing the ground and holding tight, his thighs shoving all his strength into his feet as he burst into action.
His only thought was of saving Xhex, and he went for the weapon he needed to do the deed with: the six-inch black dagger that was holstered to his chest. As he came up to them, he raised his arm over his head, prepared to fall upon his enemy and stab Lash back to--
The scent of Xhex's blood changed everything, derailing the slice.
Oh, Jesus.... The f**king bastard had had two knives. One that had been at her throat. And another that had penetrated her in the gut.
Xhex rolled over on her back, grabbing her side with a grimace.
As Lash writhed and clasped his head and chest, Tohr arrived with Qhuinn and Blay and the other Brothers, all their guns pointed at their enemy, so John didn't have to worry about coverage as he assessed the damage.
John leaned down to Xhex.
"I'm okay," she gasped out. "I'm okay... I'm okay...."
The hell she was. She could barely breathe, and the hand that she had against the wound was covered with shiny, fresh blood.
John started to sign frantically. Call for Doc Jane--
"No!" she burst out, grabbing his arm with her bloody hand. "I only care about one thing right now."
As her eyes locked on Lash, John's heart slammed against his rib cage.
From overhead, Z said, "Butch and V are bringing the Escalade over from the Xtreme Park--motherfucker... we got company."
John glanced down the alley. Four lessers had stepped into view... evidence that the address on the Civic's registration had been right, even though the timing was now very wrong.
"We've got 'em," Z hissed as he and the group raced back to engage the new arrivals.
The sound of laughter refocused John. Lash was grinning widely, the unholy anatomy of his face pulled into a crazy-ass smile.
"John, boy... I f**ked her, John.... I f**ked her hard and she liked it."
White rage tore through John, the bonded male in him screaming, the dagger in his hand rising up once again.
"She begged me, John...." The breath that was drawn in was ragged, but satisfied. "Next time you're with her... remember I fill--"
"I never wanted it!" Xhex spat. "Never!"
"Filthy female," Lash sneered. "That's what you were and what you'll stay. Filthy and mine--"
Everything slowed down for John, everything from how the three of them were clustered together to the way the wind whiffled through the alley to the fight that had broken out a hundred yards away by the Mercedes.
He thought of his own violation long ago in that stairwell. Pictured Xhex going through similar humiliation and degradation. Recalled what Z had said he'd been through. Remembered what Tohr had suffered.
And in the midst of the recollections, he felt the echo of something long, long ago, something of another abduction, another female hurt wrongly, another life ruined.
Lash's horrific face and his decrepit, melting form became the embodiment of all of it: a festering, rotting, tangible representation of all the evil in the world, all the pain caused with deliberation, all the cruelty and debasement and malicious joy.
All the deeds done in a moment that had repercussions which lasted a lifetime.
"I f**ked her, John, boy--"
With a slashing arch, John's dagger arm plunged downward.
At the last second, he twisted his wrist so that the head of the hilt caught Lash right in the face. And the bonded male in him wanted to do what he'd done to that slayer back at the brownstone--nothing but complete evisceration.
Except then he'd be cheating this situation of the kind of divine justice so few people got. His wrong had never been righted--that human piece of shit who'd hurt him had gotten clean away. And Tohr's wrong could never be righted, because Wellsie was never coming back.
But Z had gotten his closure.
And goddamn it, so would his Xhex... even if that was the last thing in this world she did.
John had tears in his eyes as he took one of her bloodied hands from her wound... and opened it wide.
Turning his dagger around, he placed the hilt onto her palm. As her eyes flared, he closed her hold on his weapon and moved around to help prop her up and get her within range.