Black Dagger Brotherhood Cheat Sheet (Part 3)

In anticipation of the release of Lover Mine by J. R. Ward, Decadence has updated the Black Dagger Brotherhood cheat sheets. The cheat sheets sum up what we know so far about the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Lover Mine is out in hardback (US) and will be released in paperback (UK, Australia) on May 6. For all BDB-related posts on Book Thingo, click here.

Black Dagger Brotherhood: Zsadist, son of Ahgony

Zsadist, the firstborn son of Ahgony and the Chosen Naseen, was kidnapped by his nanny when he was seven months, and after the nanny’s death he was sold into slavery. After his transition changed him into a large, powerful looking male, his mistress kept him in a cell ready to be used for blood and sex and even shared him with other males.

It took his twin Phury a century to find and rescue him, but their escape via the ocean sealed a scar on Z’s face. He later added body piercings, possibly because he liked the pain. The slave band tattoos around his neck and wrists are also permanent because salt was added to the ink.

He returned to the mistress’s home because he’d heard that she had taken another blood slave, and killed her, taking her head as a reminder that she is dead and he will not be used again.

Z and Phury lived a nomadic life until they met Darius, who then introduced them to Wrath as potential Brothers around 90 years ago, but neither of them were in the right place to become warriors. Fifteen years later Z brought a dying Phury to Darius, who then called Wrath to perform last rites. Wrath noticed that although Z’s body was sweating and shaking from the thought of losing Phury, his face and eyes were completely disconnected from it.

Phury lived and they joined the Brotherhood not long afterwards, but no one was really all that comfortable around Z because he was unpredictable and hostile. Even though he was no longer a slave, he never bought anything, slept beside the skull of his former mistress in a pallet of blankets on the floor of his unheated room, and lived off apples and human blood. There were also rumours that he had a habit of killing females, which made it easy to believe that, when the lessers were laying out bloodied humans to bait vampires, Zsadist was responsible for the human deaths. He was also misheard saying he’d be willing to kill Wrath for free. He seems to take special pleasure in keeping females at a distance.

But his singing voice is pure heaven to hear.

He met Mary’s neighbour and friend Bella at Mary’s party at the mansion. She was instantly attracted to him, but his experiences made him afraid of closeness and he ultimately rejected her. He was so rattled by the encounter with Bella that he asked Phury to hit him until the pain drove out all other feelings and he could move on.

Very soon after the party, Bella was kidnapped by then-fore-lesser Mr. O, who wanted to recreate his last abusive human relationship with her.

Zsadist became obsessed with rescuing her—even though it didn’t seem likely she would still be alive six weeks after her abduction—and tortured lessers for information before killing them. A civilian male escaped with information on Bella’s location, and Zsadist rescued Bella and saw to her immediate care.

Bella didn’t want to leave him because she remembered how fierce he was and decided she needed someone that strong to save her. Z was attracted to her but hated himself for his reaction—his shame over sex was so strong that he referred to his penis as the ‘it’ or ‘the bastard’.

Because his care of Bella was so out of character for him, Phury was instructed to watch over him and developed feelings for Bella as well. Z saw Phury as the male he could have been if he weren’t so contaminated from what had been done to him, so he tried to push Bella onto his twin. But she knew she only wanted Zsadist, and her need to feed brought out his protective instincts and enabled an intimacy he wouldn’t be able to stand with anyone else. Their relationship seemed to stem from a need to be free from the effects of their captivity.

Although Zsadist bonded with Bella, their sex life reached a block, but conveniently enough Bella became fertile, which required Zsadist to alleviate her intense suffering with his body. It’s only then that he was able to let go of the past, but he still believed that Bella will change her mind about being with him because he saw himself as largely worthless as he doesn’t know how to read or cook or do anything but fight.

To get what he thought would be the inevitable breakup out of the way, Zsadist fed from a whore in front of Bella and she left, only to return when she heard that he was injured in a fight with the lessers. He again sent her to feed Phury, who was also injured and wanted her.

Mr. O called the Brotherhood and demanded that Z meet him alone, to which he agreed, because if he couldn’t have Bella, then the next best thing was to wipe out the piece of shit who hurt her. He explained this to Wrath and Phury and made Phury swear that he will stay with the Brotherhood no matter what happened to Z.

Instead Phury drugged Z, shaved his own head, scarred his own face, and met the lesser in Z’s place, telling Z that he was needed there. When Z came to, he asked Bella to track Phury via her blood and finally understood the impact his pain had on Phury when he saw his twin chained down and beaten, needing to be saved. As a result of the drugs Phury gave him, he was too weak to defeat the lesser, so Bella shot and killed Mr. O.

In the clinic, while recovering from their injuries together, Z for the first time reached out to Phury and promised not to make his twin hurt him and to start taking care of himself. He also volunteered to teach the pretrans males how to fight to lighten Phury’s load and asked Mary to teach him how to read.

Two months later, Bella returned to the mansion to tell Zsadist that she was carrying his young and noted the changes he had made. They were mated soon afterwards and this time Wrath noted that while his hands were shaking, Z was well aware that he was nervous and was no longer so disconnected from his emotions. Z may never be completely normal, but he is well on his way.

Z took John Matthew under his wing when he was being bullied by Lash before their transitions and, to deal with JM’s rising temper, Wrath instructed him to meet with Z every morning before dawn to take a quiet walk together. JM doesn’t realise just how much they have in common.

Phury falls into a decline and his addiction to red smoke grew stronger. So along with the fear of losing Bella, Zsadist was afraid that Phury would kill himself with drugs or during a fight and Phury’s broken promises made him angry with his twin because he didn’t know how to help him and felt powerless. He wasn’t always the most sympathetic to Phury, possibly because Phury’s crappy childhood was nothing to his and Phury grew up with the father who had given up on finding Zsadist.

They reconciled with the birth of his daughter Nalla and Phury’s mating to Cormia, but Z had trouble adjusting to fatherhood. Nalla’s birth was problematic and, believing she was about to die, Bella asksed Jane to save Nalla. She wanted to make sure that if anything happened to her, then Z wouldn’t be alone, but he believed that in her final moments, all Bella cared about was the child, a misunderstanding supported by her dedication to motherhood. His distance led Bella to think he didn’t find her post-pregnancy body attractive. His nightmares included his daughter witnessing what was done to him and he kept his distance from her, as well, to avoid contaminating her with his past. Bella was on the brink of leaving with Nalla when an injury sidelined Z from fighting and they actually talk and shift their focus back to each other and their daughter.

Bella and Z were called to Madalina’s death bed and the grandmother is allowed to see Nalla one more time before she died. At the moment of Madalina’s passing, she let out a gasp. Nalla awoke at the same time, reached up and smiled as though Madalina were saying goodbye.

After Madalina’s death, Bella took comfort in Nalla, but two days later, she was told that Rehvenge had also died.

She learned Rehv was still alive when she overheard the discussion about rescuing him and Z took her aside to explain the situation. I don’t know if he mentioned the drugs. She was the one who insisted Ehlena be allowed to go to the colony, having seen how much Rehv cared for this female and understanding that she may help him recover in ways no one else could.

While the symphath version of mhis or camouflage in the form of a feeling of dread started to overwhelm Ehlena, Z put his hand on her shoulder to reassure her, which is the first time I’ve seen him willingly make contact with a female other than Bella or Nalla.

When Rehvenge was free, Bella made him tell her the truth about his conception and her father’s relationship with their mother and his death. When she took it all in, she told him it wasn’t his fault that he was born, no matter what happened as a result and that Madalina loved him.

Pretrans Training Program

The number of fighting Brothers was extremely low when Wrath ascended to the throne, not to mention that there weren’t any soldiers to act as the race’s police force and back up the Brotherhood as and when needed. Tohr started holding classes for pretrans males with warrior blood as they were easier to train, even though they would have to relearn how to move after their transitions. The curriculum covers martial arts and weaponry, explosives, computer hacking and tactics.

The future of the training program is uncertain due to lesser attacks on the aristocrats, but JM, Qhuinn and Blay have joined the war against the lessers.

This post was originally published on April 27, 2009. Updates are shown in blue font.