Black Dagger Brotherhood Cheat Sheet (Part 8)

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) tomorrow. For all BDB-related posts on Book Thingo, click here.

Darius, son of Marklon, reincarnated as John Matthew aka Tehrror, son of Darius of Marklon

If the series can be said to have a central character, it would be Darius/John Matthew, as he has been instrumental in bringing together the Brotherhood and bringing their shellans into their world.

Several centuries ago, Darius was trained in the same warrior camp that V grew up in, and by leaving behind his diary, he unknowingly eased V’s isolation and later introduced him to Wrath. He also introduced the twins, Phury and Zsadist. He offered Wrath a private place to feed and brought over the old king Wrath’s royal desk and throne, which were all that survived the lesser raid.

Darius died when his car exploded at the beginning of Dark Lover, after asking Wrath to guide his daughter Beth through her transition, and Marissa met Butch through Beth’s arrival in the vampire world. Towards the end of the book, the Scribe Virgin rewarded Darius by letting him be with his daughter, except he had to sacrifice the power of speech.

John Matthew was born in a public bathroom and was raised in an orphanage until he was old enough to live on his own in a crappy low rent apartment. It was in the stairwell of one of these flea traps that a man raped him. He immediately moved out.

He had strange dreams of blood, biting and sex. He wanted to be a strong protector and hated being trapped in such a small form that women either didn’t notice him or wanted to look after him.

John began calling the suicide hotline even though he couldn’t speak because he liked the sound of a volunteer counsellor’s voice. The calls were made from a local payphone, so he was able to see Mary Luce as she came and went from the centre. When she didn’t show up one evening, he visited her house. There he met Bella, who noted a bracelet he’d made with the name Tehrror written in the Old Language.

Bella recognised the warrior name and contacted the Brotherhood, and she and Mary went with John to the compound. There Mary met Rhage and Bella met Zsadist.

Tohr, who was Darius’s best friend, interviewed John and offered him a place in the pretrans training program. John decided to think about it, but after a lesser moved into his building, he contacted Tohr to sign up. Tohr and his shellan, Wellsie, took him in, clothed and fed him and became the first family he’d ever known.

John’s blood was tested and Havers determined that he was such a close match to Darius that he had to be Darius’s son. Tohr was happy to see another part of his best friend live on. Havers also sent John to a therapist, and he talked about the rape but refused to go back.

John was one of the least coordinated in the pretrans class and was bullied by Lash for being mute, unco, raised by humans, and having the Brotherhood’s star-shaped scar on his chest. He actually wasn’t trying to suck up to the Brotherhood—it was a marking he was born with (a hint that he is really Darius).

(Other than the Brotherhood scar he was born with, there were more hints that John Matthew is the reincarnation of Darius of Marklon. The first few times he met his half sister Beth, he fell into seizures until she was taken out of the room. A similar event occurred when Zsadist taught the pretrans class on car bombs. After John’s transition, his moves still weren’t that smooth, so Z handed him a different weapon and suggested that he fight with his left hand, even though he is right-handed. His skill was evident in his left hand, and Z told him that the only other left-handed warrior he’s ever known was Darius.)

But despite that, he formed friendships with his classmates Blaylock and Qhuinn.

In the lead up to John’s transition, Wellsie introduced him to her cousin Sarelle, to whom he was instantly attracted, and she seemed interested in him as well. Sarelle was abducted by the lesser who killed Wellsie and was used to lure Phury and Zsadist before she was also murdered.

Just like that, John’s happy family was destroyed. Tohr disappeared in a burst of energy, and John moved in with the Brotherhood and took over Tohr’s admin duties, even going so far as to sleep in Tohr’s chair at the training centre. John became fixated on avenging his loss on the lessers and was even more impatient for his transition. He became more aggressive, a sure sign that the change was coming. While Beth was concerned that John wasn’t eating enough, Z showed him some tough love and made him start having meals with everyone else at the mansion and stop looking for a chance to hit Lash (even though the prick deserved it).

After Blay’s transition, Lash started in on him as well and John puts himself between them. One more comment and John belted the living shit out of Lash until Wrath pulled him off and dragged him out. He told John that he doesn’t need thugs in the Brotherhood; he needs soldiers who will think for themselves instead of flying off the handle.

Instead of expelling him from the training program, Wrath had Tohr’s chair brought to his office so that John could sit in and watch the king’s interactions with the Brothers, Beth and Marissa, who is setting up Safe Place. Wrath also decided that John would take a walk with Zsadist every morning before sunrise. The walks have been beneficial because Z doesn’t try to get in his head; it’s a designated quiet time.

Qhuinn had his transition before John did and he wasn’t comfortable with being the little guy. To make John feel more equal, and knowing he would kick their butts, Blay suggested they play the video game sKillerz (unaware that V wrote it. We don’t hear about the game anymore, but I wonder if it bears any resemblance to killing lessers?). Qhuinn organised a trip to ZeroSum with the sole purpose of getting laid and John was concerned that his impending change will reopen the sexual can of worms for him. Then Z told him that not only was Lash returning to class after his suspension but he’d already gone through the change as well.

Qhuinn and Blay flanked John like bodyguards at the next lesson, which was on firearms. Although he had trouble in other classes requiring physical action, JM is a damn good shot.

At ZeroSum, Qhuinn quickly picked up a couple of blondes and Blay decided to join them, but only after passing his gun to JM. He felt a tingle and looked up to see the female head of security watching him. She hauled him into her office and disarmed him. She demanded to know who he was and he tried to talk to her, which he couldn’t because he’s mute and she misinterprets it as cowardice and JM feels about 10 cm tall.

Blay was also hauled in and explained that JM is Wrath’s ward, which meant that he absolutely must be kept safe in the club or the king will rain hellfire down on them. Xhex returned the gun with the warning that it should only be used for defence.

On the way back from the club, the troika ran into a couple of lessers. As JM was a pretrans, he passed for human, so Qhuinn and Blay made him escape and he returned to the club hoping to get Xhex to help. He couldn’t make himself understood to the bouncers and they wouldn’t let him back in. He then felt the weight of the gun in his pocket and returned to the scene, took aim and shot the lessers before they could hurt Blay and Qhuinn. He then picked up a roofing spike and stabbed each lesser through the heart and remembered having done it so many times before. In that moment he realised that he wasn’t a puny little weakling, he was powerful. Then the transition hit.

Layla fed him and after he’d gone through the change, she stayed for sex. Things started well until he remembered his rape and, not surprisingly, lost interest. He thought Layla would never assume it was her fault and was too ashamed to want to elaborate on why he couldn’t go through with it. What he didn’t realise was that she saw him go soft when she was naked and really did feel rejected and undesirable because she had no reason to think that there might be other factors. After all, there was no other male to convince her she’s attractive.

She reported in to Z and Wrath, and Z told JM he knows what happened in the stairwell from the therapy session in his medical file, and he wanted JM to take matters into his own hands to be sure that his post-transitional body works. He assured JM that it wasn’t his fault and he didn’t think less of him for it.

An image of Xhex worked for JM. It really worked.

While adjusting to his new body, he realised that he had questions about Darius, but didn’t feel like he could ask anyone without reminding them of their loss. When Phury returned from the Other Side, he brought back Darius’s diary and gave it to John. He didn’t read it right away because even though this was what he thought he wanted, he realised that he sees Tohr as his father.

Phury approached John and asked him to spend some time with Cormia because she needed a friend. John thought she looked like she didn’t need anyone, but since Phury had helped him in the past, he’d return the favour, and actually found her attractive, even though she’s the total opposite of Xhex.

At the club, JM was turned on watching Xhex deal with a drunk and maintain total control. Somehow she knew that he thought of her while taking care of business first thing in the evening and told him to say her name next time.

JM, Blay and Qhuinn were in the locker room when Lash walked out from the shower for another round of verbal abuse, but everyone was stunned into silence when he revealed details of John’s rape from the medical file he accessed in his new job at Havers’s clinic. During the fight, Lash pushed JM into the wall and reached for his pants. JM froze, but Qhuinn pulled Lash off and slit his throat. (Lash was taken to the clinic where the lessers found him and took him back to the Omega and the rest is history.)

Once JM told Wrath why Qhuinn cut Lash, the king found a loophole that enabled him to avoid sending Qhuinn to the race’s gaol and making him an indentured servant to Lash’s family after his sentence is served. Qhuinn is JM’s official bodyguard, and what do you know, Wrath had the paperwork ready before the attack, but just forgot to mention it. The ahstrux nohtrum is allowed to kill anyone who threatens his principle (who must be a person of interest, and the king’s brother-in-law definitely qualifies), but the principle must pay the fine for said deaths and the $5 million for Lash’s death easily came out of JM’s inheritance from Darius.

John made Qhuinn accompany him to see Blay in the hope that they will make up after Qhuinn tried to cut him loose. After a lesser attack on the house, the boys officially joined the war.

John found Cormia after she lost her virginity to Phury, mistakenly believed he raped her, and pounded the crap out of him until Wrath broke them up. Cormia convinced him that she was okay, and he felt unstable for having lost his temper again. He wanted a time-out walk with Z, but with Bella’s pending delivery, they weren’t as frequent as they used to be.

The boys investigated Lash’s house and John thought he saw Lash for a few seconds before he disappeared to answer the Omega’s summons.

The Brotherhood met Lassiter, who returned Tohr to them but ended up moving in, too. John had so much to tell Tohr, but they weren’t connected anymore. John was about to leave the room, disappointed, until Tohr called him back and they grieved together.

John was disturbed by how much Tohr has aged in the eight months since Wellsie’s death and got smashed at ZeroSum. Xhex found him alone in the bathroom and he told her he wanted to fuck her. Before she had to go sort out some emergency, he handed her a paper towel on which he’d written: Say my name.

A lot of the time, JM is bound by his insecurities, but then there are moments like these where he shows the self-assurance of a male who knows he’s powerful.

Four months after the bathroom incident, Xhex sent JM an image of them having sex, but decided it wasn’t the outlet she needed. JM walked into her office to find her tightening her cilices, and when she looked at him with red eyes, he realised she was a symphath.

The same night, Tohr disappeared with Lassiter to the Tomb without telling anyone. JM raised the alarm at the mansion but told Wrath he didn’t care if Tohr came back because he’d been left behind too many times.

This separation made him feel like a lone wolf, so he returned to ZeroSum without Qhuinn and Blay and told Xhex that he had no intention of turning her in. His feeling was that she could not be any more of a sociopath than Z and V were before they were mated. He let her probe his mind to prove that he was genuine and, after declining her offer to talk about Tohr, he accepted the key to her place so he could have some uninterrupted time to himself.

When Xhex returned, she took his virginity (his mating instincts well and truly overruled the ghosts of his past), but the encounter was hurried and they were fully clothed. When it was over, she refused to let him kiss her and immediately took a shower to wash him off, making it clear that the sex was intended as gratitude for his not turning her in.

While he initially contemplated suicide, he realised that a lot of the bad things in his life were done to him and were not the result of his own actions. Instead of killing himself, he would just find a way to not be a victim anymore, starting with sharing a ZeroSum employee with Qhuinn, which marked the beginning of his player phase.

He ran into Xhex after a session with Qhuinn and a goth at the Iron Mask. When she asked him how long he can keep up the drinking and casual sex, he flipped her off.

The day before the Brotherhood, Xhex and Ehlena went to rescue Rehvenge, JM visited Xhex while drunk and they had disconnected sex before he dressed and left without ever having signed a word.

After Xhex was kidnapped, John lay on her bed in the mansion, wishing he’d been kinder to her the last time they’d had sex than she had been to him and that he’d forgiven her when she said she was sorry. His only relief was that she left her cilices behind, which meant she had her symphath side as a weapon against Lash.

His hatred of Lash burns hotter than ever.

Qhuinn Warrior, formerly Qhuinn, son of Lohstrong, and Blaylock, son of Rocke

I’m doing these two in one go not just because I’d like to see them end up together, but because they’ve gone through a lot together and I don’t want to repeat the same events when their perspectives are so closely related. Both are males from the glymera with warrior blood in them, so they were sent to the pretrans training program where they formed the next generation troika with JM.

Blay was the first in the class to go through the transition and since he’s a naturally modest type, he hunches over and tries not to be so much bigger than everyone else. On the other hand, Qhuinn doesn’t have an ounce of modesty in him. He not only got laid (three times) after the change, but was more than ready to share the details with JM and Blay.

Qhuinn’s transition was the only chance his body would have to repair the ‘defect’ of heterochromia (one blue eye and one green), so his father managed to get him a female from a really good family, but his eyes stayed the same and his father punched him in one. His father cut off his allowance and denied him the ring that newly transitioned males receive from their fathers.

In contrast, Blaylock has a happy supportive family, and Qhuinn compares his mother to Marion Cunningham from Happy Days. He already had a room prepared in his house for Qhuinn to move into when his father decided to boot him out. His parents don’t care about the glymera’s requirement for perfection, whereas Qhuinn’s parents shipped him off to his wild cousin Saxton’s so he wouldn’t have to be either acknowledged or ignored at a glymera event Qhuinn’s family was hosting.

After his transition gave him a sex drive, Qhuinn has sex with anyone, male or female, that he considers hot, and it’s often a group affair. But he wants to settle down with a female of worth someday and hopes he will be faithful to her.

Although Blay has had experience with females, he’s discovered that he is actually gay and loves Qhuinn, even though Qhuinn doesn’t understand how anyone could love him.

After he slit Lash’s throat, Qhuinn was disowned by his family and thrown out of home. The family also sent an honour guard to beat him just short of death in reparation for the impact his actions had on the family name. Blay called Doc Jane and offered to put Qhuinn up. Qhuinn refused because then Blay’s family would suffer from the stigma of associating with him, but Blay said his friends are all he has. When Qhuinn tried to sneak out to avoid justice, Blay wanted to go with him, but was shot down when Qhuinn acknowledged Blay’s feelings and broke his heart.

Qhuinn changed his mind and faced the music as well as the king. Wrath asked him if he had an axe to grind against Lash and was using John as an excuse. The only thing on his mind had been protecting John, because if the story of John’s rape were widely known, John wouldn’t be respected in society and very likely would never be mated. He wasn’t sorry for what he did and would do it again. Wrath was satisfied with that answer and made Qhuinn JM’s ahstrux nohtrum, a bodyguard with a licence to kill to protect a person of interest, such as the king’s brother-in-law.

Vishous attached a heavy chain around his neck and inked a red teardrop just below his eye. If Qhuinn fails to save JM from dying, the drop will get a black cross over it to show his disgrace, and the chain will be removed after Qhuinn’s decapitation. Otherwise, the drop will be shaded black at JM’s passing and a link will be broken to remove the chain. Until then, he’s in for life. He also got V to tattoo the date on the back of his neck: August 18, 2008.

John made him go to Blay’s to mend their fences, when the house was attacked by lessers. Blay’s parents escaped to their safe house. Then they got the news that Qhuinn’s ex-family had been killed, but his brother was missing.

The boys were allowed to join the war. Blay’s father used to be a soldier before he was mated and wants Blay to be a male of worth, while his mother is worried he’ll be killed.

They all returned to the compound and, while patching up Blay, Qhuinn said that if he could love a guy it would be Blay, but he knows he wouldn’t be faithful and treat him right, so he’s not going to do anything about their attraction. There was a very hot, very sweet kiss, but Qhuinn won’t let it go further for Blay’s sake. He said he’ll kill the guy who hurts Blay.

Since becoming JM’s bodyguard, Qhuinn has been celibate, even while he, JM and Blay feed from the same female at the same time. He’s only prepared to have sex if JM is as well. Blay has started smoking, which Qhuinn doesn’t approve of. I think it’s a combination of stress relief, petulance from being rejected and a demand for Qhuinn’s attention.

Saxton, son of Tyhm

Saxton is Qhuinn’s wild older cousin who he’d looked up to before his transition and was the one he visited while his family was celebrating his father’s promotion to leahdyre.

He is now a lawyer best known to Wrath for preparing bloodline reports. The late Montrag’s lieutenant sent him to the Princeps Council meeting in the Council’s stead following the failed assassination attempt on Wrath, possibly as an insult because Saxton isn’t so much as a Council member’s son.

Saxton is beautiful with a lean build and a Great Gatsby-type style. Any questions about his sexuality were answered when he checked out Vishous at the Council meeting.

Transition

Instead of going through puberty over a span of years like humans do, vampires get it all in one go, and this happy little process is referred to as the transition. It usually happens around the age of 25. Prior to transition, vampires are typically small, weak, sexually unresponsive and can go out into the sunlight, but cannot dematerialise. Signs of impending transition include:

• Fatigue
• Constant hunger with no weight gain
• Indigestion
• Headaches
• Eyes become sensitive to light
• Aggression

The transition is extremely painful because internal organs are changing. A vampire needs the blood of a member of the opposite sex to complete the transition, and some vampires actually die during the transition.

Then comes the change and this affects males more than females because they grow so much in such a short time. It’s even more painful than the transition. Bones snap and lengthen, muscle grows—just a walk in the park, really.

When that’s finally over, every newly transitioned vampire seems to want the same thing: chocolate and bacon. Not even Ward knows why.

Males in particular tend to want something else right away, too. Their sex drive comes with a vengeance and they can almost set their clocks by the regularity of their erections.

The skin becomes hypersensitive for about a week afterwards, and males tend to have to relearn even basic motor skills like walking until they become more familiar with their new bodies.

For the first year after their transition, vampires are still legally considered minors.

This post was originally published on May 4, 2009. Updates are shown in blue font.