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PRE-RELEASE SPOILERS: Lover Reborn by J. R. Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 10) – Part 3

Decadence — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 15:05:59 +0000

If you’re hungry for clues about upcoming books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Decadence has put together what we think we know about what’s coming next.

Part 1 | Part 2 | All BDB-related posts on Book Thingo

Last week, J. R. Ward signed books in Cincinnati and Bex beat me to posting a link to a blogger who was there and took notes. If you haven’t already seen it, go to Liza’s blog for confirmation of Tohr’s HEA (no surprise) and other news.

Chat with Christine Feehan

This is the J. R. Ward part of the joint chat she hosted for Christine Feehan this morning. She wasn’t able to stay long because she had a migraine and the Christine Feehan portion had run for two hours. It was easier for her to just pick random questions in a free chat format, but it was difficult to keep up and connect questions with answers because with minimal mod intervention, the chat runs really quickly. I’ve tried to stick as closely as I could to what was said, but the questions and some answers have been paraphrased. This is not a transcript.

I haven’t noted down everything that has been asked before, like ‘Is Lash coming back?’ (She says that question was answered at the end of Lover Mine.) and ‘Does Wrath get his sight back?’ (No.)

And beware: there is one major spoiler on Envy.

J. R. Ward on Christine Feehan

Both writers have great respect for each other and could found a mutual admiration society. When Feehan mentioned her newest release or convention, Ward posted the links for her.

Before the chat started, Ward told us about the first time she met Feehan. It was at a conference a couple of years ago and Wardsaw her across the room and was all like, ‘OMG, it’s Christine Feehan! Don’t be an ass. Just go over and introduce yourself.’ So she walked over and in this mousy little voice said, ‘Hi, I’m J. R. Ward.’

‘Hi, I like your books.’ Ward apparently fell over in a dead faint, although maybe not literally.

Feehan helped Ward get her agent and gives the best advice, especially on promotion. She’s the reason we have the paranormal romance genre and is its reigning queen.

Ward: Christine and her family have done nothing but support me and Team Ward and I couldn’t respect her more. Thank you for coming tonight and having my back. I know you don’t like ass kissing… Please know my success is a direct result of so much advice you have given me.

Feeahan: You’re making me cry. Your success is a direct result of your own talent.

Black Dagger Brotherhood

Lover Reborn includes some very steamy scenes between Tohr and No’One, and the band of bastards will have a huge presence in the book because Xcor is going for the throne. Although he was relatively absent from recent books, Phury will be in Tohr’s.

‘Assail is a very interesting male. An old school vampire. I love Assail.’ In a chat she did earlier in the week to test the software, Ward confirmed that Assail is his own male and not one of Xcor’s bastards. Nor is he wolfen (no word on when she is going to introduce any wolves).

‘Read the end of Lover Reborn for Layla’s HEA, but don’t jump to conclusions.’

[Teasing Christine] ‘Blay’s been pursuing something else in his down time and fighting. So no playing doctor for real yet. But it’s coming.’ Could this be why she doesn’t see Blay becoming a Brother? He’s going to become a healer? Or does she mean playing doctor in a different sense?

She hopes to write Blay and Qhuinn soon. She gave a KR (keep reading) when asked if Saxton will still be around after Blay and Qhuinn have their HEA.

Does Murhder cause trouble for JM and Xhex? ‘JM and Xhex are solid, but he could cause trouble for others.’

Xhex has never been pregnant.

In future books, we can expect Manny to go through the transition and John to become a Brother.

‘I believe Butch and Manny have other siblings.’

Why are Shadows the only ones who can kill symphaths? ‘You’ll find out more about their powers later.’

Trez and iAm will get separate books. They share intertwining plots but are too big to do together.

Will we ever see Butch and V get intimate? ‘Who says they haven’t already? ;)’ Evil, EVIL woman!! This is twice now she’s said that.

Was it hard for V to forgive Jane for almost helping Payne kill herself? ‘Absolutely. But he understood it was Payne’s choice, not hers.’

Do the Brothers ever get nostalgic for other music from earlier eras they’ve lived through, like jazz or classical? ‘Good question. I haven’t seen them getting nostalgic, but they’re busy defending rap against Manny’s onslaught.’

What was the inspiration behind the way the Brothers speak? ‘No inspiration, that’s just how they talk.’

Does Lassiter know Eddie and Ad? KR.

What’s the Omega’s name? ‘The Omega.’ It’s not as silly a question as it may sound because we learned the Scribe Virgin’s name is Analisse in Dark Lover.

Will Michael from ‘Story of Son’ meet the BDB? ‘I’m not sure. I love love love him and wonder about his kids, but he and Claire are happy doing their own thing. But their kids, that’s what’s going to be interesting, LOL.’

Fallen Angels

She teared up over Eddie. KR regarding Eddie coming back.

Writing and general stuff

‘As long as I stay out of the way, I’m drafting. I can always pull pages. If I try to impose my own view or influence the storyline, the pictures and voices dry up. So I record what I see.’

Which authors would you recommend while I’m waiting for your next book? ‘Christine Feehan. Thea Harrison rocks. Darynda Jones. Suzanne Brockmann. Jessica Andersen. [In agreement with Christine Feehan] Nalini Singh. I think she has a new book this month…. I love KMM (Karen Marie Moning).’

Would you go to DragonCon at some point? ‘I’d love to, but travel is hard.’

‘I’m focussed on the books. If the right movie deal came along, sure, but the books are my main focus.’

What inspired you to write paranormal romance? ‘I have no choice. The Brothers are what they are, but seeing the Brothers in leather make me very glad I write paranormal romance.’

Which was the fastest book to write? ‘None of them were fast. They’re like pulling teeth because the Brothers are big and complicated.’ And yes, she was aware of the double entendre there.

‘I don’t read other vampires so I don’t get subconsciously influenced. The Brothers are what they are and the clearer I keep my vision of them, the better they talk to me.’

What is the best and worst advice you received when you were breaking into publishing? ‘The best was not to hurry to send a piece to an agent or editor. Take your time, get it right. And there was something specifically from Christine that changed the trajectory of my career. She knows what it is. I must have blocked out the worst because nothing comes to mind.’

She hopes to finish the Jessica Bird contemporaries.

Dark Lover virtual signing

Until the 27th of September (US time), you can pre-order a signed hardcover of Dark Lover from Ward’s official virtual signing page. The cheap international shipping option is available, so the book and delivery cost less than AUD50. The Dark Lover hardcover (collector’s edition) is officially released on October 4.

Have you heard any new BDB spoilers? What are you looking forward to most in the series? Let us know!

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Book 10 in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series…and beyond – Part 2

Decadence — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:51 +0000

If you’re hungry for clues about upcoming books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Decadence has put together what we think we know about what’s coming next.

Part 1 | All BDB-related posts on Book Thingo

Some you may have seen this cover for Lover Reborn on Amazon, Goodreads and other bookish sites, but I’m not convinced it’s the final official cover because I haven’t seen Ward release it herself on her Facebook page, and it’s not in her photo albums or on her website. But the cover for Envy appeared suddenly as her new profile pic.

There are small excerpts from upcoming releases on Facebook from Qhuinn where he’s jealous of his cousin for being with Blay (Lover Reborn), Rhage’s love for Mary (their novella) and the size of a male’s (presumably Veck) appendage in Envy.

With Envy coming in less than a month, Ward has been devoting her efforts to promoting the next Fallen Angels instalment, with daily quotes and weekly videos posted on Facebook.

But the recent Envy signing also produced some amazing BDB spoilers, with highlights from The Obscured Vixen (Click on the link to find out about Layla’s talent. I swear it’s worth it!) and My Secret Private Playground:

Unlike the other books, which take place over a short period of time, Lover Reborn spans a year. Tohr is still in love with Wellsie and he needs time for his heart and mind to catch up to his body. But still no confirmation of whom he will ultimately end up with.
Lover Reborn introduces a new character, Assail, who is second only to Z in Ward’s opinion. It’s implied he is male.
Someone is inducted into the Brotherhood in either Lover Reborn or the next book, but it is not revealed who. (JM? Payne?)
Ward has an idea for a third series, but she isn’t saying anything because it may not happen since she is already so busy with the two series she’s writing now.
Jose de la Cruz will appear in both Envy and an upcoming BDB book where he’ll see Butch, only he won’t be allowed to remember.
She already knows who Trez and iAm will end up with, and their stories will be told in the same book as they happen sort of around the same time. We’ve met one of them, but not the other. (Could one of them be Layla? Are they both Chosen? — Decadence)
She is three-quarters through Rhage and Mary’s novella, which has turned into a short book. She also saps out over Phury and Cormia’s son Aggy (Ahgony).

Follow the links for the full story.

Ward’s message boards made a welcome return last month, but unfortunately Ward continues to focus on Facebook. I find the Facebookpage harder to keep up with, and if you live outside the US everything has hundreds of comments before you even see it, so you can’t tell if she’s answered someone’s question without extensive scrolling. It’s a shame because I had looked forward to the ease of use the boards offer.

More of Ward’s earlier Jessica Bird titles have been reissued, with The Rebel (Silhouette Special Edition) and An Irresistible Bachelor (from the same series as An Unforgettable Lady) having been given a facelift.

Have you heard any new BDB spoilers? What are you looking forward to most in the series? Let us know!

More at Book Thingo:

Book 10 in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series…and beyond – Part 1

Decadence — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 00:00:58 +0000

If you’re hungry for clues about upcoming books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Decadence has put together what we think we know about what’s coming next.

This post contains spoilers from previous books including Lover Unleashed, so we’re starting over with a new speculation post. It also contains some seriously spoilery info on the BDB. Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

For those of you wondering, even with the cheapest shipping option I received my copy of Lover Unleashed from the virtual signing exactly a week after its release.

Outstanding spoilers

Here is a summary of the info from the previous speculation post that has not been included in Lover Unleashed:

Something will pull the Scribe Virgin out of her funk.
As a compromise, J. R. Ward’s publisher is allowing her to write Qhuay’s story as a novella, but she has promised that the novella will be long enough to satisfy their fans. It will not contain any world building so that readers who aren’t comfortable reading a gay romance won’t miss out.
Rhage and Mary will get their own novella (Ward is finishing this now) and so will Beth and Wrath, both of which will be about how they have young. They may be released together in paperback towards the end of this year.
Tohr will not end up with Layla, Rhym (she was the female Bella tried to set Phury up with, and who later became the Safe Place therapist), Nalla or the Scribe Virgin. We’ve met his future shellan in Lover Mine, but she may or may not have been introduced in that book. Doesn’t rule out No’One.
No’One is staying on this side to build a relationship with Xhex.
Lassiter will also get a book but it will have to be after Tohr’s.
John Matthew and Qhuinn will definitely be inducted into the Brotherhood, but Ward isn’t saying anything about Blay.
Murhder will come back with a whole heap of secrets. He and Xhex have more in common than she realises and we will get their back story.
Ward knows who iAm will end up with, but isn’t saying anything. There are female Shadows, but it may not be one of them.
The Chosen Selena and Layla will get HEAs, but Layla will not end up with Tohr, Lassiter or Blay.

Lover Reborn — Tohr’s story

Since the release of Lover Unleashed, J. R. Ward has done a few book signings in the US, making me wish I lived there. On her Facebook page, she posted a video, where she announced that book 10 would be about Tohr. It will be called Lover Reborn.

Ward has finished writing Envy, which has come in at 125 000 words and is 40 pages longer than Crave. She expects it to become even longer, presumably during copyediting. Envy’s release date is 6 September, 2011.

Around the blogs

The rest of this information comes from bloggers who were at the signings, not Ward directly, so I especially can’t promise that it will not change between now and when the books actually come out.

For ease of reading, I’m going to combine the highlights from Blogging by Liza (thanks to Steph for the link) and the Twilight Lexicon forum with my own thoughts.

Manny may go through the transition later. His blood helps Payne, but since he’s an untransitioned half-breed, it’s not strong enough. My question is who will she ultimately feed from? Just because they chose not to explore Manny’s heritage and make him a vampire in Lover Unleashed, doesn’t mean they won’t ever. But will she have to feed from someone else before then?

Payne cannot restore Wrath’s sight, but George will live forever.

Tohr is going to end up with No’One. I’m just wondering how she’s going to square that with their time together before Xhex’s birth while Tohr was promised to Wellsie. Wellsie will appear in Tohr’s book, but we don’t know what form the scene will take. So it could be a flashback, or a visit from the Fade or something else that hasn’t been thought of yet.

Lassiter will appear in Tohr’s book and ultimately get his own book. I believe it will be part of the BDB series rather than the Fallen Angels. (If you noticed that V and Jane hadn’t been properly mated with the ceremony and carving and the whole shebang by Lover Unleashed, even though V was so excited by the idea of Jane doing the carving in Lover Unbound and we got to read about it on the boards, it turns out that the boards can be quite some time ahead of the books, which makes me wonder when Lassiter helped Wrath and V found and saved him. Because there haven’t been any scenes in the books where he’s looking for his jesses and pining for his female. Doesn’t mean it never happened, just that we didn’t get to see it, such as when No’One brought Payne a scrying bowl in a deleted scene, making me wonder how Payne could see that V’s life is better with Jane, but didn’t know he was still alive.)

Ward really likes Xcor (Core) and he will get his own book, but he really needs to work out some issues first. He has a really interesting back story and we’ll find out about his true father.

The Bloodletter was very bitter about being booted from the Brotherhood. Is that why his book on the Other Side is blank? Is Murhder’s also blank?

There is too much conflict between the Brotherhood and the band of bastards for Throe to join the Brotherhood. When asked if No’One was his defiled sister, Ward was prevented by her people from answering. Instead she gave a KR (Keep Reading). Sampsone was the leahdyre—is it possible he was an ex-Brother? Would a warrior have hung around at home crying instead of going out and kicking some symphath arse?
She won’t name the 3 cousin bastards, but she loves Zypher.

Murhder will be in the books again soon. He and Xhex have something in common even Xhex doesn’t know about, and JM and Murhder will have a confrontation.

We will go back to the symphath colony and Ward believes they will become a threat again. (I’m still wondering how Xhex and Rehv can be ‘of no age’ when we witnessed Xhex’s birth. Could it be that symphath is a continuous essence, kind of like the Omega’s power in a lesser, which doesn’t end just because the lesser is dead and existed before their ‘birth’ as a lesser? But even that must have had a beginning. Theories?)

We will get to find out what happened to Qhuinn’s (still living, if less than happy and healthy) brother, whom Lash had kidnapped and Ward implied that we may get to see Lash again (because he was staked, not inhaled) before her people put the gag on her.

There will always be the Omega because he must balance out the Scribe Virgin. Looks like there may always be lessers, too.

We will see in book 10 who the glymera’s new leahdyre is. Things are very different with them now. Makes me wonder what effect Throe’s return and stirring of the pot had.

Those of you who followed my #LoverUnleashed livetweet would have noticed that I queried the use of the word ‘wolfen’ on page 2 of Lover Unleashed. Apparently this does actually relate to a new species that will be introduced at a later date.

Again, the Qhuay novella will not have any world building so people who don’t want to read an m/m romance don’t miss out, but those of you who feel that the boys are getting ripped off don’t have to worry. A BDB book is around 140,000 words, while an average romance novel is said to be 100,000-120,000. The novella will be 90,000-100,000 words and will be as hot as the threesome in Lover Unleashed.

Qhuinn is reinventing himself, and even though he removed a lot of his piercings, the holes are still there. He still has metal down under and I think he still has his tongue stud, too, so it’s interesting that he’s kept the more discreet ones that could be used to pleasure a partner even though he’s celibate.

Apparently, Qhuinn’s vision of Layla (which I believe is what led Ward to say initially that she believed Qhuinn would be with a female) means that she will bear young for Blay and Qhuinn, who cannot reproduce together as a couple. Her people won’t let her say anything else about Layla’s HEA.

Trez and iAm will get their own books and Trez may perform a special Primale-style duty for the Chosen. Shadowy vampire young? Will they grow up to be Brothers?

Jose de la Cruz will never find Butch.

JM is never supposed to remember that he was Darius, but Xhex is getting suspicious, which is about time, because I don’t remember the Scribe Virgin’s conditions saying nobody else could pick up on all the hints that have been dropped throughout the series.

Ward’s theory on the coffins is that they are the remains of the original Brothers, brought from the Old Country. No idea why they aren’t in the Tomb, which I would have thought is a more fitting place.

Dark Lover will be reissued in hardcover and reissuing the rest depends on Dark Lover’s sales. The artwork is unlikely to change.

Veck will be the hero of Envy, which will be released in September.

Ward plans to release a BDB every autumn (or spring in the US) and a Fallen Angels each spring.

Have you heard any new BDB spoilers? What are you looking forward to most in the series? Let us know!

More at Book Thingo:

Book 9 in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series…and beyond

Decadence — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:10:21 +0000

Lover Unleashed by J. R. Ward - Australian/UK paperback

If you’re hungry for clues about upcoming books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Decadence has put together what we think we know about what’s coming next. LAST UPDATED: 28/3/2010

This post contains spoilers from earlier books in the series, including Lover Mine, and spoilery speculation about future books. None of this stuff is set in stone, so please don’t blame us if something changes between now and when the books are released.

The ninth book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, titled Lover Unleashed, is about Payne, blooded daughter of the Bloodletter, and Manuel Manello, MD.

Payne has just been revealed to everyone as V’s sister and you might remember Manello as Jane’s boss at the human hospital, who V thought the word ‘Brother’ about. (Bear in mind that it was a single-word sentence, so it could be either Brother as in a warrior in the Brotherhood or brother as in family, so yes, it does make a difference.)

Lover Unleashed by J. R. Ward - US hardback

We can expect to see Vishous play a larger role in this book as his relationship with his estranged twin develops, and I’m betting Jane will show up quite a bit, too, as support for both her hellren and her old boss and friend. Ward has suggested in a recent chat that V will not be happy to see someone putting the moves on his sister and that Butch will also be a huge buffer. She has confirmed that V will go to a dark place after the recent revelations of Payne, her injury and his mother’s lies. Even though his relationships with Butch and Jane have helped him to open up, his default mode is very shut down and in times of great stress like what he’s going through with Payne, he’s going to revert back to his default setting and it will take something very hardcore to bring him out of it.

Because it’s V, it would need to be hardcore because he doesn’t do soft, but I think Ward will get us through it intact. I didn’t think submission on him would work, but I found him even hotter after the penthouse scene, so it looks like we’ll need to keep an open mind. Ward is warning readers on her message board that it may be disturbing for some readers as it looks like it will involve self-harm. It’s not necessarily something Ward is happy with and she’d like to make his journey easier on him and us and this seems to relate to The Lie from the companion. His scenes are giving her a hard time. Again.

In this book, something happens to pull the Scribe Virgin out of her depression, but Ward isn’t saying what.

Layla and No’One will also appear in the next book, but no details yet (if ever).

Black Dagger Brotherhood Box Set (Books 1 to 6)

At this stage, Ward will start writing book 9 in 3-4 weeks and doesn’t yet know who book 10 will be about. Apparently she gets told on a need-to-know basis and the Brothers have decided she doesn’t need to know yet.

I’m sure we will see the love triangle between Qhuinn, Blay and Saxton continue, but it looks like Qhuinn and Blaylock’s HEA will be in a novella, which I understand is meant to appease everyone. Those who are comfortable reading a romance (and sex) between two men can happily devour it, but if their story is completely self-contained, readers who are less comfortable with this plotline can leave it alone. Ward wants to call the novella Blay and Qhuinn so that readers know before buying that it’s about two males. They aren’t yet ready to have a story, a few things need to happen in the series first.

Crave by J. R. Ward (Fallen Angels, Book 2)

Ward’s publisher has also bought another two novellas: the first is about Rhage and Mary’s desire to start a family (which she is writing now, having finished Crave, the second Fallen Angels book) and the second is about Wrath’s son, Wrath, who will be the future king (the kings are always named Wrath) to be written in the Australian summer, between writing Payne and Manny’s book and the third Fallen Angel book. These novellas will be released together in paperback format around late 2011.

Tohr will get his own book at some stage, but Ward is being very tight-lipped about who his heroine will be (No’One?). She has denied that he will end up with Layla, Rhym (she was the female Bella tried to set Phury up with, and later became the Safe Place therapist), Nalla or the Scribe Virgin. Lassiter will also get a book but it will have to be after Tohr’s.

Speaking of whom, we will see more of No’One. She is staying to build a relationship with Xhex, although I’m not sure how much of that we’ll get to see with everything else going on.

Murhder will come back into the fold, bearing surprises. I had expected more questions on who the symphaths are and what makes them tick to be answered than I found in Rehvenge and Xhex’s books, but since Murhder went mad after going to the symphath colony, we may get more info on them in Murhder’s book. I just don’t know when that will be or whom he ends up with.

Somewhere along the line we’ll get to see more of the Chosen as well, with Layla and Selena, the Chosen who feeds Tohr and was the only one other than Cormia to stay at the great camp when Rehv showed up each month, both getting HEAs. Ward has confirmed that Layla will not end up with Tohr, Lassiter or Blay.

John Matthew and Qhuinn will definitely be inducted into the Brotherhood, but Ward isn’t saying anything about Blay.

We’ll get to meet some new characters in the future, with three males currently in the Old Country (not even Ward knows when they’ll be introduced) and the training program will make a comeback.

And people looking ahead to Nalla’s HEA are getting way ahead of themselves. Because she is currently an infant in the books, it will be years—if ever—before her story is written. Z will not be happy about his baby attracting male attention, but Bella will be on Nalla’s side and will allow her more freedom to find a mate. Not that it’s a surprise, but Ward has confirmed that it will not be Qhuinn.

SEPTEMBER UPDATE: Lover Unleashed is around 700 pages and has a release date of 29 March 2011.

Qhuinn listened to Clint Eastwood by the Gorillaz while running on the treadmill. It’s a song about not being in a good place now,but knowing your future is brighter. I think it’s part of a scene from Lover Unleashed.

During a scene between V and Manny, Eminem’s Cinderella Man is playing. The song is about having had it tough but doing the impossible anyway and features a lot of grandstanding and posturing, I’m-better-than-you stuff.

Ward has also hinted that there will be a new bad boy. That’s all. She’s not allowed to say more than that, so we don’t know if he’s a villain or a badass.

OCTOBER UPDATE: Crave (second in the Fallen Angels series) contains an excerpt from Lover Unleashed, where Jane drives Manny to the Brotherhood mansion to operate on Payne’s spine. We learn that he’s hit the scotch since the events of Lover Unbound and interestingly, it’s the same brand that Butch drinks. Vishous still hates him, even though he’s the one mated to Jane, not Manny. Maybe it’s because Manny’s better able to help his new sister than V is and V really doesn’t like not being in charge (except under certain circumstances with Jane).

Manny instantly falls in love with Payne on sight and he doesn’t react like a human. I wonder if Xhex will say anything about what she saw in him or if she will assume they know like she did with Lash.

From the chat, we learned that his mother is Italian, but nothing about his father, which is interesting since his surname sounds Italian.

Lover Unleashed will have so much of Payne, Manny and V (and by extension Jane and Butch) that there will be room for Qhuay, but not much else. I’m not sure if Murhder will make an appearance in this book, but he will see Xhex again and their back story will be revealed.

Manny has changed after V got into his head and his mind can’t handle the interference (maybe this is another sign that he is something more than human) and he becomes essentially useless. There has to be a way out (maybe another forced transition?) because I don’t see Ward giving Payne a broken hellren.

Something is going to happen between Butch and V and Ward hinted that they will be giving in to a craving. Butch feels a lot of black, which if V has anything to do with it, is likely to be along the lines of leather or candle wax. The connection to V is purely my speculation.

One of the new vampires we’ll meet is called Xcor (pronounced Core). I’m not sure if Xcor is male or female, but would be too surprised if he or she is the badass Ward mentioned earlier since this was the only name she gave us.

Lover Unleashed will include the hero of the next Fallen Angel book, Envy.

Right now, Ward still doesn’t know whose book is going to be after Payne and Manny’s, but it’s not likely to be Tohr’s because she wants more time to prepare. But I might speculate that her preference could be why she hasn’t been told yet. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Speaking of Tohr, Ward said in a video for Borders that we’ve met his female in Lover Mine. But knowing that Ward can be tricky, don’t read that as his female was necessarily introduced in Lover Mine, she was in that book.

Ward confirmed the silver lining of giving Blay and Qhuinn their own novella—it will focus on them and cover everything.

We have not met who iAm ends up with, but Ward knows who that will be. There are such things as female Shadows but she hasn’t said if it’s one of them.

NOVEMBER UPDATE: J. R. Ward just finished writing Lover Unleashed, but she and her teams still have to look at the copyedits when they come in from her publisher. The Lover Unleashed cover and blurb are finally up!

Payne, twin sister of Vishous, is cut from the same dark, seductive cloth as her brother. Imprisoned for eons by their mother, the Scribe Virgin, she finally frees herself—only to face a devastating injury. Manuel Manello, M.D., is drafted by the Brotherhood to save her as only he can—but when the human surgeon and the vampire warrior meet, their two worlds collide in the face of their undeniable passion. With so much working against them, can love prove stronger than the birthright and the biology that separate them?

She is expecting to finish the Rhage and Mary novella in about a month. They start their novella in a hard spot but the story of how they become parents is said to be beautiful and a tearjerker.

Saxton shows Qhuinn and Blay how much he loves them in Lover Unleashed and that teaser was finished with a *sniff* so I’m speculating that he walks away to let them be together, but I could be wrong and he sacrifices himself for them in some other way. She gave a KR (Keep Reading) when asked if he will have a HEA.

There has been another tease about who Manny may be related to. Someone asked if it was Butch and Ward replied that BROTHER didn’t just refer to Payne.

Murhder has another side to him, but Ward left the tease at that.

Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz will be included in a scene from Lover Unleashed.

Butch cried because his heart was broken over something devastating he did for V, but it’s okay in the end. Let the speculation fly!

DECEMBER UPDATE: Ward promised that Lover Unleashed would contain a threesome and that there would be some hot scenes between V and Jane (I don’t know if that’s separate from the threesome) and a scene between Payne and Manny in his Porsche is particularly hot.

At the time of reviewing copyedits, Lover Unleashed will have 59 chapters and is expected to be only slightly shorter than Lover Mine by around 40 pages or 10,000 words.

Just a reminder: Both the local and US editions of Crave contain an excerpt from Lover Unleashed.

Vishous posted a link to the video for Aston Martin Music by Rick Ross, ft. Drake and Chrisette Michele. The verses don’t make much sense to me, but the song seems to be about someone who became distant from the one he loves because he needed to get something sorted out or accomplished and he wasn’t able to completely let go of the life he used to live.

FEBRUARY UPDATE: Still no news on whose book comes after Payne and Manny, but it’s possible that they’re keeping quiet until she writes Qhuinn and Blay’s story.

Ward is writing Envy, the third in the Fallen Angels series, which picks up immediately after Lover Unleashed (Envy’s hero appears in Lover Unleashed).

There are more than three males coming from the Old Country, but I’m unsure if they’re Brothers or civilians. I could guess they’re Brothers, but I could equally be wrong.

Payne’s feeding arrangements are a KR. If she answered that Payne feeds from Manny, it opens up speculation that he becomes a vampire and maybe also a Brother, as suggested in the November update.

Ward has raised her profile on Facebook and is posting quotes from the series, including Lover Unleashed on her official page.

There is a virtual signing for Lover Unleashed, open worldwide. This is the only way to get a signed book without flying to America. Until Thursday 24th of March (US time), you can place your order with Ward’s nominated store online and let them know how to personalise it. She receives a whole heap of books to sign and personalise, which are then returned to the store for shipping. Unfortunately, even if they know the book is going overseas, they can’t post it until release day, so it’s a bit of a wait. Their system has been upgraded since last year, with two international shipping rates to choose from. To be honest, I can’t remember what the actual difference is in delivery times, but the cheapest international shipping rate is USD21, so the total price of USD50.49 isn’t much different to what we normally pay for hardcovers in Australia. And it’s just awesome to open your new book to a personal message from Ward herself.

MARCH UPDATE: Early reviews of Lover Unleashed are out and some spoilers were dropped but even though I’m avoiding the major ones for my own sake, be warned if you decide to read any further.

From the Book Reading Gals:

V has a breakdown over not being able to help Payne, the sister he has only just found, but is finally able to heal from the abuse he’s suffered with help from Jane and Butch. This is one of the most amazing scenes in the book.

Payne really is V’s other half in the way that twins complement each other. As she was raised Chosen, she also has the traditional, innocent Chosen side as well as the warrior. (Since in earlier books she has expressed little to no interest in males, I see her as like the tomboy Chosen if that makes sense. It also implies that she is a virgin before Manny – Decadence) Her relationship with Manny is sweet.

When Jane died, his world fell apart and her return to his life isn’t much easier on him. He has some things to work through before he can feel like it was all worth it.

Qhuinn hits a low point (“He had to own his shit, even if it made him hate himself to his core..”) but grows from it.

We find out who Butch’s father is.

Xcor (pronounced Core with a silent X, like Xhex) is a male with a whole bunch of other males who are loyal to him and hold a grudge against Wrath and the Brotherhood, which seems related to his mission.

From Rex Robot Reviews:

V has a huge presence in Lover Unleashed and it looks like he and Butch will get together. (I’m not sure how I feel about that, given they are both mated, but we’ll see how it’s handled – Decadence)

Xcor and his male posse arrive with somewhat evil motives, but may somehow still be likable. They interact with Payne, but none of the Brothers yet.

Ward’s Facebook page will be updated in the lead-up to Lover Unleashed’s release day with videos from her virtual signing and she will be talking about Payne. She has posted a pic of the first page of the book, but be warned, it contains a huge spoiler!

If you need a recap of everything that happened in the rest of the series, the updated Black Dagger Brotherhood cheat sheets will soon be reposted with details from Lover Mine.

Happy reading everyone!

BONUS MARCH UPDATE: Ward announced the launch of her CafePress store where you can get official BDB clothing, jewellery, keychains, covers for iPhone, iPad or your car’s number plate and all sorts of other things. She is giving all of the profits to no-kill animal shelters.

Something that really stood out to me was that (with the exception of the mugs, which have almost every main character), most of the merchandise was general BDB, with the occasional “You feel me?” or Fritz reference. But the characters that had more items dedicated to them than any others were Qhuinn and Blay. I wonder if their book is the next to be written?

If you have a Shelfari or Amazon account, sign into Shelfari to read the prologue and first 2 chapters of Lover Unleashed.

More at Book Thingo:

Introduction to the Chronicles of Nick (Part 3)

Decadence — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:39 +0000

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Chronicles of Nick, Book 1)

If you’ve read (or are planning to read) the Chronicles of Nick, these are cheat sheets you won’t want to miss. Decadence summarises what we know about Nick Gautier from the Dark-Hunter series. You can read the first two parts here and here.

The Mavromino, Noir

Noir is a first generation offspring of the Source, making him the closest thing to the source of creation short of the source itself. For some as yet unknown reason (maybe just because he is the source god of darkness?), he turned against the Source and tried to take over as the major power.

The source gods had the Sephirii as their security, so Noir created the Malachai as their natural enemy to wipe them out. Despite setting traps that reduced Sephirii numbers, they were poised to decimate all the Malachai, until they were betrayed by their leader, Jared. A truce was made between both parties and the Malachai and Sephirii were both made extinct, except for the Sephiroth Jared and the Malachai Adarian.

At some point, Adarian and Noir had a falling out, resulting in a huge loss of Noir’s powers. Without anyone to worship or give him power by thinking of him, Noir lay dormant.

Nick’s powers being unlocked was also a huge power boost for his creator, who becomes even stronger the more Nick uses his powers. Old habits die hard, so Noir wants to destroy the world again—not to mention that the chaos caused by attacking other gods is believed to be likely to draw the Malachai to him, making him invincible.

Noir is joined by his sister Azura (the source god of air), but their other sister Braith (I don’t know what source god she is), who is a valuable counterpoint in the war, is missing.

He drugged the skoti (renegade Dream-Hunters who have become outlaws through their addiction to the rush of emotion they feel by immersing themselves in a human’s dreams and draining their energy through that dream) to keep them pliant and having them onside strengthens him even more. For that reason he has also brought over some of the Dolophoni (children of the Fates) and the oneroi (Dream-Hunters who hunt the skoti). Another advantage is that his skotos/oneroi army can hunt his enemies through their dreams and kill them as they sleep. He enticed another source god Cratus (now Jericho) but betrayed him, which led to his present defeat and the restoration of the Dolophoni, oneroi and skoti to our side. He’s down but not out as long as he is able to draw power from the Malachai, whom he must either kill or convert to his cause in order to win.

As the original gods of darkness and air, Noir and Azura could be defeated by the original gods of sun and fire, Cam and Rezar, but his enemies have to find them. After the first war with the Source, Cam and Azura withdrew in disgust and no one knows their whereabouts now.

Noir and Azura have an unknown ally that the Greek pantheon would never suspect. He declared war on the Dark-Hunters and Dream-Hunters, promising to make their existence hell unless they surrender the Malachai.

The Sephiroth Jared

The Sephirii, who have been compared to fallen angels, had ten warriors called the Mimoroux and Jared was one of them. They were chosen by a sentient sword to ‘guide’ that sword, and Takara, the most powerful sword, chose Jared as her Shiori (guide). Wielding Takara made Jared the leader of the Mimoroux. But he betrayed them all in the war against Noir and his army of Malachai, resulting in the deaths of his brethren, so he believes he deserves his fate.

Jared is owned by Stryker’s wife and new Daimon queen, Zephyra, and his weakness is Nim, an adolescent demon who adopted him after Jared saved his life and sleeps as a tattoo on Jared’s skin (like Simi chooses to do with Ash, only Nim is not a Charonte and is actually scared of them).

As the balance to the Malachai, Jared’s form is black with red marks, the reverse of Nick. He’s trying to kill the Malachai to end his own life.

Jaden bargained for a green amulet which he then gave to Jericho (formerly Cratus) to buy Jared’s freedom from Zephyra. As Jared’s new master, Jericho told him to live as he chooses. Jericho has no room for a slave but will always welcome a friend and ally. Although Jericho refuses to be Jared’s new master, Jared will always be a slave until the Source releases him. He wears a collar that will kill him if anyone but the Source tries to remove it.

The Broker, Jaden

Jaden is the go-between for demons and the source gods and would be powerful enough to destroy Noir and Azura, but is owned by Azura and therefore forbidden to attack them. He is also able to identify and find Cam and Rezar, who could imprison Noir and Azura.

He bargained with Xypher (the skotos hero of Dream Chaser) for a green medallion that renders a god powerless when placed over their heart. He then passed the amulet to Jericho to trade to Zephyra for Jared’s freedom, to which Jericho added the condition that it never be used against Acheron or Apollymi. When asked why it was so important that Jared go free, Jaden confessed that Jared was damned because of him. We don’t have any more detail than that at this stage, but there seems to be a close bond between them.

More at Book Thingo:

Introduction to the Chronicles of Nick (Part 2)

Decadence — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:51 +0000

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Chronicles of Nick, Book 1, US hardback)

So what the hell is a Malachai?

In short, one of the most powerful beings on the face of the planet.

When the Source of creation’s darkest power known as the Mavromino turned against the Source and tried to end the world, he created the Malachai to wipe out the Sephirii (companions to the first order of gods, and soldiers who upheld the original laws of the universe and kept its fabric from unravelling, they’ve been likened to fallen angels) who opposed them. But although many of the Sephirii flew into the Mavromino’s traps, they looked set to destroy the Malachai until they were betrayed by one of their own, Jared, and the battle ended in a truce.

As punishment, Jared was allowed to live in shame and servitude while his brethren and all but one of the Malachai (I believe this was Nick’s father, Adarian) were annihilated by their respective makers. This Malachai was allowed to live to maintain the balance of the last Sephiroth’s existence and to kill him if he ever escapes.

The Malachai is powerful enough to kill War, the original offshoot of the Source. To put this into perspective, it took the combined strength of all the gods and Chthonians (god killers like Savitar) to contain him, but they weren’t strong enough to kill War and absorb his powers. The Mavromino has acknowledged that the Malachai has the power to wipe out all of the source gods and absorb their powers (and we need him to absorb their powers so the world doesn’t end when a god dies). Should this ever happen, not even Jared (his natural enemy and mirror equivalent) can stop him. It’s safe to say that Nick is now stronger than Acheron and such extreme power makes him a threat a lot of the gods, demons, etc. would love to kill. On his own, the Malachai has enough power to realign the universe, leaving his destructive creator in charge, so it’s really important that he never uses his power like that.

War’s attack unlocked Nick’s powers because they both draw their powers from the Source, as does Savitar, which is why he didn’t train Nick as a Dark-Hunter. Sparring with Savitar would have unlocked the Malachai powers.

Nick’s father, Adarian, wasn’t just a repeat offender who spent more time in prison than out, he was the last Malachai who preferred to stay incarcerated because he believed his enemies (including his creator the Mavromino, with whom he had a falling out for an as yet unknown reason) wouldn’t think to look for him there. He was also able to thrive by feeding on the evil and negative energy of the criminals. He chose Cherise to bear his child because she was such a beautiful and pure soul, but underestimated her influence on Nick. Once Nick became old enough to replace Adarian as the last Malachai, Adarian died.

Menyara (who is actually Ma’at, the Egyptian goddess of truth and justice who upholds the laws of the universe), who Nick had believed was simply a family friend, was there when Nick was born and immediately bound his powers to keep him safe from those who want him dead. When those powers were activated, she told him that although he killed himself, he could reclaim his soul and be reborn, but he has to choose his path. Would he be kind and loving like his mother or a violent corrupter like his father? And would he choose to kill Acheron now that he has the power?

As Ash has experience with training destroyers and with fighting his own negative urges, he has taken over Nick’s training (he has to grow into his powers and learn how to use them if he’s going to be useful to either side). Even though Ash is now a god, he was once half human and half Charonte. Nick still hates Ash, but they’re slowly trying to work out their issues with each other.

The easiest way to neutralise the threat Nick poses is to kill him, but since Ash tied their life forces, he would die along with Nick. Once Ash dies, Apollymi is released from Atlantean hell Kalosis and will destroy the world in her rage.

Ash brought the Dogs of War back from hell to protect Nick. Eight of the most badass Dark-Hunters evah, they don’t drain each others’ powers when they’re in proximity, although this is more a case of them being so powerful to begin with that the energy drain that normally incapacitates a Dark-Hunter has no effect on them. Like Dark-Hunters, when a Dog of War hits another, they feel it ten times more than the one they hit, but this doesn’t matter either, since they enjoy the pain. They will be policed by Zarek, Jericho and Jared.

Nick is somehow related to Dream-Hunter Madoc (formerly M’Adoc), but we don’t yet know how or who else knows this besides Madoc and Jared.

As a Malachai, Nick’s true form is red with black marks, black eyes that flash red and red-streaked black hair.

More at Book Thingo:

Introduction to the Chronicles of Nick (Part 1)

Decadence — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:16 +0000

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Chronicles of Nick, Book 1)

If you’ve read (or are planning to read) the Chronicles of Nick, these are cheat sheets you won’t want to miss. Decadence summarises what we know about Nick Gautier from the Dark-Hunter series.

Origins of Nick

Nicholas Ambrosius Gautier (pronounced Go-shay, the Cajun way) was born to 15-year old Cherise, whose rich parents disowned her when she fell pregnant with Nick. Without a complete education, she became an exotic dancer to support Nick, but never resented him for the direction her life had taken. Cherise used to take Nick to the clubs with her so that she could remind herself why she did her job and find the will to keep doing it. She was a loving and nurturing woman who even tried to feed Acheron while she worked as Sanctuary’s chef and bartender.

Nick was always told his father was an abusive felon who was killed during a prison riot. Nick found his share of trouble until he met the Dark-Hunter Kyrian, who gave Nick a job as his squire at the age of 14.

The sarcastic smart-arse proved himself to be honest and loyal and took the opportunity provided by his job to get himself an education. He is a skilled computer hacker as well as a Blood Rites squire (authorised by the Council to kill if necessary). He was also a player who was rarely seen with the same girl twice.

Nick bought his mother a house with his salary and since she was never aware that Dark-Hunters or Were-Hunters existed, she sometimes worried that he was dealing drugs, but loved him anyway.

Nick’s role as Kyrian’s squire introduced him to Atlantean god Acheron Parthenopaeus, whom he treated like everyone else. Acheron found this a refreshing change, and Nick became the closest thing Ash had to a best friend.

One night, Nick met a strange girl who seemed to know him, but whom he’d never met before. He took her out on a date and after they had sex Nick found out that she was Acheron’s adopted daughter, Simi. Nick tried to apologise, but Acheron was so enraged he cursed Nick to commit suicide to save Ash the effort of killing him.

As a god of fate, Ash’s hastily spoken curse not only affected Nick, but caused a chain reaction in which a Dark-Hunter was killed and possessed by the uber-daimon Desiderius, who killed Cherise. When Nick saw his dead mother, he called Artemis and killed himself in front of her so that she would be forced to turn him into a Dark-Hunter. His bow and arrow mark is on his face and neck, since Artemis was cradling his head when she created him. She gave Nick’s soul to Acheron.

Nick was fated to settle down and start a family with Tiyana Devereaux, Amanda and Tabitha’s sister, but she was killed in the same killing spree that claimed Cherise, and Nick is unaware of his original fate.

Nick hasn’t been able to forgive Ash for letting Cherise die when he was able to raise Kyrian and Amanda from the dead and blames Ash for Hurricane Katrina. Unlike everyone else who forgets almost instantly that Ash is a god, Nick is aware of what Ash can do.

Ash gave Nick to his own mentor Savitar to train, who then assigned Ravyn Kontis to train him.

Stryker’s sister Satara fooled Nick into joining forces with Stryker in return for revenge on Acheron. By drinking Stryker’s blood and turning Daimon, Nick’s own powers have increased along with the powers he has from being a special kind of Dark-Hunter. Theoretically this might have been explained by him having been created from a suicide, something Artemis promised Ash she would never do, but is actually a clue that Nick is something more than he appears.

Nick is potentially a useful weapon against Acheron as Ash promised Cherise not to let anything bad happen to her boy, which means that Nick can hurt Ash, but Ash can’t hurt Nick, even in defence. Also, because Ash cares for Nick, he cannot see Nick’s fate, so he would be completely unaware that the newest Dark-Hunter has turned Daimon.

Although Nick has been told that the price for access to Stryker’s powers must be paid by bringing Kyrian and Amanda’s daughter Marissa into Kalosis, he has yet to make any progress.

Nick killed Satara to protect Soteria, so Stryker wants him dead. He sent the spirit of War to kill Nick, but when their blood mixed during the attack, Nick’s dormant Malachai powers were activated.

More at Book Thingo:

Black Dagger Brotherhood Cheat Sheet (Part 9)

Decadence — Wed, 05 May 2010 12:15:19 +0000

The cheat sheets sum up what we know so far about the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. For all BDB-related posts on Book Thingo, click here. LAST UPDATED: 24/3/2011 (shown in italics)

Black Dagger Brotherhood: Tohrment, son of Hharm

Tohrment spent time at the Bloodletter’s warrior camp until he attracted the Brotherhood’s attention. For his test, he was assigned to help Darius track down the leahdyre’s kidnapped daughter. His father neglected him, so Darius took him under his wing, stepping on Hharm’s toes in the process. Hharm disowned Tohr. Being now ruined in society, Tohr promised Darius he would be an asset, not a hindrance.

Having nowhere else to go, Tohr slept in the Brotherhood’s cave until Darius discovered him and took him back to Sampsone’s house for a meal. Tohr’s pride was dented, but Darius told him he would serve the most use by being strong and well-fed.

He spent the day at Darius’ modest house before tracking down the symphath, who used the female as a shield. Tohr took aim and killed the symphath with a single shot to the head. Darius assumed he’d missed, but Tohr told him he wouldn’t have taken the shot if he hadn’t been sure he’d hit his target.

The female lived with him and Darius until she delivered a healthy baby girl who bore no resemblance to her symphath ancestors. She took Tohr’s dagger and killed herself. Full of guilt and pain, Tohr took her outside despite the rain and buried her under their apple tree. He felt despair that the female had condemned herself to an afterlife outside of the Fade.

He and Darius took the young to a vampire family whose young died during birth.

Tohr is different from the other vampires in that he showed no signs no hint of a tortured past. He was promised to Wellesandra, blooded daughter of the Princeps Relix, and was fortunate enough to have bonded with her. Sheer luck that the one female he would want above all others happened to be the one he was honour-bound to mate.

Tohr showed his love by doing small, practical things to show he was thinking of his shellan, such as making sure her truck had snow chains. He was very respectful of her—when she told him off over the phone about his untidiness, he apologised in front of JM and didn’t play the macho dickhead when he hung up. He was together, level-headed, could be tough, but ultimately fair, and was the logical choice to take over as head of the Brotherhood when Wrath ascended to the throne.

But misfortune came to him twice. First, he lost his best friend, Darius, in a lesser car bomb. But then a young pretrans going by the human name John Matthew was brought to the Brotherhood, and Tohr and Wellsie took him in and they liked having him as a son. He was really happy to learn that the boy was Darius’s son.

Tohr was often on edge since Wellsie fell pregnant as there was a risk that she might die during the pregnancy or childbirth. But what happened was even worse than that.

It was just a normal day. Wellsie cancelled the vampires’ order for apples to be used in a solstice festival because the lessers found out about them and the vampires were vulnerable. She and her cousin Sarelle went to visit a spiritual leader, Madalina (who was also Bella’s mother), to discuss options. But Mr O, who was there to find Bella, didn’t miss the opportunity to kill the two females.

Tohr felt a sudden chest pain and told himself it was indigestion, but he knew something was wrong and tried to call Wellsie. When the Brotherhood arrived to formally tell him she had been murdered, he lost it. His power created a whirlwind inside the room and eventually he just seemed to implode.

For eight months no one knew where he was, although Wrath was convinced he could still feel his brother in his veins.

Tohr lived in the mountains, somewhere in the same region as Rehvenge’s great camp. He’d meant to send himself to the symphath colony up north and ended up in the Adirondacks by mistake, frustrated that there were no lessers. He fed on deer blood and waited for death because suicides don’t go to the Fade and he would never get to be with Wellsie again.

Eventually he was found by the angel Lassiter and returned to his Brothers, but he felt out of sync without Wellsie and even had trouble connecting with his son, John Matthew. But he stopped JM from walking away and they cried together over their loss.

Vishous was making daggers for Tohr because even though he didn’t know it yet, he will start fighting again.

Four months later, Tohr was still waiting to die. He dreamed of being with Wellsie every day, and every night he was stunned into waking with all trace of her gone. He ate in front of JM but would throw up when he left. He still showered even though there was no apparent reason behind it because it didn’t advance him to his goal of going to the Fade to be with Wellsie forever.

One night Lassiter told him that that night was different and reminded him of when Wrath had been hit by a car while chasing lessers in 1958. Tohr found him and took him to Havers. Although Marissa fed him, Wrath was in a coma for around 24 hours, during which time all the Brothers phoned for updates and the hospital staff prayed for the recovery of the king who refused to be king. Then when Wrath woke up, he didn’t acknowledge Tohr in any way for saving his life, even though Tohr hadn’t expected to be thanked. It made him realise that he was treating his brothers and JM the same way.

He decided to go back to the beginning and took Lassiter with him to the Tomb, where the first Brother’s skull is kept and the Brothers’ names are inscribed on the wall. Lassiter tried to tell him that he wouldn’t find any answers there because he’s asking the wrong questions. Lassiter dropped the bomb that Wellsie died exactly one year ago and he can’t leave Tohr because Wellsie sent him to look after Tohr.

Hearing someone else say Wellsie’s name woke him up and when Wrath found him, Tohr said that he was ready to rejoin the Brotherhood and Wrath took him back.

The Chosen Selena (who is the only Chosen aside from Cormia who will stay on this side when Rehvenge makes his monthly visit to the Adirondacks) was sent to feed him. With her traditional Chosen robes, blue eyes and black hair, she is nothing like Wellsie. Despite not wanting the intimacy with another female, once she offered her wrist, he fed hard and almost killed her in his need.

Afterwards, he was hungry for food and on the way to the kitchen he thought about Darius, looked in on Wrath and saw his old office chair next to Wrath’s, who updated him on his adoptive son. He began to realise how his decline had hurt JM.

He dressed and armed for the Princeps Council meeting, but Wrath told him he wasn’t yet strong enough to go. He waited until V turned his head before shooting the cigarette out of his mouth, proving he was still an asset.

A month later he was part of the rescue team sent in to save Rehvenge, so he must have regained most of his health.

After Xhex’s return, John noticed that Tohr was regaining his fighting weight. He also doesn’t seem to need Lassiter around as much any more.

He told JM he was glad he had Xhex and it made “cosmic sense” for them to be together, which makes me wonder how much he knows about the connection between JM and Darius. When he learned John was taking Xhex through his past, he gave JM he keys to his house and Lash’s drug money for the orphanage.

In a reversal of his abandonment of JM, he finds himself on the outside looking in when he quietly follows JM to make sure he’s OK on the streets. He realised that you have to take care of those you have left and couldn’t stand to lose JM the way he lost Wellsie. But when Lash is dead, he will dedicate himself to wiping out lessers in her memory until the day he dies.

He told JM he and Xhex made so much sense and they apologised for how they’d neglected the other. When JM asked him to be there when he killed Lash, it was like they’d never been apart.

When Wrath was late returning from the Other Side, Tor resumed leadership of the Brotherhood and broke them up into teams for the night.

Xhex tracked Lash and saved JM’s life but left herself open so Lash used her as a shield. Just the way he rescued her mother centuries ago, Tohr fired a perfect shot into Lash’s head.

He returned to the home he shared with Wellsie and repaired the door JM blew apart. He collected an old LV trunk and took it to Xhex. It contains Wellsie’s mating dress and he thinks it;s appropriate that Xhex should also wear it for her mating, but has no intention of telling her why.

No’One appears and tells Xhex it was because Tohr had been there at the beginning. Tohr is shocked that the female who killed herself with his dagger should be alive and present on her daughter’s mating day.

Hharm

Hharm gave Tohr his blue eyes, dark hair, broad shoulders, strong chest and not much else. Instead of being in the party who collected Tohr from the camp, he was having sex and failed to provide quality weapons for his son.

When Darius tried to take Tohr under his wing, Hharm took offence and disowned his son as he knew he could not beat Darius (after his loss to Darius, the Bloodletter himself punished Hharm mercilessly).

He is a misogynist who enjoys fighting and sex and has a low patience for conversation, including Brotherhood meetings. It’s also been suggested that he was the warrior who raped Darius’ battle conquests in the camp and has a strong taste for mead.

He has many sons by many females, but only Tohrment was eligible to join the Brotherhood as the other females were not Chosen.

Lassiter

Lassiter is a fallen angel who seems to be on probation with the Powers That Be because of a plague that decimated a third of the human population in central Europe in the 14th century, and Tohr is his last chance. So, like it or not, he must move in with the Brotherhood.

From the BDB boards, we know that he has a not-very-happy history with V and wants to get mated, but his jesses and female are missing. He took a bullet for Wrath and needed the sun to heal. Unfortunately the sun also prevented V from (grudgingly) going to save him.

He has black and blond hair and a shitload of metal, which most likely includes a Prince Albert piercing (NSFW). Unless he controls it, he glows bright white. His blood is silver and he smells like a bouquet of flowers when he’s dead. Sugar seems to help somehow, so I take it that angels don’t develop diabetes. V’s hand resurrected him and he now owes V.

Murhder, son of Murhder aka Eliahu Rathboone

We don’t know very much about Murhder, except that he was the most recently booted member of the Brotherhood, is still alive somewhere, and that V saved his father as a young (but his grandmother was killed by the lesser) in Italy. Oh, and the very cryptic clue from Ward’s message board: Surfboard. Qhuinn was planning to escape justice over Lash’s murder by joining a faction of vampires out west (largely made up of vampire outlaws), so maybe Murhder is with them and is based near the coast? Maybe there’s a night time surfing culture.

Murhder fell for Xhex, around 25 years ago, without knowing what she was, and when he rescued her from the symphaths trying to experiment on her at the colony, the betrayal of finding out she, too, was a symphath drove him mad.

He went in without backup, which wasn’t unusual for him. I don’t know if this was the last straw for him in the Brotherhood or if his mental state when he came back made him an unsuitable warrior.

Last time Xhex saw him, he had long dark hair, deep-set eyes and scruff on his jaw. He spoke with an Old Country accent, which suggests he’s older than the younger Brothers like Rhage, Phury and Z, unless he left the Old Country later than the others.

He lives in a plantation house turned B&B about 20 miles outside Charleston, South Carolina, run by a Mr Griffin. A crew from TV show Paranormal Investigators bullied their way into his house to investigate the ghostly legend of Eliahu Rathboone, a man who wanted to abolish slavery before the cause took off in the northern states. Until his death, he used to leave his windows lit up to guide those on the run to the safety of his home.

The crew consisted of cameraman Stan, the producer Gregg Winn and presenter Holly Fleet. It was only after Holly went to Gregg for comfort after having sex with the spirit they were investigating, that Gregg was able to see how tired he was of his phony LA life and how wrongly he’d written Holly off as a slutty bimbo.

He confronted the “ghost”, who was very much real and resembled a painting of Eliahu Rathboone. He has red and black hair and peach-coloured eyes.

He promised to leave Holly alone as long as Gregg started treating her right.

I know that his father was also called Murhder, but I’m confused about the timeline and which Murhder came for Darius at the warrior camp and which was the pretrans V saved. The pretrans was the father of his brother Murhder, who I believe is the current Murhder. Hopefully this will become clearer as we learn more about him.

The Coffins

Marissa saw them in Lover Revealed while getting the tour from Fritz. I have no idea of their significance and neither does Ward, and when the question was asked in a chat, Vishous blatantly evaded answering. All we know is that they will mean something at some point because Ward saw them and knew she had to include them in the book.

John wanted to leave the mansion via the back. He went to the garage, turned left to go to the back door and saw 16 coffins, but wasn’t interested in thinking any further on them, so we don’t know how much he knows about them.

No’One

She made a very brief appearance in Lover Unbound as the limping female Cormia wanted to avoid. Her hands were covered, her leg drags behind her, and unlike the other Chosen who wear white, No’One’s robes are black. The only other things I know about this character is that she has her own locked forum on the message board and her little blurb begins with ‘Kyrie Eleison’, which I believe means ‘Lord have mercy’, and she is described as ‘silent’ and ‘forgotten’.

She was once the daughter of Princeps Council leahdyre Sampsone. In 1671 (her age was unknown), she was kidnapped and held for about a week by a symphath who impregnated her before he was killed by Tohr. When she was found, Darius noted that he soul seemed to have already departed. When the symphath died, she told Tohr and Darius they should have killed her instead.

Despite her protests and confession that she had gone into her needing the night she was taken, Darius took her home. Her captor’s father had already arrived to tell her father she had been kidnapped by a symphath, ensuring her ruin to even the scales of his son’s death.

When her father turned her away, she went to live with Darius and Tohr as their family until she gave birth. Once her daughter was born, she swiped Tohr’s dagger and stabbed herself in the stomach. The blood loss during delivery ensured her death.

A suicide does not go to the Fade. As punishment, she must serve the Chosen.

In recent times, Payne asked her why she hadn’t visited the Primale and No’One said it was because simple decisions here can have surprising and devastating consequences. She prefers to live in the order of the Other Side.

When Payne was released to be healed by Doc Jane, No’One was inspired to stop being a coward and she also returns to this side. She reveals herself to her daughter Xhex, who inherited her eyes and says that she prayed for her and would like to have a relationship with her.

By the end of Lover Mine, her real name was not revealed.

Story of Son

This is a short story, published in the Dead After Dark anthology, about a half-breed vampire trapped by his elderly mother and an insane doggen (species of servant to the vampires).

Michael has been imprisoned in the basement since he was twelve years old, and every year his mother, Miss Leeds, lures a suitably biddable young woman to the house for him to feed from over three days.

Claire Stroughton is the lawyer who drafts and redrafts Miss Leeds’s will. Her rich client requests a visit right before the Fourth of July weekend, and when she arrives, Claire is drugged and locked in the basement with Miss Leeds’s son, who doesn’t actually have a name but used to be called ‘Son’. He is shy and reserved, having been treated like a monster for most of his 68 years, but a gentleman.

Instead of meekly accepting the situation, Claire engages her fellow captive and becomes attracted to him—a feeling that he returns. She names him Michael for the archangel’s beauty and tells him that she will find a way to release him.

Michael doesn’t dare to even hope that it could be possible and refuses to risk Claire’s safety, so he obediently erases her memory of her time with him and lets her leave at the end of the three days he is given for feeding.

Claire discovers that she is pregnant and returns to the Leeds estate only to find Miss Leeds is dead. She frees Michael and takes him to her friend and ex, Mick Rhodes, for help. The doggen Fletch fights Michael and is killed.

Claire redrafts Miss Leeds’s, will one last time, leaving everything to Michael.

At the end of the story, they have an eight-year old daughter named Gabriella and a six-year old son named Luke, with another child on the way, tentatively named Michael.

Michael has never met others of his kind, but his story definitely falls into the BDB universe and it’s been suggested that we may see more of him.

More at Book Thingo:

Black Dagger Brotherhood Cheat Sheet (Part 8)

Decadence — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:40:29 +0000

These cheat sheets sum up what we know so far about the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. For all BDB-related posts on Book Thingo, click here. LAST UPDATED: 24/3/2011 (shown in italics)

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 later 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 was the son of Tehrror but was raised by Marklon while his mother lived. Upon her death, Marklon’s hidden animosity towards his stepson surfaced and he threw Darius out of his home and left him at the door of the Bloodletter’s warrior camp with only the clothes on his back.

Although his wealthy appearance made him a target, Darius proved to be such a strong fighter that the Bloodletter could not force him to rape his opponents. While another fighter such as Hharm kept the camp occupied as he meted out the customary punishment to the losers in Darius’ place, Darius snuck away and wrote in his diary using his own blood as ink.

One night the Brothers Ahgony, Throe, Murhder (I think he’s the father of the Murhder we’re getting to know now) and Tohrture came to test him in a one-off opportunity. He was successful and never got the chance to return for his diary.

In 1671, 27 years after his graduation from the warrior camp, Darius was sent on a mission to rescue the daughter of the Princeps Council leahdyre Sampsone. He decided to take Tohrment with him, as this would be Tohr’s first mission and Hharm was neglecting him.

His self-appointed claim on Tohr offended Hharm, but as Hharm knew he wouldn’t be able to beat Darius, he disowned Tohr. Although Tohr didn’t know, Darius resolved to protect him with his own life.

Two evenings later, he and Tohr visited Sampsone and determined that the daughter had escaped with a male.

They question the staff, including the steward, Fritzgelder Perlmutter, who was born 77 years earlier and had served the family since he was five. He went against his boss, the butler, to show them where the trees had been cut down the previous week to provide access to the daughter’s bedroom.

The next night he found Tohr sleeping in the Brotherhood’s cave, having nowhere else to go after being disowned. Their first stop was Sampsone’s house where Darius ordered Tohr a meal in the guise of putting the doggen at ease and talking to Fritz again. He asked Fritz to store Tohr’s things until they returned. Tohr was angry at the implication he couldn’t look after himself. Darius pointed out that while he would be able to take care of himself, right then he needed a partner who was at full strength and alertness.

They investigated the house next door and found it belonged to a symphath. He told the Brothers where to find his son, who had stolen the female to punish him for associating with an inferior being. It would break his heart not only to lose his love, but to lose her to the inferiors looking for her. Darius expected that silence from her and her family would protect her reputation.

He took Tohr back to his small, modest house for the day.

The next night, they found the symphath at his hideaway with the female. The symphath insisted they were mated and used her as a shield. Tohr shot the symphath, but the female told them he should have killed her instead.

Despite her telling him that she was pregnant to the symphath, Darius took the female back home and found that they symphath’s father was already there to ascertain that his son had been killed. He said that losses should be born on both sides equally. His son is dead, and the leahdyre’s daughter is ruined.

The father offers him money not to bring his daughter back and Darius tells him he is just like the symphath who would not mourn his son. He took the female home with him and Tohr and refused to accept the leahdyre’s money.

He delivered a healthy baby girl who didn’t look at all like a symphath, but when he presented the young to her mother, the female had stabbed herself with Tohr’s dagger. As sad as he was over the female’s passing (who he felt was condemned by others more than her own actions), he had to put the infant first and was determined to do whatever it took to make sure her life was better than her birth.

He and Tohr live warrior’s lives, so they would not be able to be there for a young and provide everything she needs, especially a mother, so Darius decides she must be adopted out.

He found a vampire family who lost their young during birth. Although their home was modest, they had the means to employ a doggen. The male was happy to be given the young and Darius protected her by not providing any details of her lineage. Instead of being able to visit regularly, he knew he and Tohr would draw unwanted attention to the young with their visits, so he was forced to leave her, even though he knew he was leaving a piece of his heart with her and would never see her again. He named her Xhexania and watched the female of the house welcome her new young.

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. He was good with the younger orphans, but was always different. Every year, the orphans would get a field trip to a rich man’s lakehouse and no matter how much sunscreen he wore, he always got badly sunburned. Eventually he was confined to the shady porch, but wished that he could join the others, not because they were having fun, but because he wanted to be a part of something.

He briefly lived with a couple sets of foster parents and went to school until he dropped out at 16. When he was old enough to live on his own, he worked as a busboy and moved into a crappy low rent apartment, where a man raped him in the stairwell. 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.

After Xhex was missing for almost four weeks, John gets her name tattooed into his back where her name would have been carved had they mated. To avoid questions from the Brotherhood, he steals V’s ink and gets the work done at a human tattoo parlour. Because everyone is trying to find Xhex, no one but Blay and Qhuinn are aware that he loves her.

When the boys leave the parlour, JM feels as though he’s being watched, but has more important things to do than check it out.

They then visit the Moors for info on the drug trade that would generate leads on Lash’s location (bypassing Rehv so the Brotherhood doesn’t find out how JM feels and expects either a mating or JM’s depression). The Moors provide information on where most of the drug sales are made and agree to gather intel on the supplier in case Lash targets him.

Without knowing who he is, they found Lash’s next recruit, but had to leave to avoid sunrise.

When they got home, JM got drunk but couldn’t sleep. He pulled out Darius’ diary and began to read about his feelings of loneliness and homesickness in the warrior camp. JM felt nauseous (maybe the drink, but maybe a reaction to being so close to his old life), but connected to his father.

Trez sends the boys to the local supplier in time for Lash’s meeting, but instead, Mr. D leaves as though the meeting is cancelled. JM, Qhuinn, Blay, Rhage and V follow the car to Lash’s place.

They find the bedroom where Xhex is being kept, but can’t see her behind Lash’s force field. When he sees the evidence of her abuse, JM believes they hadn’t arrived in time and breaks down in front of her and the others.

She tried to reach out to him and talk to him, but he sensed just enough of her to think it was because she used to be in the room and not that she was still there. He took her pillow with him when Qhuinn convinced him to question the fore-lesser.

Except that didn’t happen. As soon as JM saw the lesser, he went ballistic, with no memory of tearing him apart.

Xhex had escaped just before Blay returned to Lash’s place, but quickly left, thinking he was Lash. The next evening, Rehv told him Xhex had rung to let him know she was OK and he was planning to go see her. Like JM did before the meeting with the supplier was cancelled, she put dibs on killing Lash. Rehvenge offered to take JM with him because he knew JM would go anyway.

She wasn’t there so JM returned to the skate park where the new recruit typically worked, but he wasn’t there. He realised that Xhex would have gone to her basement, he dematerialised there. Before he left the park, he felt someone watching him again, but couldn’t be bothered.

He found her almost dead and fed her before texting Doc Jane, who examined her and had her taken to the mansion where she needed care for some internal injuries.

He stayed with her afterwards and she told him she’d seen him in Lash’s bedroom while she was hidden behind the force field. She claimed that her internal bleeding was the result of breaking out of the force field, which might have been true, or an excuse to avoid telling him about the rapes. She told him she couldn’t stand not killing him for what he did to her, but he can’t let go of his own need to kill Lash, especially for what he did to Xhex.

In return he agreed to show her his past the following night. When Rehv came to see Xhex, JM left to give them privacy. Xhex asked him to come back again soon and he left with a huge smile on his face.

He woke up late the next afternoon with Xhex and on the way to the kitchen, he noticed Tohr asleep at his old desk. Instead of feeling anger, he noticed the effort Tohr was making to get himself back into shape and remembered that the Brother had lost his shellan and baby. Part of the meal he brought back for himself and Xhex was for Tohr.

JM realised that if Xhex had died, he would have reacted the same way Tohr did. Tohr told him he was glad he and Xhex were together and it made cosmic sense. (He’s noted similarities between JM and Darius in the past, so does he realise they’re the same?)

He agreed to show Xhex his life, partly to keep her with him, knowing that one day she was going to take off after Lash.

He showed her the bus station bathroom where he’d been born and the orphanage where he’d grown up. Xhex respected him for his bravery in living surrounded by people he was different from. He’d spent his whole life feeling isolated and different from those who should have been the same as him.

As they walked through the orphanage, Xhex detected a break in his emotional grid as though there was a separate part.

He skipped over the building where he’d been raped and took her to the shithole he’d lived in after that. When he saw his old bodybuilding magazine, he realised that he’d become the huge, muscular warrior he’d always wanted to be.

Xhex could tell that he had left something out, but she’d also detected other holes in his story that even he didn’t seem to have answers for. She also felt that he was connected to his father without seeming to have ever met him.

Finally they ended up at Tohr and Wellsie’s house. JM felt bad about how things are between him and Tohr, so Xhex told him he should start talking to Tohr again.

They started kissing on JM’s old bed until Xhex pulled away in fear and eventually told him that Lash hadn’t been impotent. JM’s rage blew the windows out.

He wore out a treadmill in the training centre and was working on the second when Blay found him and swore to help him, whatever it took.

Xhex found him sitting under the shower, close to madness. She noted that both his emotional grid and the shadow she’d noticed earlier were active, suggesting that he’d been through more than enough for one lifetime and may also be carrying the weight of another one. Or she surmised that he could have caused the split himself by burying his past and keeping it separate from who he is now.

She let her symphath side into JM and saw that he had been raped and Lash had found out about it. She felt connected to him in a way that she knew she never had been or would be with anyone else because they each know what the other has been through, how it felt and how it affects them.

They had spectacular sex that drove out their pasts.

Later they went to a Brotherhood meeting where they listened to a phone message from Lash telling where to find the newest inductees. Xhex volunteered under everyone else’s protests to scout ahead because the Brothers could be heading into an ambush.

John sits with Tohr quietly watching a movie, much like they had done on John’s first night with him and Wellsie.

When Xhex returns he is resolved that he is finished with her as soon as they kill Lash. She doesn’t have room for him, so he’s going to move on.

JM, Xhex and the Brothers go to the farmhouse to kill the new recruits. In the fight, one tries to fire at JM, but Xhex throws a knife at him and the shot hit him in the leg instead. When JM sees her go all symphath on the guy, he understands why symphaths are feared, but also realises that she has never done anything like that to him.

Doc Jane removes the bullet, and when he regains consciousness, the first thing JM does is ask Xhex if she’s OK after having watched the operation. Without even thinking about it, he turned his back on her and she saw his ink.

Z told JM what they have in common and suggests that Xhex talk to Mary because it helped him.

JM realises that the person who was following him silently was Tohr. Tohr believes JM is able to look after himself but still wants to make sure he’s safe. They apologised for how they’d treated each other and JM asked him to be there when he kills Lash. Their relationship was fully repaired.

The next night Xhex tracks Lash downtown and JM lures him back from his deal with Benloise by smashing his windscreen and setting off his car alarm. When gunfire forces everyone else to take cover,JM runs straight at Lash and is hit by an energy ball, which doesn’t kill him, but seems to unit the two parts of him that Xhex sees.

He flashes back to seeing No’One shielding her symphath captor just is Xhex is being used to shield Lash and the perfect shot Tohr took back then, certain he had done this before. He went into a seizure, but the bonded part of him overrode it and he kept standing. Tohr shot Lash again while Xhex escaped and JM pulled his dagger. Instead of stabbing him in the chest, JM hit him in the head with the hilt and held him open so Xhex could kill him.

Xhex told him that she would like to be his shellan and their mating was planned for the following night.

He held his father’s diary and knew for an absolute certainty that Darius would have approved of his mating. Tohr told him the same thing. He put on his father’s signet ring and knew he would never take it off.

Tohr told him that Darius was there when Xhex was born and JM went into a seizure.

Tohr said that he wished Darius could be there and JM said that he was.

After the ceremony, he gave Xhex a giant diamond necklace so her hands would be free for fighting.

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 are unaware of his preferences and even though Blay knows they won’t judge him, he doesn’t want to disappoint his mother by telling her there won’t be any grandkids. 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.

While John was getting his Xhex tattoo, Qhuinn screwed the receptionist in the back room, separated by a thin curtain that let Blay see everything until he went outside for an extended smoke break. Their eyes had met so briefly that Blay was sure Qhuinn had only meant to check on JM, but Qhuinn

While Qhuinn was feeling left out of JM’s conversation with the Moors, his cousin Saxton arrives on legal business and is more interested in becoming reacquainted with Blay than catching up with Qhuinn.

Blay is more modest than Qhuinn and is more used to watching than being watched, so Saxton’s attention initially discomfits and confuses him.

The next evening Qhuinn confronts Blay, realising that something is wrong between them. Blay asked Qhuinn what the receptionist’s name was, but Qhuinn didn’t remember or care what her name was. Because Blay couldn’t tell Qhuinn that he’d been deeply hurt by something that meant nothing to Qhuinn, he lit up and told Qhuinn to deal with his smoking.

Qhuinn encouraged Blay to feed because they’ve been through a lot, but he’s not all that enthusiastic because he knows Layla is attracted to Qhuinn and stands a better chance of having sex with him than Blay does.

After she fed them, she confided in them about her growing emptiness over not being wanted sexually. Qhuinn was about to tell her why they all feed from her specifically, but was interrupted. She told Qhuinn she wanted him and Blay left the room. He was reaching the point where he couldn’t take any more either and called Saxton.

Qhuinn saw him getting ready for his date and told him Saxton was a slut. Blay told Qhuinn to just say the word and he would cancel on Saxton to be with Qhuinn. Qhuinn kissed him passionately but too damn briefly before letting him go. He told Blay to go on his date, but not to fall for Saxton because he would break Blay’s heart.

Blay enjoyed being on a date (his first) but Qhuinn was always in the back of his mind. Saxton kept him on the back foot with his compliments and by acting on his interest. They had a meal in a private room at Sal’s and went to a cigar club, but left early after being harassed by a table of homophobes.

The date ended in the alley where Saxton asked Blay if he’d ever kissed a male. He shook his head to clear out the image of Qhuinn’s kiss and Saxton kissed him.

Qhuinn had left JM and Xhex at Tohr’s place and materialised downtown outside the cigar club and watched Blay and Saxton’s date, misinterpreting Blay’s shake of the head as denial that Qhuinn had kissed him. He got drunk in his room and called Layla because she’s a professional, so she knows what to expect and she wants to have sex with him.

Blay returned to the mansion and Layla accidentally appeared in his room. After sending her to Qhuinn, he escaped to the training room, where JM was wearing out treadmills in his desire to destroy Lash. After learning the truth about what Lash did to Xhex, he swore to help with whatever JM needed.

Remembering that Qhuinn was with Layla, Blay called Saxton. He sounded strange, so he materialised to his place right before sunrise. He had been beaten by those homophobes after kissing Blay in the alley, so Blay spent the day with him.

Qhuinn taught Layla how to kiss, but left her a virgin. He initially thought she was only interested in mechanical knowledge of sex, but realised that she wanted more from him and he wasn’t prepared to offer her that. On paper, she is the perfect female for him: high-ranking and willing to accept him despite his flaws, but he realised she isn’t what he really wants. He sees her as the embodiment of everything he’s ever wanted to achieve, but instead of crossing the finish line and mating with her, he pictures Blay instead.

He thought of the receptionist whose name he can’t remember. If she would have sex with a stranger in semi-public with little to no privacy, she’s not someone he’s willing to have a relationship with. He doesn’t see this as a double standard because he sees himself as being just as filthy as she is from all the sex he’s had that led to him being able to pleasure Layla.

Blay brought Saxton to the mansion so he could feed from Selena and heal from the beating. Qhuinn resented his cousin and reacted pettily, demanding to know if Blay had been with him. Blay told him it was none of his business without blushing, so Qhuinn knows nothing happened. But the voice in his head told him he wouldn’t leave Blay alone for a long time, if ever.

After Selena fed Saxton, Blay went to check on him and they had sex. Qhuinn couldn’t sleep and went looking for Blay, but his room was empty. He went to Saxton’s door, but instead of knocking, he listened and heard them doing more than sleeping, which broke his heart.

The next night he saw Blay but after making sure that Saxton had treated him well, Qhuinn couldn’t think of the words to say that would take them back to how they used to be, so he just told Blay to take care of himself, which is what he says to all his one-nighters when he’s finished with them. He thought about the difference between all the anonymous, quick sex he’s had and Blay’s intimate sex.

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, blond hair cut short in the back and longer in front and a Great Gatsby-type style. Any questions about his sexuality were answered when he checked out Vishous at the Council meeting.

He accidentally meets his cousin Qhuinn at Sal’s where he has business with the Moors and notices how much Blaylock has grown and how attractive he’s become. Before Blay leaves, Saxton slips him his number, hoping he might be gay.

They go on a date to Sal’s and then a cigar club, so it’s likely that Saxton made the arrangements. He is the older and more experienced of the two and seems to enjoy keeping Blay off balance and getting involuntary responses from him. Blay appeals to him with his scholarly face and well-muscled body and classic sense of style.

After kissing Blay in the alley next to the club, Saxton is beaten up by the same group of homophobes who’d harassed them on their date. Blay spends the day with him, but Saxton is not at his best.

Although Blaylock insists that there is nothing between him and Quinn, Saxton believes otherwise and even though he wants Blay, he also doesn’t want to push him into a bad situation with Qhuinn.

Since Wrath believes he owes Saxton, he let him into the mansion to feed from Selena. When Blay came to check on him afterwards, they had sex.

Qhuinn believes Saxton’s family accepts his homosexuality.

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.

More at Book Thingo:

Black Dagger Brotherhood Cheat Sheet (Part 7)

Decadence — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:07:44 +0000

The cheat sheets sum up what we know so far about the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. For all BDB-related posts on Book Thingo, click here. LAST UPDATED: 24/3/2011 (shown in italics)

Rehvenge, son of Rempoon, aka The Reverend

A lot of Rehvenge’s life is secret. Only a few people know that he is half symphath and that he is Bella’s half-brother—most believe that they share a father.

(Interestingly enough, in the mandatory sehclusion motion that Marissa quashed, Bella was identified as ‘blooded daughter of the Princeps Rempoon’, while the excerpt of Lover Avenged in the Insider’s Guide identifies Rehvenge as ‘son of Dragor’ in his medical file, but Ward insists that not even Bella knows they have different fathers. He was later identified in Lover Avenged as ‘son of Rempoon’, who was mated to Rehv and Bella’s mother Madalina.) He killed Bella’s father to save Bella and their mother from abuse. Even though he felt ashamed of himself for having taken so long to man up, he took over as the head of the household and Bella felt the weight of his overprotective nature. After her transition, she moved out into a farmhouse and it was while she was living there that she was abducted by Mr. O.

After Bella’s rescue, Rehvenge insisted that Wrath return her to his care and anoint her as a sehcluded female so that he could deny every male who wanted to be near her. While she was with the Brotherhood, she negotiated with him to relax his rules concerning her life and by the time Marissa vetoed the mandatory sehclusion motion, he was strongly opposed to sehclusion. He just wants what’s best for his family, but doesn’t always go the right way about it.

Although as a symphath he can be without morals, he also has his vampire side and his mother’s influence. He tries to follow the ‘good’ side but at the end of the day he can either internalise the morals he’s learnt or discard them in favour of his true nature.

He went through the transition like all vampires do and discovered his barb then. His maternal uncle brought him a female to feed from and when he had sex for the first time, he thought he and the female would be mated to each other. After she had a good time with him, she left, promising not to charge his family for the sex. He was disillusioned, having learned she was paid to see him through the change.

He has 2 red stars on his pec muscles and some as yet undescribed black designs on his stomach.

After her separation from Wrath, Rehv fed Marissa. He disagreed with the glymera’s opinion that she was defective and wanted to mate with her. But it was only because of her inexperience that he could feed her because his symphath blood tastes noticeably different to other vampires. Also, she needed to feed from him more frequently.

Rehvenge owned and operated ZeroSum, a club that provided some very special services for its VIPs, such as gambling, prostitution and high quality illegal drugs. He looked after his girls and didn’t stand for them being abused. He looked after his patrons by ensuring that they only got top notch drugs instead of cheaper stuff that would kill them. But then dead customers don’t spend much money. The vampire side of him knew that it was a dirty living, but he did it to support his mother and, until recently, Bella, as well as cover the monthly cost of cut rubies for his blackmailer. At the club he called himself the Reverend but also used the human alias Richard Reynolds.

He keeps a penthouse at the Commodore that his family doesn’t know about, as well as separate safe houses for his mother and Bella and the great camp in the Adirondacks currently inhabited by Phury and the Chosen. Coincidentally, his penthouse takes up the other half of the floor as V’s penthouse, but since they dematerialise there, they don’t know they’re neighbours. He also bought another block in town that he wanted to turn into a goth club called the Iron Mask.

Rehvenge started keeping his symphath nature under control using dopamine soon after he killed Rempoon, but this had some unpleasant side effects. He was cold all the time and couldn’t feel his body, so he often had to rely on a swordstick cane for balance and try to pass it off as a vain affectation. As long as he was was well-dosed, he was impotent, but he regained function when his dopamine levels fell. Unfortunately, his condition was spiralling out of his control. He needed higher and higher doses of the drug and his veins seemed to be collapsing.

He was being blackmailed into having sex with the symphath princess on the first Tuesday of each month ever since she found out about Xhex’s unspecified ‘little problem’ 25 years ago. The princess also kept Rehvenge’s continued existence a secret from his uncle, who believed him to be dead. He hated the sex and being forced to service her and tell her pretty lies, but he loved the power it gave him over her. Foreplay consisted of a power struggle between them—her orders versus his charm and seduction. He also liked getting to come inside her because the barb at the base of his penis would emerge and lock him inside her, which he knew hurt her. Then she would bind the area with silk to keep his seed inside her.

She wore scorpion venom as an aphrodisiac, but Rehv was slowly becoming allergic to it and after the last occasion, Lassiter saved him from pending anaphylactic shock (in which the body’s systems shut down and the victim dies—not exactly the most fun way to go). I don’t know if the substance itself turned the princess on or if she enjoyed the fact that he hated it or some sick combination of the above.

The last time he met the princess, she was two days late because she was needed in the colony. Rehvenge’s uncle (described as a ‘power-hungry, possessive despot’) was crowned king and she wanted Rehv to kill him. And guess what? He was her uncle, too, and her mate. Ick. It got even better—Rehv and the princess had the same uncle because they were half-siblings.

By the end of Lover Enshrined, Rehvenge agreed to become the Princeps Council leahdyre, so this, added to his symphath royal status, further accentuated the theme of him having one foot in two camps.

It was while he needed more dopamine from Havers that Rehvenge gave his number to his favourite nurse and the only one who didn’t seem repulsed by him, Ehlena, blooded daughter of Alyne, who once served on the council and was a renowned academic. Ehlena (pronounced EhLAYna) was once a member of the glymera until her family was double crossed in business, leaving them without money or position. Ehlena’s intended hellren then dumped and ruined her, claiming that she had seduced him before their mating while he had only the most honourable intentions. Her mother killed herself and her father descended into schizophrenia.

Ehlena worked for Havers to keep a roof over their heads and pay a carer to look after Alyne while she worked. Rehvenge recognised the same loneliness in her that he perceived in himself, Xhex and the Moors, which was why he initially felt a bond with her. They both walked in the world while being intrinsically separate from others.

She noted signs of infection where Rehv must have medicated himself with old needles and not sterilised the area first. He refused to tell Havers or let her help because he was deliberately cultivating the infection as a form of suicide. She called him after hours about his arm and their relationship began over the phone. She stole penicillin for his arm and visited him at the penthouse where his vampire bonding instincts managed to overcome even the dopamine, and he got an erection despite being medicated.

Rehvenge was approached by Montrag, son of Rehm and a member of the glymera, to kill Wrath. Morag argued that Wrath had done nothing to protect the glymera after the raids or find out how they were found and what happened to the loot. As a symphath, he resolved to do what he felt was in his own best interests, unaware that Rehm had visited his business partner Rempoon, while he was dying, and encouraged him to swear an oath that Madalina was abducted by the symphaths, escaped after she fell pregnant, and later married Rempoon. He also stated that his stepson Rehvenge was his killer. After Rehm’s death, Montrag had possession of the statement and could plausibly deny all legal knowledge of Rehvenge’s symphath status until it suited him to reveal it.

Once Montrag had sealed up a copy of the statement in an envelope to be delivered to Rhode Island for verification and returned the second copy to his safe, Xhex killed him on Rehv’s order without ever knowing of the statement’s existence.

Rehv then told Wrath about the conspiracy, having decided it was better to be in Wrath’s favour than Montrag’s, not to mention Wrath’s death would affect Bella.

Havers confronted Ehlena for stealing the penicillin and she quit rather than get the sack. At least Rehv was taking the penicillin, which in all likelihood he would not have been if it had come from someone other than Ehlena.

Madalina asked Rehvenge to visit her and he found her ironing her father’s (the Primale before Phury) handkerchiefs. She left the Other Side because she was in love with a Brother but was kidnapped and raped by the symphath king. Although the Brother Madalina loved also loved her, he died before she was able to escape. The Primale wanted to see her before he died, but she felt too contaminated to see him.

The Directrix told her that the Primale refused to go into the Fade until he had seen her. She felt estranged from him and he said, ‘The heavy soul does not pass, though the body is failing.’ He felt that what happened to Madalina was his fault for not protecting her. He was only able to pass after she told him that she loved her son and would be mated to a member of the glymera.

Madalina found herself in a similar situation now that it was her time. She told Rehv that she knew he had killed Rempoon and his own birth father and made him promise not to tell Bella or Nalla so that they would never be burdened by the past they cannot control.

Bella walked in on Rehvenge injecting himself with dopamine and he told her he was diabetic, which neatly explained his cane and fur coats. (We didn’t actually see it but Z explained to Bella what Rehvenge really is before rescuing him from the colony.)

Lash’s scheme to kill the local dealers and set himself up as their replacement threatened Rehv’s position as the town’s biggest dealer as his reputation depended on the perception of stability. He needed to stay in the business as long as he had to provide rubies for the princess, but Lash needed to eliminate the street-level competition in non-organic drugs by taking out the local wholesaler, who just happened to be Rehv.

At the glymera council meeting, a lawyer presented an envelope from Montrag before his ‘assassination’, as the glymera saw it, containing Rempoon’s statement about Rehvenge. Before anyone could search Montrag’s house for any other copies of the statement, the princess visited Ehlena to tell her who Rehv really was, not that Ehlena believed her. The princess then emailed the Brotherhood with Rehvenge’s secret and demanded his delivery to the colony or she would email the glymera telling them about Rehv and that the king had done nothing about it.

Xhex walked in after Rehvenge got the news from V, and he made her vow to take care of a female for him, not bothering to correct her assumption that he meant for her to kill the princess. To ensure that Ehlena hated him too much to mourn him, he had Trez bring her to the club where she saw the prostitution and the drugs and realised that he must be a symphath. Rehv signed away his property, called Bella one last time and sang a lullaby to Nalla that Madalina used to sing for them, left the club and blew it up before dematerialising to the colony.

He found Lash with the princess, whom he used as a shield when Lash took aim at him. He then realised that Lash was behind the glymera massacre and the drug war. The symphath king arrived and took Rehvenge prisoner.

He was hung from the ceiling from a bar going through his body under his shoulders. In the light he could see venomous spiders and scorpions. After the king came to gloat and tell him he will only live as long as the princess does, to add to her punishment, the light went and the creatures covered every inch of Rehvenge’s body. He didn’t scream so they couldn’t go in his mouth.

Saxton arrived on Ehlena’s doorstep, telling her that she and her father were Montrag’s heirs, and on his death they inherited his entire estate, meaning that Ehlena never has to work again.

Rehvenge’s faked death created a vacuum in the drug community, which was quickly filled by Lash and the Lessening Society.

A month later, Ehlena had moved into Montrag’s house, to everyone’s benefit, from her father to the doggen. Alyne was in a relationship with his carer and was thriving in his new environment, but Ehlena felt unsettled, as though her newfound luxury could disappear, and was having second thoughts about her failed relationship with Rehvenge.

She had Montrag’s safe opened and found Rempoon’s affidavit dated the last night Madalina had been taken to the clinic. She realised that it couldn’t have been a coincidence that Rempoon died the only night Bella instead of Rehvenge took Madalina to Havers. Then she also realised that it probably wasn’t a coincidence that Montrag, who knew for some time that Rehvenge was a symphath, died only days before Rehvenge.

She called Xhex with her suspicions and they visited Wrath, who agreed to send the Brothers with them to rescue Rehvenge. If Xhex took out the princess (unaware she currently belonged to Lash), she couldn’t reveal Rehv’s secret and the king won’t act against Wrath. Rehvenge was his subject, too. Any copies of Rempoon’s affidavit Montrag had would now be in Ehlena’s possession.

Their rescue attempt was delayed by the arrival of the princess and the rest of the symphaths, who were looking for their leader after the princess killed the king. The symphaths had chosen Rehvenge to rule them as they hoped having a vampire half-breed in charge will keep the vampires out of their colony. The princess broke his control over them and tried to attack Ehlena.

Rehvenge summoned more strength than he would have had for anyone else and drove straight into the princess’s mind, his vision going beyond red to purple. He unleashed her lust for him and power over the colony, then drove her mad by offering it all to Ehlena. The princess stabbed herself repeatedly and Rehvenge called the spiders and scorpions to cover her and bite.

When Rehvenge made it to the Brotherhood’s mansion, he and Bella talked. She demanded to know the truth about her parents’ relationship and how Rempoon really died. He apologised to her for being born because everything that happened happened because of him. She told him that he was innocent because it’s not his fault he was born and that Madalina loved him. It was what he’d needed for years to hear.

Although it’s the last thing Rehvenge wanted to do, Wrath asked him to remain symphath king to curb any instability and Ehlena agreed. Rehv had no idea how to rule or any desire to do so, but Wrath just said that destiny sometimes has things in mind for people. He felt a kinship with Wrath and decided he was the king Rehv would like to be. He would also take Ehlena’s counsel, and even though she would never be anywhere near the colony, Ehlena will stand by him.

They’ve moved into the mansion on a permanent basis.

Xhex

Xhex (pronounced Hex with a hard ‘H’) is the half symphath, half vampire head of security at Rehvenge’s club ZeroSum, who doesn’t take any crap. She likes busting heads and has previously found job satisfaction in being an assassin.

She had a pact with Rehv to stay unattached because they need each other. He fed from her but I’m not 100% sure that he fed her in return. Since the best partner for a symphath is another symphath and they are both half-breeds (although Rehvenge comes from royalty, while Xhex’s father was a servant), Xhex has had sex with Rehvenge, but neither of them liked it. She knew what Rehv did with the princess as a result of the ‘little problem’ she had 25 years ago and wonders how he doesn’t hate her for putting him in that position. She was also disturbed that Rehv seemed to have accepted his fate and wasn’t trying to find ways to negate the princess’s hold on them.

Back to the ‘little problem’. In Lover Avenged, we learnt that Xhex was involved with Murhder over two decades ago even though she thought it was a bad idea. She returned to the symphath colony because of her family, but they wouldn’t let her leave. He went mad after following her to the symphath colony believing that she needed to be rescued, only to find that she was not just a vampire. Rehv made his deal with the princess for Xhex and Murhder’s release but her family had already sold her to humans for experiments. Most of them treated her well enough, but there was a sadist in the group. They fed her human blood, but it wasn’t enough to keep her strong and eventually someone let her go. I have no idea whether or not she destroyed the footage they took of her during the experiments. After awhile she returned to burn the place down and killed the sadist.

Xhex doesn’t often have sex, and when she does, it’s because she sees something worthy in the male. As a favour to Rehv (that she wanted to do anyway), she approached Butch O’Neal and had sex with him before his transition. She had no idea about Marissa and was saddened to learn Butch was off the market.

She’s had her eye on John Matthew for a while and told herself it’s because he’s the king’s ward, so the club would be in deep shit if anything happened to him. She noticed that although his friends picked up chicks, JM never did.

One night she threw out a drunk for harassing a waitress and when she noticed John watching her, she took a peek into his mind and saw him naked on a bed, stroking himself while thinking of her. Even though she saw whim as a kid, she was reluctantly attracted to him and told him to say her name when he came.

A few days later she found him drunk in a bathroom and a lot more confident. He hit on her and she realised that he was ‘one fuck of a big male’. Before she left on some club emergency, he handed her a note written on the paper towel to be read later.

At the end of the night she rode her Ducati to her cabin on the Hudson River (she also owns a basement apartment in town), where she released the cilices (metal bands with spikes pointing inwards) she wore around her thighs to control her symphath side. Under the rush of the endorphins, Xhex pulled out JM’s note, in which he returns her cheeky comment to him and tells her to say his name when she comes. And as much as she resented the hell out of this young male who obviously had issues, but was also really confident at times, that’s exactly what she did.

After killing Montrag on Rehvenge’s order and fucking with his head just because, her cilices weren’t working as well as they normally would. She sent an image of her and JM having sex into his head but decided that wasn’t the outlet she needed. While she was readjusting her cilices, JM barged into her office and only got the picture when he saw her red eyes.

He returned to the club alone and told her that he wasn’t planning to tell anyone she’s a symphath. She probed his mind and found that he meant it, which she thought made him one in a million. She also noticed that he was upset about Tohr but didn’t want to talk about it, so she gave him the key to her place, so he can have some space without anyone getting in his way, and told Qhuinn that she hadn’t seen him all night. When Qhuinn warned her not to hurt JM, he earned her respect for having the balls to stand up to her, as not many men do.

She had sex with John Matthew, after which she drove home the point that she just wanted sex, harder than she needed to, IMHO. She felt that she already cared about JM more than she should, given how tragically her relationship with Murhder turned out and Murhder was someone she casually enjoyed. JM looked at her with awe, admiration, shyness, compassion and vulnerability. The responsibility of being with someone who wore such an expression for her and the realisation that she was capable of returning his feelings became too much, so she killed his warmth and came to regret it soon afterwards.

She was saddened and upset to see JM banging a ZeroSum prostitute with Qhuinn with an empty look in his eyes, knowing that her inadvertent theft of his innocence was a big part of putting it there.

A ZeroSum prostitute was reported dead and Xhex immediately looked for the abusive drug-dealing boyfriend, unaware that he had made a new friend in Lash after Lash was arrested for statutory rape. She eventually found and killed him painfully and bloodily. Lash kidnapped her after his failed ‘relationship’ with the symphath princess and decided to extract payment for the trouble Xhex had caused him by killing the man who would give him an in with the drug community.

After Rehvenge was told about the princess’s revelation to the Brotherhood that he was a symphath and her threat to tell the glymera as well, Xhex gladly vowed to take care of a female for him, believing he intended to ask her to kill the princess. It was really a promise to look after herself.

She works security at the Iron Mask, which, due to its goth clientele and lack of drugs, is less hectic that ZeroSum, leaving her with a lot of time to think about the ways in which she screwed up. At the end of one night, she saw Qhuinn and a girl exiting a bathroom with JM. He had no emotional grid anymore, stank of alcohol and washed the hands that touched the girl with hot water. She asked him how long he thought he can keep going on this destructive path. His only reply was a very deliberate one-finger salute.

Ehlena called her to ask if Rehvenge was still alive. They met and Xhex began to respect her for standing her ground against her and bearing up under the revelation of Rehvenge’s life story and his sacrifice. She couldn’t go to the colony for Rehvenge’s sake, but Ehlena pointed out the loophole that Xhex could go to keep Ehlena safe when she went. They went to the Brotherhood for reinforcements.

The day before they left for the colony, a drunk JM visited Xhex. Without a word, they had cold, clinical sex, immediately after which JM got dressed and left. Xhex cried alone for hours.

When the princess interrupted their attempts to free Rehvenge, Xhex emptied her gun into the bitch. In return, Lash kidnapped her while everyone else’s attention was on the symphaths marching into Rehv’s cell.

She is kept in a bedroom at the front of a house in a nice neighbourhood, hidden behind a force field maintained by Lash 24/7. Not even the fore-lesser who brings her food is aware of her existence. Lash rapes her frequently and she fights back but he only enjoys it more when she does. First he wanted to punish her for killing the symphath princess, but became attracted to her and wants her to carry his young.

She doesn’t know how far into her head Lash can get, she avoids thinking of John Matthew, especially when Lash is around. Although she is sure that JM wouldn’t go beyond his duty to find her after the way she’d treated him, she doesn’t want her feelings to be used against her.

Her biggest regrets are that she didn’t tell Murhder she was half symphath, so he wouldn’t have tried to rescue her from the colony and that she hadn’t told JM the problem was her, not him.

JM, Blay, Qhuinn, Rhage and V break into Lash’s house and find the room where Xhex was being kept. Believing they had missed her, JM broke down and the sight shattered Xhex’s heart. She tried to talk to him and wipe his tears away, but he walked through her as he left with her pillow.

When Lash drove past to check on her, she noticed that he was weaker than usual and found that the walls of her prison weren’t as strong either. Using all her strength, she threw herself against the invisible barrier and broke through.

When she heard someone (who ended up being Blay) in the kitchen, she thought Lash had returned and dematerialised to her basement place where she passed out.

She later called Rehv, not John, to let everyone know she had escaped but wanted space.

John found her at the basement she’d loaned to him six weeks earlier. JM offered to feed her and she took his vein, but only because she didn’t want to die until she’d killed Lash. She respected JM’s strength because even though his heart was broken, he wasn’t.

Doc Jane examined her, despite her fear of medical situations and found blood on the insides of her thighs, but determined Xhex was not pregnant.

Xhex was taken back to the Brotherhood’s exam room where she fell apart in fear, but John kept her anchored to the here and now. Doc Jane repaired some internal injuries.

JM returned in case she needed to feed again and while she asked questions that would help her find Lash, she realised she felt safe with him and never wanted him to leave.

She allowed herself a night off from her mission to kill Lash and let JM take her to the places he had spent his earlier life and comes to respect his strength in having survived. Like him, she’d grown up knowing she was different to everyone else, but he’d had it so much worse. While she felt strongly connected to him, she knew that their connection would break when her past mentally caught up with her and she left to kill Lash. So while they were together, she decided to give something of herself, not in return for what he’d given her, but because she wants to give. She tried to be with him in the bedroom he slept in at Tohr and Wellsie’s house, but her memories of Lash overpowered her. She told JM that Lash hadn’t been impotent and his rage made the windows explode.

Later on, her symphath side saw that JM had also been raped and that Lash had found out about it. She felt connected to him in a way that she knew she never had been or would be with anyone else because they each know what the other has been through, how it felt and how it affects them.

They had spectacular sex that drove out their pasts.

They were called to a meeting with the Brotherhood where they heard a phone message from Lash telling them where to find the Omega’s new bunch of inductees. She argues that she should go ahead during the day to see if it’s safe for the Brothers to go at night. She knows that if she doesn’t get there first, someone else will kill Lash.

When she arrives, the place is surrounded by cops, courtesy of the mailman.

Trez and iAm show up and refuse to leave, even to follow the new fore-lesser, so she calls it in and settles in to wait out the day when Jose de la Cruz shows up to investigate.

She and the Shadows searched inside the place and though there were blurry bits where she noted emotional grids, the bodies weren’t visible.

On her return, she found JM who wasn’t happy to see her after being shut in all day while she left him without a backward glance. She was upset at his distance, but convinced herself he was right – they should be partners only until they kill Lash.

After successfully ambushing the new inductees (highlights include Xhex going all symphath on the lesser she’d thrown a knife at before he could shoot JM, but the bullet hit his leg instead of his chest), she sees V heal Butch and realises his true feelings. She silently reassures him that they were only together once and it was over.

They return to the mansion where Doc Jane removes the bullet. To help Xhex overcome her phobia, Jane suggests she stay and watch, which she does with some effort. As soon as he comes around, he asks if she’s OK, which melts her. When he leaves to get her cilices, she sees his tattoo for the first time and is selfish enough to be happy about it even though she still intends for them to part ways when Lash is dead.

She, JM, Tohr and Qhuinn are hunting Lash when she feels he is close because he carries her blood. She races after him, leaving the others to follow and finds his car. JM smashed the windscreen and Lash comes running. She disappears symphath-style with the intent to snek up on him, disarm and disable him before taking her time with his death. Human bodyguards shoot Lash, forcing everyone to take cover, but her bonded male JM is unstoppable. Lash gears up to throw an energy ball at him, so Xhex abandons her plan and throws herself at Lash to save JM. Lash uses her as a shield.

Tohr fires a miracle shot into Lash’s head, giving Xhex the chance to get away. She doesn’t get far before Lash stabs her, but when JM gives her his dagger to finish off Lash, she’s determined to finish him off. She stabs him through the chest, sending him back to the Omega.

She regains consciousness in the mansion as she’s being wheeled to another room to make way for a new patient with a long, dark braid. She calls the female “pain”.

.Xhex comes to realise JM’s worth and that in giving her closure with Lash, he’d put her needs above his own again. She told him she loved him and wanted to be his shellan.

Unlike Rehv, who gets to exercise his symphath side regularly at the colony, Xhex still wears her cilices.

Wrath asked her to fight lessers along side the Brothers.

To settle her nerves before her mating ceremony, Xhex went channel-surfing and saw an ad for Paranormal Investigators with a painting that looked like Murhder. Although she was curious, she had no intention of following up because he’d told her he never wanted to see her again.

Tohr brings her Wellsie’s mating dress for her to wear for her mating to JM. She has no idea why and can’t get the answer from Tohr’s mind. A female in black robes like the Scribe Virgin’s enters the room and says it was because Tohr was there at Xhex’s birth.

Xhex notes that the female’s emotional grid matches hers, so the female must be her mother. She doesn’t blame her for killing herself and agrees to begin a relationship with her.

After the mating ceremony, JM gives her a huge diamond necklace so her hands would be free for fighting. She tells him she wants some ink, too.

Symphath Culture

The origins of the symphath (ignore the extra ‘H’, it’s pronounced sympath—they’re also called sin-eaters, but it’s a derogatory term) haven’t been revealed yet, but it has been suggested that they were bred to be weapons because they have a huge advantage in a fight, namely their ability to enter people’s minds. Rehvenge disabled a lesser by going through its ugly memories of cruelty and bringing them to its conscious mind—Ward’s simile was opening bottles one after the other and letting the contents fizz over the top, scrambling the brain. Lash confirmed that the symphaths were once related to vampires but is unsure if they still need to feed like vampires.

Symphaths have fangs, even though Ward has never actually seen them feed, and although they have a compulsion to fuck with people’s heads, they don’t feed from the emotion. On the other hand, Lash noticed that the symphath princess didn’t have fangs, which led him to believe they may not feed very often, if at all. They have no sense of morality and are highly dangerous. For this reason, symphaths live in colonies separate from vampires and humans. If you know about a symphath, legally you must report them or face prosecution.

While vampire blood is red, symphath blood is blue, and half-breed blood is purple. They cry blood tears.

I’m unsure how true this really is (can you believe a symphath?), but while posing as the king, the symphath princess told Lash that the symphaths chose to be exiled from the vampires because they have evolved so far beyond them that the difference between symphaths and vampires could be compared to that between humans and chimps. As they chose and engineered the separation, they have no interest in acting out against the vampires, but are willing to help the lessers in return for the assassination of an unfaithful royal mate.

Symphaths had a tendency to take vampire females from the vampire population, which was a factor in them being sent to the colony.

There is a symphath colony near the Canadian border in the middle of some cornfields. The door can be found open but the only type of apparent security in place is a sign reading TAOIST MONASTICAL ORDER, EST. 1982 and a sense that something is not quite right, which is obviously meant to keep the humans away. The security keeping the inmates inside is the strength of the ruler.

There are only two symphath classes: The royalty and aristocracy, then the working class, who perform any manual labour required and breed to keep the race populated. The king acts as the hub for the symphaths and the kingdom seems to be passed on by a mix of bloodline and democratic choice. The more ruthless the leader, the more suited they are to rule in the general population’s opinion.

Rehvenge’s uncle was the symphath king and while he had Rehvenge imprisoned, he was able to prevent Rehvenge from reaching out to any of the symphaths in the colony, showing that a symphath’s greatest strength is his mind rather than his body.

Symphaths follow group behaviour so individuals are unlikely to go out on a limb to cause trouble. When Rehv and Xhex were reunited at the Brotherhood’s mansion, their symphath sides held onto each other.

Physically they’re not that much to look at as they have a certain reptilian appearance with forked tongues and their hands have an extra knuckle in each finger. Both the males and females have long hair piled up on their heads and both sexes appear largely androgynous. Although Rehvenge has a barb at the base of his penis, we don’t know for sure that full symphath males do. I assume they do because Rehv is also half vampire and we haven’t read about barbs on vampires. The barb emerges at the point of male orgasm to ensure he gets to stay inside for the duration. Based on Ehlena’s experience, the barb doesn’t have to hurt. I’ll just take her word on that. *legs staying firmly crossed*

I think that, like vampires, symphaths are also plagued with low fertility as Rehv has had unprotected sex with the princess every month for 25 years. But then even if she had the heir she clearly wants, she might still demand the sex because she enjoys it more than the clinical game of strategy ending in ejaculation that makes up a typical symphath mating. Xhex says that there are very few symphaths left (I don’t know what happened to them) so inbreeding happens a lot.

If a symphath falls pregnant, her inner walls are no longer smooth.

Also like vampires, symphaths can dematerialise. I don’t know how it works, but Ward has said that both Rehvenge and Xhex are ‘of no age’.

They see in 2D and in shades of red and have the ability to sense humans and vampires by their emotional grid, even with walls blocking conventional sight. Wrath once said that there’s no such thing as a half-breed symphath, because if you have symphath blood in you, then you have the symphath abilities and that makes you a symphath. It dominates the rest of you.

Murders are tattooed on the killer’s chest. Stars mean patricide and circles are for matricide. Red ink is used on the royal family. So Rehvenge’s red stars mean that he is a royal who has committed two counts of patricide (his symphath father and his vampire stepfather). The preferred murder method is getting into your victim’s mind and forcing them to commit suicide.

The symphath princess posed as the king in order to get Lash to kill her mate, the real king. She demanded rubies from Rehvenge in order to barter with humans, to the king’s contempt. He believes that fear provides more power than money.

Symphaths are motivated by self-interest and enforcing their wills onto others. Although the king likes Rehvenge, he preferred to keep him imprisoned as long as the princess lives before Rehvenge, too, would die, simply as another punishment for the princess who wants what she can’t have, especially the closer she seems to be to obtaining it.

For her act of treason, the king sacrificed the princess to Lash, but she escaped a month later and killed the king before trying to rescue Rehvenge. Xhex and Lash disabled her, leaving Rehvenge next in line for the throne, despite his injuries. Because Rehv is also a vampire, the symphaths chose him as their ruler in the hope that he will keep the vampires away from the colony.

Rehvenge killed the princess and took over as symphath king. When he threatened his subjects with a worse fate than the princess suffered, it confirmed in their minds that they made the right choice for their ruler.

Wrath claims that he could take away the symphaths’ colony and that the king rules only because Wrath lets him.

Trez and iAm

I don’t know much about the Moors other than that they are the Reverend’s personal bodyguards and friends. I don’t think they answer to Xhex, as she looks after ZeroSum and its patrons, while the Reverend is their focus. Trez follows Rehv when he meets the princess and is able to blend well enough in the shadows that not even a symphath can find him.

Rehvenge can hear Trez’s voice in his head, and I think that he can’t hear Rehv, and that Trez is projecting as opposed to Rehv being attuned to him. He has green eyes and fangs, but I have no idea what he feeds on. When iAm cut his hand to make a blood vow, he bled blue.

Trez is a hothead, but if you’re smart, you don’t underestimate his brother iAm just because he’s quiet. He is steadier and more realistic than Trez. They are both royal members of the s’Hisbe of Shadows (suh-HEEB), but I don’t know what that means yet, other than they are both very strong and very powerful.

Trez reads The Shadow Death Lexicon, an ancient book more suited to priests than potential kings.

iAm runs Salvatore’s Restaurant after the owner ran up some major gambling debts and exchanged ownership of the restaurant for cancellation of his debt to Rehvenge and his continued good health. iAm insisted that the sauce recipe be included in the deal. Under his management, the place actually turns a profit. With Rehvenge’s ‘passing’, iAm inherited Sal’s, while Trez got the Iron Mask.

Their loyalty to Rehvenge is so deep that they are offended when JM, Qhuinn and Blay bypass Rehv and ask them questions that would help find Xhex as it suggests that either they or Wrath don’t trust Rehv or believe he’d do whatever it takes to find her. But they agree to help the boys when JM explains that he doesn’t want the Brotherhood to know how he feels about Xhex so nobody expects them to have a relationship when she’s found.

They provide details of drug hotspots and promise to gather info on the big supplier in case Lash targets him. In return, they’re going to tell Rehv the boys stopped by (but not the content of their discussion) and expect to be kept in the loop. Rehv had commanded them to stay out of the search for Xhex for their own safety, but having JM reach out to them provides a handy loophole.

And since Rehv was not impressed that Xhex wanted to scout ahead at the lesser farmhouse during the day, he called Trez and iAm, who refused to leave Xhex, even to follow the new fore-lesser.

iAm was once in love with a female Trez has never met and it left him feeling miserable. He doesn’t talk about it.

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