“This is not a guy, and if it wouldn’t nasty me the hell out I’d rip open the front of her robe to prove it. And listen, catch me up, would you? Last time I knew, you were dead.”
“Not for long, as it turned out.” The guy smiled, flashing long, white fangs. “She’s really a female, huh?”
The princess struggled, and Rehv subdued her by nearly snapping her skull off her spine. As she gasped and groaned, he said, “She is. Didn’t you know symphaths are all but hermaphroditic?”
“I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is to know she lied.”
“You two are a match made in hell.”
“I’m thinking the same. Now, how about you let my girlfriend go?”
“Your girlfriend? Moving a little fast, aren’t you? And I’ll pass on the catch-and-release program. I like the idea of you shooting us both.”
Lash frowned. “Thought you were a fighter. Guess you’re a pussy. I should have just gone to your club and shot you there.”
“Actually, as of about ten minutes ago, I’m already dead. So I don’t give a fuck. Although I’m curious to know why you’d want to kill me.”
“Connections. And not the social kind.”
Rehv arched his brows. Lash was the one killing those dealers? What the hell? Although…the fucker had tried to sell drugs on ZeroSum turf a year ago and gotten kicked off the premises for it. Clearly, now that he’d fallen in with the Omega, he was resurrecting old, lucrative habits.
With the smooth logic of hindsight, things started to fall into place. Lash’s parents had been the first of all those murdered last summer during the lesser raids. As family after family had turned up dead in their supposedly secret and protected homes, the question on the council’s mind, on the Brotherhood’s minds, on every civilian’s mind, was how all those addresses had been found at once by the Society.
Simple: Lash had been turned by the Omega and led the charge.
Rehv cranked his hold down on the princess’s rib cage a little harder as the final dregs of his numbness lifted. “So you’re trying to get into my business, huh. It was you popping all those retailers.”
“Just working my way up the food chain, as it were. And with you doing the dirt nap, I’m at the top, at least for Caldwell. So let her go and I’ll shoot you in the head and we can all just move along here-”
A wave of dread washed up onto the porch, cresting and falling over Rehv and the princess and Lash.
Rehv shifted his eyes and froze. Well, well, well, what do you know. This was all going to be over so much faster than he’d thought.
Coming up the snow-covered lawn, in robes of ruby red, were seven symphaths in arrow formation. At the center of the group, walking with a cane and wearing a headdress of rubies and black spears, was a bent branch of a male.
Rehv’s uncle. The king.
He seemed much older, but however aged and weak his body, his soul was as strong and dark as before, causing Rehv to shudder and the princess to stop fighting the hold against her. Even Lash had the sense to step back.
The private guard stopped at the base of the porch steps, their robes blowing in the cold breeze Rehv could now feel against his own face.
The king spoke in a weak voice, his reedy Ss drawn out. “Welcome home, my dearest nephew. And greetings, visitor.”
Rehv stared at his uncle. He hadn’t seen the male for…God, a long time. Long, long time. The funeral for his father. Evidently, the years had not been kind, but rather a grind on the king, and this made Rehv smile as he imagined the princess having to bed that baggy-skinned, warped body.
“Evening, Uncle,” Rehv said. “And this is Lash, by the way. In case you didn’t know.”
“I have not been properly introduced, no, although I have knowledge of his purpose on my land.” The king fixed his watery red eyes on the princess. “My dear girl, did you think I was unaware of your regular visits to Rehvenge? And think you I was ignorant of your more recent scheme? I’m afraid I was rather attached to you and thus content to allow your trysts with your brother-”
“Half brother,” Rehv cut in tightly.
“-however, this treason with the lesser I cannot allow. In truth, I am not unimpressed with your resourcefulness, given that I rescinded my bequest of the throne to you. But I am not swayed by my former adoration. You underestimated me, and for that disrespect, I shall render a punishment consistent with your wants and desires.”
The king nodded, and on a sudden instinct, Rehv wheeled around. Too late. A symphath with a raised sword was right behind him, the guy’s arm already in midswing-and although the blade wasn’t in the lead, that was only a marginal improvement as the hilt of the damn thing caught Rehv right on the top of the skull.