Lover Reborn

“Nah, son.” The male stepped forward. “I don’t want where I’m at for you, either.”

The Brother put his arms around John, and John went with it, collapsing into the once massive body… that nonetheless managed to hold him up.

Tohr’s voice was steady in his ear: “It’s okay. I got you. It’s all right.…”

John put his head to the side and stared at the door his shellan had walked out of. He wanted to go after her with every fiber of his being—but those fibers were also what were ripping them apart. In his mind, he understood everything she was saying, but his heart and his body were ruled by something separate from all that, something bigger and more primordial. And it was overriding everything.

It was wrong. Disrespectful. Old-fashioned in a way that he never thought he could be. He didn’t think females should be sequestered, and he believed in his mate, and he wanted her…

To be safe.

Period.

“Give her some time,” Tohr murmured, “and we’ll go after her, okay? You and I will go together.”

“Good plan,” Wrath said, “because neither of you is going out in the field tonight.” The king held up his palms to cut off the arguing. “Really?”

That shut them both up.

“So are you okay?” the king asked Tohr.

The Brother’s smile wasn’t warm in the slightest. “I’m already in hell—shit’s not going to get any hotter just because he’s using me as an example of where he doesn’t want to be.”

“You sure about that.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“Easier said than done.” Wrath motioned his hand, like he didn’t want to go any further on all that. “We done?”

As Tohr nodded and turned for the door, John gave the First Family a bow and then went after the male.

He didn’t have to rush. Tohr was waiting for him out in the corridor. “Listen to me—it’s cool. I’m serious-”

I’m just… so sorry, John signed. About everything. And… shit, I miss Wellsie—I really miss her.

Tohr blinked for a moment. Then in a quiet voice, he said, “I know, son. I know you lost her, too.”

Do you think she would have liked Xhex?

“Yeah.” A shadow of a smile hit that harsh face. “She only met her once, and it was a while ago, but they were cool, and if there had been time… they’d have gotten along great. And man, on a night like tonight, we could have used the female backup.”

Too right, John signed, as he tried to imagine approaching Xhex.

At least he could guess where she would go: back to her own place on the Hudson River. That was her refuge, her private space. And when he showed up on her doorstep, he could only pray she didn’t throw him out on his ass.

But they had to resolve this somehow.

I think I’d better go alone, John signed. This is probably going to get ugly.

Make that uglier, he thought.

“Fair enough. Just know that I’m here if you need me.”

Wasn’t that always the way, John thought as they parted. Almost as if it had been centuries of their knowing each other, instead of merely a matter of years. Then again he guessed that was what happened when you crossed paths with someone you were really compatible with.

Felt like you’d been with them forever.

TEN

“I shall do it.”

As No’One spoke up, the group of doggen she had sneaked in behind turned like a flock of birds, all at once. In their modest staff room, there were males and females both among the assembled, each dressed properly for his or her role whether it was cook or cleaner, baker or butler. She had found them when she had gone for an idle stroll, and who was she not to take advantage of an opportunity.

The one who was in charge, Fritz Perlmutter, looked like he was about to faint. Then again, he had been her father’s doggen all those years ago, and had had particular struggles with her defining herself in a servile role. “My fine lady—”

“No’One. My name is No’One now. Please address me as that and that alone. And as I said, I shall take care of the washing down in the training center.”

Wherever that was.

Indeed, last night with that dress had been a benediction of sorts, the task busying her hands and giving her a focus that passed the hours with alacrity. It had once been the same on the Other Side, her manual labor the only thing that calmed her and imparted structure to her existence.

How she had missed having a purpose.

For truth, she had come here to serve Payne, but the female wanted none of that. She had come here to try to connect with her daughter, but the female was newly mated, with vital distractions. And she had come here in search of some kind of peace, only to be driven mad with inactivity since her arrival.

And that was prior to her near run-in with Tohrment early this morning.

At least he had taken the dress, though. It was gone from where she had hung it when he had answered her knock with such gruff—

Abruptly, she noted that the butler was looking at her expectantly, as if he had just said something that required a response.

“Please take me down there,” she said, “and show me the duties.”

Given the way his old, wrinkled face fell even further, she gathered that was not the reply he had been hoping for.

“Mistress—”

“No’One. And you, or one of your staff, can show me now.”

The assembled masses all looked worried, as if mayhap rumors of the sky falling had suddenly become reality.

“Thank you,” she said to the butler. “For your facilitation.”

Clearly recognizing that he was not going to win, the head doggen bowed low. “But of course I shall, mist— Ah, No— Er…”

When he couldn’t get out her proper name, as if the appropriate title of “mistress” was required to blaze the trail up his windpipe, she took pity on him.

“You are most helpful,” she murmured. “Now, lead on.”

After dismissing the others, he took her out of the staff room, through the kitchen, and into the foyer by virtue of yet another door that was new to her. As they proceeded, she recalled her previous, younger self, the haughty daughter of a bloodline of means who had refused to cut up her own meat, or brush her own hair, or dress herself. What a waste. At least now that she was no one and had nothing, she was clear on how to pass the hours meaningfully: work. Work was the key.

“We go through herein,” the butler pronounced as he held wide a hidden door beneath the grand staircase. “Allow me to provide you the codes.”

“Thank you,” she replied, memorizing them.

As she followed the doggen into the long, thin tube of an underground tunnel, she thought, yes, if she was going to stay on this side, she needed to busy herself with chores, even if it offended the doggen, the Brotherhood, the shellans.… Better that than the