Black Dagger Brotherhood 11 - Lover at Last

some reason, he thought of that Febreze commercial, the one where they’d shit up some place, spray like madmen, and drag “real people, not actors” into the scene to sniff around.
    Man, except for the food remnants—which were a no-show, because slayers didn’t require eats—everything fit: the mold on the ceiling, the ratty furniture, the dripping over at the sink…and especially the crap that went along with a multi-chemical addiction, like syringes, spoons, even the two-liter Sprite-bottle meth lab over in the corner.
    This was not a seat of power. This was a common crack house.
    Connors went over and snagged the little shit’s cell phone. The screen was cracked and there was some kind of sticky patch on the back. The thing was not password-protected, and when he went into the messages section, all kinds of kiss-asses had blown up the phone, the texts blah-blah-blahing congrats about the induction ceremony that was going on tonight.
    But the
Fore-lesser
hadn’t known about it. Wasn’t his gig.
    Connors wasn’t going to retaliate, however. Those brown-nosing douches were just trying to stay alive and would suck anyone’s dick to keep breathing: He fully expected the same list to be hitting him up, and he wanted them to. Spies had their purpose in the grand scheme of things.
    And, man, there was work to be done.
    From what he had figured out during his own blessedly short period of ass-kissing, the Lessening Society had few assets left in terms of weapons or ammo or property. No cash, because what did come in from petty robberies had gone up the little shit’s nose or into his arm. No master list of inductees, no troop organization, no training.
    Lot of rebuilding needed to happen fast—
    A cold draft shot into the room, and Connors turned around. The Omega had arrived from out of nowhere, the Evil’s white robes shining brightly, the black shadow underneath looking like an optical illusion.
    The repulsion that went through Connors was something he knew he was also going to have to get used to. The Omega always enjoyed aspecial relationship with his
Fore-lesser
—and maybe that was why word had it they rarely lasted very long.
    Then again, given who he picked…
    “I took care of him,” Connors said, nodding to the scorch mark on the floor.
    “I know,” the Omega replied, that voice warping through the fetid, chilly air.
    Outside, a gust of wind blew snow against the windows, the gap on one sill letting some snowflakes in. As they entered the space, they fell to the floor in a shimmer, the temperature cold enough to sustain them, thanks to the master’s presence.
    “He is back home now.” The Omega came forward like a draft, with no evidence that any kind of legs were moving him. “And I am very pleased.”
    Conners told his feet to stay put. There was nowhere to run to, nothing to escape—he just had to get through what was going to happen next.
    At least he had prepared for this.
    “I got some new recruits for you.”
    The Omega stopped. “Indeed?”
    “A tribute, as it were.” Or more like a defined endpoint to this shit: He had to head out soon, and he’d carefully planned these two events close together. The Omega, after all, was into his playthings, but liked his Society and its purpose of eliminating vampires even more.
    “You please me to no end,” the Omega whispered as he closed in. “I do believe we are going to get along just fine…Mr. C.”

FOUR
    T he Chosen Layla had existed in her own body without any physical compromise for the entirety of her existence. Born in the Scribe Virgin’s Sanctuary, and trained in the rarefied, preternatural peacefulness there, she had never known hunger, or fever, or pain of any note. Not heat nor cold, nor contusion, concussion, or contraction. Her body had been, as with all things in the mother of the race’s most sacred space, always the placid same, a perfect specimen functioning at the highest level—
    “Oh, God,” she gulped as she shot out of bed and lurched into the bathroom.
    Her bare feet skidded on the marble as she threw herself to her knees, popped the toilet seat, and leaned over to go face-to-face with the bowl’s epiglottal hole.
    “Just…do it….” she gasped as the rolling nausea polluted her body until even her toes curled under and grabbed at the floor. “Please…for the Scribe Virgin’s sake…”
    If she could just empty the contents of her stomach, surely the torture would relent—
    Taking her fore-