“More than this broken mess?” Luchas indicated his body and then held up his hand. It was missing several fingers, courtesy of that asshole Lash. “You know, there are times when I believe this was all meant to be. My exterior frailty is simply a reflection of my internal failings. I have become aligned with my nature.”

“That’s not true.” What else could he say, Blay wondered. “Please know, it will get better.”

Luchas’s face registered the ghost of a smile. “It is apparent why my brother loves you. I quite believe you mean that.”

“I do.”

Those gray eyes lost their focus, as if the male were seeing something that only existed in his mind. “Alas, my future is what it is.”

“So much has changed, though. I mean, everything is different.”

“Not from what I witness. The glymera may be lesser in number because of the raids, but they are just as great as ever when it comes to censure. I lurk online amongst them and see what they do. As it was, so it continues to be.”

“You don’t need to have anything to do with them. You’re a part

of this community now, and with us, you have a future that is not bound by all those discriminations and rules. I mean, look at Qhuinn. Look at how far he’s come, he’s not only a Brother now, but he’s been promoted to the private guard of the King and—”

“I’m sorry.” Luchas stiffened. “What did you say?”

Blay frowned and looked around. Like the tunnel was going to help him out, though? “Ah, Qhuinn was elevated to Wrath’s personal guard. I thought… didn’t you know that?”

“No. I’m afraid I did not. When did this occur?”

“That’s not important—”

“When?”

“A little while ago?” Blay phrased it as a question, even though there was no lack of clarity around the date. Clearing his throat, he tried to smooth things over. “I’m sure he meant to share the news with you.”

“Indeed.” Luchas stared at the door to the OR. “As if being appointed to protect the King and First Family is something that easily slips one’s mind. ’Tis only the most venerable, august, and respected position within the race.”

“Qhuinn is a very brave fighter.”

“Of that I am very aware. And allow me to affirm that if there was e’er an individual to deserve such an honor, it is he. I am happy for him, and I can guess why he failed to bring it up. Quite a reversal of station he and I have had over the course of our lives.” There was a pause. “Well. I look forward to his full recovery, as I’m sure do you. And to his continued service unto the race.”

“Luchas, please…” Blay offered his open palms. Like a lame-ass. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Worry not, old friend.” Those gray eyes clouded over. “My brother chose wisely when he picked you. In truth, Blaylock, you are a male of worth.”

This time, Luchas did not try to bow as he turned away. Relying on that cane, he shuffled down the clinical area, the robe hem swinging side to side as weight was transferred back and forth, a load borne with unreliability. When he got to the door to his patient room, he tilted his head to the side in its downward position and looked back at Blay. And then he lifted his bony, mangled hand in a wave before disappearing into his private space.

With a curse, Blay remembered the male from before the raids, from before Luchas had been captured and tortured by the Omega’s son, Lash, and the Lessening Society. He had been so fit and healthy and perfect, the pride and joy of his parents, of the glymera as a whole.

A firstborn son of impeccable pedigree with all his fingers and toes.

And now here he was.

Even as Blay fought the tide of memory, images bubbled up and refused to be denied. Over all the centuries that vampires had fought against the Omega and his army of the undead, there had been countless truly tragic events. The raids, however, had been nuclear in nature, lessers attacking the hidden mansions of the aristocracy, slaughtering not just families, but whole bloodlines. Qhuinn’s had been among them, and he likely would have been killed that night, too, if they hadn’t kicked him out for his heterochromia iridum.

His blue and green eyes, long the bane of his existence, at least according to his parents and their ilk, had saved him.

At Qhuinn’s request, Blay had gone to the house and identified the bodies, and Luchas’s had been among them. Blay had seen the remains with his own two eyes—and that was supposed to be where it all ended, the terminal point of the catastrophic losses for that family, the bodies buried on the property. Except, no. Someone from the Lessening Society had returned.

And Lash had brought Luchas back.

The story had never been completely told, and no one had been inclined to press Luchas for details, but a year later, the male had been found in an oil drum at an abandoned site of the enemy’s, reanimated and preserved in a swill of the Omega’s vile essence. Qhuinn had been the one who found his brother, and the only identifier had been the gold signet ring Luchas been given by their sire the night after his transition.

The torture he’d been put through had been extensive, fingers cut off, broken bones all over his body, bruises, contusions, cuts. And then there had been the psychological trauma of it all. The Brotherhood had brought him here to the training center, and since then, Luchas had lost his lower leg as part of the continuing attempt to keep him alive and functioning.