Дж. Уорд: The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider's Guide

Lamb! He’s been cooking it for generations of the royal family. And, wait, I can guess the next question! How did he end up with Darius, then? Ah, now, that’s a story…but it’s wonderful that he’s back with Wrath (and that he’s still with Darius in a way).

Of all the things to have your enemy smell like…why baby powder?—Haytrid

LOL! Haytrid, I know, right? But when I saw the first lesser… that’s what it smelled like. It’s so incongruous—and strangely perfect.

1618Darius is born

1641Darius transitions

1643Darius is sent to war camp

1644Tohrment is born

_____Darius leaves war camp

1665Wrath is born

1669Tohrment goes through transition and is promised to the firstborn female of the Princeps Relix

1671Darius meets Tohrment: nine months later Tohrment is inducted into the Brotherhood

1690Wrath goes through transition

1704Vishous and Payne are horn

1707Vishous goes into war camp

1729Vishous goes through transition and leaves camp (drifts, then functions as merchant heavy)

1739Vishous meets Darius and Wrath

1778Phury and Zsadist are born

_____Zsadist is abducted

1780Zsadist sold into slavery

1784Wellesandra is born

1802Phury and Zsadist transition

1809Wellesandra goes through transition

1814Tohrment and Wellsie are mated

1843Rhage is born

1868Rhage goes through transition

1898Phury rescues Zsadist from the Mistress

_____Rhage joins Brotherhood, kills owl and is cursed by Scribe Virgin with the beast

1917Zsadist and Phury meet Wrath

1932Phury on his deathbed—Z gets Darius, who contacts Wrath for last rites (Phury survives)

_____Phury and Zsadist inducted into Brotherhood

1960Butch O’Neal is born

1969Jane Whitcomb is born

1975Mary Madonna Luce is born

1980Beth Randall is born

1983John Matthew is born in bus station

2005 Wrath and Beth are mated

2006 Rhage and Mary are mated

_____Zsadist and Bella are mated

_____Wellesandra is killed

2007 Butch inducted into Brotherhood

_____Butch and Marissa are mated

_____Blay goes through transition

_____Qhuinn goes through transition

_____Lash goes through transition

_____John Matthew goes through transition

_____Vishous and Jane arc mated

_____Nalla is born

AARP American Association of Retired Persons

BFD Big Fucking Deal

BMOC Big Man on Campus

BTW By the Way

BVD Men’s full briefs that Wrath hates

DL Down-low

FNG Fucking New Guy

FUBAR Fucked up Beyond All Recognition

FYI For Your Information

GW God Willing

HEA Happily Ever After

IIRC If I Recall Correctly

IMHO In My Honest/Humble Opinion

IMO In My Opinion

ITAI Totally Agree

MFN Motherfucking

MYOB Mind Your Own Business

OD Overdose

OMG Oh My God

OPP Other Person’s/People’s Property

PNG Persona Non Grata

POS Piece of Shit

POV Point of View

PTSD Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

RTFM Read the Freaking/Fucking Manual

SOL (1) Slice of Life

SOL (2) Shit outta Luck

SOP Standard Operating Procedure

TBH To Re Honest

TLC Tender Loving Care

TO Time-out

WASP White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

WTF What the Fuck

My husband and I are moving into a new house. Which is great. Actually, it’s almost a hundred years old, but it’s new to us and our dog. My mother and her business partner and their crew have been working on it for a couple of months, and they’re just about finished. I figure we’ll be settling in a few weeks from now—and going through that wonderful process of figuring out where in the hell to put everything.

It’s about ten thirty at night and I’m pacing through the house, going from empty room to room, dodging spray machines and cans of paint and the occasional sawhorse. The place is heavily perfumed in eau de latex and I have to be careful not to brush against any of the walls because most of them are barely dry. There is plastic matting over all the wood floors, and the windowpanes are smeared with goo so their frames can be painted.

Being here all alone is creepy. Shadows are created, thanks to the streetlights down below, and every dark corner looks like a place someone could jump out at me from.

And then someone does.

I’m in the dining room when Wrath condenses out of thin air right in front of me. I yelp and pull a Chaplin, arms pinwheeling as I tap-dance backward. Rhage catches me from falling as Butch and V materialize behind the king. Z comes in last, sauntering in from the living room as if he’s been there all along.

Rhage:(to me) You okay there?

Butch:We could lay her down on a pair of sawhorses.

J.R.:Don’t you guys knock—

V:Oh, please.

Butch:How about the kitchen countertop?

J.R.:I’m fine!

Rhage:There’s carpeting on the third floor.

J.R.:You mean you’ve been here already?

Butch:No. Not at all. Us? Trespass? I vote for the third floor.

V:Or we could hang her ass up in a closet.

J.R.:Excuse me?

V:(shnigging) Goal is to keep you from knocking your shit out from the vapors. Come on. Work with me.

J.R.:I don’t have the—

Butch:Third floor.

Rhage:Third floor.

J.R.:(looking to Wrath for help) Really, I’m—

Wrath:Third floor.

Chaos reigns during the trip up the stairs in the form of deep male voices arguing with one another. As far as I can tell, the topic is treatment for fainting, and I hope to Christ the remedies aren’t inflicted on me. Somehow I don’t think cold showers, stink bombs, old episodes of Barney (evidently the annoyance factor is supposed to be restorative), shots of Lagavulin (which would serve only to knock me out entirely), or laps around the neighborhood naked fall under the accepted standard of care for light-headed humans. Although the trip to Saks doesn’t sound so bad.