"What's a lesser?" she asked.
He called himself a loser as he looked over at her. "An undead killer who's trying to hunt my kind into extinction."
"Undead?" Her forehead bunched up, as if her brain were rejecting what she'd heard. Like it was a widget that hadn't passed quality control. "Undead how?"
"Long story."
"We have time."
"Not that much." Not much at all.
"Was that what shot you?"
"Yup."
"And what attacked Phury?"
"Yup."
There was a long silence. "I'm glad he cut one of them up, then."
V's eyebrows danced with his hairline. "You are?"
"The geneticist in me abhors extinction. Genocide is… utterly unforgivable." She got up and went to the door to look in at Phury. "Do you kill them? The… lessers?"
"That's what we're for. My brothers and I were bred to fight."
"Bred?" Her dark green eyes shifted to his. "What do you mean?"
"The geneticist in you knows exactly what I mean." As the word Primale pinged around his skull like a loose bullet, he cleared his throat. Shit, he was so not in a big hurry to talk about his future as the Chosen's stud with the woman he actually wanted to be with. Who was leaving. At, like, sundown.
"And this is a facility for training more of you?"
"Well, soldiers to support us. My brothers and I are a little different."
"How so?"
"Like I said, we were specifically bred for strength and endurance and healing."
"By whom?"
"Another long story."
"Try me." When he didn't reply, she pressed, "Come on. We might as well talk, and I'm really interested in your kind."
Not him. His kind.
V swallowed a curse. Man, if he were any more chicked-out about her, he'd be wearing nail polish.
He really wanted to light the cigarette in his hand, but he wasn't about to around her. "Standard stuff. The strongest males were mated to the shrewdest females. Which resulted in guys like me, who are the best bet for the protection of the race."
"And the female births from these pairings?"
"Were the basis of the spiritual life of the species."
"Were? So that kind of selective breeding doesn't go on anymore?"
"Actually… it's starting up again." Damn, he really needed a cigarette. "Will you excuse me?"
"Where are you going?"
"Out to the gym for a smoke." He slipped the hand rolled between his lips, stood up, and went just beyond the equipment room's door. Leaning against the gym's concrete wall, he set the Aquafina bottle down at his feet and put his lighter to good use. As he thought about his mother, he exhaled a smoky fuck.
"The bullet was strange."
V snapped his head around. Jane was in the doorway, arms across her chest, her blond hair messed up like she'd been pushing a hand through it.
"Excuse me?"
"The bullet that hit you. Do they use different weapons?"
He blew his next stream of smoke out in the opposite direction, away from her. "How was it strange?"
"Normally bullets are conical in shape, the tops either coming to a sharp angle if it's a rifle or being more blunt if it's a pistol. The one in you is round."
V took another draw on his handrolled. "You saw this on the X-ray?"
"Yeah, read like normal lead as far as I could see. The bullet was slightly uneven around the edges, but that was likely caused by it banging around your rib cage."
"Well… God only knows what kind of new technology the lessers are tripping with. They have toys just like we have toys." He looked at the tip of the cigarette. "Speaking of which, I should say thank-you."
"For what?"
"Saving me."
"You're very welcome." She laughed a little. "I was so surprised at your heart."
"You were?"
"Never seen anything like it before." She nodded to the PT room. "I want to stay here with you guys until your brother's healed up, okay? I have a bad feeling about him. Can't put my finger on it… He looks all right, but my instincts are ringing, and when they go off like this I'm always sorry if I don't follow them. Besides, I'm not due back to real life until Monday morning anyway."
V froze with the handrolled on the way up to his lips.
"What?" she said. "There a problem with that?"
"Ah… no. No problem. At all."
She was staying. A little longer.
V smiled to himself. So this was what winning the lottery felt like.
Chapter Nineteen
As John stood in the line in front of ZeroSum with Blay and Qhuinn, he was not happy and not comfortable. They'd been waiting to get into the club for, like, an hour and a half, and the only good thing was that the night wasn't so cold they froze their balls off.
"I'm so not getting any younger here." Qhuinn stomped his feet. "And I didn't dud up to play wallflower in this wait line."
John had to admit the guy looked tight tonight: black open-collared shirt, black trousers, black boots, black leather jacket. With his dark hair and his mismatched eyes, he was getting a lot of attention from the human females. For example, right now two brunettes and a redhead were strolling down the line, and what do you know, all three of them did a head snap as they went by Qhuinn. He was characteristically shameless as he stared back.
Blay cursed. "My man over here is going to be a menace, aren't you?"
"You'd better believe it." Qhuinn jacked up his pants. "I'm starving."
Blay shook his head, then scanned the street. He'd done this a number of times, his eyes sharp, his right hand in his jacket pocket. John knew what was in that palm of his: the grip of a nine. Blay was armed.
He'd said he'd gotten the gun from a cousin of his and it was all hush-hush. But then, it had to be. One of the rules of the training program was that you weren't supposed to carry when you were out and about. It was a good rule, built on the theory that a little knowledge was a dangerous thing, and trainees shouldn't front like they had half a brain when it came to fighting. Still, Blay had said he wasn't going downtown without some metal, and John had decided to pretend he didn't know what that bulge was about.
And there was also a little part of him that thought if they ran into Lash, it might not be a bad idea.
"Well, hey, ladies," Qhuinn said. "Where you off to?"
John glanced over. A pair of blondes were standing in front of Qhuinn, looking like his body was the candy counter at a movie theater and they were wondering whether to start with the Milk Duds or the Swedish Fish.
The one on the right, who had hair down to her ass and a skirt the size of a paper napkin, smiled. Her teeth were so white they gleamed like pearls. "We were going to Screamer's, but… if you're heading in here, we might change our plans."
"Make it easy on all of us and join us in line." He bowed, sweeping his arm in front of him.
The blonde looked at her friend, then pulled a little Betty Boop maneuver, hip and hair swinging. It looked well rehearsed. "I just love a gentleman."
"I'm one to my very core." Qhuinn held his hand out, and when the Betty took it, he pulled her into line. A couple of guys frowned, but one look from Qhuinn and they cut the crap, which was understandable. Qhuinn was taller and wider than them, a semi to their station wagons.
"This is Blay and John."
The girls beamed up at Blay, who flushed the color of his hair, then the two did a cursory pass over John. He got a quick pair of head nods and then the focus was back on his friends.