"His face was exactly as she had remembered: perfectly symmetrical, with high cheekbones, narrowed eyes, and a permanent frown between his straight brows. His upper lip was twisted up, such that he appeared to be snarling, and his body... his body moved like a great animal's, his shoulders shifting with barely restrained power, his heavy thighs carrying him forward with the promise of brutal strength."
-Layla[1]
Xcor is the leader of the Band of Bastards in The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward. He's mated to the Chosen Layla and they are the main characters of the fifteenth book in the series, The Chosen.
Biography[]
In 1731, deep within a damp and dirty cave, Xcor was born breach during a historic blizzard. His father, Hharm, had disavowed him on the spot, claiming Xcor was a cursed child, and leaving him to his mother's care. Under threat of death by Hharm, she was forced to raise Xcor, but she did so without care, kindness, compassion, or love. By the time he was old enough to crawl, she kept him chained in the yard outside her cottage and never brought him inside. When Hharm was killed when Xcor was still a young child, Xcor's mahmen was freed from her obligation and abandoned Xcor, still chained in the yard. She never even looked back when he cried out for her not to leave him. Xcor never even learned her name. Terrified, cold, and hungry, Xcor found a way to break the chains around him and to feed to stay alive, becoming a vicious killer.
As a pretrans, he spent nearly a decade in an orphanage.[2]
Over the years, he remained isolated in the abandoned cottage and he fed off off wildlife in the forest nearby. When he was going to go into his transition, he made a deal with a female vampire in the nearby village: she would see him through his Transition and feed him and he would give her the cottage. He survived into adulthood, barely, and left his home forever, wandering the world. He eventually came upon a group of vampires led by the Bloodletter, who were tracking down some lessers; Xcor managed to get involved in the fight and survived it.
Known as the vampire who could only sire "weakling females" and a single "cursed boy," the Bloodletter saw the opportunity to save face by claiming such a strong fighter as his get, so he lied to everyone, including Xcor. In the Bloodletter's training camp he was forced to fight for his very survival under its brutal conditions which were deliberately cultivated by his alleged father. This required him to become inured to meting out physical violence, including the torture and rape of vanquished foes, and shutting down any traces of compassion or caring in his psyche.
Despite how cunning and hard he became, there was no denying that a thread of honour hid at the core of him. As a result, the other soldiers followed him willingly, practically worshipping him and obeying him without question. He formed an elite group of soldiers which he termed his "Band of Bastards," and together they and the Bloodletter roamed Europe, taking and killing at will, but always remembering not to reveal their true heritage to the humans, per the Old Laws.
It wasn't until Payne exacted her revenge upon her father, the Bloodletter, for the brutal treatment of her twin, Vishous, that Xcor and the Band of Bastards learned that he was not, in fact, the Bloodletter's blooded son. In spite of this, the Band of Bastards agreed to continue following Xcor's lead. He brought them overseas to Caldwell, determined that the vampires needed a change in leadership, and began plotting a coup.
During an assassination attempt on Wrath, Xcor was severely injured. In a desperate move to save his captain, Throe contacted the Chosen Layla using the blood she'd fed him when he was injured in the Brotherhood's clinic. Continuing to pretend to be an ally of the Brotherhood, he had her feed Xcor with her powerful, healing blood. One look, one taste of Layla's blood, and Xcor was struck with the mating instinct.
Attempting to ignore his need for Layla, Xcor focused on his plans to overthrow the King's power and position instead of killing him, intending to install himself on the throne. He began working with various rogue members of the glymera, trying to politically maneuver them into submission and compliance. What Xcor soon discovered, however, was that many of the glymera weren't to be trusted, as they would dispose of Xcor just as easily as they'd planned to depose Wrath.
As time went by, and despite his ambition to seize power, Xcor found it difficult to concentrate on anything but Layla. Using the knowledge of the location of the Brotherhood's mansion, Xcor blackmailed Layla into meeting with him once a month for a whole year. Those platonic visits tormented both of them, but at the same time, eased them a bit, as being close to each other and seeing the other safe and unharmed did much to provide them both some relief.
When Wrath abolished the monarchy and turned the race into a democratic-republic, going with the theme of a new world and transition, the move surprised Xcor and he came to respect Wrath. This change, coupled with the fact that warring with the Brotherhood only put Layla in danger, made Xcor decide to drop all his plans of seizing power.
That decision created a schism between him and Throe, who still had great aspirations for ridding their people of its newly elected president, Wrath. When push came to shove, the rest of the Band of Bastards chose their loyalty to Xcor over Throe, who was then banished from the group. The damage was done, however, Throe had revealed Xcor's bonding to a Chosen living with the Brotherhood. To Xcor's surprise, however, the other Bastards hadn't resented his luck. Instead, they were curious and a little in awe that Xcor could win the love of such a beautiful, pure vampire of the highest echelons of their society.
Xcor was severely injured, suffering a broken back and nearly dying from his wounds. The Brotherhood kidnapped him off the field of battle, hiding him away in the Tomb where he was plugged into human medical machinery to try to save his life. Their intention was to get him well so he could stand trial for attempting to kill Wrath, and thus be legally executed. Xcor's death would, they figured, serve as a message to the glymera as well about the price of treachery.
While Xcor was unconscious and recovering, Layla traveled over to the Sanctuary and researched his past history. It was there that she discovered that Xcor was really the blooded son of Hharm, and that his half-brother, Tohrment, had been granted by Wrath the office of serving as Xcor's executioner once the trial had finished. Rushing back to the mansion to tell the others, Layla went into early labour. After a difficult time of it, she finally gave birth to fraternal twins, who were named Rampage and Lyric.
After being comatose for months, Xcor woke as Qhuinn attempted to murder him. To avoid killing Qhuinn, Xcor escaped to a cabin in the woods where Layla found him using the blood bond between them.
When Wrath sent a peace envoy to the Band of Bastards asking to meet so the issue between them could be resolved once and for all, Xcor agreed to it. There he knelt before Wrath and agreed to accept him as his King and leader, to abide by the law Wrath had established, and to serve the race together with the Brotherhood. The Band took to their knees out of loyalty to Xcor and vowed the same. When lessers attacked and Xcor led the Band in defending the king alongside the Brotherhood, Wrath had the Bastards move into the Brotherhood's mansion to consolidate their power base and assure everyone's safety. From then on Layla and Xcor were allowed to live together as mated shellan and hellren
Personality[]
Xcor is considered a cunning fighter, but his political machinations aren't well-considered; he thinks a few steps ahead and not beyond that. Being illiterate, he is not book-learned, but he is 'street-smart' and a survivor. He can be cruel and hard at times, but he is loyal to a fault to those who befriend him.
Self-conscious of his deformed mouth, he believes himself ugly and unworthy of affection. When he takes his pleasure from a female, he always keeps his face in shadow, so they won't be offended or scared. In the past, he would use Throe's good looks to lure in a female prostitute or one who was sexually free, and then the two males would 'tag-team' the female for sex and blood. Sex for Xcor is a means to an end, however, the same as blood feeding. He takes his needs, but does no harm to females, and he thinks no more of them when he moves on.
Physical Description[]
Xcor is described as being a 'big bull of a male', with arms and legs as large as Wrath's. He shares his half-brother's height and the brilliant blue eyes they got from their father. He has short, black hair, a thick neck, and his body is packed with muscle. Aside from his cleft palate, he's considered handsome.
Skills[]
- He specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Abilities[]
- Dematerializing
Relationships[]
The Bloodletter[]
The Bloodletter was a cruel father figure who felt like a failure for only siring females, aside from Vishous. Seeing an opportunity, he claimed Xcor as his own son to save face and gain a strong fighter that wasn't stronger than he was, which had proven a problem with Vishous.
Layla[]
Xcor's relationship with Layla was complicated from the start, both of them attracted to each other despite being on opposite sides of the war. Because of this and feeling unworthy of her due of his cleft palate, he fought the mating urge and yet blackmailed her into meeting with him for over a year because he couldn't stay away from her. Despite this, he did make a great effort to acquire cash and to go into the human world to purchase nice clothing and cologne so he would look and smell nice for her during their monthly meetings.
Throe[]
Lacking the courage and ability to kill the male that had "defiled" his sister, he pledged himself in service to Xcor to have him do it. Xcor intended to use him as an example of servile weakness, but instead of breaking, Throe far surpassed anyone's expectations. Ever since Xcor held him in disdain for being from the glymera and for his physical perfection that lacked any defects[3], and yet, despite that, he still felt remorse over injuring Throe and then leaving him as a Trojan horse into the Brotherhood's compound.[4]
Tohrment[]
Tohr first earned his half-brother's respect when he walked into a hail of gunfire to attack lessers who were trying to attack an injured Throe, even though he was in a suicidal frame of mind at the time.[4]
Trivia[]
- His weapon of choice is the scythe.
- One Halloween, Layla and he dressed up as Beauty and the Beast, respectively.[5]
- Member of the Survivors' Club
Appearances[]
- Lover Unleashed
- Lover Reborn
- Lover at Last
- The King
- The Shadows
- The Beast
- The Chosen
- Caldwell Courier Journal. Vol 1, Issue 2
- Lover Unveiled
- Lover Arisen