Lover Revealed

couch.

'Fuck!' Butch leaped out of the strike zone as he nearly got swiped.

All he could do was call out Vishous's name as the brother struggled in the grip of whatever monster held him. Finally, something got through. Maybe the sound of Butch's voice. Maybe V knocked himself around hard enough to wake himself up.

As Vishous opened his eyes, he was panting and shivering, covered with fear sweat.

'My man?' When Butch knelt down and touched his friend on the shoulder, V shrank back, cowering. Which was the scariest part. 'Hey… easy, you're home. You're safe.'

V's stare, usually so cool and calm, was glassy. 'Butch… oh, my God. Butch… the death. The death… The blood down the front of my shirt. A shirt of mine…'

'Okay, just go easy. We're going to cool out here, big guy.' Butch clamped a hand under V's right armpit and hoisted the brother back on the couch. Poor bastard flopped against the leather cushions like a rag doll. 'Let's get you a drink.'

Butch headed for the galley kitchen, picked up a fairly clean glass off the counter, and rinsed it out. He filled the thing with cold water, even though V would no doubt rather it be Goose.

When he came back, Vishous was lighting up a cigarette with hands that were like flags in the wind.

As V took the glass, Butch said, 'You want something stronger?'

'Nah. This is good. Thanks, man.'

Butch sat down on the other end of the sofa. 'V, I think it's time we did something about this nightmare thing.'

'Not going there.' V inhaled deeply and let out a steady stream of smoke from his lips. 'Besides, I've got good news. Kind of.'

Butch would rather have stayed on the V dreamland shit, but that was clearly not happening. 'So talk. And you should have woken me up as soon as you—'

'Tried. You were out cold. Anyway…' Another exhale. This one more normal. 'You know I've looked into your past, right?'

'I figured.'

'Had to know what was doing, if you were going to live with me—with us. I traced your blood back to Ireland. Lot of pasty-white bog people in your veins, cop.'

Butch got real still. 'Did you find… anything else?'

'Not when I searched nine months ago. And not when I retraced you an hour ago.'

Oh. Buzz kill. Although, Christ, what was he thinking? He wasn't a vampire. 'So why are we talking about this?'

'You sure you don't have any weird-ass stories in your family? Especially back in Europe? You know, some female in your line getting pinched at night? Maybe a pregnancy that came out of the blue? Like someone's daughter who disappeared and maybe came back with a child?'

Actually, there hadn't been a lot of O'Neal lore passed along. For his first twelve years, his mother had been busy raising six kids and working as a nurse. Then after Janie's murder, Odell had been too shattered to carry stories. And his father? Yeah, right. Pulling nine to five for the telephone company and then hitting the night shift as a security guard didn't make for a lot of quality chat time with the kidlets: When Eddie O'Neal had been home, he'd been drinking or asleep.

'I don't know of anything.'

'Well, here's the deal, Butch.' V inhaled, then talked through the smoke as he breathed out. 'I want to see if you've got any of us in you.'

Whoa. 'But you know my family tree, right? And wouldn't my blood tests at the clinic, or even throughout my life, have shown something?'

'Not necessarily and I have a very precise way of finding out. It's called ancestor regression.' V brought up his glowing hand and clenched it into a fist. 'Goddamn, I hate this thing. But this is how we do it.'

Butch eyed the scorched coffee table. 'You're going to torch me like kindling.'

'I'll be able to channel it to the purpose. Not saying it will be fun for you, but it shouldn't kill you. Bottom line? That shit with Marissa and the feeding and the way you reacted to it? The fact that you're telling me you throw off scent around her? Plus, god knows, you're aggressive enough. Who knows what we'll find.'

Something warm tingled in Butch's chest. Something like hope. 'And what if I have a vampire relative?'

'Then we might…'V took a very deep drag on the hand-rolled. 'We might be able to turn you.'

Holy. Shit. 'I thought you couldn't do that.'

V nodded over at a thigh-high stack of leather volumes by the computers. 'There is something in the Chronicles. If you've got some of our blood in you, we can give it a shot. It's very risky, but we could try.'

Man, Butch was so on board with that plan. 'Let's do the regression. Now.'

'Can't. Even if you have the DNA, we need to get clearance from the Scribe Virgin before we even think about jump-starting any kind of change. That kind of shit is not to be done lightly, and there's the added complication of what the lessers did to you. If she won't allow us to proceed, it won't matter whether you've got relatives with fangs, and I don't want to put you through an ancestor regression if there's nothing we can do about it.'

'How long until we know?'

'Wrath said he'd talk to her tonight.'

'Jesus, V. I hope—'

'I want you to take some time and think about this. The regression is a bitch to go through. Your brain's going to stroke out on us and I understand the pain's no party. And you might want to talk to Marissa about it, also.'

Butch thought of her. 'Oh, I'll get through it. You don't worry about that.'

'Don't get cocky—'

'I'm not. This has to work.'

'Might well not, though.' V stared at the lit tip of his hand-rolled. 'Assuming you come out the other-side of the regression okay, and we can find a living relative of yours to use to jump-start the change, you could die in the middle of the transition. There's only a small chance you'll survive.'

'I'll do it.'

V laughed in a short burst. 'I can't decide whether you have serious balls or a death wish.'

'Never underestimate the power of self-hatred, V. It's a hell of a motivator. Besides, we both know what the only other option is.'

As their stares met, Butch knew V was thinking the same thing he was: No matter what the risks were, anything was better than Vishous having to kill him outright because he had to leave.

'I'm going to Marissa now.'

Butch paused on his way out the door to the tunnel. 'You sure there isn't something we can do about these dreams of yours?'

'You got enough on your plate.'

'I'm an excellent multitasker, buddy.'

'Go to your female, cop. Don't worry about me.'

'You're such a pain in the ass.'

'Said the SIG to the Glock.'

Butch cursed and hit the tunnel, trying not to be totally pumped. When he got to the big house, he went up to the second floor and passed by Wrath's study. On impulse, he knocked on the jamb. After the king called out, Butch was in there maybe ten minutes tops before he went on to Marissa's room.

He was about to knock when someone said, 'She's not there.'

He pivoted around and saw Beth coming out of the sitting room at the end of the hall, a vase of flowers in her hands.

'Where is Marissa?' he asked.

'She went with Rhage to check out her new place.'

'What new place?'

'She's rented a house for herself. About seven miles from here.'