Lover Revealed

'Man, cop,' the brother said. 'You really going to do this?'

As Butch nodded, Vishous stepped in front of him and started to take off his glove. 'Need you to lose the shirt, buddy.'

Butch stripped to the waist, tossing his Turnbull & Asser on the sofa. 'Can I keep the cross on?'

'Yup, shouldn't melt. Much.' V shoved his glove into his back pocket, then whipped his black belt from his hips and held the leather strap out to Rhage. 'I want you to put this thing in his mouth and hold it in place so he doesn't crack his teeth. But don't make any contact with him. You're going to get a sunburn anyway, being this close.'

Rhage stepped in behind, but the sound of knocking on the doors interrupted everything.

Marissa's voice drifted through the wood panels. 'Butch? Wrath?' More knocking. Getting louder. 'My lord? Is there something going on?'

Wrath cocked an eyebrow at Butch, who replied, 'Let me talk to her.'

As Wrath willed the doors open, Marissa burst into the room. She took one look at V's ungloved hand and Butch's bare chest and went white as snow.

'What are you doing to him?'

Butch walked up to her. 'We're going to find out if I have something of your kind in me.'

Her mouth fell open. Then she wheeled on Wrath. 'Tell them no. Tell them they can't do this. Tell them —'

'It's his choice, Marissa.'

'It will kill him!'

'Marissa,' Butch said, 'it's worth the risk to find out about me.'

She pivoted toward him, her stare furious, positively glowing with light. There was a pause. Then she slapped him across the face.

'That is for not caring about yourself.' Without taking a breath, she slapped him again, another crack echoing into the ceiling. 'And that is for not telling me what you were doing.'

Pain blazed in his cheek, throbbed to the beat of his heart.

'Can you boys give us a minute?' he said softly, eyes not leaving her pale face.

When the brothers disappeared, Butch tried to take her hands, but she snapped them back, wrapping her arms around herself.

'Marissa… this is the only way out I can see.'

'Way out of what?'

'There's a chance I can be who you need me to be—'

'Who I need you to be? I need you to be yourself! And I need you to be alive!'

'This is not going to kill me.'

'Oh, and you've done it before, so you know that for sure? I'm so relieved.'

'I have to do this.'

'You do not—'

'Marissa,' he snapped. 'You want to put yourself in my shoes? You want to try on for size the idea that you love me but I have to be with someone else, live off someone else, while you can do nothing about it, month after month, year after year? You want to think about what it's like to know that you're going to die first and leave me alone? You want to be a second-class citizen in the world I live in?'

'So you're saying you'd rather be dead than be with me?'

'I told you, this isn't going to—'

'But what comes next? You think I can't follow the logic? If you find out you've got a vampire descendant, you mean to tell me you aren't going to try something truly stupid?'

'I love you too much—'

'Goddamn it! If you loved me, you wouldn't do this to yourself. If you loved me—' Marissa's voice cracked. 'If you loved me…'

Tears welled in her eyes, and with a jerky movement, she clamped her hands on her face and trembled. Just shook all over.

'Baby… it's going to be all right.' Thank God, she let him put his arms around her. 'Baby—'

'I am so angry at you right now,' she said into his chest. 'You're an arrogant, prideful fool who's breaking my heart.'

'I'm a man who wants to take care of his woman.'

'Like I said… a goddamned fool. And you promised, no more protecting me by leaving me out.'

'I'm really sorry, I just wanted to tell you when it was over. And I trust V with my life, I truly do. I'm not going to kick it over this.' He tilted her face up and thumbed away her tears. 'I just keep thinking about the future. I'm thirty-seven and I've led a hard-drinking, hard-smoking life. I could be dead in ten years, who knows?'

'And if you die now, I will have missed out on that decade. I want those years with you.'

'But I want centuries. Aeons. And I want you to stop feeding off of… Rehvenge.'

She closed her eyes and shook her head. 'I told you it's not romantic—'

'On your side. But can you honestly say that he doesn't want you?' When she didn't reply, he nodded. 'That's what I thought. I don't blame him, but I don't like it. Even though… shit, you probably should be with someone like him, someone from your class.'

'Butch, I don't care about the glymera anymore. I'm shut out of that life now, and you know what? It's for the better. In fact, I should thank Havers for forcing me to be independent. He did me a favor.'

'Yeah, well, no offense, but I still want to beat his ass.'

As he squeezed her harder, she sighed into his pecs. 'What are they going to do if you have some of the race in you?'

'Let's talk about that afterward.'

'No.' She pushed him back. 'You do not shut me out. You want to do this for us? Then I get a vote, damn it. We talk about it now.'

He shoved a hand through his hair and braced himself. 'They're going to try and jump-start the change if I do.'

Her mouth opened slowly. 'How?'

'V says he can do it.'

'How?'

'I don't know. We haven't gotten that far.'

Marissa stared at him for a long time, and he knew she was tallying his fuckups. After a moment, she said, 'You broke your promise to me by keeping me out of all this.'

'I… Yeah, I blew it.' He put his palm over his heart. 'But I swear, Marissa, I was going to come to you once I knew whether we had a shot at it. I never had any intention of going into the transition without talking to you first. I swear.'

'I don't want to lose you.'

'I don't want to be lost.'

As she glanced at the door, silence expanded in the room until he could have sworn it became tangible, brushing against his skin like cold fog.

Finally, she said, 'If you're going to do the regression, I want to be in the room.'

Butch released his breath in a rush. 'Come here, I need to hold you for a sec.'

Pulling her to him, he wrapped his body around hers. Her shoulders were stiff, but her arms gripped him around the waist. Hard.

'Butch?'

'Yeah?'

'I'm not sorry I slapped you.'

He dropped his head into her neck. 'I deserved it.'

As he pressed his lips to her skin, he breathed in deep, trying to hold her scent not just in his lungs but in his blood. When he pulled back, he looked at the vein running up her neck and thought, Oh, God… please