Lover Revealed (Black Dagger Brotherhood #4)(51)

“Come on, V. When I’ve whacked out, you’ve been there for me. This is no different.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Because it’s you.”

“Bingo.” Man, V simply couldn’t talk about this shit. He, who spoke sixteen languages, just had no words for the mind-bending fear he had over the future: Butch’s. His own. The whole race’s. His visions of what was coming had always pissed him off, but they were a strange comfort, too. Even if he didn’t like what was around the bend, at least he’d never been surprised.

Rhage’s hand landed on his shoulder and he jumped. “Last Meal, Vishous. You show or I’m picking you up like mail, dig?”

“Yeah. Fine. Now get the f*ck out of here.”

As soon as Rhage left, V went back to the laptop and sat down. Except instead of returning to IT land, he called Butch’s new phone.

The cop’s voice was all gravel. “Hey, V.”

“Hey.” V held his phone between his ear and his shoulder and poured himself some vodka. As the juice hit the glass, there was the sound of shuffling over the line, like Butch was rolling over in bed or maybe taking his jacket off.

They were silent for a long time, nothing but an open cellular connection.

And then V had to ask, “Did you want to be with them? You feel like you should be with the lessers?”

“I don’t know.” Deep inhale. Long, slow exhale. “I won’t front. I recognized those bastards. Felt them. But when I was looking into the eyes of that slayer, I did want to destroy him.”

V lifted his glass. As he swallowed, the vodka burned down his throat in the nicest possible way. “How you feeling?”

“Not so hot. Queased out. Like I lost some ground.” More silence. “Is this what you dreamed of? Back in the beginning, when you said I was supposed to come with the Brotherhood…did you dream of me and the Omega?”

“No, I saw something else.”

Although with everything that was going down, he couldn’t see a path to what had been shown to him, couldn’t see it on a lot of levels: The vision had been of him naked and Butch wrapped around him, the two of them high up in the sky, entwined in the midst of a cold wind.

Jesus Christ, he was deranged. Deranged and perverted. “Look, I’ll come at sundown and hit you with a little hand action.”

“Good. That always helps.” Butch cleared his throat. “But V, I can’t sit here and just wait this out. I want to go on the offensive. What say we pick up a few lessers and work them over, get them to do some talking for a change.”

“Hard-core, cop.”

“You get a look at what they did to me? You think I’m worried about the frickin’ Geneva Convention?”

“Lemme talk to Wrath first.”

“Do it soon.”

“Today.”

“Good deal.” There was another long silence. “So…you got some tube in this place?”

“Flat screen’s up on the wall to the left of the bed. Remote’s…I don’t know where it is. I don’t usually…yeah, TV’s not on my mind when I’m there.”

“V, man, what is this setup?”

“Pretty self-explanatory, don’t you think?”

There was a little chuckle. “I guess this was what Phury was talking about, huh?”

“When he said what?”

“That you were into some kinky shit.”

V had a sudden vision of Butch on top of Marissa, the male’s body surging while she gripped his ass with her beautiful hands.

Then he saw Butch’s head lift up and heard in his mind the hoarse, erotic moan that broke free of his roommate’s lips.

Despising himself, Vishous hammered a shot of vodka and quickly poured another. “My sex life is private, Butch. So are my…unconventional interests.”

“I hear ya. No one’s biz but yours. One question, though.”

“What.”

“When the females tie you down, do they paint your toenails and shit? Or just do your makeup?” As V laughed in a loud crack, the cop said, “Wait…they tickle your pits with a feather, right?”

“Smart-ass.”

“Hey, I’m just curious.” Butch’s own laughter faded. “Do you hurt them, though? I mean…”

More with the vodka. “It’s all about consent. And I don’t cross the line.”

“Good. Little freaky for my Catholic ass, granted…’cept, hey, it’s whatever gets you off.”

V swirled the Goose around in his glass. “So, cop, mind if I ask you something?”

“Fair’s fair.”

“Do you love her?”

After a while, Butch muttered, “Yeah. Fuck me, but yeah.”

As the laptop’s screen saver came on, V put his fingertip on the mouse square and interrupted the metastasizing pipes. “What’s that feel like?”

There was a grunt as if Butch were rearranging himself and was stiff as a board. “Hell, right at this moment.”

V played with the arrow on the screen, making it whip around the desktop. “You know…I like her with you. The two of you make sense to me.”

“Except for the fact that I’m a blue-collar human who could be part lesser, I’d say I agree with you.”