Lover Revealed (Black Dagger Brotherhood #4)(74)

When his cell phone started ringing in his pocket, he palmed the Razr. “Yeah?”

V’s voice was low. “Sorry you had to walk in on that. I didn’t expect you to come—”

“V, what happens when a vampire doesn’t feed?”

There was a pause. “Nothing good. You get tired, real damn tired. And the hunger hurts. Think food poisoning. Waves of pain rolling through your gut. If you let it get too out of hand, you turn into an animal. It gets dangerous.”

“I’ve heard those stories about Zsadist, back before he got with Bella. He lived off humans, right? And I know for a fact those women didn’t die. I’d see them back in the club after he was finished with them.”

“You thinking of your girl?”

“Yeah.”

“Look, you headed for a drink?”

“More than one.”

“I’ll meet you.”

When Butch pulled into ZeroSum’s parking lot, V was waiting by the side of the club, smoking a hand-rolled. Butch got out and triggered the Escalade’s alarm.

“Cop.”

“V.” Butch cleared his throat and tried not to think about what his roommate looked like feeding and having sex. He failed. All he saw was Vishous over that female, dominating her, pumping into her, his body moving like a piston.

Man, he was going to have to readjust his definition of hard-core, thanks to that eyeful.

V drew hard on his cigarette, then put it out on the heel of his shitkicker and slipped the butt into his back pocket. “You ready to go in?”

“Christ, yes.”

The bouncers let them bypass the wait line and then they walked through the club’s writhing, sweating, oversexed crowd to the VIP section. Within moments, and without an order, a waitress brought over a Lagavulin double and some Grey Goose.

As V’s phone went off and he started talking, Butch glanced around—only to stiffen with a curse. In the corner, in the dim shelter of some shadow, he saw that tall, muscled female. And Rehvenge’s head of security was watching him, her eyes burning like she wanted a repeat of the bathroom action they’d had.

Not going to happen.

Butch looked down into his glass as V clipped his phone shut. “That was Fritz. Message from Marissa to you.”

Butch’s head jacked up. “What she say?”

“She wants you to know that she’s okay. Said she needs to lay low for tonight, but she’ll be fine tomorrow. Said she doesn’t want you to worry and she…ah, she loves you and you didn’t do anything wrong when you did whatever you did.” He cleared his throat. “So what did you do? Or is that TMI?”

“Wicked TMI.” Butch tossed his drink back and held his empty glass up. The waitress came immediately.

As she took off to get him a freshie, he looked down at his hands. And felt V’s eyes boring into him.

“Butch, she’s going to need more than you can give her.”

“Zsadist survived on—”

“Z drank from a lot of different humans. You’re just the one. Thing is, because your blood is so weak, she’ll drain you in no time because she’ll have to do it so often.” V took a deep breath. “Look, she can use me if you want. You can even be there so you know what happens. Sex doesn’t have to be involved.”

Butch tilted his head and focused on his roommate’s jugular. Then he imagined Marissa at that thick neck, the two of them together. Intertwined.

“V, you know I love you like a brother, right?”

“Yeah.”

“You feed her and I’ll tear your f*cking throat out.”

V smirked, then broke into a full smile. The grin was so wide he had to cover his fangs with the back of his gloved hand. “’Nuff said, my man. And just as well. I’ve never let someone take my vein before.”

Butch frowned. “Never?”

“Nope. I’m a vascular virgin. Personally, I hate the idea of some female feeding off me.”

“Why?”

“Not my bag.” Butch opened his mouth and V held up his hand. “Enough. Just know I’m here if you change your mind and want to use me.”

Not going to happen, Butch thought. Ever.

Taking a deep breath, he thanked God for Marissa’s message. And he’d been right: She’d kicked him out because she needed to feed. That had to be it. Man, he was sorely tempted to head back home, except he wanted to respect her wishes and not behave like a stalker. Besides, tomorrow night, assuming this was about blood…well, then he had something for her, didn’t he.

She was going to drink from him.

When the waitress came back with more Scotch, Rehvenge showed up at the table with her. The male’s massive body blocked out the view of the crowd which meant Butch couldn’t see the guy’s security officer. Which meant he could take a deep breath.

“My people keeping you wet enough?” Rehv asked.

Butch nodded. “Very wet.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” The Reverend slid into the booth, his amethyst eyes scanning the VIP section. He looked good, his suit black, his silk shirt black, his mohawk a dark cropped stripe that ran front to back on his skull. “So I want to share a little news.”

“You getting married?” Butch tossed back half the new Lag. “Where you registered? Crate and Bury ’Em?”