Fractured (Deep In Your Veins, #5)(55)

“He wants Imani to visit him again,” said Butch. “He’ll drip feed us info so that he gets to see her.”

“I’ll talk to him again tomorrow. He might tell us where The Order is based.” Not that I was particularly optimistic about that.

“What did you get from him, Fletch?” Sam asked.

Fletcher put his empty NST bottle on the coffee table. “Given everything he’s done, I expected him to be hollow inside. He’s not. There’s a lot going on in that dark mind. But even though his emotions are intense, they lack any real depth. He despises Butch, which I doubt comes as a surprise to anyone. He probably sees him as an interloper.”

“He sees Imani as a possession,” said Butch.

“He does want to own her, but it’s more than that.” Fletcher turned to me. “He has this nagging sense of boredom, but you stimulate him. Amuse him. Even soften him a bit. You’re important to him. He cares for you about as much as he’s capable of caring for someone; it’s more like he’s formed an attachment to you. What I know is that the bloke wouldn’t cause you physical harm. He sees himself as your protector.”

Well that blew a lot of theories out of the water.

Jared exhaled heavily. “We’re missing something.”

Totally. Hopefully Marco would give us the missing pieces of this shitty puzzle, but having that knowledge gave him power; I very much doubted he’d want to give that up.

“You look tired,” Sam told me.

At dusk, I’d felt great. But my strength had waned as the night went on. The good news was… “I’m not as tired as I was last night.” I’d take that as a win.

“If you want to postpone your conversation with Lazarus and Annalise, it’s totally fine,” she assured me.

Shit, I’d completely forgotten about that. “I want to talk to him.” I had some questions for him, like had Juliet been telling the truth about Marco and had Lazarus lied to me all these years?

Sam, Jared, Butch, and I headed to the Grand High Pair’s office, where Jared set up the teleconference call. Soon enough, the faces of Lazarus and Annalise were on one of the monitor screens.

“Imani, you cannot imagine how relieved I am to see you alive,” said Lazarus.

Annalise nodded. “My beautiful girl, I am so sorry for what happened to you. It grieves me that you were harmed in such a way and right under my roof.”

I shrugged. “What’s done is done.”

“I see that the cure did not work.” Lazarus’ eyes narrowed. “Although your irises lost the amber glow. In what other ways have you changed? How is it that you survived the transition?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

Annalise looked at Sam. “Have you questioned Marco, Tait, and Juliet? People came forward to say the three were nowhere near Imani during the concert.”

“We all know that doesn’t mean they weren’t behind what happened to Imani,” said Sam.

“Yes,” sighed Lazarus. “But I’m unable to prove it. As much as I want vengeance for Imani, I cannot brand someone guilty unless I can be certain that they are. My gut tells me it was Tait, but if I punish her based on my gut and it turns out I was wrong, the person who is truly responsible would go unpunished. Imani would then not have the justice she deserves.”

“You won’t need to punish her, Lazarus,” said Sam. “That’s our show.”

He stilled. “They, including Imani, are my vampires. The punishment is mine to deliver.”

“Wrong. Come on, Lazarus, did you think I brought them here for tea, cakes, and a pop quiz?”

“I have witnessed via V-Tube your idea of interrogations. I do not want my vampires subjected to that—not when at least two of them are innocent.”

“I’m not asking for your permission, Lazarus.”

“I do not appreciate you taking over this situation.”

Sam leaned forward. “Do you really think I give a flying f*ck about what you appreciate? Whoever injected Imani did so believing the serum would kill her. I take an attack on my vampires very seriously. An attack on my friend? That’s a mistake of epic proportions, so do not f*ck with my patience.”

Sinking back into her chair, she went on, “It’s really not me you should be worried about. Butch is exponentially pissed, and there won’t be any way of holding him back from slaughtering the person responsible for what happened to Imani. Not that I’ll try to hold him back.”

“No one could hold me back,” Butch told him. “And I don’t f*cking like it that you don’t seem as anxious to find out who hurt Imani as you should. Part of me wonders if you’re just so curious to understand how Imani survived that it’s overridden your concern. And part of me wonders if what you’d love to do most right now is take her to a lab and perform test after test until you finally find out why she survived what others didn’t—and just what exactly she’s become.”

If Annalise’s downcast expression was much to go by, Butch was right about the latter. And he clearly knew it, because a growl rumbled out of him that caused the siblings to tense. “She’s a person, not a f*cking lab rat. There’ll be no testing her; she’s been through enough.”

“I wholeheartedly agree,” Annalise assured him. “And so does Lazarus.” Her brother didn’t confirm that but nor did he deny it.