Fractured (Deep In Your Veins, #5)(65)

His jaw hardened and I thought he’d argue again. Instead, he sighed. “Fine.”

Apparently he was learning the need to respect my choices. Progress. “It’s not—” The rhythmic tapping of knuckles on the door made me smile. There was only one person I knew who knocked like that. “It’s Fletcher.”

Still sullen and broody, Butch grunted. Whatever.

Putting down my fork, I hurried to the door and opened it. Fletcher and Norm both pranced inside, beaming. They did those air-kissing things. Noticing Butch, they each waved at him. He tipped his chin at them.

Fletcher leaned close as he asked me quietly. “What’s he sulking about?”

But Butch heard him. “I do not sulk.”

“Of course not,” Fletcher assured him. “No one would ever imply otherwise.”

I blinked as Norm thrust a bag at me. “What’s this?”

“I saw it and immediately thought of you,” Norm told me with a wink.

It had to be raunchy underwear. He liked to pick things like that up for me and the girls. With a smile, I delved into the bag and pulled out something black and soft…and my stomach sank. Fuck.

Instantly sensing my mood shift, Butch blurred to my side. “You okay, baby?”

No, I wasn’t. “I was wearing this vest in my vision.” That meant the battle could happen at any point from this night onwards.

Butch cursed. “Call Sam.”

After assuring a distressed Norm that he hadn’t done anything wrong, I called Sam’s cell phone. Like Butch, she cursed…only she did it better and with more creativity.

“We still don’t know when the attack’s coming,” began Sam, “but we’ve ran out of time to really prepare for it.”

“No, we’ve trained harder than we ever have before.”

“But we don’t know whether that will be enough against a drove of fire-breathing creatures. Imani, I don’t mean to pressure you, but we really need you to get something out of Marco.”

“I’ll get him to talk.” I wasn’t yet sure how, but I would.

“Jared will be waiting at the entrance of the cells in ten minutes.”

“We’ll be there.” Ending the call, I turned to Butch. “Now I really, really have to do this.”

He curled a stray lock of hair around my ear. “I know. I just wish this wasn’t on your shoulders. It isn’t fair to you.”

Better my shoulders than his. But I didn’t say that aloud, because it would probably piss him off.

As Sam had promised, Jared was waiting near the entrance when we arrived. He gave me a grim smile that said that, like Butch, he didn’t expect this meeting to achieve anything. Presumably Jared was eager to get this over with, because he teleported us straight outside Marco’s containment cell. Both males then backed up, moving to stand against the wall behind me.

Marco shot off the mattress and walked to the glass with a wide smile. “Sweetheart, you didn’t come to see me last night. That wasn’t nice.”

“I wasn’t sure you’d have anything helpful to say.”

“And I suppose Sam and Jared wanted to take some time to check out what I told you.”

To be fair… “It’s not beneath you to waste our time to prolong your life.”

“No, it isn’t. But everything I told you was the truth.”

“So it would seem.” I took one step toward the glass. “You said you’d tell me more if I came back. Here I am.”

“I said I’d tell you more if you came back last night. You didn’t.”

I gritted my teeth. “We don’t have time for this, Marco. Or do you want this war to take place?”

He thought about it for a moment. “Nah. Wars are messy. People die.”

“I didn’t think you’d care if people die.”

“I care if you die.”

Recalling that Fletcher said Marco considered himself my protector, I spoke, “You can see I’m partly human now. That makes me vulnerable. I might not have asked for this life, but I don’t want it to end. Still, I’m part of the legion now. You know what that means. If there’s a war, I will be fighting in it—vulnerable or not.”

The amber tint to his irises flared.

“So help me avoid a war and tell me where The Order is based.”

“You’re not stupid, Imani. Where do you think they’ll be?”

“How the hell would I know?”

“Ask yourself this question: if you were a group of vampires who tried to blend with humans, despised your kind and conspired to destroy them all, where would you stay?”

Well, when he put it like that… “Somewhere away from vampires. Neutral ground.”

His eyes brightened. “Very good.”

“There has to be hundreds of spots all over the globe that are free of vampires.”

“Yes, but why are those spots free of us?”

“Most have already been claimed by other species of preternatural. They won’t share their territory with vampires.” Especially shifters and demons.

“So then, where will The Order be based?”

“In a place that’s totally unclaimed.”

“Good girl. In one of those places, you’ll find The Order.”