his fangs so very white. "What's doing... cousin."
Butch frowned. "What... ?"
"You've got some of me in you, cop." Wrath's smile stuck around as he slid his glasses back on. " 'Course, I always knew you were a royal. Just didn't think it went past the pain-in-the-ass part, is all."
"Are you... serious?"
Wrath nodded. "You're of my line, Butch. One of mine."
As Butch's chest got tight, he braced himself for another seizure. And so did everyone else: Rhage took the lollipop out and reached for the belt. Marissa and V tensed up.
But what came out of him was a rush of laughter. A ridiculous, belly-rolling, tear-up, stupid-idiot wave of happy hysteria.
Butch laughed and laughed and kissed Marissa's hand. Then laughed some more.
Marissa felt the satisfaction and the excitement humming through Butch's body as he let loose. But when he beamed up at her, she couldn't share his joy.
He lost his smile. "Baby, it's going to be all right."
Vishous got to his feet. "Why don't we give you guys a minute alone?"
"Thank you," she said.
After the Brothers left, Butch sat up. "This is our chance-"
"If I asked, would you not do the transition?"
He froze. As if she'd slapped him again. "Marissa-"
"Would you?"
"Why don't you want me with you?"
"I do. And I would choose the future we have now over a hypothetical cast of centuries any day. Can't you understand that?"
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J R Ward: Lover Revealed
He blew out a long breath, his jaw tightening. "Christ, I love you."
Okay, so clearly he didn't find her logic appealing. "Butch, if I asked you, would you not do it?"
When he didn't reply, she covered her eyes, though she had no tears left in her.
"I love you," he repeated. "So, yeah... if you asked me not to, I wouldn't."
She lowered her hand, her breath catching. "Swear to this. Here and now."
"On my mother."
"Thank you..." She pulled him into her arms. "Oh, God... thank you. And we can work through the... feeding issue. Mary and Rhage have. I just... Butch, we can have a good future."
They were silent for a time, just sitting on the floor. Then from out of the blue, he said gruffly, "I have three brothers and a sister."
"Excuse me?"
"I've never talked to you about my family. I have three brothers and one sister. Well, there had been two girls, but then we lost one."
"Oh." She sat back, thinking his tone was very odd.
And his hollow voice gave her the total creeps as he said, "My earliest memory is of my sister Joyce coming home from the hospital as an infant. I wanted to check her out, and I ran to her crib, but my father shoved me back so my older brother and sister could look at her. As I bounced off the wall, dad picked up my brother and lifted him so he could touch her. I'll never forget my father's voice..." Butch's accent changed, the vowels flattening out. "This here's your sistah, Teddy. Yah gonna love'ah and take care'ahah. I thought, what about me? I would like to love her and take care of her. I said, Pa, I wanna help, too. He didn't even look at me."
Marissa realized she was squeezing Butch's hand so hard she must be bruising his bones, but he didn't seem to notice. And she couldn't loosen the hold.
"After that," he went on, "I started watching my father and my mom, watching how they were different with the other kids. Main thing was on Friday and Saturday nights. My father liked to drink, and I was the one he went for when he needed to knock something around." When Marissa gasped, Butch shook his head with a total lack of regard. "No, it's fine. It was good. I can suck back punches like you read about, thanks to him, and trust me, that's come in handy. So anyway, one Fourth of July... Hell, I was almost twelve then..." He rubbed his jaw, his beard growth scratching. "Yeah, the Fourth of July came and we were doing the family thing out at my uncle's on the Cape. My brother skims some beers from the cooler and he and his buddies go 'round back of the garage and crack them open. I hid in the bushes because I wanted to be invited in. You know... I hoped my brother would..." He cleared his throat. "When my father came looking for them, the other boys took off and my brother about crapped in his pants. My father just laughed. Told Teddy