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Okay, so that o normals in his favor

"Marissa&039;s moved in"

"What?" He sank down onto theabout?"

"Havers kicked her out"

"Because of me?"

"Yup"

"That bastard¡ª"

"She&039;s here in the compound, so you don&039;t worry about her safety But she&039;s rattled as hell" There was a long silence "Cop? You there, my man?"

"Yeah" Butch fell back on the bed Realized his thigh et to her

"So like I said, she&039;s okay You want ht?"

Butch put his hand up to his eyes The idea that someone had hurt her in any way made him positively mental To the point of violence

"Butch? Hello?"

As Marissa settled into a canopied bed, she pulled the covers up to her neck and wished she weren&039;t naked Trouble was, she had no clothes

God, even though no one would bother her here, being bare just felt wrong Scandalous, though no one would ever know

She glanced around The rooiven was lovely, done in a delphiniu suitor repeated on the walls, the drapes, the bedcovers, the chair

Not exactly what she wanted to look at The two French lovers crowded her, striking her as not visual but audible, a chaotic staccato of what she didn&039;t have with Butch Wouldn&039;t ever have with Butch

To solve the probleht and closed her eyes And the ocular version of earplugs worked like a charin, what ato get worse Fritz and two other doggen had gone over to her brother&039;s¡ªto Havers&039;s¡ªand she half expected the Maybe Havers would decide to just get rid of her things in the meantime Like he&039;d done with her

While she lay there in the dark, she sifted through the rubble of her life, trying to see as still usable and what she had to abandon as unsalvageable All she found was depressing litter, a hodgepodge of unhappy ave her no direction She had absolutely no idea what she wanted to do or where she should go

And didn&039;t thatand hoping for ato fit in with the gly desperately to be sohter, someone&039;s mate All those expectations had been the laws of physics that had governed her life, ravity

Except where had trying to otten her? Orphaned, unht, then, her first rule for the rest of her days: no ht not have any clue who she was, but better to be lost and searching than shoved into a social box by so and she ju only because it refused to stop going off "Hello?"

"Madaen "You have a call froreat So he&039;d heard

"Madam?"

"Ah yes, I aiven him your direct dial Please hold"

There was a click and then that telltale gravel voice "Marissa? Are you okay?"

Not really, she thought, but it was none of his business "Yes, thank you Beth and Wrath have been very charitable to me"

"Listen, I want to see you"

"You do? Then ically disappeared? You ratulations"

He cursed "I&039;m worried about you"

"Kind of you, but¡ª"

"Marissa¡ª"

"¡ªouldn&039;t want to endanger me, would we?"

"Listen, I just¡ª"

"So you better stay away so I don&039;t get hurt¡ª"

"Da!"

She closed her eyes, mad at the world and at hiry, too, this conversation was a hand grenade about to go off

In a low voice she said, "I appreciate you checking in on me, but I&039;m fine"

"Shit"

"Yes, I believe that covers the situation well Good-bye, Butch"

As she hung up the phone, she realized she was shaking all over

The ringer went off again ilared at the bedside table With a quick lean-and-grab, she reached over and yanked the cord out of the wall

Shoving her body down through the sheets, she curled over on her side There was no way she was going to go to sleep, but she shut her eyes anyway

As she fuh everything was well, shit, to use Butch&039;s eloquent su pissed off was better than having a panic attack

Twenty minutes later, with his Sox cap pulled do and a pair of sunglasses in place, Butch walked up to a dark green &039;03 Honda Accord He looked left and right No one was in the alley There were no s on the buildings No cars passing by on Ninth Street

Bending down, he picked up a hunk of rock froround and punched a hole in the driver&039;s sideAs the alarm went apeshit, he stepped away fro The noise died off

He hadn&039;t stolen a car since he was sixteen and a juvenile delinquent in South Boston, but he was back in the groove now He walked over calot in The sequence that ca that cri he&039;d never quite lost: He ripped off the panel underneath the dash Found the wires Put the right two together and vroolass with his elbow and took off at a leisurely roll As his knees were nearly up to his chest, he reached down, hit the release and shoved the seat back as far as it could go Propping his ar air, he leaned back, all casual

When he got to the stop sign at the end of the alley, he hit the directional signal and ca traffic lahen you were in a stolen vehicle and had no ID on you wasa louie and headed down Ninth, he felt bad for whatever Joe he&039;d just royally fucked over Losing your wheels was not fun, and at the first stoplight he caistered to one Sally Forrester 1247 Barnstable Street

He vowed to return the Honda to her ASAP and leave her a couple of grand to cover the inconvenience and the busted

Speaking of busted things he tilted the rearview mirror toward himself Oh, Christ, he was a train wreck He needed a shave and his face was still a lass so he didn&039;t have to look at his road ly

Unfortunately, he still had a pretty clear picture of as doing

Heading out of town in Sally Forrester&039;s Accord, sporting a puss like a punching bag, he got nailed with a good shot of self-awareness that he didn&039;t appreciate He&039;d always straddled that line between good and bad, had always been willing to bend the rules to suit his purposes Hell, he&039;d cracked suspects around until they broke Turned a blind eye on occasion if it would get his even after he&039;d joined the force¡ªat least until he&039;d kicked his coke habit

Only no-no&039;s had been kickbacks and sexual favors in the line of duty

So, yeah, guess those twoafter a female whose life was already aall over her

Except he couldn&039;t stop himself After he&039;d called Marissa back on the phone over and over again, he&039;d been unable to keep himself from this road trip Obsessed before, noas possessed by her He just had to see if she was all right and well, hell, he was thinking maybe he could explain hi, though He truly seemed back to noriven himself a fresh slice in the ar, he&039;d had to check his blood The stuff had been red, thank God

He took a deep breath¡ªand then frowned Putting his nose down to his bicep, he inhaled again What the hell was this? Even with the wind rushing around in the car, and even through his clothes, he could s baby powder bullshit, which had fortunately faded Now there was so out of him

Christ Lately, it was like his body was a Glade PlugIn that couldn&039;t make its mind up But at least this spicy scent he liked¡ª

Whoa It couldn&039;t be No, it wasn&039;t Just wasn&039;t Right?

Absolutely not He took out his cell phone and hit speed dial As soon as he heard V&039;s "hello," he said, "Heads up, I&039; in"

There was a rasp and an inhale like Vishous had lit up "I&039; here?"

"Sally Forrester&039;s Honda"

"Whose?"

"No idea, I stole it Look, I&039;ht "Well, the lesser kind of strange I just need to see Marissa"

There was a long silence "I&039;ll let you in through the gates Hell, the mhis has kept those slayers off this property for seventy years, so it&039;s not like they could track you here And I don&039;t believe you&039;re coed?"

"Daht I&039;m not"

Butch repositioned the Sox cap, and as his wrist passed by his nose, he got another whiff of hi doith me"

"What?"

"I sne"

"Good for you Fe"

"Vishous, I s any, you feel me?"

There was silence on the line Then, "Human&039;s don&039;t bond"

"Oh, really You want to tell that to lands? They&039;d appreciate the news flash, I&039;m sure"

"You noticed it after you tere in that patient rooether?"

"It&039;s been worse since then, but I thought I s like it one other tiet into a car with a o?"

"Like three months Palmed a Glock when I saw it happen"

Silence "Butch, humans do not bond like we do"

"I know"

More silence Then, "Any chance you were adopted?"

"No And there are no fangs in the fa V, man, I drank some of you Are you sure that I haven&039;t become¡ª"

"Genetics is the only way That bite/turning thing&039;s just bullshit folklore Look, I&039;ll let you through the gates and we&039;ll talk after you see her Oh, and check it Wrath has no proble over lessers to find out what happened to you But he doesn&039;t want you involved"

Butch&039;s hand cranked hard on the steering wheel "Fuck That I spent hours earning the right for payback, V I bled for the right to knock those assholes around and get my own answers"

"Wrath¡ª"

"Is a nice guy, but he ain&039;tSo he can lay down on this"

"He just wants to protect you"

"Tell him I don&039;t need the favor"

V let off a foul-sounding line or two in the Old Language, then muttered, "Fine"

"Thank you"

"One last deet, cop Marissa&039;s a guest of the Brotherhood&039;s If she doesn&039;t want to see you, we&039;re going to haul your ass out, true?"

"If she doesn&039;t want to see me, I&039;ll leave on my own I swear"