Wrath’s eyes strained to focus on V’s face, but the security light over the door was a fluorescent and the glow from the thing stung like a bitch. “You don’t know what the dream means.”
“And neither do you.”
Wrath thought of the weight of that civilian in his arms. “It could be nothing-”
“Ask me when I first had the vision.”
“-but a fear you have.”
“Ask me. When I had the vision first.”
“When.”
“Nineteen oh nine. It’s been a hundred years since I saw it first. Now ask me how many times I’ve had it this past month.”
“No.”
“Seven times, Wrath. This afternoon was the final straw.”
Wrath broke out of the Brother’s hold. “I’m leaving now. If you follow me, you’re going to find a fight.”
“You can’t go out alone. It’s not safe.”
“You’re kidding me, right.” Wrath glared through his wraparounds. “Our race is failing and you want to bust my balls for going after our enemy? Fuck that for a laugh. I’m not getting stuck behind some bitch-ass desk pushing papers while my brothers are out there actually doing something-”
“But you’re the king. You’re more important than us-”
“The hell I am! I’m one of you! I was inducted, I drank of the Brothers and they of me, I want to fight!”
“Look, Wrath…” V assumed a tone that was so reasonable it made a guy want to knock all his teeth out. With an ax. “I know exactly what it’s like not to want to be who you’re born as. You think I get off on having these fucked-up dreams? You think this lightsaber of mine is a party?” He held up his gloved hand as if the visual aid was a value-add to their “discussion.” “You can’t change who you are. You can’t undo the coupling of whatever parents you had. You’re the king, and the rules apply differently to you, and that’s the way it is.”
Wrath did his best to cop to V’s calm, cool, and collected. “And I say I’ve been fighting for over three hundred years, so I’m not exactly a greenhorn out there in the field. I’d also like to point out that being king doesn’t mean I lose the right to choose-”
“You have no heir. And from what I hear from my shellan, you shut Beth down when she told you she wanted to try for one when she has her first needing. Shut her down hard. How did she say you put it? Oh…right. ‘I don’t want any young in the foreseeable future…if at all.’”
Wrath’s breath exhaled in a rush. “I can’t believe you just went there.”
“Bottom line? You end up dead? The fabric of the race’s society is going to unravel, and if you think that’s going to help in the war, you’ve got your head so far up your ass you’re using your colon as a mouthpiece. Face it, Wrath. You are the beating heart of all of us…so, no, you can’t just go out there and fight alone because you want to. Shit don’t work like that for you-”
Wrath grabbed onto the Brother’s lapels and slammed him against the clinic. “Watch it, V. You’re walking a damn fine line of disrespect here.”
“If you think roughing me up is going to change things, have at me. But I’ll guarantee you that after the punches are over and we’re both bleeding on the ground, the situation will be exactly the same. You can’t change who you’re born.”
In the background, Butch stepped out of the Escalade and jacked up his belt like he was getting ready to break up a fistfight.
“The race needs you above ground, asshole,” V said. “Don’t make me pull the trigger on you, because I will.”
Wrath shifted his weak eyes back to V. “I thought you wanted me alive and kicking. Besides, shooting me would be treason and punishable by death. No matter whose son you are.”
“Look, I’m not saying you shouldn’t-”
“Shut it, V. For once, just shut your damn mouth.”
Wrath let go of the guy’s leather jacket and stepped back. Jesus Christ, he had to leave or this confrontation was going to escalate into exactly what Butch was bracing himself for.
Wrath jammed a finger in V’s face. “Don’t follow me. We clear? You don’t follow me.”
“You stupid fool,” V said with total exhaustion. “You’re the king. We all must follow you.”
Wrath dematerialized with a curse, his molecules scrambling across town. As he traveled, he couldn’t believe V had thrown Beth and the baby thing under the bus. Or that Beth had shared that kind of private stuff with Doc Jane.