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We stand side by side as the parachute comes out and the rocket drifts back to earth and into the rose garden. As it floats down, swinging gently from side to side, the glow at its tip tells us its location relative to the house . . . and abruptly I know without asking the reason why he likes to aim them toward the mansion. With all the security lights, he could easily find them anywhere on the grounds. But Butch likes home . . . and he wants to send these models he spends hours working on back to where he loves and needs to be. After having been without a family or a place in the world for so long, now he has his parachute, his slow, easy ride after a blistering meteoric rise . . . and it’s the people in that mansion.

Butch:

(grinning at me) Damn, wish we had another, don’t you?

J.R.:

(wanting to hug him) Absolutely, Butch. I absolutely do.

Lover Revealed

The People:

Butch O’Neal

Marissa

Vishous

The Scribe Virgin

The Omega

Mr. X

Van Dean

Wrath and Beth

Zsadist

Rehvenge

John Matthew

Blaylock

Qhuinn

Xhex

Lash

Ibex, Lash’s father and the glymera’s Leahdyre

Havers

José de la Cruz

Mother and child

Joyce (O’Neal) and Mike Rafferty

Odell O’Neal

Places of Interest (all in Caldwell, NY, unless otherwise specified):

The Brotherhood mansion, undisclosed location

The Tomb, on the mansion property

Havers’s clinic, undisclosed location

Brotherhood training center, on the mansion property

ZeroSum (comer of Trade and Tenth streets)

The Commodore, luxury high rise

Blaylock’s bedroom

Ibex/Lash’s home

Safe Place, undisclosed location

Summary:

Butch O’Neal finds his true destiny as a vampire and a Brother while falling in love with Marissa, a beautiful aristocrat.

Craft comments:

Butch O’Neal had me from the moment I first saw him in Dark Lover, when he’s investigating Darius’s bomb scene. This description of him is from Beth’s point of view, and what I liked so much about him was how he tackled his gum:

“So, Randall, what’s doing?” He popped a piece of gum in his mouth, wadding up the foil into a tight little ball. His jaw went to work like he was frustrated, not so much chewing as grinding.

—DARK LOVER, p. 26

Butch’s aggression was palpable, and in my opinion that’s hot. And my attraction to him only deepened when he arrested Billy Riddle, the young guy who attacked Beth on her way home from work. Here, Billy, who maintained Beth “wanted it,” is facedown on the floor in his hospital room, and Butch is reading the kid his Miranda rights while cuffing him:

“Do you have any idea who my father is?” Billy yelled, as if he’d gotten a second wind. “He’s going to have your badge!”

“If you can’t afford [an attorney], one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights as I’ve stated them?”

“Fuck you!”

Butch palmed the back of the guy’s head and pressed that busted nose into the linoleum. “Do you understand these rights as I’ve stated them?”

Billy moaned and nodded, leaving a smear of fresh blood on the floor.

“Good. Now let’s get your paperwork done. I’d hate not to follow proper police procedure.”

—DARK LOVER, p. 37

Butch O’Neal was absolutely my kind of guy—a hard-ass renegade who, although he didn’t always follow the rules, had his own code of honor.

Plus he’s a Red Sox fan, too, so there you go.

The heroes in the Brotherhood books are not perfect, not by a long shot: For example, Wrath almost kills Butch in Dark Lover, and Rhage had a sex addiction, and Zsadist was a misogynistic sociopath before he met Bella, and Phury’s got a drug problem. The thing is, however, they have heroic qualities in addition to these faults, and that’s what makes them attractive.

I write alpha males. Always have. The Brothers, though, are ALPHA males, if that makes sense. Maybe part of it is me getting in touch with rule two (Write Out Loud) such that everything in the BDB books is pushed as far as it can go, including the heroes and their actions.