"You do that," I said.
"So good of you to notice," he said. "But it is not I that has been living in your home for months, and from what I smell on Nathaniel when he comes into work, sharing your bed."
"Any of the wereleopards are welcome in the bedroom when they stay here It's like a big pile of puppies--it's not sexual."
"If you say so." His voice was soft, mocking.
"Damn you, Jean-Claude, you know I don't see Nathaniel that way."
He sighed, and it was heavy. "I think it is not me that you lie to, ma petite but yourself."
"I am not in love with Nathaniel."
"Did I ever say you were?"
"Then what are you talking about?"
He made a small exasperated sound. "Ma petite, you still believe that you must love every man that you come to physically. It is not so. You can have very pleasant, even wondrous sex with a friend. It does not have to be love."
I was shaking my head, realized he couldn't see it, and said, "I don't do casual sex, Jean-Claude, you know that."
"Whatever you are doing with Nathaniel, ma petite, it is not casual."
"I can't use him as my pomme de sang. I can't."
"Your morals have reared their ugly heads, ma petite, do not let them make you foolish."
I opened my mouth to protest everything he'd said, but closed it and just thought about what he'd said for a few seconds. Did I find Nathaniel attractive? Well, yeah. But I found a lot of men attractive. That didn't mean I had to be intimate with them.
"Ma petite, I can hear you breathing. What are you thinking?"
What he said made me think a new thought. "When we first married the marks I could almost read your mind, unless you concentrated to keep me out. Now it's not like that. Maybe the ardeur will be temporary, too."
"Perhaps, we can but hope."
"If I have the ardeur, I'll have to have sex. Isn't that what you wanted?"
"I would be a fool to deny that your enforced chastity is burdensome, but I would never willingly inflict the ardeur on anyone. It is a ... curse, ma petite. The blood lust that I feel can be sated. My body can only hold so much. But the ardeur, oh, ma petite, it is never truly satisfied. There is always that ache, that need. How could I wish that upon you? Though if our Monsieur Zeeman would cooperate, it might be the answer for the two of you to finally reach some permanent arrangement."
"What, move in together?"
"Perhaps." His voice was very careful when he said that one word.
"Richard and I can't be in a room for an hour without arguing, unless we are having sex. Somehow I don't think that makes for domestic bliss."
I felt the first emotion he'd let me feel over the phone--relief. He was relieved. "I want what is best for all of us, ma petite, but as things grow more complex, I am no longer certain what 'best' would be."
"Don't tell me your machinations didn't include some backup plan to cover every eventuality. You are the ultimate plotter, don't tell me you missed a trick."
"I watched Belle Morte fill your eyes with her fire. You are acquiring powers as if you were a Master Vampire, or a Master Lycanthrope. How could I have planned for any of this?"
There was a cold knot of fear in the center of my gut. "So you finally admit that you don't know what the hell is going on either."
"Oui, does that please you?" I heard the first stirrings of anger in his voice. "Are you happy now, ma petite? I am well and truly out of my depth. No one has ever tried to forge an alliance such as we have, an alliance not of master and two slaves, but of three equals. I do not think you appreciate how gentle I am when it comes to hoarding my power. The wolves are my animal to call. Many masters would have forced them to simply be an adjunct to their own vampires."
"Nikolaos's animal to call was rats, not wolves," I said. "By the time you took over as Master of the City, Marcus and Raina's pack was too strong for you to make them an adjunct to your power. Hell, until you replenished the vamps that I killed, they were probably more powerful than you and your vampires."
"Are you implying that the only reason I am not a tyrant is because I didn't have the strength of arms to make it so?"
I thought about that for a second, then said, "I'm not implying it, I'm saying it."
"You think so little of me?"
"I know what you were like two, almost three years ago, and I think then you would have consolidated your power base with very little regard for anyone that got in your way."
"Are you saying I am ruthless?"
"Practical," I said.
It was his turn to be quiet for a second or two, then, "Practical, yes, I am that, as are you, ma petite."
"I know what I am, Jean-Claude, it's you I'm not sure of."
"I would never willingly hurt you, ma petite."
"I believe you," I said.
"I am not sure the same can be said of you," he said, quietly.
"I don't want to hurt either of you. But Richard cannot harm my leopards, and if you do anything stupid, don't blame me for what happens next."
"I would never underestimate your level of ... practicality, ma petite, though I think Richard might."
"He told me I wouldn't kill him just for roughing up Nathaniel."
"How rough was Richard to little Nathaniel?"
"Don't talk about him like he's a child, Jean-Claude, and rough enough that I cut Richard's arm open."
"How badly?"
"The doc's stitching him up, even as we speak."
"Oh, dear," he said, and sighed, and this time the sound eased down my skin. I realized that he'd been behaving himself until now, at least about using his voice.
"No more games, Jean-Claude. I want to put Richard on the phone, and you tell him you did this on purpose."
"But I cannot tell him that I lied about Nathaniel, now can I?"
"You fix this, Jean-Claude, now, tonight. I need Richard to teach me how to call Gregory's beast. I don't have time for him to sulk."
"What am I to tell him, ma petite! What surety can I give him that you will not be in Nathaniel's arms tomorrow morning? I believe that I can maneuver Richard into staying the night, having him there at your side when the ardeur rises."
"Richard's already made his position clear, Jean-Claude. He doesn't let you, or Asher, or anyone, feed off of him. He doesn't see why the rules change just because it's me and sex, instead of blood."
"He said that?" Jean-Claude gave a questioning lilt to his voice.
"Yeah, he said that, almost word-for-word."
Jean-Claude sighed, and it sounded tired. "What am I to do with the two of you?"
"Don't ask me," I said, "I just work here."
"And what, exactly, does that mean, ma petite?"
"It means that we don't have a boss. It's great being equals, if that's what we are, but none of us knows what the hell is going on, and that isn't good, Jean-Claude. We are messing with some very serious stuff here, metaphysically and emotionally and just plain physically. We need some clue as to what we should be doing with all of it."
"And who should we be asking advice of, ma petite! If any vampire on the Council were to suspect that I have not given you both the fourth mark, they would destroy us, for fear that with the fourth mark we would become an even greater power."
"I've talked to Marianne and her friends. They're witches, Wiccan."
"So we find, what, a local coven, and ask their guidance?" He sounded patronizing.
"I resent the tone, Jean-Claude, especially since I don't hear you offering any better suggestions. Don't criticize unless you can do better."
"Very true, ma petite, and very wise. My deepest and most sincere apologies. You are quite right. I do not have a suggestion for whom we might turn to for advice, or guidance. I will think upon your suggestion to find a friendly witch to speak with."
"I have a friendly one to speak to. She just might need to see the three or us together to see how things work."
"You mean your Marianne?"
"Yeah."
"I thought she was more psychic than witch."
"There's not all that much difference," I said.
"I will take your word on that. I do not have much business with either."
I realized I'd been planning to call Marianne since I woke up sandwiched between Caleb and Micah. Funny how it had slipped my mind.
"Is there anything you can say to Richard that will help smooth things on this end?"
"Do you wish me to lie?"
"Damn it, Jean-Claude ..."
"I can point out to him that if he does not meet the ardeur's appetite that someone else must."
"I've already pointed that out to him." I thought about that for a few heartbeats. "He accused me of having ..." I found I couldn't quite say it. "He accused me of doing worse with Nathaniel than I've done, and he was crude about it. I'm not sure I want to have sex with him right now."
"You are angry with him," Jean-Claude said.
"Oh, yeah."
"So angry that if he asked, you would refuse his bed?"
I started to say yes, then stopped myself. I was tired. Tired of all of it, of both of them, if the truth be known. Couldn't live with them, or without them. I wanted Richard's body like an ache in my heart, but when he wanted to be, he could be ugly, and his mood tonight was ugly. I didn't want to have sex with him when he was like this. Hell, I didn't want to be around him when he was like this.
"I don't know," I said.
"Well, that was honest, and does not bode well. If you refuse Richard, and Nathaniel, and your Nimir-Raj does not return tonight, what will you do in the morning, ma petite? Please, think carefully on this. I beg you to choose the lesser evil, whatever that may be, rather than wait until the hunger overrides your common sense, or even your need for survival."
"What are you saying?"
"I am saying what I have said before--that to deny the ardeur is to worsen it. Deny it long enough and hard enough, and it will begin to erode all that you are, or thought yourself to be. I survived what I did to feed it in those first weeks, but my moral degradation had been accomplished years before I died. I say again, ma petite, that you will not take it as well as I did. I believe it will compromise your sense of who you are."
"And fucking Nathaniel isn't going to compromise me?"
He sighed. "Put that way, I do see your point. But how much more compromising would it be to seduce a stranger?"
"I would never do that."
"Is that not exactly what you did with the Nimir-Raj?" His voice was very quiet as he said it, very careful not to be accusatory.
I would have loved to have argued the point, but I hate to lose, and I was going to lose this one. "Alright, you've made your point."
"I hope so, Anita, I do hope so." He never used my name unless something was very wrong. Damn.
"You know, just once it might be nice to have normal problems."
"And what, exactly, is a normal problem, ma petite?"?"
Another point for Jean-Claude. "I don't know anymore."
"You sound tired, ma petite."
"It's only a few hours until dawn. I've been up all night, so yeah, I'm tired." Just acknowledging it seemed to bring it on in a rush that left me rubbing my eyes, which smeared the eye shadow I'd put on onto my fingers and probably around my eyelids. I wore makeup so seldomly that I often forgot I was wearing it.
Richard came back into the kitchen with his bodyguards and the wererats in tow. He gave me a look, and it was not a friendly one.
"I've got to go," I said to Jean-Claude.
"Do you wish me to speak to Richard?"
"No, I think you've done enough damage for one night."
"I meant only to help."
"Sure you did."
"Ma petite."
"Yes."
"Be careful, and remember what I have said about the ardeur. There is no shame in it."
"Even you don't believe that," I said.
"Ah, you have found me out. There is no shame in feeding, if you feed immediately on a person of your own choosing. If you fight, then you will find yourself feeding on someone not of your choosing, in a place not of your choosing. I do not think you would enjoy that, ma petite."
He was right about that anyway. "I'll talk to you tomorrow after you get up. I haven't forgotten Damian, you know."
"I did not think that you had, ma petite. I will look forward to your call."
I hung up without saying good-bye, mainly because I was angry, and scared. Not only did I have Richard to deal with tonight and Gregory to save, but tomorrow morning when I woke up, the ardeur would be there, waiting. There was a chance that it wouldn't be, that the one day was the only time I'd have it, but I couldn't count on that. I had to plan for the worst-case scenario. Worst case was I would wake up tomorrow and need to feed just like I had this morning. The big question was, who would I feed on, and could I live with myself after I'd done it?
35
I HATE BEING awake at three in the morning. It is the godforsaken heart of darkness when the body runs slow, and the brain runs slower, and all you want to do is sleep. But I had promises to keep, and miles to go before I could sleep. Or at least a couple of miracles to perform before I could go to bed.
Dr. Lillian had unhooked Gregory's IV, but he was still bundled in the quilts. He sat on the picnic table on the deck, cradled between Zane and Cherry. Dr. Lillian kept touching Gregory, checking his pulse, how clammy his skin was. She was frowning and clearly not happy. Nathaniel stayed by them, keeping the picnic table between him and Richard. Richard hadn't tried to hurt him again; in fact, he'd ignored him studiously. The other cats milled around near the sliding glass doors. The two wererat bodyguards, Claudia and Igor, were standing to one side of me as I leaned on the railing. They started following me around when Richard came out with his bandaged arm and Jamil and Shang-Da at his back.
Richard's power crept on the summer darkness like close thunder, making the hot, sticky night even thicker and making it harder to breathe. I think it was the press of his power, the edge of his anger, that made the wererats start acting like bodyguards. I'd tried telling them that Richard wouldn't hurt me, but Claudia had shrugged, and said, "Rafael told us to keep you safe, and that's what we're going to do."
"Even if I tell you that there is no threat?"
She shrugged again. "I'd say, you're a little too close to this one to make a sound judgment call."
I'd glanced at Igor. "You agree with her?"
"I never argue with a lady, especially one that can beat me at arm wrestling."
Igor's logic was hard to argue with, but it meant that I had acquired two tall, muscular shadows, and it irritated me. But neither of them gave a damn whether I was happy or not. They were following Rafael's orders, and my wishes didn't count.
So Richard and his bodyguards, and me, with mine, stood on the deck, facing Stephen, who had stripped off in preparation for the change. If you made the change with clothes on, you ruined them. Shapeshifters either haunted the thrift shops, looking for old clothes to wear on the night of the full moon, or went nude.
We all stood there in the circle of Richard's power. The energy built around us like invisible lightning lashing around us. The power literally crackled, raising the hair on our arms, raising the hair on our heads, like the hackles on a dog.
Jamil said, "Richard ..." But one glance from Richard stopped him in mid-sentence. The power rose another notch, squeezing around us like some kind of giant hand.
"What's wrong, Richard? What's with the power display?" I asked.
He turned to me, and the anger in his face made me want to step back, but I didn't. I stood my ground, but it took effort.
"Do you want to save your cat?" he asked, voice thick with the emotion that showed on his face, that crackled in his power.
My voice was almost a whisper, "Yes."
"Then watch," he said.
He spread his hands in front of Stephen, keeping them about eight inches away from
the smaller man's shoulders. The energy squeezed tight, and tighter until I had to swallow to try and clear my ears, as if there'd been a pressure change. But swallowing didn't help. It wasn't that kind of pressure.
Richard's hands convulsed, as if his fingers were digging into something invisible just in front of Stephen. He staggered towards Richard, one step, and I was close enough to hear a small pained sound come from him. Richard balled his hands into fists, and something shimmered between them like heat caught in the close summer darkness. The bones in my face ached with the building power. The air was almost too thick to breathe, as if it had weight.
Richard made one abrupt movement with his hands and the pressure broke, like a storm finally bursting to life. For a second or two, I thought the heavy, clear liquid that burst around us was rain, but it was hot like blood, and it didn't fall from the sky. It burst from Stephen's body. I'd seen dozens of shape-shifters change, but nothing like this. It was as if Stephen's body blew apart in a rain of hot, thick fluids and small bits of flesh. The beast usually pulls itself from the human body, like a butterfly from a chrysalis, but not this time. Stephen's body folded over on itself, and his man-wolf shape was just suddenly standing there. It collapsed to its knees, panting, shivering.
I was left standing, not even breathing, covered in the rapidly cooling bits and pieces of Stephen's body. When I could breathe again, I gasped. "Jesus Christ."
Stephen's fur was the color of dark, golden honey. He crouched, shivering at Richard's feet. Again, the change may hurt while the person is going through it, but once it's over, they usually stand up and start moving around. Stephen seemed disoriented, almost like he was in pain. What the hell was happening?
He crawled the last few steps to Richard, laying his long, teeth-filled snout against his wolf king's jogging shoes. He was almost in a fetal position, great, muscular arms wrapped around golden fur, lying at his Ulfric's feet. It was extreme submissive behavior, and I didn't know why. Stephen hadn't done anything wrong.
I looked up at Richard. His white shirt was plastered to his body with the thick fluids. He turned his face to look at me, and the faint light of stars glistened in the wetness on his face. A thick piece of something slid down his cheek as he glared at me. The look on his face was defiant, as if he expected me to be angry with him.
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