Narcissus in Chains

by Laurell K. Hamilton

Chapter 11~12

  Chapter 11

  "I SEE WHAT you mean about you being practical," Micah said. He was standing quietly watching me, face carefully neutral, but he couldn't quite keep everything off his face. He was pleased. Pleased with me, I think.

  "You not going to run screaming because I'm a bloodthirsty sociopath?"

  He smiled, and again his long lashes came down over his eyes. "I don't think you're a sociopath, Anita. I think you do what needs doing to protect your pard. " He raised that yellow-green gaze to me. "I find that admirable, not something to criticize. "

  I sighed. "Good that someone approves. "

  He smiled, and it was that mixture of condescension, happiness, and sorrow, that I'd seen before. A complex smile, that. "The Ulfric means well. "

  "You know what they say about good intentions, Micah. If he's determined to take himself to hell, fine. But he has no right to drag the rest of us along with him. "

  "I agree. "

  It made me tired that Micah agreed with me. I wasn't in love with him. Why couldn't it be Richard who agreed with me? Of course, there was someone else. I needed to get to Jean-Claude while it was still dark.

  "I had to put off the shower, first to be a gentleman, and let you go first, then so the noise wouldn't interrupt your phone call. I need to get clean now, if you don't mind. "

  "I'll give you some privacy. " I turned towards the door.

  "It wasn't privacy I was asking for, just explaining why I was turning the water on during our conversation. " he said.

  That turned me around at the door. "What conversation?"

  He turned on the shower, testing the water with his hand, adjusting the heat, talking over his shoulder. "I've never felt another Nimir-Ra with the kind of power you put off. It was amazing. "

  "Glad you enjoyed it, but I've really got to go. "

  He turned to face me, stepping back into the water, throwing his head back for a second to wet his hair. The water hit his neck and he let out a hissing breath, bending over at the shoulders like it really hurt.

  I went back into the room. "Are you alright?"

  He nodded and stopped in mid-motion. "I will be. "

  I was close enough that when he raised his head I could see the water beaded on his face, clinging in thick drops to his lashes. I stood to one side, getting sprayed with just the faintest mist of the water. I got my first good look at the side of his neck. "Shit. " I reached through the water to touch his face, turned him slowly so I could see the bite.

  He had a perfect imprint of my teeth in the right side of his neck. The wound was still seeping blood, so the circle of toothmarks was filled with crimson. The tanned flesh of his neck was already bruising, dark colors swirling to the surface of his skin.

  "God, Micah, I'm sorry. "

  "Don't be sorry, it is a love bite. "

  I dropped my hand from his face. "Yeah, right, it looks like I tried to eat your throat out. " I frowned. "Why hasn't it started healing?"

  "Wounds made by the teeth and claws of another lycanthrope heal slower than most, not as slow as silver, but slower than say, steel. "

  "I am sorry. "

  "And I said, don't be sorry. "

  "The last Ulfric I bit like this--and it wasn't nearly this bad, I didn't even break the skin--he considered it an insult. He said, it meant I considered myself higher in the pack than he was. "

  "We are not wolves. To the pard a wound on the neck from a Nimir-Ra is a sign that the sex was good. "

  That made me blush.

  "I didn't mean to embarrass you, just to explain that you don't owe me an apology. I enjoyed it. "

  I blushed harder.

  "Together we could do great things for our pard. "

  I shook my head. "We won't know for sure that I'm going to be Nimir-Ra for a few days. Let's take it slow until then. "

  "If you want to. " His gaze was too direct, and I was suddenly aware that he was nude in a shower. I was getting better at ignoring, or at least not being bothered, around nudity. But there were moments when you had to be aware of it, when the look in the other person's eyes made you aware of it.

  "I want to," I said.

  He turned his back, lowering his head so the water beat on his shoulders, back, lower things. The spray widened as he moved through it, spattering on my face, shoulders, arms, legs, across the towel. It was time for me to leave, past time.

  I was at the door again when he called after me. "Anita. "

  I turned back.

  He was standing facing me, rubbing liquid soap from one of the wall dispensers on his body. He was doing his arms as I turned around, lathering his chest as he talked. "If you want us to go with you tomorrow, we would be honored. "

  "I can't let you drag your pard into our mess. "

  His hands slid downward, trailing white suds over his stomach, his hips, then slid between his legs, working the soap over himself. I knew from my own experience of getting the stuff off me that you had to scrub more where it had touched you, but his hands stayed, until he was slick, thick with bubbles, and partially erect by the time his hands slid to his thighs.

  My mouth was dry, and I realized we hadn't said anything in several minutes. I'd just been watching him spread soap on himself. The thought brought heat in a rush up my face. Micah continued to soap his legs slowly, taking more time with each movement than he needed to. He was definitely doing it for my benefit. I needed to leave.

  "If you are my Nimir-Ra, then your mess is my mess," he said, head still bent over his legs, face hidden from me, so that all I could see was the line of his body as he stood in the aisle, away from the water so the soap wouldn't rub off.

  I had to clear my throat to say, "I don't want to pick out curtains, Micah. "

  "The power between us is enough that I'll agree to any arrangement you want. " He stood up then, stretching his arm back to soap his shoulders. It made him stretch the front of his body in a long line, and I was painfully aware of him. I turned, really meaning to go out the door this time.

  "Anita," he said.

  I stopped in the doorway, but this time I didn't turn around. "What?" I sounded grumpy.

  "It's alright to be attracted to me. You can't help yourself. "

  That made me laugh, a good normal laugh. "Oh, you don't have a high opinion of yourself, do you?" But I stayed facing away from him.

  "It's not a high opinion of myself. You are a Nimir-Ra, and I am the first Nimir-Raj that you've ever met. Our power, our beasts are attracted to each other. We're meant to be attracted to each other. "

  I turned then, slowly, trying for eye contact and failing. He was turned away with the back of his body facing me. He was still spreading soap over his shoulders. The suds slid slowly down his skin towards his slim waist.

  "We don't know yet that I'm a were-anything. " My voice was breathy.

  He managed to reach his entire back, his arms moving effortlessly over his skin, hands smoothing over the tightness of his buttocks. "You feel the call of my body, as I feel yours. "

  My pulse was beating way too hard. "You're an attractive man, naked, covered in soap. I'm human, so sue me. "

  He turned around, still soaped and slick. And he was huge.

  My mouth went dry. My body tightened so hard and so suddenly, it almost hurt. It deepened my breathing, made me have to swallow my pulse.

  "You're not human, that's the difference. That's why you keep looking even when you don't want to. " He walked towards me, slowly, moving like all leopards could move when they wanted to. Like he had muscles in places that humans didn't. He glided towards me like some great, slinking cat, his nude body glistening with suds and water, his hair plastered in ringlets to his shoulders, around his face. Those huge yellow green eyes suddenly looked perfectly at home in his face.

  "You don't understand yet how rare it is for two lycanthropes to share their beasts as we did. " He was almost in front
of me now. "They flowed in and out of our bodies. " He stood there, not touching, not yet. "They were like two great cats, rubbing their furred sides against each other. " He ran his hands slick with soap up my bare arms as he said it. I had to close my eyes. He was describing exactly how it had felt, as if he had read my mind, or had felt exactly the same thing.

  His hands slid up my arms to my shoulders, to my neck, spreading slick and wet across my skin. His soapy hands cupped my face, and I felt his face moving towards mine before his lips touched me. The kiss was gentle, his body carefully not touching me.

  He slid his fingers into the edge of the towel, gripping the cloth, pulling me forward. It made me open my eyes. It took a few steps to realize he was leading me towards the water.

  "You'll need to wash the soap off," he said.

  I was shaking my head, and finally stopped moving with him. He kept pulling on the towel and it unwrapped, starting to slide down my body. I grabbed it, holding it just below my suddenly bare breasts.

  "No," I said, my voice strangled, but I repeated it. "No. "

  He stepped into me, pressing the slick hardness of him against my lower hand and arm. He tried to uncurl my fingers from the towel, and I held on for dear life. "Touch me, Anita, cup me in your hands. "

  "No. "

  "I know you want to. I can smell it," and he moved his face above my skin, drawing his breath in and out against my wet skin. "I can feel it. " He rubbed his hands up my arms again, over my shoulders, down towards my breasts, but stopped without touching them. "I can taste it. " He licked a slow line along the edge of my cheek. I shivered and wanted to step back, but it was like I was frozen in place. I couldn't move.

  I found my voice, shaky, but mine. My hands clutched to my body, because I knew if I touched him we were in trouble. "This isn't like me, Micah. I'm not like this. You're a stranger. I don't do strangers. "

  "I'm not a stranger. I'm your Nimir-Raj, and you are my Nimir-Ra. We could never be strangers. "

  He kissed his way down my face to my neck, biting gently at me, and it made my knees weak. He came back up to my lips, and when he kissed me I could taste the soap from my skin. The feel of him pressed against the front of my body, close enough that if I opened my hand I'd be able to hold him, was overwhelming. I realized it was more than just sex. I wanted to feed off of him again, not with my teeth but with my body. I wanted to drink in the energy of him through my skin, my bare skin pressed to his. I wanted it so badly. His hands slid over my breasts, covering them in soap, making them slick, the nipples already tight and hard. My arms slid around his waist, using the pressure of our bodies to keep the towel in place. He moved against my body, and his chest was so slick, so smooth rubbing against my breasts.

  He began to walk backwards with his arms locked behind me, moving us back towards the water. My hands moved over the slick hardness of his back, sliding dangerously lower. It was as if I wanted to press every inch of myself to him, to roll his body around me like a sheet and drink him in through the pores of my skin.

  I opened that link with Jean-Claude and found him sitting, waiting, patient. I called for help, and distantly I heard his voice in my head. "It is all I can do, ma petite, to control my own appetites, you must control your own. "

  "What's happening to me?" Even as I asked, Micah moved his body that fraction away that allowed the towel to slide down, and when he quickly moved back, he was pressed against my groin and stomach, and it was deja vu enough to draw a small sound out of my throat.

  Jean-Claude looked up, and I knew that he saw what was happening with Micah, that with a thought he could feel what was happening, as if it were his hands sliding down the slick, soaped skin. My hand slid over the thick hardness of Micah. He half-collapsed against me, as I caressed him, and I knew that it hadn't been my idea to touch him. Jean-Claude had wanted to know what it felt like. He drew away enough for me to move my hand, but the damage had been done. Micah dragged me into the water, surer now than ever that I would say yes.

  Jean-Claude's voice in my head. "You can feed off his lust, but the price for that is that you will crave his lust, his sex. It is the double-edged sword of being incubus. The sword edge I have walked for centuries. "

  "Help me!"

  "I cannot. You must ride this thing yourself. And you will either conquer it, or be conquered. You felt what happened when I interfered just now. Because I have denied myself feeding through my body. I knew you would not approve, so I denied myself. And being inside your body while you touch him, while you feed, would be my undoing. I crave you more than you will ever crave the man in your arms. I have wanted to take your body in the way that only I could take it. To feed from your sex, not from a vein. But I knew that would frighten you more than blood. "

  Micah turned me towards the wall, putting my hands up against the tile, pressing his body against my back. Jean-Claude's voice was soft in my head, more intimate than Micah's touch. "I did not know you would gain this demon from me, ma petite, and nothing I can say will convince you of that. I know that. I await you here, until you have wrestled the demon, whatever the outcome. " And he shielded from me, hid himself away so he would not feel what was happening, left me alone to make my choice, if I was still capable of choosing.

  I found I did have a voice and said, "Micah, stop, please stop. "

  Micah licked the back of my neck, and I shuddered, pressed against the wet wall.

  "Please, Micah, I'm not on birth control. " A clear thought at last.

  He bit softly at the back of my neck. "I had myself fixed two years ago. You're safe with me, Anita. "

  "Please, Micah, please don't. "

  He bit harder, just this side of drawing blood, and my body went passive, calm. It was as if he'd hit a switch I didn't know I had. When he pressed himself inside me, he was slick, and I knew that sometime when I'd been paying attention to Jean-Claude inside my head, he'd spread more soap on himself, allowing that thick hardness to slide more easily inside me.

  He pinned me to the wall and slid inside me, one tight inch at a time. It wasn't that he was long so much as he was wide--wide enough that it was just this side of pain to have him work himself inside me, even with the soap.

  He pushed until most of him was inside me, and there was a stopping point. Then he began to draw himself out, slowly, so slowly. Then in again, slowly, still having to push himself, to work to make room for himself inside me. I stood pinned against the wall, passive, unmoving. It wasn't like me. I moved during sex. But I didn't want to move, didn't want to stop, and there was no thinking, just the feel of him moving in and out of me. I wasn't as tight now, and the soap had given way to my own wetness, so that he began to move more smoothly in and out of me. He was gentle, but he was so big that even gentle was almost overwhelming. He came to the end of my body before the full shaft of him was inside me. I could feel him bumping against my cervix at the end of each stroke. Most women find having their cervix bumped painful, but some women find it pleasurable. His size was intimidating, but when I realized it didn't hurt, in fact that it felt wonderful, a part of me that was still sane, still keeping track of some safety measures, relaxed and shut down. My last measure of control went away. I didn't want sex. That was just a means to an end. I wanted to feed. I wanted to eat his lust, drink his heat, bathe in his energy. The thought brought a sound low in my throat.

  Micah braced himself against the wall, his body pinning mine completely, and began to find a rhythm, still gentle, but quicker. He was being so careful of me, and I didn't want him careful.

  I heard a voice that didn't quite sound like mine. "Harder. "

  His voice came out squeezed tight. "It will hurt if I do it harder. "

  "Try me. "

  "No. "

  "Micah, please, just do it, please. If it hurts I'll tell you. Please. " He'd been less controlled in the other room, and I realized why. He truly was afraid of hurting me because he was inside me. When he was just
rubbing himself on my body, he hadn't had to worry about damaging me. Now he did. It gave him an edge of control that kept me from feeding. He was a Nimir-Raj, and he had enough power to keep me out. Unless he let down his guard. To do that he had to lose more control than this.

  Even as I thought it, a part of me was swimming to the surface. I could think again, at least a little. I didn't want to do this. I didn't want to feed off of him. It was wrong, in so many ways it was wrong. I started to say, "Micah, stop, I can't do this. " I got as far as, "Micah . . . " and he took me at my word. He thrust into me so hard and fast it tore a scream from my throat and brought that new part of me that was Jean-Claude's hunger in a raging wave of heat that rode my body and spilled out my mouth.

  He'd stopped. "Are you alright?"

  "Don't stop. Don't stop!"

  He never asked again. He drove himself inside me so fast and hard that it left me gasping, unable to catch my breath. Small, helpless noises fell from my lips, spaced with the words, "Oh, God, yes, yes, Micah!" Every time he thrust as far as he could, smashing himself inside me, it rode that fine line between overwhelming pleasure and pain. And just as the pleasure began to turn to pain, he'd withdraw, and I'd be able to breathe again. Then he'd thrust himself inside me again, and it would start all over.

  It felt like he filled me up as if I were a cup, until there was nothing inside me but the feel of his body, the feel of his flesh pounding into mine. It was tight, thick, like he'd plugged a hole with his body, and would never let it go. That sense of fullness inside me grew, grew, and spilled over me, through me, inside me, and tore out of my mouth in ragged, frantic screams, as my body spasmed around him. And it was only then that his control slipped away, letting me know that he had still been gentle. His control went when he did, and I drank him into me, through his chest pressed to my back, his hips thrusting against my butt. I drank him in, as he exploded inside me. I fed on him, drew him inside every pore of my skin, until it was as if our skins gave way and we spilled into each other, became for one shining moment one thing, one beast. And I could feel his beast inside mine, as if they were coupling within our bodies as our human shells merged. In that moment, I didn't doubt that I was truly his Nimir-Ra.

  When we were finished and had slid to the floor, him still inside me, his arms hugging me to the front of his body, I started to cry. He was afraid he'd hurt me, but that wasn't it. I couldn't explain the tears to him, because I didn't want to say it out loud. But I knew. I'd tried not to be one of the monsters for so long, and now, in one fell swoop I was them, both of them. You couldn't be a bloodsucking vampire and be a lycanthrope at the same time. They canceled each other out as a disease or a curse. But I had felt my beast curl around Micah's. I had felt it like an embryo in a safe warm place, waiting. And I had fed off of him as surely as any vampire. I'd always thought I'd have to drink blood to be one of them. But I had been wrong, wrong about so many things. I let Micah hold me. I felt his heart pounding against my back and wept.

  Chapter 12

  NATHANIEL DROVE BECAUSE I was too shaky to concentrate. I was functioning, moving forward, solving the problems one at a time, but it was as if the very ground I walked on, the air I breathed was precarious and new. As if everything had changed, because I had changed. I knew better. I knew that no matter how bad you feel, or what horrible thing happens to you, that the world just keeps on going. That the rest of the world doesn't even realize that the monsters are eating your heart. A long time ago it use to bother me that I could be in such confusion, such pain, and the world just didn't give a shit. The world, the creation as a whole, is designed to move forward, to keep on keeping on without any one individual person. It feels damned impersonal, and it is. But, then, if the world stopped rotating just because one of us was having a bad day, we'd all be floating out in space.

  So I huddled in the passenger seat of my Jeep in the late darkness and knew that only I had changed. But it was just such a big change that it felt like the world should have changed its orbit, just a little.

  June was back to its normal hot, sticky self. Nathaniel wore a ribbed tank top and silky jogging shorts. He'd tied his nearly ankle-length hair in a loose braid that curled on the seat beside his thigh. He'd found that if he let his hair fall onto the floorboard, sometimes it tangled around the pedals. He had to watch the gear shift between the seats, too. I'd never had hair that long.

  Nathaniel had only had his driver's license for a few months, even though he was twenty. Gabriel, their old alpha, had not encouraged them to be independent. I sort of demanded it of them, as far as they were able. At first Nathaniel had been lost when I started to demand that he decide things for himself, but lately, he'd been doing better. It made me hopeful, and I needed some hope right now.

  He'd picked out the clothes that he'd brought to the makeshift hospital for me. Black jeans, royal blue scoop neck T-shirt, a black bra that fit low enough to accommodate the low neckline, matching undies, black jogging socks, black Nikes, a short-sleeved black shirt to cover the shoulder rig with the Browning Hi-Power. People kept urging me to go shopping for a new main gun. They were probably right. There was probably something out there that would fit my hand better than the Browning. But I'd been putting it off. The Browning was like a piece of me. I felt incomplete without it, like I was missing a hand. It was going to take something more than a smaller grip to convince me to switch guns. So, for now, it was still me and the Browning.

  Nathaniel had also brought my wrist sheaths and the matching silver knives. I was going to leave them in the car since the shirt was short-sleeved. They were a little too aggressive to wear into the police station. I had just replaced the back sheath I had ruined in New Mexico. It had been a special order, and it had cost mucho extra dinero to get a rush job on it, but it had been worth it. There really wasn't anywhere else on my body that I could carry a blade that large and still be able to sit down, without the hilt showing.

  We drove in silence. Nathaniel hadn't even turned the radio on, which he liked to do. He rarely moved in silence if he could have music for background. But tonight he let the silence seep into the Jeep.

  I finally asked a question I'd been wanting an answer for. "Who put the derringer in my robe pocket?" The derringer was in the glove compartment.

  "I did. "

  "Thanks. "

  "The two things that you always do first is get dressed and get armed. " His smile flashed in an instant of street light. "I'm not sure which is your highest priority. "

  I had to smile. "I'm not sure either. "

  "How are you doing?" His voice was very careful when he asked it, quiet in the rushing silence of the car.

  "I don't want to talk about it. "

  "Okay. " He was one of the few people that would actually take me at my word and not press. If I told Nathaniel I didn't want to talk, we didn't talk. The silence between us was no longer strained. In fact, silence with Nathaniel was one of the most relaxing sounds of my day.

  Nathaniel parked the Jeep and we got out. I had my executioner's license with me, and most people knew me on sight. It occurred to me that they thought I was dead. As we walked towards the door, I realized I should probably have called ahead and given them a heads up, but it was too late now. I was a yard from the door. I wasn't using the cell phone now.

  I was a familiar enough sight that I could usually just wave as I went past the desk, but tonight the officer's eyes got big as he waved me on to the left so I didn't have to go through the metal detector. But he was picking up a phone as he did it. I was betting he was calling ahead. You don't see people rise from the dead every night. Well, I guess I do, but most cops don't.

  I was up the stairs leading to RPIT's headquarters when Detective Clive Perry opened the door and started down the stairs. He was slender, handsome, African-American, and the most unfailingly polite person I'd ever met. He actually missed the step and had to catch himself on the railing. Even then he leaned against t
he wall like his legs weren't working quite right. He looked shocked--no, scared.

  "Anita. " His voice was breathy. It was probably the second time in all the years we'd known each other that he had used my first name. It was usually Ms. Blake.

  I responded in kind, smiling. "Clive, it's good to see you. "

  His eyes flicked from me to Nathaniel, then back to me. "You're supposed to be . . . " He straightened on the stairs. "I mean, we heard . . . " I watched him visibly try to rally. By the time we reached the step he was on, he looked almost normal. But his next question wasn't normal. "Did you die?"

  I smiled, then felt the smile fade as I stared into his eyes. He was serious. I guess I did raise the dead for a living, so the question wasn't as ridiculous as it sounded, but I was realizing that some of his shock wasn't just from seeing me walking around. It was from his fear of what I was now. He thought I was the walking dead. In some ways he was closer to the mark than was comfortable, in others he was so far off.

  "No, Clive, I didn't die. "

  He nodded, but there was a tightness around his eyes that made me wonder, if I tried to touch his arm, would he flinch? I didn't want to find out, so Nathaniel and I just walked past him, leaving him alone on the stairs.

  I pushed into the squad room with its crowded desks and the busy clatter of people. RPIT had some of its busiest hours after three A. M. The noise died gradually like fading water rings, going out into the room, until I moved in silence between the desks and the staring faces. Nathaniel stayed at my back, moving like an attractive shadow.

  I finally said, loud enough to carry through the room, "The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated. " And the room exploded into noise. I was suddenly surrounded by men, and a few women, hugging me, slapping me on the back, pumping my hand. Smiling faces, relieved eyes. No one else showed the reservations that Clive Perry had shown on the stairs, and it made me wonder about his religious background, or his metaphysical one. He wasn't a sensitive, but that didn't mean he hadn't grown up around people who were.

  It was Zerbrowski who picked me completely off the ground in a huge bear hug. He's only five eight, and not that big, but he spun me around the room, finally putting me down, laughing and a little unsteady on my feet. "Damn, Anita, damn, I thought we were never going to see you come through that door again. " He pushed a tangle of dark curls that were beginning to streak with gray from his forehead. He needed a haircut, but then he usually did. His clothes were the usual mismatch, as if he'd chosen his tie and shirt in the dark. He dressed like he was either color-blind or didn't give a shit. I was betting on the latter.

  "It's good to see you, too. I hear you're actually holding someone on suspicion of having killed me. "

  His smile faded around the edges. "Yeah, Count Dracula's in a cell. "

  "Can you get him out, because as you see, I am very much alive. "

  Zerbrowski's eyes narrowed. "I saw the pictures, Anita. You were covered in blood. "

  I shrugged.

  His eyes became cool, suspicious cop eyes. "It's been what, four nights? You're looking positively spry for suffering that much blood loss. "

  I could feel my own face grow neutral, distant, as cool and unreadable as any cop's. "Can you get Jean-Claude out and ready to go? I'd like to take him home before it gets light. "

  "Dolph's going to want to talk to you before you leave. "

  "I thought he might. Can you please start processing Jean-Claude while I talk to Dolph?"

  "You going to take him to your house?"

  "I'm going to drop him off at his place, not that it's any of your business. You're my friend, Zerbrowski, not my dad. "

  "I've never wanted to be your dad, Anita. That's Dolph's delusion, not mine. "

  I sighed. "Yeah. " I looked up at Zerbrowski. "Will you please get Jean-Claude ready to go?"

  He looked at me for a second or two, then nodded. "Okay. " He looked past me to Nathaniel, who had moved to the side of the room to let the great reunion take place. "Who's that?"

  "Nathaniel, a friend. "

  He looked back at me. "A little young, isn't he?"

  "He's only six years younger than I am, Zerbrowski, but he drove me tonight, so I wouldn't have to. "

  His eyes looked worried. "You okay?"

  "A little shaky, but it'll pass. "

  He touched my face, staring into my eyes, trying to read them, I think. "I'd like to know what the hell is going on with you. "

  I met his gaze, face, eyes blank. "So would I. "

  That seemed to surprise him, because he blinked and dropped his hand. "I'll get Count Dracula out of hock, you go talk to Dolph. "

  My shoulders hunched a little, and I had to concentrate to square them. I was not looking forward to talking with Dolph. Zerbrowski went to get Jean-Claude, and I left Nathaniel talking to a nice-enough seeming police woman and went to Dolph's office.

  He was standing in the doorway like a small mountain. He's six eight and built like a pro wrestler. His dark hair was cut very short, leaving his ears stranded and bare. His suit looked pressed, tie neatly knotted. He'd probably already been on the job for nearly an eight-hour shift, but he still looked fresh out of the box.

  His eyes were very careful when they looked at me. "I'm glad you're alive. "

  "Thanks, me, too. "

  He waved a hand and walked me down the hallway away from the office, away from the desks, towards the interrogation rooms. I guess he wanted privacy. Privacy that even the glass windows of his office wouldn't give him. It made my stomach tight and a little trickle of fear go through me. I wasn't afraid of Dolph the way I was afraid of a rogue shapeshifter or a vamp I had to kill. He wouldn't hurt me physically. But I was afraid of the tight set of his shoulders, the cautious, cold look of his eyes when he glanced back to make sure I was following.

  I could feel how angry he was, almost like the energy off a shapeshifter. What had I done to deserve such rage?

  Dolph held the door for me, and I squeezed past his bulk. "Have a seat," he said, as he closed the door behind us.

  "I'll stand, thanks. I want to get Jean-Claude out of here before dawn. "

  "I heard you weren't dating him anymore," Dolph said.

  "He's being held without charge on suspicion of killing me. I'm not dead so I'd like to get him out of here. "

  Dolph just looked at me, eyes as cold and unreadable as if he were looking at a witness--no a suspect--that he didn't like much.

  "Jean-Claude has a damn fine lawyer. How'd you keep him for over seventy-two hours without a charge?" I asked.

  "You're a city treasure. I told everyone he'd killed you, and they helped me lose him for a while. "

  "Damn, Dolph, you're lucky some overzealous officer didn't put him in a cell with a window. "

  "Yeah, too bad. "

  I just stared at him not even sure what to say. "I'm alive, Dolph. He didn't hurt me. "

  "Who did?"

  It was my turn to give him cool cop eyes.

  He walked up to me, towering over me. He wasn't trying to intimidate me with his height; he knew that didn't work anyway. He was just that big. He touched my chin, tried to turn my face to the side. I jerked away.

  "You've got scars on your neck that you didn't have a week ago. They're all shiny and nearly healed. How?"

  "Would you believe I'm not sure?"

  "No. "

  "Suit yourself. "

  "Let me see the scars. "

  I swept my hair to one side and let him trace one large finger down the healed wounds.

  "I want to see the rest of the wounds. "

  "Don't we need a female officer in here for this?"

  "Do you really want anyone else to see them?"

  He had a point. "Why do you want to see, Dolph?"

  "I can't force you to show me, but I need to see them. "

  "Why?"

  "I don't know," he said, and his voice showed s
train for the first time.

  I shed the outer shirt and laid it on the table. I held my left arm out to him, pushing the sleeve of the T-shirt up.

  He traced his finger over the marks. "What is it about your left arm? Its always where you get hit the most. "

  "I think it's because I'm right-handed. I'll let them chew on my left arm, while I grab a weapon with my right. "

  "Did you kill what did this to you?"

  "No. "

  He looked at me, and the anger showed for a second. "I wish I believed you. "

  "Me, too, especially since I'm telling the truth. "

  "Who, or what, did this to you, Anita?"

  I shook my head. "It's been taken care of. "

  "Damn it, Anita, how can I trust you when you won't talk to me?"

  I shrugged.

  "Is the arm all of it?"

  "Almost. "

  "I want to see all of it. "

  There were a lot of men in my life that I'd have accused of just wanting to get my shirt off, but Dolph wasn't one of them. There'd never been that kind of tension between us. I stared at him, hoping he'd back down, but he didn't. I should have known he wouldn't.

  I worked the shirt out of my pants and exposed my bra. I had to raise the edge of the underwire to show the round hole--now scar--over my heart.

  He touched it like he had all the others, shaking his head. "It's like something tried to scoop your heart out. " He raised his eyes to my face. "How the hell did you heal it, Anita?"

  "Can I get dressed?"

  There was a knock at the door, and Zerbrowski entered without waiting to be asked, while I was still struggling to get my breasts back behind the underwire. His eyes widened. "Am I interrupting?"

  "We're finished," I said.

  "Gee, and I thought Dolph would have more staying power. "

  We both glared at him. He grinned. "Count Dracula is processed and ready to go. "

  "His name is Jean-Claude. "

  "Whatever you say. "

  I had to bend over and rearrange my breasts so the bra would fit right again. Those underwires hurt if they ride up. They both watched me do it, and I stubbornly wouldn't turn away. Zerbrowski watched because he was a cheerful lech, Dolph, because he was angry.

  "Would you take a blood test?" he asked.

  "No. "

  'We can get a court order. "

  "On what grounds? I haven't done anything wrong, Dolph, except show up here not dead. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were disappointed. "

  "I'm glad you're alive," he said.

  "But sorry you can't bust Jean-Claude's ass. Is that it?"

  He looked away. I'd finally hit on it. "That's it, isn't it? You're sorry that you can't arrest Jean-Claude--get him executed. He didn't kill me, Dolph. Why do you want him dead?"

  "He's already dead, Anita. He just doesn't know enough to lie down. "

  "Is that a threat?"

  Dolph made a low exasperated sound. "He's a walking corpse, Anita. "

  "I know what Jean-Claude is, Dolph, probably better than you do. "

  "So I keep hearing," he said.

  "What, you're angry because I'm dating him? You are not my father, I can date who--or what--I want to date. "

  "How can you let him touch you?" And the anger was there again, rage.

  "You want him dead because he's been my lover?" I couldn't keep the surprise out of my voice.

  He wouldn't meet my eyes.

  "You're not jealous of me, Dolph, I know that for a fact. It just bothers you that he's not human, is that it?"

  "He's a vampire, Anita. " He met my gaze then. "How can you fuck a corpse?"

  The level of animosity was too personal, too intimate. And then it hit me. "What woman in your life is fucking the undead, Dolph?"

  He took a step towards me, his entire body trembling, his huge hands balled into fists. The rage rushed up his face in a near purple wave. He spoke through gritted teeth. "Get out!"

  I wanted to say something to make it better, but there was nothing to say. I moved carefully past him, keeping my eyes on him, afraid he'd make a grab for me. But he just stood there regaining control of himself. Zerbrowski walked me out and closed the door behind us.

  If I'd been with another woman, we'd have talked about what just happened. If I'd been with a lot of men in a different line of work, we'd have talked about it. But Zerbrowski was a cop. And that meant you didn't talk about the personal stuff. If you accidentally learned something truly painful, truly private, you left it the fuck alone--unless the man involved wanted to talk about it. Besides, I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to know that Dolph's wife was cheating on him with a corpse. He had two sons, no daughters, so who else could it be?

  Zerbrowski walked me through the squad room in silence. A man turned as we entered the room. He was tall, dark-haired, with gray starting at the temples. The clean, strong lines of his face were beginning to soften around the edges, but it was still a handsome face in a manly man, Marlboro sort of way. He looked vaguely familiar. But it wasn't until he turned his head, exposing the claw scars on the side of his neck, that I recognized him. Orlando King had been one of the premiere bounty hunters in the country until a rogue shapeshifter had nearly killed him. The stories could never agree on what animal did it; some said wolf, others bear or leopard. The story had grown in the telling until I doubt anyone but King himself knew the truth. King and the shapeshifters that had nearly killed him, if they hadn't all died in the attempt, that is. He had a rep that he never lost a bounty, never stopped until his creature was dead. He earned good money lecturing across the country and in other countries. For his finale he'd take his shirt off and show his scars. It smacked a little too much of circus sideshow for my taste, but, hey, it wasn't my body. He also did some consulting with the police.

  "Anita Blake, this is Orlando King," Zerbrowski said. "We brought him in to help convict Count Dracula of your murder. "

  I glared at Zerbrowski, who only smiled wider. He'd keep calling Jean-Claude by his pet names until it stopped getting a rise out of me. The quicker I ignored it the better.

  "Ms. Blake," Orlando King said in the deep rolling voice that I remembered from his lectures, "so good to see you alive. "

  "It's good to be alive, Mr. King. Last I heard you were lecturing on the West Coast. I hope you didn't interrupt your tour to come solve my murder. "

  He shrugged, and there was something about the way he moved his shoulders that made him seem taller, broader than he was. "There are so few of us that truly pit ourselves against the monsters, how could I not come?"

  "I'm flattered," I said. "I've heard you lecture. "

  "You came up and spoke to me afterwards," he said.

  "I'm flattered again. You must meet thousands of people a year. "

  He smiled and touched my left arm, ever so lightly. "But not many with scars to rival mine. And none half so pretty in this line of business. "

  "Thanks. " He was at least two generations removed from me, so I figured his complimenting me wasn't so much flirting as habit.

  Zerbrowski was grinning at me, and his grin said he didn't think King was simply being polite. I shrugged and ignored it. I've found that if you pretend not to notice that a man is flirting with you, most of them will eventually grow tired and stop.

  "It's good to meet you again, Ms. Blake. Especially alive. But I know that you must be in a hurry if you're going to rescue your vampire boyfriend before dawn. " There was the faintest hesitation before the word boyfriend. I studied his face and found it neutral. There was no condemnation, nothing but a smile and goodwill. After Dolph's little fit, it was kind of nice.

  "Thank you for understanding. "

  "I'd love a chance to talk to you before I leave town," he said.

  Again, I wondered if he was flirting, and I said the only thing I could think of. "Compare notes, you mean?"

  "Exactly,
" he said.

  I just did not understand my effect on men. I wasn't that attractive--or maybe I just couldn't see it. We shook hands, and he didn't hold my hand any longer than necessary, didn't squeeze it, or any of those funky things men do when they're interested. Maybe I was just getting paranoid where men were concerned.

  Zerbrowski led me through the sea of desks to fetch Nathaniel. The police woman, Detective Jessica Arnet, one of the newest members of the squad, was still entertaining Nathaniel at her desk. She was gazing into his lilac eyes as if there was some hypnotic power in them. There wasn't, but Nathaniel was a good listener. That's rare enough in men for it to be a bigger selling point than an attractive body.

  "Come on, Nathaniel, we've got to go. "

  He stood instantly but tossed a smile towards Detective Arnet that made her eyes sparkle. Nathaniel's real-life job was as a stripper, so he flirted instinctively He seemed both aware and unaware of his effect on women. When he concentrated, he understood what he was doing. But when he simply walked into a room and heads turned, he was oblivious.

  I touched his arm. "Say good-bye to the nice detectives. We've got to hurry. "

  He said, "Good-bye, nice detectives. " I gave him a small push towards the doors.

  Zerbrowski followed us out. I think if Nathaniel hadn't been with us he'd have asked more questions. But he'd never met Nathaniel and wasn't sure of him. So we moved in silence to the Prisoner Processing, where Jean-Claude was sitting on one of the three chairs. Normally the processing area was full of people coming in, going out, and since it's the size of a walk-in closet, that makes it seem crowded. The two vending machines took up room, but except for the prisoner processing clerk--the new name since turnkey fell out of fashion--behind his little barred bankteller window, the place was deserted. But it was 3:30 in the morning.

  Jean-Claude rose when he saw me; his white shirt was stained, torn on one sleeve. He didn't look like he'd been beaten, or hurt. But he was usually a fanatic about his clothes. Only something drastic would have changed that. A struggle perhaps?

  I did not run to him, but I did wrap my arms around him, press my ear to his chest, hold on to him as if he were the last solid thing in the world. He stroked my hair and murmured to me in French. I understood enough to know he was glad to see me and that he thought I looked beautiful. But beyond that it was just pretty noise.

  It wasn't until I felt Zerbrowski behind me that I pulled away, but when Jean-Claude's hand found mine, I welcomed it.

  Zerbrowski was looking at me as if he'd never seen me before. "What?" It came out hostile.

  "I've never seen you be that . . . soft with anyone before. "

  It startled me. "You've seen me kiss Richard before. "

  He nodded. "That was lust. This is . . . " He shook his head, glancing up at Jean-Claude, then back to me. "He makes you feel safe. "

  I realized with a jolt that he was right. "You're smarter than you look, Zerbrowski. "

  "Katie reads self-help books to me. I just look at the pictures. " He touched my right hand. "I'll talk to Dolph. "

  "I don't think it's going to help," I said.

  He shrugged. "If Orlando King can have a conversion experience where the monsters are concerned, anybody can. "

  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "Have you ever read, or seen, any of his interviews before his accident?" Zerbrowski made little quote marks with his fingers when he said accident.

  "No. That was before I was interested in the topic, I think. "

  He frowned at me. "I keep forgetting, you were still in diapers then. "

  I just shook my head. "So tell me. "

  "King was one of the shining lights behind trying to get lycanthropes declared nonhuman, so they could be executed just for existing, without a trial. Then he got cut up, and, lo and behold, he mellowed. "

  "Nearly dying will do that to you, Zerbrowski. "

  He grinned at me. "It didn't make me a better man. " I'd held my hands over his stomach, kept his insides from spilling out, while we waited for an ambulance. It had happened just before Christmas about two years ago. Zerbrowski live and well had been all I put on my list to Santa that year.

  "If Katie couldn't make you a better man, then nothing could," I said.

  He grinned wider, then his face sobered. "I'll talk to the boss for you, see if I can get him to mellow without a near-death experience. "

  I looked up into his serious face. "Just because you saw me hug Jean-Claude?"

  "Yeah. "

  I gave Zerbrowski a quick hug. "Thank you. "

  He pushed me back towards Jean-Claude. "Better get him under wraps before dawn. " He looked past me to the vampire. "Take care of her. "

  Jean-Claude gave a small bow from his neck. "I will take care of her as much as she allows it. "

  Zerbrowski laughed. "Oh, he does know you. "

  We left with Zerbrowski laughing, the clerk staring, and the night growing soft around us. Dawn was coming, and I had so many questions. Nathaniel drove. Jean-Claude and I rode in back.