Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter #16 - Blood Noir (38 page)

BloodNoir

Page 238 of 287

“Explain the rules to us,” Richard said. He tried to draw me in against his body again. I kept one hand on his chest to keep us a little apart, because I had another flash of certainty. I just needed to get everyone else out of the room. I needed only Richard. We didn’t need anyone but each other. What had I been thinking with all the others?

I gazed up at Richard, and he looked down at me. The moment I stared into the perfect brown of his eyes, all I could think of was getting closer to him.

The arm I’d been using to keep us apart slid around his waist. He bent down toward me, and all I could think of was how much I wanted him to kiss me.

His skin was so warm where it touched my body; warm and smooth and simply…perfect. It was as if our bodies were meant to be together, always.

I rose up on tiptoe with my nakedness against the front of his clothes and shredded shirt. I rose up to help our lips meet, as Richard bent down. So tall, so far to reach, for the touch of his mouth, but oh so worth it.

The kiss grew from something chaste to a feeding at each other’s mouths. Richard picked me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, pressing my most intimate parts against the front of his jeans. The pain was instant, and too raw to ignore. It cleared my head better than any cold shower. I broke the kiss and tried to climb down from his arms, but he held me against him. “It hurts,” I said.

He drew his face away enough to look puzzled, and then he let me down. He tried to make me slide down his body, but I stopped the movement in midmove, because the thought of rubbing myself down the front of something as rough as jeans made me cringe. No matter how nice the package inside the jeans might be.

He let me down onto the floor but kept his arms around me. I was back to putting my hands against his chest to try for some distance. I wasn’t sure what had just happened, but it was wrong. It wasn’t my thoughts.

“Anita, look at me,” he said.

I tried not to, but it was almost as if I couldn’t stop myself. The moment I held his gaze, the thought returned. I wanted to touch him, and be touched. I wanted…

Arms around my waist from behind, and I was jerked backward out of Richard’s arms. I was also off the ground, held against someone else’s nude body. I knew it was Crispin before I saw that flash of white hair out of the corner of my eye.

Alex moved between us and Richard. “Easy, Ulfric, but using magic is an unfair advantage.”

Shang-Da and Jamil were on either side of Richard, but seemed unsure whether to help him against the tigers or grab him so it didn’t get out of hand.

“I don’t know what you mean by magic, but if he doesn’t put Anita down, I’m going to use something a lot more solid on him than hocus-pocus.”

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BloodNoir

Page 239 of 287

For me, I felt better in Crispin’s arms, clearer-headed. I patted Crispin’s arm. “It’s okay, you can put me down.”

“He was trying to bespell you, the way you can do to others.”

“I know.”

Richard said, “I can’t bespell anyone. I’m not a vampire.”

I patted Crispin’s arm again, and he lowered me to the ground, though he kept his arms around me, loose, but with a tension to them that let me know if I moved toward Richard again, he’d stop me. On one hand, he had no right to do that; on the other, I’d needed the help. What the hell was going on with Richard and me?

“You bespelled me like a vampire, Richard. When you touched me, it was harder to think, and when I looked up into your eyes it was impossible. It was like the whole world was nothing except need for you.”

“That’s how it’s supposed to be when you’re in love,” he said. I shook my head. “Pretty to think so, Richard, but this wasn’t being in love. This was obsession. The pain helped clear my head, just like it does when a vampire tries to roll me. And all vampire powers are magnified by touch. You know that.”

“But I’m not a vampire,” he said.

“Me either, but I can roll people as if I am, sometimes.”

Richard frowned at me, his handsome face closing down into those petulant lines. Why was it that pretty people did petulant better than the rest of us?

“I felt it, too,” Jason said. “It was focused on Anita, but I’ve been rolled too many times not to know it when I smell it.”

“You are all crazy,” he said, but he looked less petulant, and more thoughtful. There was a good mind inside the pretty packaging. It was one of the things that had made me love him.

“You don’t carry my anger anymore, Richard, but you’re still part of the triumvirate with JeanClaude and me. Maybe when you lost the anger, you gained something else.”

He opened his mouth, closed it, then said, “Is that possible?”

“Let’s call Jean-Claude and ask,” Jason said.

Richard frowned at him. “Why don’t you shower while we call?”

Jason fought to keep his face neutral. “Want me out of the way?”

“No, but if you don’t want me pissed again, I need you not to smell like you rolled in Anita’s body.” He looked past me to Crispin. “You, too, Whitey.”

“My name is Crispin.”

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BloodNoir

Page 240 of 287

“Whatever, but if you and Red here could go someplace else and clean up, that would help.”

“I don’t know if the room we booked is even still ours,” Crispin said.

“I have a room that I booked for the week,” Alex said. He looked at me, then at Jason beyond.

“It is one of the social events of the year, plus politics, and a hint of scandal. I came down here for a story, though that seems like ages ago.” He looked thoughtful, shook his head, and then looked back at Crispin. “Can he borrow the extra robe?”

Jason started untying the sash without being asked twice. He handed the robe to Alex. “I’ll go shower.” He just turned and went for the bathroom.

Alex handed the robe to Crispin. He didn’t take it. He actually clasped me a little closer to him.

“If we are not here to help her escape his powers, then he will have her and chase us out.”

“Your word, Ulfric, that you won’t touch her while we’re gone.”

“You have no right to ask that,” Richard said.

“No, but something is going on here, something different. You gain powers if you are a vampire’s animal to call, but you don’t gain the powers that you and Anita are gaining. That’s not part of the deal. Yet I saw you bespell her. I felt her roll me like a cheap date. Roll me partway like a weretigress, and part like a vampire. Again, very weird.”

He gazed at the floor as if the answer lay somewhere on the carpet. “I need to give my paper something, or they are going to bitch about the hotel bill. They only footed it because the Summerlands are staying here. Their personal home is a museum now to the history of the family and the town’s founding.”

“They’re that big a deal?” I said.

He smiled at me. “You truly don’t pay attention to the media, do you?”

“Not really.” I moved away from Crispin, took the robe from Alex, and handed it to him.

“You really want me to leave?” Crispin sounded hurt. The tone of voice, something about his expression made me put him on the far side of twenty-five. I’d thought he was older.

“I need some space, Crispin.”

“How old are you?” Richard asked.

Crispin looked at him, then back to me as if to ask, did he have to answer him? I nodded, and he answered, just like that. Obedient, almost disturbingly so.

“Twenty-one.”

“You do like them young, Anita.”

“Nathaniel is the same age.”

“I think that’s my point,” Richard said. “At least I’m dating people closer to my own age.”

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BloodNoir

Page 241 of 287

I turned and gave him an unfriendly look. “If we’re going to fight, you can leave, too.”

A look passed over his face. He had to try twice before he spoke, and the first two times didn’t sound anything like what he finally said. “You aren’t safe alone.”

“I’m beginning to not feel very safe with any of you in the room.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that the vampire marks have gone all weird again, and I don’t know why. It means I’m tired. It means I hurt. It means that I need to find the charm. It has to be somewhere in the room. It means I need to get dressed.” I spotted the Browning on the carpet where I’d apparently dropped it when Richard had rolled me with his touch and gaze. I picked it up. “I dropped my gun, Richard, and didn’t remember doing it. I forgot everything but you. Love doesn’t make me forget that I’m armed, but vampire gaze can.”

“He tried to trick you,” Crispin said.

“Go,” I said, “go to Alex’s room, clean up.”

“Can we come back here when we’re done?” Crispin asked.

“I don’t know, call me first.”

“I’m going back to work once I put in my spare brown contacts,” Alex said.

“You do that.”

“Why do you sound angry?” Alex asked.

“Everything makes her angry,” Richard answered, before I could say anything. I suddenly wanted to be alone. I wanted them all gone. Fuck them all, or rather, not fuck them all. Jesus, but I needed to catch my breath, and I wasn’t sure I could do that with a crowd around me.

“You two, out.” I actually gave Alex a little push toward the door. “You”—I pointed at Richard—“behave, or you are so out of here.”

“You aren’t safe alone,” he repeated.

“Maybe not, or maybe it’s time I found out if I’m safe alone. We’ve been surrounding me with wereanimals for months and it hasn’t helped. Maybe I need fewer of you around me.”

“May I borrow a pair of sunglasses, before I go?” Alex asked.

“Sunglasses won’t make the robe look any better, babe,” Jamil said.

“It’s to hide the eyes,” Alex said.

“You must like being in your tiger form,” Richard said.

“I was born with these eyes, just like Crispin was born with his. One of the signs that our blood was thinning out genetically is that fewer and fewer children are born with tiger eyes.”

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BloodNoir

Page 242 of 287

“The eyes mark us as pure bloodline of our clans,” Crispin said.

“Your blue eyes look human enough,” I said.

“If you don’t know what you’re looking at, yeah.” He had the robe on now, though he hadn’t tied it in place, so his body was framed by the white cloth. It was whiter than his skin, but not whiter than his hair.

“Out,” Richard said, adding, “please,” with a glance at my face. It wasn’t a happy look.

“It’s not your room, Richard.”

“No, it’s yours and Jason’s.” He didn’t have that taste of rage that comments like that usually came with, but he still wasn’t happy. I guess I couldn’t blame him, and that, right there, was part of the problem. Part of me still agreed with Richard. You were supposed to grow up, find that special someone, marry them, and live happily ever after, till death do you part. Once, I’d believed that down to my toes. Now, I knew it wasn’t going to happen for me. I didn’t miss the wedding. Those always seemed like an expensive pain in the ass, but the concept of one single person being the be-all, end-all for you…that I missed.

“Do you really want us to go?” Crispin asked, and there was that wistful note in his voice that most of us grow out of by the time we get to be twenty-one.

I smiled, because that tone of voice made you either smile or want to kick someone’s ass. “Go with Alex. Clean up. Get some clothes. Call the room, and we’ll see how I’m feeling, okay?”

His face crumbled a little around the edges. Again, it was a younger gesture. I had a bad idea.

“Are you absolutely sure you’re twenty-one?”

“I would never lie to you, Anita. If you really are my queen, then I won’t ever be able to lie to you.”

Alex took Crispin’s arm and started them toward the door. “We need to go.”

Jamil held out a pair of sunglasses. Alex looked almost startled, then took them. “Thank you.”

“They aren’t cheap, so I want them back in one piece.”

Alex actually looked at the side of the glasses. “Dolce and Gabbana, these must have set you back a few hundred. I’ll treat them like the luxury item they are, thanks again.”

Jamil said, “We have some people in our pack who can’t go back to full human form. It’s a pain in the ass.”

“You don’t need to chat, Jamil,” Richard said.

Alex gave a little bow in his direction. “Good night for now, Ulfric. I am truly sorry if I distressed you.”

“Anita,” Crispin said, “please don’t send me away. Please let me stay with you, please.”

I knew that tone of voice. Shit.

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BloodNoir

Page 243 of 287

“You’ve rolled him completely, the way you did Requiem,” Richard said. I looked into his face expecting to see anger, but there was only something close to sorrow. Resignation, maybe.

“Not a topic for company,” I said.

Alex stopped them just short of the door, with the taller man, Crispin, staring back at me like a child being dragged away from the fair too soon.
God, please, not another one.

“This may not be vampire powers. Her call was that of a powerful tigress, a queen. Young males who have never mated before are more susceptible to the call of a queen. They are addicted to her until she chooses among them. When she chooses one over the others, then it’s like the pheromones, hormones, whatever, go back to normal levels and the ones she didn’t pick are free of her influence.”

“I’ve never heard of this,” I said.

“The only tigers I’ve met have been survivors of attacks, and it doesn’t work for them like that,”

Richard said.

Jamil and Shang-Da agreed.

“But they aren’t born tigers. In fact, most queens will kill a weretiger who deliberately brings over a full human against their will. It’s considered a great gift to be invited to join a clan when you aren’t born to it.”