Skin Trade (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 17)

Chapter 26

CRISPIN ANSWERED THE phone on the second ring; his voice still held that edge of sleep, but it was a happy edge. He worked nights, so his sleep pattern was close to mine. "Anita," and that one word was way happier than it should have been.

"How did you know it was me?"

"I programmed a song for you, so I know it's you." I heard the sheets roll as he turned.

Was I the only person who didn't know how to program my own damn phone? "I'm about to park in the garage at the New Taj."

I heard the heavy slither of sheets across skin. Was he sitting up? "Right now?"

"Yes, I should have called you sooner, I'm sorry. I got distracted by the pretty lights."

"Crap, Anita," Crispin said, and I heard other noises on his end of the phone.

"You sound worried," I said. "Why?"

"Chang-Bibi is my queen, but I'm your tiger to call."

"Do I apologize for that again?"

There were more noises, and I realized he was getting dressed. "No, I'd just rather you let me move in with you, or at least move to St. Louis, but we'll have that talk some other time."

"You sound freaked, Crispin. What is wrong?"

Edward pulled into a spot, and Hooper's SUV drove past ours, looking for his own parking spot.

"Let's just say that there are guests here that Chang-Bibi wants you to meet, and you'll want me within touching distance."

"Don't make me ask why again, Crispin."

"Other tigers from other clans, Anita. They want to know if you can bring their powers online, too."

"I'm not coming to feed the ardeur, Crispin, just to talk about the murders."

"If Max were awake, that's what you'd talk about. He's business, but Chang-Bibi may think first about the tigers, second about business."

"Are you actually saying that she wants me to... do some of the tigers before she'll talk business?"

The phone fell, hit something, and made me take it away from my ear. He came back on, "Dropped the phone, Anita, sorry. I'll meet you downstairs in the casino before you meet anyone else."

"If you do that, won't Bibiana question your loyalties?"

"Maybe, but I don't want you meeting the new tigers without me."

"Jealous?" I asked, and probably shouldn't have.

"Yes," he said, and that was Crispin. He didn't play, really. If he felt something, he told you. It made him very uncomfortable to deal with sometimes.

"Do I apologize for that, too?" I asked, and my voice was less than friendly.

"If you didn't want the truth, you shouldn't have asked," and now he didn't sound happy. When we first met, I'd thought Crispin was uncomplicated, and just about sex and food. I'd learned different. It was like I couldn't be attracted to a man who wasn't difficult in some way.

"You're right; if I didn't want the truth, I shouldn't have asked. I'm sorry."

He was quiet for a few breaths, then said, "Apology accepted."

"Get off the phone, Anita. We need to talk before we get there," Edward said. He'd turned the engine off, and we sat in silence as the air-conditioning died away.

"Crispin, I've got to go," I said into the phone.

"I'll see you downstairs in the casino."

"Will this get you in trouble with your clan?" I asked.

"I don't care," he said, and he hung up. He was twenty-one, barely, and most of the time he seemed younger. This was one of those times. I knew how harsh some of the wereanimal groups could be if you didn't follow orders. Crispin might not care now, but the weretigers could make him care. They could make him care a lot.

"Crispin will meet us in the casino downstairs. He says Chang-Bibi may try to fix me up with some new tigers before she'll talk about the murders."

"Fix you up, you mean have sex with them?" Bernardo asked from the backseat.

"Feed the ardeur on them," I said.

"You mean have sex with them," Olaf said, as if to drive the point home.

"I can feed without intercourse," I said, in a very grumpy voice.

"Good to know," Edward said, and his voice didn't sound much happier than mine.

"You told us that the weretigers might want you to feed on them, but not that you'd have to do it before they'd talk to us," Bernardo said.

"I didn't know," I said.

"Do you mean that we might have to watch you have sex with some of the weretigers?" Olaf asked.

I fought not to squirm in my seat. "Not if I can help it. The tigers are very big on fidelity, marriage, all that. I'm hoping if one of you plays my lover that Bibiana will see it as cheating for me to do one of her tigers. Also, it's a way to get all three of you inside with me. Two as security, and one as food."

I heard a noise and Olaf was suddenly looming over the back of my seat. Height didn't usually intimidate me, but as his arms slid around the sides of the seat, as if to pin me... "Back in your own seat, Olaf. No touching."

"If I am to play lover, then I must touch."

"And that is exactly why you aren't doing it," I said.

"I don't understand."

"I believe that, and that's another reason that you are going to be security and not food."

"I've frightened you again, haven't I?" he asked.

"Nervous, you've made me nervous again."

"What do you like to do on a date?"

I turned in my seat so I could see his face. "What?"

"What do you like to do on a date?" He repeated it, looking right at me, his face very neutral. At least he was controlling his face now, though the weirdness factor wasn't lessening for me. No, weird was definitely on the rise.

"Just answer the question, Anita," Edward said in a quiet voice.

"I don't know. See movies, eat dinner, talk."

"What do you do with... Edward?"

"We hunt bad guys and kill things."

"Is that all?"

"We go out shooting, and he shows me bigger and scarier weapons."

"And?" he asked.

I frowned. "I don't know what you want me to say,... Otto."

"What do you do on a date with Ted?"

"I don't date Ted." In my head I thought, It would be like dating my brother, but part of what we hoped would make Olaf leave me alone was the idea that Ted felt less brotherly toward me. So, what to say? "He's with Donna, and they've got kids, and I don't date people who are taken. It's against the rules."

"Honorable for a woman," he said.

"What the hell does that mean?" I said. "I know plenty of men who don't obey that rule, either. Bastards come in both sexes."

He looked at me for a long time, then finally blinked and looked away. He nodded. "Bernardo has no such rules."

"I guessed that," I said.

"I am sitting right here," Bernardo said.

Olaf said, "It bothers him that you don't like him better."

"Bernardo and I had this discussion, and we handled it."

"What does that mean?" Olaf asked.

"It means that Anita let me know she thinks I'm cute, so my ego is secure."

Olaf was frowning from one to the other of us. "I don't understand."

"We don't have time for this," Edward said, with a sigh. "Who plays what role?"

"Whoever I pick for a lover may have to do more than hold hands to convince Bibiana that it would be rude to offer up one of her tigers."

"So not Olaf," Edward said.

"And not you," I said.

"I weird you out," Olaf said. "I understand that, but why not Ted?"

"Pretending is too close to doing, and it would make me feel funny the next time I visited his family." That was actually the truth.

Bernardo leaned forward, smiling. "Does that mean that I'm the lucky guy?"

I scowled at him. "I'm giving you another chance to play my boyfriend; don't make me regret it."

"Hey, it wasn't you who ended up being forced to strip half naked at gunpoint last time." He wasn't teasing when he said it.

"Why did they want you to strip?" Olaf asked.

"They asked me a trick question, to see if he really was my lover."

"What question?"

"Whether I was circumcised," Bernardo said, and now he had a touch of amusement in his voice. "They wanted to see if her answer was the right one."

"Was it?" Edward asked.

"Yes."

"How did you know whether he was circumcised?" Olaf asked, and he actually sounded indignant.

I undid my seatbelt and turned in my seat. "Stop it, just stop it. You haven't earned the right to sound jealous or hurt."

Olaf scowled at me.

"Sonny and Spider are watching us argue," Edward said.

I'd forgotten that the two policemen were trailing us. That was beyond careless. "Great, fine, but I mean it, Olaf. I'm flattered that you want to try to date me like a normal guy, but a normal guy doesn't get jealous before he's even kissed a girl."

"Not true," Edward and Bernardo said together.

"What?" I asked.

They exchanged a look, then Edward said, "I had a crush on a girl, the first serious one. I never kissed her, or even held her hand, but I was jealous of every boy who got near her."

I tried to picture a young, insecure Edward and couldn't, but it was nice to know that once he'd been a boy. Sometimes it felt like Edward had sprung full grown from the head of some violent deity, like a vicious version of Athena.

"I've been jealous of women who were dating good friends. You don't poach from good friends, but sometimes it cuts you up to watch them be cute together."

"Anita and I thought you would poach," Olaf said.

"Hey, just because I like women doesn't mean I have no scruples. No friends' serious girlfriends, and no wives of people I like."

"Good to know you have scruples." I tried for sarcasm and succeeded.

"Hey," Bernardo said, "what's the old saying about glass houses, Anita?"

"I don't do husbands."

"I don't do vampires," he said.

Point for him. Out loud, I said, "You don't know what you're missing."

"I don't like sleeping with anyone who can bespell me with their eyes. It's too hard to remember not to gaze."

"So it's not morality but practicality."

"That, and sometimes there's a moisture problem."

"What does that mean?"

"It means they're dead, Anita, and dead women need lubricant."

"Stop, just stop, before I get visual to go with that." Then I added, before I had time to think about it, "That's not true of the female vampires I know." I knew it was true, knew it through Jean-Claude's and Asher's memories that they'd shared with me metaphysically. Knew it through Belle herself visiting my dreams.

"And how do you know that the female vampires you've met don't need lubricant?" he asked.

I tried to think of an answer that wouldn't raise more questions and couldn't come up with one.

"You are blushing." Olaf didn't sound happy.

"Oh, please tell me that the visual I've got in my head is true," Bernardo said, and he sounded very happy. In fact, he was grinning ear to ear.

Edward was looking at me over the lowered rims of his sunglasses. "I haven't heard any rumors about you and the female vampires."

"Maybe you can all just wait outside and I'll talk to the tigers alone." I got out of the car, into the dimness of the parking garage.

Sonny and Spider got out of their SUV, but I didn't want to talk to any more men. I slammed the door and started for the spot marked Elevator. I heard the doors opening and shutting. If I got to the elevator first, I was going up to the casino without them. Maybe it wasn't the smart thing to do, but the thought of Edward watching the doors close without him gave me a certain shallow satisfaction. Maybe he understood that I'd had enough teasing, because he hurried to catch up with me in front of the elevator.

"Going up by yourself would be stupid, and that is something you aren't," he said, and sounded angry.

"I'm tired of explaining myself to you or anyone else."

"I've sent Bernardo and Olaf to talk to SWAT, so you can talk to me. Is there something else I should know?"

"No," I said.

"Liar," he said.

I glared at him. "I thought it was just Ted who fantasized about lesbians."

"You're Jean-Claude's human servant; how closely tied are you metaphysically, Anita?"

And just like that, he'd guessed what I didn't want to tell them.

"I've never been to St. Louis," Bernardo said, from just behind us. "What female vamps does Jean-Claude have?"

"They didn't seem to like Anita enough to sleep with her," Olaf said.

The doors opened, and I said, "One more word about this topic and I'm getting in this elevator by myself."

"Touchy," Bernardo said.

"Drop it," Edward said, "both of you."

They dropped it, and we all got in the elevator. Bernardo was smiling all over himself. Olaf was scowling. Edward's face had gone to unreadable. I leaned against the back wall and fought to find an expression that wouldn't make it worse. Was it better that two of them thought I'd been with another woman than that I shared detailed memories with vampires? Yeah, it was. It would have been even better if Edward had believed it.