I frowned at her. "Magda said almost the same thing when I got her to stop picking fights with some of the other lionesses, that I'd noticed her efforts or something like that."
"We need our queen, or our king, to rule us, Anita."
"What does that mean exactly?"
"It means exactly what I said."
I was pretty sure that the phrasing meant more than I understood, but I wasn't sure how to ask the right question to get an explanation that would make sense to me.
Nathaniel said, "Maybe they're like people who push until someone pushes back, because they need to know the rules, or maybe they need to have rules."
"You mean, like Nicky beat the shit out of them and suddenly Scaramouche is offering to do Jean-Claude, or let Jean-Claude do him."
"Yes."
"So if they can't have good treatment they'll misbehave until they get bad treatment--is that it?" I asked.
"I think so," Nathaniel said.
Pierette was watching us talk as if she were memorizing the conversation, and maybe she was so she could repeat it back to her fellow Harlequin.
"Is that it, Pierette?" I asked. "Is any attention better than no attention?"
"I do not understand the question."
"Magda was picking fights with one of the local lionesses until I slept with her the first time. She literally said that now that I'd noticed her efforts, she would leave the other lionesses alone. Scaramouche is a pain in our asses, until we have Nicky punch him out, and now he's willing to cooperate with us. Magda got positive attention and behaved better. Scaramouche and you get negative attention and you behave better, so it doesn't seem to matter what kind of attention you get as long as it's some attention from me. I guess Jean-Claude's attention would serve just as well, but do you understand the point we're trying to make now?"
She thought about it, staring at the floor while she did it again. She looked up before she said, "I believe so, and it may be accurate. I would want my master to hear your words, before I answer for certain."
"Fair enough," I said.
Sin said, "What Nathaniel did just now is one of his purposes in Anita's life."
"I do not understand, my prince," Pierette said.
"He helps her think better."
"Ah, yes, I see. Then he may be more her moitie bete than we thought, but he is still weak both as a leader and a warrior."
"But he's very strong in my heart," I said, and reached out to hold Nathaniel's hand.
"We have no doubt you love him, my queen, but love is not enough to set someone as king above us."
"It's okay, Anita. Concentrate on Ireland," Nathaniel said.
"It's not okay that they disrespect you."
"No, but save lives first. The rest can wait."
"Even you?"
He smiled. "Even me."
"Okay, Pierette, do you think that M'Lady lost enough power when Mommy Darkness died that she can't stop a new vampire from populating Dublin with new vamps? Is that really possible?"
"Many things are possible, my queen, but likely, no."
"Why would the fairy magic be diminishing, then?"
"I do not know. I have no dealings with the gentle folk. They do not like vampires or those who associate with them. They tolerated M'Lady because she had the power to force them to deal with her. Perhaps the Fey magic was more important to her own powers than we understand, and it is the failure of that magic which is weakening M'Lady."
"So it's not that M'Lady lost power when Mommy Darkest died, but the fairy magic fading that's hurting her power levels?"
Again Pierette stared at the floor while she thought about what I'd said. "That could be the case."
"So whoever is in the city doing all this is a new player in the country?"
"A new vampire, yes," she said.
"Why would fairy magic fading cause M'Lady's power to fade?" Sin asked.
"Because it is a part of her, as is the very soil of Ireland itself."
"Is that where the myth about needing to lie in their native soil comes from?"
"Some very weak vampires do need to lie in their original soil, or they will die and never waken again."
"It's certainly not true for any of you. You've traveled the globe," I said.
"We had the Mother of All Darkness to power us on our travels. We knew she would sustain us."
"Are you saying that without her power to back you, if you travel to another country you won't wake again?"
"My master has not been on his native soil for centuries, and he sustains me."
"If you didn't die with him, what would happen to you?" Sin asked.
"No one knows, for when one half dies the other follows."
"You guys always die with your masters?" I asked.
"Yes, but then most moitie betes will die with their masters, for it is their power that sustains us."
I squeezed Nathaniel's hand and touched Sin's arm. He smiled down at me and put an arm across my shoulders. "It's okay, Anita."
"You didn't ask to be my animal to call."
"I was pretty much begging for it," Nathaniel said, smiling.
"You wanted anything that got you closer to me," I said, bumping my head gently against his shoulder.
"I still do," he said, and kissed me ever so gently.
Pierette tried to keep her face blank but couldn't quite manage it.
"You don't approve?" I asked.
"It is not for me to approve or disapprove."
Sin put his other arm around both me and Nathaniel, so that we were in a group hug. Touching both of them like that made my skin run warm with power. The rush of it made me close my eyes for a moment. It felt so good.
"And that is why we do not tell you how to run your power, my queen, for just that extra touch has made the three of you burn brighter."
"We all love each other," Sin said.
I looked up at him.
He smiled down at my upturned face. "Don't look so surprised, Anita. That talk we had recently about how I could be content with only having part of your life, well, one of the reasons it works is Nathaniel, and Nicky, and Micah. They are my brothers."
"Most brothers don't share their girlfriends," I said.
"Brother-husbands, then, but you're just trying to dissect it like you always do. Just accept the fact that we love each other, that the three of us love each other. Our own magic tells you it's true." He tightened his hug around us and Nathaniel hugged him back and I was held between the two of them. It felt warm and safe and good. I finally let myself lean my head against Sin's chest, and something hard and tight inside me let go as
he and Nathaniel held me. The power was gentler than the ardeur, but it still spilled over us, around us.
"Is this what love feels like?" Pierette asked in a soft voice.
I looked up to see her touching the air in front of her. I think she was caressing the power that was rolling around us. I concentrated for a moment and felt her fingertips almost as if the power she was touching were a part of my skin.
"Yes," Sin said, "that's what love feels like."
"It is warm and safe, but it feels like power, too." She looked startled and drew her hand back. "Your power doesn't just feed on lust; it feeds on love."
I nodded. "Yeah."
"Some of us think you spend too much time with the emotions of your lovers, when all you need is the sex, but we did not understand that you feed on love and not just lust. Love strengthens you, literally."
"I think love strengthens everyone, literally," I said.
"Oh no, my queen, love can be a terrible weakness."
"Or a great strength," I said.
Pierette did her floor-gazing routine again as she thought. "Perhaps it is both."
Sin leaned over closer to me. "There is nothing stronger than love." He whispered it as he leaned further, and I came up on tiptoe to meet his lips with mine. Nathaniel closed the small space that my going up on tiptoe had made in our hug so that he was holding us even tighter while we kissed. He kissed my shoulder while Sin kissed my lips. It reminded me of all the times they'd shared me between them, and the memory was enough to make me shiver between them.
Sin drew back from the kiss enough to say, "Keep doing that and I'll forget everything but you."
Nathaniel bit gently on my shoulder, which made me not just shiver but writhe a little bit.
"No fair," I said.
"Very fair," Nathaniel said.
"Unless we can actually have sex, no fair," Sin said.
I don't know what we would have said next, because energy rolled off Pierette like the first rush of cold air in front of a rainstorm. We all turned and looked at her. Her eyes weren't brown anymore; they were a rich gray like rain clouds just before the sky opens up and tries to drown the world.
Nathaniel tensed beside me, and I felt Damian wake on the bed in our room. His moment of disoriented panic was enough to let me know that he didn't remember last night either. I shut down the link between us enough not to get distracted by his emotions, because we had other problems right in front of us.
"Well, what a pretty sight to wake up to." Pierette's mouth said the words, but the intonation and pitch were not hers. All the rest of the vampires were awake for the night.