Crimson Death (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 25)

"We're supposed to be stronger together," Nathaniel said.

I looked at them, holding hands, and waited for Damian to protest, but he looked . . . content.

"Stronger together is the ideal," I said.

"We are that now," Nathaniel said.

"We are," Damian said, smiling at him.

"I guess we are," I said.

Nathaniel looked at me and his face had a new resolve that I'd never seen before. It reminded me of one of my expressions. One thing you did with a triumvirate was share bits of each other's talents, memories, and personality. It had never worked quite that way between the three of us before, but it had always worked that way with Jean-Claude, Richard, and me. Richard had inherited my temper, Jean-Claude my ruthlessness; I'd gotten Jean-Claude's blood hunger and Richard's craving for flesh. I really didn't want to go through all that again, but I wasn't sure that what I wanted was really going to matter.

"Go find someone to feed the ardeur, Anita. We'll keep shopping for towels. If we put an order in they should be here by the time we get back from Ireland," Nathaniel said.

I left them shopping for linens on the Internet, and I went to find someone to have sex with and feed the metaphysical hunger that could only be satisfied by some very up-close-and-personal interactions. The ardeur was the other thing I'd inherited from Jean-Claude. He was an incubus, not demonic, just a vampire who could feed off lust as well as blood. I was a succubus to his incubus now. No, I really didn't want to inherit any more metaphysical surprises from anyone again.

27

NOW THAT I wasn't drunk on metaphysics I went to find Jean-Claude. I wanted to tell him what had happened, and if I was having a last hurrah with anyone I was leaving at home, I wanted it to be him. He was in his bedroom talking to a man I didn't know. The man was in a regular brown business suit with a clipboard and a pen in his hands. At first glance Jean-Claude seemed to be in a white button-up business shirt and black slacks, except that the slacks fit well enough and tight enough to his body to fit seamlessly into knee-high black boots. He held his hand out to me with a smile. "Ma petite, I have organized a temporary bed until the custom mattress can be remade and shipped to us."

I took his hand in mine and let him draw me in against his body so that we could kiss. I went up on tiptoe, my free hand steadying me against his stomach, which gave me an excuse to pet down the line of buttons on his shirt. The buttons were covered in platinum and sapphires almost as dark as his eyes, so that the jewels looked bright blue one moment and black the next. The first time I'd seen the shirt I'd thought they were the buttons, but they were button covers, so he could change them out with ones he'd had made in ruby and gold. The button covers weren't the only change to the business suit look. The shirt's French cuffs were very wide and turned back thick and crisp, far more cuff than any fashion I was aware of, but they had to be wide enough to accommodate the cuff links with sapphires as big as his thumb set in glittering platinum and diamonds. Yes, he had a set of ruby-and-gold cuff links to match the other button covers.

He introduced me briefly to the man with the clipboard, who promised to bring in two king-size beds ASAP. They shook hands; he never offered me a hand to shake, but the days when that would bug me were past. Besides, my hands were busy around Jean-Claude's waist; my hands had to go somewhere during all the business hand shaking.

A guard at the door saw the man out, then closed the door behind them without being asked. The new guys were training up better and better. We had some who were great at the fighting-and-protecting part, but had been lost about the niceties of how to escort someone in and out of the house who was just there to fix the plumbing, or whatever. Being a good bodyguard for us was closer to being a bouncer in some ways; you had to know how to work the door, too.

I wrapped my arms around him a little tighter, smiled up into those deep blue eyes, and said, "I'd like 'Good-bye, I'm going to another country' sex, please."

He laughed, that surprised bleat of sound that I so rarely got from him, which was why I made the effort for it. He hugged me close, petting my hair as he held my cheek in against his chest.

"Ma petite, how could I turn down such a charming proposal?"

I moved my head enough so I could see his face again. His face was still alight with the edge of laughter, which made me smile even more. "I'm going to miss you."

His face sobered almost as slowly as a human's would have, but honestly, the older vampires have trouble holding on to surprised expressions. They tend to go back to whatever they've trained themselves is their neutral expression. I'd been puzzled by that until I met enough of the vampires who used to be in power over them all. Any emotion could be used against them, and likely would be. Cops had a neutral face that they hid behind. No one did that kind of hiding as well as older vampires, but then they'd had more practice than most human cops.

"I will miss you, too, ma petite." He bent down and had to loosen his arms so that I could rise up enough to meet the kiss. I tried to put more body language into the kiss, but he drew back before I could get us too distracted. "I have not fed yet today, ma petite."

"Me either," I said, and tried to go back to kissing him.

He raised his head out of reach and said, "I must take blood before I can make love to you."

"You taking blood can be part of the foreplay. We enjoy that."

He smiled, then shook his head. "Alas, ma petite, I believe you should conserve your precious blood for the three vampires who will be traveling with you. They cannot afford to feed on the Irish during such a case."

"That's almost exactly what Damian said."

"He has grown wise."

I sighed and suddenly wasn't feeling half as sexy. "Actually, yes and no."

He gave a small frown. "What does that mean in this instance, yes and no?"

I started to tell him what had happened, then realized I was wasting time. I opened the link between us a little wider; if I thought of the memories he could just remember with me. When we'd first started doing this kind of thing, I hadn't been good enough to give selected memories, but practice makes better. What would have taken minutes took only seconds.

"It seems our kitten has become a cat," he said.

"You mean Nathaniel?"

"Oui."

I nodded. "You could say that."

"Damian will help you control the new powers."

"Yeah, and Nathaniel will be more cautious with them from this point on, I think."

"I believe you are correct."

I studied his face. "You're not entirely sure, or you wouldn't have shut the marks down tight again. You don't want me to know what you're thinking."

"If you are asking if I am concerned that Nathaniel will let the new magic go to his head, of course I am, but we must trust each other, for we are built link by link into a chain that is stronger together than as a pile of individual links."

"You know what they say: The chain is only as strong as its weakest link."

"Do you believe that Nathaniel is our weak link?"

I thought about it for a second, then shook my head. "No. No, I don't."

He smiled. "Good. Do not doubt our cat now that he has grown claws, but rejoice in the extra power it will bring to us all."

"Just because something brings us more power, does that make it all right?"

"Not always, but power is often a balance between benefits gained and danger risked."

"I get that."

"Good, but you do need to feed the ardeur before you board the plane, ma petite."

"If I can't donate blood, can you catch some fast food?"

His smile brightened. "I have not had to catch my food for a very long time, ma petite."

I frowned, couldn't hold it, and smiled again. "You know what I mean."

"I do, but anyone who offers their life's blood to me deserves to be treated as far more than fast food."

"Agreed, but I don't want to lose the chance of making love with you before I leave."

"Nor do I, but the answer is simple: We include a blood donor who can be part of our foreplay, so that the feeding is still part of the sex."

"So someone to donate blood to you and feed the ardeur for me?"

"Oui."

"Who'd you have in mind?"

28

HE HAD NICKY in mind; that worked for me, so we sent one of the guards off to find him. I then realized that we had cell phones. He asked, "What are you doing, ma petite?"

"Texting Nicky."

"Non, ma petite, for something as delicate as this it should be in person."

"Nicky isn't that formal a guy," I said.

"He is in love with you, ma petite, but he is not with me. He is also a very recent volunteer for donating blood to me. I would rather be overly solicitous than give offense."

I frowned at him. "Either that all means you like Nicky more than I think you do, so you don't want to blow it, or you're afraid of offending him for a different reason."

He smiled. "You are in love with him, ma petite, and yet he has not demanded to be included in the larger commitment ceremony with all of us. I value very much that Nicky is not being difficult about that."

"You mean like most of the weretigers?" I asked.

"I do."

I sighed twice like I was trying to get enough air to swim a sprint. "The problem is that we can't all agree on a weretiger to include."

"Mephistopheles is proving most amiable."

"Yeah, Dev gets along with everyone better than anybody else."

"You do not sound convinced, ma petite."

I broke from the hug, because it was hard to think sometimes when I was too close to him. I started pacing the room a little as I tried to explain. "Mephistopheles--Dev--is great in a lot of ways. I know you value that he actually is bisexual, so he's your lover and mine."