Crimson Death (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 25)

"Coffee date," she said. "What is a coffee date?"

A woman's voice from the stairs said, "When people meet online, or in a place where they don't know each other well, they will often make their first private meeting in a public place like a coffee shop or cafe. They will have coffee, or tea, and talk. If the talk goes well, then they will plan a more traditional date."

The woman was slender, taller than me by a few inches, but still shorter than everyone else in the room. She had soft white-blond curls spilling around her face in an artfully styled cloud that brushed her shoulder. I got to her face and had a moment of wondering if Rodrigo was cross-dressing, because the face looked identical to his, but the body underneath seemed female. Some cross-dressers are better at the switch than others, but still I was betting I was looking at his twin. She was wearing black-on-black clothing top to bottom and it looked a lot like what I normally wore to hunt vampires in, including the boots being more work than club. Her eyes looked as black as the clothing; in this light I couldn't be certain, but I remembered staring up into her brother's eyes and I was betting hers were as black as his. Eyeliner and mascara made her eyes look larger and even more of a contrast with her pale skin with that smattering of freckles.

"Rodina, what are you doing here?" Keegan demanded. He seemed to demand a lot.

"I wanted to see the witch that has made my brother so useless. I would have said that no one could move Rodrigo, not like this, so I had to come see for myself."

"This coffee date, why would they do such a thing?" the Wicked Bitch asked.

"They believe that meeting in public, during the day especially, will keep them from being carried off by people who mean them harm. Dating when you are alone with someone means you have no one to come to your aid if they decide to do terrible things to you." Somehow as Rodina said it, the likelihood of terrible things happening seemed to grow. I wouldn't have wanted to be alone with either her or her brother.

Those black eyes stared straight at me as she came down those last few steps and glided across the floor. She looked past her supposed queen as if she weren't there. I met her bold gaze and said, "I bet you and Rodrigo are killers on a coffee date."

She smiled, pleased with herself. "We like good coffee. Be a shame to waste it on violence; so many things can get spilled."

"So that first date," I said, "must be a lulu."

"Lulu. I haven't heard that used in decades," Rodina said, rolling her eyes.

"Do not play the teenager here. You are older than I am," Hamish said.

"But I was a teenager when I stopped aging, when we stopped aging. I'm sorry that your master did not find you sooner, Hamish," she said, trailing her fingers along his arm as she passed him. He turned so that he kept her in view like you did when you sparred. Once the gloves went on, all bets were off.

"You seem not yourself, girl," Keegan said.

"I feel very much myself today," she said, moving past Hamish so that she was closer to their mistress and me than anyone else.

"Perhaps I should remind you that being too much yourself does not meet with my approval."

Rodina gave a small bow. "I am, as always, at your disposal, M'Lady."

"You know I prefer that you curtsy, even when you are dressed like a man."

Rodina dropped into a low, perfect curtsy, even mimicking holding a long skirt out to the sides. "As you wish, M'Lady, so shall it be."

The would-be queen did not offer the other woman a hand up, and by rules of etiquette Rodina was stuck in that very uncomfortable low curtsy until her mistress told her to get up or offered her a hand up. The vampire that didn't look very much like a vampire at all turned back to me.

"Do you know why they all refer to me as M'Lady?"

"An endearing nickname?" I said, trying to sound casual, because I was pretty sure we were getting closer to the painful part of things.

She smiled, looking down demurely, though it looked like a practiced gesture and not a real one. Something you do because it's expected, but you don't mean it. "Because to say my name aloud is considered bad luck. To come to my attention at all is considered ill fated."

I licked my lips and fought to keep my pulse even. "I heard that," I said.

"Allow me to demonstrate." She offered her hand to Rodina, who raised a slightly startled face, but she had no choice but to take what was offered. M'Lady helped the other woman stand but kept their hands entwined.

"M'Lady, what have I done to offend thee?"

"I do not like your attitude today, and your brother's loyalty is in question. Do I need to question yours, as well?"

"No, M'Lady, you do not."

"We shall see," the vampire said, and one minute Rodina was standing tall and sure of herself, except for a slight uncertainty in her black eyes, and then her knees buckled. My skin ran with goose bumps just being close to whatever was happening.

"Please, mistress," Rodina said through gritted teeth.

"I like my servants humble, Rodina, and you and your brothers never quite get there."

The kneeling woman's face was so pale that her freckles stood out like ink against her skin. She looked as if she might faint. "Please." She hissed it, as if words were about to fail her.

"Say my name, girl."

"M'Lady," she said, sweat breaking out on her face as if she had a sudden fever.

"No, my real name."

"Moroven."

"No, my real name."

"Nemhain," the kneeling girl said in a voice that was strained as if she were in pain.

"Scream my name, girl."

"Do not . . . make me . . . do this, please!" Her words were pulled from between her teeth as if she were afraid to open her mouth too wide, for fear she'd throw up. I could feel the power rolling off Nemhain, but I still didn't know what she was doing to the woman on the floor.

"I will pull every horrible moment in your long life from your mind and make you relive the terror of it. All you have to do to stop me is to do what I ask. Is that so harsh a burden, Rodina?"

The girl shook her head, lips tightly closed. She was swaying on her knees now. She kept shaking her head as tears started to roll down her cheeks. "Nemhain! Neeemhaaainn!" She screamed the name until it echoed against the stone walls.

The vampire let go of her hand and Rodina fell to the floor, one shaking arm catching her just before she would have lain on her side. She looked like what she really wanted was to curl up in a fetal position and weep, or throw up, or all three, but she fought to stay upright. She fought not to faint; she fought to save as much of herself as she could from what had just happened.

Nemhain turned to me with a smile, most unpleasant. "Now, it's your turn, Anita. I suggest you call out my name much sooner than she did; after all, you are merely human and do not have the reserves of strength that a shapeshifter does."

I tried not to tense up, but I couldn't help it. I breathed out fast and tried to relax into it. It helped with a beating sometimes, and this was just another type of beating.

She reached out that pale hand, and I couldn't help but jerk back from it. She laughed, high and wild, the kind of laugh that only comes out of supervillains and the truly insane. "Keegan would enjoy holding you for me, Anita, or you can take your medicine like a big girl like Rodina did."

Keegan came up behind her, and there was something in his brown eyes that made me not want him to touch me, ever. Rodina's voice came shaking and weak sounding, but she still said it. "Just take it. Don't make it worse."

Strangely, in that moment I trusted the crazy bitch on the floor more than the one standing in front of me. I looked into Nemhain's pale blue eyes and said, "Just do it."

"So brave. I will break you of that before I am done."

"Talk is cheap, girlfriend. Do it, or don't."

She frowned at me as if it wasn't the reaction she wanted, but she laid her hand against my face and called her power. We were both done being nice.

79

MY SKIN R

AN in shivering goose bumps with all the power she pushed into me, but it was like standing in the middle of a river that flowed past the rock of me. I could feel the water, knew I was getting wet, but I was still above water, still safe and unmoved by the torrent.

I looked into her blue eyes from inches away, with her hand cupping the side of my face, and all that energy flowing around, but not into me. Just like in the dream, she couldn't get past my shields.

"No." She whispered it.

I looked at her and said, "Do you still want me to say your name?"

"This is not possible," Keegan said behind her.

"I cannot see into your mind. I cannot draw your fears to the surface of it. The chains you wear are like the blade that slew your tiger. They are enchanted to separate you from all your other parts. Jean-Claude cannot help you while you wear them. You are a vessel for power, nothing more. I should be able to do with you as I like once you are shorn of all the other powers that aid you."

"Surprise," I said softly.