"He said you were their leoparde lionne,their rampant leopard."
"I don't know the term," I said.
Gwen answered. "Leoparde lionneis a term from French heraldry. It's a leopard, or even a lion, rampant in action on a crest. It symbolizes brave and generous warriors having done some brave deed. In this case it means a protector, even an avenger. Gabriel was a lion passant,a sleeping lion. He led but did not protect. In effect, Gregory did not merely refuse to harm Sylvie, he also told the Master of Beasts that if he was harmed, you would save him."
"How can I be their leopardewhat-you-call-it if I'm not a leopard?"
"Leoparde lionne," Sylvie said. "How can you be lupa and neither be wolf nor our Ulfric's lover?"
She had me there.
Fresh tears streamed down Sylvie's face. "Padma tried to get Vivian, his personal pet while he's here, to do things to me. Said I liked women, and maybe that would loosen my tongue. She refused, and she gave the same reason that Gregory did."
I remembered Vivian staring at me, her frightened eyes pleading for me to help her. "Shit, you mean she really expected me to rescue her tonight."
Sylvie just nodded. Gwen said, "Yes."
"Shit."
"I honestly didn't think of it until after we were in the Jeep. I swear I didn't think of it sooner," Sylvie said. "But I didn't say anything, because I wanted them to suffer. I can't stop hating them just like that. Do you understand?"
I did. "Sylvie, you and I have one thing in common. We are both vindictive as hell. So, yeah, I understand, but we can't leave them there like that, not if they were expecting to be saved."
She wiped at the tears. "You can't go up against them tonight. We can't do anymore tonight."
"I'm not planning to fight anymore tonight, Sylvie."
"But you're planning something." She sounded worried.
I smiled. "Yeah."
Gwen stood. "Don't be foolish, Anita."
I shook my head. "Foolish. I'm way past foolish." I stopped in the doorway and turned back. "By the way, Sylvie, don't challenge Richard, ever."
Her eyes widened. "How did you know?"
I shrugged. "Doesn't matter. What does matter is that I'll kill you if you kill him."
"It would be a fair fight."
"I don't care."
"You haven't seen him, Anita. He's on the edge. You can forbid me from challenging him, but there are others, and they won't be nearly as good for the pack as I am."
"Then make it carte blanche," I said. "If anyone kills Richard, I'll execute them. No challenge, no fair fight, I'll just take them out."
"You can't do that," Sylvie said.
"Oh, I think I can. I'm lupa, remember."
"If you forbid fights of succession," Gwen said, "you're undermining Richard. You're saying in effect that you don't believe he can really lead the pack."
"I've been told by two pack members today that Richard is out of control, damn near suicidal. That he's pulled his self-hatred, his loathing of his beast, and my rejection, down around his ears. I won't let him die because I chose someone else. In a few months when he's healthier, then I'll step down. I'll let him take care of himself, but not right now."
"I'll pass the word," Gwen said.
"You do that."
"You're going to try and bring out the leopards tonight, aren't you?" Sylvie said.
I kept seeing the bruises on Vivian's body. The pleading in her eyes. "They expected me to save them, and I didn't."
"You didn't know," Gwen said.
"I know now," I said.
"You can't save everyone," Sylvie said.
"Everyone needs a hobby." I started to walk out again, but Gwen called me back.
I turned in the doorway.
"Tell her the rest," Gwen said softly.
Sylvie wouldn't look at me. She spoke staring down at the sheet. "When Vivian refused to hurt me, they called in Liv." She looked up, tears glittering in her eyes. "She used things on me. Did things to me." Sylvie covered her face with her hands and rolled onto her side, crying.
Gwen met my eyes. The look on her face was frightening in its hatred. "You need to know who to kill."
I nodded. "She won't leave St. Louis alive."
"And the other one? The council member's son?" Gwen asked.
"Him either," I said.
"Promise it," she said.
"I already have," I said. I walked out then, searching for a phone. I wanted to talk to Jean-Claude before I did anything. Jean-Claude had taken everyone else to my house. They were boarding up the basement windows so that the vamps could be tucked safely away before dawn. The Traveler had refused to let them take their coffins. Besides, have you ever tried to rent a truck on a weekend after midnight?
What was I going to do about the wereleopards? Damned if I knew.
22
Jean-Claude's voice floated over the phone, my phone, my house. He'd never been there before. "What has happened, ma petite? Jason made it sound urgent."
I told him about the wereleopards.
He was quiet for so long. I had to say something. "Talk to me, Jean-Claude."
"Are you actually thinking of endangering us all for the sake of two people, one of whom you have never met before, and the other who you once described as a waste of skin?"
"I can't leave them there if they expected me to help them."
"Ma petite, ma petite, you have a sense of noblesse obligethat does you credit. But we cannot save them. Tomorrow evening the council will come for us, and we may not even be able to save ourselves."
"Are they here to kill us?"
"Padma would kill us if he could. He is the weakest of the council. and I think he fears us."
"The Traveler's the one we have to convince." I said.
"No, ma petite, the council are seven in number, always an odd number so that a vote may settle a question. Padma and the Traveler will vote against one another, this is true. It has been true for centuries. But Yvette is here to vote in the place of her lord, Morte d'Amour. She hates Padma but she may hate me more. For that matter, Balthasar could persuade the Traveler against us, and we are lost."
"What about everybody else? Do they represent anybody?"
"Asher speaks for Belle Morte. Beautiful Death. It is her line that I am descended from, as is he."
"He hates your guts," I said. "We are sunk."
"I believe the choice of four was very deliberate. They wish me to take a council seat, so I am the fifth vote."
"If the Traveler votes with you, and Yvette hates Padma more than she hates you..."
"Ma petite, if I act as a voting member of the council, then they will expect me to return to France and take my place on the council."
"France?" I said.
He laughed, and it slithered over the phone like a swarm touch. "It is not leaving our fair city that frightens me, ma petite. It is holding the seat. If the triumvirate were fully formed perhaps, perhaps, it would he possible to appear frightening enough to force would-be challengers to choose another."
"Are you saying without the fourth mark, the triumvirate is useless?"
Silence on his end, so long and deep, that I said, "Jean-Claude?"
"I am here, ma petite. The fourth mark will not make our triumvirate functional unless Richard heals himself."
"You mean his hatred of me."
"His jealousy of us together, yes, that is a problem, but not the only one, ma petite. His loathing of his beast is so intense, it weakens him. Weaken any link in a chain and it may snap."
"Did you know about what's been happening in the pack?"
"Richard has forbidden any of the wolves to tell me anything without his permission. I believe you are under the same restriction. It is, and I quote, none of my damn business."
"I'm surprised you didn't force Jason to tell you anyway."
"Have you seen Richard within the last month?"
"No."
"I have. He is on the edge, ma petite. I did not need Jason to tell me. It is plain for all to see. His torment will be viewed as a weakness among the pack. Weakness attracts them like blood to a... vampire. They will challenge him eventually."
"I've had two lukoi tell me that they don't think Richard will fight. That he'll just let someone kill him. Do you believe that?"