Anita Blake 19 - Bullet (15 page)

“Yeah,” I said, my pulse in my throat from jumping, “I mean Black Queen here.” Eagle was whoever was in charge of the guards overall on a shift. Black Queen was my call sign. No, it wasn’t my idea, but until I thought of a better one I couldn’t bitch too much. Yes, Jean-Claude was Black King. Like no one was going to figure that out.

“The lions are on their way down. It’s the Rex, two bodyguards, the two new female lions, and two other males that Haven’s okay with you feeding on, just like you negotiated, darlin’, but the two feeders are a little worse for wear.”

“Stop calling me darling, and what does that mean . . . Eagle?”

“Means someone has beat the shit out of them. They’re being carried down to you all.”

“What the fuck,” I said.

“Are ya asking why he beat ’em to shit?” Bobby Lee asked.

“Yeah, I am,” I said.

“White King seems to think you’ve fucked them more than you’ve fucked him. He didn’t like that.” White King wasn’t the code for Haven, but for any VIP of a visiting vampire or animal group. You had to be more welcome here to have your own code sign.

“Jesus,” I whispered, “I haven’t fed on many . . . Oh, shit. No, he didn’t.”

“You’ll have to finish a sentence there, Black Queen, before I can give you an answer,” Bobby Lee said.

“Shit, I don’t know how to do this and not say names.” I looked at Jean-Claude.

He covered his earbud and spoke low. “Who do you fear it is?”

“Noel and Travis,” I said. They were in college and were two that had survived from the old pride’s leadership to Haven’s new regime. I had used them to help me control my lion when Nicky wasn’t available, but I hadn’t fed the
ardeur
on them, because they were too young. They were legal, but young in experience. As far as I could discover, Noel was a virgin. I was so not going to be his first. I had tried to persuade the old Rex, Joseph, that they were too tender to throw to the
ardeur
, but he hadn’t understood. Apparently Haven hadn’t understood, either. It was just a different misunderstanding.

Jean-Claude spoke to that invisible voice. “Joe College and Christmas are who the Black Queen is concerned about.”

“The concern is well placed, Black King.”

“Shit,” I said.

“Yep,” Bobby Lee said, “that about covers it, Black Queen.”

I didn’t want to have to deny I’d had sex with Travis and Noel over the open airwaves, as it were; besides, I’d learned a long time ago that you can’t prove a negative. You can prove that you did something, but it’s the devil to prove you didn’t do something.

Nathaniel said it for me since he wasn’t on the headset. “You haven’t had sex with Noel and Travis.”

“I know that, but apparently the White King doesn’t believe that.” I fumbled at the neckpiece, trying to turn it off for a minute, but I couldn’t remember how. I was angry. I hadn’t been angry until now. It gave me an idea.

“Eagle, how angry is White King?”

“Angry enough to fry your bacon from a distance.”

“You know, you can give the quaint southernisms a rest, Eagle.”

“Are you disparaging my heritage there, Black Queen?”

“No, just cranky.” I turned to Jean-Claude. “Help me turn this off.”

He pressed something and I was suddenly alone in my own head again; yea. “You’ve thought of something,” he said.

I nodded. “I can feed on anger, remember?”

“I remember,
ma petite
.”

“Haven is angry; I’ll feed on it.”

“If you feed on his anger, he may take that as a form of attack,” Richard said.

I looked past Jean-Claude to him. “If he’s hurt Noel and Travis as badly as Bobby Lee says, then I’m not sure I care if he thinks he’s being attacked.”

“If you kill him, fine, but make sure you kill him because he needs killing, Anita, not just because you’re pissed at him,” Richard said.

I started to say something angry back, but Nathaniel touched my arm, and Damian touched my shoulder a moment later. They were both calmer than I was, and some of that calm seeped into me. It helped me take a deep breath and let it out slow. I nodded. “Point taken, but I can’t let him hurt them like this and get away unpunished. If I do, then we won’t have control of the lions, and Haven will do something worse.”

Micah said, “He’s like a teenager acting out. He wants your attention even if it’s negative attention.”

“Are you blaming me for this?” I asked, and the anger was just there again. Damian’s hand tightened on my shoulder. Nathaniel put his hand in mine. It helped me push the anger down again, but it was there and if I wasn’t careful it could raise my beasts and then we would be in a mess.

“I’m just saying that Haven thinks like the fifteen-year-old he was when he joined the werelions. He’s stuck there emotionally. It makes him react to things.”

“What do I do?” I asked, and that I asked him was a mark of what we meant to each other. I didn’t ask many people’s opinion.

“Save Noel and Travis first; get them on this side of the room, then see if Haven is willing to be reasonable.”

“Reasonable how?” I asked.

“Sex, maybe.”

“I don’t want to fuck him; I’m so mad at him I can’t see straight.”

“May I offer an opinion,
ma petite
?”

I turned back to the man at my side. “Please, at this point I’m taking suggestions. I am in over my head here.” I said out loud what I’d thought earlier. “This would be easier if you had a tie to the lions, and not just me.”

Jean-Claude looked at me. His face was unreadable, but it was a long, considering look. “Augustine said he spoke to you about the lions and certain possibilities.”

“We don’t have time for coy, Jean-Claude. He told me that there was a chance, if you slept with the women of some of the cat-based animal groups, that you might gain them as your animal to call, too. He thinks you might be able to gain an animal through me, instead of me always gaining through you.”

“Are you saying you want us to sleep with the female cats?” Richard asked.

I looked at him. “No, I’m saying maybe Jean-Claude should sleep with them.” I added, because he was looking at me, “Jean-Claude makes me feel secure. You don’t yet, Richard. Jean-Claude has hung in there while I fucked a lot of other men. He’s been a good sport, so maybe it’s my turn to be a good sport.”

“
Ma petite
, the lions will be here in moments; I want to be very clear between us. Are you saying that you would be open to me sleeping with the female lions while you sleep with the males?”

I fought not to cross my arms or look pouty. “I think so, oh, hell, I don’t know. As a theory, I think it’s got merit.”

“Merit?” Jean-Claude said. “That is not a strong enough word to get me into another woman’s bed,
ma petite
. I think merit would come back and, how would you say, bite me on the ass.”

I couldn’t blame him. “I need help, Jean-Claude. The leopards work because Micah is reasonable and wants to help me, and he’s leopard king to my queen. The tigers work because so far the only males in town are mine. We don’t have a tiger group to get pissy with me. The rats and swans work not because they’re our animal to call but because their leaders value the order you’ve brought to the city and they want to help that along.”

Jean-Claude spoke into the air, into his earpiece, whatever. “Give us a moment.” He forgot all about code names as he turned to me. “The lions are outside the door, and making Haven wait will not help things. Do you want me to try to seduce one of the women into my bed? It must be yes or no.”

“Can I think about it?” I asked.

“No. Yes or no.”

“No sex for tonight, but make friends so that maybe another night soon you can.”

“Not precise enough,” he said. “I will not be punished for doing what you tell me to do. Tell me to seduce them, or tell me don’t, and tell me now.”

I stared at him and didn’t know what to say. But he was right; I had to decide now. Fuck. “I don’t know how I feel about you with another woman that I haven’t met. Can I meet them first and then ask me again?”

He smiled at me. “You may.” He spoke back to the headgear. “Let the White King through.” Silence and then he said, “Yes, the Black Queen and the Black King are in agreement, bring them through.”

I didn’t bother to turn my own headset back on because I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t want anything I said in the next few minutes on an open frequency, and I didn’t have to worry about giving a green light to one of our snipers. The lions had all gone home except the ones pushing their way through the curtains now. All the dangerous things were in here with us.

TWO OF OUR guards came through first, holding the long drapes aside so that Haven and his lions could go through. He was around six feet tall, a little narrower through the shoulders than I liked, but what frame he had was muscled. He took his conditioning seriously, but lions are more prone to have fights for dominance at short notice. Staying in shape could be the difference between living or dying. Most lions took their exercise pretty seriously because of that.

He was wearing a long, pale trench coat over a nice suit. He was all tans and cream, as if the clothing were a preview of the lion inside him. His hair was still shades of blue, with highlights and lowlights as if blue were a natural color for human hair, so that the dye job was still one of the best unnatural shades I’d ever seen. The hair was shaved short on the sides and longer on top so he could gel it in little spikes. His eyes were still blue. My lioness sniffed the air as soon as I saw him, because primate that I was, I wanted to see him, but my lioness wanted to smell him.

His power crept over me as if warm breath had suddenly drifted over every inch of my skin. I shivered and my lioness began to pad up that long metaphysical path. She’d liked Haven from the moment we met him. I’d known bad news when I saw it. But nothing changed how much my body wanted him. I wanted to be naked and roll every inch of me over every inch of him the way a cat will luxuriate while it’s scent-marking. He was mine and I was his the way that Micah and I had belonged to each other. My pulse sped.

Nathaniel’s hand tightened in mine, and Damian scooted closer, putting his arm around us both. It helped me think, helped slow my pulse. Jean-Claude put his hand in my last free hand, and that helped even more. I didn’t have to look to know that Richard had put his arm across the couch so that he was touching Jean-Claude, too. I knew we were all touching, and with every touch I was a little less the victim of the lion inside me, and the one walking into the room.

Haven’s energy breathed harder against my skin. I smelled sun-burnt grass, dust, and the rich scent of lion. Once it would have been enough to bring my lioness crashing against the walls of my body; with everyone’s hands on me it was tempting, but I didn’t have to give in to it.

A low growl vibrated out from between those human lips. The sound of it seemed to vibrate along my spine, as if my body were a tuning fork and that one low sound hit just the right note. I tried to stand up and hands held me in my seat. I turned on them, snarling, my lioness loud in my head.

Haven strode across the carpet toward us, and I knew he meant to jerk me free of all that restraint. His power went before him like an advance attack. I could either stand up and go to him in this body, or my lioness could try to go to him in a different one. I actually got to my feet. Jean-Claude and Nathaniel still had my hands, but I was standing, wanting Haven to touch me. His energy seemed strong, and giving in to it a little had kept the lion from trying to tear her way out of me.

Bram was a dark blur just suddenly appearing in front of me, blocking Haven’s way. I knew that Micah had told him to do it. A small logical part of me knew why he’d done it, and even agreed as Nimir-Ra, but the lioness didn’t agree. She snarled at Bram’s tall form between her and her Rex. She’d have had the same reaction if Bram had stood between her and prey. I pulled free of Nathaniel’s hand. Only Jean-Claude kept me from either jumping Bram or just running around him. Truthfully, attacking from behind was the first plan. The visual was of me as a lion on his back, claws digging into his flesh, my teeth sinking into his scalp, his head, crushing his skull.

The visceral almost-memory helped me climb back into my head and push the lioness back. I was a person, not an animal. I could control this. I didn’t want to hurt Bram.

When Haven felt my lion go cold, his energy was still there, still seeking lion. It found the lions he’d brought with him. Their energy flared. I could see it, not with my eyes, but with the back of my head. I knew it was Jesse, tall, dark, and handsome, and Payne, tall, pale, and handsome. Payne really was his last name, not a nickname since he was an enforcer. But I saw their lions around them like halos, one with a mane that was almost black and the other so pale it was ghostlike. But there were other lions behind them: a woman I didn’t know, tall, strongly built, but all curves. I had an impression of short dark hair, but mostly her lioness was tawny with darker marks so that she looked almost spotted in places. The other woman was much shorter, with long yellow hair, but her lioness wasn’t smaller. It was a huge golden form snarling around her human body as if it were a wick and the lion the flame.

Then I saw two more lions lying on the floor. They didn’t burn bright. Their lions were red-orange glows like a fire that was fading. They were younger lions, with shorter manes, ragged compared to the other men. Their lions turned and looked at me, one with a halo of dark mane, the other paler, but the lions looked at me. They knew me.

I suddenly saw the world through a golden haze. I turned my head and I could see my lioness over me like a glow just behind my eyes. She, like the other short woman, wasn’t a small lion. She was a great dark gold shape rearing over and around me. I’d seen Micah’s leopard once like this around him, but never again. Now all I could see was lions.

One of the lions on the floor stirred and lifted his head, and I had the double image of Travis; it was his golden-brown curls with that darker mane around it like an overlay. He looked at me, and he fought to reach his hand out toward me. Injured, it was the closest he could come to the begging gesture that most of the lycanthropes had. It was a submissive’s way of asking a dominant to forgive him, to help him.

Noel lay very still beside him. The image of his lion was a dark red shadow, growing dimmer. Some part of me knew what that meant. Noel was dying. In that moment the lioness and I were in agreement. You didn’t kill what was ours. In the wild, lionesses will band together to keep a male intruder from taking over a pride. They’ll fight beside their chosen males to keep their land, their cubs, safe.

I tried to go around Bram and Haven. I just wanted to get to Noel before that energy died completely. Bram let me walk around, but Haven grabbed for me, and he was faster than either Bram or I thought, because his hand was around my upper arm before Bram could react.

The moment he touched me, all that golden energy swirled together like some golden bonfire. So much power, so much energy. It felt so good. He kissed me while my eyes were still closed from the rush of power. I kissed him back and we opened our eyes and it was like we stood in the center of cool, golden fire.

He smiled down at me, and I had to smile back. Then I heard a voice. “Anita.” The voice sounded broken, and I looked behind me. Travis was reaching for me and Noel . . .

I looked up at Haven. “We save Noel first, then we’ll talk.”

Haven’s grip tightened around me. “Even now, feeling this power and you want him. Them?”

“He’s dying.”

“The weak die; it’s the way of lions.”

“With this power we can call his beast. We can save him.”

His arms tightened further around me. “I don’t want him saved.”

“I do.”

“Be with me and we can save him.”

I’d kissed him without thinking, and now my arms were pinned down between our bodies with his arms wrapped around me. I couldn’t reach either gun or the big knife down my back, but I could reach the wrist sheaths. I pretended to struggle ineffectually and knew Haven of all the men in my life would buy it. One of our problems was that he just couldn’t see women as equal. Equally dangerous, that is.

I used the struggling to hide my drawing one of the slender silver blades, and only as he felt my arm tense to drive the blade home did he realize his danger.

He started to let me go, to get distance, but I had time to start the blade into his body. Had time to feel it sink home, the razor-sharp blade slicing through his shirt and the meat underneath, sinking home the way it had a hundred other times in big bad monsters. The only thing that saved him was that he had my arms pinned too low on his body for me to reach his heart, even if he hadn’t moved.

He let me go, stumbling back from me. I had time to see the blood on my knife, the first bloom of red on his shirt, the surprise on his face. His two guards were frozen, not knowing what to do. It was as if they hadn’t believed I’d hurt him.

I yelled to our guards, “Keep him off me until I’ve healed Noel.” I didn’t turn my back on the wounded werelion, but I backed up as fast as I could. Bram and the other guards were moving around Haven ready to do exactly what I’d said.

The taller female werelion was kneeling beside Noel. She was stroking his hair, and I realized the moment I’d stabbed Haven that the double vision of glowing lions overlaid on the human form had vanished, as if I’d done something to damage all that power.

The woman raised brown eyes to me. They were shiny with unshed tears. She whispered, “You’re too late.”