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Chapter 21

I APOLOGIZED TO Dr Meh priestess She was in the phone book We hit the heat outside, sunglasses sliding over our eyes like soesture was already automatic, and I hadn&039;t been in town a day

There was , and it took"I&039; tone I&039;d chosen I was really going to have to learn to do inning to get on my nerves

I hit the button and said, "What&039;s with the choice of songs, Nathaniel?"

"It is not your pussycat, as heat talking to the Master Vampire of St Louis andwith the police unless so really bad had happened

"What&039;s wrong?" I asked My pulse was suddenly in my throat

Bernardo looked attoward Edward and Olaf by the car

"Why should anything be wrong, er, which it didn&039;t usually do He could say nothing rong, but his voice said otherwise, and since he could make his voice as empty of ery, or he was so pissed that he couldn&039;t hide it He was more than four hundred years old; you learned to hide a lot of emotion in that much time So what had I done to piss him off? Or what had someone else done?

I suddenly wanted privacy for the call So I got in the SUV and the men stood out in the heat I offered to do it the other way around, but Edward had insisted, and when he insists there&039;s usually a reason for it I&039;ve learned not to argue when he insists; we all live longer

I turned on the air-conditioning and got co, quietly but intensely Hmm

"Ma petite, I wake and find you far away"

"I&039;ht about hi in our bed, the sheets draped carelessly across his body, one long leg clear of the sheets One hand held the phone, but the other was playing idly along Asher&039;s back He would be dead to the world for hours yet, but it never bothered Jean-Claude to touch another va Maybe I&039;d been at one too many crime scenes

He looked up into the air, as if he felthim "Would you like to see more?"

I drewagainst the car "I think it would distract ive all they have to be distracted by ry at me"

"We work so hard to make the vampire community think you are truly my servant and not my master, and then you do this"

"Do what, hed, and the sound eased over the phone and down my skin like a shiver of anticipation "Leave without my per permission could have been so , or trying to"

"I find that not only are you gone, but you have taken no food"

"I fed this "

"But tomorroill come, ma petite"

"Crispin is here"

"Ah, yes, your little tiger" He didn&039;t try to keep the sarcasnored the sarcasation"

"I arateful that you could be bothered"

It ay too petty for Jean-Claude, but there it was, his voice, his call What the hell was going on? But one of the good things about Jean-Claude is I didn&039;t have to protect him from the horrors of my job He&039;d seen worse, or close to it, in his centuries of life So I told the truth "I&039;ve just been to the as PD&039;s finest I don&039;t need to fight with you, on top of that"

He sighed The sound shivered through ht there, just behind

I threwfrom my master wasn&039;t easy He had the keys to my shields if he wanted to push it Today, he let er aroundto solve a aies, s are hurt"

"What does that ry, but the rest ofdown I wasn&039;t sure he&039;d ever said out loud that his feelings were hurt

"It ress in our relationship, and I find that the ground we had gained is not as secure as I had thought"

I said the truth, again "I have no idea what you just said I lish, but I don&039;t understand what you&039;re talking about" I restedto breathe in the coolness of the air-conditioning "But I feel sort of vaguely like I should apologize, anyway"

He gave that wonderful laugh The one that made my body react as if he&039;d touched way too intih wasn&039;t just about sex; it felt so good, it should have been fattening

I sighed, but it was just a sigh I couldn&039;t do his voice tricks "Please, stopwith me God, Jean-Claude, I can&039;t work like this"

He gave a more ordinary chuckle "I think I needed to hear that you missed me"

"How can you posssibly be insecure? That&039;s my job"

"You make me insecure, ma petite, only you"

I didn&039;t knohat to say to that, but I tried "I&039;m sorry"

"I know you et off the phone without hurting his feelings again? I had no clue Shit It wasn&039;t like him to call when I was off with the police I hoped, desperately, that it didn&039;t beco over the steering wheel Iin Edward&039;s direction

Jean-Claude&039;s voice, when it caain, was alone, I was not idle There is a swan, Donovan Reece, has already offered hi if the need arises"

"Thank Donovan forto share me with yet oneany , ma petite, it&039;s that you seem incapable of sex without emotion If you could fuck and feed, then I would have no probleain, but you collect men, ma petite You can fuck a dozen men, but you cannot date them all"

"I&039;m sort of aware of that," I said

"Are you?" There was that edge of anger again

"I&039;ood at casual sex I&039;er was a little er, or this fight, so I ignored it Men will let you do that soirls "Inot feline that is one of the beasts I carry inside me I don&039;t carry swan"

"I tell you that I a you with other men, and that you collect the to be the girl Great Fucking great "I proht I swear But right now, help me survive this case"

"And how ers are a little too much soot inside er, but carried five different metaphysical colors of them No one had been able to explain how that had happened "Did you happen to find any wolves I could borrohile I&039;m here?"

"No wolves; the local pack see influence on them, ma petite"

"What does that otten out that sex with you can be like a va to you"

"That&039;s not true," I said, but my pulse had sped

"You lie to yourself,ive up your pet name in many years"

"It&039;s the way you&039;re saying it, like you&039;re angry and trying not to show it"

"I ary, because I am afraid for you Vittorio was vicious in St Louis, and it has been all over the news that three of their SWAT have been killed They are not easily killed, your SWAT"

What did I say to that? He was right "I&039; to you first"

"I hear true regret in that phrase What would you have told erous? What would you have done if I had said, do not go?"

I thought about that, then finally said, "I would have come anyway"

"You see, you are not my servant You will never be a servant"

"I thought the idea was to ood little huht I&039;d toe the line for you" I had a little heat in er to warht not be what I needed

"That is not what I meant"

"It&039;s what you said"

He h to believe that you will truly be mine"

"And what the hell does thatthat it was unnerving Vampires didn&039;t have to breathe on the phone, and only years of practice made me sure he was still there I waited, and finally he spoke "You need some of our people with you You need your own leopard, and wolf, or lion"

"I don&039;t have a lion of my own, yet"

"Our local Rex would be yours if you would allow it"

"Yeah, and his Regina would hunt me down and killwith him If I e I&039;h to win a fair fight with a werelion of her power"

"Then do not fight fair," he said

"If I cheat, then by lion law others can gang up on me and kill me for that I&039;ve studied up on it since I ina of the St Louis clan Trust ht about this"

"Do you truly believe she would kill you if you had a stronger clai?"

"Yep," I said, "because she told me that she would share him That I could be his mistress but not his wife She was his wife"

"You did not mention this to me"

"It&039;s lions, not wolves My anihed, and it wasn&039;t his teasing sigh, just tired "Ma petite, ma petite, ill you learn that what is yours is er to you, I need to know"

"I&039;ll tell you all my secrets when you tell me all yours," I said

"Touche, ry

"Why are you angry withchildish, but I don&039;t kno to help you I don&039;t kno to keep you safe in Vegas Do you understand that, ma petite? I do not kno to keep you safe from Max and his queen I cannot help you frouards because you have a badge, and the police will not let our guards guard you What do you want me to do,now He al his temper helped me keep mine I&039;d never heard hi him that out of control let me know just how scared he was for me That scared me

"It&039;s okay, Jean-Claude, I&039;ll think of so I&039;m sorry"

"Sorry for what, Anita?" He never used n

"I&039;m sorry that you&039;re afraid for me I&039;m sorry that I&039;ve made you feel helpless I&039;ht, I can&039;t be a marshal and your human servant at the same time I have to choose, and once the police are involved it e Which may be exactly what Vittorio planned I&039;ht, and this is like the ultimate trap for me"

"Ma petite, I did not mean to lose my temper, but it is not just Vittorio that you need fear"

"I know that being around the weretigers is going to test my ability to control the beasts insideyou haven&039;t told ers?"

"Shall I be coy, and say that you know all?"

"The truth would be nice"

"Recently, Max wanted you to visit his city and sleep with ers They want, very much, to see if the new psychic powers that Crispin and the red tiger, Alex, gained fro or can be shared with others of their clan"

"I&039;m not sure those were my powers at all The Queen of All Darkness, Marmee Noir, possessed me for a couple of days With the help ofconsuers gained came from her, not me"

"That may be, but Max and his queen would like to test the theory"

"I thought they were afraid I&039;d take over any tiger I fed on and that he was pissed how devoted Crispin is to me?"

"All that is true, but in the last feeeks, Maxiers to you for feeding"

"And you were going to tell me all this when?"

"Ma petite, I aht other h food here in St Louis; we do not need more in your bed I do not really wish to add to your lovers"

Just hearing hiain?"

"No, for it ised his ers?"

"I believe it is his wife, Bibiana By the way,your sense of humor, I will caution you that only Max calls her Bibi She is Bibiana, or Chang-Bibi"

"You gave , depending on pronunciation, is the naoddess I won&039;t say it to her face, but it doesher a little to know that it&039;s not enough to be queen; her title has to oddess"

"It is a traditional title, not one she chose, ma petite"

"If you say so"

"I do"

"Okay, I&039;ll do my best not to use her husband&039;s nickname for her, if it&039;s like a serious faux pas"

"It is She is a very powerful weretiger, and she seeks ers with the new ability that Crispin has, then it would be good for her clan"

"He can call like static electricity, Jean-Claude; it&039;s like a little ouchy, but it&039;s not a weapon It works best when he has metal to touch, so it&039;s really limited without metal around hiers she offered to us recently were not so weak"

"She&039;s hoping that if they&039;re htning thing will be greater"

"Oui"

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"I do not understand,on her tigers while I&039;ers?"

"I&039;ve got the swaner now"

"If you can avoid feeding on any but Crispin, I think that would be wise"