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Chapter 35
EDWARD&039;S VOICE IN ot Max&039;s son, Victor, out here with bodyguards We&039;re letting Victor through, but we&039;re keeping the bodyguards"
"We&039;ve got another half-dozen tigers in here with us They came out of the far roo better," Edward said, and the sarcash the earpiece loud and clear
The blue tiger inside e of her face against et closer so she could sniff the air
The doors opened and a tall, broad-shouldered h His white hair was cut very short, and in one of those cuts that looked like it had been done one hair at a tilasses over his eyes The glasses weren&039;t dark enough to do a da to pass for human? If that was the idea, then he needed to tone down the energy that boiled off hier snarling toward him I would have fallen forward if Dohther beast, Mother," he said, and he kept coer didn&039;t like that The white one did Black was just content to cuddle Doer tried to turn me toward the boy The white liked Victor The black was fine It was like having three different roouys
"You have no right to interfere," Bibiana said
"Father warned you against this," he said, and he was at our side He knelt in the dark suit, his eyes hidden behind the glasses, but no a off hier knee&039;d find behind the glasses
I cao of my hand, but he touched my shoulder Domino slipped lower downMy hands went to those glasses
Victor caughtto see through me He raised my hands to his face and sniffed my skin "Impossible"
"I told you, Victor, she carries them all," Bibiana said
He rose up from my skin I could see his eyes clearly, but the pale yellow lenses stole what I needed to see My voice sounded like a stranger in my head when I said, "Take them off"
He blinked at me "What?"
I repeated it "Take theo of my hands
I shook my head because I wasn&039;t sure, and then the answer caain
I reached upward, and this time he didn&039;t stop lasses and pulled theer eyes They were a deeper blue than Crispin&039;s eyes, but still a color and a shape that you wouldn&039;t mistake for human unless you wanted not to see as there
I knelt in front of hilasses in my hands, and stared up into those eyes But it wasn&039;t just the eyes; they were only a sign of what ress needed It was the power in him I hadn&039;t understood until that er I&039;d touched had been
Victor stared down at h that I heard it His voice was a little shaky as he said, "You really are another queen, aren&039;t you?"
I leaned in toward hi for a kiss It was ravity to his power, and it drewa little I reached for him, and it was Crispin who drew me back He and Domino pulled me back into their arms, but it was like I could hear music in my head that I&039;d never heard before Victor&039;s power drowned out their touch
Victor put the glasses back on and turned to hisher power until he hadhere, not you," she said
"You rule the clan of the white tiger I have never disputed that, but Father has put e of other parts of his doood of this city and the other citizens, then you have broken your master, my father&039;s, rules"
"Would you deny Domino and Cynric the only queen of their clan they may ever meet?"
"I would never stand in the way of another clan&039;s destiny, Mother, but you cannot feed Cynric to her Look at what she has already done to Crispin and Do about the way he said it ers still beside me Crispin had looked at me with that devotion before, but to see it in Do A look of puppyish devotion in that angry, arrogant face; it hurt my heart to see it Not because I cared for him, because you can&039;t care for someone you&039;ve just met, but because no adult should look at anyone like that It was a look I&039;d seen before, on the faces of vampires I was a true necromancer and called to all the dead, but I wasn&039;t supposed to call to the wereanimals like this, not like this
"Oh, God," I said, and tried to stand up Doe to slap at hier, daer so you wouldn&039;t look at ave me calm eyes, and he shouldn&039;t have
"Fuck," I said
"Talk to ?" Edward asked
"Wait, Edward, just wait" I turned to Victor "Can you fix this?"
Bernardo said, "Anita has it under control" The look on his face didn&039;tme the benefit of the doubt
Victor looked where I was pointing, at Domino "You mean undo your possession of him?"
"Yes," I said
"You are queen," Bibiana said, "you do not ask any male for such help"
"Fine, can you undo it?" I asked
Victor studied ht the ardeur was all about sex"
"I can feed on anger, too I thought if I didn&039;t feed on lust, or love, for your people that I wouldn&039;t bind them to me I don&039;t want any more men, daer, can he?" Victor asked
That was a little too close to truths we didn&039;t want to share with anyone That I had powers that my master didn&039;t share I tried to be cool about it, butlie detectors They can sense, smell, all those little involuntary body functions
"Can either of you make it so he isn&039;t"-I waved a hand at Domino-"like this?"
"It may pass on its own," Victor said
"Are you sure?"
He smiled "No, but what you&039;ve done seeer You&039;ve rolled him If you leave him alone, he may recover If it&039;s more vampire than wereanimal, then you know that you&039;ll be able to repossess him anytime you want"
I licked my lips and said the only truth I had "I don&039;t want to possess anybody"
"I felt your power I felt you shove it into my mother I felt it blocks away"
"Would it sound childish to say she started it?"
He gave a quick smile "It&039;s a little childish, but I know my mother"
"Victor," Bibiana said
"You know you tried to raise her tigers, Mother You know you provoked her power Don&039;t deny it"
"I would never deny it," she said
Bernardo said, "Chang-Bibiana promised that if Marshal Blake could call Crispin away from her, she would answer our questions"
Bibiana wouldn&039;t look at anyone in the room
"Did you proave a little nod, still not looking at anyone
"Then answer her questions, like you prolance at the blue boy "I think a little privacy would be good before we start discussing an ongoing police investigation"
"I don&039;t want to leave," he said
Ava tugged on him "Come on, Cynric"
"No," he said, and pulled away from her "You&039;re not pure You don&039;t kno it feels to be part of a clan"
"Cynric," Bibiana said, and her anger cracked like a hot whip through the room, "you will show Ava the respect she deserves One of our brethren attacked her He broke the ht this life"
He looked sullen for a uilty "I&039;m sorry, Ava I didn&039;t mean it"
She smiled, but it didn&039;t quite reach her eyes "It&039;s all right, Cynric, but let&039;s leave the marshals to talk to Bibiana and Victor" He let her lead hih the far door, but he looked back as the doors closed, and the disturbing thing was that I was there to meet his eyes
Bernardo touched ht?"
Was I all right? That was an excellent question What I needed was an excellent answer I said the only thing I could think of "We have work to do, Marshal Spotted Horse"
He gave me a look that raised one eyebrow, then nodded "Yes, we do, Marshal Blake"
"Ask your questions, then get the fuck out of there," Edward said, "I do not want Anita in that rooht Bibiana had almost rolled me on her oithout her master at her side There were socleared up before the vaht
The fact that there was no way on God&039;s green earth to solve this cri erous every minute
Chapter 36
ONE OF THE white feers with hair the color of pale butter sky, came and took Domino deeper into the penthouse He didn&039;t want to leave ot out offree of the fascination, then I could leave him here to his life If it didn&039;t start to wear off at all, then I&039;d have to take him with me What I&039;d do with him after that, I had no bloody idea Other people pick up stray puppies; I kept collecting men Crap
The rest of us settled down on the overstuffed couches Bernardo and I sat far enough away froet in each other&039;s way if things went south Crispin sat as close to me as any boyfriend, an arI could have told hi, but it would have hurt his feelings, and I knew enough about lycanthrope society to know that touching was just what they did
Bibiana sat across from us, with her son and Rick No one touched her roups I was familiar with? I&039;d ask later
"What do you know about what happened to the police here?" I asked
"Only e heard on the news," Victor said
Bibiana simply looked at ht have been unnerving, but between the ers, her stare just didn&039;t have enough weight to ation, there would be rules, methods I should have volunteered little and asked repetitive questions But ere burning daylight Once the vaht, and Vittorio added his power to his dayti the SWAT tea down a serious gauntlet I thought that if it was Vittorio and not so hioing to break loose We didn&039;t have tian to h in s to soothe me It didn&039;t really work, but I appreciated the effort
"Anita?" Bernardo said,for blank, and failing to hide soes He&039;d seen some seriously weird shit froood sport about all of it Did I owe hi when you went all metaphysical on him? A card? Did Hallmark make a card for that?
Crispin leaned over ht?"
"Anita," Bernardo said again, and this time he didn&039;t try to keep the worry out of his voice
Edward joined inwith Anita?"
"I&039;" I turned back to the weretigers on the other couch "We&039;re running out of daylight, so I&039; to talk to you like one ave a regal nod "I am honored"
"One, I need you to listen to Victor and Max, and not screith ation is over"
"You could tell her just to leave your inner tigers alone," Victor said He slasses Part ofto be hulasses
In the interest of being a littlee of the couch All I had to do was lean back and he&039;d be there, but I needed to think, and so little circles on your thigh isn&039;t always conducive to clear thinking
"I&039; to start by asking Bibiana to pro she won&039;t deliver I don&039;t understand everything that she wants from my inner beasts, but I heard her say that I may be the only queen of their clan that Domino and the blue boy, Cynric, will ever see Bibiana isn&039;t going to let ain, are you?" I looked at her when I said the last
She smiled and dipped her head, very demure "No," she said, simply
I sree that these murders are bad for business for both the vareed
"Then I need to know, honestly, if you know anything about the animal that helped this vampire kill these police officers"
"You say animal, but you come to us," Victor said
Bibiana said, "You think it is one of our tigers" There was so about the way she said it that made me say the next
"You think so, too," I said
"I did not say so," she said
I licked my lips, but not because they were dry this tie of a lie," I said
"What does that mean?" Olaf asked in my ear
Edward told him, "Let her work"
Bibiana smiled up at ," she said
I smiled at her "Okay, then answer this: Do you suspect that one of your weretigers was involved with these killings in any way?"
She wouldn&039;t look at me now, but concentrated on her small, neat hands that were clasped so ladylike in her lap Her ankles were crossed She was so prim and proper, but I kneas a lie She was one of those people that no matter how buttoned up they are, you can siet the ti proper about theive off that vibe more than men, but I&039;ve seen men do it, too Some of the behind the mask of civility But Bibiana knew; she knew that human and prim was not really what she was at all
"Do you want ave him a look so fierce, so vicious, that it turned that pretty face into so down "I am still queen here, or do I have to remind you of it more forcefully?"
"Father told us that if asked, ere to answer Marshal Blake honestly and coht, I rule here," she said
I fought not to gli his face Instead, I glanced at Rick and found hiot the i worse I knew enough about weretiger society to know that they were all run by queens It was one of the feereaniroups had wo, or cat, but it was the exception, not the rule So Victor, no er Clan But he was certainly acting as if he wanted to be in charge
"Bernardo reain that I have called Crispin to me from your side You said if I could do that, that you would answer er Clan to be depended on, or is there no honor in Vegas?"
I felt the couch move before Crispin put a hand on my back It was a careful touch, not too sexual, but it was a physical reminder to be careful I didn&039;t resent it If I didn&039;t take Crispin back within, and he&039;d be left alone to swiry eyes to me Her power started to pour toward me, in a nearly visible roil of heat Victor stood up He moved between that power, her, and me
It hit him, and his head went back, his arood His breath cah He shuddered and said, "Your Master of the City gave you express orders not to bring her beasts I obey his orders, even if you do not"
Shesound Crispin tucked himself up closer to ht not to stiffen at his touch or look too nervous I tried for cal but at ease
Bernardo had e of his piece of couch, too Rick was still sitting back, but the tension showed in every muscle