"Oui, does that please you?" I heard the first stirrings of anger in his voice. "Are you happy now, ma petite? I am well and truly out of my depth. No one has ever tried to forge an alliance such as we have, an alliance not of master and two slaves, but of three equals. I do not think you appreciate how gentle I am when it comes to hoarding my power. The wolves are my animal to call. Many masters would have forced them to simply be an adjunct to their own vampires."
"Nikolaos's animal to call was rats, not wolves," I said. "By the time you took over as Master of the City, Marcus and Raina's pack was too strong for you to make them an adjunct to your power. Hell, until you replenished the vamps that I killed, they were probably more powerful than you and your vampires."
"Are you implying that the only reason I am not a tyrant is because I didn't have the strength of arms to make it so?"
I thought about that for a second, then said, "I'm not implying it, I'm saying it."
"You think so little of me?"
"I know what you were like two, almost three years ago, and I think then you would have consolidated your power base with very little regard for anyone that got in your way."
"Are you saying I am ruthless?"
"Practical," I said.
It was his turn to be quiet for a second or two, then, "Practical, yes, I am that, as are you, ma petite."
"I know what I am, Jean-Claude, it's you I'm not sure of."
"I would never willingly hurt you, ma petite."
"I believe you," I said.
"I am not sure the same can be said of you," he said, quietly.
"I don't want to hurt either of you. But Richard cannot harm my leopards, and if you do anything stupid, don't blame me for what happens next."
"I would never underestimate your level of ... practicality, ma petite, though I think Richard might."
"He told me I wouldn't kill him just for roughing up Nathaniel."
"How rough was Richard to little Nathaniel?"
"Don't talk about him like he's a child, Jean-Claude, and rough enough that I cut Richard's arm open."
"How badly?"
"The doc's stitching him up, even as we speak."
"Oh, dear," he said, and sighed, and this time the sound eased down my skin. I realized that he'd been behaving himself until now, at least about using his voice.
"No more games, Jean-Claude. I want to put Richard on the phone, and you tell him you did this on purpose."
"But I cannot tell him that I lied about Nathaniel, now can I?"
"You fix this, Jean-Claude, now, tonight. I need Richard to teach me how to call Gregory's beast. I don't have time for him to sulk."
"What am I to tell him, ma petite! What surety can I give him that you will not be in Nathaniel's arms tomorrow morning? I believe that I can maneuver Richard into staying the night, having him there at your side when the ardeur rises."
"Richard's already made his position clear, Jean-Claude. He doesn't let you, or Asher, or anyone, feed off of him. He doesn't see why the rules change just because it's me and sex, instead of blood."
"He said that?" Jean-Claude gave a questioning lilt to his voice.
"Yeah, he said that, almost word-for-word."
Jean-Claude sighed, and it sounded tired. "What am I to do with the two of you?"
"Don't ask me," I said, "I just work here."
"And what, exactly, does that mean, ma petite?"
"It means that we don't have a boss. It's great being equals, if that's what we are, but none of us knows what the hell is going on, and that isn't good, Jean-Claude. We are messing with some very serious stuff here, metaphysically and emotionally and just plain physically. We need some clue as to what we should be doing with all of it."
"And who should we be asking advice of, ma petite! If any vampire on the Council were to suspect that I have not given you both the fourth mark, they would destroy us, for fear that with the fourth mark we would become an even greater power."
"I've talked to Marianne and her friends. They're witches, Wiccan."
"So we find, what, a local coven, and ask their guidance?" He sounded patronizing.
"I resent the tone, Jean-Claude, especially since I don't hear you offering any better suggestions. Don't criticize unless you can do better."
"Very true, ma petite, and very wise. My deepest and most sincere apologies. You are quite right. I do not have a suggestion for whom we might turn to for advice, or guidance. I will think upon your suggestion to find a friendly witch to speak with."
"I have a friendly one to speak to. She just might need to see the three or us together to see how things work."
"You mean your Marianne?"
"Yeah."
"I thought she was more psychic than witch."
"There's not all that much difference," I said.
"I will take your word on that. I do not have much business with either."
I realized I'd been planning to call Marianne since I woke up sandwiched between Caleb and Micah. Funny how it had slipped my mind.
"Is there anything you can say to Richard that will help smooth things on this end?"
"Do you wish me to lie?"
"Damn it, Jean-Claude ..."
"I can point out to him that if he does not meet the ardeur's appetite that someone else must."
"I've already pointed that out to him." I thought about that for a few heartbeats. "He accused me of having ..." I found I couldn't quite say it. "He accused me of doing worse with Nathaniel than I've done, and he was crude about it. I'm not sure I want to have sex with him right now."
"You are angry with him," Jean-Claude said.
"Oh, yeah."
"So angry that if he asked, you would refuse his bed?"
I started to say yes, then stopped myself. I was tired. Tired of all of it, of both of them, if the truth be known. Couldn't live with them, or without them. I wanted Richard's body like an ache in my heart, but when he wanted to be, he could be ugly, and his mood tonight was ugly. I didn't want to have sex with him when he was like this. Hell, I didn't want to be around him when he was like this.
"I don't know," I said.
"Well, that was honest, and does not bode well. If you refuse Richard, and Nathaniel, and your Nimir-Raj does not return tonight, what will you do in the morning, ma petite? Please, think carefully on this. I beg you to choose the lesser evil, whatever that may be, rather than wait until the hunger overrides your common sense, or even your need for survival."
"What are you saying?"
"I am saying what I have said before--that to deny the ardeur is to worsen it. Deny it long enough and hard enough, and it will begin to erode all that you are, or thought yourself to be. I survived what I did to feed it in those first weeks, but my moral degradation had been accomplished years before I died. I say again, ma petite, that you will not take it as well as I did. I believe it will compromise your sense of who you are."
"And fucking Nathaniel isn't going to compromise me?"
He sighed. "Put that way, I do see your point. But how much more compromising would it be to seduce a stranger?"
"I would never do that."
"Is that not exactly what you did with the Nimir-Raj?" His voice was very quiet as he said it, very careful not to be accusatory.
I would have loved to have argued the point, but I hate to lose, and I was going to lose this one. "Alright, you've made your point."
"I hope so, Anita, I do hope so." He never used my name unless something was very wrong. Damn.
"You know, just once it might be nice to have normal problems."
"And what, exactly, is a normal problem, ma petite?"
Another point for Jean-Claude. "I don't know anymore."
"You sound tired, ma petite."
"It's only a few hours until dawn. I've been up all night, so yeah, I'm tired." Just acknowledging it seemed to bring it on in a rush that left me rubbing my eyes, which smeared the eye shadow I'd put on onto my fingers and probably around my eyelids. I wore makeup so seldomly that I often forgot I was wearing it.
Richard came back into the kitchen with his bodyguards and the wererats in tow. He gave me a look, and it was not a friendly one.
"I've got to go," I said to Jean-Claude.
"Do you wish me to speak to Richard?"
"No, I think you've done enough damage for one night."
"I meant only to help."
"Sure you did."
"Ma petite."
"Yes."
"Be careful, and remember what I have said about the ardeur. There is no shame in it."
"Even you don't believe that," I said.
"Ah, you have found me out. There is no shame in feeding, if you feed immediately on a person of your own choosing. If you fight, then you will find yourself feeding on someone not of your choosing, in a place not of your choosing. I do not think you would enjoy that, ma petite."
He was right about that anyway. "I'll talk to you tomorrow after you get up. I haven't forgotten Damian, you know."
"I did not think that you had, ma petite. I will look forward to your call."
I hung up without saying good-bye, mainly because I was angry, and scared. Not only did I have Richard to deal with tonight and Gregory to save, but tomorrow morning when I woke up, the ardeur would be there, waiting. There was a chance that it wouldn't be, that the one day was the only time I'd have it, but I couldn't count on that. I had to plan for the worst-case scenario. Worst case was I would wake up tomorrow and need to feed just like I had this morning. The big question was, who would I feed on, and could I live with myself after I'd done it?