'By accident,' I said, and even to me it sounded defensive.

'Doesn't matter how, just matters it happened. I know that Jean-Claude has been waiting to see if Damian starts to age, or if you stop aging, before he brings up sharing the fourth mark with you and Richard.'

'Traditionally, you can't have more than one fourth mark from more than one vampire. You're the human servant of just one vampire,' I said.

'Traditionally, but you're human, not a vampire, and you have a vampire servant, not a human one. There's nothing traditional about you, Anita.'

'What's your point?' I asked.

'You're the first true necromancer in over a thousand years. The rules don't apply to you, Anita.'

'So?' And I sounded sullen. I fought wanting to hunch in the seat. I wanted to take my hand back from Nathaniel and just sulk. I fought the urge off, but just wanting to do it meant this was hitting an old, old issue for me. I wasn't sure which issue it was hitting, but the fact that I wanted to stop touching Nathaniel meant it was something that pre-dated me letting myself love him and all the people in my life.

I forced myself to sit up very straight and keep touching Nathaniel, but his hand had gone very still in mine. I made myself take a nice, even breath and let it out slow. 'Do you have a point, Ares?'

'Jean-Claude's triumvirate with you as human servant and Richard Zeeman as his wolf to call is crippled because Richard won't man up and be the Ulfric we all need him to be.'

'He's doing better,' I said.

'As Ulfric, our wolf king, yes, but as the other third to Jean-Claude's triumvirate he blows. He uses you and Jean-Claude as a booty call and he misses dominating Asher. He can say he doesn't, but it met a need for him to torment Asher. I think Richard misses the bondage games with Asher as much as Nathaniel and you do. He just won't ever admit it.'

'I'm still waiting for your point; so far you're just telling me shit I already know.'

'You have a triumvirate of power with Nathaniel as your leopard to call and Damian as your vampire servant.'

'Again, shit I already know,' I said.

'Do you?' Ares demanded. 'Because the whole time I've worked for you guys I wouldn't know it. You almost never interact with Damian.'

'He's monogamous with Cardinal, and I'm respecting that.'

'I don't mean just sex and feeding the ardeur with him, Anita. I mean using him to really make a triumvirate of power, the kind that Jean-Claude wanted to forge.'

'I don't know what you mean.'

He glanced in the rearview mirror again, but this time there was no car to reflect in his eyes, so there was just a shadowed outline of him. 'Nathaniel, is she lying to me or to herself?'

'I would say leave me out of this, but ...' He sighed, heavily.

I looked at him. 'What's wrong?'

'I feel how drawn you are to all your animals to call and to Jean-Claude. I know how tight we are wound metaphysically, but Damian is always left out. I feel the lack of him, Anita. I can't describe it any other way, but sometimes when you raise power it's like there's a link to him, but it's less. It's ...' He looked out the window as if searching for inspiration.

'It's what?' I asked.

He turned back to me, and even in the dark I could feel the weight of his stare. 'It's broken. I don't know how, or what, but it's damaged, and that break keeps the three of us from being everything we could be as a power.'

'It's not just me,' I said. I pulled on my hand, but he held on, and I wasn't upset enough to force the issue. 'Damian doesn't want to be bound closer to you and me. He's afraid of being consumed by the ardeur, and he's damn near homophobic.'

Nicky gave a harsh laugh. 'Homophobic, really? That's too funny.'

'Why is it funny?' I asked.

'Because if you're not at least comfortable sharing Anita with another man and sleeping in the bed afterward in a big kitty pile, then you are out of fucking luck.'

'London doesn't like other men, or an audience,' Nathaniel said.

'Is that why he's been sent visiting other vampire territories?' Ares asked.

'Part of it,' I said. What neither Nathaniel nor I shared with our two newcomers was that London was addicted to both the ardeur and gained power from every feeding. Belle Morte, Beautiful Death, the maker of Jean-Claude's sourdre de sang, had addicted London, not me. He had freed himself from her hold and gone cold turkey, running away to England until he'd come to us, and the old addiction had risen again. He was the perfect food for me, but he was already a few centuries older than Jean-Claude and a master vampire. The fact that London had gained power levels from being my food meant that he'd rapidly approached Jean-Claude's own power level, so I'd had to back off. We had sent him to four different territories out of state hoping he'd find a good fit and become someone else's second-in-command. He was powerful enough to be a master of his own territory, but he wasn't good enough at the modern politics needed now. He was still at his last trial run. I couldn't even remember what state he was in this time.

'Damian doesn't want to join with us as deeply as he could, for a lot of the same reasons that Richard fights,' I said.

'I think that if you would take the lead, Damian would be more comfortable sharing a bed with the two of us with you in the middle. He's not as strong as Richard. I don't think he could fight free of us, the way the Ulfric can.'

'You're basically asking me to mind-fuck Damian and forge a stronger triumvirate between him and us, even if it's a kind of metaphysical rape.'

'Put that way, it sounds wrong.'

'It doesn't just sound wrong,' I said.

'You didn't have any trouble doing it to me,' Nicky said.

'You and your pride of lions had kidnapped me and had snipers ready to kill Nathaniel, Micah, and Jason. I was out of options when I made you my Bride.'

'If it's any consolation, I've never been happier,' he said.

It was some comfort, but out loud I said, 'For someone who's supposed to want my happiness and comfort above all else, you say some of the most uncomfortable things.'

He shrugged as much as the muscles would allow and said, 'Sometimes what you need to hear isn't comfortable.'

'Are you saying that you tell me things I need to hear?'

'Sometimes.'

'Which make me uncomfortable, and it makes you anxious if I'm uncomfortable?'

'Sort of.'

I frowned at him and didn't know if his night vision was good enough for him to see it, but I had to frown. 'I'm not sure that I really understand what a Bride of Dracula is supposed to be.'

'We're whatever you need us to be,' he said.

'That you actually mean that,' Ares said, 'makes me glad Anita can't call hyena as one of her animals.'

Nicky turned and spoke directly to Ares. 'Master vampires turn normal humans into Brides of Dracula. Theoretically, it should work on you.'

Ares shivered so hard I could see it in the darkened car. 'Let's not test that theory, okay?'