"And you are all right with it?"

"Jesus, Jean-Claude, I'm not the small-town virgin that you found years ago. Give me some credit for being a little more open-minded. The three of us have shared a bed for over two years."

"You are right, ma pet.i.te ma pet.i.te; I remembered you as of old and didn't trust you."

"So, you would be all right with Jean-Claude and me being lovers."

"Yes."

"Would you be all right in bed with us while we touched?" Jean-Claude asked.

"Depends on the touch, but I like men. When you and I did Augustine together, I learned I liked seeing men kiss each other, and I love watching Nathaniel and Micah together. I love . . . Look, don't blame this mess on me. I didn't keep you from Asher; you decided that on your own."

"I thought it was you I was protecting, but Asher is right, it was me." He looked at the other man. "You almost consumed me once before Julianna. It wasn't that you were a man that had made me withdraw, it was that your power works on vampires, too. You were very close to making me your slave, and if I wasn't willing to be Belle Morte's slave, then I wouldn't be yours."

"So another man brought in would have worked as well?" Asher asked.

Jean-Claude smiled and shook his head. "No, you chose well for my heart. Julianna was everything I could have dreamed of in a woman at that time."

"You don't have to add the at that time at that time for my benefit, Jean-Claude. I know you loved her; h.e.l.l, I've felt the memories." for my benefit, Jean-Claude. I know you loved her; h.e.l.l, I've felt the memories."

"The person who loved Julianna died when she died."

"We all died that day," Asher said.

"Yes," Jean-Claude said.

The silence sat for a minute full of old sorrow and older loss. Then Micah said, "But if Anita were with you, would you want to be Asher's lover?"

Jean-Claude looked at Micah, then at me, and finally he looked directly across the room at Asher. "Yes."

"Just empty words," Asher said, "to save your hyenas and your power base."

Jean-Claude stood up and held his hand out to me. "Ma pet.i.te." "Ma pet.i.te." I admit I hesitated, but I went and took his hand. Then Jean-Claude turned and held out his hand to the other vampire. I admit I hesitated, but I went and took his hand. Then Jean-Claude turned and held out his hand to the other vampire.

Asher said, "You mean now?"

"You say words are empty. Let me show you actions."

I looked from one to the other of them, and fought a sudden panicking feeling in my stomach. It wasn't that I didn't want to, but it was all moving a little too fast for me and I had a niggling feeling that I was missing something.

Asher stood up. The werehyenas behind him asked, "What do you want us to do?"

"Whatever you were doing. Do your jobs." He went to Jean-Claude's outstretched hand without a backward glance at the two shapeshifters, and that was why Asher would probably never have his own territory. It wasn't lack of power, but lack of wanting power. He would always let his heart overrule his head, and Masters of the City don't survive long making decisions like that.

Jean-Claude led us toward the curtains. The guards standing there scattered as if we'd shouted Boo Boo. Jason was on the other side of them. He raised eyebrows, and just his expression let me know he'd heard and knew what was happening. I reached out my free hand and he gave me his. The moment I touched him his power flared over me like heat in a summer meadow. It felt so good, and then I smelled trees, leaves, forest, and I knew that there were more wolves just outside the big dungeon door.

Jean-Claude, Jason, and I all turned toward the far curtains as Jamil and Shang-Da swept through them. They were both tall and muscular, Jamil with his long cornrows and tailored suit, Shang-Da the tallest Chinese man I'd ever met, hair cut skater straight, his black trench coat flaring around him showing glimpses of the guns underneath. The moment I saw both of them I knew who was coming next, and there he was, Richard, our Ulfric, our wolf king. He was dressed in blue jeans with a leather and denim jacket open over a bloodred T-shirt. His shoulder-length hair fell in foaming waves, a brown shot full of gold and red highlights. He swept in with his guards on either side, and it was like my heart stopped for a moment. Nothing would ever make Richard less than handsome, from the short brown boots peeking out from the jeans to the poured-on jeans and everything I knew lay in them, to the upper body that he'd hit the gym hard enough to make even wider, even more impressive, and then the face. Once I'd thought I'd marry him, and even now my heart and libido leapt up, but my mind went, No, whatever he wants, no No, whatever he wants, no. Once it goes to h.e.l.l, no one can cut you up like the love of your life. f.u.c.k.

CHAPTER 6

SHANG-DA STAYED BY the two werehyenas near the loveseat, his trench coat swept back to show the weapons more clearly. What was going on? Jamil stayed at his Ulfric's side, and there was something way too formal, too dangerous, about all of it for our normally less-than-action-oriented Richard.

The guards by us fanned out and looked a little uncertain. They'd picked up on the urgency, too.

"Richard, what has happened?" Jean-Claude asked.

"I'm in time, so nothing yet," he said.

Truth and Wicked moved in front of him and Jamil. "You're moving like you have a purpose, Ulfric," Truth said. "What is that purpose?"

He let them stop him. "I'm here to complete Jean-Claude's triumvirate of power."

"I expected you tomorrow for the weretigers," Jean-Claude said, "but tonight is a surprise."

"Did I interrupt something?"

"Yes," Asher said, and that one word was very unhappy.

"Then I am just in time."

Micah came to me with Nathaniel literally in his hand. Micah offered me his free hand, and I let go of Jason to take it. Micah and Nathaniel were the ones who had held me the most when Richard cut me up. Since he'd left Jean-Claude when he left me, it had seemed wrong to cry on Jean-Claude's shoulder.

"Who did you bring the guards for, Richard?" Jean-Claude asked.

"Hopefully, no one, but Anita is always complaining I'm not cautious enough; I'm trying to change that."

"Truth, Wicked, enough."

The vampires looked at me, and I nodded. Only then did they move aside.

Micah squeezed my hand, and I leaned in against him with Jean-Claude's hand still in mine. Richard looked at Micah. "I guess I've earned that look, Nimir-Raj, Micah."

"What do you want?" Micah asked.

"To help. I swear to you, I'm here to make things better instead of worse."

"That would be a change," Micah said.

There was a flash of anger across Richard's handsome face, and then he nodded. "I deserved that." He looked at me then and said, "Anita, I don't know what to say to you."

I sighed. "You said you came here to make things better; do that, make them better, and we'll go from there." I met the perfect brown of his eyes, and he nodded.

He turned to Jean-Claude. "I don't know what to say to you either, Jean-Claude."

"Start with what you are doing here, Richard," he said.

Richard moved into the group of us. Asher actually moved a little closer to Jean-Claude, as if he would block the other man. Normally that would have been enough to stop Richard in his tracks, but tonight he kept coming. He swept his hair to one side to expose the long, smooth, muscled line of his neck. "First, I would greet the Master of the City."

I felt Jean-Claude go very still beside me, sinking into that stillness that the old vampires could do. It proved that he was as unsure of what was happening as I was, and that he didn't trust this new, more cooperative Richard. We were both expecting him to come in and try, but in the end he would leave us more hurt than when we started, and he would fail us at the critical moment. He had taught us that.

Jean-Claude let go of both my hand and Asher's. He would take the greeting offered-the very kind of greeting that Asher had been trying to force on all of us just minutes ago. It was an almost surreal turn of events, because Richard didn't offer this greeting to anyone, or never had before, not willingly.

Jean-Claude put his hands on the other man's shoulders to steady himself, and leaned in and laid the barest of kisses on the other man's neck. Then he leaned back and studied Richard. "Why are you here?"

"I would stand at your side tonight as I will tomorrow. You need your wolf tonight, Jean-Claude."

"We do not need you tonight, Ulfric," Asher said, and he came up behind Jean-Claude, sliding his arms around the other man's waist and putting his face next to Jean-Claude's. Asher hid his scars with his hair, but the face that showed was arrogant, sensual, and possessive.

I expected Richard to react with disgust, or anger, and he wasn't comfortable with it, but he said, "Oh, I think Jean-Claude does, and Anita does. I think they need me a lot tonight."

"They've agreed to bed me tonight, Ulfric. Jean-Claude and I will be lovers tonight with nothing denied us." He smiled, most unpleasantly, at the other man.

Richard smiled back, and his held anger as Asher's held cruelty. Really, when you came down to it, they could both be pretty unpleasant. I'd never thought of it that way before, but it was true.

Richard had swallowed his power back as he came through the door, being polite to shield. Now the first trickle of warm, vibrating power flowed over us. I shivered where it touched, clutching at Micah's hand. Jean-Claude didn't so much shiver as just smooth the lapels of his jacket, but it was a nervous gesture, I knew that.

"I won't offer s.e.x to you, Asher, but other than that, I wouldn't miss it."

"Richard," I said, "you don't mean that."

He looked at me and held his hand out to me. "If you and Jean-Claude are going to do it, then I do mean it."

I stared at his hand. "What are you offering?" I asked.

"Take my hand, Anita, please, for power, for shared power let Jean-Claude's triumvirate be everything it was meant to be tonight while he embraces Asher."

Micah squeezed my hand. I looked at him, and his eyes told me, Do it Do it. I trusted him, and so I reached out. The moment Richard's hand touched mine, the power rushed over my skin like a warm bath that raised every hair on my head. My head went back, eyes closed, and the power hit Micah's hand in mine and kept spilling into Nathaniel. Leopard was my animal to call, and Nathaniel was to me what Richard was to Jean-Claude. The last time we'd tried to combine my triumvirate with Jean-Claude's, Richard hadn't cooperated.

Jean-Claude's hand touched my shoulder, and the power spread to him. He moved his hand to the side of my face, and bare skin was always better. It was like the power was a deep, still pool of water, and that last touch was a huge rock. The water crashed upward, spilled outward, and the rings of power went out and out and out.

Someone whispered, "Oh, my G.o.d," and it was none of us who were touching because we had no words yet. Jason wasn't touching us, but I felt the power stagger him, and he reached out, put his hand on my back so he could become part of that circuit. It was like throwing another, smaller boulder into the waters before they'd settled from the first. I felt Wicked and Truth when the power hit them, because they were ours, and Jamil was Richard's wolf, and his body reacted to the power, and then the wererats resonated with the power because we'd fed on them through their rat king, so we knew the taste of the wererats and it was good, and then Shang-Da grabbed the back of the loveseat; I felt his hand close on the cloth to steady him. And finally the power found Asher, because all the vampires in this city were ours, but he must have moved away from us to be near Shang-Da. We felt him touch the werehyenas and he was protected from us, from the spill of our power, our heat, our warmth, our mix of death and life. He and his hyenas were like boulders in the wash of it, standing firm and not being swept along.

I heard one of the werehyenas say, "We need to go, Asher."

I had to blink to clear my vision, almost like you do after really good s.e.x where the o.r.g.a.s.m leaves you blind and unable to focus. But it wasn't s.e.x, it was pure power.

Asher spoke into the stunned silence. "You've been holding back on us, Ulfric."

Richard's hand tightened on mine and on Jean-Claude's, and for a moment I couldn't tell which hand was mine, or if they both were. We'd had moments of this kind of sharing before, and always Richard or I panicked and broke the power, but there wasn't enough of me solid to be afraid, and Richard was exhilarated as if it had worked even better than he'd planned.

It was his voice, hoa.r.s.e, raw from the power, that answered for us. "I could say the same for you, Asher."

I could see again, but I was staring at Richard's chest so all I could see was his red shirt with its frame of jean jacket. Jean-Claude's voice came even and unruffled, but I could feel the fierce joy in him. This was the power he'd bound Richard and me to him for; this was why he had locked us into our little three-way of hate, for this possibility. He said, "Why did you cut yourself off from our power, Asher?"

"Anita on her own made a slave out of a dominant werelion, her Nicky. The three of you together would be powerful enough, but with her leopard to call and her Nimir-Raj, I fear my poor heart will be enslaved."

"We would never do that to you," I said. Richard moved into the curve of Jean-Claude's arm, and there was a moment when the vampire wasn't touching me. It changed how the power felt, but it didn't break the bond; we both belonged to Jean-Claude and to touch one was to touch the other.

I could see Asher and his hyenas now by the loveseat, near the curtains with the door just on the other side. He was watching us, face empty and unreadable, but his being over there so far away spoke more than any look could have.

"Unless you tried to do it to us first," Richard said. He squeezed my hand tight and drew Jean-Claude closer to him. The other man moved so he could put his arms around both our waists as he stood between us. I kept my hand in Micah's, and Jason moved to touch me and Jean-Claude.

"You know something, mon ami mon ami; share it with us," Jean-Claude said.

"Narcissus has been bragging that his master was going to roll mine and then the werehyenas would own St. Louis."

"Narcissus wants that, true," Asher said, "but I did not agree to do it."

"My information says differently, and I believed it enough to drive down here tonight with Shang-Da and Jamil. I believed it enough that I'm sleeping over, if they'll have me."

"And if I said I would bed the three of you, how long would it take for your newfound resolution to crumble?" Asher asked.

"If my choice is between opening a vein to you with Jean-Claude and Anita, or making that s.a.d.i.s.tic b.a.s.t.a.r.d Narcissus the animal king of St. Louis, I'll donate the blood."

Asher came around the loveseat with the hyenas hand in hand with him, as if he wasn't sure what would happen if he let them go, but he stalked toward us putting that grace, that raw s.e.xuality that he held inside him into every step. "I've wanted your neck under my mouth from the moment I saw you, Richard."

"I know." I could feel his pulse try to speed, feel his heart as he concentrated to slow it down so his pulse would stay quiet. Fear meant food to vampires and wereanimals, and Richard hadn't come tonight to be food. He might donate blood, but it wouldn't be as submissive anything. If your hamburger could bite back, that seemed to be what he had in mind.

Asher stopped moving forward and studied us. "Is it just the three of you, or the five, no, six of you?"

"I can't speak for anyone else but myself," Richard said, "but I stand with Jean-Claude and Anita."

"The leopards will do what their Nimir-Ra needs them to do," Micah said.

Jason said, "I'm Anita's wolf to call; that means where I sleep tonight is up to her."

"Jean-Claude and I can f.u.c.k and then drink from each of you in turn and f.u.c.k some more. It would be enough power to keep us going until dawn crashed the party," Asher said. He fought for control and finally lost. His face showed an almost exquisite pain. He wanted what we were offering. I saw his hands tighten on the werehyenas. They seemed bespelled by him, but I realized they were still enough themselves to have given him their non-gun hands just in case.

Shang-Da was trailing behind them, as if he expected them to need the weapons. For Richard to be here like this, and Shang-Da to be acting like that, would take more than just rumors of Narcissus bragging. The moment I had that thought, it wasn't just a thought, it was more like knowledge. Pictures, images, sensations, memories, and Richard had heard that Asher had a human servant in mind. Narcissus wanted him to make a triumvirate of power like we had made. If they could pull it off, and if they chose well for their human servant, the balance of power in St. Louis could shift and not in our favor. We'd been so worried about out-of-town vampires trying to move in on our power structure that we hadn't noticed a much closer problem.

The rush of shared knowledge left me shaken, and I fought to hide my face by cuddling closer to Richard, burying my face against his chest. But of course, that was too close for other things. You'd think being able to share thoughts would bring us so close that nothing could make it worse, but burying my face against his bloodred T-shirt, I could smell his skin just underneath. The scent of him tightened things low in my body, and bound this tight I couldn't hide it. Not from Richard, and not from Micah, who held my other hand, and through him, Nathaniel. Jason knew, too, but that didn't bother me nearly as much. Jean-Claude knew, but he'd known that from the beginning and used it to bind Richard and me to him.

I was left staring up into Richard's face from inches away, with the look in his eyes that let me know he wanted me, too. We always wanted each other; s.e.x had never been our problem area.

I turned from Richard's eyes to Micah and Nathaniel beside him. I started to say something, but Micah said, "It's all right."

Nathaniel nodded.

Asher took a deep, shaking breath and let it out slow, but it shook on the way out, too. "As you don't trust me or Narcissus, I don't trust you, Ulfric. This is too good to be true, and that means it is a trap. A lovely trap, but a trap nonetheless."