The wererat took a deep breath and let it out slow. He was still fighting the tension in his own body, because a display like what Nathaniel was doing could be a precursor to a fight. It was certainly a metaphysical slap in the face to a wereanimal as dominant as Bobby Lee.

I said, "Nathaniel, I don't know what you're trying to prove, but . . ."

"No, Anita, he doesn't get to dismiss me like that."

"Be careful, Nathaniel. You don't want a new power level to make you forget," Bobby Lee said.

"Forget what?" Nathaniel said, and his voice held a purring edge to it.

"That I'm dominant to you, and I teach some of the fight classes you take."

Nathaniel's power flexed; that was the only word I had for the sensation of the heat expanding and contracting as if the energy were trying to wrap around us.

I looked at my calm boy, the one who never made trouble like this. "Don't do this," I said.

"This is your last warning. I don't care if you are Anita's fiance."

"I don't want to fight, Bobby Lee, but I'm beyond tired of everyone discounting me and Damian."

"You don't want to fight? Ya coulda fooled me," Bobby Lee said.

"I'm going to have to second that," I said.

"I've tried just being nice, but that doesn't get you respected by people like him."

"People like me? What's that supposed to mean?" Bobby Lee asked.

"The big athletic guys who have been big and athletic for most of their lives. The ones who played sports. The natural athletes. Military. Police. All the guy-guys. I can't win points with any of you for cooking, cleaning, because that's wimmin's work."

I was staring at Nathaniel as if I'd never seen him before, and I hadn't seen this side of him. I knew that guy-guys confused him and he'd never fit into their world, but this level of bitterness was a surprise to me.

"You're a dancer. That's athletic," Bobby Lee said.

"But it's not football, is it?" Nathaniel shook his head, his power so thick in the room now it was hard to breathe past it. It wasn't calling my inner beasts like most of the wereanimals did when they started doing shit like this; it was almost more like warm vampire power than wereanimal energy. It was too warm, too alive, to be vampire, but it just felt like power. The kind that vamps threw around to impress or attack each other, and to torment the lesser beings.

"Back down, Nathaniel," I demanded.

"Him first."

"If you hadn't noticed, Bobby Lee is doing his best not to throw more energy onto this little fire. His control is admirable, which is more than I can say for yours."

"You heard him, Anita. He doesn't count our triumvirate as important."

"Until right now, only Anita had gained power, and she's gotten the respect that deserved."

"And now?" Nathaniel asked, his voice purring along my skin as if his breath had touched me for real. It made me shiver and have to catch my breath. It was something Jean-Claude would do, but not Nathaniel.

"What are you trying to prove, Nathaniel?" I asked, rubbing my hands along my arms.

"Now you're proving that the only reason you've been nice up to now is that you didn't have enough power to be mean," Bobby Lee said.

The power from Nathaniel faltered as if magic could trip over its own feet.

The door opened without a knock. It was Damian. "What are you doing in here?"

It was while Nathaniel and I looked at the door that Bobby Lee proved that he was as fast as Nicky had been in practice. He went from standing still to being up against Nathaniel with a naked blade against his neck.

We all froze, because any movement could make things worse, so best to think carefully before you act. Honestly, I froze because it was just so damned unexpected that I didn't know what to do. Bobby Lee wasn't a bad guy. He wasn't even one of the guards who were a pain in my ass. Until this moment I'd have trusted him damn near implicitly.

His voice came low and careful. "Power is like strength. It means nothing if you don't know what to do with it."

"You've made your point, Bobby Lee," I said.

Damian started walking farther into the room.

"Have I made my point, Nathaniel?"

Nathaniel spoke carefully with the blade against his neck. "Powers down."

"You powered down because I startled you, not on purpose. It takes time to learn how to use magic, just like muscles." He started to ease the knife back from Nathaniel, then pushed it in tighter.

"Bobby Lee," I said.

"Tell your other man to back off."

I looked at Damian, and he was behind the wererat with a blade in his hand. I'd never seen Damian carry a knife; a sword, but not a knife. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Defending us."

"I'm not the enemy," Bobby Lee said.

"You have a knife at my friend's neck."

"I'm teaching a lesson."

"What lesson?" Damian asked.

"The next person he throws that kind of power at won't be teaching, or playing; they'll just kill him."

"We get it; now everyone back down," I said.

"Tell your vampire to back off first."

"Damian."

"Tell him to take the blade away from Nathaniel's neck."

"Bobby Lee."

"He backs up first."

"Damian, put the knife up," I ordered. He should have just done what I said, but for the first time ever he didn't. What the hell was happening? I tried again. "Damian, put up your knife, now!"

"I don't seem to have to." He sounded puzzled, as if he wasn't sure what to do with the fact.

The door opened; I had a glimpse of black-and-white curls and knew it was Domino. He held his hands up to show that he meant no harm. His voice sounded more than just regular normal-it was that false cheerful voice you use when trying to de-escalate, rather than push things further. "Who's throwing all the magic around?" he asked.

"Nathaniel," I said.

He didn't look surprised, just took it in stride. "What's up, Bobby Lee?"

"Nothing much. You?" His voice sounded perfectly ordinary, as if he weren't holding a blade to the neck of someone he was supposed to be protecting.

"You know that Nathaniel wouldn't really hurt you. He's just a little drunk on the new magic," Domino said.

"He doesn't know how to use it as an offensive weapon yet."

"Then why are you holding a knife to him?"

"To prove to him that power won't keep him safe from a trained attacker."

"I think you've made your point," Domino said; he was walking farther into the room as he talked. He was close enough now that I could see his guns clearly against the black-on-black clothing. Some of the guards carried knives; he didn't like blades, but I knew he had a collapsible baton, an ASP, on him somewhere. I could see his fire-colored eyes; of all the clan tigers, the black and red had the most inhuman-looking eyes. He was part black tiger and his eyes and black curls showed that. The white tiger part of his mixed heritage only showed in the few white curls scattered through the black.

"Now I'm doing it because his friend's behind me with a knife."

"Damian, would you really stab him?" Domino asked.

"If he hurts Nathaniel, yes."

"Are you really going to hurt Nathaniel, Bobby Lee?"

"I guess not."

"Then everyone put their knives up," Domino said.

"Yeah, what he said," I said, because I had no idea how things had gotten so out of hand. Normally I'd have picked someone to take out and de-escalate without needing help, but it was Nathaniel and Bobby Lee. One I didn't want to hurt, and the other one I didn't want to throw down on, because I wasn't sure I'd win. They were usually two of my most dependable and reasonable people. Damian was usually reasonable, too, and usually had to obey any direct order I gave him. What the hell was wrong with all of them?

"If Damian puts his knife up, I'll be happy to," Bobby Lee said.

Domino was standing nearly beside the vampire as he said, "How about it, Damian?"

He stared down at the knife in his hand, as if he'd just seen it. "I don't know why I did that."

Nathaniel's voice was very careful, and suddenly I could feel the press of the blade against his throat as if it were mine. "I think it was my fault."

"First, Damian puts his knife away, and then Bobby Lee is going to take the knife away from Nathaniel's throat, and then we're going to talk about what just happened and try to figure out why," I said; my voice wasn't as steady as Domino's, but it was clear and understandable.

"I don't have to obey you anymore," Damian said, and he sounded almost befuddled, not himself.

"I'm not telling you as your master vampire. I'm telling you to put the knife up as your queen, your boss, or your boss's wife. I don't care, but I know that I have more authority in this room than anybody else, and we are not going to be this stupid. Put the fucking knife up, now!" My anger came fresh and hot and my beasts coiled around it as if they were warming their hands on it. They threw little bits of their own frustration, trying to make it blaze higher. Trapped. We're trapped. We need out. How dare they threaten our mate? How dare they threaten us? How dare they . . .

I must have lost a few minutes fighting for control, because when I could "see" the room again Nathaniel and Bobby Lee were standing beside each other, not fighting. Damian must have handed his blade over to Domino, because he was holding a naked blade, and he had a gun still nicely holstered and visible.

Damian said, his voice calm and even, the way you talk someone down off a ledge, "I don't know what made me draw my knife on Bobby Lee, so I gave it to Domino until we figure this out."

I nodded, and let out a long, slow breath. My beasts were still huddled around my anger, eager to make it worse, so they could come out to play. The newest beast, the rat with its black eyes shining in the dark, wasn't getting along well with everyone else. Rats would eat anything, including people, but they were prey animals, too. My beasts didn't like having food inside with them, especially food that they couldn't rend and tear and eat.

We'd wanted to give me a beast that could come and help me in its natural form if I lost all my guards, but no one had asked how my inner leopard, wolf, lion, hyena, and rainbow of tigers felt about adding a new beast. It had never occurred to me to go into meditation as I'd been taught by my spiritual mentor, Marianne, and get everyone else's furry opinion. This was the first time I'd taken a new beast on voluntarily, and could have asked first. It had never occurred to me to ask until this moment when they exploited a weakness of mine to be loud enough to demand to be heard. Fuck.

"What's wrong, Anita?" Nathaniel asked, and his voice sounded like him again. He was part of my calm center again.

I shook my head. "One problem at a time. What did you mean about Damian and all this being your fault?" I asked.

"I was angry, but part of me knew that Bobby Lee is better than I am at fighting, so I was scared and angry."

"I felt that," Damian said, "and I knew I needed to protect you." He sounded like he was repeating a memory, not something that had just happened.

"And the anger may have been me," I said. They all looked at me. "The emotions just now stripped some of my control away and let my beasts talk to me."

All the wereanimals in the room said in unison, "Talk to you?"

"I translate it to words, but I'm not sure . . . Anyway, they're upset about the newest addition."

"What do you mean, the newest addition?" Damian asked.

"You mean the rat?" Bobby Lee asked.

"Yes, apparently they see it as prey and it's just one more thing that they can't do. They can't come out of my body and be whole, and now they're trapped inside me with a prey animal that they're not supposed to eat."

"I don't understand," Damian said.

"That would be very frustrating," Bobby Lee said.

"Did they complain about the rat before you did it?" Nathaniel asked.

"My control is really good now," I said.

Nathaniel looked at me. "Anita?"

Domino came to stand in front of me. "You didn't talk to them first, did you? You ignored them."

I opened my mouth, closed it, and shrugged.

Nathaniel said, "Marianne taught you how to meditate and communicate with your beasts. I thought you were doing that regularly. I thought that was part of your new uber-control over them."

"If I said I'm sorry, would that help?"

"Are you saying that your inner beasts' anger transferred to Nathaniel and Damian?" Bobby Lee asked.