Лорел Гамильтон - The Harlequin

Micah was under the silk and I was on top of it. His hands danced down my body as our lips found each other. We must have moved too much because Nathaniel made a small noise. It made us freeze in mid-motion and look at him. His face was still peaceful, eyes still closed, his hair a gleam in the near dark.

Vampire powers had made Nathaniel my animal to call, and made us love each other, too. It was real love, true love, but it had begun with vampire mind tricks. But Belle Morte's powers cut both ways. As Auggie had said, «You can only cut someone as deep as you're willing to be cut.» Apparently, I'd been willing to be cut to the heart.

Nathaniel stirred in his sleep again. His face flexed, frowned. He made another small sound. It was his bad dream sound. He'd had more nightmares of late. His therapist said it was because he felt safe enough with us to explore his deeper pain. We were his safe haven. Why did safety raise all the shit deeper? It seemed like it should have been the other way around, didn't it?

We reached for him at the same time—Micah's hand going for the bare paleness of his shoulder, my hand going for his cheek. We stroked him wordlessly. Most of the time petting him in his sleep was all it took to chase the bad things away. Real-life bad things weren't so easy.

There was a soft knock on the door. We both looked toward it and Nathaniel stirred, one arm pulling out of the covers. He blinked awake, his eyes confused, as if he expected to be somewhere else. He saw us and visibly relaxed. He smiled, and said, «What is it?»

I shook my head, still lying pressed in Micah's arms. Micah said, «Don't know.»

I called, «What?»

It was Remus, one of the ex-military werehyenas. They'd been hired after Chimera nearly destroyed the bodybuilders and martial artists of the hyenas. As Peter had said, it wasn't real. The hyenas had liked showy muscle that had never seen real battle. They'd learned that just because muscle is pretty doesn't mean it's the real deal. «It's the Ulfric. He wants in.»

Ulfric, wolf king, Richard Zeeman was at our door. The question was, why? I wanted to ask what he wanted, but he might take it wrong, so I looked at Micah.

He shrugged, lying back, one arm still curved around me, holding me along the line of his body. I stayed propped up so I could see the door, and so most of my nakedness was covered. Richard was my lover, but he didn't share nearly as well as everyone else did. I wouldn't get out of bed for him, but I wouldn't make it as bad as it could be by flaunting either. No matter what I did, we'd probably end up fighting. When we weren't having sex, that's what we did. We fought and had make-up sex, and he let me feed the ardeur off him. It wasn't much of a relationship lately.

«Anita»—Richard's voice—«let me in.»

«Let him in, Remus,» I said.

Nathaniel rolled onto his back so that the covers pooled at his waist, and the expanse of his upper body was naked to the light that came in through the door as Richard came inside. He hesitated at the door, watching us in the rectangle of light from the hallway. His hair had finally grown out enough to go a little past his shoulders in heavy chestnut waves. His hair looked black with a nimbus of gold around it now, but his hair was brown with highlights of gold and copper when the light hit it just right. He was wearing jeans and a jean jacket with a heavy wool collar. He had a small suitcase in one hand. He set it down on the floor as he came through the door.

I caught a glimpse of the guards in the hallway as he shut the door. Claudia, wererat and one of the few other women who carried a gun besides me, looked a question at me. I shook my head. It was my way of saying, Let it go . I wasn't sure it was a good idea, but I couldn't figure out a way to refuse him access to the bedroom without starting a fight. I didn't want to start the fight.

«May I turn on the light?» he asked, very polite.

I looked at the other two men. They nodded, and shrugged. «Sure,» I said.

I was left blinking into the sudden glare. It wasn't that bright a light, but after almost complete darkness it seemed bright. When my eyes adjusted I could finally look at Richard. He was as he had always been: six feet one inch of handsome masculinity. Perfect cheekbones and a nearly permanent tan showed that somewhere back in all that Dutch blood was something darker and less European. I'd always bet on American Indian, but they actually didn't know. He was almost heartrendingly handsome. So why hadn't my new vampire powers made us the perfect couple, too? Because for my abilities to work you had to know what you wanted, what you really wanted. Richard didn't know that. He was too conflicted, too full of self-loathing, to know what his heart's desire was.

He looked at the coffin that sat near the far wall, closer to the door than to the bed. «Jean-Claude?» He made it a question.

«Damian,» I said.

He nodded. «So if you start draining him of life you'll be able to check on him.» Richard had actually carried Damian's nearly lifeless body to me once, so I could save the vampire.

«Yes.» I pulled up the sheet so that my breasts were more covered. It bared a little more of Micah's chest, but that was okay. His body was already blocking all but the upper curve of my hip from Richard's sight. Covered was better until I knew what Richard wanted.

«Where's Jean-Claude sleeping?»

«Asher's room,» I said.

He had left his suitcase by the door, but he was in the middle of the floor, halfway between the door and the bed. He licked his lips and wouldn't quite look at us. He was nervous—why?

«Jason has his new girlfriend bunking with him.»

«Perdita, Perdy,» I said. She'd come to us from the master of Cape Cod. She was a mermaid. A real live mermaid. The first I'd ever met. Though I'd never seen her look anything but human. I was told she really could be part fish, but I'd never seen it.

Richard nodded.

Micah moved against me and let me know he'd thought of something. Oh. «Do you want to stay here with us?» Micah asked.

Richard closed those perfectly brown eyes, the color of milk chocolate. He took a deep breath, let it out slow, then nodded.

We all exchanged a look, which was almost finished by the time he opened those eyes. We must have looked surprised, though, because he said, «I'm a shapeshifter; we like big puppy piles for sleeping.»

«Most of you guys do,» I said, «but you've never willingly slept with me and any of the other guys.»

«This is who you are, Anita. This is who we both are.» He shoved his big hands into his jacket pockets and looked at the floor. «I was on a date when I got the call that some insanely powerful vampires are in town.» He looked up, and his face held that anger that he'd gotten from me through Jean-Claude's vampire marks. He shared my rage at the world, and it had made him even harder to deal with. «I had to call it an early evening, and I couldn't explain to her why.»

«We had to cut our date short, too,» Nathaniel said.

Richard looked at him; it was not an entirely friendly look, but his words were civil. «You guys were trying to celebrate some kind of anniversary.»

«Yes,» I said.

«Sorry it got ruined.»

«Sorry your date got cut short,» I said. My, we were being terribly polite.

«They found bugs in my house, Anita. My dates, my phone calls, everything recorded.» He rocked on the heels of his boots.

«I know,» I said. «Same for us.»

«The Circus is the most secure place we have, so I'm here for the duration.»

«Scary,» I said.

«The scary part is that I might be endangering the kids I teach. If it's not fixed by Monday, maybe I should take a leave of absence.»

He seemed to be asking my opinion and I didn't know what to say, but Micah did. «We've all been blindsided by this. Let's get some sleep.»