Лорел Гамильтон - The Harlequin

«Did you slap me?» I asked.

«I didn't think you'd remember that.»

«You did slap me, didn't you?»

«It was a close thing, Anita. We almost lost you all.»

«Cherry says Richard is hooked up to machines, that he's not breathing on his own.»

«That's right.»

«Shouldn't he have healed by now?»

«It's only the night of the same day, Anita. You haven't been out that long.»

«It feels longer.»

She smiled. «I'm sure it does. I think now that we've got his body breathing, he will heal, but if we hadn't been able to keep his heart and lungs going…»

«You're worried.»

«His heart stopped, Anita. If he were human I'd be worried about brain damage from lack of oxygen.»

«But he's not human,» I said.

«No, but he is very hurt. He should heal perfectly, but in truth, I've never seen a lycanthrope come back from an injury this severe. His heart was pierced by a silver bullet. It was a killing shot.»

«But he's not dead,» I said.

«No, he's not.»

I looked up at her. «Jesus, you don't give good medical blank face either.»

«Jean-Claude is in a sort of coma. Asher tells me that it is a type of hibernation while he heals himself, but truthfully, vampire medicine is confusing. They're dead, so how unhealthy can they be? We hooked him up to brainwave monitors, and that's letting us know he's still in there.»

«But if you didn't have the monitors?» I asked.

«I'd think he was dead,» she said.

«We're not dead.»

She smiled. «No, you're not. Nathaniel has been eating for five, and he's still lost two pounds in less than a day. Damian has taken more blood than any vampire should be able to hold, and still he feeds. Asher says they are helping fuel the three of you.»

I nodded, remembering what Belle had said. «He's right.» I thought about letting my thoughts of Nathaniel and Damian find them for me, let me see them. But I was afraid I'd mess it up. Afraid that somehow I'd cut off the energy they were feeding us, or take too much. Apparently it was working, and I was simply grateful that it was working the way it was supposed to. Belle had said that I'd learned from Jean-Claude how to do it, but she was wrong. I think Jean-Claude had done it for us before he passed out, because I had no idea how it was working. I very carefully didn't make my shields between me and the boys any stronger, or weaker. I just tried to maintain. It was working; don't fuck with it.

«The vampires are worried that if the lesser vamps go to sleep for the day, Jean-Claude is so injured that he won't have enough energy to wake them again.»

I nodded and swallowed past a sore throat that wasn't my sore throat, but it felt like it. Like I was trying to swallow past something huge and hard, and plastic. «Richard is awake enough to feel the tube in his throat, because I can feel it.»

«I don't know if that's good news or bad, Anita. It will be a while before his body catches up with the machines, I think.»

«We need Jean-Claude awake before dawn, awake enough so he doesn't drain the little vamps to death,» I said.

She looked at me very seriously. «That is what the vampires have been discussing.»

I felt vampires. I felt them outside the door. I heard voices arguing, men arguing. I said, «Tell the guards to let Asher and the others in.»

She looked a question at me, but went to the door. But seeing who came through the door first made me smile, and somehow I felt it would all work out. We would be safe, because Edward was here.

HE SMILED DOWN at me, shaking his head. Standing there, looking down at me, he looked pleasant, and like the end product of a few generations of WASP breeding; blond hair, blue eyes, maybe a little short at five foot eight, but he would have fit in in so many places. Then the polished charm began to melt away, like magic. I watched the real Edward fill his eyes and turn them from warm to cold as a deep winter sky. The color of his eyes was the same, but the look in them wasn't. The face was still and showed nothing. If I hadn't had vampires to compare with, I'd have said Edward gave better empty face than anyone I knew.

Once, seeing Edward at my bedside would have meant he'd come to kill me. Now, it meant I was safe. We were all safe, or as safe as we could be. Edward couldn't do much about metaphysical powers, but I trusted him to take care of the Harlequin's weapons and fighting skills. The magic was my department, but no one did armed combat better than Edward.

«Hey,» I said, and my voice still sounded dry.

His lips twitched. «Couldn't stay alive for just a few more hours, huh?» His voice held an edge of the smile that had been there, then settled to that empty middle-of-nowhere voice, no accent, no hint of where he'd started life.

«I'm alive,» I said.

«They had to restart your heart twice, Anita.»

Lillian, who had made herself scarce, came to stand beside him. «I'd appreciate it if you didn't scare my patient.»

«She likes the truth,» he said, without even looking at her.

«He's right, doc,» I said.

She sighed. «Fine, but let's ease her into it; she's been mostly dead all day.»

It took me a second to realize she'd made a joke. Edward gave her a look, then turned back to me. «According to the vamps, we don't have time to ease you into it.»

«Tell me what's been happening,» I said.

«There's too much, Anita. If I tell you everything, it will be dawn and your little vampires will be dead for good.»

«Tell me what I need to know, then,» I said.

«Jean-Claude used a lot of energy to wake every vamp in the city before he passed out.»

«I was there when he did it.»

«Don't interrupt,» and he was way too solemn for my comfort. «The vamps and shapeshifters came up with a plan that they think will net the most power for you to feed into Jean-Claude and Richard in the shortest amount of time.»

«Why are you telling me this? Why not Asher, or…»

«You interrupted,» he said, eyes cold, and face still so serious.

«Sorry,» I said.

Lillian made a noise that made us both look at her. «You said she'd take the news better from you, but I didn't believe you. I believe you now.»

He gave her a look.

«Sorry, I'll stand over here and stop wasting time.» She moved away from us.

He continued, «I don't like the plan and you're going to hate it, but I've listened to their reasoning and it's the best plan we've got.»

I raised a hand.

He actually smiled, but it never quite reached his eyes. «Yes.»

«You think it's a good plan?» I asked.

«I couldn't come up with a better one.»

I looked at him. «Really?»

He nodded. «Really.»

The fact that he couldn't come up with a better plan said a lot. Said enough that I didn't argue. «Okay, tell me the plan,» I said.

«You feed the ardeur on the head of another animal group, and take their energy the way you did the wererats'.» He didn't flinch or hesitate, even though he'd only known about the ardeur for a few hours. He'd landed in the middle of a crisis of metaphysical proportions and it hadn't fazed him, or if it had, it didn't show. In that moment I loved him, in a guy-buddy sort of way. He'd never fail me, or fuck with me, and I loved him for it.

«Which animal group?» I asked.

«The swans,» he said.

I gave him surprised face. «Say again?»

He smiled, that cold smile, but it was a real smile; he was amused. «I take it the swan king is not your buddy.»

«Not in that way. He and all the heads of the animal groups have been over to the house for dinner, but…«I shook my head and swallowed past that feeling of something in my throat that wasn't there, like a phantom pain. «I've never thought of him in that way, and there are larger, more powerful groups in St. Louis than the swans.»