Лорел Гамильтон - Danse Macabre

Requiem appeared over his shoulder, following us. Lisandro was beside him. I looked down the stairs, and caught a glimpse of Doc Lillian, before the dizziness became too much. What the hell had she given me?

I lost some more time, because the next thing I knew we were all the way down and stepping out under the covered awning outside the Fox club's private entrance. I got a glimpse of Wicked standing beside the valet attendant. The attendant's face was blank and peaceful. Vampire mind tricks to make sure no one remembered us. One-on-one mind tricks were illegal, technically, partially because of shit like this. That a vampire could persuade a person that the bad things hadn't happened. It made witness testimony a bitch.

Fredo was holding the door to the limo as if he were a real chauffeur and not a walking weapons store. Nathaniel crawled inside with me in his arms. He laid me gently on the backseat, and lifted the tux jacket off me. Doc Lillian knelt beside me. She touched my face, and tried to get me to follow her fingers. I don't think I did really well at it.

She smiled at me. «I dosed you like you were one of us, and you're not. Whatever you are becoming, it's not lycanthrope.»

I frowned at her. «What?»

«The morphine should have worked out of your system by now, and it hasn't. It won't be four to ten hours like a human, but two, at least two.» She shook her head. «Sometimes we all forget that you are still mostly human.»

«Morphine,» I said.

She nodded. «Yes, Anita, morphine. If the master that tried to take us all renews his attack, without you, I don't think Jean-Claude can take him.»

Did she think that all that happened had been Merlin's doing? Did she not know about the Mother of All Darkness? It seemed like I should explain it to her, but I couldn't hold all my thoughts in a row long enough to do it.

«We need you back with us now.»

I nodded, then closed my eyes, because it made the inside of my head fuzzier for a moment. «Agreed,» I whispered, «how?» I opened my eyes, and fought to focus on that lovely face, the gray eyes that looked blue tonight with the dress and the eye shadow.

«Call the munin, Anita. It will clear your mind, and heal much of this damage.»

I frowned at her. I must have heard her wrong. «Call munin, now?»

She nodded. «Raina could heal this.»

I closed my eyes and fought, fought hard to gather my thoughts and explain why this was such a bad idea. Munin were the ancestral spirits of the wolf pack. But they could be a lot more «lively» than just normal ancestor worship. Especially if you had psychic ability, or, most yummy, talent with the dead, the munin could be much, much more lively. Raina was the old lupa of the pack. I'd killed her because she was trying to kill me. The munin could «possess» people who had the talent for it. I'd become her favorite ride. I'd spent a long, long weekend in Tennessee with my spiritual teacher, Marianne, learning how to control the munin in general, and Raina in specific. Micah and Nathaniel had gone with me to «help» me deal with it. I'd asked Richard first, wolf business and all, but he had flatly refused. Raina was dead. He wanted nothing more to do with her. Neither did I, but I didn't have a choice.

She'd been a sexual sadist, but she could also heal with sex. It didn't have to be full-blown sex, she just liked it that way. I'd tapped into her power a few times to save lives, but the cost had been high. Her memories alone were worth avoiding. The ardeur wasn't normally a thing of healing, and Jean-Claude had speculated that the fact that I could heal with sex and metaphysics might be more because of Raina's munin than vampire powers. It was almost as if the more often I was used by, or borrowed magic from, someone else, the more likely it became that their magic would become part of my arsenal. Raina had played with me enough that it had somehow effected the ardeur , or that was the theory. Why not use the ardeur to heal the hand? Healing with the ardeur was catch-as-catch-can; sometimes it worked without your wanting it to work, and sometimes it didn't work at all. I did my best to explain it out loud. «Not sure I can control her, like this. Bad, if she's in charge.»

«You are badly hurt, Anita. If you were truly vampire, then you'd need more blood. A lot more than normal. Jean-Claude thinks that the ardeur will rise and try to feed that need.»

I frowned harder at her. «I don't…»

«You promised to do whatever I asked, if I gave you the morphine. You gave your word.»

I swallowed, licked my lips, and thought about calling her a bitch, but since she was the only doctor we had, and I was hurt, it seemed unwise to piss her off. I could control Raina's munin now, if I hadn't been on drugs. I said, «No.»

«Then you will miss the ballet, and the party, and you will not be there to help Jean-Claude against the other masters. Richard will not be there because he is hiding. If you think it is a good idea to strip the master of this city of both of his thirds on this night, then refuse.»

Hell with it. I said, «Bitch.»

She smiled, and patted my cheek. «Once you are healed, your beasts may rise, so I will leave you with people who can take your beast, if they must.»

«I don't understand.»

«But I think we should start with someone that Raina never touched. I knew her, you see; she always loved new conquests.»

I shook my head, gently. «Don't understand.»

Nathaniel appeared beside her. He was not new to Raina; she'd had him every way a woman could have a man, and some that stretched the imagination to the screaming point. He was nude, except for the amethyst and diamond collar. It had been a gift from Jean-Claude and me, though frankly, more Jean-Claude's idea than mine. It would simply never have occurred to me.

«You're not wearing any clothes.»

He smiled. «We're going to try to go back inside afterward.»

«Afterward what?»

He glanced at Lillian. «How much is she following all this?»

«I'm not certain.»

A voice from behind us. «I don't do rape.»

Jason's voice then. «None of us do.»

Lillian leaned over me. «Anita, Anita, you must give permission for this.»

«For what, exactly?» There, that was a clear question.

«Raise Raina's munin, heal yourself, and heal Requiem.»

«Requiem?»

«Raina will like that he's someone new, and that he's badly injured.»

I stared into Lillian's face. «You really did know her.»

She nodded. «Better than I wanted to. I would not ask this, if I thought we would survive this night without you. Raphael felt one of the masters in the ballet. One of them can call rats, Anita. Do you understand what that means to our people?»

«Yes,» I said, «if they take Raphael, then they own you all.»

«Exactly.»

«And we invited them here,» I whispered.

Requiem's bare shoulder appeared around Lillian. «Merlin, their dance master, rolled the human audience to make his dancers appear and vanish, but he did not try to roll the other masters. Until tonight.»

I wasn't so sure of that. I'd felt Merlin's mind. If he'd rolled them, then let them go, they might never have figured it out. I tried to explain it. «His mind, powerful enough. He could let them go. They might never know.»

«You mean that he rolled them, and was so powerful that they don't remember it?»

«Yes.»

I watched fear march over his face, swallowed by that perfect blankness that the old ones have. «Perhaps, but I do not believe that Marmee Noir appeared in the other cities.»

«Who is Marmee Noir?» Lillian asked.

«Our dark mother, the first of us. It was her power added to Merlin's that did what was done tonight. It was her power that made Richard's cross melt into Anita's hand.»