Лорел Гамильтон - Rafael

Rafael motioned at Benito. “You want to tell her, tell her.”

Benito looked startled as if he hadn’t expected that, but he recovered quickly and gave me very serious eyes. Whatever he was going to say, he didn’t expect me to like it. “The reason given for this challenge is that they are afraid that once you make Rafael your rat to call, all the wererats in the United States will be slaves to the vampires through Jean-Claude’s ties to you as his human servant.”

“The local clan here would know that’s not true,” I said.

“But I am no longer just the king of the St. Louis clan. I am king to all the wererats in this country, so they are all voting.”

I frowned at him. “How are all the wererats voting in time for the fight tonight?”

“Online, we created a poll online,” he said.

“How’s the voting going?”

“I am losing.”

“Jesus, I guess I can understand that if they don’t know me or Jean-Claude personally, they’d be worried. They have no idea that we’re not evil bastards.”

“They know your reputation as a legal executioner of us, and they have seen the videos that people took in Colorado when you raised a zombie army,” Rafael said.

“If I say the bad necromancer raised his army of the undead first and I had to stop him, does that make it any better?” I smiled, hopefully playing to the fact that I was small and if I was willing to stoop to it, I could be adorable. I’d hated it for years, but some of the women in my life had taught me that feminine wiles weren’t just about sex, cuteness was its own superpower. If only I’d known about it years ago, or been willing to stoop to use it.

Rafael laughed, but Benito was made of sterner stuff. “Your reputation is fearsome, Anita. If you were Rafael’s mate, it would make him powerful, but you are engaged to Jean-Claude, you will be queen to the vampire king of this country. It frightens our people.”

“I carry just as much shapeshifter magic as vampire inside me,” I said.

“But they have seen you with your zombies online from people filming you with their phones. They have seen you on Jean-Claude’s arm in the engagement video and more and more interviews as the wedding gets closer, but you do not change form, and they have not seen you with us. They have not felt your power as leopard queen to Micah’s king. They have not felt the pull of your inner rat. They feel you feed on them through Rafael, and that scares the hell out of them.”

“I think that’s the longest speech I’ve ever heard you make,” I said.

“I must speak up for Rafael, for he will not.”

“The threat has to be serious for you to push like this, Benito. Is this new guy a really good fighter or something?”

Benito nodded.

“How good?” I asked.

“Good enough that I am frightened for my king and my friend.”

That scared me because Benito didn’t talk that way.

“Do you have so little faith in me in the fighting pit?” Rafael asked.

“You are good, incredibly good, my king. You were fierce today in practice.”

“But you do not think I am fierce enough to win against Hector.”

“I think you can win, but if the vote goes against you, then all the next challenger has to do is use the same excuse and they can simply challenge you time after time. No one is good enough to withstand that; eventually everyone loses. In a fight to first or even third blood it is a loss of reputation, but it is not fatal.”

“Can fights for the crown be to just third blood, the way lesser challenges are?” I asked. I couldn’t help looking at the black crown branded into Rafael’s forearm. It was the mark of kingship among the rodere and gave the St. Louis clan its name, the Dark Crown Clan.

Benito just shook his head.

“Is there anything else I need to know, while we’re being chatty?” I asked.

“Yes,” Benito said.

“No,” Rafael said.

“Benito,” I said.

“Please, my king, my friend, she must know that you broke one of our most sacred rules.”

“She does not change form, she is not a true wererat, so the rule does not apply.”

“Someone tell me the rule, so I can decide if it applies to me or not.”

The two men glared at each other. Claudia called from down the hallway. “Anita deserves to know.” I looked to see if Kane was with her, but she was alone. She must have seen me look for him, because she added, “Helios is taking Kane through a new weight routine. I’ve got two extra guards with them. They’ll all get their weight lifting in for the day, and Kane will have enough people to sit on him if it’s needed.”

“If Kane is that dangerous to Anita, he must be put down,” Benito said.

“We can’t risk killing Asher,” I said.

“But you will risk killing Rafael,” he said.

“Benito, enough,” Rafael said.

“Please, Rafael, please, Anita needs to know,” Claudia said.

Claudia didn’t plead with anyone for anything. My stomach was suddenly tight with anxiety. Then I realized that Benito and Rafael had already given me enough clues. “I know that other than a few attack survivors or freak accidents, there is only one way to become part of the rodere. You must fight for it. I didn’t think about that applying to me, because I wasn’t asking to join the rodere.”

Claudia said, “Yes, if you were a normal human being who wanted to be one of us, you would have blades and fight one of us in half-beast form.”

“Not fight, Claudia,” Rafael said, “simply draw blood once, before one of us can bloody them three times.”

It was interesting that Rafael didn’t think of that as a fight, but I didn’t debate it, just said, “That’s one of the reasons you are all such bad-ass fighters, because you have to be to even get into the clan.”

“Exactly, but our king brought you over as if he was a leopard, or a lion, or any other animal group with a lover,” Benito said.

“It’s the only form of Therianthropy that I volunteered to take on, all the others were accidents or attacks.”

“I hate the new politically correct vocabulary,” Rafael said.

“The idea was that lycanthropy meant just werewolves, but Therianthropy means all forms,” I said.

“I know what the words mean, but we all understood that lycanthrope had become the generic for all of us.”

“Therianthropy is pretty straightforward, too,” I said.

“Yes, but they didn’t stop there, the social justice warriors, they had to create new names for all of us. Arouraiothropy is impossible to spell, and most of us can’t even agree on a pronunciation.”

“I agree that the new vocabulary is ridiculous, but as a marshal I have to use it, or I get written up.”

“Did you get written up already?” Claudia asked.

“Yes.”

“By whom? Because it wasn’t one of us that complained,” Rafael said.

“Another marshal,” I said.

“If Anita would fight in the pits to just first blood with one of us, then she would have earned her place and that would slow the challenges,” Benito said.

“As her bodyguard, I can’t agree,” Claudia said.

“You guard her, but you are sworn to serve Rafael.”

“If we let them bully us into making Anita fight in the pit, our enemies could maneuver us into Anita being forced to fight a true battle. Not against one of us, but against one of our kind who could take the chance offered and hurt Anita badly.”

“Are they allowed to kill the human who’s fighting them?” I asked.

“No,” Claudia and Benito said.

“But the wererat is within their rights to demand that the human draw to third blood just as they must,” Rafael said.

“What happens if I lose?” I asked.