Danse Macabre

39

RICHARD ENDED UP back in Jason's room. Dr. Lillian pumped him full of painkillers, so he'd sleep and heal. I had to promise him guards I trusted at his door to make sure none of our «guests» visited him while he was drugged and helpless. Seemed like a reasonable request to me. In fact it was so practical that it gave me hope that he was finally beginning to realize that life wasn't a Boy Scout jamboree.

Lillian said if Richard had been human, he'd have been on his way to the emergency room, and on crutches for weeks afterward. But he wasn't human and two hours of sleep would heal a lot of the damage. Why not try to heal him with metaphysics? Because Richard had never let me heal him with magic. It was his choice, and I was okay with it. He'd done so much right in the last hour that I'd cut him slack. Acres of slack.

Haven was unconscious in the guest room he'd started the day in, with additional guards. He wouldn't be going anywhere for at least forty-eight hours, so said the doc. Fine with me; out of sight was just dandy for the Cookie Monster and me.

I'd started to get upset again, like pace-the-room upset, but Jean-Claude had touched me, and Auggie had joined him. I ended up on the couch cuddled between them and feeling strangely calm. «You've rolled my mind, haven't you?»

«You have the ability to keep me out, ma petite. Merely decide to push me out, and I will be forced to go. I think you need the calm.»

I couldn't argue with that. I turned with my head in Jean-Claude's lap, and looked at Auggie, who had my legs across his lap. «But he's helping you.»

«A very little bit,» Auggie said, and did that face that was supposed to be humble, but never made it.

«You should really stop trying for the humble head dunk thing,» I said, «it doesn't work for you.»

He gave me wide eyes — innocent, I think he was going for. He didn't pull that off either. «Are you saying I am not humble?» He grinned, spoiling any attempt at innocence. That smile said he was thinking nefarious things — fun things, but nefarious nonetheless.

«You wouldn't know humble if it bit you on the ass.»

He laughed, mouth wide, flashing fangs. If you hadn't seen the fangs you'd have said it was a very human laugh. Jean-Claude had once explained to me that vampires learn to control their faces, voices, every reaction, to hide from their masters. Because any strong emotion can be used against you. After a few centuries you could lose the knack of true laughter, of smiling just because you were happy, not because you thought it would get you something. Facial expressions for the very old vamps become more like flirting: something you do on purpose, for a purpose. Auggie just seemed to laugh.

I raised my head so I could look at Jean-Claude's face. I asked, «Is that real, that laugh, or is it part of Auggie's game plan?»

«Ask him, ma petite.»

I looked at the other vampire. «Well?» I said.

«Well, what?» he asked.

«Is the laugh real, or a performance?»

He shrugged those massive shoulders, sending the black shawl sliding down a little lower. At the rate it was slipping, he'd be naked from the waist up again. I wasn't sure if I wanted the shawl to fall faster, or make him tuck it back over himself. Seeing him nude sounded good, and the wanting of it made me not want it at all. Crazy, I know, but true. I seldom trusted anything that I wanted too badly.

I smelled vanilla, warm vanilla. Nathaniel was coming. I heard bare feet running, and the next moment he was airborne above me. He caught himself with hands and toes on the couch, just before he would have landed on me. He'd done it before, but it always startled me, and made me make that girly eep sound. I hated that I even had that sound inside me somewhere. Nathaniel laughed, his face alight with it. I tried to be grumpy about him startling me, but failed. The grumpiness rolled away under the delight of being this close to him, and the soothing touch of vampire.

«Not pregnant,» he said.

I shook my head, and laughed, too. Suddenly, I remembered how gloriously relieved I had been. He brought back the rush of joy that I'd had before Haven misbehaved.

Nathaniel let his body fall those few inches, so he pressed his weight against me. He kissed me, and I kissed him back. My hands slid over the muscled heat of his skin, and the silken warmth of his hair, unbound and sliding over us all. His body started to react to the closeness, and the kiss grew.

«If they actually have sex on our laps, do we get to join in?» Auggie asked.

I drew back from the kiss, and Nathaniel stopped, but he didn't move. I had to actually move some of the thick auburn hair to one side so I could see Auggie's face. «No,» I said.

«Then I am at a loss as to where to put my hands.»

I gazed past Nathaniel's shoulder to realize that the most natural resting place for Auggie's hands was probably Nathaniel's ass, where it peeked from between the fall of his own hair.

Auggie lifted a strand of that hair. «I have not seen hair like this for a century.» He rubbed the hair along his cheek. «It brings back memories, though the body would be female.» He gazed down at Nathaniel. «It's the longest hair I've ever seen on a man.»

I didn't like the way he was looking at Nathaniel, not that we could really blame him. It wasn't Auggie who had jumped naked into our laps. I pushed at Nathaniel's chest. «Move, okay?»

He gave me a look that managed to be both innocent, and not, then he rolled to the floor. Yeah, he'd wanted to surprise me, but he was an exhibitionist, and loved to flirt. It didn't mean he wanted sex, just that he enjoyed the way people reacted to his body. Or at least that's what Micah and I thought. It was entirely possible that Nathaniel didn't know why he did it.

Micah came up behind the couch. «Your leopard didn't try to rise when Nathaniel touched you,» Micah said from behind the couch.

«No, it didn't.» I looked at him, and found that Jean-Claude's hair blocked my view. Micah moved so he was standing more between the two vampires, so I didn't have to strain.

«You touched a lot less of me, and it did rise.»

«Try again,» I said, and held out my hand to him.

He hesitated, as if he were a little afraid of what might happen, but he took my hand. I waited for my beast to rise, but it didn't. It was just Micah's hand in mine. I squeezed his hand, and gave him a smile. Some tension in him eased, as if he'd been holding his breath about something. He still seemed so serious, almost sad. Was he jealous? Was the man who shared me best suddenly jealous? There was no anxiety with the thought, it was just a thought. Jean-Claude's power let it just be a thought, without emotional baggage attached to it. Was this how well-adjusted people reasoned? If so, damn it was peaceful. I wanted to reassure him and take that worry from his eyes. There was no thought to it, no reasoning. I wanted to reassure Micah, so I sat up, and used our clasped hands to draw him downward. We kissed, but he pulled back from it. Those chartreuse eyes still held a shadow of worry. I wanted that shadow gone. I wanted him to know how much he meant to me.

I used both hands to drag him half over the couch back, and give him the kiss he deserved. I licked, kissed, ate, at his mouth, as if the taste of him were a drug, and I needed a fix. He fell into that kiss, and spilled over the couch, on top of me, and into everyone's laps. He rose from the kiss, laughing, the worry erased from his eyes. We ended up laughing together in a big pile. Not just Micah and me, but Nathaniel, and Auggie with his big, fang-flashing laugh. Jean-Claude's laughter spilled over us all, like something thick and sweet that you should be able to lick off your skin. The sensation of it made me catch my breath. Micah shivered above me. Nathaniel's hand grabbed my arm, and Micah's, his fingers convulsing against our skin. Auggie's hand tightened almost painfully on my leg. I couldn't see him past Micah's body, but I could feel his body reacting to that touchable laugh.

It wasn't just Auggie's body that reacted. His power flared from his hand, and the warmth of his lap, through the silk jammies, and my jeans. I felt his body like heat through the cloth. That heat found the ardeur curled inside my body. Auggie called it, and like a well-trained dog, it followed his power.

Micah whispered, «Oh, God.» I think he would have rolled off and fled for safety, but Nathaniel's arm tightened on us both, and Auggie's other hand pressed into his back. He wasn't trapped, but with the ardeur, willpower is so hard to come by that small things can tip the balance.

Jean-Claude's power pulsed to life against me, but it wasn't his ardeur that rose. The cool power of the grave spread out from his body like cool, soothing water to quench the heat that Auggie had awakened. Jean-Claude's power spilled through me, over me, and spread. It spread to Micah, so that his eyes lost their panic. Nathaniel's hands began to relax in their desperate hold on our bodies. Auggie's breath came out in a long, shaking sigh.

«That was very bad of you, Augustine,» Jean-Claude said in a voice that was thicker than normal with his French accent. Which meant he'd had to work harder at stopping the ardeur than that easy flow of power had led us to believe.

Micah half-collapsed on top of me, his head burying against my shoulder, so that I could suddenly see Auggie's grinning face. He was totally unrepentant. «Jean-Claude, can you truly blame me with all this bounty writhing on my lap?» He slapped Micah's ass.

Micah rolled off the couch, and took me with him, because I let him. We ended on the floor close to Nathaniel. Micah and I stood, drawing Nathaniel to his feet. We moved back from the couch, so the three of us faced the vampires, faces no longer friendly. I'd shut both vampires out of my head, because I wasn't sure how to shut Auggie out without shutting Jean-Claude off, too. I just didn't have the finer points of metaphysics down yet.

«I may not blame you, but they will,» Jean-Claude said, and he sounded almost satisfied. I got just a flash of why: he was pleased that Auggie was falling into the same traps that once had been his own downfall. Then he shut the link between us, shut it tight, as if he didn't want me to know what else he was thinking. Fine with me; I had my own reasons for not wanting to share.

There had been a second, just a second, when the ardeur rising while all four of them were touching me hadn't seemed like a bad idea. Micah, Nathaniel, and Jean-Claude were one thing, but Auggie had rolled me. Yeah, I was in love with him, too, but it was because of vampire wiles. Auggie had trapped me into love, and that should be punished, not rewarded. Richard would probably say that I was pretty good at punishing true love, so love by deceit should carry a higher penalty, shouldn't it?

«I don't know you,» Micah said, «and you don't get to touch me.»

Auggie spread his hands wide, and made a how-was-I-to-know gesture. «My deepest apologies, but if people keep falling into my lap, I'm allowed to take a little advantage.»

«No,» I said, «you're not.»

He narrowed those charcoal-gray eyes at me. «I love you, Anita. Do you love me?»

I almost said no, but knew he'd smell the lie. I shrugged. «Yeah, thanks to your power, yeah, I do.» I shrugged again. «But what has that got to do with anything?»

«Most women who love me don't act this angry. Most women in love are generous to their lovers.»

«In sex, I'm generous; everything else, you gotta work for it.»

Auggie looked at Jean-Claude. «She tastes of the truth.»

Jean-Claude nodded. «Ma petite is a demanding lover in every way.»

«Usually when a man says a woman is a demanding lover, it's a good thing, but somehow I don't think that's what you mean,» Auggie said.

Jean-Claude gave me a smile, that smile that was only for me, and sometimes for Asher. The smile said he loved me, and I had to smile back. I felt my face soften, and the anger fade. I wasn't angry at Jean-Claude. I had finally gotten better at not spreading my anger over everyone. «Ma petite and I have labored long together to form the love that you have gained by subterfuge.» He turned and looked at Auggie. «I was your friend, but you have used your arts to make me feel for you what you have not earned. But I, like ma petite, know how to love and not be a prisoner to that love. You can win, or steal, our love, but you cannot steal a true relationship with us; that must be won.» He turned, and curled his long legs up on the couch. He put his arm across the back of the couch, not quite touching the other man's bare shoulder. He cradled his head on his outstretched arm, letting all those black curls spill along the white of the couch. I couldn't see his face, but I knew the look. It was a charming, seductive look, his teasing look, when he really didn't expect anything to happen. He just wanted to remind you how scrumptious he was. He usually used the look only when he was mad, or I was. It was a look to either end a fight, or begin one.

Auggie looked at him, and the look was pained. He saw Jean-Claude, understood the potential in that body, and knew now that having had it once didn't mean you'd get it again. Jean-Claude played hard to get when he thought it would gain him an advantage. The look on Auggie's face said it was a really big advantage right now.

If it was real love, true love, then shouldn't it have made me feel bad to see Auggie wanting, hurting with doubt? Maybe, but it didn't. It made me happy, in that small, petty, vindictive way that always promises a really bad relationship. There are different kinds of love, I'd learned that — not less real, or more real, just different. Maybe what Auggie could cause a person to feel wasn't true love, after all. Maybe it was that kind of love that seems to come quick, and leave slow, but in the middle it's just fights, and pain, punctuated by great sex, until one of you has the courage to end it, and walk away.

Auggie turned that pained expression my way. «You would both turn me down.» He sounded genuinely surprised. He glanced back at Jean-Claude. «I understand Jean-Claude, he's maneuvering for power, though my pride is hurt. I must not be as good with other men as I thought I was.»

Jean-Claude answered with his head still poised on his arm. «If I feed your ego now, then I may lose the advantage I have gained.»

Auggie nodded. «I understand that.» He looked at me. «But her, I don't get her. I know I'm good with women. Hell, I'm an amazing lover.»

I laughed, I couldn't help it.

He gave me a dirty look. «Do you disagree?»

I shook my head. «No, you're great.» I didn't sound like I meant it, but I did. «Maybe I just like my men a little more modest, that's all.»

He stabbed a thumb at Jean-Claude. «If he's ever been modest about his prowess in bed, it was false modesty.»

«Why, thank you,» Jean-Claude said.

Auggie shook his head. «That's not what I meant.»

«What did you mean?» I asked.

«That he doesn't have a modest bone in his body.»

I actually didn't agree with that, but Auggie didn't deserve the explanation that went with it, so I let it lie. «You're entitled to your opinion.»

«Which means you don't agree with me,» Auggie said.

«It means what I said.»

Auggie shifted his gaze to Micah. He looked at him, looked at him the way that men usually reserve for women. Like he was wondering what Micah would look like without his clothes.

«Here I stand all naked, and you're not even looking at me,» Nathaniel said. «Should I be insulted?» He moved a few steps ahead of Micah, tossing all that heavy auburn hair over his shoulders, so his body was framed by it. He stood there and gazed at the vampire. He gazed at him from those lavender eyes, with that beautiful body.

«Maybe I like a little modesty, too,» Auggie said.

Nathaniel moved his muscular arms to cover himself, let the hair spill over one shoulder, so that more of him was hidden. He peeked coyly around his own body and hair, gave innocent eyes, let his face be as young as it was in years. I was never sure how he did it, but he could play the innocent down to his toes. He could hide those jaded eyes, and play the ingénue.

Auggie laughed, that bright, happy laugh. «He's good.» He turned to Jean-Claude. «Where did you find so many beautiful men?»

«I didn't,» he said.

He looked past Nathaniel to me. «Anita, you have a true eye for talent.»

«They aren't talent to me. They're people I care about, and I don't like games.»

He motioned to Nathaniel. «This one plays games, and very well, I think.»

I nodded. «Nathaniel likes games better than I do, better than Micah does, but he doesn't play them with us.»

Auggie gave me a look that seemed to imply I was being naive. «Once a hustler, always a hustler, Anita.»

«Was that meant to be mean?» I asked.

«I thought you liked honesty,» he said.

«It was meant to be mean,» Micah said.

«I know whore when I see it, because I was one. So was Jean-Claude, and Asher, and Requiem, and London. Mustn't leave out the ladies: Elinore, Cardinal, anyone who was ever Belle's line was a whore. We're created to be whores.»

«Nathaniel is not a whore,» I said, and reached for him. He pulled away from the touch, and gave me eyes full of loss. «I was.»

«You researched us, before you came here,» Micah said.

«You bet,» Auggie said.

I touched Nathaniel's face, and tried to put into my eyes how much he meant to me. Whatever he saw in my face made him smile, a little. He pressed his hand over mine, pressing my hand against the curve of his jaw.

Micah stepped in front of us both. «You knew looking at me like that would be an insult. Nathaniel stepped up, took the attention, because it wouldn't bother him. Something about him protecting me bothered you. Why?»

Jean-Claude raised his head, curled his legs over each other in a way that let you know just how flexible he was, but still managed to be «ladylike,» for lack of a better word. «I know why.»

I put one arm across Nathaniel's back, and asked, «Why?»

Jean-Claude and Auggie exchanged a look. «If you think you can read me that well, go ahead,» Auggie said.

Jean-Claude gave a small nod, then looked at us. «Augustine prefers women to men, but one would have to be very, very heterosexual indeed to ignore the beauty of both of you. In his defense, you did fall into his lap. He behaved himself admirably. There are vampires among our own kiss who would not have shown his restraint. He offered such a small insult, and you took it as a large one. Anita and I are not falling over each other to profess our love for him, and that irks him. It puzzles him. Then you, who are animal, thus lesser in the eyes of most vampires, insult him, too. But I think it is more than that.» He looked at Auggie. «I think he watched Nathaniel use the only gift he had to protect Micah. Did it bring back old memories, Augustine? Bad memories?» He leaned in toward the other man.

Auggie stood up, abruptly, and wouldn't look at him. «My memories are my own.» Then he realized what he'd said, and gave a bitter laugh. «For now, at least, until she dictates otherwise.» He wasn't referring to me.

Jean-Claude lay back on the couch, spreading his hair over the arm of it, one arm carelessly above his head, the other across his stomach. One bare foot trailed over the carpet; the other was tucked up on the couch, his knee leaning against the back of the white couch. He looked fetching, and he knew it. But it was the way Auggie watched him that made the show. There was real anguish in his eyes. It hurt me to see his face like that.

«You give me another taste of heaven, and now I am in purgatory again. You, and she» — and he pointed at me — «can bring me into heaven at a whim, and cast me into hell if it is your will.» He closed his eyes, his face etched with pain. «I remembered you as gentler than this, Jean-Claude. I remembered you as my friend.»

«Friends do not use their powers against each other. You woke ma petite 's ardeur, deliberately. You meant to have her. The fact that we both had you was an accident of power. You remembered me gentler, and less powerful. You underestimated me, and you have mistaken ma petite.»

Auggie opened his eyes, and stared at the other vampire. «I don't understand what you mean by that.»

«Ask our Nathaniel how he won her heart.»

«I see his body; I know how he won her heart.»

«You see nothing, know nothing,» Jean-Claude said. «Mon minet, tell him how you won her heart.»

«You call him 'my pussycat' and I'm wrong about him?» Auggie said.

Nathaniel leaned a little harder against the hand I had on his naked back. «I didn't hustle Anita,» Nathaniel said.

«But you tried.» Auggie made it a statement.

Nathaniel nodded. «I wanted her to want me. I didn't know any other way to do that.»

«It worked,» Auggie said.

Nathaniel glanced back at me, gave me a smile, then turned back to Auggie. «No, it didn't.»

He motioned at us all. «Of course it worked.»

«Only when I stopped trying to hustle her, and just tried to learn how to love her.»

«Learn how to love her, you make it sound like a class, or a degree. You simply love people.»

Nathaniel laughed. Jean-Claude made a noise like he was trying not to laugh. I looked at Micah. «Aren't you going to laugh, too?»

Micah shook his head. «I know better.» Though there was the edge of a smile on his lips.

I scowled at them all. «Fine, laugh it up.»

«I don't get the joke either,» Auggie said.

«You will,» Micah said, and it sounded like a threat.

«Is it really that hard to date me?»

This time Claudia and some of the other bodyguards laughed. I was just amusing the hell out of everyone.