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The club was dark except for a single soft spotlight in the ht Jean-Claude stood The light hit only his shoulders and face, the rest of hiave the illusion that his body for paleness of his face, the glea white of his cravat, the tiny colored spark of the sapphire winking only when he moved His hair looked as if the darkness had been drawn out into some dark thread and for blue of his eyes and the crimson smear of lipstick across his face It wasn&039;t my lipstick, or at least not h the darkened room "Who will taste ue, as if I&039;d licked a piece of candy Kiss, gave a ghost of lips brushing my cheek "Who will embrace iven a really good hug by someone I cared about

Jean-Claude&039;s voice had always been good, but not this good Not this good Withall of it I had no idea howIt took a force of will to look away froht I made myself look out at the audience It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dark, but when I could see, nearly every face was turned to hi sun and they had never seen anything so bright before Only a handful of faces weren&039;t turned toward the stage A feo confused A little psychic talent of the right kind or with the right practice helped Marianne had proven to me that you didn&039;t have to be a necromancer to have some immunity to vampireup, and the woet hi his head, adamantly No, no, he wouldn&039;t sit in the dark and let that voice wash over him He didn&039;t understand that it wasn&039;t a matter of sexual orientation It was Jean-Claude His poas seduction, and it had nothing and everything to do with sex

Two of the waiters were escorting a woe She was tall and al more money than anybody else, because Jean-Claude preferred more curves on his women As he&039;d pointed out to me, the beauties of his day in the French courts were today&039;s size twenty Most of the old va in so the wrong century

The lights around the stage had been growing brighter so gradually that if you&039;d been gazing at the stage the entire tiht enough so the audience could see more of their bodies Fro over her body Nothing d¨¦class¨¦, but he gota woot out of touching breasts and groin Sometimes it&039;s not what you touch but how you touch it

He pressed her against the front of his body so there was no space between them, so that her thin frame seemed almost to mold itself to his body He lifted her face up toone pale hand to cradle her face so that he would control the kiss His arh to bow her neck and make her mouth open in a surprised little O One of the woroped hih space between the front of their bodies for anyone&039;s hands to wander too far The won of favor I kneasn&039;t It was a sign of control and damn near displeasure

But when he bowed his head to her ether in a kiss, there was no displeasure He kissed her as if he were trying to breathe her down through hisfro at least

He fed froon&039;s presence in my head had told me about Except she kne to eat the essence of the dead and make the undead, really, truly dead This was not that, but it was eerily si the ardeur, from a kiss

"Nikolaos would never let him feed like that," a quiet voice said from behind me

I turned to find Buzz just behind me I hadn&039;t heard hiht up in the show than I&039;d realized

"What do you mean?" I asked

"Nikolaos knew that he was feeding off the audience without ever touching theaze went past e "I think she had so she could to make sure he didn&039;t come into that power"

"She&039;s been dead alht is the first time you&039;ve seen this show"

He looked at ave him wide eyes "Nikolaos was dead, she couldn&039;t stop him"

"But you could," he said

"What do you o you would have dated hie I watched hie woman as if she were his deepest love, or at least deepest lust Would I have tolerated it three years ago? No Would I have used it as an excuse to dump his ass? Oh, yeah

The wo away from his as she seemed to half-faint, as if the kiss alone were so intense that she couldn&039;t stay conscious I would have thought she was play-acting, or exaggerating, but I had to believe it, when the waiters carried her off stage and gave her back to her friends at their table

Jean-Claude gazed out at the audience with fresh crimson lipstick smeared across his entire lower jaw It looked eerily like blood, and I knew hih to know that the resemblance was not accidental His blue eyes had bled to solid blue light, as if a summer&039;s dusk could burn in his eyes "Who will be next?" And it was as if he whispered alongjust behind ht not to turn around and look I was supposed to be i, what ?

I loweredwith power This hat he wasthe ardeur This wasn&039;t a substitute for a blood feed This was an end in itself This was so I&039;d never seen, not in Jean-Claude, not in anyone It was akin to all his other abilities, but more, somehow this waslike this is what saved me"

He looked puzzled, vampires under twenty years dead have so many more human facial expressions "Saved you from what?"

"If he hadn&039;t fed, then I&039;d have had to feed for his a human servant is for We feed when the va my metaphysical brains out" I shook my head "No, thank you"

"So you&039;re not disappointed that&039;s he&039;s doing strangers?"

I felt o sort of unfriendly "You sound disappointed that I&039;m not upset about this, why?"

He raised his hands,aresture, but he was toobut i on how you looked at it

"It just seems like a fast turnaround, that&039;s all"

I sighed "The last time Jean-Claude asked me if he could feed off the audience, I didn&039;t really understand what he was asking" I smiled, but not like I was happy "Besides, I wasn&039;t fucking strangers to feed the vaed s"

He looked way too serious for my tastes

I didn&039;t knoas up with Buzz, so I decided to change topics "Primo all tucked away in the spare coffin?"

"We put hi up"

I nodded I&039;d been told about it, but I&039;d also laid my hands on the coffin and felt Primo trapped inside, behind silver chains and a holy item It wasn&039;t that I didn&039;t trust everybody, it was just good business to be cautious Buzz&039;s odd behavior hadn&039;t changed my mind about that, not one little bit

"Lisandro told me that you ordered him to baby-sit the coffin"

I nodded "Yes, I did"

"Pri out"

I shrugged Lisandro was tall, dark, handsoest hair that any of the new security had He was also the only one with a gun tucked into the sun, I pegged hiht I told him if Primo started to tear out of the coffin, to kill hireed with e, so I&039;d made the call I was happy with the call, and I didn&039;t like that Buzz wasn&039;t

"Let&039;s just say that I feel better going off to raise the dead, knowing that Lisandro is sitting by that coffin with silver aness to shoot"

"I&039;m head of security here, Anita You should have cleared it with ht You&039;re right, I should have I&039;ht in headlights I think he&039;d expected an arguie about having had sex with Byron and Requieo, Buzz"

"Your security detail is waiting at the door," he said, and nodded toward the door in question

Requie a fresh pair of pants that he&039;d borrowed from someone The new pants were leather, so he&039;d probably borrowed them from another dancer But we had a new addition, and that was the dark-haired olf that had fallen on top of Clay andeveryone His name was Graham, and his body had that width of shoulder and i can get you His black hair was cut in a longish layer on top so that it fell like a silken fringe over his ears, but underneath the hair was shaved close to his head and upper neck It seemed an odd haircut to me, but it wasn&039;t my hair

His face was exotic, in the way that people can be when some ancestor didn&039;t coht black hair, the ever-so-slight uptilt to the edge of his eyes made me bet he&039;d coued that I didn&039;t need or want guards, but just as I&039;d iven his orders about this before he got carried away on stage I was to go nowhere without soon was done with us for the night, and it would be a sha What he hadn&039;t told the security detail, vampire or otherwise, was about what had happened earlier in on and everything to do with my own metaphysical shit Well, mine, and Jean-Claude&039;s

Jean-Claude had even left a list of people he thought were appropriate to the job Byron had not been on the list, nor had Clay It had been a damn short list, actually, basically Requie I wanted to do was be trapped in a car with Requieone fro to call my clients and tell them to hold fast in the ce Byron&039;s leather jacket to take the place of my bloodied suit jacket His was the only one that ca orilla It sne

Buzz&039;s eyes leftwith his date was still standing, but noas the wootta catch that"

"Be uest," I said

Nathaniel seemed to appear from nowhere He escortedand see tiht for hiet back in ti

"I&039;ve got two clients stuck in ceave me the look that was half-pout and half-he-knew-he&039;d-already-won-the-argument "You promised"

"Can&039;t we just fuck at hoave me a frown "I&039;ll be furry, you don&039;t do furry"

I had an idea, an awful idea "I proht Oh, no, you so are not planning onit in front of an audience?"

He s in that smile that I hadn&039;t seen before Some hint of confidence, of security that hadn&039;t been there before He&039;d watched ers, and suddenly he felt ure

"You little exhibitionist, you," I said, "you like the idea ofyou for the first tiee-shucks shrug, which was all act, because his eyes were bright with the answer "I like a lot of things, Anita"

I tried to frown at hiotadvantage of it"

"You&039;re running late," he said, "clients waiting in the celint of humor in his eyes, which spoiled the effect

I shook o"

"I know," he said

"Would it ruin the illusion if I kissed you good-bye?"

"I&039;ll risk it," he said

I kissed him It was chaste, a touch of lips, a little pressure, barely any body language I drew back with a suspicious look on h and push me toward the door "You&039;re late, remember"

I went, but I went out into the October dark even ht, to be fair, that I knew absolutely nothing about the e with another wo to find her tonsils without his hands Most people looked disturbing or ahen they kissed that deep He didn&039;t He made it all seem suave, erotic, and perfect I realized I&039;d kissed Nathaniel good-bye, but not Jean-Claude Didn&039;t want to interrupt, but didn&039;t want him to feel left out, either I blew hiesture with one pale hand The lower half of his face was sht crimson with lipstick It didn&039;t really look like blood, not if you&039;d seen enough of the real deal, but it was still a less than coht One of the otherforward to having me do foreplay on him in front of an audience Sometimes the parts ofwith vampires and olves and zombies Even vampire politics didn&039;t confuse me as much as my own love life

39

We were on Gravois, trapped between an endless line of storefronts that had seen better days The entire area was doing that slow slide into not being a good area to be in after dark It wasn&039;t quite a danger zone, but if nothing saved it, in a couple of years it would be The Bevo Mill restaurant, an honest-to-God winds and harder tireat Ger wind under the stone overpass blocks past theany of it That wasn&039;t good I was ood at all, since I was driving Graham squeaked a second time, you know, that sharp intake of breath that co to s the sound

I glanced at him "What? What is your problem?"

"You&039;ve alled voice

"No I haven&039;t"

"Yes," Requiem said from the back, "yes you have"

There was a white car in front of ic, it just appeared I slaain My pulse was thudding in naled that I was turning right Right meant I didn&039;t have to cross any lanes of traffic The suddenly appearing white car had scared me

I eased us into Grasso Plaza, which held the Affton Post Office, a Save-A-Lot, and a lot of e Gravois seeiven its best and its best hadn&039;t been good enough Or ine, and we sat in silence for a minute

"Are you well?" Requie from inside a well

I actually turned around and looked at hi around see at the same speed as the rest of the world

Requie in the backseat, with his hands clasped in his lap He wasn&039;t far away, or doing anything odd He was sitting, very still, as if he didn&039;t want to attract attention to himself

"What did you say?" My voice seemed hollow, too, as if I had an echo in my head

"Are you well?" he said, slowly, distinctly, and as I stared at his lips, watching them move; the sound and the movement seemed just a little out of sync

I had to think about it as if it were a much harder question than it should have been "No," I said, finally "No, I don&039;t think I a?" Graha? Good question Trouble is, I wasn&039;t sure I had a good answer What rong? I was having so close to a shock reaction, why? Had I lost more blood than I knew? Maybe Maybe not

I was cold, and I huddled in the borrowed jacket, burying ne, the scent of him, was there, and I jerked back froht it all back Scent brings er than any other sense, and I was suddenly drowning in the feel of Byron&039;s body, the look of his face as he gazed down atin and out of ainst the seat, my head thrown back, and it was as if all the pleasure of it was suddenly there again, rolling over h , strong, echo Strong enough to shakeat the air, as if I needed so to hold on to

I heard Requiem&039;s voice: "No, don&039;t touch" And I found soraba fit His hand touched mine, and my hand convulsed around his, and it was as if froether that all that memory, all that pleasure, poured down ainst o down his arainst the seat so hard the Jeep shook frohts and smells of it, I let it all pour away froht, because I hadn&039;t known until I did it that I could put it into so for the ride I didn&039;t lad, for once, to be the calm one on the other side of the seat, while I watched Grahalad it wasn&039;t me Because I knehy I&039;d had the shocky reaction earlier, before the otten out of hand

I killed without thinking much about it Not in cold blood, but if it came time to kill, I had no real proble had stopped bothering me Then on my first trip to Tennessee to help Richard back ere still a couple, I&039;d tortured souys had sent us Richard&039;swith a lock of his brother Daniel&039;s hair We had a time limit to find them, and we already knew that they&039;d been tortured The ed that they&039;d both been raped I&039;d tortured him, made him tell us where they were, and ere done with hi stop I&039;d done it to save Richard&039;s family, and because I couldn&039;t see another way to do it I&039;d done it because I never ask anyone to do anything that I&039; to do myself It&039;s a rule Of course, before that, my rule had been I did not do torture That was a line I did not cross, and I&039;d crossed it The terrible part was that I hadn&039;t regretted doing it, only having to do it He&039;d raped Richard&039;s mother, if I could have I&039;d have killed him slower, but that wasn&039;t in me, not even for what he&039;d done We&039;d saved them, but before all of it, the Zeeman&039;s had been like the Waltons, and now they weren&039;t They weren&039;t broken completely, but they weren&039;t as fixed as when they started, either I&039;d killed the e in the world wouldn&039;t really fix as broken

How do you give someone back their innocence? That wonderful sense of perfect safety that only exists for people that have never really had anything bad happen to theive that back? I wish I knew

I&039;d crossed a lot of lines over the years, but one line I&039;d never crossed until tonight had been I didn&039;t have sex just to feed I didn&039;t have sex with strangers Byron and Requieive or take I had fucked them because Jean-Claude needed me to feed

Requieh to seeon the front seat, but not close enough so I could touch him easily "You had a flashback, didn&039;t you?"

I nodded, still staring at the olf in my front seat

"Has that ever happened before?"

"Only after Asher rolled me completely with his mind, and we all had sex" I didn&039;t look at hirow quiet

"But Asher was not involved tonight"

"No," I said, "he wasn&039;t" My voice sounded very even, very neutral, empty Empty, just like I felt

"Did you know that you could send that memory into someone else?"

"No," I said

Graha to open, but not able to do it He looked boneless, as if he could have slid into the floorboard, if his body had been a little less solid

"You spilled it into him, then watched him writhe How did it lad for once that it wasn&039;t ainst the back of Graham&039;s seat, a little closer to me "Is that true? Is that really how you feel about it?"

I lance wasn&039;t enough I let him see how dead my eyes felt, how empty I was inside "You&039;re a ?"

He licked his lips like he was nervous "The last vampire I knew that could do what you just did, did it on purpose She would recall a ive it to It could be a reward, and it was, but it could also be punishment Sometimes she would choose someone who did not wish to feel such pleasures, and she would force them to experience it"

"A kind of rape," I said

He nodded

"You&039;re talking about Belle Morte, aren&039;t you?"

He nodded, again

"She enjoyed watching them writhe, especially if they didn&039;t want to do it," I said

"You say that as a statement, not a question"

"I&039;ve ht She loved watching prim, proper women and men, forced to spill the a pleasure greater than any they had ever felt before It pleased her to watch the righteous brought low"

"Yeah, that sounds like her"