Page 7 (1/2)

Chapter Eleven

NATHANIEL WAS ASLEEP in Jean-Claude&039;s red silk sheets Jean-Claude himself was in Asher&039;s roo ed to red because the three of us look so lovely against red Micah&039;s eyes caught the light from the partially opened bathroom door His curly brown hair was a heavy darkness around the delicate triangle of his face The door was our version of a night light here, since there was no bedside laht switch was across the roolittered with it His eyes were leopard eyes, or looked like leopard eyes A doctor had told him that the optics were still hu hairs, I guess Chiuy who&039;d un and shoot for real, had also forced Micah into ani that he couldn&039;t come all the way back His eyes were never human I&039;d asked him once what color they&039;d started as, and he&039;d said brown I couldn&039;t picture it I couldn&039;t picture his face with anything but the green-gold of the eyes he&039;d co else would have er

His voice was quiet, that voice you use when you&039;re trying not to wake someone in the room "What did he say?"

"He&039;ll be here in four or five hours His backup will be following" I cae of the bed

"What backup?"

"I don&039;t know"

"You didn&039;t ask"

"No" Truthfully, it had never occurred to me to ask

"You trust him that much?" Micah asked

I nodded

Micah rolled under the red silk so he could reach my hand He tried to draw me onto the bed, but in a silk robe, on silk sheets, I&039;d learned better They were too slippery I took my hand back and undid the robe&039;s sash He lay back and watched et - the look that is part sex, part possession, part just male It&039;s not a look that has much to do with love, not the kind that includes hearts and flowers anyway, but it has everything to do with being together, being real Edas right Micah was my lover Not my boyfriend We dated We did movies, theatre, picnics even, at Nathaniel&039;s insistence, but in the end what had drawn us together had been sex Lust like a forest fire that could have burned our lives down around our ears, but instead had saved us Or that&039;s how I felt I hadn&039;t really asked him in so many words

"Serious face," he whispered

I nodded and let the robe slip to the floor I stood in front of hi I&039;d had from almost the first ain, and this ti enough that he could drawNathaniel&039;s sleeping form

In Noveo, we&039;d also figured out so else My instant lust for Micah, and his for ustine&039;s, but mine My vampire powers, mine and mine alone My powers may have started with Jean-Claude&039;s marks, but they hadelse, so more I was like a vampire of Belle Morte&039;s line, and all of her line had powers dealing with sex and love, though not real love, not usually That was beyond most of Belle&039;s line My version of her ardeur allowed est need in someone&039;s heart, and my own, and meet those needs When Micah had come to me, I&039;d needed a helpmate, someone to help me run the shapeshifter coalition that we&039;d just established Someone to help me with the wereleopards that I&039;d inherited when I killed their old leader I&039;d needed help and someone who didn&039;t seeMicah had reatest wish, to have his oereleopards safe from Chimera, the sexual sadist who had taken them over I&039;d killed Chimera, freed them all, and Micah had moved in with me Just like that It had been so unlike me, and in November we&039;d realized why; my own vampire tricks had made us a couple

Micah was under the silk and I was on top of it His hands danced down my body as our lips found each other We must have moved too much because Nathaniel made a small noise It made us freeze in mid-motion and look at him His face was still peaceful, eyes still closed, his hair a gleam in the near dark

Vampire powers had made Nathaniel my animal to call, and made us love each other, too It was real love, true love, but it had begun with vampire mind tricks But Belle Morte&039;s powers cut both ways As Auggie had said, "You can only cut so to be cut" Apparently, I&039;d been willing to be cut to the heart

Nathaniel stirred in his sleep again His face flexed, frowned He made another shtmares of late His therapist said it was because he felt safe enough with us to explore his deeper pain We were his safe haven Why did safety raise all the shit deeper? It seemed like it should have been the other way around, didn&039;t it?

We reached for hi for the bare paleness of his shoulder,for his cheek We stroked hi his away Real-life bad things weren&039;t so easy

There was a soft knock on the door We both looked toward it and Nathaniel stirred, one ar out of the covers He blinked awake, his eyes confused, as if he expected to be somewhere else He saw us and visibly relaxed He smiled, and said, "What is it?"

I shookpressed in Micah&039;s arms Micah said, "Don&039;t know"

I called, "What?"

It was Remus, one of the ex-military werehyenas They&039;d been hired after Chimera nearly destroyed the bodybuilders and martial artists of the hyenas As Peter had said, it wasn&039;t real The hyenas had liked showy muscle that had never seen real battle They&039;d learned that just because muscle is pretty doesn&039;t mean it&039;s the real deal "It&039;s the Ulfric He wants in"

Ulfric, wolf king, Richard Zeeman was at our door The question hy? I wanted to ask what he wanted, but he , so I looked at Micah

He shrugged, lying back, one ar the line of his body I stayed propped up so I could see the door, and so most of my nakedness was covered Richard was my lover, but he didn&039;t share nearly as well as everyone else did I wouldn&039;t get out of bed for him, but I wouldn&039;teither NoWhen eren&039;t having sex, that&039;s e did We fought and had make-up sex, and he let me feed the ardeur off him It wasn&039;t much of a relationship lately

"Anita" - Richard&039;s voice - "let me in"

"Let him in, Remus," I said

Nathaniel rolled onto his back so that the covers pooled at his waist, and the expanse of his upper body was naked to the light that cah the door as Richard ca us in the rectangle of light froo a little past his shoulders in heavy chestnut waves His hair looked black with a nihlights of gold and copper when the light hit it just right He earing jeans and a jean jacket with a heavy wool collar He had a small suitcase in one hand He set it down on the floor as he cauards in the hallway as he shut the door Claudia, wererat and one of the few other woun besides me, looked a question at o I wasn&039;t sure it was a good idea, but I couldn&039;t figure out a way to refuse hiht I didn&039;t want to start the fight

"May I turn on the light?" he asked, very polite

I looked at the other two ed "Sure," I said

I was left blinking into the sudden glare It wasn&039;t that bright a light, but after alht When my eyes adjusted I could finally look at Richard He was as he had always been: six feet one inch of handsome masculinity Perfect cheekbones and a nearly permanent tan showed that so darker and less European I&039;d always bet on American Indian, but they actually didn&039;t know He was ally handsome So why hadn&039;t my new vampire powers made us the perfect couple, too? Because for my abilities to work you had to knohat you wanted, what you really wanted Richard didn&039;t know that He was too conflicted, too full of self-loathing, to knohat his heart&039;s desire was

He looked at the coffin that sat near the far wall, closer to the door than to the bed "Jean-Claude?" He made it a question

"Damian," I said

He nodded "So if you start draining him of life you&039;ll be able to check on him" Richard had actually carried Damian&039;s nearly lifeless body to me once, so I could save the vampire

"Yes" I pulled up the sheet so that my breasts were more covered It bared a little more of Micah&039;s chest, but that was okay His body was already blocking all but the upper curve of ht Covered was better until I knehat Richard wanted

"Where&039;s Jean-Claude sleeping?"

"Asher&039;s room," I said

He had left his suitcase by the door, but he was in the middle of the floor, halfway between the door and the bed He licked his lips and wouldn&039;t quite look at us He was nervous - why?

"Jason has his new girlfriend bunking with him"

"Perdita, Perdy," I said She&039;d come to us from the master of Cape Cod She was a merh I&039;d never seen her look anything but human I was told she really could be part fish, but I&039;d never seen it

Richard nodded

Micah ht of so Oh "Do you want to stay here with us?" Micah asked

Richard closed those perfectly brown eyes, the color of milk chocolate He took a deep breath, let it out slow, then nodded

We all exchanged a look, which was almost finished by the tih, because he said, "I&039;"

"Most of you guys do," I said, "but you&039;ve never willingly slept with uys"

"This is who you are, Anita This is e both are" He shoved his big hands into his jacket pockets and looked at the floor "I was on a date when I got the call that some insanely powerful vaer that he&039;d gotten froh Jean-Claude&039;s vae at the world, and it had made hi, and I couldn&039;t explain to her why"

"We had to cut our date short, too," Nathaniel said

Richard looked at him; it was not an entirely friendly look, but his words were civil "You guys were trying to celebrate some kind of anniversary"

"Yes," I said

"Sorry it got ruined"

"Sorry your date got cut short," I said My, ere being terribly polite

"They found bugs inrecorded" He rocked on the heels of his boots

"I know," I said "Same for us"

"The Circus is the most secure place we have, so I&039;m here for the duration"

"Scary," I said

"The scary part is that Ithe kids I teach If it&039;s not fixed by Monday, maybe I should take a leave of absence"

He see my opinion and I didn&039;t knohat to say, but Micah did "We&039;ve all been blindsided by this Let&039;s get some sleep"

Richard nodded his head, a little too rapidly, a little too often There were guest rooh for hi room So as he here?

"I can stay?" He asked it without looking at us

"Yes," Micah said

"Yes," I said, my voice soft

He looked up "Nathaniel?"

"I&039;et a vote"

"It&039;s polite to ask," Richard said

"Yes," I said, "it is I appreciate it"

"So do I," Nathaniel said, "but you don&039;t have to ask It was your bed before it was ours"

That seeely Richard smiled "Nice of sory as he said it He picked up his suitcase and started walking toward the bed He walked past the bed, and we all watched him He put the suitcase down beside the armoire in the corner that held extra clothes for all of us He knelt, opened the case, and began to unpack He took his jacket off first and put it on a hanger in the armoire Then he took out shirts, socks, and underwear and put them in the drawers He unpacked as if eren&039;t there We all exchanged looks again This was too weird, entirely too civilized for Richard The other shoe had to drop soon, and all hell would break loose, wouldn&039;t it?

Micah et under theht; discretion was the better part of valor We were all three under the red silk sheets when Richard finally finished putting everything away - including one trip with a toiletry kit to the bathrooht, then walked to the light by the door and turned it off It was so normal, it scared me I hadn&039;t seen him this reasonable in ht with tension It felt like the quiet before the storm, but I couldn&039;t tell if the tension was justRichard and I could share each other&039;s drea so tight that nothing got through We were separate from each other metaphysically, or as separate as Jean-Claude&039;s marks would let us be It was safer that way

Richard walked to the bed, his eyes downcast, not looking at us He sat down on the bed near ive hinored it He pulled off his boots and let them fall to the floor, then socks He took off his T-shirt and I was suddenly looking at the es of all that bare skin

I fought the urge to touch him I was afraid of ould happen Afraid that he would take it wrong

He had to stand up to undo his belt, unbutton the fly The sound of the buttons cos low in ht me the joys of button-fly jeans

Micah&039;s ar me in closer to his body Was he jealous?

Richard hesitated As a shapeshifter nudity should have been second nature,nude in front of my other lovers He just didn&039;t He stripped the jeans down in oneunderwear, he wasn&039;t now The sight of him nude did what it always did: ithiht with ue with him when he looked so scrumptious

He let the jeans hit the floor, then turned toward the bed His eyes were still downcast, his hair spilling forward around his face He finally looked up, and our eyes met I didn&039;t try to keep ht of him beautiful and nude before ainst me in the bed, Richard was still beautiful

He smiled, half shy, and half the old Richard The Richard who had kno much I loved him, and how much he meant to me He lifted the covers up and slid under the into the bed without help "Scoot over please," he said

Micah scooted,me with him a little Richard slid into the space we&039;d made I felt the bed move, which -size, it was an orgy-size bed We&039;d had more people than this on it at the sa

Richard scooted down until he was almost pressed to the front of my body, but not quite Micah&039;s hand was still around my waist "I&039;m not sure where to put hed, but it was a good guy laugh "I knohat you mean"

"Where do you want to put thelanced overover Micah&039;s more slender body at us

"I&039;m nervous, tired I want to be touched and held"

"You&039;re a shapeshifter," Micah said "We all like skin contact e&039;re shaky"

Richard nodded He was propped up on one elbow, and he e e until moments like this; then you appreciated the full physical presence of hiuest rooms I could have my puppy pile I didn&039;t have to coh that it hurt

Micah said, "Then why are you here?"