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Chapter Twenty-three

PAIN, PAIN, AND lights stabbing into ot a pulse!"

"Anita, Anita, can you hear me!" I wanted to say yes but I couldn&039;t reain, then pain shot through the dark again I caurney There were people all around me I should have known one of them, but I couldn&039;t remember who she was, only that I should have re, so I saw those little flat paddles I&039;d had used once before on ht didn&039;t meansee The world started going gray and soft around the edges

Soain I blinked up into the face of the woman I should have known, and didn&039;t She yelled my name, "Anita, Anita, stay with us, daray ate the world like ain I blinked up into the woain "Don&039;t you die on ain, and the world hadn&039;t even gone gray

I knew her now Doc Lillian I tried to say, Stop hitting ure out how to say the words I did h

A man&039;s voice said, "She&039;s stable"

Lillian s for three, Anita If you keep breathing, they won&039;t die"

I didn&039;t knohat shecold and liquid see like it before, and ht before a different kind of darkness tookme morphine?

I dreamed, or maybe I didn&039;t But if it was heaven, it was too scary, and if it was hell, it wasn&039;t quite scary enough I was at a ball, everyone in glittering clothes, centuries before I was born Then the first couple turned tothe Harlequin&039;s white masks I stu a silver-and-white dress that was too wide to be graceful, and too tight through the ribs to let me breathe well One of the couples bumped ht and tighter, as if so my ribs I fell to my knees and the dancers moved wide around me in a spill of skirts and petticoats Their dresses brushed me as they whirled faceless around me

A voice ca contralto: "Ma petite, you are dying"

The hem of a crimson dress was at my hands She knelt beside me She was still the brunette beauty who had nearly conquered all of Europe once All that dark hair piled atop her head, leaving her neck in that pale, white curve that we&039;d always loved WeI tried to feel the rest of that we, but where Jean-Claude should have been ful blankness

She leaned over one, our Jean-Claude," she said Her amber-brown eyes didn&039;t see an observation "Why do you not ask for my help, ma petite?"

I wanted to say, Why would you help us? but there was no air to say anything My spine tried to bow in the tightness of the corset, as I gasped like a fish left to die on the shore

"Oh," she said, and with a flick of her will the dreae four-poster bed She knelt above ray I wasn&039;t even afraid

My body jerked, the corset gave, and I could suddenly breathe a little better My chest still hurt, and I breathed too shallowly, but I could breathe I looked down to find that she had cut the bodice of the dress all the way through the corset, so that there was a line of bare skin from my neck to my waist She laid the knife beside her knees and spread the stays of the corset a little wider, as if she meant to skinbeside ainst the crimson cloth

"What happens in my dreams can be very real,there harder You don&039;t have enough breath to spare"

"What&039;s happening?"

She lay down besideupon A little too close for co "I felt Jean-Claude&039;s light snuffed out"

"He&039;s not dead," I whispered

"Can you sense him?"

It must have shown on one co him, both of the Jean-Claude did in this new eht you better control of the power between you and your other triumvirate; your kitty and your vah I couldn&039;t re a little better, well enough to be afraid I&039;d almost drained both of them to death once, or twice

"Do not fear for the you their energy as they are supposed to do in e down the edge of my jaw It was an idle movement, like the way you&039;d stroke the curve of a couch you were sitting on "The masks of the Harlequin were in your mind, ma petite Have they come to your territory?"

I wanted to tell her to stop calling me ma petite, but air was precious, so I answered, "Yes"

"Show me," she said

Not Tell me, but Show me I said, "How?"

"You are of Belle Morte&039;s line Hoe trade power?"

I frowned up at her

"Kiss me, and but think of it, and I will knohat you know"

I don&039;t know if I would have kissed her voluntarily, because I didn&039;t get a chance to decide She pressed those ruby lips to ain I couldn&039;t breathe I pushed at her, and she thought inside my head, "Think of the Harlequin" It was as if it were an order, and ht of the h the date with Nathaniel and the mask in the bathroom The secondplanned The, and the ghost on Richard, and the feeding with Rafael She slowed the &039;s powers, then let theRafael&039;s power to attack the one that had attacked us It was the last memory that she slowed down completely She stared at the pale faces of the varay respectively Belle Morte studied the faces of the other vampires She whispered, "Mercia, and Nivia" Thebeside me, propped on the pillows

I whispered, "You know them"

"Yes, but not that they were Harlequin It is a deep, dark secret who is, and who is not, one of them They are spies, and secrecy is their life blood By their hands the Harlequin have broken their most profound taboo"

"What taboo?" I asked

"They are neutral, ma petite, utterly neutral, or how can they dispense justice? Did they give you a black mask? I did not see it in your memories"

"No, only the thite"

She laughed, and her face shone with joy My heart hurt, but not from a physical blow It hurt the way it so to reh will never again be for you

"They have broken the law then, the law they swore to uphold Unless they deliver the blackdeath For Mercia and Nivia, it means true death, but for their fellow Harlequin itworse"

"What?" I asked

"Disbandment They will be no o back to their bloodlines, their old masters To be neutral the Harlequin are freed of their ties to their creators They are a law unto the the law, then they will be broken"

"Why does that" - I had to draw a breath to finish - "make you so happy?"

She pouted out that full lower lip and said, "Poor thing, so hurt I will help you"

"Appreciate the offer, but" - and I had to work for breath - "help us, why?"

"Because you alive are witness enough to destroy the power of the Harlequin"

"Why," breath, "do you care?"

"They were once the private guards of the Mistress of the Dark She is waking, I know that now"

"But when she wakes," breath, "she won&039;t have them"

"Precisement," Belle said

"But you need me, us, alive"

"Yes," she said, and she looked at er, anticipatory

"Make you h It wasn&039;toff I didn&039;t think it was Jean-Claude&039;s So to Richard

"I don&039;t hate you,that is useful to me, and you are about to be very useful, ma petite"

"Anita," I whispered

"Anita, Anita," she purred as she leaned our faces closer, "if I want you to be my ma petite, you will be Jean-Claude is near death and he protected you from me I will save you all, but I will do it in a way that you will not like" She leaned our faces close, and the hand that had been caressing ainst an to lean in for a kiss

I spoke before our mouths touched "A in situation, for you"