Part 14 (1/2)

”Are you blaming me for this?” I asked, and the anger was just there again. Damian's hand tightened on my shoulder. Nathaniel put his hand in mine. It helped me push the anger down again, but it was there and if I wasn't careful it could raise my beasts and then we would be in a mess.

”I'm just saying that Haven thinks like the fifteen-year-old he was when he joined the werelions. He's stuck there emotionally. It makes him react to things.”

”What do I do?” I asked, and that I asked him was a mark of what we meant to each other. I didn't ask many people's opinion.

”Save Noel and Travis first; get them on this side of the room, then see if Haven is willing to be reasonable.”

”Reasonable how?” I asked.

”s.e.x, maybe.”

”I don't want to f.u.c.k him; I'm so mad at him I can't see straight.”

”May I offer an opinion, ma pet.i.te ma pet.i.te?”

I turned back to the man at my side. ”Please, at this point I'm taking suggestions. I am in over my head here.” I said out loud what I'd thought earlier. ”This would be easier if you had a tie to the lions, and not just me.”

Jean-Claude looked at me. His face was unreadable, but it was a long, considering look. ”Augustine said he spoke to you about the lions and certain possibilities.”

”We don't have time for coy, Jean-Claude. He told me that there was a chance, if you slept with the women of some of the cat-based animal groups, that you might gain them as your animal to call, too. He thinks you might be able to gain an animal through me, instead of me always gaining through you.”

”Are you saying you want us to sleep with the female cats?” Richard asked.

I looked at him. ”No, I'm saying maybe Jean-Claude should sleep with them.” I added, because he was looking at me, ”Jean-Claude makes me feel secure. You don't yet, Richard. Jean-Claude has hung in there while I f.u.c.ked a lot of other men. He's been a good sport, so maybe it's my turn to be a good sport.”

”Ma pet.i.te, the lions will be here in moments; I want to be very clear between us. Are you saying that you would be open to me sleeping with the female lions while you sleep with the males?”

I fought not to cross my arms or look pouty. ”I think so, oh, h.e.l.l, I don't know. As a theory, I think it's got merit.”

”Merit?” Jean-Claude said. ”That is not a strong enough word to get me into another woman's bed, ma pet.i.te ma pet.i.te. I think merit would come back and, how would you say, bite me on the a.s.s.”

I couldn't blame him. ”I need help, Jean-Claude. The leopards work because Micah is reasonable and wants to help me, and he's leopard king to my queen. The tigers work because so far the only males in town are mine. We don't have a tiger group to get p.i.s.sy with me. The rats and swans work not because they're our animal to call but because their leaders value the order you've brought to the city and they want to help that along.”

Jean-Claude spoke into the air, into his earpiece, whatever. ”Give us a moment.” He forgot all about code names as he turned to me. ”The lions are outside the door, and making Haven wait will not help things. Do you want me to try to seduce one of the women into my bed? It must be yes or no.”

”Can I think about it?” I asked.

”No. Yes or no.”

”No s.e.x for tonight, but make friends so that maybe another night soon you can.”

”Not precise enough,” he said. ”I will not be punished for doing what you tell me to do. Tell me to seduce them, or tell me don't, and tell me now.”

I stared at him and didn't know what to say. But he was right; I had to decide now. f.u.c.k. ”I don't know how I feel about you with another woman that I haven't met. Can I meet them first and then ask me again?”

He smiled at me. ”You may.” He spoke back to the headgear. ”Let the White King through.” Silence and then he said, ”Yes, the Black Queen and the Black King are in agreement, bring them through.”

I didn't bother to turn my own headset back on because I was pretty sure that I wouldn't want anything I said in the next few minutes on an open frequency, and I didn't have to worry about giving a green light to one of our snipers. The lions had all gone home except the ones pus.h.i.+ng their way through the curtains now. All the dangerous things were in here with us.

CHAPTER 16

TWO OF OUR guards came through first, holding the long drapes aside so that Haven and his lions could go through. He was around six feet tall, a little narrower through the shoulders than I liked, but what frame he had was muscled. He took his conditioning seriously, but lions are more p.r.o.ne to have fights for dominance at short notice. Staying in shape could be the difference between living or dying. Most lions took their exercise pretty seriously because of that.

He was wearing a long, pale trench coat over a nice suit. He was all tans and cream, as if the clothing were a preview of the lion inside him. His hair was still shades of blue, with highlights and lowlights as if blue were a natural color for human hair, so that the dye job was still one of the best unnatural shades I'd ever seen. The hair was shaved short on the sides and longer on top so he could gel it in little spikes. His eyes were still blue. My lioness sniffed the air as soon as I saw him, because primate that I was, I wanted to see him, but my lioness wanted to smell him.

His power crept over me as if warm breath had suddenly drifted over every inch of my skin. I s.h.i.+vered and my lioness began to pad up that long metaphysical path. She'd liked Haven from the moment we met him. I'd known bad news when I saw it. But nothing changed how much my body wanted him. I wanted to be naked and roll every inch of me over every inch of him the way a cat will luxuriate while it's scent-marking. He was mine and I was his the way that Micah and I had belonged to each other. My pulse sped.

Nathaniel's hand tightened in mine, and Damian scooted closer, putting his arm around us both. It helped me think, helped slow my pulse. Jean-Claude put his hand in my last free hand, and that helped even more. I didn't have to look to know that Richard had put his arm across the couch so that he was touching Jean-Claude, too. I knew we were all touching, and with every touch I was a little less the victim of the lion inside me, and the one walking into the room.

Haven's energy breathed harder against my skin. I smelled sun-burnt gra.s.s, dust, and the rich scent of lion. Once it would have been enough to bring my lioness cras.h.i.+ng against the walls of my body; with everyone's hands on me it was tempting, but I didn't have to give in to it.

A low growl vibrated out from between those human lips. The sound of it seemed to vibrate along my spine, as if my body were a tuning fork and that one low sound hit just the right note. I tried to stand up and hands held me in my seat. I turned on them, snarling, my lioness loud in my head.

Haven strode across the carpet toward us, and I knew he meant to jerk me free of all that restraint. His power went before him like an advance attack. I could either stand up and go to him in this body, or my lioness could try to go to him in a different one. I actually got to my feet. Jean-Claude and Nathaniel still had my hands, but I was standing, wanting Haven to touch me. His energy seemed strong, and giving in to it a little had kept the lion from trying to tear her way out of me.

Bram was a dark blur just suddenly appearing in front of me, blocking Haven's way. I knew that Micah had told him to do it. A small logical part of me knew why he'd done it, and even agreed as Nimir-Ra, but the lioness didn't agree. She snarled at Bram's tall form between her and her Rex. She'd have had the same reaction if Bram had stood between her and prey. I pulled free of Nathaniel's hand. Only Jean-Claude kept me from either jumping Bram or just running around him. Truthfully, attacking from behind was the first plan. The visual was of me as a lion on his back, claws digging into his flesh, my teeth sinking into his scalp, his head, crus.h.i.+ng his skull.

The visceral almost-memory helped me climb back into my head and push the lioness back. I was a person, not an animal. I could control this. I didn't want to hurt Bram.

When Haven felt my lion go cold, his energy was still there, still seeking lion. It found the lions he'd brought with him. Their energy flared. I could see it, not with my eyes, but with the back of my head. I knew it was Jesse, tall, dark, and handsome, and Payne, tall, pale, and handsome. Payne really was his last name, not a nickname since he was an enforcer. But I saw their lions around them like halos, one with a mane that was almost black and the other so pale it was ghostlike. But there were other lions behind them: a woman I didn't know, tall, strongly built, but all curves. I had an impression of short dark hair, but mostly her lioness was tawny with darker marks so that she looked almost spotted in places. The other woman was much shorter, with long yellow hair, but her lioness wasn't smaller. It was a huge golden form snarling around her human body as if it were a wick and the lion the flame.

Then I saw two more lions lying on the floor. They didn't burn bright. Their lions were red-orange glows like a fire that was fading. They were younger lions, with shorter manes, ragged compared to the other men. Their lions turned and looked at me, one with a halo of dark mane, the other paler, but the lions looked at me. They knew me.

I suddenly saw the world through a golden haze. I turned my head and I could see my lioness over me like a glow just behind my eyes. She, like the other short woman, wasn't a small lion. She was a great dark gold shape rearing over and around me. I'd seen Micah's leopard once like this around him, but never again. Now all I could see was lions.

One of the lions on the floor stirred and lifted his head, and I had the double image of Travis; it was his golden-brown curls with that darker mane around it like an overlay. He looked at me, and he fought to reach his hand out toward me. Injured, it was the closest he could come to the begging gesture that most of the lycanthropes had. It was a submissive's way of asking a dominant to forgive him, to help him.

Noel lay very still beside him. The image of his lion was a dark red shadow, growing dimmer. Some part of me knew what that meant. Noel was dying. In that moment the lioness and I were in agreement. You didn't kill what was ours. In the wild, lionesses will band together to keep a male intruder from taking over a pride. They'll fight beside their chosen males to keep their land, their cubs, safe.

I tried to go around Bram and Haven. I just wanted to get to Noel before that energy died completely. Bram let me walk around, but Haven grabbed for me, and he was faster than either Bram or I thought, because his hand was around my upper arm before Bram could react.

The moment he touched me, all that golden energy swirled together like some golden bonfire. So much power, so much energy. It felt so good. He kissed me while my eyes were still closed from the rush of power. I kissed him back and we opened our eyes and it was like we stood in the center of cool, golden fire.

He smiled down at me, and I had to smile back. Then I heard a voice. ”Anita.” The voice sounded broken, and I looked behind me. Travis was reaching for me and Noel . . .

I looked up at Haven. ”We save Noel first, then we'll talk.”

Haven's grip tightened around me. ”Even now, feeling this power and you want him. Them?”

”He's dying.”

”The weak die; it's the way of lions.”