Part 28 (2/2)
”So, I pick one and do what?”
”Bond with them, Anita. Pet them, f.u.c.k them, mind-f.u.c.k them, whatever it is you do when you gain a tiger to call.”
”I can also make them my Brides.”
”Like your werelion,” Jake said.
I fought to keep my face neutral. ”How did you find out?”
”Rumors that you've just confirmed. And I've seen other Brides over the centuries; they have a certain smell to them.”
Nicky moved against the wall, as if he'd say something, but he just settled back like a good bodyguard, seen and not heard.
”I think we need one of the tigers to call you master in the way that your wolf and leopard call you master. I don't think making one of them a Bride would be as impressive.”
”You left out my other lion,” I said, and studied his face, though no matter how human he looked, I knew that after enough centuries you could get pretty good at keeping your thoughts off your face.
”No games, Anita. We heard what happened to your local Rex. We know that you need a new Rex, and you haven't chosen a lion to call, which was one of your old Rex's bones of contention.”
”You have spies in with us,” I said.
”We have spies everywhere, Anita; don't feel special.”
”Oh, it's not special I feel, trust me.”
”The Mother of All Darkness is trying to turn the council back into her puppets. We must stop her.”
”How? How do you fight something with no body of its own? How do you fight something that can jump from body to body?” I asked.
”By being powerful enough to cut her off from each body in turn, until she is nothing but spirit and spite. We believe she will fade then.”
”But you don't know,” I said.
”If I said we were sure, you'd know I was lying.”
”How do we cut her off from their bodies?”
”The way you cut her off from Belle Morte.”
”No one in that room told you.”
”Belle told us, Anita. She has turned to us to hide her.”
I just stared at him.
”Why do you look surprised?”
”I'm not sure, but Jake, we used the powers of Belle Morte's own line to free her. We don't carry the power of anyone else.”
”Now who's lying?”
”I'm not.”
”Anita, you carry the power of every line that's attacked you. You collect vampire powers like b.u.t.terflies. The Master of Beasts attacked you and now you can call all manner of wereanimals. The Dragon barely touched you from a distance and you can feed on anger. I heard you even did her nifty trick of using the vampire's own aura against them to cut like gla.s.s.”
”Only once, and Jean-Claude was driving the metaphysical bus.”
”We want him to gain the powers, too, Anita. We need him to be powerful enough.”
”Enough for what?” I asked.
”To head the council in America.”
I shook my head. ”d.a.m.n, word does travel fast. You must have spies in every major city.”
”Not every city, but the ones that are powerful enough to be helpful, yes.”
”So I choose from the boys. Who's the girl tiger for?”
”You can choose anyone you want, but knowing your preferences the girl is more for Jean-Claude.”
”More for-what does that mean?”
”It means this works better if you like everyone in your circle of power. Your line of power is based on s.e.x, l.u.s.t, even love, so your liking everyone who sleeps over is a good thing. Maybe even a necessary thing for you.”
”So how does this work? I just go out there and pick the cutest one? It's not like picking kittens from a litter, Jake.”
”If you could wrap your head around it, I think you and Jean-Claude taking them all back to your room and seeing which ones you like best would be the fastest and surest way.”
I just looked at him. ”So we go from h.e.l.lo, my name's Anita and this is Jean-Claude h.e.l.lo, my name's Anita and this is Jean-Claude to to Let's all go back to our room and f.u.c.k Let's all go back to our room and f.u.c.k? Aren't they related to each other, as in a little too closely related to screw each other?”
”We don't want them to screw each other. We want them to screw you and Jean-Claude, and your other men.”
”You're a little short on girls then,” I said.
”We can get more if they make it here alive.”
”So someone is killing the clanless weretigers because they suspect what you've done.”
”Someone, probably another Harlequin, has figured out that we saved the gold tigers, but they don't know how weak the bloodline has gotten. So they're just killing every weretiger they find.”
”I haven't heard anything about it.”
”They're only hitting the clanless. They know the bloodlines for the clans, and they know about Cynric. They aren't worried about them. Please, Anita, take Nathaniel to bed with them, or Micah, whoever you need to feel better about this, but we need you to bond with a gold tiger, as soon as possible.”
”Why is that so important?”
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