Part 36 (1/2)

”So really you guys have been training your whole lives for just three bloodlines: the Dragon, the Lover of Death, and Belle Morte.”

All three of them agreed with that.

”Which brings us back to our original problem: How do I find out if my tiger likes your tiger?”

Pride, who was the only one still sitting down, said, ”A kiss may do it, but s.e.x may be necessary.” He said it as if he were talking about the difference between getting an inoculation or having to have surgery.

”Since you seem as thrilled with the whole idea as I am, why don't we just kiss and call it done.”

Mephistopheles said, ”You don't want to have s.e.x with us?”

This was a tricky question from a man. I tried to answer it carefully. ”You're both handsome. It's nothing personal, but you just seem to come with a lot of baggage and I don't want to mess with it.”

”Baggage, what does that mean?”

”You're angry just from this. I have my own anger issues; I don't need yours.”

He balled his hands into fists, and his power went up a level. Something moved inside me, a golden shadow among tall, dark trees. I caught a glimpse of the golden tiger, but she wasn't trying to walk down that long road. She was hiding in the shadows, her skin cream with stripes of yellow-gold.

Pride stood then and sniffed the air. ”You don't smell like vampire.”

”She smells like us,” Envy said from the doorway. She took a few steps onto the white rug.

Mephistopheles came to stand in front of me. I thought he was going to try to kiss me, but his hand darted out in a movement so fast I wasn't sure what he was going for, but it wasn't a kiss. My gun was just suddenly in my hand and pressed against his chest. My pulse was trying to push out the side of my throat. ”Don't move,” I whispered, afraid to shout because my finger was on the trigger.

”No human, and few vampires, would have been able to see I was going for their gun, let alone gotten to it in time to turn it on me.” He sounded impressed with me.

”If you have a death wish, you're messing with the right girl,” I said.

”We're supposed to make sure whatever vampire tries to possess us is worthy of us.” He was a little afraid, but not really. He didn't believe I'd shoot him. I'd pa.s.sed his test.

”Are there any more tests that I should know about so I don't accidentally kill you?” I asked.

”Don't you want us to prove that we're worthy of you, too?” he asked.

”Hold that thought.” I backed away from him, carefully, and began to take off my weapons. ”If we end up killing these guys, let's not make it because we had a cultural misunderstanding.”

”What do you mean?” Micah asked.

”He really believes I want him to prove he's a warrior. He really believes that I need to prove myself worthy of him. It's like they've been raised in a culture that I don't understand.” I divided my weapons up between Micah and Nathaniel. When I was safe, or at least weaponless, I went back to the two men.

”Are we done with the warrior stuff ?”

They looked at each other. Pride said, ”If you were male we'd probably do hand-to-hand, but we outweigh you by a hundred pounds or more, and we're at least seven inches taller. Hand to hand, you won't win. It's not about training. It's about size, and you can't help that you're small. We won't hold that against you.”

Again, I felt like I was missing something. ”Glad to hear it, so who's up first?”

”Up first?”

”Kiss, a kiss, who's first?” I asked.

They looked at each other again. ”When we go to the human clubs, the women are a little more eager,” Pride said.

I pointed behind me. ”They're my guys. It's not that you aren't cute, but when this is already waiting at home it makes a girl a little less eager to add new men.”

They did that look again. Pride nodded. ”That seems reasonable.”

Reasonable, that was an interesting choice of words, but I let it go. ”Fine, let's reason together. Who kisses me first?”

”See who smells the best,” Pride said.

It was a perfectly reasonable wereanimal thing to say. Since I had no better suggestions to offer, it was as good as any other. I expected them to offer their wrists for me to smell, but they both slipped their s.h.i.+rts over their heads. I was suddenly looking at their bare chests from inches away. My head came to just below Pride's pectoral muscles, and a little lower down the ribs on Mephistopheles. Either way I was suddenly staring at a lot of muscled half-nakedness. You'd think I'd get used to that sort of thing.

They both moved in closer. I put a hand on both their stomachs to keep them from sandwiching me. It was a mistake to touch them. But it was like so many mistakes; it looks harmless until you do it, and then it's too late.

CHAPTER 40

EACH OF THEM pressed one of my hands to his stomach. The tiger inside me looked up and growled. The other tigers all came out of the dark and sniffed the air. I'd never seen all the colors at once. The gold stood in the middle, with the other colors fanning out in a half circle. They didn't try to trot down that long metaphysical road and become real. They didn't do anything but stand there in a soft line and sniff the air.

I felt the men bend over me and sniff along my skin. I had to blink to clear my inner vision enough to see them and not just the tigers inside me.

”She smells of all the tigers,” Mephistopheles said.

”It's not possible,” Pride said, but his face was against my hair. He rubbed his cheek against me, and then seemed to catch himself and straightened up. ”It's not possible,” he repeated. He stepped away from me, rubbing his arms as if he were cold, but that wasn't it. He was rubbing at the line of goose b.u.mps on his skin.

I stared up into Mephistopheles' blue-hazel eyes and knew he wouldn't move away. Hands on my shoulders turned me to find Envy at my back. She leaned over my upturned face and kissed me. She tasted of tiger and sweet lipstick. The fact that I didn't pull away encouraged her more than I knew what to do with, and I had a moment of thinking, loudly, ”Jean-Claude.”

He was there, his arms sliding around her waist, pulling her away from me and turning her to him. Auggie had asked me how I'd feel to see Jean-Claude with another woman; in that moment I felt relieved.

Mephistopheles bent over me, his arms sliding behind my back, drawing me into the warmth of him. ”We're supposed to be proof against vampire powers, but I want to touch you, and I want you to touch me. Why?”

I answered him with his mouth inches from mine. ”The other tigers are looking for someone who smells like home.”

”I have a home,” he said, and his lips moved against mine as he said, ”I just want to put as much of my body against as much of your body as you'll let me.”

I tried to be reasonable. I tried to think, but in that moment it sounded like such a good plan. I heard myself say, ”Yes, please,” before I'd finished thinking anything.

Envy made a bedroom sound, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her and Jean-Claude kissing. She was pus.h.i.+ng his jacket off his shoulders, while she made small eager noises at his mouth.

Jean-Claude drew back enough to say, ”Ma pet.i.te, the bedroom?”

”I don't know,” I said, but I did, or I knew what I wanted to do.

Micah's voice. ”The bed is more comfortable.”

I turned and saw one of the loves of my life calmly urging me to take the bed. Nathaniel was on his feet. ”I want to watch.”