Anita Blake 22 - Affliction (69 page)

‘I’m not a weretiger, Anita. You brought all of them on board when you were able to call all of them to us.’

‘Magic and sex won us the weretigers,’ I said.

‘Yes,’ he said.

‘What won us the rest?’ I asked softly.

‘You know that I sleep with some of the female dominants.’

I nodded. ‘You share me with enough people, I can’t bitch.’

He smiled. ‘You mean you don’t have room to bitch, but you still could,’ he said.

I shrugged. ‘It would be stupid and unfair if I complained.’

He smiled wider and touched my face, gently. ‘A lot of women, and men, are really unfair to their other half, Anita. You have a reputation for being unreasonable and violent, but you’re one of the most practical women I’ve ever been with.’

‘And you’re the most practical man I’ve ever been with,’ I said.

‘Most people wouldn’t think that was very romantic,’ he said.

I smiled. ‘A little ruthless practicality is very important in our lives.’

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘it is.’

‘When you can pick a champion, do you?’ I asked.

‘I do.’

Then I realized that he was taking people who were my friends, or more, and I thought about them being in danger. Fuck.

‘What now?’ he asked.

This time I just answered the question. ‘I just realized that means that anyone who travels out of town with you is maybe in as much danger as you are. I should have known that.’

‘You mean I should have told you, or you should have known?’

‘Both, maybe, I don’t know, but, Micah, you’re my size; most animal groups are led by the biggest, baddest motherfucker they’ve got. How have you been winning so many fights? I’ve seen you in practice and you’re good, but you’re like me; we just don’t have the reach. Most taller people have longer arms and legs; they can just hit us before we can hit them, unless we’re lucky, or they aren’t good at fighting, but to fight your way to the top of a pack, or a pride, you have to be good.’

‘Usually, I do something utterly ruthless and very abrupt before they’re expecting it. Leopards are fast, faster than most lions, or tigers; I just have to make the first blow count.’

‘You mean kill them with the first blow,’ I said softly.

‘Yes,’ he said, and studied my face. ‘Does that bother you?’

I thought about the fact that he had been killing people fairly casually for years and I hadn’t known. I didn’t like that part, but I knew without a doubt that if he hadn’t killed them, they would have killed him. I wanted him alive and in my life more than I wanted some humane ideal of the world.

‘No, I don’t think it does. If anything bothers me it’s the fact that we’re heading into their territories and forcing ourselves on them.’

‘It started with invitations from groups that wanted to hear about the Coalition. They wanted to join, and then we had a few groups that attacked the ones that had joined us, because one of the things they agree to do is not to make war. We’re trying to make a no-war rule that sticks like the Vampire Council did with the vampires, but lycanthropes don’t have centuries of obeying a central government. Some of them want to keep their independence or simply think that werelions are better than werewolves, so they don’t want to be in a mixed animal group, which is the whole idea of the Coalition.’

‘Lions are the most aggressive. I’m assuming that you were able to persuade a lot of the hyena groups through sex since they’re matriarchal.’

He grinned. ‘Most of them, but honestly some of the animal groups prefer their own animal, so sometimes the guards help. I don’t always like sex as rough as the hyenas do, or the lions for that matter. Some of the guards are happy to help out.’

‘I’ll bet they are,’ I said.

He smiled. ‘And if the leader has a reputation for being a very good and very ruthless fighter, then sometimes I kill lesser dominants in the group for insulting me; by most group rules, being disrespectful to a visiting leader can either start a war or I’m within my rights to do it. Watching me use the claws like switchblades unnerves other shapeshifters, and knowing I’m willing to kill over something small makes them afraid of what I’ll do in an official fight.’

‘I know that a lot of alphas can partially change their hands to claws, but yours are more like switchblades, neat and clean, and you might miss it if you blink. You are the best I’ve ever seen at it.’

‘Thank you, I do my best.’

‘But you scare the leaders into negotiating instead of fighting,’ I said.

‘It doesn’t scare them, Anita, or not like you mean. Our culture is different from straight human culture; we value aggression and ruthlessness to a degree that most humans don’t. It’s not just that I’m willing to kill to get them to do what I want, it’s that if they join with us they now know that I’ll do whatever it takes to protect them.’

‘You said you do use champions when you can; who usually?’ I asked.

‘Bram and … Ares did it when they could.’

‘You won’t have Ares to help you fight now,’ I said, and my chest felt tight. I wasn’t sure if it was mourning Ares, or the thought that I’d also killed someone who was keeping Micah safe in more ways than I’d known. I felt stupid and slow and like they’d all been keeping secrets from me.

Micah took my hands again. ‘Don’t do that to yourself, Anita.’

‘Do what?’

‘Don’t beat yourself up about Ares. You did what you had to do.’

I nodded. ‘If I had to do it over again, the only difference would be I’d shoot him when he first asked me to, before he shifted forms. If I’d done that the other cops would be alive and unhurt.’

He squeezed my hands and pulled me toward him, as he leaned over in his chair. He kissed me, and tried for it to be more than just lips, but I pulled back. He frowned at me.

‘What’s wrong? I thought we weren’t going to fight.’

‘I had a breath mint, but I threw up in the bathroom here. I think before we tongue-kiss you might want me to brush my teeth.’

He laughed and pulled me into a hug. ‘God, I love you so much.’

It made me laugh, too. ‘I love you more,’ I said.

He pulled back enough to see my face. ‘They sell toothbrushes in the gift shop.’

‘Are you saying you want to kiss me more?’

‘I want to kiss you as thoroughly as possible before you have to go back to work.’

I grinned. ‘Okay, but first you need to eat and get some water in you.’

He frowned. ‘How did you know I hadn’t eaten?’

‘Because your mother hadn’t, and I think you’re both neglecting the basics?’

The smile faded around the edges. ‘I don’t know what she and Ty are going to do without Dad. I keep thinking what I’d do if something happened to Nathaniel.’

I hugged him to me, putting my face against the braid that our other boy had done for him, and I realized that I was mad at him for not sharing information, but I had some serious info I hadn’t shared yet. ‘You know how you said that if you could you’d marry us both?’

I felt him nod, still cuddled into the hug.

‘Jean-Claude proposed.’

He drew back, so he could see my face. He looked startled. ‘When?’

‘At the hospital.’

‘What did you say?’ he asked.

‘I said yes.’

His face went very still, very careful. ‘That’s wonderful.’

I frowned at him. ‘I know there’s a lot to figure out, but if anyone can do it we can.’

He nodded. ‘Of course you can.’

I frowned harder. ‘Micah, you do understand that he and I talked about a group ceremony, not just Jean-Claude and me.’

‘He is our master, Anita; even if there weren’t Nathaniel he would never let you marry someone else.’

‘I don’t know who I’ll legally marry, only one’s allowed, but he and I talked about a lot of things. Does everyone get a wedding ring? I asked if everybody gets an engagement ring.’

He looked at me with a strange, uncertain smile on his face. ‘What did Jean-Claude say?’

‘That he didn’t know the answers to my very reasonable questions but that I didn’t just tell him no was more than he’d hoped for and that we’d figure it out.’

‘Really, he said that?’

‘He said that if he’d dreamt I’d have said yes, he’d have conspired with the other men in my life and made it the most romantic night of my life, and swept me off my feet.’

His smile was happier then. ‘I can hear him saying that.’

‘I asked him who would be part of the group, and beyond you and Nathaniel we aren’t sure of anyone else, but we’re not sure they aren’t either.’

‘Who else?’

I sighed. ‘I’m worried what Asher would do if he’s not included.’

‘I am not marrying Asher,’ Micah said.

I laughed. ‘I know, me either, but Jean-Claude may feel differently. I don’t know yet. I haven’t had a lot of time to think about it.’

Then I realized I might need to say something else. ‘When I had to leave Nicky down in the basement and I didn’t know what would happen to him, I told him I loved him.’

Micah nodded. ‘Nathaniel and I wondered how long it would take you to figure that out.’

I frowned at him. ‘Did everyone know before me?’ I asked.

‘Everyone but Nicky, and Cynric maybe.’

That made my shoulders slump a little. ‘I’m not sure how Cynric will take the group marriage thing.’

‘If he’s included, he’ll be fine.’

I stared at Micah. ‘You are joking, right?’

‘Why, because he’s young?’

‘No, I mean, yes, I mean … Do you really want to be married to Cynric?’

‘The only two people I want to be married to are you and Nathaniel.’

‘But you’ll marry Jean-Claude; why?’

‘Because he’s our master and you’re his human servant and he introduces me as Our Micah.’

‘How do you feel about that, by the way?’ I asked.

‘I’m not a fan, but he has to do something for the other vampires to make them not feel like you’re cuckolding him with the rest of us. Prestige is very important with the vampires and the lycanthropes. He has to come first for you, or it would damage his power structure, our power structure that we’ve all worked so hard to build.’

‘Is that why you don’t mind the other vampires assuming that you’re Jean-Claude’s lover?’

He nodded. ‘I’m secure, and besides, I am in love with Nathaniel. It’s not like I’m all freaked out about being with another man.’

I leaned back so that we didn’t have our arms around each other. Micah kept my left hand in his, but we sat and looked at each other. We were both being cautious suddenly.

‘So, you, Nathaniel, Jean-Claude, and me, and … who else?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said.

‘Are you in love with anyone else?’

‘No, are you?’ he asked.

‘Nicky, and I love Cynric, but I’m not
in
love with him. I love Asher, but I’m not in love with him, and since he may force me to kill him someday I’d rather not be.’

He squeezed my hand. ‘I know we’re bringing him home before he ruins everything with the local werehyenas there, but I agree that he may force us to kill him.’

I nodded and felt inexplicably sad. ‘Shouldn’t getting married be happy and not so complicated?’

He laughed. ‘We’re talking about at least four of us in a group marriage and maybe more, Anita; that’s complicated.’

I rolled my eyes and sighed. ‘Okay, okay, I didn’t mean that part.’

He laughed again and then said, ‘One other thought. If we are doing this, then you need to tell Richard, or Jean-Claude does, before he hears it from somewhere else.’

I hung my head. ‘Damn it, he’s an ex.’

‘An ex who you still have sex with occasionally, and who Asher lets top him in the dungeon, and who Jean-Claude and you, and sometimes Asher, all have sex with.’

‘He doesn’t have sex with the men.’

‘You mean he doesn’t have genital contact with them.’

I looked at him. ‘Wow, that is what I meant, but that just … that was blunt of you.’

He smiled. ‘I think if we’re going to do this for real, we’ll need to be blunt.’

‘I’d love to argue with you, but I think I’d just sound stupid, so I’ll pass.’

‘I’ll be honest: I’d love to marry you legally and have Nathaniel be a part of the ceremony like husband one and husband two, but Jean-Claude has to be a part of it, and probably the legal part.’

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘First, his ego won’t let it be anyone else. He’s reasonable, ruthlessly practically, but like all the old vampires he’s also arrogant. He’s the first vampire king of America, and you are his queen.’

‘I’m your queen, too.’

‘Yes, but the shapeshifters are used to taking second place to the vampires in the power structure. They’ll think it’s normal that the legal spouse is Jean-Claude. The vampires have made peace with the thought that Jean-Claude looks the other way because he gets to sleep with all of us, too. They’re a lot happier now that Envy has become one of Jean-Claude’s regular lovers.’

‘I can’t sleep with everybody every night, and he does really prefer women to men, unless it’s Asher.’

‘He’d totally do Richard if our Ulfric would be okay with it,’ Micah said.

‘Not happening,’ I said.

‘I know.’

‘You said once that you thought you’d have to sleep with Jean-Claude to be my leopard king, and you were relieved to find out it wasn’t true, but you would have done it.’

‘I would have done anything to save my people from Chimera, and Jean-Claude is not a fate worse than death,’ he said, and smiled.

‘No, no, he’s not,’ I said, and smiled back.

‘I think I can eat something now,’ Micah said.

‘Good, I’ll try some soup.’

‘The lycanthropy keeps any of us from catching viruses, so you can’t be sick.’

I didn’t want to tell him it was the smell of his father’s sickness that had reminded me of the smell of rotting corpses, so I said, ‘I think something at lunch didn’t agree with me.’

He accepted that, and for all I knew it might be true. We got food, and I started to get coffee, but the smell made my stomach roll again. I got water and soup. I also texted Edward to see if how he was feeling, because if there had been something wrong with the food then he’d be hit worse, because he didn’t have the lycanthropy helping him stay healthy.