Jean-Claude knelt as soon as the door was shut behind him, waiting for me to walk over to him and fasten his collar around his neck. I pulled his head up for a kiss as I bent to him, then pulled him to his feet by the hair and pushed him towards the bed. I followed him and stripped him slowly, kissing him the while, and then pushed him down onto the bed.
"What would you have of me ma petite?" He didn't look directly at me, but glanced from beneath lowered eyelids.
"To know what you desire my raven. I would never ask you to do something you found displeasing, and you have always pleased me."
"I…it is presumptuous…I would ask that you mark me so I always wear your scent." Jean-Claude refused to look at me, he seemed to be ashamed of his request, hunching his shoulders and hiding his face with his hair. I quickly moved to pull it out of the way and tilted his chin to force him to look at me.
"No, it is not presumptuous. I asked a question and you answered it. I didn't expect you to answer in quite that way, but I am more than willing to grant your request." I cleaned him as I spoke and sat by him to pet my lover. "Do you want dominance games tonight, or would you rather I was gentle?" I asked the question to distract my raven as I scoured all trace of any other's scent from him.
"Please, I am yours, be gentle." He smiled as he replied in gentle mockery of so many cheap paperback romances.
"Do you remember how I marked Nathaniel with my scent?"
He bit his lip, looking adorably unsure of himself. There's something about the way Jean-Claude looks when he feels insecure, or uncertain that tugs at my heartstrings. "Was that what you did after he used his tongue on you?"
"Yes, I'll try not to threaten you, if at any time you feel uncomfortable use our safe word, or if your mouth is otherwise occupied pinch my hip." I swung one leg to kneel over him as I spoke. "Do you think you can do that?"
"Yes, ma petite." I'd never put him in a position where he would have difficulty speaking when I pinned him down before so I added an extra precaution this time and made sure he understood. He put one hand on my hip as I moved down centring myself above his mouth. I bound my scent to him once I'd taken my pleasure then I turned to exploring his body with my hands and encouraging him to do likewise. He'd asked me to be gentle, so I moved slowly, very slowly and let him initiate the next level of intimacy. At least that was the plan, I quickly realised he wasn't going to make any advances himself and moved on to kissing and finally full intercourse, where we lay on our sides, facing each other, as close to equality as we would get.
When we finally disengaged Jean-Claude moved to lick me clean, but I stopped him and held him to me, cuddling with him for the remainder of the night. "I'll stay until noon." I whispered the words to him just before he died.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
I did plan to stay until noon, but reality intruded. My cell phone rang around ten and when I answered it was Zerbrowski.
"Anita, we've got a murder and we need your expertise. There's a body in the alley behind Guilty Pleasures, it's a vamp kill and I want you to check it out." Dolph was still suspended, trying to sort out his feelings about vampires and his son's choice of fiancée. I'd actually spoken to him, offering to talk to Darrin about what becoming a vampire really involved, and I'd volunteered Damian's services as well. I had the feeling that his fiancée had glossed over the less pleasant aspects of being a vampire, such as belonging totally to the master who you were descended from, or who the vampire who turned you belonged to. If he was absolutely insistent on becoming a vampire I was considering offering to have Damian turn Darrin – that way he'd belong to me, and I could keep him safe. I'm not an abusive master; at least I don't think so.
I considered my options and decided to wake Jean-Claude temporarily with a burst of power to explain things. He blinked, coming awake slowly and I saw the moment that he drew his first breath. I could see that he was confused, and I could not blame him. He would be able to stay awake after this if he wished to, but if he did not wish to I would return him to his daylight slumber.
"Ma petite? What…" I could taste his confusion and could not blame him for it, nor for the fear in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, but there's been a murder, and I need to go to the scene. I didn't want you to wake up without me by your side."
"Thank you, master." He lifted a hand to his collar and looked up at me with a question in his eyes. I kissed his lips lightly, then unbuckled his collar.
"I can return you to your daylight slumber, or you can remain awake, I leave the choice to you."
"I'd rather not return to sleep. Perhaps I can please you if you return soon enough?" There was a hopeful lilt in Jean-Claude's voice and I responded to it with a smile.
"Yes, if I can return before noon I will let you do as you wish with me for an hour." A slight widening of his eyes was the only indication that I'd surprised him. My hand was still resting against his face and he turned to nuzzle at it happily.
"I will not disappoint you ma petite." It was a vow and I was surprised at just how strongly he felt about it.
"You could not beautiful one. I wish I could stay here longer, but there is a corpse waiting for me. It was found behind Guilty Pleasures, and it's a vamp kill, so you should prepare yourself for a challenge." I stepped back and dressed with a thought.
"The police would not approve of your informing me of that fact. I am grateful Anita." And I could feel his gratitude and determination to make what he had planned special for me – and his surprise that I would tell him. But my first loyalty is to my people now, not to the mortal police, and Jean-Claude, more than anyone else, is mine.
"Know that you have my support in all ways. You should be able to win with that, even against a council member." With that last piece of reassurance I left him.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
I didn't bother to use my car to get to Guilty Pleasures, it'd take me longer to park than it would to get there, instead I teleported to somewhere discrete and walked on scene, pulling on surgical gloves as I did.
"Hi, Zerbrowski. Where's the corpse?" He was wearing a dark green suit with a yellow shirt, and a blue tie, the colours should have looked good together, but somehow he managed to find the shades that clashed worst.
"Just over here." The woman's body had been dumped among the trash, an indication what the vampires who did this thought of her, and she was spread out exposed like some sort of whore. I could count seven bites on her body, one on the underside of her right breast, one either side of her neck, one on the inside of her right thigh, one behind her left knee, and her left leg had been positioned to display it and the last two on each arm. I knelt to measure the bites, there were four different sizes there, but none of the bites sized the same were of the same style. The bites on the neck and behind the knee were all neat, but whoever'd bitten the breast had nearly torn it off her body to get to the blood. The bite at the groin had nearly taken a piece of flesh out with it and the left elbow had been crushed by the large mouth of the vampire there. The right wrist had been cut open first – perhaps by an older vampire teaching a new and reluctant one.
"Anita? What do you think?" Zerbrowski had been hovering while I measured the bites and he began to question me as soon as I stood up.
"It's a challenge to Jean-Claude. This was a group kill, probably seven of them, but I don't think the master in question was powerful enough to make her rise as a revenant. I'll find out if there's any new masters in town and try to locate them when I meet up with Jean- Claude."
"You can't get a civilian involved in this, especially not the obvious suspect. And why do you think this is a challenge?"
"Group kill, dumped outside of one of his first businesses, in his city, and I know he hasn't given any masters permission to enter his territory lately. Do you know who she is?"
"They left her ID beside her, she's called Rosanna Walt. How do you know so much about Jean-Claude's business?"
"I thought you knew that we're lovers. And I'm a very powerful necromancer; I help him with power ploys if it's necessary. He'd have warned me if he thought there was a threat in town, and any master who could compel this would be a threat that we might have to deal with.
"Do you want me to help with my contacts among the undead or not?"
"What are you going to tell him? And are you sure he had nothing to do with this?"
"He was in bed with me from three in the morning last night and I was planning to tell him that I think a new master has come here without his permission, and I want to locate this visitor."
"He'll accept that?"
"You know that he'll learn about the body from the people who work here anyway, but yes, he'll help me without knowing everything about my reasons. I'm too powerful for him not to."
"If you can pull it off then do it. But we'll need more than that to get a warrant for them."
"I know, but it will give you a starting point won't it?"
"Yeah. And we need to interview everyone who was here last night, can you do anything about that?"
"I'll see to it, call the Circus just after dusk and the arrangements will have been made." Finally I was able to get away, mourning the fact that my raven would have to fight again – at least if I didn't get myself an execution warrant for the intruder first.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
When I got back Jean-Claude was waiting for me in the bathroom, kneeling naked save for his cuffs and a silver chain around his waist beside the bath, filled with hot water. He held his collar out to me and I fastened it around his neck, then I sat on the edge of the bath and stroked his hair gently before I spoke, from the heat of his body he had fed before my return.
"I am sorry love, but there is something we need to deal with before we do anything else. The kill at Guilty Pleasures was a group kill, seven vampires were involved. One of them I think was new and I would spare that one if we can, but there must be a new master in town, without your permission and we need to locate him before we play, so I can give Zerbrowski a starting point. And you need to make arrangements for the police to talk to everyone who was working there last night."
"I can do that after you leave ma petite. Will you not at least bathe with me before we must search for our unwelcome guest?"
"Of course I will my raven. I am sorry, love, to have disappointed you." I stripped quickly and stepped into the tub then pulled him down to join me. "What did you have planned for me? Or would you rather keep it a secret and show me later?"
"I wanted to show you the pleasures I could offer you using vampire tricks. You forbade them before, and you have never asked me to show them to you, but you gave me permission to do whatever I wished, and I do want to show you this." He refused to look at my face after he had spoken – while he wears his collar he rarely looks me in the eyes and his behaviour is much more subservient than otherwise. Instead he busied himself with his hair.
"Turn around, and let me wash your hair for you." I didn't continue until he had obeyed. "If we have time then you are welcome to show me whatever you like. I am glad you feel confident enough to ask, and in truth I never thought to ask myself." I'd been kissing and nuzzling at him while I spoke as well as lathering up the shampoo, scented with exotic spices. "Rinse your hair, then you can start on mine." I added as an afterthought. I twisted in the tub while he was beneath the surface and he began washing my hair as soon as he emerged from below the water. This had become a form of foreplay for us, so it was no surprise that we coupled briefly in the water before we got out and down to business.
We sat together, our bodies touching and I linked with Jean-Claude to amplify and direct his awareness of the city. I projected a map of the city into our minds and we could sense where all the vampires were. Those who'd been granted permission to enter the city, or live in it, had seen Jean-Claude at least once and we could recognise their power signatures, even weakened by their daylight slumber. We could also catch another signature of an aware vampire, one that should not have been there, for no vampire we had allowed in our city was strong enough to wake so early, not even Asher. And the power signature was not one we recognised. We narrowed the area down to the very house that…he had taken as a dwelling place and scanned it to find six other vampires present.
We broke the link, and I wrote down the information we had obtained. Glancing at my consort I could see he was weakened by the effort expended. I fed power back into him and offered him my wrist. "If you feel the need to feed again do so my raven."
"Non, ma petite, your power is enough to sustain me." He didn't look at me but he leaned towards me, tilting his neck to expose his throat in invitation. It wasn't quite noon, so…
"If you want to you can show me what vampire powers can add to sex now."
"Yes, please." And he proceeded to give me a very effective demonstration of why he was so desired among vampires.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
It was only as full moon approached that I even thought about Richard, about what I should tell him. I'd been able to avoid him since I got back from Morion's home, but I wouldn't be able to any longer – the pard had made a habit of meeting up with the pack during full moon and I couldn't exactly break it now. Oh we shifted at my house while the pack shifted at their lupanar, but we ran in the same woods and we always seemed to meet up sometime during the night. And there were my duties as Bolverk to consider, I'd been lucky that Richard hadn't called a pack meeting that needed my presence yet, but it would come and I should give Richard some advanced warning of my changes.
I had to tell him, but there was no way I'd tell him in person – he was far too volatile for that. I rang him; half hoping he wouldn't be in so I could just leave a message on the answering machine. My half formed prayers were answered, but this was too important to risk the chance that he would just erase the message without listening to it, he'd gotten better about it, but he still did it sometimes. And so as I spoke I wove a thread of magic down the phone line with my voice and into the tape – Richard would listen to the message, and understand it, he would think about it rationally, rather than merely react to it.
"Richard, it's Anita. I took the fourth mark about three weeks back and since then I've been able to change at will into both a leopard and a wolf. I don't think it's tied to the moon. We can discuss it more after the full moon." Blunt and to the point, but it gave the relevant information without revealing anything too incriminating. I did not intend to make Richard one of my consorts or attendants. I'd grant him immortality if necessary, although I rather thought that even with only three marks he would be immortal from his link to Jean-Claude and to me now, but I would not tie myself to him so intimately, any more than I already had that was.
I sighed and dismissed the subject mentally, planning what I needed for the full moon and for the pard when they gathered. There were plenty of deer in the woods for when we hunted and Caspian was already in a coffin in the basement, with Damian. I'd have to explain about that to the rest of the pard – Micah had made such a racket when he learned about it. Still we had come up with a plan, and the beauty of it was that we wouldn't have to lie at all. Caspian was of the line of the Sweet Dark, and it was too dangerous to risk letting too many people know that – and that line was the only one with vampires who could shapeshift, the way some legends said they could. Of course it was possible, even likely, that people would notice Caspian was never around at full moon, but they weren't likely to put things together and realise that he was a shapeshifter as well as a vampire – after all that's impossible. But if he spent too much time among the pard he'd run the risk of being found out.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
I'd grown comfortable with casual nudity during the three hundred years I spent learning to control my powers, something that had relieved my leopards greatly, so I was curled on the sofa barely dressed in a short nightgown when Caspian and Damian came up from the basement as dusk fell. Damian was fully dressed, in tailored wool pants, a silk shirt open at the neck and a pair of suede boots, all black, but Caspian was only wearing a white linen wrap around his waist, vaguely reminiscent of ancient Egyptian cultures to my eyes.
"Damian, you look delicious. Something special?" He'd asked my permission to accept the overtures that a human woman had made to him and I wasn't sure whether he had a date with her tonight or not. I'd checked that Rachel wasn't one of the fanatics that hated vampires or a criminal, she turned out to be `clean', but still I'd told Damian that while he was free to court her – or perhaps to let her court him, he had to let me meet her and give final approval before he lay with her.
"Rachel wanted to go to the opera with me. There's a production of `Carmen' on tonight. Will this be acceptable do you think?" He was nervous if he was asking me for fashion advice. I never acquired a taste for dressing my followers up the way Jean-Claude does with Jason and anyone else he can, and I really don't have much of a sense of fashion.
"I can't think why not. The standards of dress for theatres and that sort of thing have been relaxed quite a lot and you look gorgeous, but if you're worried you could always add a jacket."
"Yes, I will thank you." Damian turned to go back down to the basement for a jacket before I called him back.
"What time do you have to leave? Do you have time to feed before you go?"
"Yes, I'm meeting her in an hour. She said she was thinking about letting me feed on her afterwards, but I'm not sure. I thought perhaps I could feed on Nathaniel, to help him with his control tonight." Damian looked back at me with an appeal in his eyes – Nathaniel is equal in status to him, or slightly lower when measured by Demonkin law, but he is my pomme de sang and has been for a while – I'd staked a claim on him that I hadn't really on Damian and that confuses things. It will settle down eventually, when we've all had time to adjust to the changes in our lives, but until then we'll get awkward moments.
"If he agrees, then of course you can." Damian left immediately. "Caspian, you should ask Zane or Cherry to let you feed on them. Or will you be satisfied with the meat we hunt down after we shift?" I knew that in animal form vampires of the Sweet Dark's line could eat solid food – although only meat, but I wasn't sure whether this was supplementary to the blood they needed, or could replace it.
"It would be better if I could feed first, that way I have more control over the change. And I'd need a lot more meat if I didn't feed first than I do when I have fed before I shift."
"Then go ask one of them." With that I dismissed him and returned to waiting for the rest of the pard to show up. Merle, Micah and Noah were already here, they lived with me, just like Zane, Cherry, Nathaniel and my guards did, but Jason would deliver Gregory and Vivian before he took Stephen to the lupanar. Elizabeth and Caleb would probably show up as late as they could, and more likely than not together, while Gina and Violet usually arrived with Matthew, who, like Elizabeth, had refused my protection at first when the council arrived and took over the Circus.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
The explanation of who and what Caspian was went off as smoothly as we could have expected. The more submissive members of our pard accepted what we told them without any question. Merle and Noah understood the tactical uses of hiding the identity of our new pard member, just as my guards did. But Caleb and Elizabeth were ready to kick up a fuss, until I made an issue of being an autocratic ruler, the sort my nature called for me to be. I lit a ball of red flame resting on my hand before I spoke.
"Elizabeth, Caleb, what am I to you?" They hesitated, but acknowledged me as their Nimir-Ra.
"Whose will rules here, mine or yours?"
"Yours does." Elizabeth had learned her place when I shot her for neglecting her duty to Nathaniel, and Caleb had been a little scared of me since I'd almost eaten him – literally – under the combined influence of Belle Morte, the ardeur and Richard's Hunger.
"Good. You understand that much at least. It is my will, mine and that of my consort in the pard, your Nimir-Raj, that Caleb only join us on full moons, that no one but the pard know that he is shapeshifter as well as vampire. And to make sure of that I bind you to silence on this matter." And with those final words I locked a spell around all of my pard, binding their silence about Caspian as fully as I had bound their silence on my other abilities.
"Come, let us hunt, and enjoy the night." And then I stepped out of my nightgown, tossing it through to my bedroom and shapeshifted, to my leopard form, my coat near white save for my black markings, eyes as grey as steel, no colour to me at all in this form. I even created the goop that all the weres give off when they shapeshift, maintaining the illusion that I was just a panwere – although that was hardly inconsequential. The rest of my people followed my example, shifting to animal form, some removing their clothes first, as in the way Caspian pulled off his wrap, others just shifting in whatever they were wearing. It didn't matter, they all kept clothes here in case they needed them, and in other places, as we were as likely to shift back to human with the wolves as alone here.
And then we led them out on the hunt, my mate and I. we easily caught the scent of the deer, and without words formed a strategy to hunt at least one down, if not more. Our methods owed more than a little to the tactics of the wolves I freely admit, but still modified, for we are built more for speed than endurance, not as the wolves are. And we had the trees as another route for us to travel, difficult thought it could be at times. I decided to hunt from above, the highway of the trees, while my leopards sought out the prey on the ground. In the end the deer, an older stag, one that hadn't been able to keep his herd passed beneath me while running from the others and I leapt down to tear out his throat. The others backed off, letting me take the choicest portions, but I didn't take more than a few token bites, then I let the others feed.
We met up with the wolves a couple of hours later and joined them as they hunted in the woods. It is harder for the pack to find enough prey to satisfy them than for our smaller pard and so we added our skills to theirs. We do not always hunt on full moons, more often we buy cattle and have them delivered to the lupanar so we can feed without the need to hunt our meal down. It is the only way to conserve the prey for us to hunt for all time.
We ran together for the rest of the night and when we tired we made our way back to my house and slept in a pile of bodies out in the back – at least most of my pard did. Caspian returned to the basement so he'd be safe and although I lay on the inside of the pile, protected by my people, wrong though that felt, I didn't sleep, staying on watch instead.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
"Anita. I need to talk to you." Richard didn't even wait for me to greet him, he just walked straight into my home and began talking. "You had seven new leopards in your pard last night, I didn't recognise any of them and I need to know."
"Why? You aren't involved in pard business; they belong to me, not to you."
"You'd worry if there were as many new alphas joining the wolves as there already are; why shouldn't I worry when there's six new alphas in your pard? And I didn't see you at all last night. I know you can't shift, but you normally spend at least some of the full moon night with us."
"Actually you did see me, I was one of the alphas you didn't recognise – the white one if you want to know. As for the rest: do you want the truth, or the official story? If I tell you the truth I'll have to put a spell on you that'll stop you ever telling anyone else without my permission."
"Who knows the truth?" Richard sounded suspicious, as if he thought that he was the only one who'd have to be bound not to repeat the truth if he wanted to know it.
"Jean-Claude, Asher, Damian, Nathaniel, Micah and the people who are here as a result of the truth know all of it, some of the vampires and some of my pard know some of the truth, but everyone who knows any of the truth is bound not to repeat it without my permission." He hesitated, obviously considering the prospect.
"Go ahead, put the spell on me. I want to know." Mentioning that Jean-Claude knew just what I was had probably been the deciding factor in his decision to know the truth, or perhaps I was being unfair to him. I cast the spells to ensure no one else heard what I was to say and that he would never repeat it as I explained the official story.
"First, as far as anyone outside of our secret is concerned when I took the fourth mark from Jean-Claude I became a pan-were. I was infected by Gabriel and Raina before I took the marks, and when I took the first mark it delayed the activation of my lycanthropy until I took the fourth mark. I believe that sounds plausible?" I made the last sentence into a question and he agreed, that yes, it did sound plausible.
"Now, as to the truth, I'm one of the creatures that created vampires, we're called the Demonkin. We created them to serve us, to be our slaves and we can bond anyone to us. The other new leopards in my pard are bonded to me, the five females, alphas, as guards, and the male as a lesser attendant. Oh, and the male, Caspian is also a vampire of the Sweet Dark's line, whereas my guards were created by me, they don't have the same weaknesses as normal weres, but they're under orders to pretend that they do. When I came into my powers I was taken somewhere else to be trained in them, that's where I got the new people. Jean-Claude is bonded to me as my primary consort, Asher, Micah and one of the new vampires, Donne, are my consorts, and Nathaniel and Damian are my personal attendants. Consorts, and attendants are those who serve me most closely, akin to an entourage, and they are my slaves, totally. My guards are still slaves if I'm honest, but slaves with more rights and privileges. But they all agreed to this beforehand. I won't force this on anyone, and I'm trying to hide what I am as much as I can."
All he said to me was "I'm glad we broke up when we did. I couldn't stand to tie myself to such a monster." He didn't seem to care about the differentiation among my entourage, which was just as well, as I had no intention of explaining it to him.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
My phone rang just after Richard had walked out on me again. I was tempted to let one of my leopards pick it up, but decided against it. I knew for a fact that there'd been another kill by the same group of vamps the night before the full moon, and there'd probably be another from last night. I expected the police to be ringing to call me out to another crime scene. I was wrong.
"Anita Blake. Unless this is about murder you can just hang up now." Yes, I was cranky from Richard's rejection.
"Better. We've got evidence on the vamps you fingered for us. All you need to do is come down here and collect the warrants, and then you can go and kill them."
"I'm glad you've managed to get the evidence. They didn't outright challenge Jean-Claude yet, or I'd've told you, but I was a bit worried."
"About Count Dracula? You always were protective I guess. Do you want any help with this? You did say that there's seven of them, didn't you?"
"Yes, but it's daylight at the moment, I can manage myself. The building we found them in doesn't have any special security measures, so I shouldn't have any problems."
"Right, well get down here as quick as you can to pick up the warrant. I'd've had it delivered except you take the night off on full moon, and I wasn't sure when you'd get it." It sounded a little like an accusation and I couldn't resist the urge to counter it.
"Well, I've adopted the local wereleopard group. I'm not a wereleopard, but some necromancers can call an animal the way most master vampires can, and my animal is a leopard. They need me. I'll be there in half an hour, at the most." That was a bit fast, but I thought I could get away with it. I actually spent most of that half hour making sure my leopards would be safe in my absence, then teleported the jeep as close to RPIT headquarters as I could get away with.
"Stay in the car Ruth, you won't be accompanying me to deal with the intruders. I'd rather the police didn't even know that you're here." Ruth was the best shot, but she was also one of the more submissive of my guards, and she obeyed without question.
"Yes, my queen." I'd built a couple of minor spells into the brooches my guards wore, and she activated one of them now, a notice- me-not thing. People would see her; they just wouldn't remember seeing her, because it wouldn't register. I also made a habit of boosting the energy in the brooches – ruby on a silver background – once a week. After all I boosted the power in the bracers I gave my consorts and personal attendants at least that often, through sex with everyone but Donne – with him I took time to boost the energy as a separate project.
I went through to the station; Dolph was back at work, but only under probationary terms. I hadn't seen him at any of the crime scenes I'd been invited to, I had the feeling that he'd become more an administrator than a real policeman, but only until he got his issues with vampires sorted out.
"Hello, Detective Perry. Sergeant Zerbrowski said you had an execution warrant for me?"
"Yes Ms. Blake. Sergeant Zerbroski has them in his office. I'll take you to him." And with those words the tall detective took me through to see Zerbrowski.
"Here's the papers Blake – now go and kill those bastards."
"I will, but could you tell Dolph that if his son wants I'd be willing to talk to him about his decision, and so would some of the vampires I know. If he insists on being turned I can get Damian to bring him over, that way Darrin will be mine to protect and safe from vampire politics."
"Sure, do you think it will help?"
"I don't know, but it's worth a try." With those words I left to deal with the intruders.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
It was near four in the afternoon, and the master of the kiss was older than Jean-Claude, by more than a thousand years. I'd been able to tell his age from the power traces left on his meal. He wasn't a sourdre de sang, so I could have left it to Jean-Claude to kill him, my raven would have won, but it was much easier to bring him to human justice, and kill the arrogant bastard myself.
I wasn't surprised to see two of them awake and waiting for me, I'd been obvious enough.
"Anita Blake. Are you here to fight me on your whore of a master's behalf? Or to make arrangements for him to fight me, and settle this challenge?" The vampire who spoke looked like the model of a Roman general, and might well have been one in life. He was six feet tall with dark brown hair and eyes, and a beaky nose, but somehow on him it looked right. His companion was about a thousand years older, he looked like some sort of toy, delicately built, and beautiful, although not the way my men are, he seemed fragile and breakable. His eyes were grey and his hair a very pale blond, falling to his waist.
"Neither. You could not defeat Jean-Claude, he is a sourdre de sang, but I am here to enact human justice, which by council decree rules vampires in America." They attacked then, and I let them. Rather than use my powers I fought them barehanded, but with all the strength and speed I possessed. I killed them easily enough, tore them apart. The challenge lay in recreating them, so that they seemed to have died in a way that a human could have killed them, as I decided to try to piece together their bodies rather than destroy them completely and create a new pair of bodies from scratch. But I left that until I had dealt with the others.
As for the others, all save the youngest, a girl who was barely out of adolescence and had not been dead a month, I killed them using the injections Edward had introduced me to. And the single vampire I showed mercy to I woke using my powers.
"You are part of a kiss that has broken human law and invaded my lover Jean-Claude's territory. Tell me, and I will know if you lie, did you ever choose to be involved in the killings?"
"No!" She was sobbing, in fear of me. "I…the first time I'd just risen, I was so hungry and he smelled so good, but he was already dying. I tried to refuse, but my master starved me unless I fed with him and his other slaves, and sometimes he would force me."
"Very well. You have one day to get out of the city. Take any money you have, or that they had and leave now. It isn't dark outside, but there's a basement and you can get to it safely enough. Hide there until the police have confirmed that I've executed the kiss." She fled, without questioning my actions and I created a body to replace her before I reported the execution to the police. They were oh so impressed that I slaughtered a kiss of seven by myself, even though I underplayed it by pretending that only the master had been awake.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
I went to Jean-Claude when I could get away from the police, congratulating me on killing all seven of the monsters without getting a scratch on me. On reflection I should have pretended that I'd been hurt at least a little or that they were all still trapped in their daylight slumber. But I hadn't thought of that in time, and so I had to endure their fussing, until I could get away.
"Anita." He was waiting for me in the living room and he pulled me into an embrace, nuzzling at my neck. "Did you have to kill them all?"
"No, my raven. The youngest one only fed because she had been starved and I just told her to leave your territory. But I created a body to make the police think all of the kiss had been killed. It was a nice diversion I must admit."
"I am glad it pleased you." He paused to kiss me hungrily, then looked at me afterwards to check I wasn't angry before continuing. "Did you find out who the master was?"
"No, but he about two thousand years old, and had a companion three thousand years old. He had dark brown hair and eyes, and he was six feet tall, with a beaky nose. His companion was beautiful, but very feminine, grey eyes and long, very pale blond hair. Do you recognise them from the description?"
"Yes, the master is, no, was called Quintus, and his companion was called Thornegar. Might I ask what happened?"
"Well, Quintus asked if I was there to arrange for him to fight you, or to fight him on your behalf. I told him that I was there to enact justice under human law, then I tore him and Thornegar to bits." I pulled him down to sit beside me on the couch as I spoke, and he wrapped himself around me, pressing up against me in ways that made me think of other things than the execution I was describing. I was tempted to forget about telling my lover what had happened, and besides there was little more to tell, but he had asked, and he asked so little of me. "I used an injection that Edward had taught me to kill the rest, except for the youngest one. Instead I woke her, and asked her about her actions. When she told me she was forced I sent her down to the basement, to hide until the police had collected the bodies. Then I made the two vampires I tore apart look as if their deaths had been within a human's power and created a body to replace hers."
"You are merciful ma petite." He kissed my neck, letting me know that he was not adverse to the idea of taking pleasure with me.
"She was forced. Human law doesn't really consider just how much control a powerful enough master can have over the vampires who serve him. And they aren't going to know any difference between her body and the body I created in her stead." I didn't want Jean-Claude to be surprised by an intrusion into his territory again. Tempting as the idea of enjoying his beautiful body was that took precedence. "I'm going to weave a sensory net over the city and tie it into your bracers. You'll be alerted whenever a strange vampire enters your territory. I could tie it directly into your mind if you'd rather, but it might be easier for you if it's filtered through the bracers."
"What would be the difference ma petite?" He sat back a little, resigned to the delay in his wishes.
"Through the bracers you'd be alerted with full information whenever a new vampire entered the city, and it would monitor their positions, giving you the information whenever you queried the spell, until you told it not to. Direct to your mind it would be a constant awareness of every vampire in the city."
"Then I would prefer to access the spell through my bracers, if they can hold it."
"Oh, there's enough power floating about unused for that not to be a problem."
"Thank you Demonkin." He whispered the last word, dropping his eyes in submission and sliding from the couch to kneel on the floor at my feet, with his hands in my lap, looking very much the supplicant.
"Not here, in your bedroom. And I want to speak to you about the way you just behaved."
He swallowed, looking nervous. "There wasn't anyone around to see, and it got you to suggest we go somewhere more private did it not?"
"There is that." I laughed; I hadn't expected that he'd use my edict about his behaviour outside of his bedroom that way. Still I couldn't let it go totally unpunished, but I could settle for something light. Once we got to the bedroom I put his collar around his throat and set up the sensory net as I described – then I left him. I returned an hour later, smelling of Damian, when I felt the first stirrings of panic edging his mind.
"Don't try to manipulate me like that again my raven. Now, we can enjoy ourselves together, that is if you are still willing?"
"Oui, ma petite." He pressed himself against my body and kissed me deeply, hungrily, before backing down and submitting to me in actions. It was most pleasant as he tried to atone for his earlier error.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Dolph approached me about a week later, in response to the offer I'd made through Zerbrowski.
"Anita. You told Zerbrowski that you'd be willing to talk to my son about the downside of being a vampire." He hadn't actually met me in person, I wasn't too sure I wanted him to, there was too great a chance that I'd lose my temper and hurt him with the way he'd been acting lately.
"Yes, I realise he might be reluctant to believe me, so I can also have my vampire servant talk to him about it as well. Damian has nothing but praise for me, after all I've never hurt him, but he's got plenty of horrible things to say about his first master. And if your son refuses to change his mind I can have Damian bring him over. That will mean that Damian becomes Darrin's master, but he's not strong enough to be independent, so I'll be Darrin's true master. I'm powerful enough that no one messes with people under my protection, at least not unless it's a challenge to me, and Darrin isn't close enough to me for that."
"You make it sound as if you'll own him."
"Effectively I will. Damian will have to be there when he wakes for the first time, or I will, to make sure he doesn't kill anyone. I know they've got counsellors now, but I'd feel better being there myself. One of the drawbacks to being a vampire is that weak vampires, new vampires, unless they belong to someone powerful, with a dangerous reputation, are anyone's meat who wants them."
"And who do new vampires belong to?" Dolph's voice had gone low and dangerous, it almost sounded as if he wanted to threaten me.
"The vamp who made them, or their master. If your son's fiancée is in St. Louis then she's not a master, and from what you've said about her it doesn't sound as if she's all that old herself. If she's one of the new vamps turned by Malcolm's church chances are she belongs to Malcolm, but doesn't know that herself."
"How can she not understand what it means to be a vampire when she is one? And yes, the little bitch is a member of the Church of Eternal Life."
"Because no one ever told her exactly what being a vampire entails, the Church glosses over the less pleasant aspects, the stuff that's bad publicity. Malcolm's of the Traveler's line, they tend to be more manipulative than the other lines, not that any line is straightforward, but the Traveler's line are more likely to see their followers as somehow less than them, animals, or chess pieces. If Darrin lets Damian bring him over he'll be of Belle Morte's line, one of the more pleasant lines, and the reason that vampires have a reputation for extraordinary beauty. I am a good master, I protect my people with everything I have, and I don't abuse them. I punish them if they defy me, the way a parent would punish an errant child, but I don't abuse them."
"You think of your people as children? And who exactly are your people?"
"No, I don't think of them as children, but that was the best comparison I could think of. My people are anyone who relies on me to protect them, the leopards, my vampire servant, and through him any vampires he brings over from when he became mine, some of the wolves. You get the picture."
"Yes. I'll get Darrin to ring you and arrange for you to meet with him. Thank you." He sounded as if it was a great relief to him not to have to worry that his son might get into trouble of the sort he'd seen so many vampires in.
"You're welcome." He was under orders to attend therapy, to work out his issues. If he absolutely couldn't he'd be transferred somewhere else, and I had the feeling that the news I'd just given him would help a lot – he was certainly sounding a lot less hostile to me now.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
I arranged to meet with my architect at the Circus of the Damned shortly after Dolph phoned me. I'd actually gone to my land the night the purchase was finalised and excavated a fifteen by twenty metre hole, ten metres deep, piling the stone up in blocks of one metre length, half a metre depth, and three quarters of a metre width. If it was necessary I could always reduce the size of the blocks, making them smaller, but still as perfectly fitted – the way I'd cut them you'd be able to fit them together without using any mortar, and ideally I'd prefer to have my home built the way Aztec homes had been, massive blocks, perfectly fitted together, with no need for mortar. But the fact of the matter was that there was no one with those skills, and so I'd have to settle for the closest I could get to that. When I thought about it, considering the depths to which I'd excavated it would be perfectly possible to put an apartment, perhaps even on two levels beneath the car park, and I'd given my architect instructions to design one if at all possible. He'd visited the site almost immediately after I'd prepared it, and based his designs on that, and my orders to use the stones cut as much as possible.
"I've got the preliminary drawings. I understand you wanted it to be as much as possible built in the style of an old Roman villa?"
"Yes, or at least around a central courtyard, although the car park should be roofed over, and perhaps a shallow layer of dirt, a foot or so used to cover it."
"Very well." He made a note in response to that. "I take it you want some sort of garden in there then?"
"Yes, some sort of low growing plant we can walk on to suppress weeds, and plants, preferably scented, that flower by night, including some sort of climber that I can train to grow up the walls of the courtyard. But I can get a gardener in for that. What else do you need to know?"
"You said that you wanted it as much as possible to be made from the excavated stone; do you really want walls that thick?"
"No, I suppose not. Figure on stones of the dimensions 75cm by 50cm by 25cm for the outer walls and get back to me with a rough estimate of how many will be required. I'll make sure there are that many stones available of the correct size. And for the internal walls wherever possible work on the basis of having stones of dimensions 25cm by 15cm by 10cm. Again I'll provide as many as possible. Where you can use stones leave the walls bare. Consult with Eve regarding the security system to be installed, and don't bother trying to work out how to hide the wires. I'll have my own people install everything electrical after the structural work has been done," actually I intended to install it myself by use of magic and integrate magical defences and amenities at the same time, "but make sure that any other equipment Eve instructs you to install is ready, including places to put cameras and such."
"I think I can manage that. You've set me quite a challenge. Now, I know you want stone on the surface, but what about the car park, and the apartment beneath for your vampire? Can I use modern materials for that?"
"The car park can be made of whatever you want, but you'll have to ask Damian about the apartment, he'll be living there after all. Of course the roof will have to be slate, and the floors, at least except for those at ground level should be of high quality wood, seasoned oak, or perhaps some other more exotic hardwood, but with a long life expectancy so to speak."
"I can manage that. Do you want to look at the preliminary drawings or not?"
"Jean-Claude recommended you, that means I trust your judgement. But defer to Eve on security issues. I've told her to work exclusively with you on this."
"As you wish. Can I talk to Damian now?"
"Yes, Caspian can show you where he is." The old vampire had been waiting, in case I wanted or needed anything and immediately led the human out.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Dolph had actually gone through Bert and booked an appointment for his son and his fiancée to meet with me and discuss his choice about becoming a vampire, but I'd insisted that it take place somewhere more neutral. And somewhere, incidentally that I could bring vampires to serve as examples of the downside to being a vampire. That pretty much ruled out the Circus or my home – or any of Jean- Claude's businesses, so I rented a hotel room for the night and invited them to meet me there.
I'd rushed through my animating appointments, teleporting to get to the cemeteries in time, and then teleporting to the hotel, making sure that no one noticed, or remembered how my car had appeared out of nowhere and disappeared equally mysteriously. Jean-Claude had told me that Damian and any other vampires he was willing to lend to me for this discussion would be waiting for me, and they were. He'd given me Willy, who could tell Darrin how terrible his life under Nikolaos had been, and Hannah, who'd moved here for the protection Jean-Claude offered. She was older than Willy, but not by much, only ten years or so, still she could probably tell more tales of the abusive vampire social system than he could.
Darrin's fiancée was pretty, but not beautiful, more a girl next door, or all American look, blonde with blue eyes, five foot seven in height and athletic. I could tell she was barely five years dead, and I knew she was one of Malcolm's followers, just from the way she held herself.
"Anita, I don't think you know my fiancée, this is Christine Summers. Who are your friends?" Darrin started the conversation, and waited for me to respond.
"These are Damian, my vampire servant, Willy, and Hannah. I brought them here to show you the downside of life as a vampire, something I'm not entirely sure your fiancée knows about herself. The Church of Eternal Life creates an artificial environment in which vampires can exist, and Malcolm rarely uses the power he has over his flock, so you do not entirely realise it is there. But the fact is that if he wanted to he could override your will with his own, I have seen it happen before. Belle Morte once managed to do that to me and I am only linked to one of her line – well he was of her line at the time. It was a partial success for her at best, but the fact remains that a master has certain powers over vampires descended from him; it is his power that keeps the hearts of any lesser vampires bound to him beating. If you do decide that you want to be a vampire I want you to consider the possibility of letting Damian bring you over. My magic interfered with his links to anyone else, and now that is what keeps his heart beating, no one else can control him. And so you would belong to me. I assure you that I am not a cruel master. All I would expect of you would be that you obey the law, but if you did break it I would kill you without hesitation. And Christine, I am considering negotiating for you with Malcolm, for Dolph's sake, tell me in about a week if you cannot bear that. Now, my companions can tell you better than I of the harshness, and cruelty inherent in being a weak vampire."
They told their own horror stories, Damian's by far the worst, and he was the most reluctant to speak, only really opening up when he was curled in my arms, body pressed against mine, and when the vampires were finished Christine told me that she would be happy to belong to me if I thought I could protect her from that. Darrin decided that he still needed to think a bit more about his decision, but he'd come to me if that was his choice. Then, after all the others had gone I lay with Damian and offered him the comfort of my body.
~~~~~*****~~~~~
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