We stood in a silence so deep I could hear the pulse in my own body thundering in my ears. Then the first night insect called, then a distant frog, then the wind blew through the clearing, and it was as if the world had been holding its breath. We could all breathe again.
“You almost got us eaten alive,” Jacob said.
“You kidnapped me, remember?”
He nodded, and he was pale even by moonlight. Ellen made a small moan in his arms. “She’ll be all right,” he said, as if someone had asked the question.
He looked at the gun that was still in his other hand underneath her body. I watched the thought run through his eyes. “Don’t do it,” I said.
“Why not? You don’t have any more zombies to eat me.”
“Jacob,” Nicky said, “don’t.”
“You’ll kill me for her, won’t you?”
He just nodded.
Jacob looked at me. “I wish I’d turned down this job.”
“Me, too,” I said.
He looked at Nicky, then back to me. “They tortured our lions to get this location.” I didn’t know who he was saying it to.
“We’d have done the same,” Nicky said.
“You’ve destroyed my pride,” he said.
“No, Jacob,” I said, “you destroyed it when you put yourself on the wrong side of me and mine.”
He looked at me then, his eyes so wide there was a flash of white to them. “I’m going to try to leave before your people get here. Oh, yeah,” he said, “I feel them like something hot riding closer, so much power coming to your rescue, as if you need rescuing.” He laughed, but not like it was funny.
“Go, Jacob,” Nicky said.
Jacob looked at me. “If your name ever comes up in connection with another job, I’ll turn it down.”
“No matter how much money they offer you?” I asked.
He nodded. “There isn’t a price big enough to get me to come near you again.” He actually looked at the gun in his hand under Ellen’s body. I watched him think about it. “I’ll make you a deal, Anita Blake. You don’t come near me, and I will leave you the fuck alone.”
“Deal,” I said.
Nicky hugged me. “I don’t think I’m leaving, Jacob.”
“I know that.” He looked at me then, his eyes so wide there was a flash of white to them. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to leave. I’ll gather everyone up, and we’ll leave you and your men alone. I’d put a sign above St. Louis for all the hired thugs, if I could.”
“What would it say?” I asked.
“Here is a bigger motherfucker than you are.”
Jacob returned my weapons and trusted me not to shoot him in the back. He walked to the edge of the cemetery with Ellen in his arms and only when he was about to enter the trees did he turn and look at me. Maybe I should have shot him, but my lioness was content with beating his ass and letting him go. In the world of lions, he wouldn’t be back. Here was hoping my lion knew what she was talking about.
The first hint of dawn showed above the trees, making them look even blacker against the growing light. I felt Jean-Claude’s frustration. He could not come for me, but there were others who could. Others that daylight worked just dandy for, and as if I’d called them just by thinking of them, Micah and Nathaniel came out of the woods with guns, and other dark figures came with them. The cavalry had arrived.
They held me while the other guards made sure there were no more bad guys. They had Nicky at gunpoint, on his knees with his hands behind his head. He looked like he was familiar with the position. I was holding them, and crying, which I never did. “I thought they’d kill you.”
“When you didn’t come back from lunch, Bert called us to see if you’d gone home,” Micah said.
Nathaniel put his forehead against mine. “Then we couldn’t find you, and you missed the call from the other marshal about the vampire execution. We went back to the restaurant you had lunch in and Ahsan, the cute waiter, told us about two men and you getting into an SUV with them.” He began to kiss his way down my face. “Then you were gone, all our connections to you were broken. I thought you’d died.” He hugged me so tight I could hear the beating of his heart against my body.
I hugged him, and Micah kept my other hand. “Jean-Claude kept Nathaniel and Damian going with energy, but we knew you were hurt; that much we felt before it all went black.” He came to us both and Nathaniel opened his arms, so we did a group hug.
Jason’s voice came. “I almost die for you and I don’t even get a hug?”
I pulled away enough to see him, and he joined the hug. “Sorry I missed the party but I had to be in charge of finding sunproof housing for the vampires.”
“I felt his frustration that he couldn’t get here before dawn.”
“Frustrated is one word for it. Insanely angry is another,” Jason said, and wiped at the tears on my face.
“What do we do with this one?” one of the guards asked.
I turned to look at Nicky, still kneeling at gunpoint. “He’s with me,” I said.
Everyone looked at me. “I needed help to heal from the injuries, and I needed enough power to raise the dead so they didn’t kill you guys. I rolled him. The dead Rex said that he’d seen male vampires that could do what I do; Brides of Dracula.”
“Brides of Anita?” Jason asked.
I shrugged.
“Are you sure you can trust him?” Micah asked, and the look he gave Nicky wasn’t friendly.
“I don’t know, but I do know that he protected me from his own pride, and almost took a bullet for me.”
“Would you have survived without him?” Micah asked.
I thought about it, and then said, “No.”
Micah went to Nicky and offered him a hand up. The guards didn’t like it, but they knew not to argue with all of us. Micah stared up at the taller man, studying his face. “Thank you for taking care of her for us.”
“I helped kidnap her, you know,” Nicky said.
Micah nodded. “I know.”
“Is he coming home with us?” Nathaniel asked.
“I hadn’t actually thought that far ahead,” I said.
Then Nicky looked at me, his eyes stricken. “Don’t leave me, Anita. Please, don’t leave me.” His face seemed to struggle for an expression, but finally he collapsed to the ground and crawled toward me. He extended one hand. “Please, please, Anita, I don’t understand everything, but the thought of you leaving me behind feels like dying.”
I looked at the other men. Micah nodded. Nathaniel hugged me. Jason said, “I don’t live with you guys, so I don’t think I get a vote.”
I hugged him with the arm that wasn’t around Nathaniel. “They threatened to kill you; you get a vote.”
He came to stand with us and looked down at the man with his hand still out. “Touch him and let us feel the power.” That was Jason, so much smarter than he pretended he was.
I reached out and took Nicky’s hand. The moment we touched, the power jumped between us, climbed over my skin in a warm, tingling rush that caressed Nathaniel’s skin and crossed to Jason. Nathaniel made a small sound. Jason said, “Tasty.”
Micah came to us, rubbing his hand up and down the goose bumps on his arm; the other hand still held the gun. “You mind-fucked him.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He kissed my cheek. “I’m sorry you had to do that.” And in that moment I realized that he understood what it had cost me to take Nicky the way I did. I kissed him back and moved into the circle of his arms. I buried my face against the warm scent of his neck and let him hold me. The gun dug into my back a little.
Nathaniel and Jason were helping Nicky to his feet. The bigger man was crying, crying at the thought that I would cast him aside. Fuck.