"Ask," I said, not sure I wanted him to ask at all.
"That Jean-Claude has become his own bloodline and broken from his old mistress."
I was surprised, very surprised. "How the hell did that rumor get started?"
"We're wasting time, Anita, true or false?"
"Part true. He is his own bloodline. That makes it so he doesn't have to answer to his old mistress, but he hasn't broken with Europe. He's just stopped being Belle Morte's beck-and-call boy."
"That you've got a string of lovers among Jean-Claude's vamps and the local shapeshifters."
I really didn't want to answer this question. Was I embarrassed? Yes. "I don't see what my love life has to do with the Harlequin coming to town."
"Let's just say that the answer to this question will decide me on whether I ask something else, something I didn't believe. Now I'm beginning to wonder."
"Wonder what?" I asked.
"Answer the question, Anita—do you have a string of lovers?"
I sighed and said, "Define string."
"More than two, three, I guess." He sounded uncertain.
"Yes, then."
He was quiet for a second, then continued. "That Jean-Claude makes everyone, male or female, fuck him before they can join his kiss."
"Not true."
"That he makes the men fuck you?"
"Not true, and someone's having a better fantasy life with my life than I am."
He gave a small laugh, then said, "If you had told me no on the first question, I wouldn't even ask this next one, but here it is. That you're some kind of daywalking vampire that feeds off sex instead of blood. I don't believe that one, but I thought you might be interested in what some of your fellow monster hunters are saying about you. I think they're just jealous of your kill count."
I swallowed hard, and went back to sit on the edge of the tub.
"Anita," he said, "you're awfully quiet."
"I know."
"Anita, it's not true. You're not a daywalking vamp."
"Not the vampire part, not exactly."
"How not exactly?"
"Do you know the term ardeur?"
"I know the French word, but that's not what you mean, is it?"
I explained, briefly, as coldly as I could, just the facts, what the ardeur was.
"You have to fuck people every few hours, or what?"
"Eventually I die, but before that I start draining the life out of Damian and then Nathaniel."
"What?"
"I have a vampire servant and an animal to call."
"What!" I'd never heard him sound so astonished.
I repeated myself.
"There isn't even a rumor about this, Anita. Human servants can't have vampire servants; it doesn't work that way."
"I know that," I said.
"Nathaniel is your animal to call?"
"Apparently."
"Does the council know this?"
"Yep."
"Well, shit, no wonder they sicced their dogs on you. You're lucky they didn't just kill you."
"The council is divided on the appropriate action to take about Jean-Claude and us."
"Divided how?"
"Some of them want us dead, but it's not a majority vote. They can't agree."
"So the Harlequin come to break the tie, is that it?" he asked.
"Maybe; honestly, I'm not sure."
"Is there anything else you've done that might make them decide to kill you quicker, like before I can get there?"
I thought about the fact that I might be a panwere. I thought about a lot of things, then sighed. Then I thought of one thing that we'd done that might bother the other Masters of the City in the United States enough to cry for council help. "Maybe."
"How 'maybe'? Anita, can you wait for me to get backup, or do I need to get a plane and get my ass to St. Louis? That's what I need to know."
"Truth, Edward, I don't know. Jean-Claude and I did something back in November that was pretty powerful. It might be enough to scare the Harlequin."
"What did you do?"
"We had a little private get-together with a couple of the visiting Masters of the City. The two that Jean-Claude calls friends."
"And," he said.
"And Belle Morte interfered from all the way in Europe. She messed with me and the Master of Chicago."
"Augustine," he said. "Auggie to his friends."
"You know him?"
"Of him," Edward said.
"Then you know how powerful he is."
"Yes."
"We rolled him, Edward."
"Rolled how?" he asked.
"Jean-Claude and I fed off him; we both fed the ardeur off him. We fed on him, and through him we fed on every person he had brought to our lands. We did this massive feed on them all. It was an amazing power rush, and all of us, vamps, beasties, anyone tied to either Jean-Claude or me by metaphysics, gained power from it."
"I'll contact the backup I want; they can join me later. I'll be on the ground in"—he paused as if checking his watch—"four hours, five at the outside. I'll be in St. Louis before sundown."
"You think it's that serious?" I asked.
"If I were a vampire, and you had a vampire servant, I might kill you just for that. But if you guys rolled Augustine, one of the most powerful masters in this country, then yeah, Anita, they'll be nervous. I'm just surprised the Harlequin didn't hit St. Louis earlier."
"I think they needed the excuse of Malcolm and his misbehaving church. The council is truly divided about Jean-Claude and his power base. I think maybe the council wouldn't agree to let the Harlequin near us, but now that they're here checking out the Church of Eternal Life, well, two birds with one stone."
"Sounds reasonable," he said. "I'll be there as soon as I can, Anita."
"Thanks, Edward."
"Don't thank me yet."
"Why not?"
"I'll see you in a few hours, Anita. Watch your back like a son of a bitch; if these guys are masters they may have wereanimals and humans to do their daywalking. Just because the sun is up doesn't make you safe."
"I know that, Edward. I probably know that better than you do."
"Maybe, but be careful until I get there."
"I'll do my best." But I was already talking to an empty phone line. He'd hung up. I hung up, too.
Chapter Eleven
NATHANIEL WAS ASLEEP in Jean-Claude's red silk sheets. Jean-Claude himself was in Asher's room for the day, but he'd made a point of telling me he'd had the sheets changed to red because the three of us look so lovely against red. Micah's eyes caught the light from the partially opened bathroom door. His curly brown hair was a heavy darkness around the delicate triangle of his face. The door was our version of a night light here, since there was no bedside lamp, and the other light switch was across the room by the door. Micah's eyes caught that faint glow and glittered with it. His eyes were leopard eyes, or looked like leopard eyes. A doctor had told him that the optics were still human, but the eyes themselves weren't. Splitting hairs, I guess. Chimera, the same bad guy who'd made the ambush that caused Nathaniel to pick up a gun and shoot for real, had also forced Micah into animal form so long that he couldn't come all the way back. His eyes were never human. I'd asked him once what color they'd started as, and he'd said brown. I couldn't picture it. I couldn't picture his face with anything but the green-gold of the eyes he'd come to me with. They were simply Micah's eyes; anything else would have made it the face of a stranger.
His voice was quiet, that voice you use when you're trying not to wake someone in the room. "What did he say?"
"He'll be here in four or five hours. His backup will be following." I came to the edge of the bed.