«He'll do, Anita.» There was a tone to Edward's voice, approval maybe.
«You know, I hadn't thought about what he'd done until just now. What kind of person forgets that?»
«Did he seem messed up about it?»
«No.»
«Then let it go,» Edward said.
«Just like that,» I said.
«Just like that.»
«I'm not good at letting go.»
«No, you're not.»
«How much does Peter know about your real life as assassin to the undead and furry?»
«That's my call, Anita, not yours.» His voice wasn't friendly now.
«I'd love to argue, but you're right. I haven't laid eyes on Peter since he was fourteen.»
«He turned fifteen that year.»
«Oh, so not two years since I saw him but more like a year and a half. That gives me so much more room to bitch at you for introducing him to the scary stuff.»
«I'm just saying that he wasn't a kid when we met him. He was a young man, and I've treated him like one.»
«No wonder he adores you,» I said.
It was Edward's turn to be quiet.
«I can hear you breathing,» I said.
«You know how I said we don't chat?»
«Yeah.»
«I finally realized, just now, you're the only person I can talk about this with.»
«What, Peter?»
«No.»
In my head I went through the list of things that Edward could only talk to me about; nothing came to mind. «I'm all ears.»
«Donna is pushing for kids.»
That stopped me. It was my turn to be at a loss for words. I managed to stumble out some words, the wrong words. «Really? I mean, I guess I thought she was too old to start over.»
«She's only forty-two, Anita.»
«I'm sorry, Edward. I didn't mean it that way, I just never saw you with a baby.»
«Ditto,» he said, and he sounded angry now, too.
Worse yet, I felt my throat closing tight, my eyes burning. What the fuck was wrong with me? «Do you ever wish you had a life where you could see babies and shit like that?» I asked, and fought to keep the sudden rise of emotion under check.
«No,» he said.
«Never?» I asked.
«You thinking about a baby?» he asked.
Then I told him something I had never expected to tell Edward. «I had a serious pregnancy scare last month. False positive and everything. Let's just say it made me reassess some parts of my life.»
«The biggest difference between us, Anita, is that if I have a baby with Donna, she carries it, not me. You would have a lot more trouble doing it.»
«I know, the whole girl thing.»
«Are you seriously thinking about babies?»
«No, I was relieved as hell when I found out I wasn't pregnant.»
«How'd your lovers take it?»
«You know, most normal people would call them boyfriends.»
«No one woman could date as many men as you have in your life, Anita. You can fuck them, but you can't date them. I'm having enough trouble having a relationship with one woman; I can't imagine juggling a half dozen of them.»
«Maybe I'm just better at relationships than you are,» I said, and my voice was not friendly. I wasn't close to tears; I had the beginnings of a nice anger warming me up.
«Maybe; girls usually are better at it.»
«Wait a minute. How do you know how many men I'm sleeping with?»
«You and your little harem are big news in the preternatural community.»
«Are we?» and I let it be hostile.
«Don't be that way; I'd be bad at my job if I didn't listen to my sources. You want me good at my job, right? Ted Forrester is a legal vampire hunter, a federal marshal, just like you.» It had creeped me out when I'd discovered Edward had a badge. It just seemed wrong. But too many of the vampire hunters had failed the firearms test; for the newer ones, too many hadn't made it through the more detailed training. The government had turned further afield to get enough vampire hunter/federal marshals to cover the country. Edward had been grandfathered in on the firearms training, no sweat. But the fact that Ted Forrester had stood up to government scrutiny meant either that Edward had some high-placed friends or that Ted Forrester was his real identity—the name he'd gone into the military with, his actual true name. I'd asked him which it was, and he wouldn't answer. Of course Edward wouldn't answer. Such a mystery man.
«I don't like being spied on, Edward, you know that.» Did Edward know about the ardeur? How long had it been since I'd filled him in on the metaphysics in my life? I couldn't remember.
«How did your lov… boyfriends take the news of the almost-baby?» he asked.
«Do you really care?»
«I wouldn't have asked if I didn't care,» he said, and that was probably absolutely true.
«Fine,» I said, «pretty well. Micah and Nathaniel were ready to rearrange their lives to play daddy and nanny, if I decided to keep it. Richard proposed, and I turned him down. Jean-Claude seemed like he always was: cautious, and waiting for me to decide what wouldn't piss me off.» I thought about that. «I think Asher was pretty sure it wasn't his, so he didn't offer too much comment.»
«I knew you were living with Micah and Nathaniel. But when did Jean-Claude start sharing you with other vampires? I didn't think master vamps shared well.»
«Asher is sort of an exception for Jean-Claude.»
He sighed. «Normally I'd enjoy playing with you, Anita, but it's early, and I know you've had a hard morning.»
«What's that mean?» I asked, and I couldn't keep the suspicion out of my voice.
He made a sound halfway between a chuckle and an mmm sound. «I'll tell you the rumors I've heard, and you tell me how big a lie they are.»
«Rumors,» I said. «What rumors?»
«Anita, thanks to my new status I hang with a lot of creature killers. You're not the only one who's got ties to the monsters in their town. Admittedly, you have the most… intimate ties to them.»
«And that means what?» I asked, and didn't try to keep the irritation out of my voice.
«It means no one else is fucking their local Master of the City.»
Put that way, it was hard to argue with the intimate part. «Fine.»
«The Harlequin only come if you've gotten high enough on the radar to attract the council's attention, for good, or not so good, right?»
«Yeah,» I said.
«I could just ask you what you've been doing, you and your vampires, that has attracted their attention, but I think it'll go quicker if I ask which rumors are true. I need to get off the phone and start gathering backup. The backup may take longer than transport or the weaponry.»
«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.»