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“I don’t care what he’s quoting, Anita. I want to know what he meant by it.”

“What it means,” I said, meeting Requiem’s blue, blue gaze, “at a guess, is that he’s half-wishing you’d pulled the trigger.”

Requiem bowed then, a full-out sweeping movement, using his cloak as part of the theatre of it. It was a lovely, graceful show of body, hair, and all of him. But it made my throat tight, and my stomach jump. My stomach didn’t like that, and I winced.

Requiem put his cloak on, drawing the hood around his face. He gave me the full force of that handsome face, those eyes, and said, “‘I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried, “La Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!’”

Dolph looked at me then, then back at the vampire. Requiem glided out the door all black cloak and melancholy. Dolph looked back at me. “I don’t think he likes you very much.”

“I don’t think that’s the problem,” I said.

“He wants to pick out curtains,” Edward said from where he was slouched beside the door. He only slouched when he was pretending to be Ted Forrester.

“Something like that,” I said.

“You fucking him?” Dolph asked.

I gave him the look the question deserved. “That is none of your damn business.”

“That’s a yes,” he said, and his face was taking on that look, that disapproving look.

I glared at him, though frankly it’s hard to glare in a hospital bed hooked up to tubes. It always makes you feel so vulnerable. Hard to be tough when you’re feeling weak. “I said what I meant, Dolph.”

“You only get defensive when the answer’s yes,” he said. The disapproving look was sliding into his angry look.

“My answer’s always defensive when someone asks me if I’m fucking someone. Try asking if I’m dating him, or hell, even if he’s my lover. Try being polite about it. It’s still none of your business, but I might, might, answer the question if you weren’t ugly about it.”

He took in a lot of air, which with his chest was a whole lot, and let it out very slowly. Olaf was taller, but Dolph was bigger, beefier, built like an old-style wrestler before they all went to heavy bodybuilding. He actually closed his eyes and took another breath. He let that out and nodded. “You’re right. You are right.”

“Glad to hear it,” I said.

“Are you dating him?”

“I’m seeing him, yes.”

“What do you do on dates with a vampire?” It seemed to be a real question, or maybe he was just trying to make up for being pissy.

“Pretty much what you do on a date with any guy, except the hickeys are really spectacular.”

It took him a second, and then he stared at me. He tried to frown, then laughed and shook his head. “I hate that you date the monsters. I hate that you are fucking them. I think it compromises you, Anita. I think it makes you have to choose where your loyalties lie, and I don’t think us mere humans always win the coin toss.”

I nodded and found that it didn’t hurt my stomach to do it. Had I healed more in the little bit we’d been talking? “I’m sorry that’s how you feel.”

“You aren’t going to deny it?”

“I’m not going to react all angry and defensive. You’re being reasonable about your feelings, so I’ll be reasonable back. I don’t shortchange the humans, Dolph. I do a lot to make sure that the citizens of our fair city stay upright and mobile, the living and the dead, the furry and the not-so-furry.”

“I hear you’re still dating that junior high teacher, Richard Zeeman.”

“Yeah.” I said it carefully, trying not to act tense about it. To my knowledge the police didn’t know Richard was a werewolf. Was his secret identity about to be revealed? I rubbed my hand over my stomach to give my eyes somewhere else to look and hoped that any tension in my body would be attributed to the wounds. Hoped.

“I asked you once if you were dating any humans, and you said no.”

I fought not to look too relaxed, or too tense. This was Richard’s world I was playing with. “You probably asked during one of our many breakups. We’re pretty on and off.”

“Why?”

“Why