Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [1053]
“If you had asked we would have fought for you.”
“Why would we want the lions to fight for us, Joseph? You’re too weak. You don’t train in combat, or weapons. You are werelions, so fucking what? We’re all wereanimals, but we offer more than just teeth and claws. What do the lions offer us, Joseph?” The anger stirred that place inside me, and I had to close my eyes and count, slowly, breathe, slowly. The stirring eased again. Two times in a row the beasts had quieted because I’d asked, or concentrated on being calm. Maybe I was finally getting the hang of this.
“We are lions,” he said, but his voice was soft.
“You are weak,” and my voice was soft, too. Soft because I couldn’t afford the anger.
Joseph reached his hands out toward me, between Truth and Wicked’s legs. “Do not let them kill us.”
“Am I your Rex? Am I your Regina?”
“No,” he said, and his hands began to lower.
“Then why do you turn to me for help?”
“Because I have nowhere else to turn.”
“Whose fault is that, Joseph? Whose fault is it that after this many years your pride is so weak that you have to turn to humans and vampires, and other animal groups for safety?”
His hands were on his thighs now. “Mine,” he said.
“No, not just yours. I’m betting your wife had something to do with it. Every time someone remotely stronger than you and your brother came along, she said no, didn’t she? She said that you didn’t need them, didn’t she?”
“Yes,” he said.
“If you’d let some strength into your pride, you would have learned how to be a better king.”
“Or they would have killed me and taken the pride, taken…”
“Your wife,” I said.
He nodded.
“I heard that some of the lion takeovers work like that. I can see where she wouldn’t want to take the chance.”
“Then you understand.”
I shook my head. “I can’t afford to understand, Joseph. I can’t afford to let you hide behind my skirts anymore. Micah kicked you out of our alliance.” I looked across the room to Graham by the door. “Graham, did the other animal groups vote with the leopards?”
“They said pretty much what you’ve said, that they have all lost people or had injuries and the lions just take resources and don’t give anything back.”
“I gave Anita the choice of all our unattached young men. I paraded them out for her like some kind of slave auction.”
I’d been fighting off feeling bad about this decision, until that moment. “Slave auction, is that how you saw it?”
“You’re picking men who will have to have sex with you. If you have no choice, then you’re just a slave.”
“I haven’t fucked any of your young lions.”
He looked at me like he didn’t believe that at all.
“Didn’t you ask them what they did for me?”
“We felt bad enough giving them to you. We didn’t need to hear any details.”
“You self-righteous prig. I didn’t sleep with them because most of them are virgins, or damn close to it. Corrupting the young just doesn’t appeal to me.”
There was a knock on the door. Who could it be this time? Graham opened the door, and standing in the doorway was the reason for Joseph’s fear, and the other reason for me sending the lions back to Chicago that first time. Haven, alias Cookie Monster, walked into the room.
38
HE WAS TALL, and a little slender for my tastes, but a leather trench coat gave him more bulk through the shoulders than I knew he had. His short, spiked hair was still shades of blue like Cookie Monster and spring skies. His eyes were still blue and laughing. He was still handsome. He was still dangerous.
Joseph got to his feet. Wicked and Truth put a hand on either of his arms. He didn’t fight them about it. They just looked toward the other man. They were actually blocking my view at that point. I was okay with that. The less I saw of him, the better.
“It’s against the rules for you to hold him for me.” Haven’s voice was pleasant, as if he were asking about the weather. He probably had a pleasant face to go with the pleasant voice. He could look pleasant