Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [537]
“Are you alright?” Smith and Wicked asked at the same time. Smith glared at the vampire, but Wicked’s face was neutrally handsome.
“Just been donating a little too much blood lately. I’m fine.” To prove it, I stepped back from Truth’s hand. I took a few deep breaths, and I was steady. But I was really going to have to see if I could go at least a night without opening a vein.
“I felt your master’s power,” Wicked said. “My brother is bound to him, but I am not. You promised you would take us both.”
“I will, Jean-Claude will, but not tonight. This blood bank is closed for the night.”
Wicked gave me a look that said he neither believed nor trusted me. His brother was simply standing beside him, as if he’d levitated to his feet. Maybe he had. He hugged Wicked one-armed across the shoulders. “She’ll do what she promised.” Truth was smiling.
“Why, because she helped you fight off the ardeur?”
“Partly.”
Wicked shook his head. “You must be even better than that felt, for Truth to trust you this much.”
“I saved his life, that tends to impress people.”
“Not him, not Truth.”
“Fine, but I’ve got to go question a murder suspect, right now.”
“We’ll go with you,” Truth said.
“Sorry, police business. Thanks for trying to catch the bad guy.”
“Your power called to us when you touched Avery,” Truth said.
“So when I said, catch him, you had to do it?”
They both nodded.
“Sorry about that.”
“I’m not,” Truth said.
Wicked gave me another cynical look. “I’ll let you know. I’m not sorry, yet.”
“Look, I give you my word that as soon as humanly possible I will give you to Jean-Claude.”
“Give me?”
I frowned. “I give my word that as soon as humanly possible I will see that you will be bound to our Master of the City, good enough?”
“Promise me that you will bind me as you bound my brother.”
“I just did.”
“No, you didn’t. For all I know you could pass me off to someone else in your master’s household. My brother and I go together. To go together, we must go in the same way.”
I wished I’d had Jean-Claude to ask, was there a problem with this promise, but he was busy making all the customers at Guilty Pleasures happy. I thought about what he’d asked, and I couldn’t see the problem with it, so, I said, “Okay, I promise that I’ll bind you like I did your brother. Happy now?”
He gave a small nod, with an even smaller smile.
“Then leave a card or number at one of Jean-Claude’s clubs, and we’ll arrange another meeting.”
“We’ll be there,” Wicked said.
“Yes,” Truth said, “yes, we will be there.”
I turned toward the door and the other room. Smith came at my back. I reached my hand out to him. “Gun,” I said.
He handed me my gun. I holstered it and kept walking toward the other room and the waiting bad guy and police. I had a vague feeling that I’d missed something just now with Wicked and Truth. “The Wicked Truth” Jean-Claude had called them, why? Just because they killed their bloodline? Or had I missed something. Something I’d regret missing later. I ran it over in my head, and all I had promised was to let Wicked take my blood and bind himself to Jean-Claude and me. That’s all I’d promised, so why did I feel like the brothers were going to expect more than I’d offered. I thought, Jean-Claude, what did I just do?
To my surprise, he answered carefully, as if he were shielding me. “We have our warriors, ma petite, just as you wished.”
“You can’t be done feeding the ardeur, yet.”
“Non, but I remember Wicked, of old, and I thought it foolish not to check on you one more time.”
“You’re holding the ardeur in check while you talk to me mind-to-mind, in a room full of lusty women?”
“Oui.”
“Nice to know our little three-way gained you something.”
“You make it sound as if you gained nothing, ma petite. It is you who called the Wicked Truth to us, to you, before they came to my hand. You said only last night that we needed people that could