Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [770]
“If another master had bespelled Requiem, what would you do, ma petite?” Jean-Claude said.
I thought about it, frowning. “I would try to break the spell. I would use my necromancy and try to break the spell.”
“Exactement.”
“But, I did it. I can’t break my own spell, can I?”
“Why can you not?”
I thought about it again. “Because…well.”
“It is not your necromancy that has bespelled him, ma petite, but your power through the vampire marks, through me. Use your necromancy to free him, as you used your ties to the wolf to free you from Marmee Noir.”
It made sense, but…“I don’t know.”
He spoke softly in my head. “You broke Willie McCoy free of the Traveller when he had possessed Willie’s body. You used your necromancy to drive him out.”
Willie was one of our least powerful vampires. He was manager at the Laughing Corpse, our comedy club. The Traveller was one of the vampire council. He had come to town in “person,” except that he traveled by jumping from body to body. He could use any vampire body that wasn’t strong enough to keep him out. He had possessed Willie, and tried to use him to hurt me. I had used my blood and my tie to Willie to find him in the dark where the Traveller had hidden him. Find him and bring him back to himself.
I thought carefully, because I was still not that good at the mind-to-mind thing, “I’d accidentally raised Willie from his coffin during the day once. I already had a tie to him that I don’t have to Requiem.”
He whispered through my mind, “Through the ardeur you have a bond to him that you did not have with Willie.”
“How can I use necromancy to break him free of the ardeur, if I’m counting on the ardeur to be his bond to me. That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Perhaps the logic is a bit circular, but what do you have to lose, ma petite?” He spoke aloud, finally. “Look at him.”
I pressed as much of me against as much of Jean-Claude as I could, then turned and looked at Requiem. He watched us like a man who was dying of thirst, and was only inches away from a cool, soothing pool, but there was a glass wall between him and it. I finally realized something. “It’s not just the ardeur he’s craving. It’s the blood. He’s hurt and he needs blood.”
Jean-Claude ran his hands up and down my back in soothing motions. “Oui, but the ardeur overrides the other thirst.”
“I thought that wasn’t possible,” I said.
“I have seen it with Belle. I have seen her give ardeur to vampires while they neglected their blood hunger, to the point where, one night, they did not rise from their coffins.”
“She did it on purpose,” I said.
“She wished to see if the ardeur alone was enough to sustain other vampires. She had hoped to travel with us across Europe, but the marks of blood taking give us away. The ardeur leaves no trace.”
I stared at Requiem. “Nothing physical.”
“Oui, there are signs, but nothing the authorities would have recognized. Nothing that would have given away her plan.”
“But it didn’t work,” I said.
“She could share her ardeur with others, so they could feed upon it. She could sustain herself with it for long periods, as can I, but unless the ardeur is truly your gift to own, then it does not work.”
“The Traveller…” He stopped me with a hand on my mouth.
He spoke in my head, again, “Quietly, ma petite.”
I thought, “You said, no mind-to-mind, that some of the other vamp masters might overhear us.”
“They are still dead to the world, but the people in this room can hear us.”
“You don’t trust them?”
“I would not like to have it well known that you were able to force a member of the council to do anything.”
He had a point. I thought, slowly, carefully, “The Traveller was taking blood from me when I called Willie. I called him with the blood.”
“Then feed our Requiem.”
I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. “He’s fed from me once; what if drinking my blood is part of the problem? Asher thinks that any vampire who feeds