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“I don’t think Travis feels well enough to walk back to Dr. Lillian,” Noel said. “What if we give our word that we won’t tell anyone what you say?”

“You are young and live in a time where you do not truly understand what it means to give your word,” Jean-Claude said.

“Besides,” Micah said, “if Joseph ordered you to tell him, you’d have no choice.”

Travis let out a long shaking breath, cradling his arm against his body. “Help me up, Noel.”

“What can be so private that you’re making him move?” I asked.

“We could move,” Nathaniel said.

“Yeah,” I said, “all the able-bodied, except for Noel, follow me.”

“Are you really going to let her make us all move, so the lion won’t have to?” Auggie said.

I stopped a few steps beyond the group, because only Nathaniel and Micah were following me. Claudia was looking from Jean-Claude to me, and the rest of the guards were looking to her. We were deep into the pissing contest and Claudia was trying to decide what would help and what would hurt.

I pointed a finger at Auggie. “I’m getting tired of you.” I switched the finger to Jean-Claude. “Please, tell me you are not going to grandstand to save face in front of Auggie. It will cost us nothing to move down the hallway.”

“He lost a fight,” Auggie said, “it should hurt.”

I waved a hand at him, as if waving him away. “I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to my master, thank you very much. Jean-Claude?”

It wasn’t so much that I could see him think it through, because his face was perfect and unreadable. But I’d been staring at that empty face for years now. It was almost like I could feel him thinking it through.

He gave a small nod. “Very well.” He went to me, and I held out my hand to reward this show of common sense.

“I see the local Rex isn’t the only one pussy-whipped around here,” Auggie said.

I started to get angry, but Jean-Claude pulled on my hand. He told me with a glance that he’d take care of it. He turned those dark-blue eyes on Auggie, and said, “And if you knew that she would cover you in the ardeur, and love your body, would you stay here, or would you go where she wished you to go?”

Auggie stared at him for a second, then started shaking his head, over and over again. He walked toward us, then kept walking. He walked into the far hallway, and kept walking until he was lost to sight.

“When he faces us again, ma petite, he will have his people at his back. I do not think he will risk himself alone with us again.”

I squeezed Jean-Claude’s hand. It made him look at me. “I don’t think he’s afraid of being pussy-whipped,” I said.

Jean-Claude actually managed to look humble. “Perhaps not.”

41

“WHAT DO YOU mean, I was about to bind Requiem to me forever?” We were having our super-secret meeting in the hallway. It was empty, and I didn’t want to walk all the way back to Jean-Claude’s room.

“I have tried to teach you different ways to feed, ma petite, and you have learned well.”

I could have argued that, but I let it go. “Just explain what you said, Jean-Claude. You don’t have to protect my ego, just say it.”

“You have fed on Requiem, but always before you were holding back, or I was so deeply emmeshed with you when you did it, that I was in some way controlling what happened.”

I nodded. “And?”

“It is possible to know the innermost desire of a person. The ardeur can give you a glimpse into his soul.”

“I know that, it happens a lot.”

He shook his head. “But that is exactly the point, ma petite, it should not happen a lot.”

“But it does; that’s how the ardeur works when I feed completely.”

He shook his head again. “Non, ma petite, it is not necessary to know someone’s heart’s desire to feed completely.”

“It makes a better feeding, more energy, if you know their deepest wish and give it to them.”

He nodded. “Oui, but what is the rule for all the gifts of my bloodline?”

I frowned at him. “I don’t…oh, that they’re two-edged swords. All of Belle’s powers cut both ways.”

“Oui.”

I was still staring at him. “If you have a point to make, please make it, because