Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [853]
“It chose me,” Nathaniel said, from where he cuddled on the floor.
“Yes,” Auggie said, “there must be more to you than I can see.”
“Perhaps it is love,” Jean-Claude said.
Auggie looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“Perhaps what ma petite needs is not strength of arms and will alone. Perhaps there are other needs to be met.”
Auggie smiled, and for a minute he was the friendly guy who had first stepped into our living room. “You are a romantic at heart, Jean-Claude. It was always your weakness.”
“And my strength,” Jean-Claude said.
Auggie shook his head. “I gave up such things long ago.”
“How sad for you.”
The two vampires stared at each other. It was a long, long look. It was Auggie who turned away, and put his gaze on me. “You come off as hard, but you’re a romantic, too, Anita. I don’t think you have it in you to bind yourself to someone just for power and safety. That’s what we did, Jean-Claude and me. We chose our servants, and our animals, for power. There are dozens, hundreds that come up on the radar over the centuries, but you wait. You wait until you are either desperate enough for the choice to be forced, or you find just the right one to make you powerful.” He motioned at all the men. “Since you don’t choose, your power chooses for you. I must say, it’s got high standards. Since you don’t know how to force your power to choose the one you want it to choose, I don’t think you have the ability to force your power to choose.”
I couldn’t keep my nervousness down. My pulse rate sped up, just a little, and I had to swallow. Auggie would notice it. He would know that his little talk had hit home. He was right. I’d never been able to force the ardeur to choose, or not to choose.
“She forced the ardeur to free me,” Requiem said, from his chair.
“She fought her beast not to choose Haven,” Micah said.
“I think ma petite is finding her footing with her powers, Augustine.”
“Do you truly wish to waste such a powerful alliance with someone who does not rule a pride?”
“Justin is part of Joseph’s male coalition,” I said. “They rule the pride together.”
“But he is still not the dominant to match your wolf or your leopard king, Anita. It seems a shame to settle for a prince when you’ve only bedded kings.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. Because he was right, in one way; Justin didn’t do it for me, or he hadn’t before this. Maybe my lioness would like him better than I would? Part of me was hoping yes, and part of me didn’t want to have to choose at all. If I was a master vampire then I should be able to choose, or not choose. If my power was more vampire than lycanthrope, then I had choices. If my power was more fuzzy than dead, then I was screwed.
45
WE GOT DRESSED in record time. I just gave myself over to the makeup and the primping. There wasn’t time for me to argue. The outfit looked totally impractical, but the corset top was a dancer’s corset. It meant it couldn’t be laced as tight as Jean-Claude might like it, never tight enough to impede breathing, or movement. Jean-Claude told me I’d see similar corsets on the dancers tonight. The shoes had been dyed to match the shiny black of the dress, but they, too, were dancers’ high heels. Made for ballroom dancing, actually, not ballet. When I’d seen the open-toed sandals I’d protested, hell no. There was no way to dance in them, I’d said, but damn me, Jean-Claude had been right. The shoes were actually comfortable.
The corset’s piping was made of tiny diamonds, honest-to-God diamonds. The necklace he put around my neck was platinum and more diamonds. I’d almost asked how much money I was wearing, but decided that I really didn’t want to know. It would have just made me more nervous, and that I did not need.
Jean-Claude’s opera coat flowed like an elegant black cloak, but much more modern, with a short raised collar to frame his face, and the gleaming white of his shirt collar.