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“That you’ve got a string of lovers among Jean-Claude’s vamps and the local shapeshifters.”

I really didn’t want to answer this question. Was I embarrassed? Yes. “I don’t see what my love life has to do with the Harlequin coming to town.”

“Let’s just say that the answer to this question will decide me on whether I ask something else, something I didn’t believe. Now I’m beginning to wonder.”

“Wonder what?” I asked.

“Answer the question, Anita—do you have a string of lovers?”

I sighed and said, “Define string.”

“More than two, three, I guess.” He sounded uncertain.

“Yes, then.”

He was quiet for a second, then continued. “That Jean-Claude makes everyone, male or female, fuck him before they can join his kiss.”

“Not true.”

“That he makes the men fuck you?”

“Not true, and someone’s having a better fantasy life with my life than I am.”

He gave a small laugh, then said, “If you had told me no on the first question, I wouldn’t even ask this next one, but here it is. That you’re some kind of daywalking vampire that feeds off sex instead of blood. I don’t believe that one, but I thought you might be interested in what some of your fellow monster hunters are saying about you. I think they’re just jealous of your kill count.”

I swallowed hard, and went back to sit on the edge of the tub.

“Anita,” he said, “you’re awfully quiet.”

“I know.”

“Anita, it’s not true. You’re not a daywalking vamp.”

“Not the vampire part, not exactly.”

“How not exactly?”

“Do you know the term ardeur.”

“I know the French word, but that’s not what you mean, is it?”

I explained, briefly, as coldly as I could, just the facts, what the ardeur was.

“You have to fuck people every few hours, or what?”

“Eventually I die, but before that I start draining the life out of Damian and then Nathaniel.”

“What?”

“I have a vampire servant and an animal to call.”

“What!” I’d never heard him sound so astonished.

I repeated myself.

“There isn’t even a rumor about this, Anita. Human servants can’t have vampire servants; it doesn’t work that way.”

“I know that,” I said.

“Nathaniel is your animal to call?”

“Apparently.”

“Does the council know this?”

“Yep.”

“Well, shit, no wonder they sicced their dogs on you. You’re lucky they didn’t just kill you.”

“The council is divided on the appropriate action to take about Jean-Claude and us.”

“Divided how?”

“Some of them want us dead, but it’s not a majority vote. They can’t agree.”

“So the Harlequin come to break the tie, is that it?” he asked.

“Maybe; honestly, I’m not sure.”

“Is there anything else you’ve done that might make them decide to kill you quicker, like before I can get there?”

I thought about the fact that I might be a panwere. I thought about a lot of things, then sighed. Then I thought of one thing that we’d done that might bother the other Masters of the City in the United States enough to cry for council help. “Maybe.”

“How ‘maybe’? Anita, can you wait for me to get backup, or do I need to get a plane and get my ass to St. Louis? That’s what I need to know.”

“Truth, Edward, I don’t know. Jean-Claude and I did something back in November that was pretty powerful. It might be enough to scare the Harlequin.”

“What did you do?”

“We had a little private get-together with a couple of the visiting Masters of the City. The two that Jean-Claude calls friends.”

“And,” he said.

“And Belle Morte interfered from all the way in Europe. She messed with me and the Master of Chicago.”

“Augustine,” he said. “Auggie to his friends.”

“You know him?”

“Of him,” Edward said.

“Then you know how powerful he is.”

“Yes.”

“We rolled him, Edward.”

“Rolled how?” he asked.

“Jean-Claude and I fed off him; we both fed the ardeur off him. We fed on him, and through him we fed on every person he had brought to our lands. We did this massive feed on them all. It was an amazing power rush, and all of us, vamps, beasties, anyone tied to either Jean-Claude or me by metaphysics, gained power from it.”

“I’ll contact the