Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [956]
“I’m not sure,” Claudia said.
Soledad found her voice. “That was not a weretiger.”
I tried to sit up, and Micah had to help me. Richard moved in on the other side to help me sit between them. “It was Marmee Noir,” I said.
“Who?” Soledad asked.
“The Mother of All Darkness, the queen of the vampires.”
“It smelled like tiger, not vampire,” she said.
“Tigers are one of her animals to call,” I said.
Soledad shook her head and leaned against Claudia for a moment. “All right, I admit it, I don’t feel so good.”
“Why didn’t she bring her beast?” Nathaniel asked.
“Anita isn’t a weretiger, so the tiger couldn’t be as real as the rest of the beasts,” Micah said.
“What do you mean?” Richard asked.
“We’d been wondering if Anita is picking up beasts because she survived attacks, or if it’s vampire powers, and she’ll collect animals to call as if they are types of lycanthropy. I think this answers the question. She’s never been attacked by a weretiger, and Chimera didn’t hold tiger as one of his shapes.”
“So why try to call tiger?” Richard said. “Why not call one of the cats Anita already has?”
“I don’t know,” Micah said.
I had a thought. “She’s been inside my head deep enough to know that I didn’t think we had a tiger nearby. She said she wanted to make me hers, but if she couldn’t have me, then…”
“She meant for the tiger to tear you apart,” Richard said, softly.
“Or she was trying to make you a tiger from a distance,” Soledad said. “I don’t think she knew what would happen. I don’t think she cared what would happen. The power that brushed me didn’t think like a tiger.”
“What did it think like?” I asked.
“A serial killer, a butcher. Tigers only hunt when they’re hungry. This thing hunts because it’s bored.”
“Yeah,” I said, “that sounds like Mommie Dark. Sorry you got a taste of her, Soledad.”
She gave a weak smile. “My job to take the hits for you, right?” But she was pale, and looked as close to fainting as I thought I’d ever see one of the guards.
“Chimera might not have been a tiger,” Remus said, “but he did hold hyena, snake, and bear, at least those three more. Why doesn’t Anita react to them, too?”
Micah shrugged. “She’s never been attacked by them. She seems to need to be bled by an animal first.” He stroked his hand down my bare back. It reminded me that we were nude, but strangely because everyone else treated it like it was nothing, so could I.
Richard settled in closer to my other side, as if that one touch of Micah’s made him have to touch me, too. Or maybe he was just nervous and letting himself take comfort. I looked for bad motives for Richard. I didn’t mean to do it, but he’d hurt me so badly and so often that I finally realized I looked for the negative in him, not the positive. I took a deep breath in and let it out slow.
“You all right?” Remus asked, but his eyes did a slide to each side of me, as if he knew what was wrong.
I nodded, and the movement was too fast. I ached, but it was sharper than that. The pain would fade, but damn, I didn’t know how the real wereanimals did it. Changing completely had to hurt worse than this in-between stuff.
Remus asked, “Do you know why you don’t react to all of Chimera’s animal forms?”
“Jean-Claude thinks maybe I need a vamp with that animal to call to mess with me before the beast rises.”
“So a combination of the attacks you’ve survived and vamp powers,” he said.
“Something like that,” I said.
Richard moved his hand across my shoulders, drawing me in against his body, and away from Micah. I tried not to tense up, but failed. He stopped in midmotion and just kept his hand on me. The movement that had been so natural was suddenly awkward. Awkward moments when I’m naked make me want clothes.
“Then you should react to us, the hyenas, because we’re Asher’s animal to call and he has messed with you, Anita. Messed with you so much he almost killed you.”
I tried not to think about Asher, tried not