Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [1010]
I knelt beside them and was almost the same height as Stephen. I met that pale gaze, that demand, and said, “I’m going to try and heal him.”
It was Caleb who said, “If Micah couldn’t heal him, why do you think you can?”
I didn’t even bother glancing back at him. “It doesn’t hurt to try.”
“You haven’t seen your first full moon,” Merle said. “You can’t call flesh and heal him, not yet, maybe not ever. Calling flesh to heal is a rare talent.”
I did look at Merle. “I’m not going to call flesh, I’m not even sure how that works.”
“Then how will you heal him?” Merle asked.
“With the munin.”
“How will a werewolf ghost help you heal a wereleopard?”
I shook my head. “I’ve healed the leopards before using the munin.”
“You’ve healed Nathaniel,” Cherry said, “twice, but no one else.”
“If it works for one of you, it should work for all of you,” I said.
Cherry was frowning.
“What’s wrong?”
“You heal with Raina, everything was sex with her, and you want Nathaniel in that way. You’ve never been attracted to Gregory.”
I shrugged. She was pretty much voicing the same doubts that I had, but hearing them out loud made them sound worse. I felt more doubtful that I could do it and more slutty because I needed sexual attraction to heal. But I was getting over the slutty feeling. If I could save both Gregory’s hearing and his life, a little embarrassment wasn’t too high a price to pay.
I looked down at Gregory, still huddled in a tight fetal ball around Stephen’s lap and waist. He held on as if his brother were the last solid thing in the universe, as if, if he let go he’d swirl away and be lost.
I touched his hair, lightly, and he moved his face so that he could see me through a tangle of pale curls. I swept the curls away from his face. It was a gesture you used for a child. I’d hated Gregory once because of some things he’d done when Raina and Gabriel were still alive. But the moment they were dead and he knew he had a choice, he’d stopped doing most of them. Had he made me Nimir-Ra on purpose? Staring into his wide blue eyes I didn’t believe that. It wasn’t naı¨veté, it was a surety that Gregory just wasn’t that dominant. To decide, even in a split second, to change the status quo that profoundly was just beyond him. He’d debate, or ask advice, or ask permission, but he wouldn’t make a unilateral decision without some feedback. I knew this about Gregory. Richard didn’t.
I touched his face, cupping it, raising it so he’d meet my eyes without having to do that eye roll that unnerved me. Just too subservient for my taste. I stared into that beautiful face, let my gaze glide over the fall of curls, the line of his back, the curl of his hip, but I felt nothing. I could appreciate his beauty, but I tried very hard to think of my leopards as neuter. You can be someone’s friend and have sex with them. The trick is you have to want their emotional and physical well-being more than you want to fuck them. If you cross that line and want sex more than their happiness, then you aren’t their friend. Their lover maybe, but not their friend.
But it was more than that. Cherry was right, Gregory had never moved me in that way. I sighed and moved my hand back from him. “What’s wrong?” Stephen asked.
“He’s pretty to look at, but . . .”
Stephen almost smiled. “But you need more than just a pretty face to lust after.”
I shrugged. “Sometimes my life would be simpler if I didn’t, but yeah.”
“I remember I had to talk you through the first time you healed Nathaniel,” he said, voice soft.
I nodded. “I remember too.”
Gregory sat up, watching us both, trying to read our lips, I think. There was something frantic about the way he tried to decipher what we were saying. God, please let me help