Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [1070]
He wasn’t feeding Jean-Claude. I don’t think the Master of the City fed off humans anymore, not when he could have lycanthrope. But there were other vampires under the Circus, and they had to eat, too.
Micah walked beside me. Merle, Bobby Lee, and Cris had a disagreement about exactly where they were going to walk. They finally settled on Cris walking with Ernie ahead of us and Merle and Bobby Lee walking just behind us. Everyone else sort of trailed behind, including Caleb. None of the bodyguards seemed to give a shit if the others lived or died. I was pretty sure that the bodyguard thing was going to get on my nerves soon, like tonight.
The huge metal door at the end of the stairs was open, waiting. It was usually kept locked for security purposes. My stomach clenched so tight that it hurt. I just didn’t know how to handle this. Did I kiss Jean-Claude hello? Did I touch Micah in front of him? Oh, hell.
“Did you say something?” Micah asked.
“Not on purpose,” I said.
He looked a question at me, and that did it. I would behave like I always did. I would do exactly what I’d do if the other one wasn’t there. To do anything else was going to have us all walking on pins and needles. Besides, I’d been careful with Richard and Jean-Claude, and look where that ended up. I didn’t want the same mistakes again. Maybe we could make new ones.
49
THERE WERE SILVER drapes just inside the door. That was new. Ernie parted the drapes and led us into Jean-Claude’s living room. Once upon a time it had been black and white drapes, and a smaller area, but now it was white, silver, and gold. White drapes, silk and sheer, hung like a hallway that led into something that looked like a huge fairytale tent. The stone walls and ceiling that I knew were there, were hidden by yards and yards of gold and silver cloth. It was like standing in the middle of a jewel box. The coffee table had been painted gold and white and made to look antique, or maybe it was the real deal. A crystal bowl sat in the center of the table with a spill of white carnations and baby’s breath.
A huge white couch sat against the far drapes, so covered in silver and gold pillows that some of the pillows had fallen to the white carpeted floor. Two overstuffed chairs were in opposite corners, one gold, one silver, with white pillows on each.
The fireplace looked real, but I knew it wasn’t because it had been added later, but it was everything a fireplace should have been, except it was painted white. There was even a new marble mantel that was white with veins of silver and gold, ordered to match.
The only thing that hadn’t changed was the portrait above the fireplace. The first thing you saw was Julianna, sitting, dressed in silver and white, half-laughing, brown hair done in careful ringlets. Asher stood behind her in gold and white, his face still perfect, his gold hair in ringlets longer than hers, his mustache and Vandyke beard a blond so dark it was almost brown. Jean-Claude sat behind Julianna, the only one of the three not smiling, solemn, dressed in black and silver. He’d designed the room around the painting—silver and gold and white.
“Wow.” Caleb said it for us all.
I’d seen Jean-Claude’s sense of style before, but every once in a while he’d amaze even me. Then I felt him coming towards us. I felt him coming and that wasn’t a good thing. I’d expected anger, jealousy, but what was moving towards me was simply lust, need. He could shield better than this. Was this my punishment, to be drowned in his lust? If so, he’d misjudged me, because it was just going to piss me off.
He pushed through white and silver drapes, and for a moment I couldn’t see where his clothes began and the cloth ended. He was wearing a silver frock coat with white edging, white buttons. His shirt was a spill of white froth, the pants, what I could see of them, were white, but the white leather boots covered almost all of