Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [554]
Richard guided my body to Nathaniel’s. My bare breasts touched Nathaniel’s chest, a brush of velvet skin against the torn flesh of his smooth chest. I shuddered against him, and that heat spilled from my bare skin. At first it was as if my naked flesh rode above his skin on a pool of sweat, then I felt the flesh give. My body fell against his with a sigh, and it was as if our bodies became plastic, liquid. Our bodies melded together into one flesh, one body, as if I were sinking into his chest. I felt our hearts touch, beating liquid against one another. I healed his heart, closed his flesh with mine.
Nathaniel’s mouth found mine, and the power flowed between us like breath until it raised the skin from my body, and there was nothing but his arms around me, his mouth on me, my hands on his body, and distant like an anchor I felt Richard, and beyond him the rest of the pack. I felt them offer their energy, their power, and I took it. And beyond that, distant as a dream, I felt Jean-Claude. I felt his cool power join with ours and strengthen; life from death. I took it all and thrust it into Nathaniel until he tore his mouth from mine and cried out. I felt his body give under mine, and his pleasure rushed over my skin, and I threw it out into the waiting pack. I took their energy and gave them back pleasure.
The munin left me in that rush of startled voices. Raina had never been able to take power from others. That was my doing. So even the bitch of the west had never pleasured this many people at once.
I sat up, still straddling Nathaniel. He looked up at me with his lilac eyes and smiled. I ran my hands over his chest, and there was no wound, only a healing scar. He still looked pale and awful, but he’d live.
Richard offered me the dress shirt I’d dropped. I slipped it over my breasts and buttoned it. I didn’t know what had happened to the rest of the clothes. Jason had my shoulder holster and knife. The important stuff.
When I tried to stand, I stumbled, and only Richard’s arms kept me standing. He helped me through the crowd. They touched me as we moved through, running their hands along me. I didn’t mind or didn’t care. I put my arm around Richard’s waist and accepted it for tonight. I’d worry about what it all meant tomorrow, or maybe even the next day.
Verne stepped out of the crowd. “Damn girl, you are good.”
Roxanne was at his side. “I’m healed. How did you do that?”
I smiled. “Talk to Marianne.” I kept walking.
The paramedics were rushing forward. I heard the woman say, “Holy shit! It’s a miracle.” And maybe it was.
Richard said, “I won’t be looking for another lupa.”
I hugged him. “No more auditions?”
“You are my lupa, Anita. Together we could be the most powerful mated pair I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s not just the two of us that make us powerful, Richard. It’s Jean-Claude.”
He kissed me on the forehead. “I felt him when you called the power. I felt him give his power to us.”
We’d stopped walking. I turned to look at him in the moonlight. “We are a threesome, Richard, like it or not.”
“A ménage à trois,” he said.
I raised my eyebrows. “Not unless you’ve been doing more than just talking with Jean-Claude.”
Richard laughed and hugged me. “He hasn’t corrupted me quite that far.”
“Glad to hear it.” We walked down the hill, holding each other. Charlotte was lying at the bottom of the hill on a stretcher.
She reached her hands up to both of us. One of the hands was thickly bandaged. She smiled up at us. “Why didn’t you tell me, Richard?”
“I thought it would make a difference. I thought you would stop loving me.”
“Silly ass,” she said.
“That’s what I told him,” I said.
Charlotte started to cry softly, pressing Richard’s hand to her lips. I just smiled and held her hand. Life wasn’t perfect, but