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By Root 3412 0

Funny how quickly I could go from wanting to jump his bones to wanting to be rid of him. Of course, it wasn’t exactly him, but more the complications that came with him. The mystical stuff between us was never simple. He said that was my fault, and maybe it was. Jean-Claude was a pretty standard Master Vampire, and Richard, a pretty standard Ulfric. They were both wonderfully powerful, but there was nothing too terribly extraordinary in their powers. Well, there was one thing about Jean-Claude. He could gain power by feeding off sexual energy. In another century he’d have been called an incubus. It’s rare even for a Master Vamp to have a secondary way to gain power outside of blood. So it was impressive, sort of. The only other masters I’d met who could feed off of something other than blood had fed on terror. And of the two, I preferred lust. At least no one had to bleed for it. Usually. But I was the wild card, the one whose powers seemed to fit nothing but legends of necromancers long dead. Legends so old that no one believed they could be true, until I came along. Sad, but true.

The table had cleared out while we were whispering. Now just Jason and one other man were there. The man was dressed in brown leather, from what I could see of his pants to the zipped-front, sleeveless shirt he was wearing. He was also wearing one of those hoods that left your mouth, part of your nose, and your eyes bare, but covered the rest of your face. Frankly, I found the hoods creepy, but hey, it wasn’t my bread that was being buttered. As long as he didn’t try anything with me, we were cool. It wasn’t until he looked up into my face that I recognized those pale, pale blue eyes—the startling ice blue eyes of a Siberian Husky. No human I’d ever met had eyes like that.

“Asher,” I said.

He smiled then, and I recognized the curve of his lips. I knew why he’d worn the hood. It wasn’t sexual preference, or at least I didn’t think so. It was to hide the scars. Once, about two hundred years ago, some well-meaning church officials had tried to burn the devil out of Asher. They’d done it with holy water. Holy water is like acid on vampire flesh. He’d once been, in his own way, as breathtaking as Jean-Claude. Now half his face was a melted ruin, half his chest, most of the one thigh I’d seen. What I’d seen of the rest of him was perfect, as perfect as the day he died. And the parts I hadn’t seen, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know about. Through Jean-Claude’s marks I had memories of Asher before. I knew what his body looked like in smooth perfection—every inch of it. Asher and his human servant, Julianna, had been part of a ménage a` trois with Jean-Claude for about twenty years. She’d been burned as a witch, and Jean-Claude had only been able to save Asher after the damage had been done.

The events were over two hundred years old, yet they both still mourned Julianna, and each other. Asher was now Jean-Claude’s second in command, but they were not lovers. And they were uneasy friends, because there was still too much left unspoken between them. Asher still blamed Jean-Claude for failing them, and Jean-Claude had a hard time arguing with that, because deep down he still blamed himself, too.

I leaned down and gave Asher a quick kiss on the leather cheek. “What did you do with all your long hair? Please tell me you haven’t cut it.”

He raised my hand to his mouth and laid a gentle kiss on it. “It is braided, and longer than ever.”

“I can hardly wait to see it,” I said. “Thanks for coming.”

“I would move all of hell to reach your side, you know that.”

“You French guys do talk pretty,” I said.

He laughed softly.

Jason interrupted. “I think the show is about to start.”

I turned and watched a woman being led towards the framework that had been erected. She was wearing a robe, and I really didn’t want to see what was under it.

“Whatever we’re going to do, let’s do it and go get the leopards.”

“You don’t want to see the show?” Jason asked. His eyes were all innocent, but his smile was teasing.

I just frowned at him. But his eyes looked behind