Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [857]
Jean-Claude nodded. “Tell Narcissus I appreciate the notice.”
Ajax gave a small head bow, much like his master had done before, then walked off through the tables.
“What was all that about?” I asked.
“It would be considered rude to do something magical during someone else’s performance. I told Narcissus that we would be calling some . . . power.”
I must have looked as suspicious as I felt. “You are beginning to piss me off with this cloak-and-dagger magic act.”
“You are a necromancer, and I am the Master Vampire of this city. Do you really believe that we can merge our powers and not have every undead in this room, and more, notice it? I do not know if the shapeshifters will be able to feel it, but it is likely, since we are also both bound to a werewolf. Everything nonhuman in this club will feel something. I don’t know how much, or exactly what, but something, ma petite. Narcissus would have taken it as a grave insult if we had interrupted this performance without warning him.”
“I don’t mean to rush you,” Asher said, “but you will use up your time in talking if you are not quick about it.”
Jean-Claude looked at him, and the look was not entirely friendly. What was happening between them that Jean-Claude would give such a look to Asher?
Jean-Claude held his hand out to me. I hesitated a second, then slid my hand into his and he led me to the wall near the table. “Now what?” I asked.
“Now you must drop your shields, ma petite, that so-strong barrier you have erected between me and your aura.”
I just stared at him. “I don’t want to do that.”
“I would not ask if it were not necessary, ma petite. But even if I were able to do it, neither of us would enjoy me breaking down your shielding. We cannot merge our auras if my aura cannot touch yours.”
I was suddenly scared. Really seriously scared. I didn’t know what would happen if I dropped the shields with him right there. In times of crisis our auras flared together forming a unique whole. I didn’t want to do this. I am a control freak, and everything about Jean-Claude ate at the part of me that most needed control.
“I’m not sure I can do this.”
He sighed. “It is your choice. I will not force it, but I fear the consequences, ma petite. I do fear them.”
Marianne had given me the lecture, and it was really too late to get cold feet. I could either move forward with this, or eventually one of us would die. Probably me. Part of my job was going up against preternatural monsters—things with enough magic to sense a hole in my defenses. Before I’d ever been able to sense auras, or at least before I knew that I was doing it, my aura had been intact. With my own natural talent, that had been enough. But lately I seemed to be running up against bigger, badder monsters. Eventually, I would lose. That, I might have been able to live with, sort of. But costing Jean-Claude or Richard their lives? That I couldn’t handle. I knew all the reasons I should do this, and still I stood there gazing up at Jean-Claude, my heart beating in my throat, my shields tight in place. The front part of my brain knew this needed doing. The back part of my brain wasn’t so sure.
“Once I drop my shield, then what?”
“We touch,” he said.
I took a deep breath in and blew it out as if I were about to run a race. Then I dropped my shields. It wasn’t like tearing down the stone walls; it was like absorbing them back into my psyche. The tower was just suddenly not there, and Jean-Claude’s power crashed over me. It wasn’t only that I felt the sexual attraction in full force, I could feel his heartbeat in my head. I could taste his skin in my mouth. I knew he’d fed tonight, though intellectually I’d known that when I heard his heart beating. Now, I could feel that he was well fed and full of someone else’s blood.
His hand moved towards me, and I flattened against the wall. The hand kept moving, and I pulled away from