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“I need to get this straight, Jean-Claude.”

“Oui, ma petite.”

“You say that what we did was sex, so in effect I had sex with everyone?”

He just nodded.

“You don’t seem at all jealous about that.”

“I was participating, ma petite. Why should I be jealous?”

The answer confused me more. I frowned up at him. “Okay, let me try this again. You say the ardeur may need to be fed more than once a day. We can’t count on you being Johnny-on-the-spot when it happens. I can sleep over here, but . . .”

“You may need to feed when I am not awake. This is very possible, in fact, it is likely.”

“Okay, then what are the rules?”

It was his turn to frown. “What do you mean, ma petite?”

“Rules. I mean like what will make you jealous and what won’t? What, or who, am I supposed to stay away from?”

He started to smile, then stopped. “You are one of the most cynical people I have ever met, the most practical in a life-and-death context, and if you knew some of the people I had met, you would understand the compliment that is. But you are also very earnest, like a child. It is a type of innocence that I do not think you will ever outgrow. But I find it hard to deal with.”

“It’s a fair question.”

“Indeed it is, but most people would not need to ask it so blandly. They would either ignore it and do the best they could when the need arose, or they would ask who among my people will I allow you to have sex with, without becoming angry.”

It made me wince to hear him say it, but . . . “I like the way I phrased the question better.”

“I know. You are simultaneously one of the most direct women I know, and one of the most self-deluding.”

“I am really not liking where this conversation’s going.”

“Fine, but I will answer my question, because it is the truth. If Nathaniel is your pomme de sang, then I will let intimacy with him pass. Jason as my pomme de sang is within his rights to make love with my human servant. It is considered a great gift for a vampire to share his servant with another, and Jason has earned that. He has served me faithfully for many years.”

“I’m not a prize to be given away.”

He held up a hand. “Hush, ma petite, I will answer the question, and I will try for truth, even though you do not want to hear it today. There are many things I would have told you today, if you had been in the mood for truth. But you are right, this we must have clear between us. I would simply have urged you to keep Nathaniel close at hand and let the cards fall as they may, but if you insist on a list, then I will give it to you, but not without reasons. Because I want it clear that I do not share you lightly, and there are men I will not share you with at all.”

He was angry now, and his eyes had bled to sapphire flame. The rest of his body was very still, but the eyes gave it all away. He was in the grip of some strong emotion, probably anger, but I wasn’t sure. And he was shielding like a son of a bitch, so something he was feeling, or thinking, he didn’t want me to share.

“Asher is acceptable.”

He didn’t give the reasons for that one, and I didn’t ask, because there were too many of them, most of them painful.

“If Richard comes to his senses, then of course.” He smoothed his hands down the front of his robe; he often checked his clothes when he was nervous. “The Nimir-Raj will have to be acceptable, because he calls to you. Richard’s beast calls to you through my marks, my ties to him, to it, but the Nimir-Raj, he calls to you, Anita.” My real name again. He was not happy. “He calls to something in you, in your power. It may be that you are truly Nimir-Ra, and the full moon will see it true. Or it may be that, as with Nathaniel, you have found your animal to call. If you are drawn more strongly to all the leopards, then it could be for either reason. Be wary if the leopards are yours to call. It may not merely be Nathaniel and the Nimir-Raj that beckon.”

“Please, don’t tell me that I’m going to turn into slut-girl.”