Blood Noir - Laurell K. Hamilton [123]
Jason started untying the sash without being asked twice. He handed the robe to Alex. “I’ll go shower.” He just turned and went for the bathroom.
Alex handed the robe to Crispin. He didn’t take it. He actually clasped me a little closer to him. “If we are not here to help her escape his powers, then he will have her and chase us out.”
“Your word, Ulfric, that you won’t touch her while we’re gone.”
“You have no right to ask that,” Richard said.
“No, but something is going on here, something different. You gain powers if you are a vampire’s animal to call, but you don’t gain the powers that you and Anita are gaining. That’s not part of the deal. Yet I saw you bespell her. I felt her roll me like a cheap date. Roll me partway like a weretigress, and part like a vampire. Again, very weird.”
He gazed at the floor as if the answer lay somewhere on the carpet. “I need to give my paper something, or they are going to bitch about the hotel bill. They only footed it because the Summerlands are staying here. Their personal home is a museum now to the history of the family and the town’s founding.”
“They’re that big a deal?” I said.
He smiled at me. “You truly don’t pay attention to the media, do you?”
“Not really.” I moved away from Crispin, took the robe from Alex, and handed it to him.
“You really want me to leave?” Crispin sounded hurt. The tone of voice, something about his expression made me put him on the far side of twenty-five. I’d thought he was older.
“I need some space, Crispin.”
“How old are you?” Richard asked.
Crispin looked at him, then back to me as if to ask, did he have to answer him? I nodded, and he answered, just like that. Obedient, almost disturbingly so.
“Twenty-one.”
“You do like them young, Anita.”
“Nathaniel is the same age.”
“I think that’s my point,” Richard said. “At least I’m dating people closer to my own age.”
I turned and gave him an unfriendly look. “If we’re going to fight, you can leave, too.”
A look passed over his face. He had to try twice before he spoke, and the first two times didn’t sound anything like what he finally said. “You aren’t safe alone.”
“I’m beginning to not feel very safe with any of you in the room.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that the vampire marks have gone all weird again, and I don’t know why. It means I’m tired. It means I hurt. It means that I need to find the charm. It has to be somewhere in the room. It means I need to get dressed.” I spotted the Browning on the carpet where I’d apparently dropped it when Richard had rolled me with his touch and gaze. I picked it up. “I dropped my gun, Richard, and didn’t remember doing it. I forgot everything but you. Love doesn’t make me forget that I’m armed, but vampire gaze can.”
“He tried to trick you,” Crispin said.
“Go,” I said, “go to Alex’s room, clean up.”
“Can we come back here when we’re done?” Crispin asked.
“I don’t know, call me first.”
“I’m going back to work once I put in my spare brown contacts,” Alex said.
“You do that.”
“Why do you sound angry?” Alex asked.
“Everything makes her angry,” Richard answered, before I could say anything.
I suddenly wanted to be alone. I wanted them all gone. Fuck them all, or rather, not fuck them all. Jesus, but I needed to catch my breath, and I wasn’t sure I could do that with a crowd around me.
“You two, out.” I actually gave Alex a little push toward the door. “You”—I pointed at Richard—“behave, or you are so out of here.”
“You aren’t safe alone,” he repeated.
“Maybe not, or maybe it’s time I found out if I’m safe alone. We’ve been surrounding me with wereanimals for months and it hasn’t helped. Maybe I need fewer of you around me.”
“May I borrow a pair of sunglasses, before I go?” Alex asked.
“Sunglasses won’t make the robe look any better, babe,” Jamil said.
“It’s to hide the eyes,” Alex said.
“You must like being in your tiger form,