Blood Noir - Laurell K. Hamilton [124]
“I was born with these eyes, just like Crispin was born with his. One of the signs that our blood was thinning out genetically is that fewer and fewer children are born with tiger eyes.”
“The eyes mark us as pure bloodline of our clans,” Crispin said.
“Your blue eyes look human enough,” I said.
“If you don’t know what you’re looking at, yeah.” He had the robe on now, though he hadn’t tied it in place, so his body was framed by the white cloth. It was whiter than his skin, but not whiter than his hair.
“Out,” Richard said, adding, “please,” with a glance at my face. It wasn’t a happy look.
“It’s not your room, Richard.”
“No, it’s yours and Jason’s.” He didn’t have that taste of rage that comments like that usually came with, but he still wasn’t happy. I guess I couldn’t blame him, and that, right there, was part of the problem. Part of me still agreed with Richard. You were supposed to grow up, find that special someone, marry them, and live happily ever after, till death do you part. Once, I’d believed that down to my toes. Now, I knew it wasn’t going to happen for me. I didn’t miss the wedding. Those always seemed like an expensive pain in the ass, but the concept of one single person being the be-all, end-all for you…that I missed.
“Do you really want us to go?” Crispin asked, and there was that wistful note in his voice that most of us grow out of by the time we get to be twenty-one.
I smiled, because that tone of voice made you either smile or want to kick someone’s ass. “Go with Alex. Clean up. Get some clothes. Call the room, and we’ll see how I’m feeling, okay?”
His face crumbled a little around the edges. Again, it was a younger gesture. I had a bad idea. “Are you absolutely sure you’re twenty-one?”
“I would never lie to you, Anita. If you really are my queen, then I won’t ever be able to lie to you.”
Alex took Crispin’s arm and started them toward the door. “We need to go.”
Jamil held out a pair of sunglasses. Alex looked almost startled, then took them. “Thank you.”
“They aren’t cheap, so I want them back in one piece.”
Alex actually looked at the side of the glasses. “Dolce and Gabbana, these must have set you back a few hundred. I’ll treat them like the luxury item they are, thanks again.”
Jamil said, “We have some people in our pack who can’t go back to full human form. It’s a pain in the ass.”
“You don’t need to chat, Jamil,” Richard said.
Alex gave a little bow in his direction. “Good night for now, Ulfric. I am truly sorry if I distressed you.”
“Anita,” Crispin said, “please don’t send me away. Please let me stay with you, please.”
I knew that tone of voice. Shit.
“You’ve rolled him completely, the way you did Requiem,” Richard said. I looked into his face expecting to see anger, but there was only something close to sorrow. Resignation, maybe.
“Not a topic for company,” I said.
Alex stopped them just short of the door, with the taller man, Crispin, staring back at me like a child being dragged away from the fair too soon. God, please, not another one.
“This may not be vampire powers. Her call was that of a powerful tigress, a queen. Young males who have never mated before are more susceptible to the call of a queen. They are addicted to her until she chooses among them. When she chooses one over the others, then it’s like the pheromones, hormones, whatever, go back to normal levels and the ones she didn’t pick are free of her influence.”
“I’ve never heard of this,” I said.
“The only tigers I’ve met have been survivors of attacks, and it doesn’t work for them like that,” Richard said.
Jamil and Shang-Da agreed.
“But they aren’t born tigers. In fact, most queens will kill a weretiger who deliberately brings over a full human against their will. It’s considered a great gift to be invited to join a clan when you aren’t born to it.”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I said.
“If you truly sent out a call this powerful by accident, Anita, it will happen again. It’s not a conscious thing always. It happens when you come into your power. Sometimes at puberty, but most of the time