Burnt Offerings - Laurell K. Hamilton [122]
He pressed his lips to my hand, eyes closed, almost as if he were resting. For a second I thought he’d passed out, but his tongue flicked out, a quick wetness.
I jerked back, fighting the urge to wipe my hand on my jeans. “Thanks, a handshake would have been fine.”
He frowned up at me. “But you’re our léoparde lionné,” he said.
“So people keep telling me,” I said.
He turned his head so he could see Stephen. “You lied to me.” Tears trembled in his pale, pale eyes. “She won’t feed us.”
I looked at Stephen. “I have missed part of this conversation, haven’t I?”
“Have you seen Richard share blood with the pack?”
I started to say no, then, “I saw him let Jason feed off of a knife wound once. Jason seemed almost drugged from it.”
Stephen nodded. “That’s it. Gabriel could share blood.”
My eyes widened. “I didn’t think he was strong enough to do that.”
“Neither did we.” This from Kevin. He came to stand near me, cigarette transferred, still unlit, to his left hand. “It’s been very interesting listening to Nathaniel talk about Gabriel. Nathaniel was addicted to heroin and a street whore when Gabriel rescued him, gave him a second life.”
“Bully for him, getting him off drugs, but Gabriel still pimped him out. To a sicker clientele.”
Kevin patted Nathaniel’s leg under the sheet, a casual gesture, like you’d pat a dog. “But Nat here likes it, don’t you, boy?”
Nathaniel looked at him and said softly, “Yes.”
“Please, tell me you didn’t enjoy being gutted.”
He closed his eyes. “No, not that. But until then it was…”
“That’s all right,” I said. Something occurred to me. “Have you told the police who did this to you?”
“He doesn’t know,” Kevin said. He put the ever-present cig back in his mouth, as if just the taste of the paper was sweet.
“What do you mean, he doesn’t know?” I asked.
Stephen answered, “Zane chained and blindfolded him, then left. That was the deal. Nathaniel never saw them.”
“Them?” I made it a question.
Stephen nodded. “Them.”
I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Do you remember anything unique or different that might help identify them?”
“Perfume like gardenias, and a sickly smell.”
Great, I thought, that was helpful.
He looked full at me, and suddenly his eyes weren’t just dull with illness. I realized they were dull with experience. It went beyond jaded, as if Nathaniel had looked into the lower rungs of hell. He’d lived to tell the tale, but he hadn’t really survived, not intact.
“I remember the perfume. I’d recognize it again if I smelled it.”
“Okay, Nathaniel, okay.” In the bottom of the awful emptiness of his eyes was panic. He was scared, unbelievably scared. I patted his hand, and when his fingers curled around mine, I held on. “No one will ever hurt you like that again, Nathaniel. I promise you that.”
“You’ll take care of me?” He looked up at me with a need in his eyes that was so raw, so primitive, I would have promised him anything to chase that look away.
“Yes, I’ll take care of you.”
His whole body relaxed. A tension running out of him like water from a cracked cup. I felt it run down his arm into his hand into me like a jolt of energy. It made me jump, but I didn’t pull away.
He smiled up at me, lying back against the pillows. He looked a little better somehow, stronger.
I slid my hand out of his slowly, and he let me go. Great. I turned to the rest of the room. “We need to get you all out of here.”
“I could go home now,” Stephen said, “but Nathaniel still can’t be moved.”
“I don’t trust the cops without me here to act as a buffer.”
“Padgett is very afraid of us,” Teddy said.
I nodded. “I know.”
“Feed me,” Nathaniel said. “Give me your strength, and I will go with you.”
I frowned at him, then looked back at Stephen. “He’s not seriously suggesting I open a vein for him, is he?”
“Richard could do it,” Stephen said.
“Richard couldn’t feed one of the leopards,” Lorraine said, “only us.”
“Raina could have fucked him back to health,” Kevin said.
That earned him a long stare from me. “What are you talking about?”
“Raina could share energy without sharing blood,