Incubus Dreams - Laurell K. Hamilton [319]
“Why, because she helped you fight off the ardeur?”
“Partly.”
Wicked shook his head. “You must be even better than that felt, for Truth to trust you this much.”
“I saved his life, that tends to impress people.”
“Not him, not Truth.”
“Fine, but I’ve got to go question a murder suspect, right now.”
“We’ll go with you,” Truth said.
“Sorry, police business. Thanks for trying to catch the bad guy.”
“Your power called to us when you touched Avery,” Truth said.
“So when I said, catch him, you had to do it?”
They both nodded.
“Sorry about that.”
“I’m not,” Truth said.
Wicked gave me another cynical look. “I’ll let you know. I’m not sorry, yet.”
“Look, I give you my word that as soon as humanly possible I will give you to Jean-Claude.”
“Give me?”
I frowned. “I give my word that as soon as humanly possible I will see that you will be bound to our Master of the City, good enough?”
“Promise me that you will bind me as you bound my brother.”
“I just did.”
“No, you didn’t. For all I know you could pass me off to someone else in your master’s household. My brother and I go together. To go together, we must go in the same way.”
I wished I’d had Jean-Claude to ask, was there a problem with this promise, but he was busy making all the customers at Guilty Pleasures happy. I thought about what he’d asked, and I couldn’t see the problem with it, so, I said, “Okay, I promise that I’ll bind you like I did your brother. Happy now?”
He gave a small nod, with an even smaller smile.
“Then leave a card or number at one of Jean-Claude’s clubs, and we’ll arrange another meeting.”
“We’ll be there,” Wicked said.
“Yes,” Truth said, “yes, we will be there.”
I turned toward the door and the other room. Smith came at my back. I reached my hand out to him. “Gun,” I said.
He handed me my gun. I holstered it and kept walking toward the other room and the waiting bad guy and police. I had a vague feeling that I’d missed something just now with Wicked and Truth. “The Wicked Truth” Jean-Claude had called them, why? Just because they killed their bloodline? Or had I missed something. Something I’d regret missing later. I ran it over in my head, and all I had promised was to let Wicked take my blood and bind himself to Jean-Claude and me. That’s all I’d promised, so why did I feel like the brothers were going to expect more than I’d offered. I thought, Jean-Claude, what did I just do?
To my surprise, he answered carefully, as if he were shielding me. “We have our warriors, ma petite, just as you wished.”
“You can’t be done feeding the ardeur, yet.”
“Non, but I remember Wicked, of old, and I thought it foolish not to check on you one more time.”
“You’re holding the ardeur in check while you talk to me mind-to-mind, in a room full of lusty women?”
“Oui.”
“Nice to know our little three-way gained you something.”
“You make it sound as if you gained nothing, ma petite. It is you who called the Wicked Truth to us, to you, before they came to my hand. You said only last night that we needed people that could fight, not merely seduce, and less than forty-eight hours later, you have called two of our most legendary warriors to you. That, ma petite, is not just impressive, it is frightening.”
I ignored the frightening comment and concentrated on the other part. I didn’t remember wishing for fighters, or warriors. I remembered thinking we needed more muscle.
“Then we have more muscle, just as you wished.”
I couldn’t argue with him, but I’d have to be more careful what I wished for. Lately, it seemed I was getting it, no matter what I wished. Suddenly, the phrase be careful what you wish for had taken on a whole new meaning. I guess I’d just have to be damned careful what I wished for.
69
OF COURSE, WHAT I was wishing the second I entered the next room was that we could catch our serial killers before they killed again. I was pretty secure with that wish. It seemed like a wish we could all live with. They had sat the vampire in