Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter collection 11-15

by Laurell K. Hamilton

  “What did you think of the show, Samuel?” Jean-Claude asked.

  The other vampire thought about it, face careful, and his voice was just as careful when he answered, “I thought it was one of the most powerful things I have ever seen. I think it is the kind of power that made me flee the great courts, and it is exactly the sort of power that made me avoid Belle Morte’s court. It is the kind of display that made me flee Europe for fear of becoming nothing but a vassal of some great vampiric lord.”

  “Do you fear us now?” Jean-Claude asked.

  Samuel nodded. “I do.”

  “I would not harm you deliberately,” Jean-Claude said.

  “No, but your power is growing, and growing power is a wild and capricious thing. I do not want my people, or my sons, near you while your power finds its way. I think you will be incredibly dangerous, by accident, for years to come.”

  “Yet, you come before me with your son. Why? Why not leave my lands, if we are so dangerous?”

  “Because Thea is right in one way. If she and I could by some chance duplicate what the two of you did, it would be”—he licked his lips—“worth the risk. I also agree that there is a chance that your Anita could bring my sons into their powers, if they have them.”

  “Do you believe your sons are so human?” Jean-Claude asked.

  “Sampson is well over seventy in human years, so no, not so very human.”

  I looked at Sampson. He looked somewhere in his early twenties, maybe thirty at most. By no stretch of the imagination did he look seventy. “My,” I said, “you’re holding up well.”

  He grinned at me, and I liked the grin. He seemed to find the whole power game a little embarrassing, a little funny. “Clean living,” he said, still grinning.

  Richard moved beside me, a small, uncomfortable movement. I glanced at him, and his face was beginning to darken. One of Richard’s biggest problems with our new lifestyle was jealousy. Of all the men trying to be in my life, he was the only one who found jealousy a real problem. Until I saw that look on his face, I’d been able to ignore that they were still talking about Sampson and me being lovers. I’d gotten better at pushing away the uncomfortable bits until I had to deal with them. Richard was still working on that.

  “Thomas and Cristos seem to be aging at a more normal rate.”

  “They are only seventeen,” Jean-Claude said, “too young to be certain, surely.”

  Samuel shrugged, a normal shrug, not that graceful Gallic movement. “But for this, I think they are too young, too human, whatever Thea may wish.”

  “He’s afraid you’d break them,” Sampson said.

  I couldn’t help smiling. Richard’s frown got deeper. “And your dad isn’t worried about you?” I asked.

  “He is my oldest,” Samuel said, as if that meant more to him than it did to me.

  “If you break me, he has two sons left,” Sampson said, smiling to take the bite out of it.

  Samuel touched his son’s arm. “I hold all my children precious, you know that.”

  He smiled at his father, patted his hand where it lay on his arm. “I know that, Father, but for this kind of power you’d risk one of us, and I’m the most likely to survive without becoming her slave.”

  “My slave?” I made it a question. “I don’t do slaves.”

  Sampson looked at me as if he were studying me, a shadow of his father’s penetrating stare. “If Augustine is not your slave it will only be because he is powerful enough to recover. Not for lack of trying on your part, and I am not nearly as powerful as a Master of the City.”

  I opened my mouth, closed it, not sure what to say. I finally said, “I don’t want anyone to be my slave.”

  “Then what did you want?” He kept his suddenly serious eyes on me.

  I just blinked at him, trying to think. What had I wanted? What had I intended to do to Auggie? “Win,” I said.

  “What?” Sampson asked.

  “Win. I wanted to win. Auggie and your father are supposed to be Jean-Claude’s friends. But your mother had almost rolled me. She’d tried to raise the ardeur and make me fuck your brother, your little brother. Then Auggie raised the ardeur, and used his bloodline’s special ability on me. If this is what Jean-Claude’s friends do to us, then what are the other Masters of the City going to do?” I shook my head, leaning forward on the couch, still holding Jean-Claude’s hand, but having to put my hand on Richard’s thigh to keep touching him, too. “We had to win this fight. Had to.”

  “You had to win in such a way that the rest of us would not try your strength,” Samuel said.

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  He looked past us to the hallway beyond, so searching a look that it made Richard and me look behind us. Neither Jean-Claude, nor the silent Asher, bothered, as if they knew there was no one there.

  “I believe you have succeeded, Anita. If Augustine follows you and Jean-Claude about like a lovesick puppy, then the rest will fear you. Some may even take back their offers of pomme de sang for fear of having you feed off them the way you fed off Augustine’s people.”

  “We fed from Augustine’s people because he is their master,” Jean-Claude said. “No others offer themselves to ma petite’s bed.”

  “Perhaps,” Samuel said, “but I think if they did know what has happened with Augustine, they might be tempted. There is something about her that draws one. Even I feel it, and I am not of Belle’s line.”

  “How strongly drawn?” Jean-Claude asked in that careful voice.

  The two vampires looked at each other. There was suddenly something between them, not magic, but almost as if willpower could be something touchable.

  “That is an odd question,” Samuel said.

  “Is it?” Jean-Claude asked, and his voice held a lilt at the end that sounded strangely chiding.

  Samuel settled back against the love seat, as if he was going to be there for a while. Somehow they both knew they were negotiating. “It was surprisingly bad manners for Augustine to have started a fight with your human servant.”

  “Yes,” Jean-Claude said, “it seemed out of character for him, don’t you think?”

  Samuel nodded. “I do.”

  Richard’s free hand found mine where it rested on his leg. He began to run his thumb over my knuckles, as if he’d picked up the tension, too. Something was up, but what? What was Jean-Claude up to? I wasn’t used to being shut out by both of the men, especially when we were touching, but whatever was happening tonight, Jean-Claude was holding us tight shut against each other. He usually only did that when he was afraid of what would happen if the marks opened. After our little show-down with Auggie I wasn’t going to argue, but it made me head-blind around them, and I wasn’t used to that. I hadn’t realized that I’d started counting on getting hints from both their minds.

  “I need advice, Samuel, advice from another Master of the City.”

  “What could I possibly advise you on? You are a sourdre de sang. I am but an ordinary Master of the City.”

  “I crave your wisdom, not your power.”

  The two of them stared at each other, and neither face showed a damn thing. Note to self, never play poker with master vamps. “I am always glad to share my wisdom with my friends.”

  “I need your trust, as well, Samuel.”

  “Friends must always trust each other.”

  I had a moment to wonder if “friends” meant for them what it had meant for Augustine and Jean-Claude. Not the time to ask.

  “I trusted you tonight, Samuel, but Thea tried to force herself, and your Thomas, on my human servant. That is not the way a trusted friend behaves.”

  “I can only give you my deepest apologies, Jean-Claude. Thea is sometimes overly enthusiastic in her pursuit of our sons’ powers.”

  Sampson and I both laughed at the same time. The vampires looked at us. “Sorry,” I said, “but I think you’re understating it.”

  “Mother, overly enthusiastic in pursuit of her children’s destiny,” Sa
mpson laughed again, shaking his head.

  Samuel frowned at him. Then he sighed and turned back to Jean-Claude. “Once I helped you, not for money, but because Augustine was my friend, and he asked a favor.”

  “Your ship was my escape to the new world,” Jean-Claude said.

  I remembered Auggie, in Jean-Claude’s memory, saying something about a ship and a captain he trusted. Had that been Samuel?

  “I propose that we put aside mistrust, and speak plainly. I propose that we act as true friends and not adversaries.”

  “All master vampires are adversaries,” Jean-Claude said.

  Samuel smiled. “You speak what you have been told, not what you believe.” He looked at Asher. “He is master enough to have his own territory, but he stays with you out of love. You do not fear each other.”

  “No, but you and I have never been close in the way of lovers.”

  Samuel waved his hand in the air as if Jean-Claude had missed his point. “I do not covet your lands. Do you covet mine?”

  Jean-Claude smiled. “No.”

  “I do not covet your lady, do you covet mine?”

  Jean-Claude shook his head. “No.”

  “We have different animals to call, so that cannot even be shared. We are no threat to each other, Jean-Claude, our powers are too different. Let us help each other, and leave off this game playing. Let us come in honesty and friendship.”

  Jean-Claude gave one brief nod. “Agreed.” Then he gave a wide smile. “You first.”

  Samuel laughed, sudden and wide enough to flash fangs. It was an echo of Sampson’s laughter, as if when human he’d been even more like his son.

  The thought made me wonder: if I was pregnant, who would the baby be like? Would it be a little carbon copy of someone? Would there be a little Jean-Claude running around? The thought of a baby was terrifying, but the thought of a little living version of Jean-Claude wasn’t horrible. I shook my head, hard enough that they all looked at me.

  “What is wrong, ma petite?”

  “Sorry, thinking too hard. Maybe I’ve never seen master vamps talk about honesty and friendship. Takes some getting used to.”

  Samuel smiled at me. “I suppose for the Executioner, it would be a very alien concept.”

  I shook my head. “No, as Jean-Claude’s human servant, that is where it gets weird. As the Executioner I just kill people, I don’t talk to them.”

  He looked at me with those brown-green eyes, a long, considering look. He turned the look back to Jean-Claude. “I think we can help each other, Jean-Claude. I will begin.” He gave a long sigh. “When Sampson said that Thea does not think like a human, he is quite right. She is the last of the sirens, and it preys upon her mind. She sees the promise of power in our boys, and she is determined that it be brought out.” Samuel hesitated, and even through centuries of control he seemed uncomfortable. “Thea comes from a time and a people where close family relationships were not a hindrance to sex, or even marriage. Her people were worshipped as gods and goddesses. Are you familiar with the Greek mythos?”

  “Anyone who is classically educated is familiar with the myths,” Jean-Claude said.

  “You’re making this a long story, Father.”

  Samuel looked at him. “I admit that now that the time has come to be honest, I am having second thoughts.”

  Sampson touched his father’s hand. “Let me, then.”

  He shook his head. “No, I am master, and father, and I will do it.” He looked back at Jean-Claude. “Thea tried to bring Sampson into his powers as a siren.”

  Jean-Claude and I just blinked at him. Richard was lost, because we hadn’t given him the whole story about how sirens come into their power. Or had we? I couldn’t remember anymore. I was the one who said, “Do you mean that your wife tried to seduce your son?”

  He nodded. “Sampson came to me, and I told her, in no uncertain terms, that if she ever tried to do it again I would kill her. When the twins began to exhibit faint signs of power, I gave her the talk again.”

  “Would you truly slay her?” Jean-Claude asked.

  The polite mask dropped, and Samuel’s eyes blazed for a second, before he lowered his eyes, and hid the anger. “I love my wife, but I love my sons, and they are children and cannot protect themselves against her.”

  “In my mother’s defense,” Sampson said, “when I said no, she took no for an answer. She didn’t have to. I’m her son, but I’m not a siren yet; if she’d pushed her powers, then I wouldn’t have had a choice. She stopped when she realized I was horrified. She didn’t understand why it bothered me, but she accepted it.”

  Richard and I exchanged glances, and for the first time I think we were both thinking, Gee, it could be worse. That there was a vampire out there sexually more disturbing than Jean-Claude and Belle Morte. EEEK!

  “I fear,” Samuel said, “that Thea’s restraint will not be perfect. The twins are seventeen, old enough to marry, old enough for much. I fear that she will be tempted to push with them, and they are not as strong of will as Sampson. It might take less to cloud their minds and lusts.”

  “And would you do as you threatened?” Jean-Claude asked. “Even if the sex were to make them full sirens?” His face and voice were back to being very neutral.

  “They would come into their powers, but I am not certain that their sanity would survive it. Can you imagine someone with Thea’s powers, or even more powerful because of my bloodline, but mad, completely broken in the mind? I do not wish to be forced to either imprison or kill my own child, Jean-Claude, and that is what we might have to do.” He shook his head, and the worry on his face was like scars, so deep, as if he had carried this burden for a very long time.

  “It would be a terrible choice,” Jean-Claude said.

  Samuel gathered himself, and his face was back to being neutral, hail-fellow-well-met, boy-next-door-handsome. “But if we can find a way to bring them into their powers without Thea being involved, then the choices are not horrible. The choices are wonderous, powerful, and I would be in your debt.”

  “It is by no means certain that sex with ma petite will do for your sons what you wish.”

  I opened my mouth to protest that I hadn’t agreed to sex with any of them, but he squeezed my hand, as if, wait.

  “Perhaps not, but I believe that I could convince Thea that if Anita could not make them full sirens, none could, not even Thea herself. If Anita tries and fails, then I believe that Thea would accept that they are not sirens.”

  Jean-Claude looked at me, then. “If you have questions, ma petite, Richard, now is the time for them.”

  Richard said, “Did you say seventeen?”

  Samuel nodded.

  Richard looked at me, and the look was eloquent.

  “I’ve already turned them down as too young, Richard. You don’t need the look, thanks.” I took my hand out of his, because I hadn’t deserved the look he gave me.

  “But you’ll fuck Sampson.”

  I stood up, letting go of both of them, and stared down at him. “Apologize to me, Richard. Apologize to me, now.”

  Embarrassment was on his face, but so was anger. “I shouldn’t have said it, and I’m sorry I said it, but don’t expect me to be happy that you’re adding another man to your list of lovers. I’m not going to be happy about it, Anita, I’m just not.”

  “Do I ask how many women you’ve slept with this week?”

  “No, but you don’t have to meet them, either.”

  I couldn’t argue that. “Fine, you’re right. It would probably bug me to meet your dates.” I threw my hands up in the air. “Damn it, Richard, do you have an opinion on this that isn’t based on jealousy?”

  He looked down, then got up from the couch, and paced away to the edge of the carpet. “All I can see when I look at Sampson is that he’s not bad looking, and he’s about my height, and…I don’t want you fucking him. But then I don’t want you fucking anyone but me, so—” He spread his hands wide, and shrugged.

>   “Have I raised a sore point?” Samuel asked.

  “An ongoing disagreement,” Jean-Claude said.

  “If this is a problem,” Sampson said, “then forget it. We were under the impression that everyone was okay with Anita adding to her list of men.”

  Richard crossed his arms across his chest, and said, “And if we don’t do this, because I’m not happy about it, and your mother…” He closed his eyes, his face struggling with so many emotions. “God help me, but you and your brothers are actually in a more perverted sexual mess than we are. If I say no, and the worst happens…” He paced the edge of the white carpet as if the walls were still there. “I don’t want to watch, but it has to be Anita’s call. I won’t say no. Neither of us is monogamous, so why should I bitch?” He stood there arms crossed, shoulders hunched as if something hurt.

  “Anita,” Samuel said.

  I looked at him, still standing. I sighed. “I’d rather not add to my list of men either, truthfully, but as Jean-Claude has explained to me, I need a new pomme de sang sooner rather than later. I’m not promising, but I’ll agree to try.” I couldn’t look at anyone when I said it, because it felt squeechy. To agree to try to take another lover, in front of three men I was already sleeping with.

  “Good,” Samuel said, and there was such relief in that one word that I looked at him. He was smiling, his eyes sparkling with happiness, and tears. Unshed tears glittered in his eyes. In that moment I realized that he had accepted that his wife would seduce one of their sons, and he would kill her, and the son would be mad, and he would have to kill him, and…too Oedipal for words. Samuel had accepted that someday the worst would happen, and suddenly he was saved. He looked like a man who had thought the executioner was coming, and the governor called instead.

  I still wasn’t sure how I felt about adding to my men, but it was nice, for a change, to be someone’s salvation instead of their doom. Yeah, being the savior instead of the executioner, that sounded pretty damn good.

  14

  SAMUEL SMILED AT Jean-Claude, and it was like a lot about Samuel, a very human smile. I realized that he, like Auggie, could be more “normal” than most vamps I’d ever seen. Was it a vamp trick like Auggie’s had been? Maybe. Was it any of my business to mess with it, and reveal his secret? Nope. No more grand revelations tonight, not that were my fault anyway. I wasn’t messing with anyone or anything tonight if I could help it. My goal was simply to get through the rest of this interview without anything bad happening. Why was I so worried? I’d sat back down beside Jean-Claude, but Richard hadn’t. Richard was still standing, arms folded, shoulders rounded as if with pain. I knew the look on his face, it was the look that usually meant we were going to have a really bad fight. I didn’t want to fight tonight, not with anyone, but especially not with Richard.