Serpentine

by Laurell K. Hamilton

  Nathaniel started moving faster in and out of me. I felt the thick, heavy weight of pleasure start to build inside me. "I'm going to fuck you hard, Anita, and I want you to suck Micah's dick until I tell you to stop and then release the ardeur and feed on me. Do you understand me?"

  I managed to say, "Yes."

  "Then put your hand around Micah's cock and suck it, while I fuck you."

  I did what he asked, because in that moment it all seemed like such a good idea. Micah filled my mouth and more, but I didn't have to deep throat him; he was too sensitive for that now, anyway. I could stay higher up on all that thick hardness and make small noises around him, as Nathaniel fucked me hard and fast, so that I screamed around Micah's body, which made him cry out, "God!"

  Nathaniel brought me screaming, with Micah's body like a living gag to soften the noises. "Stop sucking him." I did what he wanted, letting go of Micah as Nathaniel used my hair to raise my body back up to all fours as he fucked me as hard and fast as he could, and brought me again to orgasm, screaming without Micah's body to muffle the noises.

  "The ardeur, Anita--now, now!" His voice was strained as he fought his body to hold on one more minute, while I unleashed that part of me that could feed on what he was about to do. The power washed over both of us and it, or Nathaniel, or both, brought me another climax, as Nathaniel thrust inside me one more time. I felt his body convulse, felt him pulsing inside me, and I fed on the feel of him pushed as deep inside me as he could, fed on the strength of his hand in my hair, his other hand on my shoulder, fingers digging in as he spilled himself inside me and I drank him down everywhere his body touched me.

  He called out my name and then he half collapsed across my back and let go of my hair. "God, I love you," he whispered.

  "I love you, too," I said in a voice gone hoarse with screaming.

  "I love you both so much," Micah said from the bed just underneath us.

  My knees gave out and I collapsed on top of him, with Nathaniel on top of me. Micah laughed, and petted our hair while we waited to be able to move again. We'd clean up and then we'd be able to sleep in a sexy cuddle pile just the way Nathaniel had wanted.

  32

  WE WOKE STILL spooned together in a warm nest of sheets and bodies. It felt so good that I just lay there listening to them breathe, feeling the rise and fall of their bodies against mine. Nathaniel was still deeply asleep, but Micah moved restlessly. If I wasn't careful I'd wake him on one of the few mornings that we could all sleep in together. I slowed my breathing down, deepened it, and did my best to pretend to sleep while my eyes were still open, so I could see the line of sunlight from the crack in the drapes. We'd have to remember to close them better tonight, but this morning I liked watching the light play in Micah's curls and along his naked back. If I could have figured out a way to turn over and see the light on Nathaniel, I would have, but I knew that would wake Micah.

  I lay sandwiched between them, listening to their breathing, feeling the beat and pulse of their sleeping bodies. I memorized the feel of it all, so that later it could be one of my happy thoughts. I was kissing the back of Micah's neck and waking us all up with more cuddling and maybe more sex, when there was a knock at the door so loud and authoritative that I knew it was a cop, or someone who had been a cop of some kind. They all had that loud, resounding knock that made your heart beat faster and your pulse jump to your throat for a second, even if you were innocent. The sound alone was sort of scary.

  "What is that?" Nathaniel said, raising his head but hugging us tighter to him.

  "I don't know--maybe someone complained about the noise," I said as I tried to get up.

  "You are a screamer," he said, but he was still holding me tight, his heart thudding against my back.

  "The complaint should have come in last night, not this morning," Micah said, lying very still in the bed, as if he were listening harder than I could. He was a wereanimal, so his hearing was better than mine.

  I had to tell Nathaniel to let me go so I could check the door. I put on one of the robes that we'd used last night after we cleaned up. I tossed the other one to Micah in the bed. We were both more modest than Nathaniel. I belted the robe tight and put my Sig Sauer .380 in the right-hand pocket, got my badge in its little wallet cover out of the drawer beside the bed, and went for the door. I was pretty sure it was the police, and if I was answering the door armed, I wanted my badge with me.

  I glanced back to find Micah standing by the bed with his robe tightened in place. Nathaniel was still in the bed with the sheets covering him.

  The knock sounded again. I called out, "I'm coming. I'm coming." I let myself sound as cranky as I felt about the interruption. A man's voice said, "Kirke Key Police. Open the door!"

  I couldn't think what we'd done to earn an early morning wake-up call from the local police. I checked the peephole just in case, but it was a uniformed officer at my door. Edward had even sent me a text of the local uniforms in the area before I got on the plane. I'm not sure I would have thought of it, but it was Edward: He pretty much thought of everything when it came to the job. It was the right uniform.

  I opened the door enough to see and be seen, but not like I was inviting him in to visit. Just because we were both cops didn't automatically make us buddies. Besides, I didn't really want him to see the men tucked into the room behind me if I could avoid it.

  "Can we come in for a minute and look around?" the tall officer asked.

  "What's this about, Officer"--I read his name tag--"Dunley?" I asked.

  "Are you alone in the room?"

  "No, I've got friends with me."

  "We need to speak with your friends," he said.

  I flashed my badge. "Marshal Anita Blake."

  His eyes widened. He hadn't expected to find another cop of any flavor in the room. He got control of his expression and said, "Still need to speak with your friends and anyone else in the room, Marshal."

  "Why? What's the problem, Officer?" I said.

  "Reports of a woman screaming last night," he said.

  "Sorry about that. I guess we got louder than I thought."

  "Were you fighting with your friends?"

  "No, we were having sex." I could have lied, but why? Once he got inside the room and saw the men, especially Nathaniel in the bed, what else could it be?

  But the truth threw Dunley for a second. He looked at me, frowned, almost smiled, got control of his face, and said, "Well then, you won't mind me seeing your friends and getting their side of things."

  "And if I do mind?"

  "The more you don't want me in the room, the more I want inside. If you're on the job, then you know what I mean." If I was on the job, he'd said. I looked at him a little harder. He was taller than me, no big surprise; he had more weight around his middle than was probably good for him, like the beginnings of the gut that Rufous had on him. The weight drew the eye down to his duty belt, where it strained at his waist, so you might underestimate his height and the rest of him, but I had to look a long way up to meet his brown eyes, which put him over six feet. He had to be at least six-three, and the biceps that bulged at the short sleeve of his uniform shirt showed that underneath the recent weight gain there was still plenty of muscle. His brown eyes weren't unfriendly, but they did that narrow cop thing, and then a dark eyebrow arched. Apparently, I wasn't meeting his idea of cop perfection either.

  "I really need to see your friends and anyone else in the room, Marshal."

  "It's two friends and me, but sure. Why not?" I opened the door and ushered him into the room. He stopped at the bedroom door. I glanced toward the bed and found Nathaniel sitting up with the sheets in his lap, smiling at the officer as if he were about to be introduced to him on the street, somewhere nice and not embarrassing. Micah stood beside the bed, trying to look relaxed and failing. He'd have been happier with clothes on. Me, too.

  "And your names are?"

  "Micah Callahan."

  "Nathaniel Graison." Nathaniel
smiled, trying to be pleasant.

  "Did you participate in a swim race at the pool here yesterday?"

  I hadn't expected that question. It wasn't just a noise complaint question. Nathaniel's smile faded a little around the edges. "I did."

  Dunley looked at me then, and I realized that he'd kept the door open behind him. There were hotel employees hovering in the hallway. "Marshal Black, was it?"

  "Blake," I said. So much for me being well-known in police circles.

  "Well, Marshal Blake, did you have an argument with another woman down by the pool?"

  I shook my head.

  "You didn't fight with another woman about her paying too much attention to Mr. Graison here and another gentleman?"

  "It wasn't an argument, but I did have to explain to a couple of women that Nathaniel wasn't free to follow up on any perceived flirting."

  "Did you also feel that you had to explain that one Bernardo Spotted-Horse, also a marshal as it turns out, was also unable to carry through on his flirting?"

  I smiled. "No, I just needed to discuss some wedding details with him that I didn't want half the beautiful women in the hotel to overhear, so I asked for some privacy."

  "And it's just a coincidence that the same woman was involved in both altercations?"

  "It wasn't an altercation or a fight or anything like that. I gave my message to Bernardo and left him to carry on with his flirting, or whatever."

  "How did it make you feel knowing that Mr. Spotted-Horse was going to have sex with a woman you'd already fought with over Graison here, earlier today?"

  I frowned at him, feeling like I was missing something important. "Bernardo is just a work friend and fellow wedding member; that's it. He and I have never been an item. He can sleep with anyone he wants."

  "If you've never been an item with Mr. Spotted-Horse, then why did you get angry at him interacting with other women?"

  "I told you before, I wasn't angry about anything. I just needed to tell him something about the wedding."

  "And what did you want to tell him that was so private?"

  "Something private," I said, because I was so not going to tell the local cops about the supposed affair. No way.

  "Funny, that's what Spotted-Horse said, too. I'd really like to know what wedding detail could be so top secret that you couldn't say it in front of other people."

  I shrugged, because nothing I could say would help, and if he kept me talking I might give him a hint. I did not want to do that. Besides, if he thought I was arguing with other women about Nathaniel and Bernardo, his thinking I was having an affair with the groom would just confirm that I was pathological about men.

  "Why are you asking us all this?" Micah asked, still standing by the bed.

  "Did you sleep with Ms. Bettina Gonzales, Mr. Graison?"

  "No, I've been with friends since I left the pool yesterday."

  "We'll need the names of those friends." He actually got a small notebook out of his pocket and started riffling through the pages. I didn't know that anyone still used notebooks like that.

  "Micah was with me the whole time."

  "And what is your relationship to him?"

  "He's my fiance."

  Dunley raised eyebrows and looked at Micah. "Is that right, Mr. Callahan? Are you and Mr. Graison engaged?"

  Micah nodded. "Yes."

  Dunley turned to me with his notebook and pen in hand. "Someone told me that Mr. Graison was your fiance, Marshal Blake."

  "He is."

  Dunley looked at me and then back at Nathaniel and Micah and then back at me. "How does that work, Blake? Bigamy is still illegal."

  "Marrying more than one person is illegal, but there's no rule against being engaged to more than one person, as long as everyone knows about everyone."

  Dunley frowned, staring down at his notebook as if he wasn't sure that what he'd written made sense. "So you're all engaged together?"

  "Yes."

  "All the news says that you're engaged to the master vampire of St. Louis, this Jean-Claude."

  His asking that meant he'd known exactly who I was before he ever knocked on the door. "I am," I said.

  "So are any of you actually going to be marrying each other?"

  "I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but I'm going to be marrying Jean-Claude, because as you said, we can only legally marry one person at a time."

  "And you, Mr. Graison, who are you marrying?"

  "Micah and I are planning a wedding," Nathaniel said. He was watching the police officer's face now. He was still trying to look pleasant, but I knew his eyes and they showed that he was thinking hard, trying to figure things out. What the hell was going on?

  "So, Blake, you're planning to marry someone that isn't here this weekend, but you're engaged to the two gentlemen here, and you're sleeping with Mr. Spotted-Horse and Mr. Wyatt Erwin." Knowing Ru's name meant he had probably talked to the others first.

  "I told you I'm not sleeping with Bernardo, and since you brought it up, I'm not sleeping with Wyatt either."

  "You're not sleeping with either Spotted-Horse or Erwin."

  "No," I said.

  "And yet you got into a fight with another woman over both the men you're not sleeping with, plus a fight over Graison here."

  "I told you, I didn't fight with anyone, over anyone."

  He looked back to the two men at the bed. "But you are sleeping with these two gentlemen?"

  "Yes," I said.

  "And all the men are okay with you sleeping with all the other men?"

  "We share really well," Nathaniel said, drawing his knees up to his bare chest and trying for winsome, but mostly hitting lascivious, or maybe that was just how he made me feel. Was he trying to distract Dunley, or just tired of the questions?

  "Mr. Graison, are you sleeping with Mr. Callahan?" Dunley asked.

  "I am." Nathaniel smiled as he said it.

  "What about Mr. Spotted-Horse?"

  "No."

  "Mr. Erwin?"

  "Nope."

  "And you, Mr. Callahan, who else are you sleeping with?"

  "Why the twenty questions, Officer Dunley?" I said.

  "Just trying to get a sense of what happened, Marshal Blake."

  "What has happened, Officer Dunley?"

  "What do you think has happened?"

  "Oh, for the love of God, Dunley, just tell us what's happened."

  "So you're lovers with Callahan, Graison, Spotted-Horse, and Erwin?"

  "I'm just work friends with Spotted-Horse, as I keep telling you. Erwin is just a friend and employee."

  "According to witnesses, you were in a passionate embrace with him at the pool yesterday."

  "I really can't explain what happened with Wyatt by the pool, or if I can, I don't owe the explanation to you."

  "Well, I'll make a note that you don't want to be helpful in this investigation."

  "What investigation?" I asked. Something bad had happened, and whatever it was had probably happened to Bettina, last name Gonzales. I wondered if Bernardo had even known her last name before they had sex. I doubted it, but maybe last names weren't that important for a one-night stand.

  "Are you sleeping with anyone else in the wedding party, Marshal Blake?"

  "No."

  Dunley nodded and made another note. "How many other men here in town are you sleeping with that aren't in the wedding, Marshal?"

  I debated whether I should answer at all, or if it mattered that the police knew about Nicky and me. "And if I was sleeping with anyone else in town, why would that matter?"

  Dunley had to look back through his notes and made enough of a big deal out of it that I wasn't sure if he really needed to check his notes, if it was something he did to give himself time to think, or if it was supposed to mess with our nerves. If it was the latter, he could have saved the act.

  "So the three of you are all lovers, all engaged to each other; is that it, Ms. Blake?"

  "It's Marshal Blake, and yes.
"

  "You don't seem to care if I call Marshal Spotted-Horse mister."

  "He's not here to feel insulted. I am."

  "You're standing here in a robe in a hotel room with a naked man in your bed, and a second man in a matching robe, and I'm insulting you by calling you Ms. Blake as opposed to Marshal Blake; really?"

  "Are you implying that a woman who has multiple lovers is such a slut that she can't be insulted, Officer Dunley?"

  He looked at me and thought it through; then he glanced back at the still-open door. Another officer had shooed away the civilians sometime during it all, but still Dunley didn't want to get accused of some kind of sexual insensitivity, not unless he could prove it was all part of his clever questioning technique.

  "I would never use that word, Marshal Blake."

  "Good to know, but it is what you think of a woman who would sleep with multiple men, isn't it, Officer Dunley?"

  "Absolutely not, Marshal Blake."

  "Really. I could have sworn that you implied that rather strongly just now, Officer Dunley."

  "I most certainly did not."

  "Then what are you implying, Officer Dunley, and why do you have this intense curiosity about our personal lives?"

  "Just trying to get an understanding of what might have happened between you and Bettina Gonzales."

  "Nothing happened between us, Officer Dunley."

  "That's not what her friends say."

  "I can't help what other people say, Officer Dunley."

  "Don't you want to know what her friends said happened between the two of you?"

  "You've already told me what they said."

  "No, Marshal, I did not."

  "Yes, you did," Micah said from the bed.

  Dunley frowned for a second and then recovered with a smile that I think was supposed to be disarming but wasn't in the least. He was questioning us like we were suspects or at least persons of interest. Something bad had happened to Bettina. She wasn't my favorite person, but she didn't deserve whatever would make the police question people like this.

  "What's happened to Bettina--Ms. Gonzales?" I asked.