Anita Blake 14 - Danse macabre (43 page)

"I believe we have our answer,
ma petite
."

I stroked Requiem's hair, and didn't know what he was talking about. I was too stunned to think. "Answer to what?" I asked.

"The effect you have on vampires that have tasted the
ardeur
before. I think you are addictive, as Belle was addictive." He motioned toward Requiem, who was clutching at me, still weeping into my legs. "He is powerful enough to be a Master of a City,
ma petite
, not powerful in the way of Augustine, or myself, but powerful. He lacks not power, but ambition. He does not wish to rule."

"There is no shame to that," Elinore said.

"
Non
," Jean-Claude said, "but I want
ma petite
to understand that her effect on Requiem is not a small thing."

Elinore had sat back in the chair, curling her legs under her, because her feet wouldn't have reached the ground. "I had no idea she had bespelled him like this."

"I didn't bespell him," I said.

She gave me a look and motioned at the vampire at my feet. "Pick a different word if you like, Anita, but the effect is the same. We can argue semantics, but Requiem is besotted with you in a way most unnatural."

I stroked his hair, so straight and thick, but not warm. He was cool to the touch. "He needs to feed," I said. "Healing is going to take a lot of blood and energy."

"I don't think blood will cure this," Elinore said, and her voice sounded almost accusatory.

"What do you want from me, Elinore? What do you want me to do?"

"Make him your lover," she said.

"I have four men that I'm the only sex they're getting, and two more that are in my bed some of the time. Hell, Jason makes it into my bed about once a month."

"Exactly," Elinore said, "one more will hardly make a difference."

"If it were just sex, maybe, but it's not just sex. It's the emotional stuff. I don't even know if there's enough of me to go around for five men, plus extras. Call me crazy, but I don't think Requiem is a low-needs item." I stroked his hair, felt him shake against my legs. "No, I think he definitely goes in the high-maintenance category. I don't think I have enough emotion left to do another high-needs man, okay? That's the truth. I'm sure he'd be a wonderful lover, but I couldn't meet his other needs."

"What other needs?" she asked.

"Talk, emotion, sharing, love."

Elinore shifted in her chair, turning her head to one side, her long hair spilling around her like a cornsilk dream. "You turned him down as your lover because you don't think you can love him?"

I thought about it for a heartbeat, then shrugged, and nodded. "Yeah, sort of."

Elinore looked at Jean-Claude. "She turned him down because she does not think she could love him."

Jean-Claude gave that graceful shrug. "She is very young."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not sitting here," I said.

Requiem's crying had slowed, so that he was mostly just kneeling with his head in my lap. I kept petting his hair, the way you'd soothe a dog, or a sick child.

"We all understand, Anita, that you are Jean-Claude's consort. We all understand that you and he and Asher are a threesome. We all understand that your triumvirate with the Ulfric and Jean-Claude must be maintained for reasons of power and safety. That maintenance includes sex, because he is of Belle Morte's line. I admit that I thought him a fool, and weak, to have allowed you such closeness with the wereleopards, but I was wrong. Out of that closeness came your own triumvirate, which has strengthened Jean-Claude's powers immensely. Your tie to Damian and Nathaniel is a wondrous thing. Your tie to Micah is a puzzlement, but I understand now that your powers are much like Belle's. She collected men, too."

"I am not like Belle Morte," I said.

"Your power is." She pointed at Requiem. "This is proof of that."

"I don't want to collect men," I said. I stared down at the man in my lap. "I certainly don't want them this… besotted. This a level of wanting that's just wrong."

"Why is it wrong?" Elinore asked.

"Because I don't think he has a choice about it. I didn't mean to collect Requiem."

He looked up then, as if my saying his name had called him. The tears had dried to faint reddish lines on his face. The red didn't help the bruises look any better.

I touched the unhurt side of his face, and he laid his cheek in my hand, as if that one touch were something wonderful. "How do I fix this?" I asked.

"You mean how do you set him free?" Elinore asked.

"Yes."

"You don't."

I stared at her. "What do you mean, I don't?"

"There is no cure, Anita. There is only going far away from you. He will still crave your touch, but he will not be able to act upon it."

"Like an alcoholic," I said.

She nodded. "Yes."

"There is a cure for it," Jean-Claude said.

I looked at him. "What?"

"Love," he said, "true love."

We both stared at him. "True love," Elinore said.

He nodded. "We loved Julianna, and she freed us of the addiction of Belle Morte. Belle Morte had Requiem in her bed before Ligeia ever touched him, but she sent Requiem on a long seduction far away from her. It was necessary to seduce both halves of a noble couple, so she sent Ligeia with him."

"I thought that Requiem's master fled France so Belle wouldn't keep him."

"His master met with an accident, and Belle was able to collect all the vampires of her line that the old master had made."

"The way you say
accident
makes it sound like you don't mean
accident
at all," I said.

"It
was
an accident," Requiem said, softly. He spoke with his face in my lap. "The carriage we were in overturned in a storm. We were on a cliff edge, and somewhere during the fall, a piece of wood went through his heart. It was such an ordinary death." His voice sounded relaxed, distant. "We tried removing the wood, but he did not revive. We learned later that the carriage maker was Wellsley."

"Who's Wellsley?" I asked.

Elinore answered, "He manufactured carriages in London for many years. He was a devout man, and hated the idea of his carriages being used for evil purposes, so he had them blessed. He would make a batch of them and have one of the local clergy bless them. When the blessing is fresh, some of them glow around us."

"The blessing wears off?" I made it a question.

"If enough 'evil' "—and she made quotation marks in the air with her fingers—"happens in the carriage."

"Like a cemetery that's been out of use for a while, or had black magic used in it too much," I said. "You have to reconsecrate the ground."

"The analogy will do," she said.

I looked down at Requiem. "And when your master was dead, Belle could call you to her?"

"Yes," he said, "and if Jean-Claude had not given me a home here, she would have done so again."

"How did you get away from her the second time?"

"Jean-Claude has the right of it. Ligeia and I were sent far away to seduce some nobles Belle wished to control. We did her bidding, and they did what Belle wished, but Ligeia and I fell in love with each other. When we returned to Belle's court, I was no longer drawn to her."

"Love," Jean-Claude said, "love is the only cure."

"You and Asher aren't besotted with me, not like this."

"Jean-Claude is your master, and he holds the
ardeur
as well. As for Asher"—she looked at Jean-Claude—"I think love protects him."

I looked at Jean-Claude, too, and he would not meet our gaze. I sort of assumed now that Jean-Claude and Asher were doing it like bunnies when I wasn't around, but I'd never asked.
Don't ask, don't tell
worked just fine for me. Last night, seeing him with Auggie, made me wonder if I needed to ask, or if it was confirmed. Too complicated for me.

I literally waved the thought away, and said, "I can't count on Requiem falling in love any time soon."

"Non, ma petite."

"What do I do?"

"Take him as your lover," Elinore said.

"Easy for you to say; no one's making you share yourself with anyone but your knight."

"And one of the reasons I came to Jean-Claude was that he would let me be with the man I love, and not force me into the beds of others. I am more grateful for that than I can ever say." She turned those cold blue eyes on me. "But I do not carry the
ardeur
. I am not an addiction."

"
Ma petite
, you must meet this obligation."

I stared at him. "Obligation?"

"You have addicted him to you. Would you be as cruel as Belle Morte herself and cast him away, with this desire riding him?" He shuddered. "I have been as one addicted, and cast out for some minor infraction. I have felt my body ache for want of her, and no amount of sex with anyone else satisfied that need." He moved so he could lay his hand over mine where I stroked
Requiem's hair. "He is my third-in-command. He is a good and honorable man. You need more and more powerful food,
ma petite
. I think if you feed the
ardeur
well enough, it will quiet. But until you find food to its liking, it will seek its own."

"You want me to sleep with Requiem?"

"I want you to feed the
ardeur
from him,
oui
."

"I thought you weren't happy sharing me with so many men. I mean, you once threatened to kill Richard."

"I did not understand the nature of our power together then. Perhaps there is more than one reason that Belle collected lovers. Perhaps it was not merely her appetite, but more practical."

I stared at him, feeling the weight of his hand over mine, and Requiem gone very still under our hands. "I can't meet all his needs, Jean-Claude. I can't add another date to my card."

"It is not a date he needs,
ma petite
. He needs to be your food. Food is for eating, not for dating."

"Yeah, that's what I said about Nathaniel for months. It doesn't work like that, not for me."

"What do you propose,
ma petite
? Until we know the extent of your power over other vampires, we must be very careful of our visitors. We must surround you with powerful enough food that the
ardeur
will not keep drawing more."

"Why isn't your
ardeur
drawing in people?"

"You are his human servant," Elinore said, "you're taking some of the edge off his power."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"If Jean-Claude didn't have you, then his
ardeur
would be doing this, and it would make it hard to run his territory. Your attracting people is less distracting to him."

I looked at him. "Are you doing this on purpose?"

"I swear that I am not."

"It's the nature of the power, Anita," Elinore said. "Human servants, animals to call,
pommes de sang
, they are all instruments to help their masters grow in power and control. The power will find a place to go and feed that allows the Master of the City to rule better."

"You make the power sound alive, like it can think for itself," I said.

She shrugged. "Perhaps it can. I know that I have seen the power work like this with other masters. Not the
ardeur
, but other powers."

I sighed. "Great, so I'm the
ardeur's
pinup girl because Jean-Claude would get too distracted if it were him."

"Yes," she said.

"Wait, Belle had the full
ardeur
, more full than we have now."

"But she had no human servant, and no animal to call," Elinore said.

I looked at Jean-Claude. "I thought every master called in help."

"Belle does not share power," Jean-Claude said, "not with anyone."

"But you guys gain a lot of power from human servants and animals to call."

"She has intimates of her animals to call, but she has not chosen among them. She makes no one special to her," he said.

"I don't seem to be able to choose who I get as animal to call. I know you chose Richard, but I didn't exactly choose Nathaniel."

"Nor Haven," Jean-Claude said.

"Haven is not my animal to call," I said.

"But some lion will be, and soon, I fear," Jean-Claude said. "Joseph is bringing some of his lionmen around today so you will have more than our guests to choose from."

"Choose for what?" and I sounded as suspicious as I felt.

"So you may bring their beasts, and hold off the change."

That made sense. So many metaphysical problems that it was hard to keep track sometimes. But one problem at a time. I looked at the man in my lap.

"Fine, whatever. What am I going to do with you, Requiem?"

Jean-Claude and I moved our hands, and he raised his face, so he could look at me. "Make me your
pomme de sang."

"I think the
pomme de sang
needs to be someone who can feed me night or day," I said.

His face filled with panic. "Please, Anita, do not cast me aside."

I looked at Jean-Claude. "A little help here."

"If you will not feed the
ardeur
from him then we must send him to another territory. He is powerful enough that many will want him as third, or even second."

"Which will weaken your power base, because Elinore is only staying until we find her her own territory," I said.

He gave a shrug that meant everything and nothing.

"I cannot believe that my"—and I hesitated because
boyfriend
seemed too junior high,
lover
not enough—"the man I love is encouraging me to take another lover."

He smiled at me. "We know now that any who have tasted Belle's
ardeur
are susceptible to your
ardeur
. I think any of her line will be too risky to taste as
pommes
. Agree to feed the
ardeur
from Requiem,
ma petite
, that is all. Agree, because we have two more things to know before the party tonight."

"What two things?"

"Will you draw and be drawn to all leopards, wolves, and lions? Do the
ardeur's
effects travel outside Belle's line?"