Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter #16 - Blood Noir (26 page)

He sighed, very heavy. “You’re right, you’re right.”

“Tell them the truth, and you can go back to what you were doing with them.”

He sat up slowly like it was some sort of stomach exercise, making the T-shirt demonstrate just how tight it was. “I love that,” he said.

I blinked and looked from his stomach to his face. “What?” I asked.

“That you watch me like that, that you notice me. I don’t want to go back to being invisible to you, Anita.”

I shrugged. “I don’t think you’ll ever be invisible to me, Jason.”

“But if I hurt your feelings this badly, reject you, then you’ll make sure you never act on it again.”

“You can’t reject me if we’re just fuck buddies.”

file://L:\Azures L_Disc Shared Dowloads\EBooks\Anita Blake Series 1-17\(Book16] - Bl... 10/18/2009

BloodNoir

Page 168 of 287

“That’s what I thought, but I realize that we’re more than fuck buddies. A fuck buddy does not call in to work at a moment’s notice and say
I’ve got to fly out of town with a friend.
A fuck buddy doesn’t drop everything to come play some stupid charade. Someone who is just a fuck buddy doesn’t come hold your hand when you see your father in the hospital and smell death on him. Fuck buddies are just about sex, Anita. I’m the closest thing you’ll probably ever have to one, but the idea of a fuck buddy is that they are casual. Once I asked you to fly out here with me, that wasn’t a casual request. I could only have asked that of someone who was my very close friend.” He leaned in toward me, as if for a kiss.

I drew back a little. “Kissing won’t answer my question, Jason. Do we walk out of here as a couple, or just friends? I need to know what role I’m playing for you here.”

“How about both? I’ll tell them the truth, but I won’t sleep around on you while we’re down here. That way, if any of what they seem to feel for me is real, it leaves it open for them to hunt me up afterward. But if it’s just old times and wedding nerves, then no harm done.”

“Actually, the
ardeur
sort of checked them out. For most of them the flirting is an end in itself. Most of them seem pretty levelheaded. Lisa would fuck you in a heartbeat, but her desire has an edge of panic to it.”

“She’s about to marry someone. I think she’s scared.”

I nodded. “I can understand that, but I’ve always thought if you were that nervous about the wedding, then you’re marrying the wrong person.”

He smiled. “You
would
think that, but then you are one of the least commitment-phobic people I know.”

I stared down at him. “I know some people who might argue that with you.”

He grinned. “They think because you haven’t chosen one man above all the others that you don’t know how to commit, when actually, I think your problem is that you commit too easily, and once you commit to someone you stick.”

“One woman cannot be committed to this many men.”

“Maybe, but you treat your lovers better than a lot of women treat their boyfriends.”

“Sorry to hear that,” I said.

He looked wistful for a moment. “I shielded as hard as I could so I didn’t hit the radar for either the
ardeur
or your beasts.”

I smiled. “You did an excellent job; you were a blank.”

He smiled again. “Good, I’m really wishing we hadn’t come at all. For me, it’s great, but not for you. I didn’t think it through. It’s a bachelorette party; there is going to be a lot of sexual tension tonight. It’s going to really challenge your
ardeur
.”

“Hard to have a quickie with Shadwell and Rowe in the room,” I said.

“What’s with them not leaving us alone?”

file://L:\Azures L_Disc Shared Dowloads\EBooks\Anita Blake Series 1-17\(Book16] - Bl... 10/18/2009

BloodNoir

Page 169 of 287

“I told you, I don’t know yet, but I’ll find out.”

He sighed. “I think I’ll tell the girls, but only them. We’ll pretend for everyone else but my friends.”

“Friends you haven’t seen since college may not be as good a friend as you remember.”

“I know, but when Irving’s article comes out tomorrow, our cover is blown anyway.”

“True. So tell them the truth, but keep your options open?”

He nodded, and then a smile began to creep around the edges. “Though with J. J. we could do both. Had my first ménage à trois with her and a friend.”

I shook my head. “A ménage à trois in high school?”

“No, I came back for winter break from college and so did J. J.”

“Trust you to have the two-girl fantasy come true before you were legal to drink.”

He grinned full-out. “I’ve always been precocious.”

“I’ll just bet you have.”

He stood up and offered me his hand. “I’ll try to be as good a friend to you as you are to me, Anita.”

I took his hand. “Deal.”

I tried to make it a handshake, but he raised my hand to his lips and kissed me. I guess either way, we had our compromise. Now we just had to see how the blondes in the next room took the news.

file://L:\Azures L_Disc Shared Dowloads\EBooks\Anita Blake Series 1-17\(Book16] - Bl... 10/18/2009

BloodNoir

Page 170 of 287

36

WHILE WE’D BEEN
having our heart-to-heart, so had the women. Lisa was crying on the couch with all the women hovering around her. J. J. left the group and came to us.

“We’re so sorry, Anita,” she said. “We behaved badly.”

Lisa sobbed and talked at the same time. “Please, don’t be mad, Anita, please…” She came to us, a little unsteady on her feet. Trish stayed at her side like a spotter. Lisa clutched at my arm, swaying gently on her high heels. The little black dress and heels that she was wearing made her look pale now that all the makeup had vanished from crying.

I tensed my arm under her hands to give her something more solid to hold on to, because without it she’d have fallen.

She tried to focus on my face, and looked like it was hard work. “I’m so sorry, Anita. I was so awful to you.”

“It’s okay, Lisa,” I said. She had that feel to her of one of those depressed drunks who might dissolve into tears or hysterics if I didn’t just forgive her. Frankly, I blamed Jason more than anyone, so I wasn’t mad at her. He hadn’t set the rules, nor had I. If the couple doesn’t set the boundaries, then you can’t blame strangers for not knowing what those boundaries are. She staggered toward me, I think to see my face better. I was beginning to wonder if it was more than drink. Did she need glasses and wasn’t wearing them? She leaned into my face, peering close enough that it was too intimate in the suddenly silent room. She studied my eyes from inches away, clinging to my arm. She was nearsighted, I’d have bet money on it, because closer, she seemed to see me better. If I could use her guilt for two things, I would. Try to sober her up, and have someone find her damn glasses.

She overbalanced on her heels and fell into me. I let go of Jason’s hand and grabbed her. I found out two things about Lisa Bromwell. One, she was drunk enough she couldn’t right herself; in fact her knees started to go. Two, she wasn’t wearing a damn thing under the little black dress. How’d I find out that last bit? I grabbed her at the lower waist and inadvertently raised the short skirt enough to bare most of her ass to the room. If I hadn’t been worried about flashing the room, I could have just picked her up. She weighed maybe a hundred pounds. But I couldn’t figure out how to lift her and not let the men in the room see the entire show. One of those moments when you just go,
Huh, no idea
what to do.

Jason and J. J. saved me. They both came in and took an arm apiece, which let me shift her dress back down. I watched her eyes roll back into her head. J. J. had time to say, “Lisa—”

I moved to catch her. I didn’t mean to move faster than human-normal, but I suddenly found one arm across her back and one arm under her thighs. Jason saw the movement and let go of the arm he file://L:\Azures L_Disc Shared Dowloads\EBooks\Anita Blake Series 1-17\(Book16] - Bl... 10/18/2009

BloodNoir

Page 171 of 287

was holding. J. J. was left clinging to one of Lisa’s arms, eyes a little wide. I stood there holding Lisa and being looked at very seriously by everyone in the room. The women were just surprised; the bodyguards had that look—that if-things-go-bad-we-shoot-her-first look. Shit. I wasn’t used to being faster than a speeding bullet. Okay, not that fast, but I was almost as quick as a real lycanthrope. My reaction times had become bloody spectacular. I had spent most of my life struggling with the best I could offer being barely good enough physically, and now…now just catching one drunk woman had startled a room full of armed men. Crap. Jason kissed me on the cheek, softly. “It’s okay,” he whispered. J. J. let go of Lisa’s arm and gave me full wide eyes. “That was like magic. One second she was falling, and then you just had her in your arms. Are you that fast, or did you fuck with my mind?”

“Yes,” Shadwell said, from where he was standing away from the wall, hand a little hovery over his weapon, “which is it, Marshal? Speed, or did you mind-fuck the entire room like some kind of vampire?”

“It’s speed,” Jason said.

“Are you a shapeshifter?” Shadwell asked.

I shook my head. “No, not exactly.”

“What does
not exactly
mean?” he asked.

I gave him an unfriendly look and said, “You like your secrets; you tell me what I want to know, and I’ll share. Until then, you aren’t cleared for this information.” I admit, that last part was said in a voice with an edge to it. Was I teasing him, or just pissed at the situation in general? Both. Trish recovered first and came over with a light jacket that someone had taken off. She draped it across Lisa’s lower body. I guess she was right. The dress was short enough that nothing I could do holding her in my arms would keep her from flashing the room. That’s what underwear is for, girls, so if an emergency happens you only show your cookies to the people you love.

“Let’s put Lisa on the couch,” Trish said.

I started walking toward the couch with the woman in my arms. Trish said, “Isn’t she heavy?”

“No,” I said, and she wouldn’t have been even before I got stronger than the average human, but then I could still bench-press my own body weight, and I weighed more than Lisa did. Which was why I could carry her across the room and lay her on the couch. There was plenty of room to lay her down because the women had scattered like pigeons when a child runs through them. None of them seemed to want to meet my eyes, or be too close to me. Prejudiced bitches. I laid her gently down and made sure the jacket stayed over her. “Is she out for the night?” I asked no one in particular.

Jason said, “Guys, I told you that I was a werewolf, and you were okay with cuddling on the couch. Now you’re treating Anita like she’s scary just because she kept Lisa from hitting the floor.”

J. J. said, “Jason’s right. We’re being stupid.” She offered me her hand again, but this time there was no flirting, just a very direct look from those blue eyes. file://L:\Azures L_Disc Shared Dowloads\EBooks\Anita Blake Series 1-17\(Book16] - Bl... 10/18/2009

BloodNoir

Page 172 of 287

I took the hand.

She said, “Thank you for catching my friend. I’m sorry it startled us.” She gave an unfriendly look to all the others around the couch. “We are going to behave ourselves better than this toward our friend’s girlfriend, aren’t we, girls?” It was phrased as a question, but it was said as an order. Some of the other women glanced at each other, but it was Jen who walked over and offered me her hand. The mother of two was dressed in the only pantsuit of the bunch. It was a nice pantsuit, though, and showed off the new baby curves to advantage. Her shoulder-length hair formed a yellow frame to all that pale skin and blue eyes. Her makeup was understated, and almost invisible. She gave me a good solid handshake, and even better eye contact. She’d been one of the few who hadn’t hung all over Jason. I guess it was that whole married thing. Monogamy at its best.

“First we disrespected you by climbing all over your steady boyfriend, then we react like schoolkids when you save our friend from a fall. I don’t know what you must think of us, Anita—

please, give us another chance.”

I nodded, and was more nervous or pissed or whatever than I knew, because I said what I was thinking. “You didn’t do anything inappropriate with Jason, Jen. So no harm done. And a lot of people are spooked by the preternatural stuff.”

“I guess that was aimed at the rest of us,” Jenna said. She came forward in her own version of the little black dress. It was heavier material and not quite as short as Lisa’s had been, but it was still the proverbial black dress, just the clubbing version. There is a little black dress for business, funerals (those can be the same dress), and parties. The latter are usually shorter and show more cleavage. Jenna’s dress was no exception to the rule.

Her hair was almost the same white blond that Lisa’s was. She even had her hair back in a ponytail, too. They looked like Barbie clones, or maybe Paris Hilton clones. Eek. Jenna offered a perfectly manicured hand with nails painted black to match the dress. She was a little unsteady on her heels, but her voice was firm and didn’t sound the least bit drunk. “I promise we will do better than this.”

I had to smile for some reason. “I believe you,” I said.

She smiled back, and the others came up one by one to shake my hand and apologize. Kris, who was a wee bit more drunk than everyone but Lisa, hugged me clumsily. “Pawing your guy right in front of you, I’m so sorry.”

I patted her bare back awkwardly. I didn’t like strangers hugging me. Why bare back? Because the back of her little white dress was nothing but straps. But most of the group had small enough breasts to carry off a dress where a bra was out of the question. Kris got a little teary. “I’ve been a bitch.”

I patted her and looked for someone to rescue me from the drunken blonde. J. J. took her off my hands and led her away to the end of the couch.

file://L:\Azures L_Disc Shared Dowloads\EBooks\Anita Blake Series 1-17\(Book16] - Bl... 10/18/2009