Crimson Death (28 page)

“Older master vamps still tell their little vampires that if the master dies, they won't wake up the next night, but I've proved that's not true.”

“For a simple master vampire it is not, but Masters of the City can take some of their lesser vamps with them to the grave, and a
sourdre de sang
can take many of their creations down to death with them. When you slew the Lover of Death for well and good last year, many of his children died with him.”

“I didn't know that,” I said.

“Would you have cared if you had known?”

“Maybe, but we're not talking about vampires dying and not rising from their coffins. We're talking about more new little vampires rising,” I said.

“The magic of the land itself should prevent such a plague of vampires in Ireland.”

“According to the police there are more attacks every night,” I said.

Pierette frowned and looked at the floor again, which apparently was what she did when she was thinking hard. “Are there any attacks outside the city?” she asked at last.

“Not that's been mentioned to me.”

“If it's only happening in the city and not the countryside, then it could be that the wild fairy magic itself is beginning to wane. It's happened nearly everywhere else in the world, and it would start in the city if that was the reason. The countryside without all of mankind's technology and metal would retain its magic longer.”

“How would they check to see if that's what's happening?” I asked.

“Ask the little people—they're still there and they deal with the humans. Ask the Fairy Doctors—they'll know.”

“Literally fairy doctors?” I asked.

She gave a small smile. “No, they are humans who either gain their magic through the gentle folk, or are beloved by the Fey in some way. The Irish call them Fairy Doctors because in past times they would cure ill livestock or people like a doctor, but they did it through fairy magic, not medical science.”

“Are they still allowed to use magic to cure people?” Nathaniel asked.

Pierette didn't seem to hear him.

“I'd think modern medicine would have done away with them,” I said.

“They are not allowed to act as doctors, but they are still valued as a type of psychic ability,” she said.

“Can they cure things that modern medicine can't?” Nathaniel asked.

Again, Pierette ignored him.

“Nathaniel asked you a question,” I said.

She looked at me. “You are our queen and our conqueror. Sin is the young prince and is treated as such by our new king. But he”—and she pointed at Nathaniel—“is nothing to us. Not king, not prince, not Nimir-Raj, not Rex, not Ulfric, not a leader of any group. Why should I answer his questions?”

“He's my fiancé,” I said.

“No, Jean-Claude is your fiancé. Nathaniel is someone that you will do an unofficial ceremony with that even your own laws do not recognize as a legally binding contract.”

“The same is true of Micah and me.”

“He is a king in his own right both of the leopards and of the Coalition,” she said.

“I'm not a prince in my own right,” Sin said. “I'm only that because Jean-Claude says so.”

“And you are in the bed of the queen.”

“So is Nathaniel,” he said.

Pierette shook her head. “It is not the same.”

“She's putting a ring on his finger, not on mine.”

She shook her head stubbornly. “You act as a true
moitié bête
. He does not.”

“Nathaniel is part of my triumvirate of power with Damian; why doesn't that give him more status?”

“Jean-Claude gains power through his triumvirate, but you seem to gain none through yours. He chose the most powerful necromancer since the Mother of All Darkness herself as his human servant, and the Ulfric of the local werewolf pack as his
moitié bête
. Nathaniel is one of the weakest of the wereleopards in the local pard, and Damian was one of the weakest of M'Lady's vampires.”

“So you don't respect Damian either,” Sin said.

“I pity him for what I saw him endure over the centuries, but no, I do not respect him. The Harlequin do not respect weakness.”

“I'm in love with Nathaniel and would marry him, Micah, and Jean-Claude legally if I could.”

“Which is more than she'd do with me if she could,” Sin said. He didn't sound bitter, or angry; he was just stating fact.

“None of the other men see you as their catamount, my prince. You cannot marry Anita, because none of the other men see you romantically.”

“Nathaniel and I actively share Anita.”

“But you do not share each other,” she said.

Sin glanced at the other man. “Help me out here, Nathaniel.”

“I don't think I can, Sin. Pierette is right. I'm not a king or a prince.”

“Some of the guards called you and Micah both my princes,” I said.

“Not since Micah made the Coalition a power to be reckoned with, and Sin became the young prince.”

“So unless someone is a leader, you discount them?” I asked.

“Not discount, but if they are not in charge of anything else, then they cannot be in charge of the Harlequin,” she said. She said it like it was just a fact of life, a given.

“Nicky is in charge of the local lions, but you don't respect him as much as Micah, or Sin,” I said.

“Scaramouche should not have used his claws today,” she said.

“But in everyday dealings, you don't treat Nicky as well as you do me,” Sin said.

She sighed. “I do not wish to insult anyone.”

“Just tell us, Pierette,” I said.

She nodded, but it was more like a bow from the neck. “If my queen commands.”

“Yeah, I command.”

“Nicky could have fought his way to be Rex of your local pride, but he could not have maintained the leadership without your backing. Everyone knows that if they challenge him, the might of you and Jean-Claude will be with him. If he did not have the other two male lions to help him run the lions, even that might not be enough. He is a good
warrior, but not a good leader, and he is your Bride, which is less than an animal to call, or even a human servant. No disrespect meant to you, my queen, but Brides aren't meant to be kept this long. They are designed to please their Groom and be sacrificed for his or her safety as needed.”

“No disrespect meant, but huh? You and your other two playmates that got beat up aren't usually this respectful even to me. What changed?”

“You showed that you noticed us and did not approve of our behavior.”

I frowned at her. “Magda said almost the same thing when I got her to stop picking fights with some of the other lionesses, that I'd noticed her efforts or something like that.”

“We need our queen, or our king, to rule us, Anita.”

“What does that mean exactly?”

“It means exactly what I said.”

I was pretty sure that the phrasing meant more than I understood, but I wasn't sure how to ask the right question to get an explanation that would make sense to me.

Nathaniel said, “Maybe they're like people who push until someone pushes back, because they need to know the rules, or maybe they need to have rules.”

“You mean, like Nicky beat the shit out of them and suddenly Scaramouche is offering to do Jean-Claude, or let Jean-Claude do him.”

“Yes.”

“So if they can't have good treatment they'll misbehave until they get bad treatment—is that it?” I asked.

“I think so,” Nathaniel said.

Pierette was watching us talk as if she were memorizing the conversation, and maybe she was so she could repeat it back to her fellow Harlequin.

“Is that it, Pierette?” I asked. “Is any attention better than no attention?”

“I do not understand the question.”

“Magda was picking fights with one of the local lionesses until I slept with her the first time. She literally said that now that I'd noticed her efforts, she would leave the other lionesses alone. Scaramouche is
a pain in our asses, until we have Nicky punch him out, and now he's willing to cooperate with us. Magda got positive attention and behaved better. Scaramouche and you get negative attention and you behave better, so it doesn't seem to matter what kind of attention you get as long as it's some attention from me. I guess Jean-Claude's attention would serve just as well, but do you understand the point we're trying to make now?”

She thought about it, staring at the floor while she did it again. She looked up before she said, “I believe so, and it may be accurate. I would want my master to hear your words, before I answer for certain.”

“Fair enough,” I said.

Sin said, “What Nathaniel did just now is one of his purposes in Anita's life.”

“I do not understand, my prince,” Pierette said.

“He helps her think better.”

“Ah, yes, I see. Then he may be more her
moitié bête
than we thought, but he is still weak both as a leader and a warrior.”

“But he's very strong in my heart,” I said, and reached out to hold Nathaniel's hand.

“We have no doubt you love him, my queen, but love is not enough to set someone as king above us.”

“It's okay, Anita. Concentrate on Ireland,” Nathaniel said.

“It's not okay that they disrespect you.”

“No, but save lives first. The rest can wait.”

“Even you?”

He smiled. “Even me.”

“Okay, Pierette, do you think that M'Lady lost enough power when Mommy Darkness died that she can't stop a new vampire from populating Dublin with new vamps? Is that really possible?”

“Many things are possible, my queen, but likely, no.”

“Why would the fairy magic be diminishing, then?”

“I do not know. I have no dealings with the gentle folk. They do not like vampires or those who associate with them. They tolerated M'Lady because she had the power to force them to deal with her. Perhaps the Fey magic was more important to her own powers than
we understand, and it is the failure of that magic which is weakening M'Lady.”

“So it's not that M'Lady lost power when Mommy Darkest died, but the fairy magic fading that's hurting her power levels?”

Again Pierette stared at the floor while she thought about what I'd said. “That could be the case.”

“So whoever is in the city doing all this is a new player in the country?”

“A new vampire, yes,” she said.

“Why would fairy magic fading cause M'Lady's power to fade?” Sin asked.

“Because it is a part of her, as is the very soil of Ireland itself.”

“Is that where the myth about needing to lie in their native soil comes from?”

“Some very weak vampires do need to lie in their original soil, or they will die and never waken again.”

“It's certainly not true for any of you. You've traveled the globe,” I said.

“We had the Mother of All Darkness to power us on our travels. We knew she would sustain us.”

“Are you saying that without her power to back you, if you travel to another country you won't wake again?”

“My master has not been on his native soil for centuries, and he sustains me.”

“If you didn't die with him, what would happen to you?” Sin asked.

“No one knows, for when one half dies the other follows.”

“You guys always die with your masters?” I asked.

“Yes, but then most
moitié bêtes
will die with their masters, for it is their power that sustains us.”

I squeezed Nathaniel's hand and touched Sin's arm. He smiled down at me and put an arm across my shoulders. “It's okay, Anita.”

“You didn't ask to be my animal to call.”

“I was pretty much begging for it,” Nathaniel said, smiling.

“You wanted anything that got you closer to me,” I said, bumping my head gently against his shoulder.

“I still do,” he said, and kissed me ever so gently.

Pierette tried to keep her face blank but couldn't quite manage it.

“You don't approve?” I asked.

“It is not for me to approve or disapprove.”

Sin put his other arm around both me and Nathaniel, so that we were in a group hug. Touching both of them like that made my skin run warm with power. The rush of it made me close my eyes for a moment. It felt so good.

“And that is why we do not tell you how to run your power, my queen, for just that extra touch has made the three of you burn brighter.”

“We all love each other,” Sin said.

I looked up at him.

He smiled down at my upturned face. “Don't look so surprised, Anita. That talk we had recently about how I could be content with only having part of your life, well, one of the reasons it works is Nathaniel, and Nicky, and Micah. They are my brothers.”

“Most brothers don't share their girlfriends,” I said.

“Brother-husbands, then, but you're just trying to dissect it like you always do. Just accept the fact that we love each other, that the three of us love each other. Our own magic tells you it's true.” He tightened his hug around us and Nathaniel hugged him back and I was held between the two of them. It felt warm and safe and good. I finally let myself lean my head against Sin's chest, and something hard and tight inside me let go as he and Nathaniel held me. The power was gentler than the
ardeur
, but it still spilled over us, around us.

“Is this what love feels like?” Pierette asked in a soft voice.

I looked up to see her touching the air in front of her. I think she was caressing the power that was rolling around us. I concentrated for a moment and felt her fingertips almost as if the power she was touching were a part of my skin.

“Yes,” Sin said, “that's what love feels like.”

“It is warm and safe, but it feels like power, too.” She looked startled and drew her hand back. “Your power doesn't just feed on lust; it feeds on love.”