Danse Macabre   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

He bent down, and down, his mouth hovering over mine so that I could feel his breath warm against my lips. I think even at the last second he thought about stealing the kiss I'd never allowed him, but he thought better of it. He did what he was supposed to do, though frankly the kiss would have been less embarrassing. In some ways, at least.

He was supposed to lick across my lower lip. It was a version of the gesture a submissive wolf uses toward a dominant. It's based on the food-begging behavior of wolf pups. But saying all that didn't change the fact that his fingers were gentle against my face, and his breath was warm against my mouth. The tip of his tongue touched my lip, and slid across it. Wet, gliding, sensual, wetter than the first real kiss should be. Wet, as if I'd taken a drink of wine and spilled just a little across my lower lip. Just enough so that I had to lick across my lip in an echo of what he had just done to me. As if I were drinking down the touch of his mouth.

He shivered, his breath trembling on the air. «That was nice.»

«It was supposed to be you begging the forgiveness of your pack's lupa,» I said, but my voice was a little shaky, and not nearly firm enough.

He gave a quick smile, the one that ruined the hip-tough-guy image, and made him look his age. Graham had yet to see twenty-five. «I do ask forgiveness, but it's still the most you've ever let me touch you.»

I shook my head and pushed past him. Micah and Nathaniel followed me. Nathaniel was carrying the overnight bag that held, among other things, the pregnancy tests. I knew when he came out of the store with them why I'd put off buying them. It made the whole problem more real. Stupid, but it did.

«You've slept in the same bed with me, Graham,» I called back over my shoulder as I headed for the big door that led underground.

«Sleeping's not what I want,» he said.

I stopped at the door, and just turned and stared at him. The other men moved to either side to let me see him better.

Graham looked at me, his eyes peeking through the silky fringe of his overly long bangs. It always made me think of an animal peering at me through the grass. The upper layer hadn't been this long when I met him.

«I do not need your shit tonight, Graham.»

«Why are you always mad at me?»

«I am not always mad at you, Graham.»

«If you're not mad at me, then why don't you like me better?»

«I don't dislike you, Graham, I just don't want to fuck you. I'm allowed not to fuck you, even though you want to fuck me.»

«Don't fuck me then, just feed the ardeur off me. Feed it the way you fed off Nathaniel for months without intercourse.»

I shook my head. «I don't want to introduce the passion of the ardeur to someone I'm not keeping. It's cruel.»

«The ardeur is the greatest orgasmic experience that any of the vampire lines can give to a mortal.» Graham's face was full of such eagerness, his hands reaching out to the air as if he could draw the ardeur out of it, and hug it to him. «I just want to know what it feels like. The real deal, not the little tastes I've had by accident. Why is that wrong, Anita? Why is it wrong to want that?»

«She's afraid you'll become addicted,» Micah said, voice soft.

Graham shook his head. «I've never been addicted to anything in my life.»

«Lucky you,» Nathaniel said.

«Please, Anita, don't go to strangers to feed the ardeur . Don't go to strangers when there are people right here who would do almost anything to feed your need.»

I made an exasperated sound, almost a scream of frustration, and went for the door. I opened it and we headed down the stone steps that led down, down, to the actual home of the Master of the City.

The steps were too wide, too something, as if they'd been carved for something that didn't walk on two feet. The stairs were always awkward, which was why I was still in jogging shoes. Micah took my hand anyway, and I let him. If it looked to Graham like I was needing help down the stairs, fuck him, or rather don't. I needed the comfort of touch tonight. Nathaniel stayed on my other side, but didn't try to take my right hand in his. I'd need that hand for the gun or the blade. Yeah, these vamps were supposed to be Jean-Claude's friends. But they weren't my friends, not yet.

We were at the landing just before the stairs took a turn. It was a blind turn, but if you hugged the far wall, you didn't stay blind for long.

«Wait,» Graham said, «please, wait. I should go first.»

We all turned and watched him walk the few steps down to us. He gave a smile that was almost nervous. «I am the bodyguard, remember?»

I looked him up and down, and said, «Are you carrying?»

He sighed. «No. Richard says we're dangerous enough without guns.»

I shook my head. «Not if everyone else has them, Graham. Silver bullets don't let you get close.»

He shrugged those massive shoulders. «Richard is Ulfric; if you want to change policy, take it up with him. I'm just doing what I'm told.»

I sighed. I loved Richard, really I did, but we had some serious differences of opinion.

Graham eased past us, but stopped on the step below the landing. He looked up, but not like he was happy. «I was hoping that Jean-Claude would have joined us by now.»

I gave him a look. «What do you mean, joined us? Jean-Claude is waiting downstairs with our guests, right?»

He shook his head. «There was an emergency upstairs.»

«Asher is managing the Circus; he should be able to take care of any emergencies.»

Graham licked his lips. «I don't know the details, because I was left down here to wait for you, but Meng Die did something. Something that made Asher call for Jean-Claude to help him.»

Meng Die was a petite Chinese doll, or that's what she looked like. But she, like me, didn't really match the packaging. She'd been the second-in-command in San Francisco, before Jean-Claude called in all the vamps he'd made in this country to help bolster his defenses. Her master had been happy to let her go, because she'd been nights away from a palace revolt that would have left him dead and her in charge. In fact, he wouldn't take her back, though Jean-Claude had offered.

Meng Die wanted to be Jean-Claude's second-in-command, but that was Asher's job. Then all the vamps had come from London after their master went crazy and had to be killed. Suddenly Meng Die was just another master vampire in a kiss that was lousy with master vamps. She was powerful enough to be third, or maybe even second, but temperamentally, she wasn't suited to be that close to any throne. Too dangerous. Too ambitious.

«What the hell did she do now?» I asked.