Page 114 of Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 29)

Dev kissed Jean-Claude, licking the blood off his mouth. “Make me yours, Jean-Claude.”

I pushed away enough to start to ask, but Jean-Claude read my thought and answered, “I do not know if I need to say the words again with you and our Devil, or only over him. You are the only human servant to ever have their own animal to call, so there are no certainties.”

“Excuse me, and I apologize ahead of time, just know it’s not our idea.” It was Custer and one of the newer werehyenas walking toward us. Custer’s dark brown hair had grown out enough that he hadcurls, and they were sleep tousled liked he’d just thrown on his T-shirt and pants and hadn’t looked in a mirror. The second man, whose name I couldn’t remember—it was something short and began with aJ, or was it aG?—whatever his name was, he’d just put on pants and hadn’t bothered with the shirt.

“We’re busy, Custer,” I said.

“Dev doesn’t smell enough of you or Jean-Claude; tell me we got here before Jean-Claude made gold tiger his next animal to call.”

“It is none of your business what I do, or with whom,” Jean-Claude said.

Custer ran his hands through his hair and looked even less happy. “You’re right, it’s not, but when the Oba of your werehyena clan calls you up and tells you to move your ass, you move.”

“This is not Narcissus’s business either,” Jean-Claude said.

“Has there been another attack?” Jake asked, and it was a great question; the fact that I hadn’t thought that Deimos might have attacked Narcissus’s club across the river made me realize I was drunk on the magic.

“What do you mean, another attack?” Custer asked, and both men suddenly looked wide awake. The new guy even glanced back to where they had been sleeping and the majority of their weapons would still be. I didn’t have to search them to know they’d have at least one gun, maybe a gun and a knife on them, but an attack made them want things that couldn’t be hidden under a shirt or tucked down a pair of pants.

“We’re safe currently, Jake can fill you in, but we’re running out of night to finish this,” I said.

“Our Oba told us to stay close to Jean-Claude until he gets here,” the new guy said.

“Wait, do you mean Narcissus is coming here tonight?” Richard asked.

“Who’s this guy?” New Guy asked. He jerked his thumb at Richard.

“Ulfric,” Custer said.

“Nice to meet you, Ulfric, I’m Geoff.”

Now I remembered his name was Jeff, but he spelled itGeoff, that’s why I kept forgetting if his name started with aJor aG.

“He’stheUlfric,” Custer said. “I told you all the titles of the local kings. Don’t make me look bad in front of three of them.”

“I forgot one, sorry.”

“Focus, Custer, answer the question—is Narcissus coming here tonight?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because Narcissus felt Jean-Claude’s power spike earlier tonight. Narcissus is convinced that he’s going to pick a second animal to call,” Custer said.

“I have already chosen gold tiger for my nextmoitié bête,” Jean-Claude said.

“Narcissus told us to stop you from choosing anyone else before he gets here,” Geoff said.

“You aren’t the boss of any of us,” I said.

“I know,” Custer said, “hell, we’re both your security so it’s really awkward that Narcissus told us if we don’t interfere he’ll take a pound of flesh or two, and it’s not a metaphor, Anita.”

“Narcissus wants to be sure that the hyenas do not get left out this time,” a voice down the hallway added. We turned to find Kane walking toward us.

41

KANE WAS DRESSEDin a brown silk robe. It was a nice robe, I knew just how nice, because I’d bought it for Asher one Christmas when we were closer. The color looked warm and just right with Asher’s golden hair and the autumn undertones of his pale skin, but the color was all wrong for Kane. His black hair and tanned skin needed something in bright jewel tones like royal blue, or red. If it was possible to make him less attractive to me the color did, and he was wearing a present I’d bought Asher. I tried to think it was an accident, that he’d just grabbed it to cover himself, but the sneer on his face as he stroked his hands down the front of the robe let me know he’d done it on purpose. God, was there anything he ever did that wasn’t for spite, or jealousy?

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