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"Let me guess," I said. "Raina wanted you for her movies."
"She wants everyone that is remotely attractive for her movies. Though sometimes sharing her bed for a tryout can get you out of it. She offered me to Gabriel for my tryout. That damn leopard is not even a pack member."
"If he were, she'd make him pack leader," I said.
Cassandra shook her head. "Gabriel couldn't defeat Marcus, let alone Richard. He's the leader of the wereleopards only because there's no one stronger. He's an alpha, but he's flawed. It makes him weak."
"Sexual perversion doesn't always mean you'll lose a fight," I said.
"It's not that," Cassandra said. "He's into dangerous sex. Lycanthropes can take a lot of damage." She shivered. "The things he wanted to do to me." She looked at me, and the fear showed in her eyes. "He says you nearly gutted him once while he had you pinned to the ground."
I looked away. "Yeah."
Cassandra touched my arm, and there was no sense of power. She was every bit as good as Richard at hiding what she was. She made Sylvie look like an amateur. The touch made me turn back to her. "He's hot for you, Anita. I didn't tell Richard because, well, I'm new in the pack. Got into town about two weeks ago. I was afraid that if I told him what Gabriel had said about you, he might do something stupid. But meeting you, maybe telling you is enough. You can decide whether Richard needs to know."
She looked so serious. It scared me. "What did Gabriel say?"
Cassandra took a deep breath. "He has a fantasy about you. He wants to arm you with knives and let you try to kill him, on film, while he rapes you."
I stared at her. I wanted to say, you're kidding, but I knew she wasn't. Gabriel was just that twisted. "How does the movie end in his version?"
"With you dead," she said.
"While he rapes me?" I said.
She nodded.
I hugged myself, running my hands down my arms, tensing my back, feeling the weapons I was carrying. I was armed. I was safe, but shit.
She touched my shoulder. "You all right?"
"Well, isn't this touching," a man's voice on the stairs behind us. Cassandra was on her feet, facing it in an instant. I slid my hand into the open purse and drew the Seecamp out. The gun caught a bit on the cloth lining and cost me a couple of seconds, but it was out and ready. I felt better. I'd twisted on the steps, coming up on one knee, not bothering to stand. Sometimes, standing made you a better target.
Sabin stood about five steps above us. Frightfully close for neither of us to have sensed him. He was dressed as I'd seen him in the office; hooded cloak covering him from head to toe. I could see under the cloak now. There were no feet. He was floating above the step. "I wish you could see the look on your face, Ms. Blake."
I swallowed my pulse back into my mouth and said, "I didn't know you'd be here tonight, Sabin."
Cassandra took a step towards him, a soft growl oozing from her throat. "I don't know you," she said.
"Calm yourself, wolf. I am Jean-Claude's guest, aren't I, Ms. Blake?"
"Yeah," I said. "He's a guest." I stopped pointing the gun at him, but I didn't put it up. He was awfully damn good to have snuck up on me and a werewolf.
"You know him?" Cassandra asked. She was still standing above me, blocking the vampire's path. She was taking this bodyguard thing very seriously.
"I've met him."
"He safe?"
"No," I said, "but he's not here to hurt me."
"Who is he here to hurt?" Cassandra asked. She still hadn't given any ground.
Sabin eased down the steps, cloak billowing around him in an odd motion, like the sleeve of an amputee. "I have come to watch the night's entertainment, nothing more."
Cassandra backed up to stand a step ahead of me. I stood but still kept the gun out. I was jumpier than normal. I was also remembering how Sabin had bled me from a distance with his laughter. Keeping a gun handy seemed like a good idea.
"Where's Dominic?"
"He's here somewhere." His hood was a cup of darkness, smooth and empty, but I knew he was watching me. I felt his gaze like a weight.
He stayed on the step just above Cassandra, two steps above me. "Who is your lovely companion?"
"Sabin, this is Cassandra; Cassandra, Sabin."
A black-gloved hand slid out of the cloak. He reached towards Cassandra as if he'd caress her face.
She jerked back. "Don't touch me."
His hand froze in midmotion. A stillness washed over him. I'd seen other vampires fill with that utter quietness, but I'd thought it was made up of visual clues. There was no visual from Sabin, but that same emptiness flowed outward. The illusion was almost better this way as if it was just an empty cloak somehow hovering on the stairs.
His voice came out of that stillness. It was startling. "Is my touch so repulsive?"
"You smell of sickness and death."
Sabin drew his hand back inside his cloak. "I am a visiting master. It is within my rights to ask for a bit of... companionship. I could ask for you, wolf."
Cassandra growled at him.
"No one's forcing anyone into anyone's bed," I said.
"Are you so sure of that, Ms. Blake?" Sabin asked. He floated around Cassandra. The cloak brushed her, and she shuddered.
I couldn't smell him; I didn't have a werewolf's sense of smell. But I'd seen some of what was under that cloak. It was worth a shudder or two.
"Cassandra is only on loan to Jean-Claude. She belongs to the pack, so yeah, I'm sure."
Cassandra glanced back at me. "You'd protect me?"
"It's part of my job description now, isn't it?"
She studied my face. "Yes, I suppose it is." Her voice was soft, the growling like a distant dream. She looked terribly normal except for the outfit.
"You've seen what I am, Ms. Blake. Do you shudder at my touch?"
