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I woke, staring up at the white drapes above Jean-Claude's bed. There was a damp washcloth folded over my forehead and voices arguing. I lay there for a few seconds, just blinking. I couldn't remember how I'd gotten here. I remembered the sensation of being cast out of Damian. I'd been cast out like an intruder, something to be protected against. The force that touched me hadn't been evil. I'd felt evil before, and that wasn't it. But it certainly hadn't been a beneficent force, either. More neutral, maybe.
The voices were Jean-Claude and Richard. The argument was about me. Big surprise.
"How can you let her die when you could save her?" Richard asked.
"I do not believe she is dying, but even if she was, without her permission, I will never again invade her mind."
"Even if she was dying?"
"Yes," Jean-Claude said.
"I don't understand that."
"You don't have to understand it, Richard. Anita would agree with me."
I brushed the rag from my head. I wanted to sit up, but it seemed too much effort.
Richard sat down on the bed, taking my hand. I wasn't sure I wanted him to, but I was still too weak to stop him.
Jean-Claude stood behind him, watching me. His face was blank and perfect, a mask.
"How do you feel?" Richard asked.
I had to swallow before I could speak. "Not sure."
Dominic walked into view. He had, wisely, stayed out of the argument. Besides, he was already a vampire's human servant. What was he going to say? That the mark was evil, or that it was no big deal. Lies either way.
"I am very glad to see you awake."
"It thrust me out," I said.
He nodded. "Indeed."
"What thrust her out?" Richard asked.
Dominic looked at me.
I shrugged.
"When the power that animates the vampire returned and found Anita still inside the body, the power cast her out."
Richard frowned. "Why?"
"I shouldn't have been there."
"Did the soul return as you touched it?" Jean-Claude asked.
"I've felt the brush of a soul before, that wasn't it."
Jean-Claude looked at me.
I looked back.
He was the one who looked away first.
Richard touched my hair where it had gotten wet from the rag. "I don't care if it was a soul or the bogeyman. I thought I'd lost you."
"I always seem to survive, Richard, no matter who else dies."
He frowned at that.
I let him. "Is Damian all right?" I asked.
"He seems to be," Jean-Claude said.
"What were you two arguing about?"
"Dominic, could you leave us now?" Jean-Claude asked.
Dominic smiled. "Gladly. I am eager to speak with Sabin. Tomorrow, you and Richard can raise him, and you, Anita"--he touched my face lightly--"can heal him."
I didn't like him touching me, but there was almost a reverence in his face. It made it hard to yell at him.
"I'll do my best," I said.
"In all things, I think." With that, he bid us a good day and left.
When the door closed behind him, I repeated my question. "What were you two arguing about?"
Richard glanced behind at Jean-Claude, then back to me. "You stopped breathing for a few seconds. No heartbeat, either. I thought you were dying."
I looked at Jean-Claude. "Tell me."
"Richard wanted me to give you the first mark again. I refused."
"Smart vampire," I said.
He shrugged. "You have made yourself very clear, ma petite. I will not be accused of forcing myself upon you again. Not in any sense."
"Did someone do CPR?"
"You started breathing on your own," Richard said. He squeezed my hand. "You scared me."
I drew my hand out of his. "So you offered me to him as his human servant."
"I thought we'd agreed to be a triad of power. Maybe I don't understand what that means."
I wanted to sit up but still wasn't sure I could do it, so I had to be content with frowning up at him. "I'll share power with you both, but I won't let Jean-Claude mark me. If he ever forces himself on me again, I'll kill him."
Jean-Claude nodded. "You will try, ma petite. It is a dance I do not wish to begin."
"I'm going to let him mark me before I leave for the pack tonight," Richard said.
I stared up at him. "What are you talking about?"
"Jean-Claude can't come tonight. He isn't a member of the pack. If we're joined, I can still call the power."
I struggled to sit up, and if Richard hadn't caught me, I'd have fallen. I lay cradled in his arms, digging fingers into his arms, trying to make him listen to me. "You don't want to be his servant for all eternity, Richard."
"The joining of master and animal is not the same as between master and servant, ma petite. It is not quite as intimate."
I couldn't see the vampire over Richard's broad shoulders. I tried to push myself up, and Richard had to help me. "Explain," I said.
"I will not be able to taste food through Richard, as I could through you. It is a minor side effect, but in truth one I miss. I enjoyed tasting solid food again."
"What else?"
"Richard is an alpha werewolf. He is an equivalent power to mine in some ways. He will have more control over my entering his dreams, his thoughts. He would be able to keep me out, as it were."
"And I couldn't," I said.
He looked down at me. "Even then, before you had explored your powers of necromancy, you were harder to control than you should have been. Now," he shrugged, "now I am not sure who would be master and who would be servant."
I sat up on my own. I was feeling just a tad better. "That's why you didn't mark me while you had the chance and Richard to take the blame. After what I did today, you're afraid that I'd be the master and you'd be my servant. That's it, isn't it?"
He smiled softly. "Perhaps." He sat on the bed on the other side of Richard. "I have not worked for over two hundred years to be Master of my own lands to give up my freedom to anyone, even you, ma petite. You would not be a cruel master, but you would be an exacting one."
"It's not pure master and servant. I know that from Alejandro. He couldn't control me, but I couldn't control him, either."
"Did you try?" Jean-Claude asked.
That stopped me. I had to think about it. "No."
"You simply killed him," Jean-Claude said.
He had a point. "Would I really be able to order you around?"
"I have never heard of another vampire choosing a necromancer of your power as human servant."
"What about Dominic and Sabin?" I asked.
"Dominic is no match for you, ma petite."
"If I agreed to the first mark, would you do it or not?" I asked.
Richard tried to hug me to his chest, but I moved away. I had to put both arms down to prop myself up, but I was sitting on my own.
Jean-Claude sighed, looking down at the floor. "If we truly joined, no one could stand against us. That much power is very tempting." He looked up suddenly, letting me see his eyes. Emotions rolled across his face. Excitement, fear, lust, and finally, just weariness. "We could be bound together for all eternity. Bound together in a three-way struggle for power. It is not a pleasant thought."
"Jean-Claude told me that he would not be my master," Richard said. "We would be partners."
"And you believed him?" I said.
Richard nodded, looking terribly earnest.
I sighed. "Jesus, Richard, I can't leave you alone for a minute."
"It is not a lie, ma petite."
"Yeah, right."
"If it's a lie," Richard said, "I'll kill him."
I stared at him. "You don't mean that."
"Yes, I do." Something moved through his brown eyes, something low and dark and inhuman.
"Once you decide to kill someone, it becomes easier to kill others, doesn't it?" I said.
Richard didn't flinch or look away. "Yes, it does, but that's not it. I won't be anyone's servant. Not Jean-Claude's, not yours, not Marcus's, not Raina's."
"Do you understand that once you're bound to him, that hurting him can hurt you? Killing him can kill you?"
"I' d rather be dead than trapped."
I watched the absolute certainty in his eyes. He meant it. "You'll kill Marcus tonight," I said.
Richard looked at me, and an expression passed over his face that I'd never seen before, a fierceness that filled his eyes and sent his power shivering through the room. "If he doesn't back down, I'll kill him."
For the first time, I believed him.
