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“I must stay here in charge of the security for the hospital,” Echo said.
“Won’t you need to be underground in the Circus before dawn?” I said.
“I’ll stay with her,” Fortune said. “I brought the travel bag with me in case it turned into a long night.” The travel bag was a body-size duffel bag that I’d seen Fortune use on our trip to Ireland. Even Nathaniel had a bag for Damian; he’d copied the ones that the Harlequin used for their vampire masters. The bags were lightproof and the human or wereanimal could transport the vampire and keep them safe until night fell.
“That puts Anita down to three able-bodied guards,” Nicky said.
“That’s why I’m here,” Pierette said from the door. I turned toward her, one of those big, stupid grins on my face that you get at the beginning of a relationship and, if you’re lucky, forever. So far I was lucky in my other relationships with men; I was hoping Pierette would prove that I could have the same luck with women.
I went to her to get a hello kiss, but Echo stopped me with her arm in front of me. “There is no time for distractions, the night is waning.”
The welcoming smile faded on both our faces, but I was tired and wanted something to go right tonight, and maybe I was still stinging from Echo’s rejection. I realized that the two of them looked alike, both short, though Pierette was taller than both of us, but not by that much. Echo’s hair was black and to her shoulders, Pierette’sbrunette and cut so short it left her earlobes bare. Black diamond studs decorated them; they’d been a gift from me, because the white diamonds that Jean-Claude got caught the light too much for security work. The black ones weren’t as flashy, but she could wear them at work and that was the point.
Echo was the more classically beautiful, and I’d realized that her coloring was almost identical to Jean-Claude’s, which may have been part of her appeal at first. Pierette’s eyes were brown like mine, but more almond shaped. Her face was thinner, her chin just a touch pointed, her face more delicate than either Echo’s or mine, because we had more curves everywhere. Seeing them side by side I definitely had a preferred type for women; my men were all over the place, but the women I was most attracted to fell into a very narrow physical type with one or two exceptions.
“Love is worth a distraction or two; now I’m going to kiss my girlfriend hello.” I walked around Echo and took Pierette’s hand in mine, drawing her into my arms. She came with a smile, wrapping her arms around my shoulders while I wrapped mine around her waist. Our bodies came together like they were made to fit as much as her body armor and weapons allowed. It covered her breasts so that I couldn’t rub myself against them; it wasn’t until I’d started dating her that I realized how much fun my own body armor stole from the people in my life. We kissed and it was like a surprise every time, how small her mouth was compared to the men. I drew a hand from around her waist so I could play my fingers down the side of her face. Tracing the delicate bones of her cheeks, and how the softness of her skin clung to them. No one was more delicate in my hands when we kissed than she was, and I loved it.
I drew back to stare into her brown eyes from inches away. We both gave each other those big, silly happy smiles. Echo had asked for distance, and Pierette had stepped into that space with no regrets and no holding back. Eagerness can be its own aphrodisiac. I finally understood what the men in my life had been telling me for years,that the fact that I loved sex with them so much with no games, no pretense, was rare and utterly attractive.
“I have a bag full of body armor and tactical clothing for you,” she said, touching her own tactical boot to a bag at her feet.
“I love you,” I said.
She grinned and said, “I know.”
We’d introduced her toStar Warslast weekend, and yes, I kissed her again.
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Pierette had alsobrought one of the larger SUVs. Wicked and Truth got settled in the back with pillows and blankets so they could be as comfortable as possible on the drive. My big equipment bag full of even more weapons and vampire-hunting gear from the other SUV fit beside them. Ethan drove, and Nicky started to get in the backseat with me, but Pierette said, “Micah asked that Anita have wereleopards on either side of her on the drive home.”
Nicky gave her a look that I could feel through the car where I was sitting. Ru was already sitting on my left between me and the door. Bodyguards always sat by the door with the body they were guarding in the middle. Pierette was new love and that’s always intoxicating, but I was in love with Nicky in a way that I wasn’t with her yet. “I know that I am not one of your lovers, and I would normally offer to move for them,” Ru said, “but Micah was very clear. He thinks it’s important for you to have wereleopards with you tonight.”
“I know, he told me.”
“You want me to move,” he said. He looked so sad. He’d stood up to Rodina, his last remaining sibling, for me. He opened the door and I suddenly felt guilty. I reached out to grab his hand, and themoment my bare skin touched his, my inner leopard didn’t just step out of the darkness, the yellow eyes were behind mine like my human face was the mask. The leopard’s energy spilled upward like black ink that spilled down my hand and into Ru’s.
I looked into Ru’s black-on-black eyes; they were like mirrors of the inky darkness of my panther. Rich yellow-gold spilled into his eyes like gold paint pouring slowly into the black until his eyes were all leopard in his human face.
The seat moved behind me, but I didn’t have to guess who it was because a hand touched the side of my neck, and it was a second leopard. Pierette spooned in behind me on her knees. I leaned back against her and suddenly felt both tired and better. I just wanted to curl up between them and sleep. That was when I realized that I was hurt, or tired enough that I needed to sleep between two of my inner beasts the way an injured wereanimal heals.
Nicky spoke from behind us through Pierette’s open door. “I’ll sit up front with Ethan, you sleep between the leopards.”
I turned around enough to see him, but he’d already moved to the front seat. I’d lost a few seconds between when he spoke and when I turned to see him. I was suddenly exhausted, as if the entire night had just caught up with me all at once.
“Sleep, Anita,” Wicked said.
“Why do I feel like this? You’re the ones that got hurt, not me.”
“Emotional wounds are still wounds, Anita,” Ethan said from the driver’s seat.
“Buckle up, and sleep,” Nicky said, “we’ll keep you safe.”
He knew that I was afraid to sleep in cars, because of my mother dying in a car crash. “Thank you,” I said.
I put on my seat belt and Ru did, too, because he knew how I felt about it. I rested my hand on his thigh and he put his hand over mine. I settled down lower so I could put my head on his shoulder. Pierette settled in on my other side, putting her arm across myshoulders, and because my head was on Ru’s shoulder she touched us both, but that felt even better. I thought I would have trouble sleeping, but it was like all of us touching had completed a circuit of energy and comfort and it was exactly what I needed, what we all needed.
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