Crimson Death
Page 77

   He looked at me. “No, Anita, not everyone.”
   “Edward told me that everyone breaks eventually. Maybe the people you’re thinking of just haven’t hit their eventually yet.”
   Damian looked down at his hands where he was still holding the towel across his lap. “How many centuries does someone have to stand up to torment before you call them unbreakable?”
   “I don’t know what to say to that, Damian.”
   “How many centuries are we talking about?” Nathaniel asked.
   “Eight hundred years.”
   “That’s a very long time,” Nathaniel said, raising his eyebrows to go with the comment.
   “Eight hundred years, okay; how about we call him hard to break?” I said.
   Damian looked at me. “You believe that everyone has their eventually, don’t you?”
   “I do.”
   “But you still want me to go back to Ireland and give her another chance at me.”
   “No, I want you to go back to Ireland and help us stop a bunch of murdering vampires from killing people. Police and our own guards will be with you.”
   “Will I have to talk to her?”
   “I doubt it, but even if you do, you’ll be guarded by our people and the police.”
   “And Anita and I will both be there,” Nathaniel said.
   I shook my head. “No.”
   “You just said it yourself: We’ll have our own guards and the police. I’m not going out hunting vampires with you. I’ll just be there to make sure Damian has all the power our triad can give him.”
   “We’re not taking him back to challenge his old mistress to a duel, Nathaniel.”
   “I know that, but we have more power together than apart.”
   “More power would be good,” Damian said.
   “Jean-Claude does just fine without Richard at our side all the time,” I said.
   “Let’s ask him,” Nathaniel said.
   “And if he says what you want him to say, then what?”
   “Then we all go to Ireland.”
   “And if I keep saying no?”
   “You wouldn’t tell Micah no, or Jean-Claude.”
   “That’s different.”
   “How?”
   “It just is.” And yes, I heard that it sounded lame.
   “Yes, neither of them would help me have more power, because they aren’t part of my triumvirate,” Damian said.
   “You both keep saying that we raised more power than ever before with Nathaniel leading the way, but how do we know we raised any power? All we really know for certain is that the three of us had sex without you and me angsting about it and getting in each other’s way. The two of us don’t even remember much of it.”
   The two men looked around me at each other. “I feel more energized,” Nathaniel said.
   “So do I, but maybe that’s just the rush after sex,” Damian said.
   “I can’t afford to have Nathaniel roll me while I’m working the case. I mean, how would the Irish police react if their two vampire experts got mind-fucked by their leopard and lost hours while they were supposed to be crime busting?”
   “I didn’t mean to make us lose hours,” Nathaniel said.
   “I know, but when the metaphysics first come online like this, there’s always a learning curve. I don’t want that curve to be when the police or Edward needs me most, needs us most.”
   “I thought I knew exactly what had happened and what needed to happen. I felt so certain that I should stay with you and Damian, that you’d need me there. He’d need me there. Am I wrong? Am I just wanting our triumvirate to work that way?”
   “What way?” I asked.
   “So that I’m essential, and that the three of us being together does raise power and strength for all of us.”
   “You’re essential to me,” I said, smiling, and rubbing my hand up and down his thigh.
   He smiled and patted my hand where I touched him, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. They stayed serious and unhappy.
   “Let’s talk to Jean-Claude,” Damian said.
   “Why?” I asked.
   “He knows more about controlling a triumvirate than we do. If anyone will know the answer to our questions, it’s him.”
   I couldn’t think of a better idea. I thought Damian would insist on getting clothes, but he didn’t. He seemed just fine with tightening the towel around his waist and padding barefoot up the hallway to Jean-Claude’s room. Nathaniel would have been fine with it, but it wasn’t like Damian at all. Nathaniel gave me a sad look and mouthed, I’m sorry.
   I shrugged, because maybe it was temporary.
   Damian looked back at us; his longer legs had taken him effortlessly ahead of us down the hallway. He flashed a grin so big it showed off the dainty points of his fangs. I could count on one hand the number of times that he had done that when he was in his right mind. Crap. Then he waited for us to catch up with him, and he took Nathaniel’s hand in his and we went hand in hand down the corridor. He started humming under his breath. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him so relaxed and happy before. Nathaniel and I exchanged a look.
   “Don’t be gloomy,” Damian said to us both. “I remember now what else I was thinking: that I wanted to be happy.” He swung Nathaniel’s hand in his as if he were about to start skipping down the hallway. “I am happy. I feel happy, just happy with no guilt, no fear. We’ll go to Ireland and it will be all right. Now that the human police know about her and the rest of us, doesn’t she fall under human law just like the little people who deal with the human authorities?”
   “Yes, it should work that way,” I said.
   “Then she’s holding people against their will, and that’s illegal, right?”
   “Yes,” I said, studying his happy face.
   “Then the police will help us free the people I left behind.”
   “Theoretically,” I said.
   He shook his head, and his hair was still so wet it clung to his neck and shoulders rather than moving with the gesture. “Or maybe just telling the Roane that She-Who-Made-Us has lost control of the city and can’t stop an invasion of foreign vampires will be enough.”
   “Enough for what?” Nathaniel asked.
   “Only fear of her power and obedience to their ruler keep the seal folk from fighting against their enslavement.”