WE WALKED PAST the line of people still hoping to get into the club until the crimson neon glow of the Guilty Pleasures sign painted everything reddish and sparkled in the beads of my dress so that it didn’t look blue anymore. There were complaints behind us in the line per normal; no one likes a line cutter. I must have looked different enough in the showier makeup and dress that even the black-shirted security guards at the door stopped me with a “Sorry, miss, but you’ll have to wait in line.”
I looked up at the man who’d spoken. “You must be new here,” I said. A woman in line called out, “It’s Jean-Claude’s fiancée!” Yep, not even my name, just his name and what I was to him, so damn patriarchal.
The new security guy said, “Shit,” then apologized for that, too.
The crowd did remember my name, though, because they started calling out, “Anita! Anita! Look this way!” They didn’t just want my attention, they wanted my picture; once I would have darted inside head down, but Jean-Claude had dressed me to be seen and we’d had enough practice this year for me to turn, smiling. Rodina smiled with me, then moved away so I stood on the steps alone for a moment, I even managed a little wave without grimacing or giving the pop of flashes from the phones the finger. My eyes were dazzled, my vision full of spots when I turned away and the security at the doors let us through. Ru took my elbow so I didn’t trip in the heels with my vision ruined. If you ever wonder why celebrity security guards wear sunglasses, it’s not to look tough, it’s so the camera and phone flashes don’t blind them. Only us celebrities get to go blind for a few seconds; okay, only those of us dating celebrities.
I was glad Ru was there to steady me through the door. Rodina’s weight at my back was comforting, too, because between the shoes and the camera flashes I wasn’t as able-bodied as normal. I reminded myself that I was doing this for Jean-Claude and we both knew I’d have security with me. I repeated all that to myself as I cursed at feeling helpless. It is not my favorite feeling and looking fabulous has never been worth it to me, but . . . I was safe, no one was trying to hurt me, I was safe. I was even armed, if someone jumped me I could defend myself, but I had to fight off a host of old issues not to get angry about it and aim it at Jean-Claude, or the customers with their phones, or even Rodina and Ru. Once I would have just lashed out, but I owned myself now, issues and all.
I felt something stir inside me and glimpsed bright yellow eyes set in a black velvet face. My leopard down deep inside me where my human mind visualized my inner beasts. The leopard was reacting to my anxiety, trying to protect us, but my anger was the big problem. I wasn’t picking a fight with anyone thanks to therapy, but the anger was still inside me looking for a place to go and my inner beasts would help me deal with it, if by help you meant try to tear their way out of my body and ruin the night.
Ru held me close, but underneath the sweetness of his skin was something heavier, his leopard was inside there somewhere. They were both wereleopards so they couldn’t help me push down my own. I needed a different kind of wereanimal to help me balance, and as if I’d called him to me, Ethan was there, pushing past Rodina, taking me from Ru. He wrapped his arms around me, and I buried my nose against his chest, but it wasn’t enough. I needed bare skin. He raised his hand with the other arm still holding me close. I pressed my nose against the back of his hand and there was his inner rainbow of tigers—blue, white, red, and gold. He alone held enough different flavors of beasts to keep me in my own skin. The leopard that was crawling up inside me growled into the darkness as the tigers showed themselves among green jungle foliage that just seemed to appear for them to give hints of their movements. The leopard’s gold eyes faded into the darkness as the tigers circled inside me.
I could finally draw a deep breath and let go of the anger. Therapy helped me work out my anger issues, but nothing seemed to make them go away. I looked up at Ethan; his white hair spilled around the top of his face, still cut short enough on the sides that the top was the only volume he had. That one dark red streak that went from his forehead to the back of his skull looked like a skilled hairdresser had done it, but it was natural, the only hint of his red tiger lost in white and gray that signaled white and blue respectively. His eyes were a solid gray and if you didn’t know what you were looking at you’d never guess they were tiger eyes in his human face. Nothing in his human form gave away his golden tiger heritage, but I could call the scent of it to his skin.
“Thanks,” I said, and the background music was low enough he could hear me. There were strip clubs out there where the music blared so loud all night you couldn’t hear yourself think, but Guilty Pleasures wasn’t like that.
Ethan smiled down at me and said, “You’re welcome, but it is part of my job.”
I nodded and said, “Still, thanks.”
Rodina turned her head and said, “They’re taking pictures.” She was keeping her voice low so she wouldn’t be overheard by the group of people who were standing just outside the half circle that she and Ru had created around us and the wall. The women had their phones out and were filming me clinging to Ethan. They’d had to turn their flashes off because there were signs everywhere for that, so the pictures wouldn’t be high quality, yay for that.
“Get security over here and remind them that they aren’t allowed to take pictures of performers or their families inside the club,” I said.
Ru started to go find someone, but a black-shirted figure was already there chasing them back and telling them if they broke another of the club’s rules they’d be kicked out and there wouldn’t be any refunds.
Buzz still had his black hair in a close crew cut and small, pale eyes. He was built like an old-fashioned weightlifter, as if with one good flex his shirt would explode off him. He was a vampire, so he could keep his muscles without lifting another weight for the rest of eternity. “Sorry, Anita, I’ve got new guys on the door.”
“I hope they’re better at the door than they were just now.”
“I’ll yell at them later. Allow me to escort you to your table, though I’ll have to get an extra chair. I didn’t expect four of you.”
“I can stand,” Ethan said.
“Nah, you’ll block the view of the table behind you,” Buzz said as he ushered us through the small tables that filled the room around the stage to our table, well, my table since now it was always reserved for me and whatever bodyguard I had with me. Last time I’d been here, Nicky had been with me. I had a sudden pang of missing him. He’d been my main bodyguard for so long that I was used to having him at my side almost everywhere, and I was in love with him, so that contributed. I hated that the rumors had stripped me of him.
Ethan knew better than to hold my chair for me, but Ru didn’t yet, so we had that awkward moment of me trying to help him scoot me forward and failing to be helpful. We finally got it done but only because Ru was stronger than human normal and could finally just push the chair to the table even with me being in the way. I’d never managed to figure out how to be graceful when a man did the chair thing, and if Jean-Claude couldn’t teach me how to do it, then no one could.
Ru leaned over and whispered, “I’ll remember not to do the chair next time.”
I whispered back, “Thank you.”
Rodina started to sit down beside me, but Ethan moved forward and put his hand on the other side of the chair back. They stared at each other for a long minute while Ru took the far chair that wasn’t claimed, leaving the two of them to do whatever they were doing. Ethan was usually easygoing and didn’t try to dominate anyone else in my security detail, so why was he suddenly asserting himself now with Rodina?
“We all agreed on this,” Ethan said, and he was as serious and unhappy as I’d heard him in a while. He spoke low so that no one could hear but us.
“I didn’t agree, I was outvoted,” she said, voice still soft.
Buzz came up with our extra chair. “Everything okay here?”
Ru said, “The crowd is starting to notice.”
I glanced away from us to the room, and he was right, people were starting to openly stare. This was not going to quiet the rumors. “Both of you just sit down,” I said.
They continued to glare at each other. What the hell was going on? “Ethan by me; Rodina, take the chair from Buzz.”
Ethan took the chair and sat down beside me, and Rodina let him. Buzz scooted the chair in for Rodina and she was much better at making it look graceful instead of awkward. Maybe she could give me pointers later?
Buzz stepped back and looked at us. Ethan put his arm across the back of my chair, which I don’t think he’d ever done. Rodina glared at him. “You guys okay here?” Buzz asked, but he looked at me when he said it.
I looked at my three bodyguards, but only Ru met my gaze; the other two were too busy paying attention to each other. I frowned but said, “We’re good; thanks, Buzz.”
“Okay, just yell if you need anything.”
“Will do, Buzz.” He looked at all of us one more time, then walked away. I turned to Ethan and Rodina. “Okay, what’s going on?”
Ethan looked at her and Rodina looked at me. He was smiling and she wasn’t. “He called rank.”
“Rank? What rank?”
Ethan leaned into me so that his arm curled around my shoulders instead of resting on my chairback. I was torn between telling him to move his arm since he seemed to be doing it just to piss off Rodina, but he spoke low enough that I leaned in to hear it. “The Harlequin have been trying to dominate all of us, and we’re all tired of it.”
“And that explains why you’re cuddling with me in public like we’re dating when we’re not, how?”
Rodina leaned into both of us, pressing herself against Ethan so that it looked like the three of us were having an intimate conversation. “Your guards wouldn’t let the fact that we are Harlequin and thus the greatest warriors and covert agents in the world sway them to follow us.”
Ethan leaned into Rodina so that his mouth was almost touching her face and thus hidden from the room as he said, “We routinely beat some of you in training, and none of you wins against us all the time. How does that make you the greatest warriors of all time?”
“The death of our dark queen has lessened many of us, but do not let that go to your head, tiger. Training is not the same as battle and if there were not referees and rules to keep us from killing you, you would not be sitting here to disparage our skills.”
“Oh, so the great Harlequin only win by killing, not by being the better fighter.”
“That is not what I said,” she almost growled, as the first warm breath of her beast eased between us all.
Ethan drew breath to speak, but I touched his cheek, which made him look at me. “I understand that the Harlequin come in with a huge chip on their shoulders, and that hits the big chips on everyone else’s shoulders. I knew that we were having some growing pains melding our security with them, but I still don’t know why you’re sitting beside me marking territory like we’re dating.”
Rodina drew back enough to give a cold, cruel look. “You’re just food for her, nothing more.”
I felt him flinch both physically and emotionally from her remark. “Ethan is my lover, no one in my life is just food, and I still don’t know why the two of you have turned guarding me into a pissing contest.”
Ru answered from across the table, voice still low. “Some of us wanted to know who outranked whom, and to save a bloodbath that would have gutted your security, someone came up with the idea that the highest rank starts with who has the privilege of sleeping with you. Ethan does, Rodina doesn’t.”
She turned on him with a snarl and hissed, “Neither do you, brother dear.”
“That is true, but I am not trying to be top cat, and you are.”
“You’re drawing attention to us,” Ethan said.
Rodina got control of herself before she looked around so that her face was back to pleasantly amused. Most of the Harlequin were consummate actors, but then real spies are the ultimate undercover operators. People were noticing the fight, though; not everyone in the room but enough that it would probably be at least tweeted about before the end of the night. Anita Blake, or more likely Jean-Claude’s fiancée, having a lover’s tiff with two of her bodyguards before he even goes onstage.
Ru moved his chair closer and asked again, “Are you fit for duty tonight, sister?”
“I am always ready to serve our queen, whoever she may be.”
“Then control yourself.”
She stiffened the anger that she’d been trying to stuff down inside her, finally welling up in a rush of rage that felt warm like she was a fire to hold my hands near in the middle of a cold night. It wasn’t the heat of her inner leopard spilling closer to the surface, though I felt it dancing along my skin somewhere between heat and electricity as if it was trying to take little bites out of my skin. God she was powerful, but that wasn’t the energy that made me lean closer to her. It was her rage I wanted. I was suddenly hungry, because even if you’re full, having a rich dessert set in front of you is tempting, and Rodina’s emotional pain had turned her into a double chocolate cupcake with sprinkles on top.
I leaned closer to her face while her energy bit along my skin like I was getting closer to a live wire. My inner leopard blinked at me with bright yellow eyes, and a throaty purr slipped from between my lips followed by a growl, so I wasn’t sure if I was happy and the leopard was unhappy, or vice versa. The one thing we both agreed on was Rodina had just gone from predator to prey.
Ethan put his bare wrist between us so fast I almost smacked my face into it. I got the scent of his tigers, and the leopard sank back inside me, but it wasn’t my inner leopard that wanted me to feed on the woman in front of me, it was more my inner vampire. It was emotion instead of blood, but it was still a type of vampirism. I hated that, but I was learning to accept it and starting to gain control of it.
I moved Ethan’s arm down and looked into Rodina’s eyes; they were like dark mirrors, black on black with the edge of white around them. There was a reflection in them, a shining flicker of light. I started to look around to find where it was coming from, but Ethan’s hand slid up my back underneath my hair, grabbing my neck, keeping me from looking around.
“Let me go,” I said.
“Your eyes are glowing,” he said.
I looked into Rodina’s eyes again and saw the dark light of my brown eyes filled with power as if I’d been a real vampire. If Ethan hadn’t stopped me I’d have flashed the whole club and confirmed an entirely different set of rumors. I sat there with Ethan’s hand solid against my neck and should have thanked him for reminding me, but I couldn’t look away from Rodina’s eyes and the shine of my power in them. Rodina leaned toward me, and I watched the reflection of my power grow in the mirrors of her eyes until just before she kissed me the reflection spilled over her eyes and for a second I saw my eyes in her face. The dark brown of them turned to cognac diamonds; then our lips met, and I drank from her lips, tasting the thick sweetness of my own lipstick along with her rage.