THE BOOTS LOOKED terrible with the sexy designer dress, but I was so happy to be out of the high heels and back into comfortable shoes I didn’t care. The fashion police could arrest me later. I was still having to carry the little purse with its thin strap because it had my gun in it, and now that I wasn’t going to be onstage and the boots had ruined the outfit anyway, I could carry it cross-body without anyone bitching I was ruining the line of the dress. I realized I was relieved to not have to worry about looking perfect any more tonight.
Jean-Claude was still wearing his robe over the boots and thong. I knew he had clothes to change into, but the bodyguards we most trusted were on high alert wanting to move us, so we could all change later. Nathaniel had put all our clothes in a wheeled suitcase, like a big carry-on size. It had probably originally held just Jean-Claude’s clothes; now it held his, mine, and Richard’s. He was still in the booty shorts and shiny patent leather stage boots just like Nathaniel. He’d even kept the mask on in case someone got a picture of us as we left so he wouldn’t be outed as “Superman” as we got in the tinted vehicles. He had thrown his dress shirt over his upper body like a jacket. It should have ruined his outfit like the boots ruined mine, but it didn’t. The shirt over it looked . . . cute, or endearing, or maybe even sexy. I was so used to thinking of him as our ex that thinking of him as sexy felt bad, like a habit I’d worked hard to break.
We were waiting for Truth to knock on the outer door to the alley entrance to let us know that Ethan had the SUV in place for us to hustle from inside the club to the cars. If our enemies hadn’t been able to use mystical powers it would have been super safe; as it was I just wanted to go home, and that meant the underground of the Circus of the Damned tonight.
“Why is it taking so long?” I asked.
“The traffic is heavy on the weekends, and we need to bring up at least two of the SUVs at the alley entrance,” Wicked said.
Jean-Claude offered me his hand and I took it gratefully; touching him was like being able to take a deeper breath. It made me wrap my arms around his waist, luxuriating in the silkiness of the robe though I knew it wasn’t real silk. Real silk is awesome, but a stain is usually forever. We’d ruined more silk sheets than I cared to think about; admittedly we’d had help doing it, but still custom-made silk sheets weren’t cheap. In the flat boots I was tucked very securely under his arm because his boots made him over six feet tonight. I wondered if his feet hurt from dancing in heels? I’d ask at home when we were alone with our polycule; right now I just enjoyed the firm smoothness of his body underneath the robe.
“Why am I so tired?” I whispered it.
“Because all the energy we raised tonight had to go to defeating our enemy, not feeding us,” Jean-Claude said as he hugged me and kissed the top of my head ever so gently.
“No one’s fed on me tonight,” Nathaniel said, wrapping his arms around both of us as he leaned in and kissed my cheek. He had let go of the suitcase handle so he could use both arms to hold us; I approved of this use of resources.
“I would urge you to feed on those not connected to you metaphysically tonight,” Jake said.
We looked at him. I asked what we were all wanting to know: “Why not?”
“Because the vampire you faced tonight will try again, and you may need all your magical strength intact,” Jake said.
“How do you know he didn’t just give up?” I asked.
“You’ve faced ancient vampires before, Anita; did any of them ever give up the attack?”
Suddenly even Jean-Claude and Nathaniel holding me wasn’t as comforting. “No, they attack until you destroy them, because they’re too arrogant to believe they can lose.”
“This one will be no different, trust me,” Jake said.
“You know Deimos, don’t you?”
“Not by that name, but yes, I fear so.”
There was a loud knock on the outer door that led down the hallway to the alley. Wicked went forward and made sure who it was, listening through the door. “Truth says that Ethan has the SUVs at the mouth of the alley. It is time to go.”
“Give us the real name of who attacked us tonight, Jake,” I said.
“I will answer your questions on the ride to the Circus.”
Jean-Claude started forward and since he was still holding me I had to go with him. Nathaniel came behind us with the suitcase, and Richard behind him. The rest of the bodyguards, mostly werewolves for a change, brought up the rear. Graham was with them. He’d found a fresh T-shirt to replace the one lost to the crowd. I caught a glimpse of his face and felt like I owed him an apology or a thank-you for being such a good sport about everything tonight, but there was no time. Wicked opened the door and Truth was there like a brown-haired version of his brother. The uncertain light in the alley made his eyes look gray, but I knew they were only a little less blue than his brother’s. They both had blue-gray eyes that could change color depending on the color of their shirt or their moods.
He herded Jean-Claude and me out, using his body as a potential shield around us as Wicked did the same for Nathaniel behind us. Jake came with us, and the other wolves closed around Richard.
I realized as we got closer that Ethan wasn’t driving my SUV but one of the larger ones that were part of the security fleet. “Please tell me my car with all my gear in it didn’t drive home with Rodina and Ru.”
Wicked answered, “Your car is just behind with all your U.S. Marshal and vampire-hunting gear in it.”
“Okay, sorry, and I’m not on an active warrant so I don’t have all the weapons I normally do, but I still need to know where my stuff is.”
“You roll like SWAT, always ready.” It was Graham from behind us.
I might have made a smart-ass remark, but one of the new werewolf ex-military guys said, “What the hell do you know about SWAT, Graham?” It was Demo, short for Demolition Man because supposedly if you fought him he’d demolish you, or something like that. He was the tallest person in our group tonight, which made him six foot five at least, and the rest of him matched, but he was never a regular on my guard detail because of remarks like that. Most of the former military had made as smooth a transition as they could after surviving an attack and losing their careers. Demo was one of the exceptions. I was actually surprised he hadn’t been more of a problem for Richard and the pack, but no one had come to us complaining about it.
“Graham has been doing his homework for the new werewolf training program,” Jake said.
“You have former military guys now, hell you have TEAMs guys in your pack now, you don’t need to train up your civilians,” Demo said.
Richard said, “Leave it, Demo.”
“Make me.”
“You’re still in your probationary period with my pack, Demo. If I say the word, you’re out.”
“And while I’m on probation I can’t challenge anyone. Not your Freki, or Geri, or any-damn-body.”
“Those are the rules for all packs in the United States and most in the rest of the world,” Richard said, voice calm and a little tired as if he’d had to explain this to Demo before.
“I already know you’re kicking me out once the probation is over.”
I fought to keep my body and heartbeat slow and even, because I knew werewolf law, too. If someone was too dangerous to be accepted into your pack, you could send them on to another pack, but you had to warn that pack about the issues. If you couldn’t find another pack to take them, then they were executed. I wonder if Demo knew that little codicil to the werewolf laws? I doubted it; even among the wolves themselves it wasn’t something you talked about much. Most people would eventually find a pack structure that worked for them. The Demolition Man was going to get himself killed if someone didn’t explain the facts of life and death among the werewolves to him soon.
“What is the delay?” Jean-Claude asked. The fact that he realized Wicked and Truth had stopped in front of the SUV but not opened a door for us when I hadn’t noticed said I was way too distracted.
“There was a fender bender,” Truth said.
“It’s cleared now,” Wicked said.
They usually only finished each other’s sentences when they were stressed, which let me know that the fight with the crowd or some part of tonight’s emergency had hit them harder than normal. The Wicked Truth didn’t shake easily, but I didn’t point out that I knew their tell. Until we got into the underground below the Circus we were not secure. I wasn’t going to distract them until they shut the door of our bedroom tonight. Okay, maybe just the big dungeonlike door at the bottom of the mile of stairs leading down into the underground, but until that moment they were working, and I wasn’t going to start psychoanalyzing them now.
They tried to herd us into the car, but there weren’t enough seats for all of us protectees and our protectors. If Richard hadn’t been there or had been willing to get into the second car it would have been quick, but in all the debating he touched my bare arm, and it was like a power boost, because I was still in Jean-Claude’s arms. Like it, or hate it, the three of us were a triumvirate of power. Damn it.