Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 14. Danse Macabre(137)
I checked my watch: ten a.m. God, it had been a long, damn, morning. It was incredibly early for so many of Jean-Claude's vamps to be awake. So far only master vamps had woken up, and that didn't include Damian, but still… Was I already draining him, just because I hadn't fed the ardeur or eaten any breakfast? Real food helped keep the other hungers back, from the ardeur to the beasts. I hadn't even had a cup of coffee yet. It wasn't the time of day, but how long I'd been awake without eating that made it a mistake. Maybe we'd eaten a big enough meal from Auggie last night, but I couldn't chance that. I needed food. The only question was, which hunger to feed first? Sex, or coffee? Hmm, let me think.
29
IT TURNED OUT to be coffee first. Requiem wasn't in the bedroom, and Micah came through the door with a tray of breakfast. He didn't say that I'd waited too long to eat, and maybe endangered Damian, or risked raising my beasts again and hurting myself, or losing the baby, or that by neglecting myself I could make the ardeur more uncontrollable. No, he didn't say any of that. He just brought in the food and put it on the bedside table. Two cups of coffee, croissants, cheese, and fruit. All food in the Circus was catered because there was no kitchen. The old Master of the City hadn't kept many humans with her, and hadn't given a damn for anyone's comfort but her own. Jean-Claude had remodeled the bathrooms first. Priorities. Frankly, you could get good take-out food, but a decent bathroom, that they don't deliver. Still, as I looked down at the tray of food, I thought, We need a kitchen.
I took one of the chunks of cheddar first. We'd found that protein worked best at keeping my energy up. Some of us just aren't meant to be vegetarians.
«Are you all right, Anita? You look very…«Micah seemed to give up on finding a word.
I smiled at him. «Thanks for the food, and I've got a two o'clock appointment with my gynecologist.»
«Today?» he asked, «Is that wise?»
I nodded, picking up the first cup of coffee. I'd been good and eaten a piece of cheese first, but that wasn't what I'd really wanted. I took that first sip of hot, strong coffee. Later in the day I'd drown it in sugar and cream, maybe, but first thing, I wanted it black, naked, the way I used to drink all my coffee. I closed my eyes as I sipped, letting the warmth flow through me. Was I addicted to coffee? Probably, but as addictions go, it could have been worse.
I opened my eyes and looked at him. «Good coffee.»
He smiled. «I'm glad you're enjoying it, but by two we'll have most of the vampires awake and moving around down here. We'll have daywalking visitors, too.»
I nodded, and took a smaller sip this time. «I know.» I told Micah what the doctor had told me.
He blinked at me, that long slow blink that I used sometimes when I was trying to process too much information too quickly. «You have to go.»
«I know,» I said. I sat down on the edge of the bed, and made myself take a bite of croissant. The croissant was good, soft and buttery, but I wasn't hungry. I wanted the coffee, but the rest of it I was eating because I had to. Eating to keep everybody alive and well. I'd never been a big breakfast eater, but today I think I was just too nervous. Fine, too scared.
«I'll go with you, as boyfriend and leopard.»
I nodded. «Nathaniel probably won't be back in human form by then, I know.»
«You know that Richard had arranged today off from his job.»
I nodded. «He arranged a substitute.»
«He's going to want to go, you know he will.»
I nodded. «Probably.»
«He can be your wolf,» Micah said.
Someone cleared his throat. Remus was closer to the bed than I remembered. «I couldn't help overhearing.»
«I'll have to have at least two guards with me, so you needed to know anyway.»
He nodded. «Good, but Anita, from what Claudia told me, Richard wouldn't let you bring his beast. What good is his wolf, if he won't let you bring it?»
I nodded. «Point, but he'll still want to go.»
«How about if I make sure one of the guards is a wolf?» Remus said.
«Do it quietly.»
«I'll make sure Richard doesn't know,» Remus said. «Though maybe he'll come through.»
I shook my head. «If he wouldn't change here in the underground, then he is so not going to want to change in the middle of St. John's maternity ward.»
«Can't say that any of us would want to; it's a good way to get the cops called on you,» Remus said.
I nodded. «I know, and I will do my damn level best to hold my shit together, but I'm scared, and it's going to be stressful.»
«You need a lion. The new guy isn't going to be in human form in time for the appointment,» Remus said.