The corset loosened enough to spill my breasts into the open air. «Requiem,» Jason said, «get over here.»
The vampire came, and he used his hands to hide his nakedness. He seemed embarrassed. I was uncomfortable with it, too, but the morphine took the edge off the embarrassment, like it took the edge off everything.
They lifted the corset over my head, and other hands went to the top of my skirt. Nathaniel took the clothes away as they came off. They took everything but the diamond necklace. Apparently the jewelry was a theme tonight. There was plastic over the far seat, and he was putting the clothes under it. How messy was everyone expecting to be?
I caught movement in the far back of the limo. It was Noel. «No,» I said, «get him out.»
«Justin didn't get here, Anita,» Jason said, «he's the only lion we got except for Auggie's bodyguard. If your lion rises, we need somewhere for it to go.»
«He's a baby.»
Jason nodded. «Raina loved virgins.»
I shook my head too hard, made myself dizzy. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. «He waits outside the car. If my lion rises, then I'll bring his beast, but we are not feeding him to Raina.» I opened my eyes, and the world had stopped wavering. Good.
Jason touched Requiem's shoulder, drew my attention back to him. «I don't think we'll have to, Anita. Look at Requiem through her eyes. Look at those wounds, Anita. He's fresh meat and he's wounded. She'll like that.»
I looked at the knife wounds on his chest and side. His arms were cut up. «Silver blades,» I said.
Requiem nodded. «Meng Die meant my death.»
«A little power and she changes her mind.»
«It is not a little power, Anita,» Jason said.
I looked back at Requiem. «Do you know what Raina will do?»
Nathaniel knelt by us. «I told him what she liked to do during sex.»
I fought to focus on Requiem's still face. «Is it» — I searched for the word I wanted — «all right?»
«I have been at the court of Belle Morte, Anita, this will be as nothing.» He found a smile for me. «Heal me so that we may both serve our master well this night.»
I nodded. «Okay.» I looked behind them all, at Noel. He was pressed in the far back of the limo, as far from the action as he could get. «Out, now.»
«Wait outside with Fredo,» Jason said.
«I was told to stay close,» Noel said. His eyes were big, his mouth a little parted. I realized I was naked in front of him. I'd known that, but the drugs or the emergency, or my collapsing morals, had made me not think about it. The look on his face wasn't lust. It was fear.
«Outside the car is close enough,» Jason said.
Still, he hesitated.
«Get out of the car, Noel,» Nathaniel said. He sounded angry.
Noel got out of the car. When the door closed behind him, Nathaniel said, «How could Joseph have sent him for this job?»
«Joseph didn't understand,» Jason said.
«Didn't want to understand,» Nathaniel said. His eyes had gone almost purple with anger.
«Protect the innocent,» I said.
He gave me those angry eyes, then made a smile for me, and nodded. «You can control Raina. I know you can.»
«The drugs…»
«Will make it harder, but you can do this. I was there when you learned how to do this, Anita. Drugs or no drugs, your will is stronger than hers.»
I stared into his face, studied that anger, that surety. I got that glimpse that I had sometimes, of what he might be in ten years. He was going to be something special at thirty, and I planned on being there to see it. I planned on us all being there to see it. Which meant we had to get through tonight. Whatever it took.
Jason laid me back on the seat. Nathaniel gave me a quick kiss, then he moved away, too. Requiem sat on the end of the seat, like he was on an uncomfortable first date.
I held out my hand to him. «Help me.»
He took my hand, and knelt beside the seat, still covering as much of his nakedness as he could. «How can I help you?»
«Use your power on me.»
His eyes filled with rich blue fire, and my body jolted with it. It hurt my sore hand, but the mixture of pain and pleasure and confusion would appeal to her. I'd learned to control Raina, which meant she had to be coaxed inside me now. It was sort of like leaving a perfectly good house when you know a tiger is just outside, and oh, by the way, let's strap a raw steak around your neck. This was all such a bad idea. Problem was, I didn't have a better one.
49
THE FIRST THING you need to know in order to control something is how it feels to do it. I was a natural psychic, which meant that my gifts weren't something I had to strive for, they just came to me. The problem with being a natural is that sometimes things come so easily that you don't know how, or even when, you're doing psychic stuff. It sort of sneaks up on you. You must understand a thing to truly control it. I'd relied for most of my life on the fact that I was just such a brute psychically that I could bull my way through things. But some things can't be controlled by brute force alone, or even by sheer power alone. You need control. It's the difference between being able to throw a baseball ninety miles an hour, and being able to throw it ninety miles an hour over home plate. The speed and skill is great, but if you keep throwing wild, it'll never get you into the majors. In fact, you may kill some poor fan in the stands. Getting hit in the head with a ball going that fast, well, not good. Raina wasn't my only ninety-mile-an-hour ball, but she was the second one I learned to control, after the necromancy.