«It happened, Anita, just as I will show it to you.»
«Ma petite» Jean-Claude said, «can you hear me?»
I blinked up at them, saw their faces looming over me, but Belle's power roared through my head. «No, Anita, you will see the reality of it.» I was back in that torch-lit room. I could feel their hands on me, but all I could see was what Belle showed me.
«Touch her bare skin,» Auggie said.
Asher and Jean-Claude began to glide around the bound man. It was almost a dance, the swaying of cloaks, the grace of their movements.
Hands glided over my bare arms. The moment his bare skin touched me, the memory began to grow dark. It was as if the lights were dimming, hiding what was happening.
«No!» Belle shouted, and she pulled me back into that dark hall, all those centuries ago.
The cloaks were gone, and their bodies were pale and perfect. I heard Augustine protest. «You promised me the ardeur.»
«I keep all my promises, Augustine.»
Jean-Claude glowed like some dark star, laying only his hand on the naked back of the other man. Augustine said, «Ah, now I understand.» He lifted his face at an awkward angle to look back along his body at Jean-Claude. Jean-Claude knelt in front of him, so he didn't have to strain. He cupped Augustine's chin in his hand, and spoke, so low that Belle could have not heard it. «I have given you but a taste. If you find my touch repulsive, then I can stop.» He put his face next to Augustine's mouth, as if he were kissing the other man's neck. He gave Augustine a chance to breathe his answer, «You have such fine control over the ardeur, so soon.»
«Oui.»
«If this is but a taste, and all she will allow me, then I want it.»
Jean-Claude pulled back enough to see the other man's face. He cupped Augustine's face in his hands. I realized that I was seeing Jean-Claude's face through Augustine's eyes. I watched Augustine see the uncertainty in the other man's eyes. «Would you risk her anger to save me?»
«I do not enjoy force.»
Asher knelt beside Jean-Claude, and there was a look I'd never seen on his face. Arrogance, fierceness, something predatory, and something else. Something dangerous, and unpleasant.
Asher's voice fell into the memory. «Jean-Claude, do not let Anita see me like this.» Until that moment I hadn't known Asher was somewhere in the room, waiting for us to win, or lose, this battle. And he was seeing what Belle was forcing me to see. How was she doing this?
«You are all blood of my blood, Anita. I can do many things to that which is mine.»
Hands on me, cloth tearing, my body jerking with the force of it. The coolness of air on my back. Jean-Claude's chest and stomach pressed against my back, the lace of his white shirt only a frame for our flesh. But the moment that much of his skin touched mine, the memory turned black and Belle was back on the edge of her big bed in the flickering light of candles. Her anger filled her eyes with dark honey flame. She had never known that Jean-Claude gave Auggie a choice, all these long years ago.
Jean-Claude's bare arms wrapped around my nearly naked upper body. He wrapped his arms around me, cradled me as close to his body as the gun and knife at my back would allow.
Augustine's hands were still in mine, as if he couldn't, or wouldn't, let me go. But it was Jean-Claude's body that chased her back. That shut down the memory.
«Your body can stop me, but I leave you two parting gifts, Jean-Claude and Augustine. The first is the ardeur that will claim the three of you, and if I push hard enough will spread through the room to all that are left. I feel Asher and…«She closed her eyes, licked her lips. «Mmm, Requiem is there, as well. They will try to hold it back when it happens. Perhaps they will succeed, perhaps not.» Then she looked directly at us, and it was as if she could see us, truly see us. Such concentration in those eyes. «My second is a question to you and a gift for Anita. Have you realized one of her talents, Jean-Claude, that she can borrow the abilities that are used against her? My ability to make living memories, I give to her now, just this once. I want her to have it to use, and I will not fight her magic's ability to take it. I will let her take this power to her mind, and I leave her with this question: Do you really believe that Augustine and Jean-Claude only had sex this one time, or were there more?»
Cloth tore, and more of Jean-Claude pressed against me. «I close this door to you, Belle, for she is mine, not yours.»
«I'm going, I'm going, enjoy my gifts.» But I was still tied close enough to her mind to know that she had no choice. She pretended she did, but Jean-Claude had chased her out. The last thing I felt from her was regret. Regret for the men she left me with, that I had them and she did not.