Hit List(105)

The remaining two Harlequin stepped up so one of them could press hands down on Lisandro’s shoulders, and the other had his legs. My heart was beating too fast, too hard.

“Don’t hurt him anymore.”

Harley frowned down at me. He petted my hair again and ran his hand down the side of my face. “Why does it feel so good to touch you?”

“I swear to you that I don’t know, other than I’m the Nimir-ra for our local wereleopards.”

“You are human and vampire; you can’t be Nimir-ra.” But even as he said it, his hand cupped the side of my face. His hand was very warm against my skin.

“As far as we know, I’m the first human Nimir-ra in the history of the pard,” I said. I snuggled my cheek against the heat of his hand. He jerked back as if I’d bitten him.

“Stay with them,” he said, and turned and left the room.

The two remaining Harlequin exchanged the first look between them that I’d seen. There was someone in there. Someone that maybe didn’t know why they were suddenly alone with us, with me. “What are your names?” I asked.

They glanced at me and then back at each other.

“Why did the Mother of All Darkness forbid you from telling me your names?”

They stared straight ahead, holding Lisandro in place on the table. If I were really a shapeshifter powerful enough to just shift my hands I could have gotten out of the ropes, easily, which was why Lisandro was in chains and I was in ropes. I tensed my stomach muscles and sat up on the table. The Harlequin didn’t so much move as tense.

“Since you won’t give me your names, I’ll call you Thing One and Thing Two.”

They glanced at each other again. One of them had brown eyes, the other had blue. They were both shorter than Harley or the werewolf, but beyond that the masks and hoods and gloves made them all generic.

I began to try to get the ropes over my hips; once I got them that far, I could bring them over my legs, and then I could untie my legs. The chances of my loosening the ropes enough to do it at all were small, but in the few minutes I had, almost nil. Would they stop me? Would they talk to me? We had minutes of being down to just two of them, and then I figured Harley would come back. I needed options before that happened.

I wiggled toward the edge of the table. I didn’t know what I planned to do, but I knew I couldn’t lie there and let them bring more of my people in here to hurt.

Thing Two appeared in front of me; I knew it was him because he had blue eyes. Thing One had brown. Thing Two shook his head.

“Do you talk?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Why won’t you talk to me?”

The blue eyes just stared at me.

I got my legs over the side of the table and debated what he’d do if I tried to jump off the table. Would he catch me? Would he touch me? Touching me seemed to affect all of them. It was as if the ardeur and my beasts had combined to be something new, different. I didn’t understand all of it, but I was pretty sure that if I could have physical contact with one of them for long enough I could roll their minds like any vampire victim, or that was the plan. I’d had better plans, but we were about to run out of time, so any plan was better than none. Or that was what I told myself as I pushed off the table.





37




THING TWO CAUGHT me around the waist and arms. It put me up against him, and the moment my chest touched his, I knew it was a her. I’d known that some of them were women, but I’d expected to notice it before we were pressed breast to breast; so much for my powers of observation. My face was tucked into the bend of her neck, between the mask and the hood, but there was no skin to find. The mask was part of the hood. I was betting it was snapped in like the gloves. But I didn’t need skin to smell the lion inside her. She lifted me easily and sat my ass back on the table edge.

She shook her head at me, blue eyes very serious.

“Are you forbidden to talk because you’re both women?” I asked.

“They’re not both women.” It was the growling voice of the werewolf, back again. “They’re a mated pair of lions, or want to be, but their vampire masters see them as theirs. They will share them with other vampires, but not allow them to be with each other.”

The female Harlequin moved in front of him, blocking his path. She shook her head.

“Their masters cut their tongues out with silver. It’s something they can cut off us that won’t harm our fighting skills.”

“Why?” I asked.

“The tongues will grow back, eventually, and they are supposed to learn to obey their vampire masters. The Harlequin that stayed loyal to the Mother are very old-school, Anita Blake. Animals to call, no matter how skilled, are still animals, and they treat us like animals.”