Edward touched my arm. It startled me. I’d been staring at Ethan. That made me realize that I really needed to see Alex sooner rather than later. A vampire with an animal to call is often attracted to that type of animal. Jean-Claude found it very peaceful to pet wolves, and that was his animal to call. I realized it wasn’t just the sex from home I’d missed; I was missing the touch and interaction of the shapeshifters I was drawn to, like tigers. The fact that I thought Ethan was cuter than Donny went against the way most dominant weretigresses pick mates. They tended to like the ones with the tiger eyes, but there was something . . . interesting about Ethan, or maybe I was just that hungry.
I took a deep breath, and that didn’t help because they both smelled like tiger. But Donny smelled like red tiger, and Ethan smelled like more. It made me move toward him, sniff the air near him, try to clear my nose of Donny’s closer, warmer scent.
“Anita,” Edward said, his voice sharp, “you need to find Mr. Pinn.”
I nodded and forced myself to step back from Ethan. “You’re right, absolutely right.” I spoke without looking at either of the weretigers. “Take me to Alex.”
“We can’t take you before our queen armed like that.” It actually made me look at what we were wearing. Since neither of us was on an active warrant, the U.S. Marshals Windbreakers hid most of our dangerous toys. I only had my Browning BDM, my Smith & Wesson M&P9c, extra ammo, two wrist sheaths with blades, and the big knife down my spine. The shoulder holster was specially made so the spine sheath attached to it, the handle hidden under my hair as long as I wore a jacket. If I wasn’t wearing the big knife I’d started carrying the Browning at the small of my back where the M&P was now. Edward had two handguns and some blades, too.
“We don’t have any submachine guns on us; we’re packing light,” I said.
Donny studied my face, and then he blinked first. He also frowned. “You’re being honest.”
“I try,” I said.
“But the point remains, you cannot go before Queen Cho Chun armed.”
“Great,” I said, “I don’t want to see her anyway. All I want right now is Alex.”
“Prince Li Da,” Donny said.
“Fine, all I want right now is Li Da.”
“Prince Li Da,” Donny said.
I shook my head. “Nope, I am Mistress of Tigers, so he’s not my prince. He’s Alex, or he’s Li Da, but he’s not Prince anything to me.”
“That is arrogant,” Donny said.
“No, it’s not, it’s just true, and I don’t technically have to stand here and dick around with you or Ethan here. I can just lay down the law and say, ‘Bring him to me.’”
“Queen Cho Chun would have the skin off my back if I let you get away with such insolence.”
I glanced at Ethan to see if Donny was exaggerating. Something in those soft, gray kitten eyes let me know that Donny was speaking the truth. Interesting; it didn’t work that way in Vegas with the white tigers.
I turned back to Donny. “She’d flay your back for just following my orders?”
“She is queen. We wait at her pleasure.”
I shook my head. I was back to staring at Ethan. I was oddly fascinated with the shape of his mouth. His upper lip was so deeply imprinted that it was almost like a dimple above the lips instead of under them.
“Anita,” Edward said. He moved in front of Ethan, blocking my view of the man. “You need to feed.”
I nodded. “You are absolutely right.” I turned back to Donny. “Either Alex comes to me now, or I do what I said I’d do on the phone: I call him to me. You and Ethan are right here beside me and trust me, with vampire powers, proximity counts. I don’t like you that well, Donny, nothing personal, but I like Ethan. My tiger likes him. If I call Alex, chances are he’ll never get here before I’ve fed on Ethan, and maybe you. Is that really what your queen wanted, or did she just want you to put me in my place?”
“It is not my place to speak for our queen. She knows what she intended; I do not.”
“I’m going to count to ten and then I’m going to call Alex, but I’m not lying about the possible effect on you and Ethan here.”
Donny said, “Ethan?”
“She smells of the truth,” he said. I couldn’t see much more than a shoulder around the edge of Edward’s body. I fought the urge to move so I could see more of him. It wasn’t good that I was this fascinated with a stranger. God, didn’t I have enough lovers in my life?
That Donny couldn’t be certain if I smelled or felt like I was telling the truth meant he wasn’t a very powerful weretiger. It also meant that he’d been guessing when he said I was telling the truth about our weapons. But now that it was important, he was willing to swallow his pride and let the more powerful weretiger answer the question. That was interesting.