Skin Trade(145)
The phone came back to life in my hand. “I’ll meet you.”
“Wicked, I just finished saying, nobody travels alone.”
“If they can take me on my own, then they’re going to kill us all, so if I don’t make it, you get out of town, and take our people with you.”
“Are you setting yourself up as bait?”
“No; are you sure you’re worried about my safety, or about the fact that you might have to have sex with me?”
“That’s not fair, Wicked. You know why I’m trying to cut down.”
“I know, I’m not on the meal plan. Turns out neither of the other two vamps are really that good at flying. And you scare my brother.”
“I don’t scare him; he just doesn’t want to be food.”
“You’re right, he doesn’t, but I’m right, too. You scare him, and Truth isn’t scared by much.”
“And you’re not afraid I’ll possess you, or something?”
“I’ll take my chances. Besides, you said it yourself, you’re in control right now. I’m just in case.” He sounded bitter.
“Wicked.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t need attitude from you, too.”
“You can order me around, and I have to take it, but you can’t dictate how I feel.”
He had a point, but… What I wanted to say was that I didn’t understand why all the men wanted to be on the feeding list. I had a mirror; I knew what I was seeing, and though I was pretty, and maybe even beautiful given the right outfit, it wasn’t the same level of gorgeous of the men that were chasing me. But every time I tired to say it out loud, they accused me of being humble, or lying. I didn’t think it was humility, just honesty.
“I will not apologize for trying to keep my list of feeds from growing, Wicked. Jean-Claude made noises that he didn’t want to share me with any new men, and now he sends me nothing but, almost. What’s with that?”
“He’d rather see you and all his people back home in St. Louis, alive, then save his ego.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means that he agreed with your assessment of Vittorio. If he sent anyone who could be used as a hostage and couldn’t handle themselves in a fight, it might be too tempting. Especially considering that his choice of victims is mostly strippers, and most of your closest lovers are also strippers.”
That made my stomach clench tight.
“I feel your fear, Anita. He thought you’d reasoned that out.”
“I had, just not that bluntly.”
“I’m surprised; usually you’re the more blunt of the two of you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, “but I don’t feel like I’m about to lose control right now.”
“Then I will ride back with you and the nice executioners. But when you get back to a hotel, you are going to have to feed on someone.” His careful vampire voice held self-mockery, and I knew that wasn’t how he felt. It was his tone when he was hiding what he felt. “But if you feed on vampire tonight, then in the morning you are going to have to pick one of the wereanimals, because vampire only works after dark when we’re above ground.”
“I know that.”
“I’m just saying, be thinking about your menu choices, because I do not want you losing control of the ardeur because you’ve gone squeamish.”
“I am not squeamish.”
“If you weren’t, then you’d have already slept with Haven.”
I let that go because he was probably more right than I wanted to admit. “How many other people with you are ones I’ve never slept with?”
“Most of the wereanimals.”
I made an exasperated sound.
“Anita, you said not to send anyone that you’d care about too much, and only to send peole that could fight. That cuts out most of your regulars. Either they mean too much to you, or they can’t fight worth a farthing.” For a moment there was an echo of an accent, mostly lost long ago. “Fight off the ardeur, and you don’t have to touch us.”
“It’s not that, damn it. It’s just that I’m trying to trim down the list of men, not add to it.”
“I understand that, too, but that you not only can resist my charms, but are actively disturbed by the thought of sex with me, now that does hurt an old vampire’s heart.”
“Damn it, Wicked, don’t make this about hurt feelings.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Wicked…”
“I will wait by the car, outside the house, so I don’t compromise your investigation.” He hung up.
“I didn’t know Wicked was on the menu for you,” Edward said.