him once, to feed the ardeur. We'd both enjoyed it, but Byron and I both agreed that it wasn't our cup of tea. That each other wasn't our cup of tea. Besides, the weight lifting helped him pass for eighteen, but he'd died at fifteen. Yeah, he was several hundred years old, but his body wasn't. His body was still that of an athletic teenager. I was still disturbed by the fact that I'd had sex with him. Also, Byron preferred men to women. He'd do bisexual, if it came his way, but he was one of the few men who spent more time ogling my boyfriends than me. I found that disturbing, too.
Jean-Claude was standing near the back of the stage, lost in shadow, letting Byron have his limelight. Jean-Claude turned to look at me, his pale face lost in the darkness of his hair and clothes. He breathed through my mind, "Await me in my office, ma petite."
Lisandro leaned over and whisper-shouted over the music, "Jean-Claude said to take you through to the office."
"Just now?" I asked, puzzled, because to my knowledge no one but me should have heard it.
Lisandro gave me a puzzled look back, and shook his head. "No, after you called. He said to take you back to the office when you got here."
I nodded and let him lead us to the door. Nathaniel had kept his hat and coat on. He didn't want to be recognized, for several reasons. It was rude to distract the audience from Byron's show, and "Brandon" wasn't working tonight. Lisandro unlocked the door and ushered us through.
The door closed behind us, and it was blessedly quiet. The rear area wasn't soundproof, but it was sound-muffled. I hadn't realized how loud the music was until it stopped. Or maybe that was just how bad my nerves were tonight.
Lisandro led us down the hallway to the door on the left-hand side. Jean-Claude's office was its usual elegant black-and-white self. There was even an Oriental screen in one corner that hid an emergency coffin. Sort of a vampire's version of a rollaway. Only the couch against the wall and the carpet were new. Asher and I had ruined the old stuff with sex that got so out of hand, I'd ended up in the hospital.
Lisandro closed the door and leaned against it, on this side. "You staying?" I asked.
He nodded. "Jean-Claude's orders. He wants you to have bodyguards again."
"When did he order that?"
"Just a few minutes ago."
"Shit."
"Did your beast try to rise again?" he asked.
I shook my head.
Nathaniel had set the box on Jean-Claude's black lacquer desk. He took off the hat and coat and laid them on one of the two chairs in front of the desk. "I've got to get a lighter-weight hat if I'm going to keep using it for a disguise. The leather is just too warm." He wiped a thin bead of sweat off his forehead.
"If your beast didn't try to rise again, then why are you back to needing bodyguards?" Lisandro asked.
I opened my mouth, closed it. "I don't know how much Jean-Claude will want you to know. I'm not even sure how much anyone is allowed to know."
"About what?"
I shrugged. "I'll tell you if I can."
"If you're going to get me killed, can I at least know why?"
"I've never gotten you hurt before."
"No, but we've lost two of our rats guarding you, Anita. Let's just say that if my wife ends up a widow, I'd like to know why."
I glanced at his hand. "You don't wear a ring."
"Not at work, no."
"Why not?"
"You don't want people knowing you have people that you care about, Anita. It can give them ideas." His gaze flicked to Nathaniel, just for a moment, then back to me. But Nathaniel had seen it.
"Lisandro thinks I'm a victim. That you need stronger men in your life."
I went to sit beside Nathaniel on the new white couch. He put his arm across my shoulders, and I settled in against him. Yeah, we'd been fighting, but that wasn't Lisandro's business, and it certainly wasn't his business who I dated.
"You can date who you want, that's not my beef."
"What is your beef?" I asked, and let my words take on that slight hostile edge that was almost always just below the surface for me.
"You're a vampire now, right?"
My, my, news travels fast. "Not exactly," I said, out loud.
"I know you're not like a bloodsucker. You're still alive and everything, but you gained Jean-Claude's ability to