as if the tougher-than-anyone-else talk was old hat from Nicky. ‘I know, I know, only the werehyenas are a tougher society to survive in than the werelions. Weretigers are complete pansies compared to you guys.’
‘Not in St Louis they’re not,’ Nicky said.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked, as I dried my hands.
‘I don’t know exactly how Narcissus got to be head of the werehyenas in our city, but he’s seriously fucked with their societal norms.’
‘How so?’ I asked, and started for the door.
‘Hyenas aren’t tougher to fight than lions, but they are tougher on each other. They’ll brutalize each other to a degree that we won’t.’
‘They brutalize each other,’ I said, thinking of some of the ‘play’ rooms I’d seen at the club Narcissus in Chains. Lycanthropes could heal almost anything that wasn’t done with silver, or fire, which meant that if you liked BDSM there were options that humans would never survive.
‘I don’t mean the bondage stuff. I mean they fight just to fight, and fights that break out at the spur of the moment can totally change their clan structure. Every other animal group has rituals for dominance fights. A fight that gets out of hand doesn’t necessarily change anything, because if it’s not formal, then the rest of the group can join in and take sides, or in some animal groups an informal fight doesn’t count even if it results in a death.’
‘Really,’ I said.
Nicky opened the bathroom door and checked the hallway automatically before I followed him.
Domino answered. ‘I don’t know about every animal group, but if someone killed Queen Bibiana in Vegas outside of ritual combat, the challenger would die with her. Her guard, her son, or her husband would see to that.’
I thought about Bibiana, who was as delicate as I was, but all white and ladylike. She was horribly powerful metaphysically, but I hadn’t thought about her having to defend herself in ritual combat. ‘I can’t quite picture her taking on all challengers in one-on-one combat,’ I said.
‘The White Tiger Clan allows the queen to pick a champion if she is a good enough leader that we don’t want to lose her.’
Nicky went a half-step in front of me, and Domino a little behind. We didn’t usually do the formal bodyguard stuff when I was carrying my badge. I might have said something, but I actually wanted to ask Domino another question.
‘What if the queen wasn’t a good leader and the clan didn’t support her?’
‘Then a vote can be called and if enough of the clan votes no, she has to fight her own battle.’
Nicky glanced back and said, ‘Sounds like a way to assassinate a leader without actually doing the job yourself.’
‘It’s a way to spread the guilt around,’ Domino agreed, as if there were nothing wrong with it.
‘If you want the leader dead, you have to do it in a one-on-one fight. There are no substitute champions in our culture,’ Nicky said.
‘Of course, there aren’t,’ Domino said, ‘because werelions are just that awesome.’
Nicky glanced back again, and it wasn’t a friendly look. ‘This is one of the main problems with the Coalition, Anita. We are different animals, different cultures, with very different rules. It’s hard to bring us together when we can’t even decide how to elect a leader.’
‘Micah adapts to whatever animal group he’s visiting,’ Domino said.
‘I’ve never gone out of town with Micah before,’ Nicky said.
‘I don’t think he’s gone up against any lions yet.’
The phrasing sounded odd to me. We walked around the corner and could see the police outside the room again, but I stopped walking. ‘What do you mean, gone up against?’
Domino’s face suddenly got as blank as he could make it. He was perfect bodyguard empty, with an edge of angry intimidation around the edges. His energy prickled down my skin, and the fact that he’d lost control of his beast that much meant my question had stressed him.
I turned completely around to face him. Nicky took up his best bodyguard position at my back, but standing so he could see both up and down the hallway; again it was more guarding than I liked them doing around the police work, but I let it go, because I had a bad feeling about why Domino was suddenly nervous.
‘I asked you a question, Domino,’ I said, voice sort of soft. It wasn’t a good softness, though; it was a tone that said I was getting angry.
He looked behind me at the other man.
‘Don’t look at Nicky;