Bullet Page 0,21
thought we did not,” he said, and his face was empty, telling me nothing. Shit.
I turned back to Asher. “You’re seriously going to make all of us do this.”
“Yes,” he said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I can.”
I stared at him for a moment, and then said, “Fine, fine, how do we do this?”
“Whoever sees me as dominant to them can greet me, and whoever feels they are dominant or equal to me, well, we shall see.”
“See what?” I asked.
Micah answered, “See who offers up their flesh and blood.”
“The greeting is just a formality,” I said. “The submissive offers up a blood point, the vampire or wereanimal sniffs or kisses it, and we move on.”
“That is not always the case, ma petite,” Jean-Claude said.
“What else is there?” I asked.
“You know that some vampires use it as a way of trying their power one against the other.”
“Yes, I’ve seen that.”
“The ritual is an offering of blood. The dominant, or master, is within his rights to take what is offered. That is how it was originally done centuries ago. The master would pick one of the offerings and feed, and by offering to be submissive to him you give him the right to choose to feed.”
“That is not how we’ve done it when we’ve had visiting masters from out of town,” I said.
“Asher is invoking his rights, and that is within his rights.” Jean-Claude motioned and the guards moved so the two vampires could see each other. “Isn’t that what you mean to do?”
“Yes,” he said, and there was nothing pleasant in his voice.
“I feel like we’ve stepped into a fight that I don’t know anything about. If we’re offering up our flesh and blood, then I want to know why.”
“You only offer it up if you see me as dominant to you, Anita, and you don’t.”
I frowned at him, then turned back to Jean-Claude. “Help me out here. What does that mean?”
“He means that you only offer blood point to him if you see yourself as lesser than Asher. If you don’t think he is your superior, then you don’t offer blood, and you could insist he offer flesh or blood to you.”
I shook my head and turned to Micah and Nathaniel. “Is this a surprise to both of you, too?”
They both nodded, but Micah said, “Asher has been getting pushier.”
“Like trying to steal a kiss at the recital,” I said.
Micah nodded.
I took a deep breath, let it out slow, and said, “Asher, don’t do this, just talk to me.”
“Your master has forbidden me to bring up certain topics. He has left me few avenues to demonstrate my displeasure, but the ways he has left open to me I will now take. I want to know where everyone in this room stands. I want to know where I stand with everyone in this room, and I want to know now.”
“Jean-Claude, just tell him he can talk to me about whatever it is. If we start this kind of dominance thing with our own people, it’s going to go all pear-shaped.”
“Guards, leave us.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Truth said.
“I am sure,” Claudia said, “it’s a bad idea.”
“We need to discuss some very personal issues. You are not privy to them, now go.”
Claudia and Truth looked at me. Fredo and Wicked kept the vampires in their line of sight, which wasn’t easy since they were across from each other, but the men managed.
“Don’t look at her,” Asher said. “Your master has told you to leave. Didn’t you hear him?”
“He’s not my master,” Claudia said. “I just work here.”
“He is ours,” Wicked said.
“No,” Truth said, “he’s not.”
The brothers looked at each other and then both of them looked at me. I got a hint of maybe what Asher was meaning. “If Jean-Claude says go, go. We’ll be all right.”
“Bad idea,” Claudia said.
“Very bad idea,” Fredo said.
“I trust Jean-Claude and I trust Asher.”
That earned me a look from Asher that wasn’t arrogant or hostile. It was almost a pained look, and then he was back to being gorgeous and unreadable.
The guards started to move toward the curtains in the direction that Jason and J.J. had gone. Asher called out, “Perses, Dares, I want you to stay.”
The two werehyenas hesitated. It was the shorter, dark one, Perses, who said, “We’re hired to guard Jean-Claude and his people.”
“I’m not talking about who signs your paychecks,” Asher said. “I’m talking about who is your master in this room.”
“Don’t do this,” Micah said, and that one sentence let me know