Bullet Page 0,71
idea.
“Eagle, how angry is White King?”
“Angry enough to fry your bacon from a distance.”
“You know, you can give the quaint southernisms a rest, Eagle.”
“Are you disparaging my heritage there, Black Queen?”
“No, just cranky.” I turned to Jean-Claude. “Help me turn this off.”
He pressed something and I was suddenly alone in my own head again; yea. “You’ve thought of something,” he said.
I nodded. “I can feed on anger, remember?”
“I remember, ma petite.”
“Haven is angry; I’ll feed on it.”
“If you feed on his anger, he may take that as a form of attack,” Richard said.
I looked past Jean-Claude to him. “If he’s hurt Noel and Travis as badly as Bobby Lee says, then I’m not sure I care if he thinks he’s being attacked.”
“If you kill him, fine, but make sure you kill him because he needs killing, Anita, not just because you’re pissed at him,” Richard said.
I started to say something angry back, but Nathaniel touched my arm, and Damian touched my shoulder a moment later. They were both calmer than I was, and some of that calm seeped into me. It helped me take a deep breath and let it out slow. I nodded. “Point taken, but I can’t let him hurt them like this and get away unpunished. If I do, then we won’t have control of the lions, and Haven will do something worse.”
Micah said, “He’s like a teenager acting out. He wants your attention even if it’s negative attention.”
“Are you blaming me for this?” I asked, and the anger was just there again. Damian’s hand tightened on my shoulder. Nathaniel put his hand in mine. It helped me push the anger down again, but it was there and if I wasn’t careful it could raise my beasts and then we would be in a mess.
“I’m just saying that Haven thinks like the fifteen-year-old he was when he joined the werelions. He’s stuck there emotionally. It makes him react to things.”
“What do I do?” I asked, and that I asked him was a mark of what we meant to each other. I didn’t ask many people’s opinion.
“Save Noel and Travis first; get them on this side of the room, then see if Haven is willing to be reasonable.”
“Reasonable how?” I asked.
“Sex, maybe.”
“I don’t want to fuck him; I’m so mad at him I can’t see straight.”
“May I offer an opinion, ma petite?”
I turned back to the man at my side. “Please, at this point I’m taking suggestions. I am in over my head here.” I said out loud what I’d thought earlier. “This would be easier if you had a tie to the lions, and not just me.”
Jean-Claude looked at me. His face was unreadable, but it was a long, considering look. “Augustine said he spoke to you about the lions and certain possibilities.”
“We don’t have time for coy, Jean-Claude. He told me that there was a chance, if you slept with the women of some of the cat-based animal groups, that you might gain them as your animal to call, too. He thinks you might be able to gain an animal through me, instead of me always gaining through you.”
“Are you saying you want us to sleep with the female cats?” Richard asked.
I looked at him. “No, I’m saying maybe Jean-Claude should sleep with them.” I added, because he was looking at me, “Jean-Claude makes me feel secure. You don’t yet, Richard. Jean-Claude has hung in there while I fucked a lot of other men. He’s been a good sport, so maybe it’s my turn to be a good sport.”
“Ma petite, the lions will be here in moments; I want to be very clear between us. Are you saying that you would be open to me sleeping with the female lions while you sleep with the males?”
I fought not to cross my arms or look pouty. “I think so, oh, hell, I don’t know. As a theory, I think it’s got merit.”
“Merit?” Jean-Claude said. “That is not a strong enough word to get me into another woman’s bed, ma petite. I think merit would come back and, how would you say, bite me on the ass.”
I couldn’t blame him. “I need help, Jean-Claude. The leopards work because Micah is reasonable and wants to help me, and he’s leopard king to my queen. The tigers work because so far the only males in town are mine. We don’t have a tiger group to get pissy with me. The rats and swans work not because they’re our animal to