Dead Ice (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,83

tigers have been keeping, if I don’t marry one of you, then the Mother of All Darkness could come back to life. I don’t really want that to happen, do you?”

Her eyes narrowed, and I realized that even her eyelashes were a pale powder blue. Cynric’s eyelashes were black, weren’t they? Could they possibly be a dark navy blue so that I’d only assumed they were black? It made me want to get him and make him stand with the light behind so I could double-check.

“Do you believe that part of the prophecy?”

“A lot of it has come true recently; don’t you believe in it?”

She smiled and it was an age-weary smile, as if she’d seen everything and been impressed by none of it. “Answering the question with a question means I can’t smell if you’re lying.”

I shrugged, and smiled back at her. “I really was thinking about work.”

“Zombies or police work?”

“Both, actually; the police came to me for my expertise.”

“In what capacity?”

I shook my head. “Sorry, but it’s an ongoing investigation. I can’t discuss details.”

“I can’t tell if you’re lying; your heart rate doesn’t change, even your scent stayed the same. It takes a very experienced wereanimal to lie with the smell of their skin.”

“Since I’m technically not a wereanimal, maybe I’m just telling the truth?”

A brunette vampire who was only a couple of inches taller than me, five-six at best, came to stand in front of us. Her smile was cynical, too, but there was a shine of humor in the rich blue of her cornflower eyes. “Fortune and I think you just agreed to meet with female tigers to stop your men from complaining when you add another male to your harem.”

I laughed and glanced at the woman beside me, then back to her vampire master. “Really, so why did you both agree to come if you thought it was pointless?”

Jean-Claude stroked my shoulder with the hand across my shoulders. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to soothe me or himself. I hadn’t even done anything that rude yet.

“When the king requests your presence, you don’t disappoint him,” she said.

“Even if you think it’s a waste of time,” I said.

She grinned wide enough to flash one delicate fang and show that she had a dimple in one cheek. Her blond hair was wavy enough that it was like big, loose curls to her shoulders. “Most things that kings want are a waste of time.” She did a low sweeping bow to Jean-Claude, but the dimpled grin never wavered.

“I do not believe that I have known as many kings as you have, Echo, but I cannot disagree with your statement. I swear to you that I believed ma petite was in earnest or I would not have called you in from your tasks.”

“May I sit down?”

“You do not need to ask for permission to sit next to your own tiger, and lover.”

She flopped down on the other side of Fortune hard enough that the couch bounced a little. “You are very even-handed for your age and your sex.”

“I understand that older vampires are often set in their ways, but what does my being male have to do with it?”

“Jean-Claude, do not play games; you know what men have thought of women through most of the centuries you’ve lived. We have been second class at best, evil temptresses, or little better than breeding animals to many very learned and powerful men.”

“Do you hate men, then?”

“I don’t hate sex with them, but relationships with them, yes.” She went up on one knee so she could put an arm across the other woman’s shoulders. Fortune entwined her fingers with hers. Echo said, “I prefer to give my heart to more reliable hands than a man’s.”

Jean-Claude laughed and pulled me in closer to his body. “And I have found that men and women are equally heartbreaking.”

“I would ask Anita, but she’s only been with two women; that hardly counts.”

Fortune said, “Most American women do that much in college when they experiment. Is Jade your experiment?”

“No, not that that’s any of your business.”

Jean-Claude hugged me to him and let me know I’d tensed up.

“Don’t be naïve,” Echo said. “Jade shares you with men, because they’re men, but another woman will bother her more, unless you plan to always include her in the bed with the new woman. Is that it? Are you building an all-girl ménage à trois?”

My opinion of that must have shown on my face.

Echo laughed again. “Oh, you don’t