was doing it.
For my part, I didn't just feel healed, or full, but better. I felt energized, as if rolling Nicky so thoroughly had fed the ardeur more completely than simple sex. Was this what it felt like to truly embrace the power? Was it just better this way, or was there something about Nicky that made him yummier? Was this how Jean-Claude felt when he used his powers fully? I'd ask him when I got home, if I got home. There were still a lot of problems between me and surviving the night. One of those problems was striding toward us through the tombstones.
Jacob's energy rode before him like the promise of lightning on an edge of storm. "What the fuck did you do?"
"I fed like we agreed."
"I felt what you did and it was more than that." He had a gun out now, pointed very steadily at me.
"You said you knew what I was, Jacob," and I felt something when I said his name. I felt that thread that the ardeur had attached to him pull, as if I could call him by simply saying his name.
"Jacob, put the gun down."
He actually started to lower it, and then caught himself. "Do that again and I will shoot you. We'll eat the second half of the money before I let you roll us all."
"Then let me raise Bennington 's wife, so we can all go home."
"We don't have a home," Nicky said, "we have hotel rooms. Places we rent."
"We keep moving so we don't have a territory, Nicky, you know that."
"We're lions, Jacob, we need a territory. We need a place to be."
"You've witched him," Jacob said.
"You gave him to me for food, Jacob. What did you think would happen?"
"Not this," and he sounded pained, as if he took it as a personal failure that he hadn't understood. "This is how you have all the men. You feed on them and they're yours. I've seen male vampires do that. Brides they're called."
"You mean like the Brides of Dracula?" I said.
"Yes," he said, and the gun was still pointed at me.
"The Grooms of Anita just doesn't have a ring to it, Jacob."
"No, it doesn't, but Nicky is looking at you like you're his whole world. It's not just sex, is it?"
"No."
"I should shoot you for this."
"Jacob, you wanted me well enough to raise the dead. You wanted me to feed on Nicky. You wanted me to have enough power to do what Bennington wants. You wanted to earn the second half of your money, Jacob."
The gun began to tilt toward the ground again.
"I've done exactly what you wanted, Jacob."
"Lying bitch." And the gun came back up, but it wasn't steady now.
"You took his guns after he barely touched me. You and he nearly fought to the death over me, when I'd barely touched either of you. What did you think would happen if you gave him to me to fuck, Jacob? What did you think would happen to Nicky if you gave him to me?"
He rolled his lower lip under, and bit it, I think. "Fuck," he said.
"I don't mind, Jacob," Nicky said, "it's okay."
"No, she's right. She barely touches us and we fight. She didn't even kiss you and I didn't trust you with a gun anymore, then I let her fuck you over." He lowered the gun to point at the ground. "Raise the zombie, Anita; we'll sort out who's guilty of what later."
I threaded my way through the gravestones with Nicky still holding my hand. In a way it wasn't just him that had been rolled, because it felt very good to touch him. It had that familiar feel to it, his hand in mine, like an old lover that you'd just found again. It was a lie, but the ardeur could make lies seem like truth. It was part of the gift, or part of the curse, depending on how you wanted to look at it. If it got us all out alive, I'd call it a gift, at least until I had to take Nicky home with me, and then I was going to have some explaining to do. He followed me home, can I keep him? had never worked for puppies when I was a child, and it seemed totally inadequate for a whole human being.
The grave with the crowd around it was bathed in moonlight distant from the tall trees. Bennington 's pale face was turned toward us. Someone was sitting propped against