"It is too generous an offer for someone who is not council," Padma said.
"Do they always squabble like this?" I asked.
"Oui," Jean-Claude said.
Near-eternal life, frightening power, and they were petty. How disappointing. How typical. I touched Jason's face, made him look at me. His breath was coming in short gasps. I touched his hands; his skin was cold.
"Jason, if she didn't rot on you, could you let her feed?"
He swallowed twice before he could talk. "I don't know."
A truthful answer. He was terrified. "I'll go with you."
He looked at me then, looked at me and not at the screaming in his head. "She won't like that."
"Fuck her. She can take it or leave it."
That got me the ghost of a smile. He gripped my hands where they lay on top of his. He nodded.
I looked at Jean-Claude still sitting by us. "You're not being much help."
"I too have seen the show, ma petite." He was echoing my thoughts so closely, I wondered whose thoughts were which. But what he was saying was frightening. He wouldn't offer himself to Yvette, not just to save Jason.
I stood up, drawing Jason to his feet. He clung to my hand like a kid on the first day of kindergarten afraid Mommy would leave him alone with the bullies.
"If you give your word of honor that you won't rot on him, you can feed off of him."
"No," Yvette said. "No, that spoils it all."
"It's your choice," I said. "You can have Richard, if Padma will let you, but he won't be afraid. You can rot on him though, but you won't get Jason's horror of you." I moved so she could see him clearly.
Jason flinched but stayed standing, but he wouldn't or couldn't meet her eyes. He stared at me. I think he was actually looking down my dress. But for once I didn't make him stop. Distraction was just what he needed. Knowing Jason, I wasn't surprised that a peek-a-boo show was what he chose.
Yvette licked her lips. Finally, she nodded.
I led Jason towards her. He was dressed for his own peek-a-boo show. He was wearing a pair of leather pants dyed a blue two shades darker than his eyes. The pants looked painted on, sliding seamlessly into boots dyed to match. He wore no shirt, only a vest that matched the pants, fastened with three leather thongs.
He stumbled as we entered the cleared space. Yvette glided towards him, and he hung back. Only my hand kept him from bolting. "Easy, Jason, easy."
He just kept shaking his head, straining against my hold on his wrist. He wasn't exactly struggling, but he wasn't cooperating either.
"It's too much to ask," Richard said. "He is my wolf, and I will not see him tormented."
I looked at Richard, proud, arrogant. "He's my wolf, too." I released Jason's wrist slowly and put a hand on either side of his face. "If this is too much to ask, say so, and we'll do something else."
He gripped my wrists, and I watched him collect himself. I watched his hard-won control fill his eyes, his face. "Don't leave me."
"I'm right here."
"No," Yvette said, "you cannot hold his hand while I feed."
I turned to her, Jason so close our bodies touched without hands. "Then it's over. You don't touch him."
"First you tame Asher. Now you seek to tame me. You have nothing I want, Anita."
"I have Jason."
She hissed at me, all that careful beauty breaking down and showing the beast inside. She snatched at him around me, and he jerked back. She pawed at him like a cat, and I kept my body between them, moving us into the center of the circle. I felt Jason's back hit the wall, and I grabbed Yvette's arm.