"Are you really angry that I protected Stephen?"
"You ordered pack members to guard him and a wereleopard. You told them you'd kill them if they didn't obey you. You don't have that right."
"You gave me that right when you made me lupa." I held up a hand to keep him from interrupting. "And whether you like it or whether you don't, it was a good thing that I had some clout to throw around. Stephen might be dead now if I hadn't been there for him. And Zane would have caused an even worse mess at the hospital. Lycanthropes don't need any more bad press."
"We're monsters, Anita. You can't have good press if you're a monster."
"You don't believe that."
"You believe we're monsters, Anita. You proved that. You'd rather sleep with a corpse than let me touch you."
"What do you want me to say, Richard? That I'm sorry I couldn't cope? I am sorry. That I'm still embarrassed that I ran to Jean-Claude's bed? I am. That I think less of myself for not being able to love you even after what I saw you do to Marcus?"
"You wanted me to kill Marcus."
"He was going to kill you if you didn't. So yeah, I wanted you to kill Marcus. But I didn't tell you to eat him."
"When a pack member is killed in a dominance struggle, we all feed. It's a way to absorb their energy. Marcus and Raina aren't really gone as long as the pack remains."
"You ate Raina, too?"
"Where did you think the bodies went? Did you think your friends on the police force had hidden all the corpses?"
"I thought Jean-Claude had arranged it."
"He did, but it was the pack that did the dirty work. The vampires don't care about a body once it's cold. If the blood isn't warm, they don't want it."
I almost asked if he preferred warm flesh to cold, but didn't. I didn't really want to know. This entire conversation was going nowhere that I wanted to be. I looked at the watch on my wrist. "I've got to go, Richard."
"Go rescue your wereleopards."
I looked at him. "Yes."
"That's why I'm here. I'm your backup."
"Was that Jean-Claude's idea?"
"Sylvie told me that Gregory refused to harm her. Regardless of what they did under Gabriel, they're lycanthropes and we help our own even if they aren't lukoi."
"Do the wereleopards have a fancy name for themselves?" I asked.
He nodded. "They call themselves pard. The werewolves are the lukoi. The leopards are the pard."
I walked past him, shoulder brushing his bare arm. That one touch raised the hairs on my body like he'd touched something much more personal. But I'd get used to it. I'd made my choice, and no matter how confused I was, I wasn't that confused. So I still lusted after Richard, even loved him. I'd picked the vampire, and you can't have your vampire and your werewolf, too.
I got the machine gun out from under the bed and slid the strap across my chest.
"Jean-Claude said that we weren't supposed to kill anybody," Richard said.
"He knew you were coming here?" I asked.
He nodded.
I smiled, but it wasn't happy.
"He didn't tell you?" Richard asked.
"No."