"But it's not your nature," Fredo said, which was a little too perceptive for someone who was supposed to be just muscle.
"He's right," Claudia said, and she'd finally managed to control her laughter. "I apologize for the outburst."
"She is like you, Samuel," Thea said, "an honest heart."
"That would be a good thing," he said. And the way he said it made me finally look at some of the other people in his party. My thought about inlaws was a little too accurate with Samuel and Thea: they were offering up their three sons as possible pommes de sang for me. Which I found a little creepy, but all the vamps had patiently explained to me that most of the really old vamps come from a time when arranged marriages between powers was the norm, not the exception.
The twins were easy to spot, because they were identical. I knew their names: Thomas and Cristos. They had their mother's white-blond color, but the short careless curls of their father. They were both taller than their father, somewhere around five-ten like Mom. But their bodies were slender, not enough muscle development. I searched their curious faces and found them young. Very young. They had to be legal, or Jean-Claude wouldn't have agreed, but they didn't look legal. Maybe merpeople aged slower than humans.
The other son I wasn't certain of, because there were two dark-haired men standing behind the love seat. One of them met my eyes bold as brass. The other man wouldn't meet my gaze; he actually blushed, embarrassed. I was betting that was the son. Maybe he thought it was all as weird as I did.
"They are lovely, my sons, are they not?" Thea asked, and that brought my attention back to her.
I wasn't sure what to say to that, but finally said, "Well, yeah, I guess, I mean, I wasn't looking at them for that." I felt the blush crawl up my face and cursed myself for it.
She smiled. "Let us decide which of us is of higher rank, so I may introduce you to them formally."
I thought about it, looked at Micah and Nathaniel. They both shook their heads; they didn't know either.
"I have a thought," Thea said, and the tone in her voice made it clear mat she wasn't sure I'd like it. Her voice was melodious, almost like singing.
"I'm willing to hear it," I said.
"We are animal to call and human servant, but I am married to a Master of the City, and you are not. Would that be a way to decide who is higher tank?"
"Thea," Samuel said.
"No," I said, "it is a way to decide this. Marriage beats just dating, I'm okay with that."
Samuel frowned at me. "We were warned that you had a temper, Ms. Blake."
I shrugged. "I do, but Thea's reasoning is as good a way as any to decide which of us offers up a body part."
"You don't find it insulting to acknowledge her as greater than yourself?" he asked.
I shook my head. "No."
He looked at me, looked at me as if he were trying to see all the way through to my spine. It wasn't vampire tricks, it was just him trying to decide what I was, or wasn't. Once I would have squirmed under such a look, but not now. Now I just stood there and gave him calm eyes back.
Thea made some small movement that drew my attention back to her. She was waiting, outwardly patient, but there was a demand in her. Time to put up, or shut up.
I offered her my wrist.
She took my hand in hers, and again her hand was cool in mine. She wrapped her hand around mine, and used it to draw me in toward her body. She wasn't going to take the wrist, she was going for the neck.
I didn't fight, but I did pull back a little.
She hesitated, giving me those strange black eyes of hers. "If I outrank you, Anita, then it is my choice where to touch."
I shook my head. "No, that you're trying for the neck instead of the wrist means only one of three things: you don't trust me, you're showing how big and bad you are, or you're thinking sex. Which is it, Thea?"
"The second," she said. She kept trying to pull me in against her body, and I started to let her. The strength in her one hand let me know that if I really wanted to struggle I'd have a fight on my hands. She was strong, like shapeshifter strong.
She kept her grip on my wrist as she used her other hand to pull me in against her body, until the two of us were pressed together, not tight, but so our bodies brushed from chest to thighs.
I had to talk staring at her shoulder. She was just too tall for me. "Why do you want me to know that you're big and bad?"
"My wife is very competitive with other women, Anita," Samuel said. "Surely Jean-Claude mentioned that, as he mentioned your temper to us."