Auggie ordered her to kneel, and when she didn't do it fast enough, he forced her. "Apologize, now!" His power filled the room like cold water, shivering along my skin.
"Why am I a whore, when his wife is pimping out her own sons, and this one is f**king everything and everyone that will stand still?"
"Benny," he said in a very quiet voice. I knew that tone of voice. It's the careful, controlled one you use when you're afraid of what you'll do if you yell.
The only vampire he'd brought with him moved around the couch to stand beside him. "Yeah, boss."
"Take her out of here. Get on a plane, take her back to Chicago, help her pack. Make sure she takes only what belongs to her."
Bunny's eyes went wide. "No, Auggie, no, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry."
He moved away, so she couldn't touch him. She tried to crawl after him, but Benny grabbed her arm. "Come on, Bunny, we gotta plane to catch."
She was human, and in five-inch heels, but she put up a fight. Benny was having trouble getting her to the door without hurting her. She'd proven to the entire room that she was na**d under the tiny dress.
I said, "Claudia."
She came to me, all serious, the bodyguard's bodyguard. "Pick someone, or two someones, to help Benny get her out of here."
Claudia nodded, almost a bow, and said, "Fredo, Clay, help our guest out."
Fredo pushed himself from the wall, all boneless ease like some dark, well-armed cat. Clay just took Bunny's other arm, and helped Benny start carrying her toward the door. She used the spike heels effectively, probably drawing blood through Clay's pants. He never slowed, and neither did Benny, though his face was bleeding from nail marks. Fredo got both her ankles, and they carried her out.
Auggie gave me a very low bow. "I don't know what to say, Anita. I'm sorry that I brought her. I knew she was jealous, but not crazy jealous."
"Jealous?" I made it a question.
"She, like Samuel's Thea, is very competitive around other women."
I frowned at him. "So she and Thea were like trying to outbitch each other?"
He looked at me. "You really don't understand why she didn't like you from the moment you stepped into the room, do you?"
Micah drew me in against his body, hugging me one-armed. I looked back and forth from one to the other of them. "What?"
"No," Micah said, "she doesn't."
"Don't what?" I asked.
"You are a natural beauty," Auggie said. "Artifice gave Bunny her face, her figure; most of her best features were found under a surgeon's blade. In you walk, all natural equipment, wearing more clothes, and still get more attention from the men in the room than she did. When you were with Thea and Thomas, every man in the room was riveted. We wanted you. Wanted to touch you, in a way that is rare."
I felt myself blushing and tried to stop it, but, as usual, lost. "You're babbling, Auggie," I said.
"Watching you and a siren, two if you count the boy. Watching two creatures formed of desire, and it was not the pale beauty most eyes watched, Anita. It was the dark."
I frowned at him. "I don't need this much ego-boo, Auggie, just make your point. If you have a point?"
Nathaniel came up. "I'll translate."
"What do you mean, translate?" I said, turning to him.
He took my hand, and shook his head. His face had that I-love-you-but-you-amuse-me look. "You outvamped the sirens, Anita."
"How?"
"I believe," Auggie said, "because your power is over the dead, and the undead. I was told your animal to call was only leopard."
I nodded. "It is, but through Jean-Claude's marks, I also have ties to the wolves."