"I tasted your power tonight, ma petite; it needs to be fed and fed well. You are like one of those dieting women that thinks she can survive on lettuce leaves and water. It may feel like food, but your body dies anyway."
"I'm not dying," I said.
"No, but your power is seeking a new pomme de sang. Don't you understand what is happening, ma petite? The ardeur is seeking for you."
"Okay, I'm confused now."
"It is not like Augustine to lose control. He is over two thousand years old, ma petite; one of the first vampires Belle made. You do not thrive for so long if you make such mistakes as he did this night."
"Belle messed with him, and with me."
He shook his head. "He raised your ardeur first, before she appeared, did he not?"
"Yeah, he said now he could do what he'd wanted to do all along, and no one could be mad at him."
Jean-Claude laughed, and it was just humor this time. He could control his laugh if he worked at it. "He doesn't know you very well yet. But when I said Augustine is my friend, I meant it. He would not have overstepped his bounds as my guest, not without something being wrong."
"And what's wrong?"
"The ardeur needs more food, ma petite, and like any predator it is seeking prey."
"It's just a metaphysical ability, Jean-Claude, not its own entity."
He gave me a look, and it was eloquent. "You know exactly what the ardeur is, ma petite. You know that it has a mind of its own, similar to the beasts you carry. But I believe that the ardeur can do something your beasts cannot. It is, I believe, putting out the welcome mat."
"Welcome mat?"
He sighed, and slid down in the water until his chin touched it. "You may not like Meng Die, but she is... proficient in bed. I find it inexplicable that Requiem would leave her body, on only the chance that he might be your lover. As I find it inexplicable that Augustine would purposefully insult me by raising the ardeur in you. He, in effect, attacked you, and through you, me."
"He told me to feed from him, because then I'd win the fight, and once you got into the room he said you'd lose."
Jean-Claude sat up so abruptly that he sloshed water in my face. I brushed my eyes clear, while he said, "He said that?"
I blinked at him, still trying to keep water out of my eyes. "Yes."
"Then it is as I have feared. The ardeur is seeking what it needs."
"Are you saying that the ardeur is putting out, what, pheromones?"
"I do not know this word."
"Pheromones, it's a chemical or hormone that some animals give out. The scent attracts mates. I think it was first discovered in moths."
"Yes, pheromones then, yes."
"I'm not agreeing with you, but say it is true; why does it only seem to work on certain people? I mean, it doesn't work on Clay, and I think Graham just wants to f**k. Why Requiem and Auggie?"
"What do they have in common?" he asked.
"They're both vamps of Belle's bloodline, and they're both masters. But thanks to all our imports from London, there are a couple more vampires in town who qualify. They aren't buzzing around me."
"But they do not approach the power level of Augustine and Requiem."
"Are you saying the ardeur is shopping for powerful food?"
"I offer it as an idea."
I thought about it, but finally looked at him. "If this is what's happening, and I'm not saying it is, then is it only vamps from Belle's line, or any master vampire of a certain power level?"