She frowned again. "Then what are you worried about?"
I looked into those dark brown eyes, that earnest face and said, "I'm worried you'll get yourself killed."
There was no more girl talk after that. We just got ready for bed. I went into the bathroom to get dressed. I had packed my weapons, but not my clothes. Nathaniel, one of my live-in sweeties, a wereleopard and my leopard to call, had. He was the most domestic of us all, and I was fine with the jeans, T-shirts, boots, and jogging shoes, but the pajamas, well, I'd be talking to him about the pajamas. It was a camisole and boy shorts except they were both black lace and stretchy fabric that fit like a second skin. There was enough lift to the fabric that the camisole actually supported my breasts enough for it to fit right. The skimpy pj's looked great on me, but were so not appropriate marshal jammies. But they were the most appropriate of what he'd packed. Soooo going to talk to him about that.
When I came out, Karlton said, "Nice pajamas. Sorry to disappoint that you're not bunking with the boys."
I didn't bother to glare at her. "My boyfriend packed my clothes while I packed the weapons."
"You let a man pack your clothes?"
"He's usually pretty good at it, but I think he picked the pajamas for what he wanted to see."
She snorted. "That's a man."
I sighed. "I guess so."
The oversized T-shirt she was wearing had someone I didn't recognize singing into a microphone stand. I slid between the covers, and the sheets were the cheap cotton that had been in every hotel or motel on this trip. I missed the silk sheets of Jean-Claude's bed, and the highthread-count cotton of the bed that Micah and Nathaniel and I shared. I was sheet spoiled.
"Do you always sleep with that many weapons?"
"Yes." It wasn't entirely true. I always slept with a gun close at hand, but I didn't normally sleep in the wrist sheaths with their slender silver-edged blades. They weren't that comfortable for sleeping in, but if the Harlequin were faster than normal vampires and shapeshifters, then there might not be time to reach under my pillow for a gun. The knife draw from the wrist sheaths was quicker, because any gun under my pillow either had the safety on or stayed in a holster, so either way it was a few seconds slower than just drawing the knives. I put the big knife that usually rode along my spine beside the bed, on top of the backpack, so that I could reach it if I had to, though honestly if the two knives on me and the gun under my pillow didn't take care of the problem I'd be dead before I got the third blade, or the other guns. With that cheerful thought, I turned off the light on my side of the room.
The room was suddenly very dark, only a thin line of artificial light sliding between the slightly crooked curtains that led to the balcony, which was just a sort of walkway with a railing. The door led directly out into the night. Vampires couldn't come into the room without permission, but wereanimals could, and bespelled humans could, and . . . I was less than happy with the room, but it was cheap and I'd learned that if you were traveling on the government's dime they pinched their dimes; pennies didn't even figure into the equation.
Her voice came out of the less-than-perfect dark. "Is Gerald Mallory right—are women more likely to be seduced by vampires than men?"
"No."