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There was still coffee in the pot. If I drank enough hot coffee and took a really hot bath, maybe I'd thaw
out. My preference would have been a hot shower, quicker at four o'clock in the morning. But I'd
promised the paramedics. Something about my core temperature.
"Why did you want to see Richard and me?" I poured coffee into my freshly washed penguin mug.
Richard was good at being domestic.
"I was told that Monsieur Zeeman planned to spend the night."
"If he did, what of it?"
"Who told you?" Richard asked. He'd pushed away from the door. He'd even buttoned the top button
of his pants. Pity.
"Stephen told me."
"He wouldn't have volunteered the information," Richard said. He was standing very close to
Jean-Claude. Physically, he was looming above him, just a bit. Half-dressed. He should have looked
uncertain, hesitant. He looked completely at home. The first time I'd met Richard, he'd been naked in a
bed. He hadn't been embarrassed then, either.
"Stephen did not volunteer it," Jean-Claude said.
"He is under my protection," Richard said.
"You are not pack leader yet, Richard. You can protect Stephen within the pack, but Marcus still rules.
He has given Stephen to me, as he gave you to me."
Richard was just standing there. He hadn't moved, yet suddenly, the air around him swam. If you
blinked, you'd have missed it. A creeping edge of power fanned out, prickling along my skin. Shit.
"I belong to no one."
Jean-Claude turned to him. Face pleasant, open, voice conversational. "You do not acknowledge
Marcus's leadership?" It was a trick question, and we all knew it.
"What happens if he says no?" I asked.
Jean-Claude turned back to me. His face was carefully blank. "He says no."
"And you tell Marcus, and then what?"
He smiled then, a slow curve of lips that left his perfect blue eyes glittering. "Marcus would see it as a
direct challenge to his authority."
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I set down the cup of coffee and came around the island. Standing nearly between them, Richard's
energy crawled over my skin like insects on the march. From Jean-Claude there was nothing. The
undead make no noise. "If you get Richard killed, even indirectly, the deal is off."
"I don't need you to protect me," Richard said.
"If you get yourself killed fighting Marcus, that's one thing, but if you get killed because Jean-Claude is
jealous of you, that's my fault."
Richard touched my shoulder. His power was like a rush of electricity down my body. I shivered, and he
dropped his hand. "I could just give in to Marcus, just acknowledge his leadership, then I'd be safe."
I shook my head. "I've seen what Marcus considers acceptable. It's not even close to being safe."
"Marcus didn't know they filmed two endings," Richard said.
"So you have talked to him about it?"
"Are you referring to the delightful little films that Raina masterminded?" Jean-Claude asked.
We both looked at him. A brush of power lashed out, growing stronger. It was hard to breathe standing
next to him, like trying to swallow a thunderstorm.
I shook my head. One problem at a time. "What do you know about the films?" I asked.
Jean-Claude looked at us, one and then the other. He ended staring into my eyes. "Your voice makes it
sound more important than it should be. What has Raina done now?"
"How do you know about the films?" Richard asked. He moved a step closer. His chest touched my
back, and I gasped. The skin up and down my back tingled as if someone had touched a live wire to the
skin, but it didn't hurt. It was just an almost overwhelming sensation. Pleasurable, but you knew if it didn't
stop soon, it would begin to hurt.
I stepped away from him, standing between both of them, giving my back to neither. They both looked
at me. Almost identical expressions on their faces. Alien, as if they were thinking thoughts that I'd never
dreamed of, listening to music that I could not dance to. I was the only human in this room.
"Jean-Claude, just tell me what you know about Raina's movies. No games, okay."
He stared at me for a heartbeat, then gave a graceful shrug. "Very well. Your alpha female invited me to
join her in a dirty movie. I was offered a starring role."
I knew he'd turned her down. He was an exhibitionist, but he liked a certain decorum to his sideshow.
Dirty movies would have been beyond the pale for him.
"Did you enjoy having sex with her on screen?" Richard asked. His voice was low, and that energy
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