"Marmee Noir," he said, nodding.

"Yes," I said. I tried to read past that pleasant exterior, and failed. "You dreamed of her, too?"

"Obi."

"You both dreamed of the head of the vampire council?"

"She is much more than that," Jean-Claude said. "She is the creator of our civilization. Our laws are her laws. Some say she was the first vampire, and that she truly is the mother of us all."

I cuddled in closer to him, and he tucked me under his arm, so I could wrap my arms around his waist. Somehow, close wasn't close enough when talking about the Mother of All Darkness.

"What did you dream, exactly?" Micah asked.

"She tried to play human for me, but, God, she was bad at it."

"I saw her bend over you, ma petite. I saw her begin to take you away from me. But I could not reach you, the darkness held me as her figure bent over you." He shuddered, and held me right against his body. "I could not reach you, and her voice taunted me for my carelessness." He kissed the top of my head. "But she also told me that if I had given you the fourth mark, that she would have killed you, for if she could not control you, then she would de­stroy you."

Micah came to us, tucked himself against me, pressing Jean-Claude's arm between us, his own arm going across Jean-Claude's shoulders. Micah was on his knees beside me, because their heads came together over mine, and Micah wasn't tall enough for that without some help. "But you woke before Anita," Micah said. "Why?"

"I thought if I could break my dream, it would free ma petite. It did not, but I was able to break Marmee's hold on my mind. That, in itself, is a sur­prising thing."

"Surprising doesn't begin to cover it," I said. "How did you break free?"

"How did you?" he asked.

"I called the only animal I have that isn't a cat. She only does cats. I saw her in that room, where her real body is. I saw her body jerk. My wolf bit her, for real, I think."

The two men held me tighter, pressing me between them, as if something about what I'd said scared them. I guess it was scary, but... "Am I missing something here, guys? You're suddenly both even more afraid."

"The ability to send a spirit animal through dream and harm another is rare among us."

"Among vampires, you mean," I said.

"Oui."

"Us, too," Micah said, "but..." Then he stopped abruptly.

"But what?" I asked. When he didn't answer, I pulled away from them both, so I could see his face. Jean-Claude, if he wanted to, could hide any­thing behind his face, but Micah wasn't that good. If I looked hard enough, I might get a hint.

He lowered his eyes, as if he knew what I was doing.

I touched his face, turned him to look at me. "What, Micah, what is it?"

"Chimera could invade your dreams."

"Could he hurt someone that way?"

"No"—then he seemed to think about it—"not when he took over my original pard, he couldn't. He had grown in power in the years I was with him, so maybe? Ask some of the dominants he took, who survived. Ask them if he could hurt them in their dreams."

"It is very rare for a lycanthrope to be able to invade dreams like a vam­pire," Jean-Claude said.

"Chimera was a rare kind of guy," I said, and just thinking about him scared me. He was dead, I'd killed him, but he had been one of the scarier tilings I'd ever fought.

Micah looked at me, and his face held such pain, as if whatever he was thinking was something so awful.

"What?" I asked.

"We learned last month that you carry lion lycanthropy. That had to come from your fight with Chimera."

I nodded. "He was in lionman form when he cut me up, yeah."

Micah licked his lips, as if there were any possibility in the hot, misty tub that his lips were dry. "What if you gained more from him than just lion ly-cantliropy?"

I frowned at him. "I'm not following."

"He means, ma petite, what if you gained not simply lycanthropy, but the kind of lycanthropy that Chimera held? He was not a werelion, he was a panwere. He held over a half-dozen types of lycanthropy, did he not?"

Micah nodded. "Leopard, lion, wolf, hyena, anaconda, bear, and then he took die cobra's leader. I think if he'd lived until next full moon, he would have been cobra, too."

"Chimera thought tliat once he hit his first full moon, the animals he had were all he got."

"I don't think that was true," Micah said.

"Are you sure it wasn't true?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No, but it would explain what's happening to you."

"What do you mean, what's happening to me?"

"Anita, you almost shifted tonight. Blood came out from under your nails. It was close."

"We're not sure I'm a panwere."

"No, but if you are, then you won't lose the leopards when you shift."

I shook my head. "I'll pick leopard, if I have to pick, thanks, just in case."

"I agree," he said, "but if you are a panwere, and you're close to shift­ing ..." He stopped talking, then looked down.

"You are thinking what I am thinking, mon chat, and you know she will not like it," Jean-Claude said.

"What?" I asked.

Jean-Claude answered, "If you are to be a panwere, and there is a chance that you will gain new animals until your first change of shape, then we have the opportunity to gain great power."

"What are you talking about?"

"If you are going to shift, then wouldn't it make sense to add more types of lycanthropy?" Micah said.

"Make sense, no," I said, "no, it wouldn't make sense."

"Why not, ma petite} You called the lions, and they came to your call. You call the leopards and they come. You call wolves, and I begin to wonder if it is my power that attracts them to you, or something more."

"You're saying I should deliberately infect myself with other types of ly­canthropy?"

They exchanged glances. "Put that way, no," Micah said.

"It is a thought, ma petite, merely a thought."

"Are you always thinking about how I can help you be more powerful?"

He sighed. "We must be powerful, and stable. We must show the other masters that we do not pose a threat to the council in Europe or anyone else."

"Powerful we can do, but stable—" I shrugged. "I don't know about that one."

"We aren't a threat to the council," Micah said, "but they may not believe that."

"They may not," Jean-Claude said.

There was a knock on the door. "Who is it?" Jean-Claude called.

"Remus."

"Is there something you need, Remus?"

"Claudia ordered me to check in, physically, with you for the shift change."

Jean-Claude glanced at us. He held an arm out. "Come to me, ma petite, let us make certain you are hidden from sight, then allow him to enter."

"I don't see why he needs to enter," I said.

"We will ask him." Jean-Claude took me into the curve of his shoulder. Micah moved in front of me. I wrapped my arms around Micah's shoulders, drawing him in against my breasts. Yeah, the water covered me, but Remus was still one of the newer guards. I didn't know him well enough to be com­fortable in the tub with him in the room.

"You may enter," Jean-Claude said.

The door opened; Remus stepped inside, but kept his hand on the door­knob, as if he were no happier about invading our bath than I was. His eyes were green-gray, nice eyes, if he'd ever look directly at you. He never did, or at least he never did at me, or Jean-Claude, or Micah, or Nathaniel. Why? Remus's face had been broken at some point, and been put back together. There was no one thing you could point to and say, "That's out of place," but the overall effect was lopsided, and looked almost uncomfortable, like a ceramic mask that had been glued back together wrong.

I couldn't make complete sense of Remus's face, because he wouldn't look at me. I wanted badly to tell him to just look at me, but I couldn't without raising a subject that was probably painful, and none of my business. So I let it go.