"I think the pomme de sang needs to be someone who can feed me night or day," I said.

His face filled with panic. "Please, Anita, do not cast me aside."

Hooked at Jean-Claude. "A little help here."

"If you will not feed the ardeur from him then we must send him to an­other territory. He is powerful enough that many will want him as third, or even second."

"Which will weaken your power base, because Elinore is only staying until we find her her own territory," I said.

He gave a shrug that meant everything and nothing.

"I cannot believe that my"—and I hesitated because boyfriend seemed too junior high, lover not enough—"the man I love is encouraging me to take another lover."

He smiled at me. "We know now that any who have tasted Belle's ardeur are susceptible to your ardeur. I think any of her line will be too risky to taste as pommes. Agree to feed the ardeur from Requiem, ma petite, that is

all. Agree, because we have two more things to know before the party tonight."

"What two things?"

"Will you draw and be drawn to all leopards, wolves, and lions? Do the ardeur's effects travel outside Belle's line?"

I looked at Jean-Claude, tried to read past his face. "You're still shielding so hard, I can't tell how you really feel about this. Let me see inside your shields."

He shook his head. "I think it would be no help to you."

"Why not?"

"Because part of me is happy our powers are growing, no matter what the cost. Part of me is frightened of what the council may do about it. Do I want you to take another lover? No, but do I prefer that it is you whom the ardeur hunts to this degree, and not me, yes. I am sorry, ma petite, but that is the truth."

I thought about it, then nodded. "If you have a human servant who can't hold her shit together the other masters may forgive you. Like a bad mar­riage, not your fault. If you can't hold your shit together, they won't let that pass."

"Please, Anita," Requiem said, "please, feed the ardeur upon me, please."

"I will."

The look on his face was amazing, so joyous even through all the bruises. The look scared me. No one but your nearest and dearest should ever look at you like that.

"But not right now," I said.

Some of the joy faded. "Why not now? It is morning. You have slept."

I nodded. "Yeah, usually that does raise the ardeur." I looked at Jean-Claude. "That's a good question, why don't I feel all ardeurishl"

"I, too, am well fed."

"You feasted last night," Requiem said, "on Augustine and his people."

I looked back at Jean-Claude. "Is he right? Was it such a powerful meal that we're safe for longer?"

"Perhaps."

"You don't sound convinced."

"The ardeur is not always a predictable power, ma petite. I would need more than one feeding of such magnitude before I agreed that that was the reason."

"Or perhaps," Elinore said, "you should be trying to figure out how pow­erful a meal you would need to abate the ardeur. You cannot feast on another

Master of the City and his people every night." She leaned forward in her chair, all lace and satin, but strangely, she didn't look cute. She looked too intent for words like cute. "Perhaps what is needed is permanent food of high power."

"Few masters would agree to become Anita's, or my, permanent pomme de sang. Not if they are powerful enough to rule a territory of their own."

"What if they have no choice in the matter?" she said, indicating Re­quiem.

"Are you suggesting that I purposefully trap other masters the way I acci­dentally trapped Requiem?" I asked.

"It would solve a great many problems," she said.

"It would be"—I groped for a word—"evil."

"I thought you were more pragmatic than this, Anita."

"Doing that would be no different than if we gave in to the requests we get weekly for you to join some other master's kiss, as his mistress. We give you room to choose, Elinore. How can you ask us to take that same choice away from someone else?"

"I would not be bespelled, Anita. I would know every night as he touched me, lay on top of me, that I hated him. Requiem adores you, and he will adore you until, and if, he falls in love, true love. Until that time he will be in the bed of someone he adores, having amazing sex, and enjoying every minute of it. It is not the same thing, Anita. Trust me on that."

"But it's sort of a metaphysical date-rape drug, used like that. Just because you're enjoying the abuse doesn't make it not abuse."

"Does it not, ma petite}"

I shook my head. "It's too late for Requiem, I'll accept that. I'll try feed­ing the ardeur on him."

He kissed my hand. "Thank you, mistress."

"Not mistress," I said, "Anita, just Anita."

"Thank you, Anita," he said, and kissed my hand again.

"Get up off the floor, Requiem, please."

He stood. "I would like very much to sit beside you."

I sighed, and nodded.

He sat on the other side of me from Jean-Claude, except that he sat close enough that his legs touched me. Great, just creepy, great.

I looked at his chest where the blades had come so close to taking his life. 'What are we going to do about Meng Die? She's just proven herself too dangerous, and so not a team player."

"Kill her," Elinore said.

I looked at Jean-Claude.

"I would rather find another solution, but yes, it may come to that."

"You are overly sentimental, Jean-Claude, just because you feel guilty that you stole her mortal life. It is a great gift, not a curse."

"I feel as I feel, Elinore."

"Have a care that your feelings do not get us all killed." She looked at me. "Also, I think if Anita truly is going to be a panwere ..."

"News travels fast," I said, looking at Jean-Claude.

"I wished an opinion of someone powerful enough to have an opinion."

I wanted to argue, but I couldn't. She was the most powerful vamp in his group right now. Her waking first had proven that.

"As I was saying, if Anita is truly going to be a panwere, then it may not simply be lions, wolves, and leopards that she attracts. It may be all were-animals, or many. Almost all the visiting masters have brought their ani­mal to call, so we must test this theory before she is allowed near them. Augustine I believe will let the insult go, because he is besotted with you both, and he attacked you first. The breach of protocol was on his side, not ours. But if Anita entices others away from their masters, they may not be so forgiving."

"Agreed," Jean-Claude said, "and we still must see how master vampires outside Belle's bloodline react to Anita's ardeur."

"And where are we going to get master-level vamps and other wereani-mals to test these little theories on?" I asked.

There was a knock on the door. "It's Remus, Jean-Claude."

"Enter."

Remus entered, closing the door behind him. He was actually looking di­rectly at us, and he was angry, which I guess explained the direct look. "I told you if there were any more that I wouldn't let them in without me and my guards coming in here."

"I remember," Jean-Claude said.

"I said any other vampire, but definitely these two are not coming in here without you having bodyguards on this side of the door."

"What two?" I asked.

"Wicked and Truth are out here," Remus said.

"Wicked and Truth," Elinore said, "how interesting. They are very pow­erful, and they are not of Belle's line."

I shook my head. "Truth already got a taste of the ardeur when I bound him to Jean-Claude. He's not following me around like this." I jerked my thumb at Requiem.

"Did you actually feed from Truth?" she asked.