"How serious a breach of vampy etiquette is it that we get a white mask but they're acting like it's red?" I asked.

Jean-Claude and Requiem exchanged a look that I couldn't read exactly, but it wasn't good.

"Talk to me, damn it," I said.

"It should not be happening, ma petite. Either this is an attack by some other vampire powerful enough to fool us all, or the Harlequin are breaking their own rules. They are deadly within their rules; if the rule of law were to break down…" He closed his eyes and hugged me, hugged me tight.

Nathaniel came to stand beside us, his face uncertain. "What can we do about it?"

Jean-Claude looked at him, and smiled. "Very practical, mon minet, as practical as our Micah." He turned to look at Requiem, whose smile had vanished. "Is this how it began in London?"

"Yes, one of the Harlequin could increase our emotions of desire. But only emotions we already owned. It was very subtle at first, then worsened. Truthfully, what has happened tonight to Anita went unnoticed among us. It simply seemed to be couples finally deciding to consummate their friendships."

"How did it worsen?" Nathaniel asked.

"I don't know if it was the same vampire, but they began to interfere when we used the powers of Belle's line. Making the lust go terribly wrong."

"How terribly?" I asked.

"The ardeur at its worst," he said.

"Shit," I said.

Nathaniel touched my shoulders and Jean-Claude opened his arms to pull the other man into our embrace, so that he hugged us both, and I was firmly in the middle of them. It was as if I could finally catch my breath. "Better and better," I said.

"The more you touch your power base, the more surety you have against them, at first," Requiem said.

"What do you mean, 'at first'?" I asked.

"Eventually, our master was tormented by them no matter who he touched. Whatever he touched turned ill, and whatever touched his skin was poisoned."

"Poisoned with what?" I asked.

"They turned our own powers against us, Anita. We were a kiss made up almost entirely of Belle Morte's line. They turned our gifts against us so that the blade bit deep, and we bled for them."

"They didn't torment Elinore and Roderick," Byron said from the couch.

The three of us looked at him, still clinging to each other.

"Not true. She was bothered at first like all of us. So smitten with Roderick she couldn't do her job."

"But, how did you say it, when the madness overcame us, they were spared," Byron said. There was a tone to his voice that held anger, or something close to it.

Jean-Claude hugged us both, and Nathaniel hugged back until it was hard to breathe, not from some vampire trick, but from the strength in their bodies. Jean-Claude eased away, and Nathaniel did the same. Jean-Claude moved us to the desk edge. He leaned upon it, drawing my back in against his body. He held a hand out to Nathaniel and drew him to the desk. Nathaniel sat on the desk, his feet dangling in the air. But he kept his hand in the vampire's, as if afraid to let go. I guess we all were.

"What do you mean, madness?" I asked.

"We fucked our brains out, dearie."

I tried to think of a polite way to say it.

Byron laughed. "The look on your face, Anita. Yes, sex is our coin, and we did a lot of it, but you want to have a choice, don't you?" He looked past us to Requiem. "You don't like having your choices taken away, do you, lover?"

Requiem gave him a look that should have stopped his heart, let alone his words, but Byron was already dead, and the dead are made of stouter stuff than the living. Or maybe Byron just didn't care anymore. "Requiem found that men were on the menu, didn't you, lover?" There was a purring insolence in his voice, bordering on hatred.

I got the implications; they'd become lovers after the Harlequin messed with them all badly enough. Requiem didn't do men, period. Belle had punished him over the centuries for refusing to bed men. To refuse Belle Morte anything was never a good idea, so he'd been serious about saying no. Someone on the Harlequin's team was very good at manipulating emotions. Scary good.

I hugged Jean-Claude's arm tight to me and reached out to Nathaniel. I ended up touching his hip, just running my hand lightly along it. Shapeshifters were always touching each other, and I'd begun to pick up the habit. Tonight I didn't fight it.

"You are never to speak of it," Requiem said, his voice low and very serious.

"How much does it bother you to know that I've had sex with Anita, too?"

Requiem stood in one swift motion, the black cloak swinging out, revealing that he wasn't wearing much under the cloak.

"Stop," Jean-Claude said.

Requiem froze, his eyes blazing with blue-green light. His shoulders rose and fell with his breathing, as if he'd been running.

"I believe that lust is not the only emotion the Harlequin can incite," Jean-Claude said.

It took Requiem a moment, and then he frowned and turned those sparkling eyes to us. "Our anger."

Jean-Claude nodded.

The light began to fade, like light moving away through water. "What are we to do, Jean-Claude? If they do not even observe their own rules, we are doomed."

"I will ask for a meeting with them," he said.

"You'll what?" Byron said, his voice squeaking just a little.

"I will ask for a meeting between them and us."

"You do not seek the Harlequin out, Jean-Claude," Requiem said. "You hide, cowering in the grass, praying that they pass you by. You do not invite them closer."

"The Harlequin are honorable. What is happening is not honorable behavior."

"You are mad," Byron said.

"You think one of them is disobeying the rules," I said, quietly.

"I hope so," Jean-Claude said.

"Why hope so?" I asked.

"Because if what is happening is being done with the full weight and approval of the Harlequin behind it, then Requiem is correct, we are doomed. They will play with us, then destroy us."

"I don't do doomed," I said.

He kissed the top of my head. "I know, ma petite, but you do not understand what force is against us."

"Explain it to me."

"I have told you, they are the bogeymen of vampirekind. They are what we fear in the dark."

"Not true," I said.

"They're bloody frightening, lover," Byron said. "We do fear them."

"The bogeyman of all vampires is Marmee Noir, Mommie Dearest, your queen. That's who scares the shit out of all of you."

They were quiet for a heartbeat or two. "Yes, the Harlequin fear the Queen of Darkness, our creator," Jean-Claude said.

"Everyone fears the dark," Requiem said, "but if the Mother of All Darkness is our nightmare, then the Harlequin are the swift sword of the dark."

Byron nodded. "No arguments from me on that one, duckie. Everyone fears her."

"What are you suggesting, ma petite?"

"I'm not suggesting anything. I'm saying, I've stood in the dark and seen her rise above me like a black ocean. She's invaded my dreams. I've seen the room where her body lies, heard her voice whisper through my head. Tasted rain and jasmine choking on my tongue." I shivered and could almost feel her moving restless in the dark. She lay in a room with windows, and they kept a fire below her, a continuous watch. She'd fallen into a "sleep" longer ago than most of them remembered. Once I'd thought they watched to celebrate her awakening, but I'd begun to realize most of them were as afraid of her as I was, which meant they were scared shitless. Marmee Noir liked me for some reason. I interested her. And from thousands of miles away, she messed with me. She'd made a cross melt into my hand. I'd have the scar until I died.

"Speak of the devil and you bring him closer," Requiem said.

I nodded and tried to think of something else. Oh, yeah, I knew what to think about. "The Harlequin are just vampires, right, which means they're subject to your laws, right?"