Jean-Claude gave him a lovely, blank face. "He has not bragged to you."

"You are certain of that?" Rafael said.

"Very. He had a tendency to talk during… during. He might have talked of me while he was doing similar things to someone else. In fact, I would be surprised if he had not. He enjoyed comparing and contrasting his lovers, and his victims."

"So you were his lover?"

"No, I was his victim. Nikolaos gave me to him with no safe word, no way to stop him from doing what he wished with me, except my own poor art of persuasion."

Rafael laughed, an abrupt and unhappy sound. "'Poor art,' false modesty from what I hear. Narcissus would give a great deal to have you back as his… victim."

"So he has said."

"He seems confident that Asher is the key to your bed. And if not Asher, then Anita. He believes sincerely that he will find a way to your libido again through them."

Finally something I could address without revealing that I wasn't entirely sure what was happening with Asher and the hyenas. "You don't have to worry about me and Narcissus. He's really not my cup of tea."

Rafael nodded, his face still serious. We couldn't seem to get a smile out of him this morning. "Am I your cup of tea, Anita?"

I felt Richard stiffen beside me. I glanced around him to Jean-Claude. "Can I talk plainly without upsetting the political apple cart here?"

"Talk, and we shall see."

Not a rousing endorsement, but I'd take what I could get. "You're handsome, and if it was a date, we could talk, but you want to skip to sex, and I'm just not that casual about it."

He gave me a look. It was a very judgmental look. I gave him an unhappy look back.

"Yeah, I have a lot of lovers, but they aren't casual lovers, Rafael."

He let out a breath, sipped some coffee, then said, "Perhaps not, but there is something about being your lover that seems to up the power level of every man that you… give yourself to."

"Not true," I said.

"Name a single lover you have had who has not gained power from it."

"I can name three: London, Requiem, and Byron," I said.

"The first two were master vampires before you slept with them. It's hard to judge how much power they arrived in St. Louis with, and how much they may have gained. Byron you slept with only once. Once doesn't seem to be enough." He sat his coffee down on his plate. "Fine, your regular lovers gain power."

"I think you overestimate me."

Rafael handed his plate to Louie, who stood and put it on the coffee table, as if he'd been told to do it. Rafael looked at me. He looked at me as if he would see through me to the other side. It was a look to study, weigh, and measure a person. I tried not to squirm under that gaze, but it was hard work.

"What?" I asked.

He looked at Jean-Claude. "She doesn't know, does she?"

"I am not certain that I know what you mean," Jean-Claude said.

"Jean-Claude, every lover Anita has gains power. Asher was a master vampire in name only, almost, but since he's been in her bed he's gained enough power to have his own territory if he didn't love you both too much to leave. Nathaniel was everyone's victim; now he is becoming someone to be reckoned with. You, personally, have gained more power than you ever dreamed."

"And you believe that it is ma petite who has given me power, not that I have shared my power with her?"

"She has her own triumvirate of power, Jean-Claude. Her own vampire servant in Damian."

"I am not the power behind the throne, Rafael. Trust me, Jean-Claude is plenty powerful enough for both of us."

"He is, but he gained most of that power after you became his lover."

"I gained powers after he made me his servant," I said, "not the other way around."

"I've been talking to some of the wererats in Europe," Rafael said. "They speak of your Belle Morte, the creator of your bloodline. They say that she could give power to her lovers, if she chose."

"Belle Morte does not choose to share power with anyone," Jean-Claude said.

"No, but she can; through sex, she can make her lovers more powerful. Legend has it that once she made kings and emperors through her touch. She changed the face of Europe through her bed."

"She ruled from her bedroom, that is true, but not in the way you think. She chose only the powerful, only those who could give her something she wanted. And I did not gain power in her bed. I was her pawn for centuries. As was Asher."

"Masters of the City often kill their own vampire children if they become too powerful, true?" Rafael said.

"Some do."

"But isn't it strange that so many of the vampires who were nearly powerless around Belle Morte have gained power the longer they are away from her?"

"What are you saying, Rafael?"

"I have heard rumors that some masters can retard the powers of their followers."

"Some can, but I do not believe Belle is one of them."

"Why not?"

He gave that shrug again.

Frankly, the rats were a little too well informed for comfort. I'd seen a master vampire gain new powers once in America and far enough away from his old master. But I wasn't sure it was on purpose; I'd actually begun to wonder if some powerful masters gave off a sort of hormone that retarded the power of those around them. No way to test it, but I'd seen some of what Rafael was saying.

"There are rats in every city," Sampson said, and like last time it was as if we'd all forgotten him.

Rafael nodded. "There are."

I had this image of hundreds of rats scampering in the walls, hearing things, and what they heard, the rat king heard. Did it work that way? For real? I wanted to ask, but in this mood, I wasn't sure how he'd take the question.

"I am the son of two powers, but you did not concern yourself that you had insulted me," Sampson said.

"I don't know what you are to Jean-Claude and Anita."

"So you would ignore me, and see if it got a reaction?"

Rafael nodded.

"I am the next lover in line for Anita."

"Why have you waited so long?"

"It is the lady's privilege to keep a man waiting."

They were supposed to be talking about me, but it was like I was missing the conversation, or not truly understanding it all.

"Would you allow me to jump ahead of you in line?"

Sampson shook his head. "No."

He looked at Jean-Claude. "Is this your final word, that the sea king's son is more important than I am, than my rats are, to you?"

"That is not what is being said here, Rafael," Jean-Claude said.

"I believe that any animal that comes to your bed, or Anita's bed, is more important to you, Jean-Claude. Deny it if you like, but the proof is in the pudding, eh?"

"The proof is in the eating of it," Jean-Claude said, "for all puddings look sweet."

"Do I or any of my people look sweet to you?" he asked.

I felt Claudia's reaction from across the room. A flare of power, like a metaphysical slap to remind us how really powerful she was. That one splash of heated energy said loud and clear that it didn't matter how tasty anyone thought she was, she wasn't playing.

Rafael let out a careful breath and rotated his neck, as if that slap of energy had been more energetic the closer you'd been to it. "I would not force any of my rats into someone's bed. But if some would choose it, would you take them as blood or flesh donors?"

"Define flesh," I said.

"Sex," he said.

Richard shifted beside me on the couch. "The rats don't give blood to anyone. It was one of your first rules as king. Nikolaos tortured you because you forbade your rats to feed her vampires."

"She was unstable, and farther away from her was safer for my people. Closer to Jean-Claude seems safer."

"You'd really let your rats be blood whores?" Richard sounded almost shocked.