“Yes, I’ve seen that.”

“The ritual is an offering of blood. The dominant, or master, is within his rights to take what is offered. That is how it was originally done centuries ago. The master would pick one of the offerings and feed, and by offering to be submissive to him you give him the right to choose to feed.”

“That is not how we’ve done it when we’ve had visiting masters from out of town,” I said.

“Asher is invoking his rights, and that is within his rights.” Jean-Claude motioned and the guards moved so the two vampires could see each other. “Isn’t that what you mean to do?”

“Yes,” he said, and there was nothing pleasant in his voice.

“I feel like we’ve stepped into a fight that I don’t know anything about. If we’re offering up our flesh and blood, then I want to know why.”

“You only offer it up if you see me as dominant to you, Anita, and you don’t.”

I frowned at him, then turned back to Jean-Claude. “Help me out here. What does that mean?”

“He means that you only offer blood point to him if you see yourself as lesser than Asher. If you don’t think he is your superior, then you don’t offer blood, and you could insist he offer flesh or blood to you.”

I shook my head and turned to Micah and Nathaniel. “Is this a surprise to both of you, too?”

They both nodded, but Micah said, “Asher has been getting pushier.”

“Like trying to steal a kiss at the recital,” I said.

Micah nodded.

I took a deep breath, let it out slow, and said, “Asher, don’t do this, just talk to me.”

“Your master has forbidden me to bring up certain topics. He has left me few avenues to demonstrate my displeasure, but the ways he has left open to me I will now take. I want to know where everyone in this room stands. I want to know where I stand with everyone in this room, and I want to know now.”

“Jean-Claude, just tell him he can talk to me about whatever it is. If we start this kind of dominance thing with our own people, it’s going to go all pear-shaped.”

“Guards, leave us.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Truth said.

“I am sure,” Claudia said, “it’s a bad idea.”

“We need to discuss some very personal issues. You are not privy to them, now go.”

Claudia and Truth looked at me. Fredo and Wicked kept the vampires in their line of sight, which wasn’t easy since they were across from each other, but the men managed.

“Don’t look at her,” Asher said. “Your master has told you to leave. Didn’t you hear him?”

“He’s not my master,” Claudia said. “I just work here.”

“He is ours,” Wicked said.

“No,” Truth said, “he’s not.”

The brothers looked at each other and then both of them looked at me. I got a hint of maybe what Asher was meaning. “If Jean-Claude says go, go. We’ll be all right.”

“Bad idea,” Claudia said.

“Very bad idea,” Fredo said.

“I trust Jean-Claude and I trust Asher.”

That earned me a look from Asher that wasn’t arrogant or hostile. It was almost a pained look, and then he was back to being gorgeous and unreadable.

The guards started to move toward the curtains in the direction that Jason and J.J. had gone. Asher called out, “Perses, Dares, I want you to stay.”

The two werehyenas hesitated. It was the shorter, dark one, Perses, who said, “We’re hired to guard Jean-Claude and his people.”

“I’m not talking about who signs your paychecks,” Asher said. “I’m talking about who is your master in this room.”

“Don’t do this,” Micah said, and that one sentence let me know he’d seen some danger that I was still oblivious to.

“Will you come over here and offer up your neck to me, leopard king?” Asher asked.

Nathaniel moved in front of Micah. “I will.”

“And you are tasty, mon minet, but I know you will not fight me. You and I have no quarrel about dominance.”

Micah took his arm and pulled him back. “This isn’t about sex; it’s about power, Nathaniel. He wants me to acknowledge him as more powerful.”

“There were other things I wanted from you, Micah, but wasn’t it Machiavelli who said, ‘It is better to be loved than feared, but if you cannot be loved, then fear will do.’ Well, you don’t love me, so I will settle.”

“You are not doing all this just because I don’t like boys,” Micah said.

Asher laughed again, and this one hurt, as if the sound of it had bits of glass to rend the skin. It was an illusion, a vampire power, and I should have been proof against it; that I wasn’t meant that Asher had grown in power since last he’d tried shit like this.

“When I believed that I let it go, but I saw you tonight at the dance. I saw you with your kitten, and you like him well enough.”

“Wait, are you doing all this because you think Micah is . . . doing Nathaniel, but not you? That’s such a girl reason for a fight.”

“No, it’s not,” Asher said. “It’s a very male reason for a fight. A man’s ego can only take so much rejection, Anita.”

“Oh my God,” Micah said.

Again he was ahead of me. “What? What did you figure out that I haven’t?”

Micah looked at Jean-Claude. “You sleep in the same bed with him almost every night. We find you naked together dead to the world during the day when none of us are with you. Are you really telling me that you and he aren’t—”

“Aren’t what?” I asked.

Nathaniel answered, “Lovers.”

“What?” I asked.

“They aren’t lovers.”

“Who aren’t lovers?”

“Jean-Claude and Asher,” Nathaniel said.

I turned and looked at Jean-Claude. I just looked at him. “Are you telling me that even when I’m not with you, you’re still not . . .”

“No, he’s not,” Asher said, “and when I say not, I mean not anything. He thinks that if you came into the room and caught us doing it, it would distress you.” Since that could be a long list, I just stared at Asher.

Asher laughed, and this one was almost ordinary. “Look at their faces, Jean-Claude; our nearest and dearest all thought we were together as of old.”

I turned to Jean-Claude. “Are you saying that you’ve had him in our bed, in your bed, naked all this time and you still haven’t . . . been, oh, hell, you aren’t completely lovers?”

“And what would you have done if you walked in on us being lovers, ma petite?”

“I’d have been a lot less upset than if I caught you with another woman,” I said.

“But you would be upset,” he said.

“I don’t know, I . . . we do Asher together. We’ve all been in the bed together, the five of us, in various ways. I mean . . . I honestly thought you were saving the more intimate stuff for when I wasn’t there.”

“You have taught me to fear your moral compass, ma petite. I never wish to be on the wrong side of it again.”

“But it’s Asher, it’s him, you love him, you have loved him for centuries.”

“He loves you more,” Asher said. “He loves you enough to have refused me again and again, to have stopped my touch, my body, and if you attract one more mostly heterosexual man to our little group I am going to do something violent,” Asher said. Then he laughed again, and it held sorrow and something bitter in it. “But wait, I’ve decided to do something violent tonight.” He looked at the guards who were frozen by the curtains trying to pretend they weren’t listening. “Perses, Dares, come stand by me.”

The two werehyenas looked at each other, and then the blond said, “We’d rather just leave you two to discuss things. This sounds more personal than bodyguard.”

“I don’t want you to leave. I want to make my point and the two of you will help me do that.” He held out his arm and called them to him. He called them the way Jean-Claude could call wolves and I could call so many animals. He opened up his power and it filled the room like something cool and thick. I felt it touch me as it flowed by, almost like I should have been able to wrap it in my hands. He called the werehyenas and they simply turned and went to him. They took up posts behind the loveseat, at Asher’s back. They faced the room like that, and it was very clear that the two werehyenas were with Asher, and not us.