It was his voice, hoarse, raw from the power, that answered for us. “I could say the same for you, Asher.”

I could see again, but I was staring at Richard’s chest so all I could see was his red shirt with its frame of jean jacket. Jean-Claude’s voice came even and unruffled, but I could feel the fierce joy in him. This was the power he’d bound Richard and me to him for; this was why he had locked us into our little three-way of hate, for this possibility. He said, “Why did you cut yourself off from our power, Asher?”

“Anita on her own made a slave out of a dominant werelion, her Nicky. The three of you together would be powerful enough, but with her leopard to call and her Nimir-Raj, I fear my poor heart will be enslaved.”

“We would never do that to you,” I said. Richard moved into the curve of Jean-Claude’s arm, and there was a moment when the vampire wasn’t touching me. It changed how the power felt, but it didn’t break the bond; we both belonged to Jean-Claude and to touch one was to touch the other.

I could see Asher and his hyenas now by the loveseat, near the curtains with the door just on the other side. He was watching us, face empty and unreadable, but his being over there so far away spoke more than any look could have.

“Unless you tried to do it to us first,” Richard said. He squeezed my hand tight and drew Jean-Claude closer to him. The other man moved so he could put his arms around both our waists as he stood between us. I kept my hand in Micah’s, and Jason moved to touch me and Jean-Claude.

“You know something, mon ami; share it with us,” Jean-Claude said.

“Narcissus has been bragging that his master was going to roll mine and then the werehyenas would own St. Louis.”

“Narcissus wants that, true,” Asher said, “but I did not agree to do it.”

“My information says differently, and I believed it enough to drive down here tonight with Shang-Da and Jamil. I believed it enough that I’m sleeping over, if they’ll have me.”

“And if I said I would bed the three of you, how long would it take for your newfound resolution to crumble?” Asher asked.

“If my choice is between opening a vein to you with Jean-Claude and Anita, or making that sadistic bastard Narcissus the animal king of St. Louis, I’ll donate the blood.”

Asher came around the loveseat with the hyenas hand in hand with him, as if he wasn’t sure what would happen if he let them go, but he stalked toward us putting that grace, that raw sexuality that he held inside him into every step. “I’ve wanted your neck under my mouth from the moment I saw you, Richard.”

“I know.” I could feel his pulse try to speed, feel his heart as he concentrated to slow it down so his pulse would stay quiet. Fear meant food to vampires and wereanimals, and Richard hadn’t come tonight to be food. He might donate blood, but it wouldn’t be as submissive anything. If your hamburger could bite back, that seemed to be what he had in mind.

Asher stopped moving forward and studied us. “Is it just the three of you, or the five, no, six of you?”

“I can’t speak for anyone else but myself,” Richard said, “but I stand with Jean-Claude and Anita.”

“The leopards will do what their Nimir-Ra needs them to do,” Micah said.

Jason said, “I’m Anita’s wolf to call; that means where I sleep tonight is up to her.”

“Jean-Claude and I can fuck and then drink from each of you in turn and fuck some more. It would be enough power to keep us going until dawn crashed the party,” Asher said. He fought for control and finally lost. His face showed an almost exquisite pain. He wanted what we were offering. I saw his hands tighten on the werehyenas. They seemed bespelled by him, but I realized they were still enough themselves to have given him their non-gun hands just in case.

Shang-Da was trailing behind them, as if he expected them to need the weapons. For Richard to be here like this, and Shang-Da to be acting like that, would take more than just rumors of Narcissus bragging. The moment I had that thought, it wasn’t just a thought, it was more like knowledge. Pictures, images, sensations, memories, and Richard had heard that Asher had a human servant in mind. Narcissus wanted him to make a triumvirate of power like we had made. If they could pull it off, and if they chose well for their human servant, the balance of power in St. Louis could shift and not in our favor. We’d been so worried about out-of-town vampires trying to move in on our power structure that we hadn’t noticed a much closer problem.

The rush of shared knowledge left me shaken, and I fought to hide my face by cuddling closer to Richard, burying my face against his chest. But of course, that was too close for other things. You’d think being able to share thoughts would bring us so close that nothing could make it worse, but burying my face against his bloodred T-shirt, I could smell his skin just underneath. The scent of him tightened things low in my body, and bound this tight I couldn’t hide it. Not from Richard, and not from Micah, who held my other hand, and through him, Nathaniel. Jason knew, too, but that didn’t bother me nearly as much. Jean-Claude knew, but he’d known that from the beginning and used it to bind Richard and me to him.

I was left staring up into Richard’s face from inches away, with the look in his eyes that let me know he wanted me, too. We always wanted each other; sex had never been our problem area.

I turned from Richard’s eyes to Micah and Nathaniel beside him. I started to say something, but Micah said, “It’s all right.”

Nathaniel nodded.

Asher took a deep, shaking breath and let it out slow, but it shook on the way out, too. “As you don’t trust me or Narcissus, I don’t trust you, Ulfric. This is too good to be true, and that means it is a trap. A lovely trap, but a trap nonetheless.”

Richard looked out at the vampire. “No trap, just us.”

“I would bargain for only you and Anita with Jean-Claude and me tonight.”

“I would add one more wereanimal to come after you have fed on both Anita and me.”

“Why?” Asher asked.

“You’ll only feed on us after you’ve had sex once apiece; if we have more food waiting, you can fuck again.”

“Bold, Ulfric, very bold; what happened to our homophobic wolf ?”

“I’m donating blood, not sex.”

“Won’t it bother you to watch Jean-Claude and me together?”

“We’ll see, won’t we?”

“Do you really think your nerves can take being in bed with all four of us? You usually protect your virtue from me as if you were an untouched maiden and I the lecherous villain.”

“By your standards that’s exactly what I am. Remember that I share some of Jean-Claude’s memories. You love being the first man to seduce a straight man. The more macho and homophobic the better, because every time you won the game you knew it was because no one was as beautiful as you.”

“That was long ago, Ulfric; I am no longer the perfect beauty I was then.”

“Beautiful enough to make Jean-Claude and Anita afraid of being alone with you individually, because they love you. That gives a vampire with your abilities a big edge in who’s going to be dominant in bed.”

“You’ll truly let me take blood from you tonight?” Asher asked.

“Do you understand what he’ll do to you, Richard?” Jason asked. “His bite is amazing, more orgasmic than Jean-Claude’s.”

Richard’s pulse got away from him then and pushed at the side of his throat. “So I’ve heard.”

“I can taste your pulse, Ulfric; I frighten you.”

“A little.”

“So arrogant, Ulfric; you think you are proof against me? I would enjoy proving you wrong.”

“You can try,” he said.

Asher rubbed his thumbs along the knuckles of the two guards. It seemed to help him focus. “But you’re not certain you will win this battle of wills. I can feel your doubt. So why would you risk your handsome flesh with me?”