“Yeah, I know what’s happened, though when Bibiana calms down I’d love to hear exactly what the dark did to try to eat her.”

“The dark can’t be who it used to be, Anita. You told me the Mother of All Darkness was dead. You told me you felt her die when they blew up her body.” He was angry now; better angry at me than worried about his wife. Better to blame me than admit he might be scared.

“I told you what I believed at the time, Max. We got our first visit from Mommie Dearest since the bombing tonight, too. Trust me, it wasn’t just Bibiana who had a rough night.”

“It’s been almost a year, Anita. Why now? How?” He cursed under his breath and then said, “What happened to you tonight, Anita?”

I looked the few inches that brought me to Jean-Claude’s face. We were all still piled on the bed with the thick goop from Nicky’s too-rapid shapeshift beginning to dry in our hair and on our skin. I thought, “What do I say?”

His answer breathed through my mind, “Tell him the truth. He is our ally.”

I told Max an abbreviated version of what had happened. Jean-Claude told the others to go and clean up before the gunk dried. Most of the men looked to me to see if I wanted them to go. Honestly, I wanted some hand holding. Jean-Claude sat beside me while I talked to one of his strongest allies, and the men I most wanted to stay and hold me sat on the ruined silk sheets around us, and didn’t obey Jean-Claude. I didn’t know what to do about it, but I did know that I felt better with Nathaniel, Damian, and Micah near me. Jason had gone to clean up and check on J.J., which was good. Cardinal tried to get Damian to leave, too, but he wanted to know what we were going to do about Mommie Dearest and the council. He was vampire enough to need to know that before he died for the day. Cardinal was woman enough to need her boyfriend farther away from me.

Richard kissed me on the forehead and whispered, “I’ll clean up while you do the vampire politics.”

I wanted to say more, even though I was still telling Max how deep the shit was, but it felt wrong to let him leave after everything without more good-bye. Jean-Claude must have thought so, too, because he did leave the bed to walk Richard to the door. Micah kissed my cheek and followed them, which surprised me. Jean-Claude might be trying for a last hug, but that was never what Micah and Richard were to each other. Asher stayed by my side, but his face had a listening look. The wereanimals and vampires on the bed could probably hear everything on both ends of the phone. They might be staying to cuddle, but they were also staying to listen.

I finished listing the disaster, and Max said, “Motherfucker.”

“That’s what I said.”

“Bibi insisted that everyone that was coming to St. Louis leave early. Victor, Cyn, Rick, and the others are in the air and headed your way.”

“Max, no insult to your people but we have bigger fish to fry than cementing some sort of arranged marriage treaty between your people and Jean-Claude’s.”

“Bibi says that our only hope to defeat the Dark is to have another Master of Tigers, another Father of the Day.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence for Jean-Claude, but tiger isn’t his animal to call and the only vampire we have who’s able to walk in the day isn’t a master of anything.”

“Your vampire servant, Damian, right, he’s your day walker?”

“Yeah.”

“And who made him a day walker? It wasn’t Jean-Claude, no offense to your Master of the City; it was you that made a weak vampire able to do one of the rarest feats among us bloodsuckers.”

“Yeah, but . . .”

“We’re not sending our boys to Jean-Claude, Anita. We’re sending them to you. Though Auggie of Chicago says we should send him some of our women, something about maybe he’d inherit your power to call tiger like you inherited his ability to call wolf.”

“What?” I asked.

There was noise on the other end of the phone. Cloth moving and Max saying, “You okay to do this, Bibi?”

A moment later Chang-Bibi of the White Tiger Clan was on the phone, so I guess she was okay to do this. Or Max couldn’t stop her from taking the phone. Sometimes he loved his wife a little too much.

“Anita,” and her voice was tear-filled, almost hiccupy with emotion. Since she was one of the scariest weretigers I’d ever met, that was not comforting.

“Hey, Bibiana, I mean, Chang-Bibi.”

“It is too late for titles between us, Anita.” She took a shaky breath and said, “You must embrace my tigers when they arrive. You must bring the tigers with you into their full power.”

“I know that you wanted that, but the other tiger clans don’t want you favored above everyone else.”

“All their Changs have had the same nightmare that I had, Anita. They have seen the Darkness, and they remember in the heart of them when she tried to rule us all. The Father of the Day, he saved us. He controlled us and kept her from harnessing all the power of the tigers. She only defeated him by destroying the last golden queen.”

“How do you know all that now? You didn’t know it before.”

“It was legend, fairy tales, Anita. I didn’t believe in stories of the Living Dark, a dark Goddess, and a God of Living Light, who created our people. Who believes such things?”

She had me there. I mean, I know as a good little Christian I should really buy all that Old Testament stuff, but I thought of it as representative stories trying to explain why a God of Love would make a world where people suffered so much.

“But now you believe,” I said.

“What choice do I have?” She sounded bitter.

“What did you dream?” I asked.

“No, to talk of such things gives them power, but it was only the Light, the God, that kept us from her power the first time. It was the combined power of all the tiger clans that gave him the power to keep her from conquering the world.”

“Look, Bibiana, we’re all shook, but being able to call a little electricity and fire isn’t going to defeat Mommie Dearest.”

“You have only seen what the weaker of my clan can do, Anita. You haven’t even seen what Domino’s black tiger side is capable of, but if the Master of Tigers and the Consuming Darkness are real, then the powers that our clans once had must be true, too.”

“Bibiana, come on,” I said.

“The red tiger you slept with can call fire to his hand, he’s a pyrokinetic. They exist even today among the humans.”

“Fine, I’ll give you that, but white tiger is all metals, and it seems to be basically really uber-static electricity. It’s not a weapon.”

“Black tiger is water, Anita. The human body is made up mostly of water.”

“What are you saying?” I asked.

“I’m saying you have only begun to touch the surface of what we are capable of if you give us back all our powers.”

“Cynric hasn’t gotten any new powers.”

“He’s young and you only slept with him once, Anita.”

“Once was plenty,” I said.

“Blue tiger is the power of air. Legend says that Blue could raise storms and make them obey their will. The golden tigers controlled earth and all energies upon it.”

“What does that mean?”

“They could make the very ground obey their will.”

“You mean earthquakes?” I didn’t even try to keep the disbelief out of my voice.

“One of the council members that Jean-Claude defeated in St. Louis was called the Earthmover, Anita; what do you think he did?”

I licked my lips; I didn’t have a good answer, because she was right. The only thing that had kept the duel from turning St. Louis into a pile of rubble was the Earthmover giving his word of honor that he wouldn’t use that particular power to defeat Jean-Claude. He’d actually won the duel, but he’d made the mistake of breaking my vampire marks to Jean-Claude and making me belong to his vampire lieutenant. His mistake had been thinking I’d put a stake through Jean-Claude’s heart and not risk my own death killing them. They had misjudged me.