Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #29)(110)

“I think he would leave us all for him, except Anita.”

Jean-Claude pushed away from the wall and stood with my hand still in his. Ethan stayed close to us. I realized I didn’t know where Angel was; she must have left sometime during the fourth mark when the only thing I could see was Jean-Claude’s chest and Richard beside me. Richard came to stand behind us, putting his hand on Jean-Claude’s shoulder.

“See, see, already they are a threesome again; if the rumors are true and the Ulfric fucked him at last, then they will be complete without the rest of us,” Asher said.

Jean-Claude made an exasperated sound and said, “Asher, we are polyamorous, we add to our poly group, we do not have to give up anyone.”

“Yet there you stand, just the three of you as of old.”

Jean-Claude reached his hand out to Dev, who took it, and Dev’s power deepened like a river that could threaten an ocean. “Mephistopheles is our handsome devil, we could not do without him in our lives and in our bed.”

“Where will he sleep now that the Ulfric is back?”

“Tonight he will sleep on the other side of the bed at Nathaniel’s back with Anita between us.”

“And when Micah Callahan returns from his business trip and takes his spot at Nathaniel’s back, where will Dev be then? The Ulfric will be at your back, Jean-Claude, in the place that Dev sleeps when Micah is in your bed.”

I felt Dev’s power falter, the doubts hitting home. Kane cackled that hyena sound that raised the hair on the back of my neck. Richard saved it by saying, “I came back to fit into Anita and Jean-Claude’s life with no expectations. I’m not going to demand that they kick anyone out of their place for me.”

Dev looked back at him. “You mean that?”

“If you sleep with them every night, then you’re important to them. What’s the word, you and I are metamours, because you’re the lover of my lovers. You were here for them when I was off getting my doctorate and working on my issues. I want a place in their life, but that doesn’t supplant your place, or anyone else’s place in their lives.” Dev smiled at him, and the tiger energy pulsed back to life.

“Where will you sleep when Micah comes back?” Dev asked.

“I don’t know, I don’t even know if Micah would be okay with me sleeping in the same bed with him even if we slept as far away from each other as we could get.”

“When we go to bed tonight, Dev, you will be on the other side of Anita with your arm tucked over both of us,” Nathaniel said.

Jean-Claude raised Dev’s hand and kissed it. “We could not do without our devil.”

“You will be cast out, and after defying Asher like this, you will not be welcome in our bed again,” Kane yelled.

“That is not for you to say, Kane. I am your master and I say who joins us, not you.”

Kane looked back at him, and it was their energy that faltered now. “You don’t need him when you have me. He fills no needs that I cannot fill.”

“He is Dev and you are not, that is need enough. I do not have to justify it to you,” Asher said.

“As I do not have to justify my actions as ruler here,” Jean-Claude said. “You cannot hold me hostage for Narcissus, or for yourself, Asher.” He drew Dev into him, so they faced each other. “I have made my choice for my next animal to call and it is not hyena.”

“No!” Kane yelled; the hyena power spiked and then began to bleed away as if the entire ocean was drying up in the sunlight. Asher was crying, the tears tinted pink with blood, shining like pale rubies in the hallway lights. He was done fighting and had moved on to sorrow. I guess it was an improvement.

“I missed you, too, Asher,” Richard said.

The vampire blinked and stared at him. “What did you say?”

“I missed topping you in the dungeon, so much.”

“No, no, Asher doesn’t need that anymore, not from you, he has Narcissus and Anita and Nathaniel,” Kane said.

“I top all of them, I do not bottom to him.”

“What does it matter? It’s still bondage, you still get the need met,” Kane said.

“Topping and bottoming are very different needs,” I said.

“Shut up! I’m not talking to you!”

“You will keep a civil tongue in your head toward my queen, or I will tear it from your head and let you wait in silence for it to grow back,” Jean-Claude said.

I looked at the love of my life and thought, Damn, that was a very specific and disturbing threat.

“We have tried kindness for Asher’s sake, ma petite, but no more.”

“If I can have some security to make sure we don’t hurt each other too badly, I’ll handle this end of the hallway; you mark Dev before sunrise,” Richard said.

“I will go with him,” Jake said.

“I wish I could,” Custer said, “but Asher controls hyena in a way that you don’t control wolves, Jean-Claude.”

“You and Geoff stay away from Asher until we fix this,” I said.

“You’re a great boss,” he said, smiling and looking at me as if I wasn’t still standing buck naked.

When he first arrived he’d stared at the female shapeshifters, but he’d acclimated. Geoff was just looking at the ceiling as he added his thanks. That was okay, it had taken years for me to get used to all the nudity.