Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #29)(42)

Ru leaned over and whispered, “I’ll remember not to do the chair next time.”

I whispered back, “Thank you.”

Rodina started to sit down beside me, but Ethan moved forward and put his hand on the other side of the chair back. They stared at each other for a long minute while Ru took the far chair that wasn’t claimed, leaving the two of them to do whatever they were doing. Ethan was usually easygoing and didn’t try to dominate anyone else in my security detail, so why was he suddenly asserting himself now with Rodina?

“We all agreed on this,” Ethan said, and he was as serious and unhappy as I’d heard him in a while. He spoke low so that no one could hear but us.

“I didn’t agree, I was outvoted,” she said, voice still soft.

Buzz came up with our extra chair. “Everything okay here?”

Ru said, “The crowd is starting to notice.”

I glanced away from us to the room, and he was right, people were starting to openly stare. This was not going to quiet the rumors. “Both of you just sit down,” I said.

They continued to glare at each other. What the hell was going on? “Ethan by me; Rodina, take the chair from Buzz.”

Ethan took the chair and sat down beside me, and Rodina let him. Buzz scooted the chair in for Rodina and she was much better at making it look graceful instead of awkward. Maybe she could give me pointers later?

Buzz stepped back and looked at us. Ethan put his arm across the back of my chair, which I don’t think he’d ever done. Rodina glared at him. “You guys okay here?” Buzz asked, but he looked at me when he said it.

I looked at my three bodyguards, but only Ru met my gaze; the other two were too busy paying attention to each other. I frowned but said, “We’re good; thanks, Buzz.”

“Okay, just yell if you need anything.”

“Will do, Buzz.” He looked at all of us one more time, then walked away. I turned to Ethan and Rodina. “Okay, what’s going on?”

Ethan looked at her and Rodina looked at me. He was smiling and she wasn’t. “He called rank.”

“Rank? What rank?”

Ethan leaned into me so that his arm curled around my shoulders instead of resting on my chairback. I was torn between telling him to move his arm since he seemed to be doing it just to piss off Rodina, but he spoke low enough that I leaned in to hear it. “The Harlequin have been trying to dominate all of us, and we’re all tired of it.”

“And that explains why you’re cuddling with me in public like we’re dating when we’re not, how?”

Rodina leaned into both of us, pressing herself against Ethan so that it looked like the three of us were having an intimate conversation. “Your guards wouldn’t let the fact that we are Harlequin and thus the greatest warriors and covert agents in the world sway them to follow us.”

Ethan leaned into Rodina so that his mouth was almost touching her face and thus hidden from the room as he said, “We routinely beat some of you in training, and none of you wins against us all the time. How does that make you the greatest warriors of all time?”

“The death of our dark queen has lessened many of us, but do not let that go to your head, tiger.

Training is not the same as battle and if there were not referees and rules to keep us from killing you, you would not be sitting here to disparage our skills.”

“Oh, so the great Harlequin only win by killing, not by being the better fighter.”

“That is not what I said,” she almost growled, as the first warm breath of her beast eased between us all.

Ethan drew breath to speak, but I touched his cheek, which made him look at me. “I understand that the Harlequin come in with a huge chip on their shoulders, and that hits the big chips on everyone else’s shoulders. I knew that we were having some growing pains melding our security with them, but I still don’t know why you’re sitting beside me marking territory like we’re dating.”

Rodina drew back enough to give a cold, cruel look. “You’re just food for her, nothing more.”

I felt him flinch both physically and emotionally from her remark. “Ethan is my lover, no one in my life is just food, and I still don’t know why the two of you have turned guarding me into a pissing contest.”

Ru answered from across the table, voice still low. “Some of us wanted to know who outranked whom, and to save a bloodbath that would have gutted your security, someone came up with the idea that the highest rank starts with who has the privilege of sleeping with you. Ethan does, Rodina doesn’t.”

She turned on him with a snarl and hissed, “Neither do you, brother dear.”

“That is true, but I am not trying to be top cat, and you are.”

“You’re drawing attention to us,” Ethan said.

Rodina got control of herself before she looked around so that her face was back to pleasantly amused. Most of the Harlequin were consummate actors, but then real spies are the ultimate undercover operators. People were noticing the fight, though; not everyone in the room but enough that

it would probably be at least tweeted about before the end of the night. Anita Blake, or more likely Jean-Claude’s fiancée, having a lover’s tiff with two of her bodyguards before he even goes onstage.

Ru moved his chair closer and asked again, “Are you fit for duty tonight, sister?”