Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #29)(78)

“When did you see djinn?” Richard asked.

“Las Vegas,” Wicked and Truth said together.

“I’d love to hear about it,” Richard said.

I fought not to frown at him, because people had died because they couldn’t physically hurt the djinn, and like Ireland I couldn’t remember Vegas without starting with the losses. I could never seem to take the win. I took a deep breath and let it out slow. “They were just whirlwinds, or like heat waves in the summer, but they could wield blades and you couldn’t touch them except with one spell that could disperse them. It was kind of awful.”

“Awful in every way?”

“I was chasing down a serial killer that mailed me another policeman’s head in a box; the killer used the djinn to decapitate him, so yeah.”

“I’m sorry, Anita.”

I took another deep breath, counting as I breathed out. I didn’t want to be pressed against him in the seat. Richard had never understood my work, or what it cost me. He’d always been trying to force me to give up having a badge. It was hard to make the transition to this new, less cranky Richard. It was like I wasn’t ready to give up being cranky at the person he’d been for so long. It made me move the minute inch I could toward Wicked, who took that as his cue to curve his hand around my shoulders.

Richard’s skin ran with heat again, his anger and his beast starting to rise. I did not need his wolf to call to mine, so I said, “Wicked and Truth were in Vegas with me on that trip.”

“Thank you for keeping her safe,” Richard said.

And that was it. “They didn’t keep me safe; I mean they did, but . . . Richard, I was there as a U.S.

Marshal with an active warrant to hunt down the vampire that was behind the murders. He could control the djinn as his animal to call. Yes, Wicked and Truth were there, and they helped me, but they didn’t keep me safe. I wasn’t in Vegas to stay safe, or to play the victim. I was there to hunt down an ancient vampire before he killed again.”

“I don’t know what I said wrong, but I’m sorry it was wrong,” Richard said.

Wicked said, “May I try to translate?”

“If you can, be my guest.”

“You thanked us for keeping Anita safe, as if she were the maiden in distress. She is never that.

Even if she gets hurt, or kidnapped as she did in Ireland, she is still never the victim to be rescued.

We may someday rescue her but she will still never be the maiden in distress.”

Richard looked from him to me, then to Jean-Claude. “I don’t understand, aren’t we all saying the same thing?”

“Non, mon lupe, you thanked the Wicked Truth for taking care of Anita, and that is not how it works.”

“Then explain it to me.”

Truth said from the front, “Anita is a fellow warrior, always.”

“I know Anita can take care of herself,” he said.

“Would you say it that way if she were a man?” Nathaniel asked.

“What do you mean?”

“If Anita were a male cop, a male U.S. Marshal, would you say he could take care of himself?”

Richard thought about it before answering. “Yes, I don’t know, I think so.”

“Anita doesn’t just take care of herself, Richard, she takes care of me, of us,” Nathaniel said.

“I know that.”

“Then don’t thank a man for taking care of me like I’m some helpless damsel in distress.”

“I wasn’t in Vegas, or Ireland, and you seem angry at me for not being there and helping you through it all. Wicked was there in Vegas and helped you when I couldn’t; why is it wrong to thank him?”

“We weren’t there to help her,” Wicked said, “we were there to be her backup.”

“Isn’t being backup helping?”

“Yes, but not the way you made it sound.”

“I don’t know what I did wrong,” Richard said.

“When you talk to the bodyguards or any of us about Anita, you need to remember that she is never the princess in the story waiting to be rescued.”

“She’s a self-rescuing princess, I know that.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “No, Richard, that’s not it. Anita is never the princess at all, she’s the prince in shining armor who rides in with sword and shield and saves the day and the princess.”

Richard frowned, trying to wrap his head around the difference. It helped me not be angry with him, because he was trying. “I know that you’re comfortable being the princess to her prince.” He looked at Jean-Claude. “Is that how you see yourself, too, as her princess to save?”

“Non, mon lupe, she is queen to my king, we are equals and take turns saving each other.”

Richard nodded. “Okay, how about you, Wicked? Are you Anita’s princess?”

“I see her as queen when I am her bodyguard, but in a fight she is a fellow knight who will fight beside us.”

Truth added from the front, “She is our general who leads from the front lines of the battle.”

“And you, Jake?” Richard asked.

“She is my queen as Jean-Claude is my king; through their power and leadership they have made a kingdom that I thought was secure.”