Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #29)(93)

“I’m sorry, you’re right, but I just thought it, I wouldn’t have said it out loud.”

“First you destroyed our evil queen, then you took our brother from us. I hate you, Anita Blake,”

she said.

“We can’t hate Anita, we’re her Brides,” Ru said.

She glared at her brother, and suddenly his arms around her didn’t seem just for comfort. He was only a few moves away from a choke hold. I saw the tension as she realized it, and the peace in Ru. It wasn’t accidental. This wasn’t just their birthday and grieving their lost brother, so what the hell was it?

“Anita didn’t screw you like she screwed me,” Nicky said.

“Belle Morte and Jean-Claude are the only bloodlines that use sex to create Brides, and yet all the other bloodlines have them,” Jake said.

“But Anita is not a vampire, not a real one,” Jake said. “We know that fact has changed things in how she uses power and how Jean-Claude’s power works. Perhaps Brides are different, as well.”

“Wait a minute, how does my being human change Jean-Claude’s power? I’m his human servant so I make him more powerful, period.”

“You have stolen his power as you stole our queen’s,” Rodina said. She hadn’t tried to get free of Ru. They were still standing somewhere between comfort and danger. I tried very hard not to think beyond that, because I couldn’t seem to shield my thoughts from them.

“We’re your Brides, we’re supposed to know what you’re thinking and feeling so we can serve you better,” Ru said.

“I don’t think Rodina sees it that way right now,” I said.

“If you had been the evil queen we sought I would have served you forever,” she said, and then she moved her head just enough to look at Jean-Claude. “You are supposed to be king above us all, but you are so afraid that you will become what you fear most that you let her, your human servant, take the burden and the prize that should be yours.”

“I have claimed the prize, I am king.”

“I do not agree with everything that Rodina said, but the spirit of it, I fear, is true,” Jake said.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Yes, Jake, enlighten us,” Jean-Claude said. The Wicked Truth had moved him back so that they were between him and everyone.

“You should have more power by now. The blood oaths from the other masters alone should have made you godlike, but though your abilities with seduction and sex have grown exponentially, the other powers that we all expected to come to you have not.”

“Did I not just tell you that all I have to offer is sex magic, and that it is useless for defeating Deimos, or any other challenger?”

“You did, and then Anita and her friend began to plan how to kill Deimos in a way that did not require your powers.”

“You were one of the loudest voices convincing me to take their oaths, to accumulate the power of all the master vampires in America inside me.” Jean-Claude slapped his chest hard enough that it sounded like someone had hit him.

“It never occurred to me that you would not become as the old council members, a god among vampires. Had it ever crossed my mind that you would accumulate so much power and control over the supernatural in this country without the ability to protect yourself and them from any would-be challenger, I would have urged something else.”

Jean-Claude said, “If it is not too late we will build an American council and I will share the power among them all; that way if they kill one of us, the others may band together and protect our country from the truly ancient ones who would not be able to cope with modern rule.”

There were cries of protest and I joined in with, “When did you decide all this?”

“Tonight, when I realized that perhaps the vampire council existed exactly to keep this from happening. That the death of one vampire is the ruin of all.”

“That is not why we had a council,” Jake said. “The Mother of All Darkness could never envision herself losing to any challenger. The council was created for love. She would not let the Father of the Day be equal ruler with her, but she cared for him, so she conceded that he would be part of the ruling council. He would be equal among them, or higher, but only she would be highest.”

“I knew that the Day Father was once a council member, but I did not know the rest,” Jean-Claude said.

“You lie, wolf; our dark queen never cared for the Day Father like that,” Rodina said.

“Do not take my word for it, ask the other Harlequin, some of them are far older than me. I only heard about the start of the council from my master, I was not there for it,” Jake said.

“Our dark mother and shining father were almost gods themselves before they tore themselves apart fighting each other, but I am no god,” Jean-Claude said. “I am not even a demigod like Deimos.

Whatever power the Mother of us all had did not pass to me.”

“It was supposed to pass to her,” Rodina said, pointing at me.

“It was,” Jake said.

“I’m good, but godlike I’m not,” I said.

“It is not a god we need, but powerful rulership, but you are both deeply conflicted about power.

Having it, using it, all of it.”

“They fear it will turn them evil,” Rodina said, like it was a huge character fault.