Skin Trade (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #17)

Chapter 69

I WOKE UP in the dimness of a bed, sandwiched between warm bodies. I thought I was home, between Nathaniel and Micah. I sighed, content, and cuddled tighter in against Micah, pulling Nathaniel tighter against my front. It was how we usually slept, but the man behind me was too tall for Micah and just felt wrong. The man in my arms was too short, and didn't have the muscles or shape of Nathaniel.

My eyes suddenly opened wide, my body tensed. I couldn't see who was behind me, but the man in front had short, dark hair. He had his face buried into the pillow so I couldn't see his face. I held my breath and started moving my arm slowly away from his waist. I'd still have to move the arm at my waist from the other man, but one problem at a time.

"He won't wake," a voice said.

I jumped, and looked around the room. I saw a third man on the far side of the bed, one arm dangling. That one I knew was Crispin, nude sleeping on his stomach above the covers.

"You'll have to rise up to see me," Victor said again.

I started easing up, holding the second man's arm by the wrist so I wouldn't disturb him.

"Honestly, Anita, they won't wake. Everyone on the bed will have to sleep off the change. That won't happen for hours."

I could see him now, in the big chair in the corner. He'd put on one of the bathrobes that came with the room. His short white hair was tousled, as if he'd been running his fingers through it, or maybe it was bedhead.

Then I had an image, not of sight, but touch. I remembered running my hands through his hair, and forcing him to look in my eyes as we...

"Oh, shit," I said.

He nodded. "That would about cover it."

I was sitting up now, my back to the leather headboard. I could see the man on the other side now. He had long, dark hair that spilled over his face and went past his shoulders. He was muscled, and tall, and I didn't know him.

"Who are they?"

"You should recognize one of them."

I kept my voice low, as if they were just asleep. "I don't know the one at my back."

"You've probably seen him on the billboard outside the Taj. He's our guest star for the next month, and then he is to go home. Your Requiem is taking his place for a month."

I pictured the flashing image of the smiling redhead with the words, "Come watch the beefcake turn into kitty-cats," and the sign morphed from human to a red tiger.

"Oh, no," I said.

There was a noise from nearer the door. I couldn't see anything, but I remembered in North Carolina that there'd been one tiger on the floor. A man sat up, with a groan. He had straight black hair that fell around his shoulders, and a face that had uptilted eyes, like Bibiana's, but his skin wasn't pale. He was tanned and looked like the outdoors was his thing. He laid his face in his hands and groaned again. "What happened?" he asked.

"What do you remember?" Victor asked him.

He looked around the room until he saw me sitting in the bed. "Her."

Victor nodded. "Yes, her."

"I didn't do this on purpose," I said. I was remembering a dream. A dream with Vittorio in it and the Mother of All Darkness. The dream was coming back quicker than whatever had happened in this room.

"The Father of Tigers did it," the man on the floor said.

I stared at him as Victor said, "Who?"

"Vittorio," I said, "it's one of his old names. How do you know that title of his?"

"I was his tiger to call."

"Was?" I asked.

Victor just suddenly had a gun in his hand, pointed at the man. It was one of my guns.

"He called me from halfway across the world. I had to answer him. He was my master before, and when he regained enough power, I could not resist him." He seemed to be staring at nothing, but the look on his face said that whatever he was remembering wasn't anything good. "I thought I was free of him forever, but there's no escape, not if he wants you."

"He came into the hotel," Victor said. "He touched me, and I had to come here. I didn't even hear him come up to me. I heard nothing until he touched me, and then I just did what he wanted. I couldn't stop it. I couldn't ask for help. I couldn't say no to him."

"No, it's like you're his slave, or puppet. He can make you do such horrible things, and you can't stop."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"To him, I'm Hong, but to myself and for centuries, I've been Sebastian."

"All right, Sebastian, you said was, as in past tense, you were his animal to call. What changed?"

"You changed." He stood up, and he was as unself-consciously nude as all the wereanimals. I had a sudden memory of him above me, his body spasming, head back, lost to orgasm, and the sensation of him inside me. It made me have to take a deep breath and blow it out, slow. He was short, about my size. I looked at his hands; they were small, almost as small as mine.

"He may have fed on the energy of what we did in this room, but the moment we had sex, the moment I felt you feed on me, it was like you broke something in me. You broke his hold on me."

"That's not possible," I said.

"The Dark Mother did it centuries ago. It was one of her specialties to be able to break bonds between masters and servants. She would strip other masters of their power, and keep that power for her own."

"Victor, toss me a gun," I said.

He looked at me.

"Just do it."

He checked for the safety, which I liked, then tossed me my Smith amp; Wesson. I caught it, clicked off the safety, and pointed it at Sebastian. "Did you kill the SWAT practitioner?"

He just nodded. "I might hate the master, but I gained powers, as of old. I could control the two jinn he had found, and the police wizard knew a very old spell. It would have lost me the control over them. The jinn hate to be slaves, and if they get the chance they will turn on their masters."

"Like a demon," I said.

"Yes, sometimes."

I had my knees up, resting the gun on them, still pointed at him. "I know you murdered a cop. I should turn you in, but I also know you had no choice. He can make you do things. Things you don't want to do."

"He smells of the truth, Anita," Victor said.

"I agree."

"What will you do?"

"I don't know yet. Tell us about the jinn."

He stood there, his hands at his sides, trying to be very still as we pointed guns at him.

"Tell us about the jinn."

"Do you mean genies?" Victor said.

"If what I saw at Vittorio's back was a genie, then the movies and story-books have it all wrong."

"I take it they don't grant wishes," Victor said.

Sebastian and I both laughed, but not like we were happy. We looked at each other, and I realized that his eyes were the same color as Domino's, like fire carved into eyes. I asked, "Where's Domino?"

"At the foot of the bed," Victor said.

I nodded. "Okay, now tell us about the creatures."

"They can be attached to or trapped in an object, and then they can be forced to do the bidding of a sorcerer or magician. That much of the stories is true," Sebastian said.

"Like his ring," I said.

"Exactly."

"If he lost the ring, would he lose control of the jinn?"

"Yes, until he is restored to full power. Once at his full strength, he can call them out of the air without magical aid. It is his gift."

"There was wind, and then they appeared," I said.

"They are a second kind of people, Anita, created from air, as we were created from earth. They are very powerful spirits, so powerful that King Solomon destroyed them as a people and made them slaves to his bidding, and they were reduced to servants, or only spirits, whose greatest abilities lie in whispering evil in our ears to manipulate us."

"King Solomon had a seal made that he used to imprison most of their race, or something, right?" I said.

He nodded. "Yes. Some stories say that he used them to build his great temples."

"If we can get the ring from him, then will the jinn turn and kill him?"

"They might, or they may simply flee. He is to their race what the bogeyman is to yours."

I noticed he said yours, like it wasn't his. I skipped that and tried to decide what to do with him. He had killed a member of SWAT and helped kill others. But I believed that Vittorio had made him do it, just like the vampires at the club last night and the humans in the crowd.

"We have to kill him before he regains all his powers," I said.

"Agreed," Sebastian said.

"How?" Victor asked.

"I know his daytime resting place," Sebastian said.

I lowered the gun, and Victor followed my lead. "Turn on some lights, find some clothes, and tell me the address. Tell me all the addresses of anywhere he's stayed in Vegas since you got back with him."

"Happily, does this mean I'm not going to be executed?"

"Yeah, I think it does."

"You won't tell them about me?"

"I'll try not to."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me, help me kill him before he becomes the Father of the Day again."

"Yes," Sebastian said. "If he regains his full powers, he will be able to conjure armies of the jinn from the very air we breathe."

Victor said, "I have pen and paper."

"Tell him the addresses." I started to crawl out over the other man in the bed, but crawling let me see his face better. "Oh, Mother of God, no," I said.

I fell off the foot of the bed, landing on Domino, who gave a grunt and woke up. "Anita, are you all right."

"You broke her fall," Sebastian said.

I got to my feet and was staring down at the bed. Crispin was still there, and the red tiger/stripper, whose name I didn't even know, but the third man wasn't a man at all. He was a boy. It was the blue tiger, Cynric, who was all of sixteen.

Chapter 70

THE ONLY THING that kept it from being one of the most socially awkward moments of my life was that the boy didn't wake up. I got dressed in the bathroom, and told my reflection in the mirror that hysterics would not help the situation. My reflection did not believe me, but I won the argument.

When I came out, dressed in black from head to toe to match my mood, Crispin was awake and so was the redhead. Okay, not red, like human red, or even orangey tiger red, but red. His hair was actually more red than Damian's, my vampire servant back home. Yes, vampire servant, you heard me. To our knowledge, I'm the first human servant to ever manage that. Damian's hair was the red of not having seen sun for centuries, but with lamps lit, the tiger's hair was the red of a Crayola crayon. It was the red that they tell you in school is red, except there was an edge of black to it, like someone had thrown a little bit of extra color into the pot.

The face was a little long for my taste, but he was handsome enough. His eyes were yellow, as if someone had melted autumn leaves into his face. It was when he turned and I saw all that muscled grace walking toward me, that I blushed and turned away. I got busy putting on weapons.

Crispin came up to me and hugged me briefly. "You okay?"

"No."

"My father and mother are missing," Victor said.

I turned to him. "What?"

"The Master planned on taking them. I told Victor, but it's too late, they're gone."

"How the hell did he take Max and Bibiana? I mean, your parents aren't exactly easy pickings."

"He said he would wait until he was powerful enough to take them both together."

I looked at Sebastian. "How much has he regained?"

"I do not know."

The red tiger came over to me. I wasn't embarrassed anymore. I was too worried for that. "I'm Hunter," he said.

I nodded. "Good for you, sorry I don't remember much. It'll come back to me."

His face went from arrogant to disappointed. "You don't remember?"

"Look, Hunter, if that's your real name and not a stage name, do you understand that the Master of the City and the head of the local tigers are missing? I'm about to call SWAT and go vampire hunting."

"Sorry, just trying to be nice."

"We'll be nice tomorrow. Today, let's stay alive, okay?"

He looked a little hurt, and I wondered how bright he was-or how unbright. But, again, not important this minute. I asked Victor, "Do you want me to tell the police about your parents, or do you guys want to handle it yourself?"

"Don't tell them yet. If he's got them at the daytime lair, great, they'll be rescued, but we may want to be a little less legal in the search."

"Okay, it's got to be your call; I'll leave it out for now." Then I called the first number in my phone that I'd put in for SWAT. It was alphabetical, so it was Lieutenant Grimes.

"Marshal Blake, we've been trying to call you for about an hour; are you all right?"

"Yes, in fact I've got the daytime resting place of Vittorio."

"Give me the address," he said.

I did. "We can roll a team now. The other marshals are already here."

"Shit, I'd rather you wait for me."

Grimes spoke to someone off the phone, then came back on. "Ted seems confident that we can move without you."

"Really? Okay. Can you put Ted on the phone for just a second?"

Edward came on. "Forrester here." He sounded cold and not himself.

Fuck it. "Edward, Vittorio isn't his real name. It's the name he took after the Mother of All Darkness stripped him of his powers and cast him out. He's originally the Father of the Day, or the Day Father. He's as old as the dark, and he's been gaining powers as she's been losing them."

"How do you know all this?" he asked, and he didn't sound mad now.

"He visited my dreams last night, and so did she."

"Anita, are you..."

"Okay, for now. Someone else took your job, and I think they blew her up last night."

"Can he walk in the day?"

"Not last we know, but if he can't, he's close, but that's not the worst part." I told him about the jinn.

"If he gets all his power back, we'll have a vampire in this city as powerful as the Mother of All Darkness," he said.

"Yeah," I said.

"Grimes sent Rocco and Davey to check on you. I wish we had Davey going in with us if the jinn show up."

"Why, what's his skill set?"

"He can do weather change, but what he really does is move air."

"What?"

"He can harden air to make temporary shields that are bulletproof."

"Well, fuck, that's nifty," I said, "like a combination of weather magic and telekinesis."

"Yeah, but what would happen if he hardens the jinn, if they're really made of air?"

"Good question, I'll think on it. When they get here, we'll head your way."

"Do that, and Anita..."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

"It's all right, Edward."

"See you there."

"Save some for me," I said.

"I read the reports from St. Louis. At least one female vamp and a human servant male."

"Yeah."

"Gotta run."

"Bye," but I was listening to nothing. He'd hung up, but he'd apologized. It might be a first.

I decided to check on my bodyguards next door. I actually called Haven's number. He answered, "Anita, thought you'd be busy all day. If you wanted a party, we have enough men over here." He sounded disgusted.

"Some bodyguards you are, I spent the morning being mind-fucked by Vittorio."

"What?"

"Didn't you think it was weird, all the weretigers going into my room?"

"You came to the door and told me that it was fine. You invited them all."

"Didn't you notice I looked weird?"

"No, you looked fine, normal. I swear."

"I would not have agreed to everyone that came in here."

"You mean the teenager," he said, and so matter-of-fact, it pissed me off.

"Yeah, the illegal one."

"Hey, first, sixteen is legal in Vegas, and second, as long as it's legal, what's wrong with young?"

"Ah." I handed the phone to Victor. "Tell him the bad news about your family."

I went to Sebastian, who was still nude. "Does anyone have clothes left?"

"It looks like someone ripped me out of my clothes," he said.

"Then get a robe." He turned obediently toward one of the bathrooms. "Wait, is there any other plan, or something you should tell me about Vittorio?"

"The policemen in the hospital who are asleep. Vittorio could see through my eyes when they attacked, and he ordered me to kill the witch, but he said to only incapacitate the others. It gave me enough room to put them to sleep."

"Is there a way to bring them out of it?"

"Yes, love's kiss."

"What?"

"They just need a kiss by someone who loves them."

"You mean like Sleeping Beauty?"

He nodded. "Yes, it's the original power that started Belle Morte's line: a vampire power that was powered by love." He frowned. "I really thought that someone's wife would have kissed them by now, just by accident."

"Does it have to be on the lips?"

"Yes."

"Does it have to be a thorough kiss?"

"More than a peck, and some emotion to it."

"Like think of how much you love them, or lust them?"

"Yes."

Every time I thought I'd heard the weirdest vampire power, I was wrong. I started to reach for my cell phone so I could call SWAT and tell someone, but the door sounded.

I went for it, but Crispin got there first. "Let me check, Anita."

He was right. So I let him. He turned from the peephole, smiling. "It's SWAT. Do you want us to hide?"

"Yes."

They hid. I told them to get dressed and not to leave Sebastian on his own. I opened the door to Rocco and Davey. "We have a daytime lair address for them."

"Shit, did you call it in?"

"Yes, and we'll meet them there, but I got other news." I locked the door behind me, checked to see it closed, and walked off with the two operators listening to me fill them in. I got a glimspe of Haven's Cookie Monster-blue hair around the cracked door. I nodded at him, and that was the best I could do. Haven had a police record and had been until lately a mob enforcer. You couldn't play with him and the cops. We'd try legal first; then if that failed us, there was always going outside the law. I kept that thought to myself as I filled in Rocco and Davey on the morning news.

Davey grinned. "For bullets, it's not a hundred percent reliable yet."

"What's your percentage?"

"Eighty."

"Seventy," Rocco said.

"Still, in a pinch, nifty."

He grinned, making that lovely mouth into just a happy smile. It made him look younger, fresher, somehow. "But a monster that is made of air, that I think I can mess with."

I was happy for him, and seventy percent success was good for some of the rarer talents, but frankly, I wasn't sure I wanted to go up against a giant that could rip apart someone in body armor, or cut someone to pieces with a whirlwind of blades. Seventy percent sounded like good odds until it was your life on the line; then not so good. But frankly, what else did we have? Then I realized I was being stupid. I knew that the practitioner who had died had had a spell that Vittorio had feared.

I started searching my phone for Phoebe Billings's number. If her coven member knew the spell, then chances were that as his high priestess, so would she, and I was standing with two other practitioners. If we could all learn it, we had a chance.