Ben’s performance drove speculation about the mysterious de Marco from my mind. I wanted to cheer him, and kiss him, and lick every square inch of his delicious body. And then I would make him fall in love with me, so we could live together happily, and he would be safe from the wiles of smut-mistresses like Naomi.
“I think, perhaps, it is you who have reservations,” Naomi said slowly, getting to her feet. She had her back to me as she faced Ben, so I couldn’t see her face, but her body language made it clear she was no longer in sex kitten mode. “It is that damned Beloved of yours, isn’t it? She’s leading you around by your cock. I knew I should have taken care of her when I had the chance.”
Ben gave her one of his haughtiest looks. “No woman leads me, Naomi. No woman.”
“Such a shame.” She ran her hand down his bare chest. He stepped back. “You had such potential, too. Isaak?”
I had been ignoring the orgy in order to concentrate on Ben, but when I glanced back, I was surprised to notice that everyone appeared to be finished with their lechery. They lolled around in attitudes of limp exhaustion, their bodies draped over each other with apparent abandon. At Naomi’s call, Isaak pushed Luis’s legs off his stomach and got up.
“I believe in addition to our scheduled event, we have an extraordinary opportunity at hand.” She smiled at Isaak before gesturing at Ben. “Our friend here seems to prefer his Beloved to us. De Marco, have you ever tried a Dark One?”
“Uh-oh,” I whispered, my stomach tightening. “I think things have gone wrong. Not that they were right to begin with.”
“Yes,” David said slowly, his gaze moving from person to person. “I suspect you’re correct. Are you armed?”
I looked at him in surprise. “No. I don’t . . . I’m not big on guns and things. I have the Vikingahärta, but it’s not a weapon. At least, I don’t think it is. It protected me from Loki once, but that could be due to some other circumstance.”
De Marco had strolled into the center of the ring by that point, followed by the slight man who reminded me of a nervous ferret. “I hadn’t thought it was possible, but now that you bring it to mind, it would be a good experiment.”
“Experiment on someone else,” Ben growled, snatching up his shirt. “I am no one’s guinea pig.”
“Do you know what experiment they’re talking about?” I asked David softly, holding on to his arm as we leaned forward to hear.
“No. But if that little man is a necromancer . . .” His voice trailed off as he eyed de Marco.
“They raise the dead, don’t they?” I shivered at the implication.
“Yes.”
“But Ben is immortal. They can’t kill him.”
“So is Luis, and yet they have destroyed countless therions over the last decade. Immortal simply means we’re harder to kill than mortals. It can be accomplished.”
“Not so fast,” Isaak said, jerking a gun out of a backpack that lay beneath strewn clothing. The sight of a naked man holding a gun on Ben might have struck me as amusing in another circumstance, but I wasn’t laughing.
Ben did, though. He gave a short, harsh laugh. “Do you really expect me to feel threatened by a gun? I’ve been shot more times than you can imagine, mortal.”
The gun in Isaak’s hand wavered.
“Oh, for god’s sake . . .” Naomi stomped over to where she’d left her clothing and bag, marching over to Ben with a glinting dagger about twelve inches long. She thrust it toward Isaak. “I swear, if I want something done, I have to do it myself. Here! Take this. You can slit his throat with it, or cut out his heart, or whatever, but just do it!”
“Right. That’s enough for me. How good of an actor are you, David?”
He looked confused. I didn’t waste time explaining, I just marched forward until I reached the lights, hauling a softly protesting David with me. The second we became visible, I switched my determined stride to a stumbling stagger, leaning heavily on David as if my legs couldn’t hold me up. “That was the besh party I’ve ever sheen. Washn’t it the besht? I gotta say, theshe Germans know how to throw a shindug. Digshug. You know what I mean. But man, I gotta pee. Back teeth are floating. Oh, look, a blanket.”
I came to a stop near the sated orgyists, who quickly scrambled to their respective feet.
“David!” I said in a faux whisper, cupping my hand around his ear but not turning my head into it. “Peepsh! They’re having a naked party! We should totally join in. Do you naked peoplesh have a Porta-Potti around here? Gotta pee.” As the surprised faces of Naomi’s group turned toward us, I staggered to the side, pointing. “David, look! It’s that evil Naomi! And Ben! You bastard!”
“What the hell is she doing here?” Naomi demanded to know of Ben.
Fortunately, he looked as genuinely surprised as the rest of them, which gave me just enough time to do my best drunk walk over to him, waving my fist as I did so. “I am sho gonna punch you! I’m your Beloved, bushter!” I unguarded my mind just as I reached him. Hello. Would you duck, please?
I drew back my arm and swung in a huge circle. Ben obligingly ducked, which left Naomi the only body in the way of my fist.
I’d also like to know what the hell you’re doing here! he thought furiously at me. This is no place for you, Francesca!
She screamed and leaped toward me.
Did you honestly think I was going to let you go off and have sex with someone else?
Isaak and Micah jumped into the fray as Ben jerked Naomi to the side, roughly pushing her away from me.
No. I thought you would trust me to uphold my promise to you. There was pain behind his words.
David roared, actually roared as he shifted into lion form. He leaped onto Isaak, knocking the man to the ground.
I do trust you . It’s Naomi that I have issues with. And I’m glad I did, because clearly, you need us.
“I want him!” de Marco said, pointing at David’s lion form. “And the vampire. I want them both, along with the other therion.”
Fran, get out of here!
No way, Jose.
The two women whose names I never did hear looked at each other, then turned and grabbed their clothing, disappearing into the night. Luis stood watching the men fighting, looking confused and unsure of himself.
“Are you Alphonse de Marco?” I asked the man who was now yelling at Isaak to hurry up with it. “And did you once know Miranda Benson?”
He stopped shouting long enough to shoot me a piercing look. “Just who are you? Why do you keep interfering in my plans?”
“I’m his Beloved,” I said, pointing at Ben. “And you can’t have him. He’s mine.”
Ben and Micah had been duking it out until Ben sent the latter flying a good twenty feet. He turned toward me, his face a picture of shock. Did you just say what I think you said?
Look out! Naomi, with a bloodcurdling shriek, threw herself at him, slashing at his torso with the knife.
It was my turn to scream, and scream I did. “You bitch!”
Ben twisted her arm just as I ran toward them, intending on pulling her off him, which sent the dagger flying. Naomi suddenly seemed to radiate a shock wave of light, knocking back everyone nearest her with a deep compression blast.
I stared in surprise as I got to my knees. She turned on me, a strange black and blue light glowing around her in a corona that filled me with dread. “Now I will be done with you!” she snarled, lifting her hand toward me.
“No!” Ben leaped forward to stop her, but he wasn’t fast enough. A pulse of light shot out from her toward me. Without thinking, I raised the Vikingahärta, yelping when it glowed white for a moment as Naomi’s dark power hit it.
It was her turn to stare in openmouthed amazement as I did a little dance, transferring the burning Vikingahärta from hand to hand until it cooled down enough to hold.
“You . . . What is that . . . ?”
“Luis!” David was back in human form now, Isaak and Micah having been knocked out. Uncaring about his nudity, he jerked his pride member to the side, shaking him and speaking rapidly in an unfamiliar language.
I looked up from the Vikingahärta to Naomi, my eyes slits. “I have had enough of you.” I raised the valknut, but rather than it blasting her with its power, it shifted in my hand, changing form, the three triangles rotating until they all slid into a new position.
“What in the name of all that’s green and glorious . . .” Did you see that? Did you see what it did?
Are you all right? Ben was at my side in an instant, one arm around me as he looked not at the valknut but at my hand, before pushing me behind him as he faced Naomi. “Harm her, and you will die.”
I looked up from where the Vikingahärta had settled into a new arrangement, surprised by the threat in Ben’s voice.
“That goes for you, too,” he added, looking at de Marco.
He looked furious. “Your woman matters little to me, vampire. Just keep her out of my way. You, however, I will see again.” Without saying anything more, he spun around on his heel, shoved the slight man out of the way with a rude word, and strode off into the darkness. The second man shot us an unreadable look, and followed. Which left us with . . .
“Naomi,” I said in a sickeningly sweet tone as I turned to face her. “I have a score to settle with you.”
Francesca, do not, Ben warned me. She is more powerful than you know.
“It’s not nearly so big as the one I have for you,” she answered in similar style, smiling to boot. Her gaze dipped to the Vikingahärta for a few seconds, her jaw tightening as she lifted her chin and looked down her nose at Ben. “I am not done with you, either, lover.”
I started toward her, but Ben wrapped an arm around me, pulling me into his side.
She laughed, and with sublime indifference to the fact that she was still naked, strolled casually over to her stuff, slipped on a discarded robe, and left with her clothing stuffed into her bag.
