or smelled male to her.”
“You can tell from energy if a vampire is male or female?” Bernardo asked.
I nodded. “Sometimes.”
Bibiana smiled at me, as if I’d said a smart thing. “Yes, he tasted of men, but…” She frowned.
“But what?” I asked.
“You are of the line of Belle Morte?”
“Jean-Claude is,” I said.
She waved it away as if I were quibbling. “Most vampire lines are cold things, but not hers. You are closer to the warmth of the wereanimal, I think. Can you taste someone’s sexual energy from a distance?”
I thought about that. “Sometimes.”
Again, she smiled like I’d said the right thing. “There was something wrong with this vampire’s energy. Something stunted, or thwarted in some way. It was as if his sex had become rage.”
“Have you ever felt something similar from anyone else?” I asked.
“We had a weretiger that came to us. We tried to discipline him, save him, but in the end he had to be destroyed for everyone’s sake.”
To his mother’s explanation, Victor added, “He was a serial rapist. The attacks became more violent.” He sighed.
“Ava’s attacker?” I asked.
He gave me a startled look. “Did you look at her case file?”
I shook my head. “Just a guess.”
“It was not a guess,” Bibiana said. “You read his body posture. You smelled his scent.”
I shrugged because I didn’t want to argue, and wasn’t entirely sure I could. “But you’re saying that this vampire’s energy felt similar to the serial rapist that you’d sensed before?”
“Yes, but…” She shivered, and this time I could taste her fear.
“He scared you,” I said.
She nodded.
“My mother does not frighten easily,” Victor said.
“I got that impression,” I said.
He smiled at me. “We have answered your questions. Now, would you answer one of ours?”
“Sorry, but one more. Do you know who the traitor is?”
They exchanged a look.
“I swear that I do not. If this vampire has stolen one of our people, he has done it so completely that I did not suspect until the first claw marks showed on the bodies.”
“If I could help you narrow down the field, would you gather them for me, and let us question them at the police station?”
They exchanged another look that included Rick. Finally, Victor nodded, and Bibiana said, “We would.”
“How can you help us narrow it down?” Victor asked. “Are you hinting that you’re a more powerful weretiger than we are?”
“No, absolutely not, but I’ve seen the bodies.”
Olaf came on the earpiece. “Do not share this information with them.”
I ignored him. “I know we’re looking for someone under six feet in human form, or with abnormally small hands for his or her size.”
“Anita,” Olaf said.
Edward said, “She knows what’s she doing, Otto.”
“You measured the claw marks,” Victor said.
I nodded.
“I do not trust the tigers,” Olaf said.
“Let her work,” Edward said.
I did my best to ignore it all, as Victor said, “That narrows it a little.”
“Here’s the real narrowing,” I said. “This tiger is able to shift just his or her hands into claws, and teeth into fangs, without changing into half-human completely.”
I’d shocked them, all of them. They weren’t vampires, so they didn’t try to hide it. “That would explain it,” Victor said.
“Explain what?” I asked.
“Why my mother and I couldn’t find the truth from our traitor. If he’s powerful enough to do that, then he may be powerful enough to lie to us.”
“That would have to be pretty damn powerful,” I said.
“Yes,” he said.
I stared at him, and then at Bibiana’s stricken face. “You think you know who it is.”
“No, but it is a very short list of possibilities. Some of our most trusted people are on that list,” Victor said.
Bibiana gave me a look of such pain. “Whoever it is, it will hurt us as a clan. It will undermine our authority, and make us have to discipline our people.”
“You mean, if they find out you missed this guy hiding in plain sight, some of them will challenge you for leadership.”
“They will try,” she said, and there was something so calm, so sure, so confident. I wouldn’t have wanted to go up against her, and with Victor at her side, you’d have to be pretty confident-or nuts.
Then I had a thought, a bad one. “If Vittorio’s animal to call is tiger, and he’s master enough to do all this, then he’s master enough to challenge Max for the city.”
“The vampire council has forbidden Masters of the City to war against one another in America,” Bibiana said.
“Yeah, and they frown on that whole serial-killer-slaughtering-cops thing, too. I don’t think Vittorio sweats the rules much.”
“You think he’ll try for my father?” Victor asked.
“I think it’s a possibility. I’d take extra security measures until we get him.”
“I’ll see that it’s done,” he said.
“He has more than just one weretiger at his daytime beck and call,” I said.
“What else?”
“I’m not sure, but if I were you, I’d call that extra security in now. Because it would be a bitch to miss saving Max by a few minutes.”
Victor and I had one of those looks, and then he simply reached into his pocket for a cell phone and started calling in more help. He walked to the far side of the room so I couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying. I was okay with that.
Bibiana looked at me. “You are the first true queen with no clan that we have found since Victor showed himself worthy.”
“Worthy of what?” I asked.
“Starting his own clan. We have not had a male king among the tigers in centuries. The little queens will hive off, but it is only because we do not wish to kill our daughters. It is not because there is enough power to make another clan. Victor has that power, but he needs a queen.”
I stared at her. “Are you hinting that you want me to, what, be your son’s queen?”
“I’m saying that if you were not already wedded so tightly to Jean-Claude, I would ask you to marry my son.”
I stared at her. “Gosh, I don’t know what to say, Bibiana.”
Victor came back from his side of the room, clipping the phone back into his pocket. “I’ve got extra men around Father, and I’ll up the security on our clubs, just in case.” He looked from one of us to the other, frowning. “Did I miss something?”
Bernardo laughed.
Crispin said, “Chang-Bibi offered you to Anita in marriage.”
“Mother!”
