did so many things that were bad for you taste so good?
He glanced at me, then back to the road. “Either you really like the kid, or he bothers you for real.”
I sighed, eating my yummy fry and trying not to hunch in the passenger seat. I so didn’t want to have this conversation with Bernardo, but then he’d met Cynric the same time I did.
“You met him when I did, Bernardo. He was a virgin, because the white clan is like all the clans, it’s all about purity of bloodline, and their queen tiger, Bibiana, likes her men to be monogamous.”
“It’s because she holds her husband to the big
“Yeah,” I said, “and also teenagers don’t always have the control with their first orgasm not to shift and eat their partner.”
“How’s Blue Boy’s control?” he asked.
I shrugged, very deliberately not looking at him. “It’s good, and don’t call him that. He has a name.”
“Cynric doesn’t sound like a real name for a teenage guy,” Bernardo said.
“He goes by a short version of his name.”
“Rick?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“Rick’s the only thing short for his name,” Bernardo said.
“Nope.”
He started merging into traffic. It probably meant we were going to exit soon. I hadn’t been paying enough attention to where we were, and I wasn’t familiar enough with the city.
“What does he call himself, then?”
I mumbled something.
“What?”
“Sin, okay, he likes Sin.”
Bernardo laughed out loud, head back, mouth wide, face alight with it.
“Yeah, yeah, enjoy it, laughing boy,” I said.
When he could talk, he said, “It’s just too good, Anita. Too easy.”
“I tried to talk him out of it, but his cousin Roderic goes by Rick, so he thinks of it as taken.”
He gave that low male chuckle. “Sin, you’re screwing a seventeen-year-old that’s named Sin. Oh, man, when I met you, you were like the virgin queen, so untouchable, and now . . .”
“Just stop, okay, I feel bad enough.”
He glanced at me as he waited for the traffic to let him exit. “Why feel bad about it? So he’s young, so what?”
“You said it yourself, he was a young sixteen. I took his virginity, Bernardo.”
“You were mind-fucked by Mommie Darkest at the time, and so was Cynric.”
“So were about four other weretigers. Your first time shouldn’t be in a vampire-induced orgy, but his was.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Anita. I was in Vegas. You’re lucky to have lived through it, and so were the weretigers.”
I shrugged. I put the rest of the food in the bag. My stomach was in a hard knot, and food just didn’t sound good right then.
“Well, they’re not living through it this time.”
“It’s not your fault that Mommie Darkest is making the bad vamps hunt weretigers.”
“Maybe,” I said.
“Oh, can the Catholic guilt.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, glaring at him.
“It means that you do what you have to do, and you try to enjoy it along the way. It’s what we all do.”
“You were the one who teased me about Cynric,” I said.
“That was because you were supposed to tell me to go to hell like you always do. You weren’t supposed to actually let it bother you. If I’d realized you felt this bad about doing him, I’d have left it alone.”
“Thanks, I guess,” I said, and I stared out the window as he wove the car through the narrow streets.
“Why do you feel so bad about this one?”
“He’s seventeen,” I said.
“So, he’ll be eighteen next year.”
“He’s a senior in high school, Bernardo. Jean-Claude is his legal guardian and had to enroll him in school. He comes home with homework and shit, and then he wants to cuddle and have sex. It weirds me the fuck out.”
He was quiet as he wove through the progressively narrower streets. “You haven’t even asked where we’re going.”
“To Edward,” I said.
“Yeah, but we’re not going to the police station, and you haven’t asked why.” He glanced at me. “You’re a control freak. Why aren’t you asking?”
I thought about the question, and finally said, “I don’t know. I don’t seem to care. I mean, I trust you, I trust Edward, and I even trust Olaf to do the job. I just don’t trust him with me.”
“You shouldn’t,” he said.
“Okay, are we going to a new crime scene, or what?” I asked.
“You ask, but not like you care, as if it doesn’t matter at all. Things matter to you, Anita; it’s one of your charms and irritations.” He smiled, but I didn’t feel the need to smile back.
“I think I’m homesick. I think I’m tired of chasing bad guys. Did Edward tell you his idea that Marmee Noir is killing the tigers so that I’ll be away from St. Louis and all our people? The last one of her guards that talked to me said that she wants me alive. It’s what saved us twice, I think. She doesn’t want me dead.”
“He mentioned some of it. Could she really possess your body?”
“She thinks she can.”
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I think she might be able to.”
“That would scare the hell out of me.”
I nodded. “Trust me, Bernardo, I’m scared.”
“You don’t seem scared. You seem distracted.”
“Maybe I don’t know how to be scared. Maybe that’s what the distraction is,” I said.
“Whatever it is, you need to get your head in the game, Anita. We need you. Edward needs you, and you sure as hell want to bring your A-game when you meet Olaf.”
“He still want me to be his serial killer girlfriend?” I asked.
“He still thinks you
“Great,” I said.
“You haven’t even asked if it’s a new crime scene.”
I looked at him, startled at last. “They’ve never killed twice in one city.”
“No, they haven’t.”
I scowled at him. “Stop the games, Bernardo. Tell me where we’re going and why the mystery.”
“Edward called Jean-Claude.”
I know my face looked as surprised as I felt. “Why?”
“Because he found a way for you to have bodyguards, and he thinks they can help us find these bastards.”
That Edward approved that strongly of the guards Jean-Claude had working for us showed the best stamp of approval I could imagine. I knew they were good, but that Edward agreed with me was both cool and interesting.
“So we’re going to meet them,” I said.
“Yeah, but first Olaf and you get to say hi.”
“Why?” I said.
“Because Olaf thinks you have a relationship with him, and if you meet him first and privately, he can keep that illusion. Edward’s afraid of what Olaf will do if he realizes that you aren’t ever going to be his girlfriend.”
