34

"TONIGHT MORTE D'AMOUR hit Atlanta. Tomorrow night he'll hit another city," Jake said.

"How many other Masters of the City are descended from his bloodline?" I asked.

"A few."

"Either share your information, Jake, or get out of my face."

"We can save the other descendants of Morte d'Amour in this country, Anita."

"How?" I asked.

"Pick one of my kittens," he said.

"You know, you calling them kittens doesn't help."

He smiled. "Sorry. Does it help to know that they're all older than Cynric from Vegas?"

"He's legal," I said, deciding that a frontal assault was the best defense.

"I heard through the grapevine that you were bothered doing anyone under eighteen. If I heard wrong, I'm sorry."

I sighed. "No, you're right. It's not just the age. It's the level of innocence. My life isn't about innocence. I prefer someone who knows his way around."

"A sadder-but-wiser girl for you, huh?" Nicky said.

We both looked at him. "Are you quoting The Music Man at me?"

If it had been anyone else I'd have said he looked embarrassed. He gave that shallow shrug around all that muscle again. "What, I can't like musicals?"

I blinked at him. "I sort of had you pegged for death metal, or club mixes."

He grinned. "I like club mixes, but you can't dance to most death metal. Silas was into that."

"You've been with us a year. I didn't know you liked to dance."

"You don't like to dance. You will dance for Nathaniel, Micah, and Jean-Claude, even Jason or Asher, but you don't enjoy it. My primary emotions seem to be about pleasing you. It makes me anxious if I feel like you're unhappy with me. Asking you to dance would make you uncomfortable, which would make me anxious. It's so not worth it."

I didn't know what to say to that. I looked at Jake. "Do you know much about this whole Bride phenomenon?"

"I've seen it. It's really rare. It only shows up in bloodlines descended from the Father of the Day, like Belle Morte or the Dragon."

"So it's a power that Mommie Dark doesn't have?" I asked.

He nodded. "The Sweet Dark isn't into long-term relationships, really. Brides can be treated pretty badly by their grooms, but often the vampire who makes them feels responsible for them and it does become more like a group marriage, albeit with a one-sided power structure."

"Is there a limit to how many Brides I can make?" I asked.

"It's usually limited only by resources. How much blood you can harvest in an area determines how many vampires you can have before they begin to starve."

"What's the biggest number you've seen?"

"Twelve," he said.

I gave him wide eyes. He studied my face. "You're delaying meeting the weretigers; why?"

"I know this is going to sound churlish, or childish, or just stupid, but I don't know how to go down to your tigers and pick one to sleep with when I haven't even introduced myself."

"There's a reason that most vampires who have Brides are men," he said.

"And that would be?" I asked.

"Women complicate things."

Nicky made a sound that he turned into a cough, but I was pretty sure it started as a laugh. "You got something to say, Nicky?" I asked.

He caught his breath, face shining a little too much with his "cough." "Nope."

"Fine, if I were a guy I'd just march down there and pick someone. I get it."

"Why don't you have Jean-Claude help you pick?" Jake suggested.

It wasn't a bad idea. I tended to pick low-power wereanimals and vampires  to bond with, with a few rare exceptions like Micah. Jean-Claude could always be trusted to pick the wereanimal or necromancer most likely to up his power level, and if we were going to add someone else to our bed then it might as well pack a power punch to offset the embarrassment. My embarrassment, never Jean-Claude's.

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