"Belle was the moon," I said.
He looked at me, smiling. "No, Anita, you were the moon. 'The moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.' "
"You're quoting something," I said.
"Shakespeare, ma petite. He's quoting Timon of Athens."
"Haven't read that one," I said. My pulse was in my throat, and it was making blood trickle from the wounds he'd made in my neck. "I don't need to feed the ardeur right now, Requiem, and with everything going all weird, I think I'll wait until I have to feed."
"That is sense, Requiem," London said.
Requiem gazed at the other vampire. "Would you wait?"
"With permission," London said, "I would like to leave the room."
"Go," Jean-Claude said.
London didn't run for the door, but he didn't stroll either. Hell, if I could have run from it, I would have. But you can't run from yourself.
"Any who wish to go, go," Jean-Claude said.
"The test will not work if we are not here," Elinore said.
"The test is over. We are too dangerous, and we know it."
Elinore didn't argue, she just walked out. Wicked took his brother by the arm, and led him out. Truth seemed to be weeping.
"What do you want us to do?" Remus asked.
"Guard us, if you can."
"We can guard you," he said, sounding slightly offended that Jean-Claude doubted it.
"Can you guard us from ourselves?" Jean-Claude asked.
"I don't understand," Remus said.
Cisco had the gauze and tape. He stood by the bed, as if unsure what to do with the bandages. I touched my neck and came away with a little blood, but it had been a clean bite. It wouldn't bleed all that much, not if it had been done right, and knowing Requiem it had been.
"Do you need antiseptic?" Cisco asked.
Remus came to the bed, impatient. "You treat Anita like another shapeshifter."
"Oh," Cisco said. He started to set the first-aid supplies on the bed, then
hesitated as if he didn't want to put them between Requiem and me. He was still wearing a gun, but the confident guard had vanished, replaced by an awkward eighteen-year-old.
"Give her some gauze so she can hold it against the wound," Remus said. "The bandage is mostly to keep the cleanup to a minimum, not really for die wound."
Cisco nodded like he understood, but he held the gauze out to me witli his eyes nowhere near my face. In fact, he was sort of studiously trying not to look at me. I finally realized part of his problem. More of my chest was showing than when I'd started. Requiem's feeding had moved the front of die robe around, so tliat a lot of breast was showing. Not all, not more than a really low neckline would show, but it was distracting him. He was botli trying not to stare at my chest, and staring at it, as he warred widi himself.
I pressed die gauze to die bite, and closed my robe up with the other hand. I'd need two hands to retie, so all I could do was hold die robe closed. That let Cisco know I'd noticed what he'd been doing. He suddenly met my eyes, and he was embarrassed. It showed in die almost panic in his own eyes, and die dark blush tliat crawled up his neck. The panic turned to anger, and he looked away, as if I'd seen too far into his soul.
Remus took die first-aid stuff from him. "Go to die coffin room and tell Nazaredi to send someone to take your place on diis detail."
Cisco protested, "Why?"
"You're staring at her chest. She's not a piece of ass, kid. When you're on die job, you're on die fucking job. You can notice she's pretty, but you don't stare, you don't get distracted."
"I'm sorry, Remus, it won't happen again."
"No, it won't," Remus said. "Go to die coffin room."
"Please, Remus..."
"I gave you an order, Cisco, follow it."
Cisco lowered his head, not a bow, but dejection. The gesture itself, at somediing so small, said how young he was. But he didn't argue again. He went for die door.
When it closed behind him, Remus turned to me. "Are you still bleeding?"
I let go of die gauze; it stayed in place, pasted diere by blood. "Hard to rell," I said.
He started to touch die gauze, tiien stopped, letting his hand drop to his iide. I actually looked down to make sure my chest was completely covered. Codling was showing. So why did Remus seem as reluctant as Cisco to ouch me?
"Can you take die gauze away?" he asked.
I didn't argue, just pulled it off. It didn't hurt to move it, so I wasn't bleeding that badly. Good.
"Turn your head to the side so I can see." He added, "Please."
I did what he asked, which put me watching Jean-Claude. He looked way too solemn for comfort. "What's wrong now?" I asked.
"Are you so ashamed of us that you would hide our mark of favor under bandages and tape?"
I frowned at him. "What are you talking about?"
Remus touched more gauze to my neck. "Can you hold it in place while I get tape?"
I put my hand up to the gauze, automatically.
Jean-Claude motioned at my hand, at Remus, who had his back mosdy to the other man.
Remus moved in to tape the gauze in place. I stopped him with a hand on his arm. He stepped back immediately, out of reach, the tape still in his fingers. I glanced up at his face, but he wouldn't give me a direct look, so I didn't know what was in his eyes. He'd stepped back like I'd hurt him. I hadn't.
I turned away from the guard, to Jean-Claude. Remus's problems were Remus's problem, not mine. I had enough problems. "You mean why am I bandaging the bite?"
He nodded.
"I always bandage die bites."
"Pourquoi?" he asked. Why?
I opened my mouth, closed it, and thought about it. "It's a wound. It usually pierces a vein or artery. You smear antiseptic on it, and slap a bandage on it to keep it from getting infected."
"Have you ever known a vampire bite to become infected?" he asked.
I frowned, and thought about it. It took me nearly a minute to say, "No."
"Why is that, ma petite?"
"Because vampires have a natural antiseptic in their saliva. Vampires actually have fewer types of bacteria in their saliva than the average human."
"You are quoting now," he said.
I nodded, and stopped because the bite was a little tight. It didn't exacdy hurt, but it let me know it was there. "Yeah, they had an article in The Animator. Some doctor actually wondered why vampire bites don't get infected like an ordinary human bite, or an animal bite. They've known for a while that you guys have an anticoagulant in your saliva, but this was the first study on other properties of vampire saliva."
"So, I ask again, why are you hiding our mark of favor?"
I thought about it, then shrugged. "Habit." I took the gauze off the bite mark. It had two small round red circles on it, but it had almost stopped bleeding. They usually did unless you were cut up. A violent vamp bite was more like a dog bite; it bled. The two neat holes stopped sooner than you'd think, and rarely re-bled without the wound being reopened. I'd known vampire junkies who tried to hide their habit by having a vampire bite the same wound several times. It didn't really work if you knew enough about vamps to know what a bite should look like, but it fooled the tourists, or the boss at work on Monday. Repeated trauma to an area is still repeated trauma, and that was one of the few times outside of violent attacks when a vamp bite started to bruise and tear.
I handed the used gauze to Remus, who took it gingerly from me as if he didn't want to touch my fingers. "I don't need the bandages. Thanks anyway, Remus."
Jean-Claude came to me, smiling. He touched the bite delicately, coming away with minute drops of blood on his fingertips. He lifted them to his mouth, and I knew what he was going to do before he licked so delicately. I watched him lick my blood off his fingertips, and wasn't sure how I felt about it. I didn't enjoy it. I didn't not enjoy it. I felt neutral about what he'd done, but why had he done it? He usually went out of his way not to spook me, not :o be too vampiric.