[Anita Blake 17] - Skin Trade by Laurell K. Hamilton Read Free Book Online

wakes up,” he said.
    â€œJean-Claude never goes apeshit.”
    â€œVittorio has set a trap for you, Anita. You’re walking into it.” He was behind me now, so close that the edges of his robe brushed against the back of my body.
    â€œJason, please, I have to go,” and this time I didn’t whisper so as not to wake the vampires. I whispered because it was the best I could do. One of the real downsides to moving into the Circus and living with all the men who were tied to me metaphysically was that all of them seemed to be gaining power—power over me. Jean-Claude I could understand; he was the Master of the City. Asher even, because he was a master vampire. But Jason was a werewolf, a blood donor, and my wolf to call. I should have been master here, and I wasn’t.
    He moved around me, so close, so very close, so that not having our bodies touch took more effort than just closing that small distance. I kept one hand on the bedpost like it was my anchor to reality. He stood in front of me, his eyes a little below mine because I was still in the heels.
    â€œThen go,” he whispered.
    I swallowed hard but didn’t move away. I had a moment to wonder if I could move away, and the thought was enough. I closed my eyes and stepped back. I could do this. It was Jason, not Jean-Claude; I could do this.
    Jason caught my arms. “Don’t go.”
    â€œI have to go.” But having to keep my eyes closed took a lot of the punch out of the statement.
    He pulled my hands in toward his body, so that I touched the muscled smoothness of his stomach. He put one hand to his groin, and he was already happier to be near me than last I’d looked. He filled my hand, and he was thick and perfect again. Two months ago, some very bad men had captured the both of us. They’d tortured him with cigarettes, fire, the only thing a lycanthrope can’t heal. They’d marked up a very nice body and damn near killed him.
    My hands slid over him, under the robe, so I held him close, feeling how very naked he was, in my arms. I held him, and he held me back. I held him and remembered holding him while he bled. Holding him while I thought he was dying.
    His voice was normal, not seductive, when he said, “Anita, I’m sorry.”
    I drew back enough to see his face. “Sorry you tried to use your new powers over me to get me to stay home?”
    He grinned. “Yeah, but I do like you admiring the newly healed me.”
    â€œI’m just glad that Doc Lillian figured out that if they cut away the burned bits you’d heal on your own.”
    â€œI’m just glad they found anesthesia that worked on our faster metabolism. I would not have wanted that much of me cut away without being put under.”
    â€œAgreed.”
    â€œYou know, they’re talking about trying to cut away some of Asher’s scars and see if he heals on his own.”
    â€œHe’s a vampire, not a shapeshifter, Jason. Vampire flesh doesn’t heal quite the same.”
    â€œYou can heal fresh wounds on all sorts of dead flesh, including vampires.”
    â€œThat’s fresh wounds, Jason, and never a burn.”
    â€œMaybe if the doctor cuts away the scars, it’ll count as a fresh wound, then you could heal him.”
    â€œAnd what if it doesn’t work? What if Doc Lillian cuts away part of Asher and I can’t heal it, and it doesn’t heal on its own? He just goes around with a big hole in his side, or wherever?”
    â€œYou know, we have to try.”
    I shook my head. “All I know for sure is I’ve got a plane to catch, and I need to call some guards down to help me carry up the weapons.”
    â€œYou know, the guards are scared of you now.”
    â€œYeah, they think I’m a succubus and I’ll eat their souls.”
    â€œYou feed off sex, Anita, and if you don’t feed often enough, you die. That’s pretty much the definition of succubus