Cravings by Laurell K. Hamilton, Eileen Wilks, REBECCA YORK, MaryJanice Davidson Read Free Book Online Page B

because it was the right thing to do?
    I always felt squeamish about praying to God about sex, in any context, but I
prayed as we drove, because I was out of options. I asked for guidance. I asked
for a clue as to what was the best for everyone. I didn't get an answer, and I
hadn't expected one. I have a lot psychic gifts but talking directly to God is
not one of them, thank goodness. Read the Old Testament if you don't think it's
a scary idea. But worse than no answer, I didn't feel that peace that I usually
get when I pray.
    Â 
    WHEN we reached our house, Micah and Nathaniel got out of the Jeep first. I
followed behind, slowly, still not sure what I was going to do.
    The living room was dark as I entered the house. The only light was from the
kitchen. One or both of them had walked through the pitch-dark living room and
only hit a light switch when they went to the kitchen to check messages on the
machine, which was on the kitchen counter. Leopards' eyes are better in the dark
than a human's, and Micah's eyes were permanently stuck in kitty-cat mode. He
often walked through the entire house with no lights, just drifting from room to
room, avoiding every obstacle, gliding through the dark with the same confidence
I used in bright light.
    There was enough light from the kitchen, so I, too, left the living room
dark. The white couch seemed to give off its own glow, though I knew that was
illusion, made up of the reflective quality of the white, white cloth. I was
pretty sure the men had both gone to change for the night. Most lycanthropes,
whatever the flavor, preferred fewer clothes, and Micah didn't like dressing up,
not if it included a tie. I walked into the empty kitchen not because I needed
to, but because I wasn't ready to go to the bedroom. I still didn't know what I
was going to do.
    The kitchen held a large dining room table now. The breakfast nook on its
little raised platform with its bay window looking out over the woods still held
a smaller fourseater table. Four had been more chairs than I needed when I moved
into this house. Now, because we usually had at least some of the other
wereleopards bunking over due to an emergency, or, often, just the need to be
close to more of their group, their pard, we needed a six-seater table. Actually
we needed a bigger one than that, but it was all my kitchen would hold.
    There was a vase in the middle of the table. Jean-Claude had sent me a dozen
white roses a week, after we started dating. Once we had sex, he'd added one red
rose so it was actually thirteen. One red rose like a spot of blood in a sea of
white roses and white baby's breath. It certainly made a statement.
    I smelled the roses, and the red one had the strongest scent. Hard to find
white roses that smelled good. All I had to do was call Jean-Claude. He was fast
enough to fly here before dawn. I'd fed off of him before, I could do it again.
Of course, that would simply be putting off the decision. No, it would be
hiding. I hated cowardice almost worse than anything else, and calling on my
vampire lover in this instance was cowardice.
    The phone rang. I jumped back so hard that the roses rocked in their vase.
You'd think I was nervous, or guilty of something. I got the phone on the second
ring. It was for Micah, a Furry Coalition emergency.
    One of the shifters had had an accident. He was in the hospital emergency
room right now. But the cops were making noises about taking him to a so-called
safe house.
    They were actually prisons for lycanthropes. Once you went in, they never let
you out.
    Someone had to go and get him before that could happen.
    Micah got on the phone long enough to take the address and name of the
hospital down, then hung up. He looked at me, face careful, neutral with an edge
of concern. "I'm okay with you and Nathaniel being here alone for the ardeur.
The question is, are you okay with it?"
    I shrugged.
    He shook his head. "No, Anita, I need an