Bobby Lee sighed, then said, “Rafael says that you had an agreement that if you tested positive for rat lycanthropy, he would be your beast half.”
“Yeah. So what?”
“You just tested positive last week. You and he haven’t had time to formalize it.”
“We’ll worry about that when I come back from Ireland.”
Bobby Lee shook his head. He took off his wire-frame glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose like he was tired. His eyes without the glasses showed the tired more. “In an emergency you reach out to anyone close to you, Anita. You’ve tied more animals to call to you accidentally than on purpose, right?”
“I guess.”
He put his glasses back on and looked at Nathaniel. “Help me out here.”
Nathaniel shook his head. “I’m going with Anita to Ireland. You’ve just told us that some of our best people can’t come with us. Since you’re potentially endangering both of us, why should I want to help you?”
“There are good people for this job who aren’t rats,” Bobby Lee said.
“Like who?” I asked.
“Nicky for one.”
“Nicky was going with us anyway. Name someone else.”
“Wait,” Nathaniel said. “Why can’t the wererats go with us?”
“Can we all agree that Anita has tied more of her animal halves to her through metaphysical emergencies than on purpose?” he asked.
Nathaniel and I exchanged a look, and finally we both shrugged. “Sure, I concede that.”
“Okay, then, Rafael says that we can’t travel with you just in case you accidentally turn to one of us. He is our king and it’s either him as your rat, or no one.”
“I’ve been carrying hyena lycanthropy for months now and I haven’t accidentally made one of them my beastie. I’m even taking Socrates with me and Narcissus is cool with it.”
“You’ve already made it clear to Narcissus that he has no chance of being your hyena half. You could do worse than Socrates.”
“I’ll be sure and tell him you said that.”
“Anita, please, this is an order from my king. I can’t disobey it, or him.” He clenched his jaw and looked like he might even be grinding his teeth.
“Fine. Besides Nicky, who else do you trust to replace you?”
“Kaazim and Jake are going,” he said.
“That’s a good start,” I said.
“You need guards who can double as food, and none of us qualifies since Rafael dictated that he’s the only wererat you feed on.”
“I’m aware of that, which is why Fortune and Echo are going, along with Magda and her master, Giacomo.”
“And you’re taking Damian and Nathaniel,” he said.
“Yes, but we’re not going as just food,” Nathaniel said.
Bobby Lee looked surprised, before he could stop himself. He went back to a neutral expression, but the damage was done. “I know you’re one of Anita’s fiancés.”
Nathaniel’s energy whispered across my skin like a warm wind.
Bobby Lee must have felt it, too, because he said, “I know you’re one of Anita’s fiancés, and that makes you more than just food.”
The wind felt hotter, more summer than spring, as Nathaniel said, “I’m Anita’s leopard to call, and part of her triumvirate of power.”
“I know that,” Bobby Lee said.
“Do you?” Nathaniel said, and his power didn’t just bleed over onto me and whisper sweet nothings to my inner leopard. It spilled out into the room in a way that I’d never felt his power do before; it was closer to how Richard’s energy worked when he was upset.
Bobby Lee’s hands clenched. I watched the tension in his shoulders and arms as he fought to relax.
Nathaniel’s power swirled through the room deeper, warmer, hot and aimed not at me but the wererat. He wasn’t attacking him, but he was letting him know to be careful. It was a type of metaphysical posturing, and totally not how Nathaniel usually acted around anyone, let alone Bobby Lee.
The wererat took a deep breath and let it out slow. He was still fighting the tension in his own body, because a display like what Nathaniel was doing could be a precursor to a fight. It was certainly a metaphysical slap in the face to a wereanimal as dominant as Bobby Lee.
I said, “Nathaniel, I don’t know what you’re trying to prove, but . . .”
“No, Anita, he doesn’t get to dismiss me like that.”
“Be careful, Nathaniel. You don’t want a new power level to make you forget,” Bobby Lee said.
“Forget what?” Nathaniel said, and his voice held a purring edge to it.
“That I’m dominant to you, and I teach some of the fight classes you take.”
Nathaniel’s power flexed; that was the only word I had for the sensation of the heat expanding and contracting as if the energy were trying to wrap around us.
I looked at my calm boy, the one who never made trouble like this. “Don’t do this,” I said.
“This is your last warning. I don’t care if you are Anita’s fiancé.”
“I don’t want to fight, Bobby Lee, but I’m beyond tired of everyone discounting me and Damian.”
“You don’t want to fight? Ya coulda fooled me,” Bobby Lee said.
“I’m going to have to second that,” I said.