The Harlequin

chapter forty-four

WE HIT THE stage at a run, and I fell into Jean-Claude's arms. I fell into his arms with Nathaniel in my right hand, and Damian in my left. Jean-Claude staggered under the combined weight, or the momentum. Asher helped steady him, hands on his back to help him stay upright. Richard was on all fours, head down. He never looked up as we stumbled into Jean-Claude's arms, and Asher held us all for a moment.

Jean-Claude wrapped his arms around me. I felt Asher's strength at his back, at our backs, helping us, steadying us. I looked up into Jean-Claude's face, into those midnight blue eyes. Nathaniel wrapped his arms around Jean-Claude, me, and Asher. I think Asher would have moved back, but there was no time. Damian kept my hand but knelt by Richard. He touched the fallen man's shoulder. Nathaniel and I gave Jean-Claude certainty, a rock to build upon. Damian shared his coldness with Richard, his utter control. I felt both emotions in a rush of power that danced through my body, and into Jean-Claude's, and Asher's behind him.

Richard cried out, his head coming up, his hand grabbing Damian's arm like a drowning man taking the last help offered.

I felt Damian's coldness rush over Richard's panic and turn to a wall of ice. He gave Richard defenses to hide behind. He pulled Richard to his feet, and they stood there, hands on each other's arms, like a version of the guy-greeting that friends use sometimes when a handshake won't do but they're too manly to hug. Damian kept my hand in his, but he and Richard were outside the circle of everyone else's arms.

They were relieved to be outside the circle of the other men. Richard's fear flared. He wasn't just afraid of Columbine and her servant. He was afraid of Jean-Claude and me, and Asher. It was one of those too-close glimpses that we sometimes got into each other's minds. It was Damian who cut off the sensation, Damian who blocked the fear with his own iron self-control. He'd had centuries of learning to control fear when he was the plaything of a master vampire who could raise fear in another and feed on it, as Columbine fed on doubt.

«We must win the crowd, mes amis.»

«Like when the Earthmover came to town?» I asked.

He nodded, arms tightening around me. I knew why the hug. The Earthmover had won. Only his trying to make me his human servant, trying to make me kill Jean-Claude for him, had given me the chance to kill him instead. I pressed my face against the stiffness of Jean-Claude's lacy shirt. I'd almost broken him of the old-fashioned lace, but tonight he'd dressed as I first found him, all frothy white lace and black velvet jacket; only the leather pants showed he knew what century he was in. I pressed my free hand against his side, underneath the jacket, held the line of his body and was afraid.

«I don't know who the Earthmover was,» Nathaniel said, «but just tell me what to do, and I'll do it.»

«If more of us were submissive, things would go so much faster,» Asher said.

It made me smile, though the smile was lost against Jean-Claude's shirt.

«You aren't one of us,» Richard said, and his voice was hostile.

«We must unite, Richard, or we will lose this night,» Jean-Claude said.

«He is not your animal to call, or your servant. I don't have to play nice with him.»

Asher started to move away, but Nathaniel tightened his arm, held him in place. «Don't go.»

«Let me go, boy. The wolf is right, I am no one's darling.» His voice held sadness, like the taste of rain on your tongue, lifetimes of sorrow in that one tone.

«Our certainty does not travel outside our triumvirates,» Jean-Claude said. «Even our wolf is drowning. How can we save all the others if we cannot even save ourselves?» His voice was an echo of Asher's, full of sorrow, so that my throat closed with it, and I thought I'd choke on unshed tears.

«Fight, damn you!» Claudia came up to the edge of the stage. Tears stained her face. Her emotions were so raw, it looked like physical pain. «Fight for us! Don't just roll over and give that bitch your throat.»

Malcolm came to stand on the other side of Richard. «Fight for us, Jean-Claude. Fight for us, Anita.» He looked directly at Richard. Richard suddenly looked wrong in the leather mask. He didn't look cool in the leather outfit, he looked like he was doing exactly what he was doing. He was hiding. The rest of us stood there in plain view. Only the bad guys, and Richard, were hiding who and what they were from the world. Malcolm gripped his shoulder. «Fight for us, Ulfric. Do not let your fears and doubts destroy us all.»

«I thought you, of all people, would understand why I don't want to be touching them when they raise the only power we have to fight these things.»

«I felt what Anita and her triumvirate raised earlier. It was friendship, love as pure as any I've known. I begin to believe the ardeur is a jewel with many facets, but it needs light to shine, Ulfric.»

«What the hell does that mean?» Richard asked, and his voice was angry and frustrated. He shoved Malcolm's hand away and looked at Damian. «You're keeping the worst of it out, aren't you?»

Damian just looked at him.

«To reap the benefits, I have to take the bad with the good. I can't do it. I can't.» He looked at me. «I'm sorry, but I can't go where this is heading.»

«What do you think we're going to do, Richard?» I asked.

«What you always do, fuck everything.»

«It was not sex she offered to my congregation, only friendship.»

«But it won't stay that way, it never does,» Richard said. He looked at Malcolm and said, «You're asking me to do something that you would never do yourself.»

Malcolm nodded. «You're right»—he nodded again—«you are absolutely right. I have stood on my moral high ground and been so certain. So certain that I was right, that Jean-Claude was not only wrong, but evil. I have said such hateful things to Anita, called her whore and witch. I have called all Jean-Claude's people that and worse to my congregation, but all my righteousness could not protect them.»

Richard nodded. «I know. Anita saved my mother and brother, saved their lives, but she did terrible things to get there in time. Things I still think are immoral, wrong, and I have to live every day with the knowledge that if I had been there I would have stopped Anita from torturing that man. I wouldn't have let her dehumanize him, or herself. I would have stood on my moral high ground and my mother and my brother, Daniel, would both be dead.» Tears shimmered, edged by the leather. «I used to be so sure of so much. Raina didn't shake my faith. She made me more certain. Only Anita, only Jean-Claude, only they have made me doubt everything.»

I drew a little away from Jean-Claude, still touching, because I was afraid to stop touching him. If the doubts were this bad touching, I couldn't imagine what they'd be like if we weren't touching. We'd just die. «My cross still works for me, Richard. It still burns with holy light. God hasn't forsaken me.»

«But he should have,» Richard said. «He should have, don't you see? If what I believe is right, if what you say you believe is right, then your cross should not burn. You have broken so many commandments. You've murdered, tortured, fucked, but your cross still works. I don't understand that.»

«You're saying I'm evil, so God should have turned his back on me?»

Even with most of his face hidden, I saw his face convulse with emotion, tears finally falling. He nodded. «Yes, that's what I mean.»

I just looked at him, and knew that it was partly vampire powers messing with his head, but that perhaps Columbine's powers only brought out what was already inside you. Some part of Richard believed what he was saying.

«Ma petite …»

«No,» I said, «no, it's okay.» My chest felt like a piece of it had been carved out, not bloody and warm, but cold and icy. As if the piece had been missing a long time, but I hadn't wanted to see it, feel it, know it. «Maybe God isn't the sex police, Richard. Sometimes I think Christians get all hung up on the sex thing because it's easier to worry about sex than to ask yourself, Am I a good person? If as long as you don't have sex with a lot of people you're a good person, that's easy. It's easy to avoid that. It's easy to think, I'm not fucking anyone, so I'm good. It makes it easy to be cruel, because as long as you're not fucking around, nothing you do can be that bad. Is that really all you think of God? Is he just the sex police for you and Malcolm? Or is it that sex is easy to worry about, easy to avoid, and the whole love-your-neighbor-as-you-love-yourself thing that's hard? Some days it's so hard, I feel like trying to take care of everyone in my life will break me apart. But I do my best. I do my best for everyone in my life every damn day. Can you say that, Richard? Do you do your best for everyone in your life every damn day?»

«Do you include yourself and Jean-Claude on that list?» he asked, his voice so quiet, so full of emotion that it was strangely empty.

«Do you not include us?» I asked. I could feel the tears pushing in my throat, at the back of my eyes like heat. I would not cry for him.

Those true brown eyes stared at me. I watched the pain in them, but finally, he said, «No, I don't.»

I nodded, a little too fast, a little too rapidly. I fought to swallow past the tears. I thought I'd choke on them. I cleared my throat twice, so sharp it hurt. I wanted to accuse him, say, «Then what were you doing in my bed today? Why did you sleep with Micah, Nathaniel, and me? Why did you have sex with me today? If I'm not a person in your life, then…«I swallowed the words, because they didn't matter. He'd have had some answer for everything I said, or he'd have felt bad about it. Either way, I didn't want to hear it, or see it. I didn't need to hear more explanations from him. I didn't need to see him agonize over his moral quandaries anymore. I was done.

«I'm not angry, Richard. I don't hate you. I'm just not going to do this anymore. You think I'm evil. You think Jean-Claude is evil. You think what we do to keep everyone safe is evil. Fine, fine.»

«I didn't mean…»

I held up a hand. «Just stop, don't. The hand on your arm that's keeping the doubts from eating you alive was forged through sex, Richard. That calm was won through centuries of pain and sex and servitude. Jean-Claude, the evil bastard, saved Damian, ransomed him from hell. They didn't even like each other, but Jean-Claude wouldn't leave anyone with her, not if he could save him. Evil bastard.»

«Anita,» Damian said, and his face held—fear, something, as if he knew what was coming.

«You benefit from our evil, Richard. You count on us being willing to do your dirty work. Hell, I'm the Bolverk for your clan. Literally, I am your evildoer. I do what the Ulfric will not. So fine, fine, I will be your Bolverk, but we are not in the lupanar this night. We are not lupa and Ulfric this night. This night is vampire business. This night I am Jean-Claude's human servant. I am Nathaniel and Damian's master. That is the power you are hiding behind right this second. You think we're evil, fine.» I looked at Damian; I gave him a look to let him know I meant what I was about to say. «Damian, let him go.»

«You wouldn't,» Richard said.

«You can't have it both ways, Richard. You're right, the ardeur will have to rise. You don't want to be touching any of us when that happens, do you?»

He just looked at me.

«If you mean what you say, if you truly believe it's wrong, evil, then let go of Damian's arm. Let go, and stand on your moral high ground. If Jean-Claude and I mean nothing to you, then stand by yourself, Richard, stand on your own two feet.»

He stared at me as if I'd said something terrible. He stood there clinging to Damian's arm. «Don't do this, not now.»

«I think now is perfect, Richard. I think now is great. We need to raise the ardeur, so let go.»

«Jean-Claude,» he said, and looked at the vampire.

«It is a strange night, my Ulfric. I should be arguing your case. I should fight to keep you with us, but I don't seem to want to. I, like ma petite, grow tired of being judged by someone I care for. It cuts deeper tonight, and I know that is Columbine. She is laughing at us, even now. She has stopped attacking the congregation. She has put all her power upon us, because she found our weakness. The weakness that has always been there, from the first.»

«You mean me,» Richard said.

«I mean our triumvirate. It is flawed, and I do not know how to fix it. I feel what Anita has forged with her servants. The two of you are more powerful; my triumvirate should be the stronger of the two, but it is not.»

«Because of me,» Richard said.

«No, because of who we all are, mon ami. But whatever the cause, I grow tired of this fight.» He leaned back against Asher, rested his head against the other man's face. «I have rejected those I do love to save your sensibilities, and Anita's.»

«You're all lovers,» Richard said. «Don't tell me otherwise.»

«We will have to raise the ardeur, Richard,» Jean-Claude said. «Let go of Damian's hand or you will be dragged into what is about to happen. If it is evil, and you would escape it, let go. Let go of us, Richard, let go of us all.»

«This is vampire trickery,» Malcolm said. «Do not let her force you into something you will regret later.»

«It is vampire trickery, but as Richard said things he truly believed, so I think Anita and I have come to an understanding. We are tired of this, Ulfric. We are tired of you making us the villains. If we are the villains, then let go. If we are not the villains, then hold on, but either way, you know what I must do now. If you do not wish to be part of it, then you must separate from us.»

«Let go, Richard,» I said.

He looked at Jean-Claude, then turned to me. «Is this what you want?»

«Is it what you want?» I asked.

«I don't know,» he said.

«Then let me go, Richard, let me go.»

He let go.