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Chapter Text

He was sure that no teenager had ever had a graduation party like this before, and no, it didn’t go the way of the bachelor party of the century.

Who was graduating exactly? Peter Parnell-Forrester. Jean-Claude, being a natural at event coordination, had pulled out all the stops for this. He had even procured a famous music band for the event. Harry had no idea who Green Day happened to be, but a lot of students from Peter’s school seemed to like it and were having the time of their lives.

Jean-Claude couldn’t go to the ceremony, but Micah filmed it for him to watch later. For everyone in the family, Peter graduating was a big deal for them. Everyone had come out for it and Harry watched as Louie chased after a waddling Hermione. She was full to bursting and Asher and Draco were trailing right behind. She was due sometime at the end of July and the beginning of August.

It meant that September was getting closer, and admittedly Harry was getting nervous because Teddy was now eleven years old. Instead of a letter by owl, Ilvermorny sent a gift box by eagle. Inside was a black velvet student planner with Teddy’s name on it along with the Gordian knot that represented the houses of the school. A finely made bookmark with the same engravings, and then a small rolled tapestry list of school supplies and recommendations. All of it was complete with a map of all the hidden shopping districts around America. It had taken everything in Harry to not run away and fall to pieces at the idea of Teddy leaving them. He was happy and sad all in one, and did his best to grin and bear it.

For six months, Harry had been living in a blissful daze. The men in his life and the rings on his fingers were a reason for that. He’d gotten married six months ago. It might not be marriage in the traditional sense, but who wanted to do traditional when there was so much more outside of it?

No matter how much the non-magical government tried to argue their marriage, they had no choice but to accept it because of their treaty and contracts with the magical government. It might also help that magicals had placed themselves in certain high positions over the last few years. It seemed to have all started when Harry made his move over. All of the magicals saw this as an opportunity. Out of all fifty states in the United States, thirty-five of those states now had a governor who was a magical, and at least half of the senate and congress were also made up of magicals who slipped themselves into positions of power right alongside the muggles. For a long time Harry hadn’t bothered to glance at the normal side of the world. He’d ignored it. He had ignored MACUSA unless he needed them. He had ignored all politics except for the ones that were important for the preternatural world. So he’d been taken back when Draco and Luna let him know what was really going on. It seemed like this had been decades in the making.

Maybe that had been their plan all along? It was the kind of thing Voldemort would have done. In fact, he had done it, but with more nefarious reasons. Harry considered this a win because it put the preternatural community on a more equal footing. Lorcan was even debating running for governor of Louisiana. A lot of European masters and the Council were extremely nervous by this move. Jean-Claude and Harry would be offering their full support if he decided to take this route.

“Why are you alone?”

“You shouldn’t be alone.”

“You’re very much needed.”

Harry couldn’t help but smile big and wide as he turned to Wicked Truth only for his eyes to get bigger when he saw Truth standing beside his brother looking absolutely delicious in a three piece layered suit. It was Italian style because all of the vampires looked good in it. Micah wore Italian cuts exclusively because they were tailored the best to his swimmer’s body. American ones made them look like boxes and were sometimes unflattering. He had gold and deep, but not dark, blue accents to accompany. His long dark hair was pinned back appropriately with a clip that had a sapphire attached to it. Harry had gifted a sapphire to both of them. He’d gotten Damian a ruby. Both looked like something out of Lord of the Rings, both of them were half shaven, same beautiful blue eyes, but Wicked’s hair was a dark tussle of blond and Truth was darker.

It was only recently that the two men were elevated to master vampire level; they'd lost a good amount of their own power when they slew their fountainhead. Both men had made the decision to be Harry’s nightly pommes, and it was through these feedings that both men began to swell with their original powers.

“Wow,” said Harry, shifting to look at him.

“Do you approve? I’m not sure I approve.” He looked down at himself, no facial expression. It was like both of them had forgotten how to use expressions. It made them come off as blunt, cold, and literal. “I miss my leather.”

Harry loved them. “You look amazing, Truth. Not that you always haven’t,” said Harry, reaching up on his toes to kiss the vampire.

“Are you trying to make me jealous?” Wicked said, and that was a literal question. Not a tease.

“Nope!” Harry mimicked only for Wicked to tighten his grip, and instead of a chin kiss the vampire kissed him on the lips. “You’re both smashing, and I’m trying not to cry again.”

“Why are you crying?”

“Did someone do something?”

Harry laughed and shook his head. “No. It’s Teddy,” he confessed, trailing his eyes over to see Teddy playing a shooting game with Micah, Edward, Peter, and Nathaniel. Jean-Claude was speaking quietly with Requiem nearby. He glanced around wondering where Luna happened to be only to find her talking to Vivenne. “He’s leaving me for school in September.”

“And that hurts you?” asked Truth.

“Does he have to go?”

Harry laughed. “Yes, I’d be selfish if I made him stay. I’ll be fine, and he does get to come home most weekends.”

A lot of weres and vampires naturally gravitated toward Harry. It was like they couldn’t help themselves. It was a source of contention with some people and their mates. Harry’s interesting cocktail of crazy was a source of befuddlement for the preternatural world, and with Jean-Claude and Harry’s powers continually growing it meant that their ardeur was getting stronger. Everyone across the world was vying for some piece of them in some way, shape or form. There was no way that Micah and Edward could feed their lust routinely, and not be overwhelmed with exhaustion afterwards. Neither of them had the ardeur, but Edward had the power to shield and deflect it. He was somehow able to absorb the lust during feedings, take it for himself, and then later use it to metaphysically form a shield. So far nothing seemed new with Micah when it came to the ardeur, but then maybe it gave him a tolerance with people trying to use their powers of control on him. He’d always had a natural barrier being a strong alpha leopard and metaphysical King at that. But it’d come to the point where Micah couldn’t be drowned in it.

Truth wound his arms around Harry from behind and drew him closer. “If only you knew how to be selfish every once in a while.”

“It’s not his nature, brother,” said Wicked. “So we must be selfish for him.”

Harry wasn’t really the biggest music fan, but this band was good. They should be if Harry was right about seeing how many zeros Jean-Claude had made on the check. They were Peter’s favorite, and there was nothing Jean-Claude couldn’t buy if he tried.

He stroked both of the vampires on the cheek. He loved how scratchy their shadows were. Harry’s eyes trailed over each of his husbands again. He noted Micah was laughing, doubled over, and leaning against a smirking Edward.

Peter was shaking his head, and Teddy was jumping up and down as he pointed at a prize. It seemed he won. Harry was betting they let him win. Cute. Nathaniel was leaning against Peter as he took the fanged teddy bear that had a devil’s outfit on.

Teddy then went running to Jean-Claude and Requiem. Requiem smiled prettily as Jean-Claude cooed and bent down to caress Teddy’s cheeks and offer him a kiss. Harry watched the scenes play out in front of him as Green Day’s ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ started playing. Fitting, Harry thought feeling a swell of emotion grab hold of his chest.

Micah and Edward broke off from Peter and Nathaniel who were moving closer to the stage. A couple of Peter’s friends joined them, no doubt delighted about the free concert.

Teddy was excitedly dancing around, his hair changing colors, often shifting to bright green. He was getting taller, and Harry was working to keep weight on the overactive child who had a wolf nestled inside. He ate all day, and as if they read his mind Damian appeared with a plate of fresh food for Teddy. Damian’s lover was at his side, and was trying her best not to scowl at the attention he bestowed on Teddy who hugged him around the neck and kissed his cheek.

Her name was Cardinal and she was one of Belle Morte’s line. She, like Requiem and the others, had come to Jean-Claude after the Master of London was assassinated. She had an overly model slim figure like a lot of the vampires. Her hair was a strange orange gold shade that trailed down her back. He supposed she’d be pleasing to anyone who was straight, but Harry wasn’t straight.

She also didn’t care for him much as when she first arrived she had tried to offer herself to Jean-Claude only to be outright ignored. As his attraction grew with his strengths, more and more people were vying for some part of Jean-Claude. She eventually gave up when she realized that he would never even look at her and had gone for Damian. However, because of Damian’s tie to Harry, there was a small ripple of contention. He didn’t think she was as bad as Meng Die, but then most of Belle Morte’s bloodline had a jealous bone a mile wide. Then who was Harry to throw stones?

A polyamorous relationship was a difficult one, boundaries were different, and a lot of communication was needed to make sure things were smooth. It was for the most part. Harry was comfortable in himself and his sex finally, and so were his men. All of them were happy together. Jean-Claude and Harry managed their ardeur with the support and love from Micah and Edward. Jean-Claude did not take anyone to his bed unless all or one of his husbands were with him. He fed a lot at his club, and Harry had his night and day pommes when Micah and Edward were unable.

But that did not stop the world around them from trying to push into their safe and happy bubble. Most of the masters in the world didn’t seem to understand, and continued to try and push the envelope.

Jean-Claude was the most powerful vampire in America, not to mention the only Sourdre de Sang in the States, and that meant that politics were becoming a much more regular thing at times. It was the only part about the wedding that Harry hated. Some of the masters, Harry felt, had been a bit inappropriate with their attempts at playing games and politics on their day.

It was especially trying because the only male master vampire wielding the full ardeur had refused all females vying for a spot in his bed, but there was no spot available. He’d made that clear, but it fell on deaf ears. In fact, Jean-Claude had refused a lot of males on the grounds that they weren’t family. Family first had become their motto. And by family, they meant those in their personal circle. Crispin and Domino were happily regulars with all of them having been denied for so long by Chang Bibiana, their former Chang. Christine had no problems sharing Crispin, and only asked for a picture or two every now and then. She understood some need for their own twisted form of monogamy, and not taking women had become that form. Also not taking strangers without one of them present. All weres had to ask Micah for permission first. It wasn’t needed in their personal circle. All of them were one big family. The Pard submissives, lone jaguar, and few lucky wolves included.

Instead of treating them as sources of food like the misunderstanding traditionalists, they were fun friends, family, and lovers! All family who were helping each other grow. They didn’t need new people to come in and stir the pot around and ruin things. Nicky had been a surprise addition. He fit in so well and he tried so hard. He romanced Harry and he would always try and romance them. Even Edward, who found it more often amusing than not. Nicky fell for Harry and Harry loved him. He knew his place in the group and was quite happy with it. He liked being in one place. No longer traveling with no place to call home. He was home. Finally.

Almost everyone they talked to that wasn't a real friend kept telling Jean-Claude that he needed to add more women. He needed to add more variety, and they were already offering before Jean-Claude could refuse or give a reason why he was refusing. Never mind the fact that Harry, Edward, and Micah were all standing there. When their words fell on deaf ears they started coming at Harry with propositions.

It all amounted to the fact that they were powerful and everyone wanted some of that power, so they were all crowding around them. Jean-Claude had finally made a concession that he would consider one or two future pommes to bring into a rotation, and maybe accept a few new members to their Kiss. But one, they had to be male; and two, they had to present themselves appropriately.

So, what did all the masters do? Ignored their criteria of course.

Harry didn’t want to confess to the sick feeling he had in his stomach at the DVDs and stacks of photographs that came to them. Vampire and wereanimal groups across the country had sent in applications for some of their people to join the Kiss and community; and hopefully become more than a normal member. They all wanted to be in Jean-Claude’s bed because the ardeur was power, and everyone wanted power. The DVDs had been everything from flat-out porn to strangely awkward dating tapes. It was like the old idea of an arranged marriage, though this was more for a mistress. Anything for a stronger tie. Anything.

His men were soon upon them, distracting him from his thoughts, and Teddy was spinning. “Look! Look! I beat Dad and Peter and Papa! It’s for you, Parrain!”

Harry laughed and took the teddy bear. “I’d rather have you as my bear,” said Harry, swooping around him with snuggles and kisses.

“Yes, but I’m going to be gone, and don’t think I didn’t notice you being sad.”

“Boys, have you been telling on me?” Harry looked at Wicked Truth who were watching on each side of him.

“We said nothing.”

“We have been here the whole time,” said Truth, with a rare twitch of his lip.

“You can’t fool me!” said Teddy, kissing Harry on the cheek.

“You’ve been mopey, mon Amour, that is not like you at all,” said Jean-Claude, brushing his palm across Harry’s cheek.

“I haven’t been mopey,” Harry scoffed as Micah laughed and wound his arms around him. A deep kiss caused their metaphysical beasts to rub sensually in acknowledgment sending shivers through both of them.

Edward just stared. “You want to try that again?”

Harry pouted at them. “No.”

Edward came closer, and he swooped around Harry and Micah. “You cannot hide, Little Raven. No matter how hard you try.” All of them combined and touching was always a rush. A deep bond that constantly seemed to tighten itself, making it hard to draw away from them. Everyone’s presence set his heart fluttering. Just being near them made him feel better about all the negativity going on around them. All the people trying to claw and claim something for themselves.

“I’m not hiding. Yes, I’m sad. But I’m happy too,” he pointed out for Teddy’s benefit. “At least you will be home on most weekends. Hogwarts would have been until Christmas.” He shuddered at the thought. He kissed each of his men, spending an extra long time with them all before looking down at the happy Teddy. “So you need not worry about me. Besides, I have too many people to make sure I don’t get sad.”

“Maybe you need some more,” Teddy teased, making Harry snicker.

“He’s cheeky,” said Micah. “Your fault.”

“Mine? I blame it on you, Leopard King!”

“How about all of us played a part? Come on, let’s go see if we can embarrass Peter one last time,” said Jean-Claude, smiling.

“Hmm, might be entertaining,” said Edward.

As they joined the flocks of leopards, wolves, rats, lions, three tigers, magicals, hyenas, and Peter’s fellow students, the tall eighteen year old turned, Nathaniel’s hand lodged in his. Once upon a time, Peter was a dreary and broody teen who didn’t know how to smile much, and if he did it had a force in it like he was trying too hard.

He’d been a budding sociopath and maybe some of those traits still stood out from time to time with how emotionless he could be. However, Harry liked to think that he wasn’t a full one because there was a spark in his eye as Harry curled around the teen who nuzzled naturally into him. A soft kiss was shared by Peter, Nathaniel, and Micah.

Peter was not a leopard, but he had a strain of leopard and wolf in him. It seemed that even without all the other effects, he had this need to be touched and have attention placed upon him. He was more into giving them out these days as well. Nathaniel had never looked so happy before. That had come as a surprise, but a good one. It might not seem logical or healthy for Peter to get roped into some games that were very adult, but it helped him gain a control that he’d never been able to have.

Nicky Murdoch joined them and Micah moved into Edward’s arms as big strong ones swooped around Harry, drawing him back. His lioness purred right up against him, pleased as punch to be having something that belonged to her.

“Am I late?” He asked, pressing a nose into Harry’s ear.

“Just in time.”

Logan and Jason were soon joining them. “Wow, I can’t believe you managed to get Green Day. Just how much did they cost?” asked Jason as he greeted Harry with a lick to his bottom lip. Logan ran a hand up Harry’s back in greeting of his Lupa and they exchanged a soft kiss that was more friendly than sexual.

“It was pennies,” said Jean-Claude, waving a hand. “Besides, not every day a boy graduates, oui?” He stroked Peter’s shoulders making the eighteen year old grin. “I don’t often get to enjoy things like this so it is a real treat to have watched everyone grow, and now Teddy will be leaving.”

“I’m going to come back!” Teddy promised with a jump as he swooped around Jean-Claude’s waist making everyone laugh. “You all act like I’m moving to Timbuktu. Dad, tell them they’re crazy.”

“Sorry, buddy, but if I hadn’t been overruled you’d be homeschooled,” said Edward. Teddy stuck out his tongue and Edward smirked as Micah reached for him and squeezed him.

“Oui, but it is the natural course, everyone ages,” Jean-Claude said, threading his fingers through Teddy’s hair that started changing colors.

“Everyone except us,” said Micah, grinning. “We’re ageless.”

“Especially, Little Raven,” Edward drawled.

“Oh, please. As if you don’t like the fact that you’ll reach forty, but you’ll never touch forty and all that comes with it,” Harry poked at him.

“I can beat the odds either way, Little Raven.” He leaned in and kissed his forehead.

“Least you're not stuck at seventeen,” Harry sulked. “It’s getting more and more frustrating. I’ll be twenty-nine, and no one’s going to believe me. If I was an actor this would be brilliant. Being a Federal Marshal? Not so brilliant.”

“How about being our mon Amour? It’s priceless.”

Yeah, maybe Harry was a little bit spoiled. How could he not be? He had the life that many men and women would dream of. He had lovers that all loved each other. He had family, and not all of it was about blood. He had a life that he wouldn’t trade for the world.

If only every day could be like this, then the world would be perfect. However, being powerful came with a high price to pay. At least he didn’t have to pay it alone.

It was nearing one when the party finally started winding down. Most of the guests were being escorted to their cars for home. Teddy was fast asleep in Nicky’s big arms. He looked so comfortable and content. Nicky didn’t seem to mind holding him as they saw to the last of their guests. Harry kept reaching over to touch or kiss him.

Jean-Claude had been called away by Asher sometime ago, which was unusual. He had requested that tonight be left alone from all politics, games, and business.

“Are we staying here tonight?” Harry asked the nearest vampire which turned out to be Requiem.

Luna came around and beamed as she looped her arm through Harry’s. She and Requiem had become one of those tooth rotting fluffy adorable couples that saw cavities lining the teeth. Both of them worked so well together, and the light in Requiem’s already bright turquoise colored eyes made them even more startling. Belle Morte would be so jealous, Harry thought fondly.

“Music was brilliant, Harry! It’s too bad Uncle was busy tonight with his own show. He’d have loved to attend.”

“You can thank Peter’s taste and Jean-Claude’s wallet,” Harry laughed as he kissed her cheek, getting a smile from Requiem. Requiem held Harry in very high regard, almost more so than Jean-Claude. He claimed that Harry had brought the light back into his still heart. Requiem was one of the few vampires who was purely heterosexual. He also had a habit of getting addicted to the ardeur. A combination which had been nearly lethal on an explosive level when Jean made an oopsie by sending Requiem to him one night. But, Requiem liked Harry. He thought Harry was the most honorable person he’d ever met in all his centuries. He called him Little Prince, and admitted that Harry would always be his one true exception because the love in his heart was overflowing. Harry thought he was being just a little overdramatic, but that was who Requiem was. He was an over dramatic poet who had a strong somber side. Then he met Luna through Harry and Lorcan. Requiem had been besotted at first meet, and really who wouldn’t be? Luna was great. He’d even asked Lorcan and Harry personally if it would be alright to court Luna.

“I am not sure, Little Prince. It seems that some of the children are being naughty,” said Requiem.

“Naughty? What about?” Harry asked, and that was when he realized that Edward and Micah had left his side, and were moving in the direction that Jean-Claude and Asher had been. He couldn’t see them now.

Some of the wolves and rats who worked at the Circus were moving in to do some cleanup, and Harry noticed a lot of big named people came up missing.

“Where’s Hermione?”

“Draco and Louie took her home a couple of hours ago,” said Luna. “She was exhausted. It seems some of the girls and boys aren’t happy being left out of the circle.”

“What? Who?”

“Meng Die,” said Requiem, slowly and carefully as if he were talking about a poisonous snake being under Harry’s foot. “London too.”

London was another London vampire, and Harry didn’t have too much to do with him. But he had been a possible contender for Harry’s pomme de sang once upon a time. He could gain power from being food for the ardeur. He could also be food every two hours without dying or suffering some form of exhaustion. But it came at the price of making him addicted. He was a somber and broody gentleman and not in the sweet way that Requiem had been.

However, at the time that he was presented, Harry was working through other things and so had taken to ignoring him. He hadn’t meant to. He didn’t really know London well at all. He just seemed to exist from time to time. Then Harry chose his own pommes, Wicked Truth. It’d been a shock when Harry informed people of this and surprisingly there’d been a lot of protests about it, and not from his men. It seemed that who Harry chose was a really big deal. It was like Jean-Claude choosing another pomme. It was an honor so high that no one believed Wicked Truth worthy as they hadn’t been in the flock long, on top of the stigma of them having turned on their own fountainhead.

Not their fault their fountainhead went insane, Harry thought. And he trusted the two with his life. Edward trusted them too with Harry’s safety and that was saying something.

“What’s wrong with London?” He didn’t bother with Meng Die.

“I can only speculate.”

“And that speculation?” Harry prodded.

“You,” said Requiem.

Harry frowned and looked at Luna then back at Requiem. “Why me? I don’t even talk to him!”

“Exactly, Little Prince.”

“Huh? I don’t know him, not well.”

“In vampire culture it’s not exactly about who knows who, Harry,” said Luna with a pet to his cheek. “Sometimes, it’s about strength and power.”

“Okay...?” Harry wasn’t following.

“Due to the nature of your powers, Little Prince, you draw the preternatural world to you in a passionate manner. At first it was only vampires, but now you are encompassing everyone. Jean-Claude has gained much since you became his human servant, and then he gained more when you all became a foursome. That’s never been heard of in our centuries of living. You are the first human to have the full power of the ardeur, and both of you are growing at a rate that not only terrifies this world’s ancients, but enthralls them. London is seeing it as a sleight that you have never once looked his way. That you have never once thought that maybe he would be worthy of you. He is older than Jean-Claude by a few centuries, and yet Jean-Claude is outstripping him when once upon a time he could have been London’s playtoy.”

“I wouldn’t have chosen anyone if I could get away with it, Requiem. If I could have, I’d have gone the rest of my life with no one but the three men I married. I chose Wicked Truth because I like them. I like them for who they are. I love them, they’re family.”

“I know you do, that is the thing about you, Little Prince. You choose what your heart desires and you never deviate. It is why I could love you and not feel pain or regret like I had when I was in Belle’s clutches. It is why you brought this creature beside you to me like a gift from the heavens. But, unfortunately not many understand this love in your heart. No one sees a difference between love and lust, and it is especially true in this culture.”

“So, London is upset because I didn’t choose him?”

“I think that is only a small part of the issue. You know how Meng Die can be. She may not have the ardeur, but she has the wit and powers of manipulation. She has a skill for learning things that is reminiscent of Jean-Claude in his early days. Except, Jean-Claude was affable and careful where she is not.”

“So she’s dragging London with her?”

“He’s doing so very willingly in hopes the tide changes. He sees this as you denying him his right to power, and a master vampire who believes he is being denied can make demands and concessions of the Master of the City.”

“Excuse me?” Harry choked in horror. “Like what?”

“Kitten? Are you okay? Micah asked me to come check on you.” Nicky still had Teddy in his arms, holding him like a baby. Never mind that his legs were dangling.

Harry took in a sharp shuddering breath and nodded. “I’m okay, Nicky. Thank you for offering your arms as Teddy’s bed.” He leaned over and kissed Teddy before kissing Nicky too.

“I don’t mind. You’re not that far from his weight.”

“Oi!” Harry scoffed. Nicky smirked as Luna and Requiem laughed. “Not nice. You can go lay him down. I think we’re all staying here at the Circus tonight.” He touched Teddy’s lightly breathing chest, and Nicky gave him one more nod before turning and heading in that direction. By now, all the guests were gone and they were standing outside the large blue tent as various weres moved to clean up. “So, what is Meng Die wanting exactly?”

“I do not know,” said Requiem solemnly. “One can only guess when it comes to a woman feeling scorned.”

Luna left Harry’s side and pushed into Requiem who kissed her on the forehead. “Harry will fix it. He fixes everything,” she said assuredly.

Harry wasn’t so sure. “I highly doubt anything I do would make her happy unless I dropped dead. She hates my guts.”

“You’ll still fix it. You’ll know what to do in time. You always do.”

Harry sometimes forgot about Luna’s blind faith in him. He hugged her tight and then kissed both of them on the cheek. “Looks like I’m going to go find out what’s going on for myself. Why am I left out of everything?”

“You have more than enough on your plate, Little Prince. You work hard all day every day into the night, and without stopping. Even I, who only comes by the house a couple times a week have noticed it. Your husbands are trying to keep some of the stress off your shoulders.”

Harry smiled, the word husbands being used out loud made his skin warm and his blood rushed. “Maybe you should come by more often, both of you. You’re more than welcome to even move in with us.”

Luna beamed. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll get one of those beautiful houses across the way?” She tilted her head. “What do you think?”

Requiem stared down at her. “If that is your will, I will be your will.”

“You better bring lots of toothpaste for your visits.” Harry deadpanned.

Requiem did the human blink and turned to Harry. A serious expression on his handsome face. “Are you running out?” Luna burst out laughing, and he looked at the woman and back at Harry who was snickering. “Did I miss one of those cheeky lines of yours?”

Harry didn’t bother to respond to the confused vampire, and decided to let Luna have that as he winked at her. He headed for the underground to see what kind of damage Meng Die was causing now.

Meng Die and London, huh? The one didn’t surprise him with her past, but the other?

Interesting.

The Circus of the Damned’s underground was absolutely massive with many catacombs and winding labyrinths. Some of them ended in dead-ends. It spanned further than the Circus itself. It’d been used in the past for slaves and all that horrible stuff so was quite expansive even before the magicals had taken expanding charms to the spaces. Perfect for security, but Jean-Claude rarely ever slept there anymore. In fact, Asher and Draco were at the Circus more often these days than even he was. Jean-Claude had spared no expense for them carving out their own personal rooms together.

Harry traveled down the long winding swirling staircase of stone, through some doors and into the open dungeon where most people went to and from. It was a common room of sorts with doors leading into various avenues. A set of double doors at the very back would lead into another labyrinth that was charmed to deflect anyone sneaking through to harm one of theirs. All the walls moved independently, randomly, and could even move entrances to stop someone from accessing an area they shouldn’t. Many vampires and new weres were annoyed at the constant random change. Some even complained to Jean-Claude who only smiled at them and chastised their laziness.

This week the gauzy curtains were a soft flowing blue and green that seemed to shimmer in the chandelier lighting. Lovely accents of pillows and decor made up the room to look like a jewelry box with some gold and silver trimmings. A combination of Rafael and Harry’s hard work and magic had seen the once gloomy dungeons brightened. A set of Victorian inspired white sofas ringed the center with an opulent dark wood coffee table that had bronze workings of snakes on the legs and borders around it. It was a Black family piece having been in storage, and had to be at least a few centuries old. A white faux fireplace and over top of that was the outstanding hand-painted portrait of Asher, Juliana, and Jean-Claude walking through a vast rolling green field.

But it wasn’t the decor that took Harry’s attention. It was the center of the room. A ring of black-shirted security guards along with Wicked Truth stood in a rather strategic manner as if they were waiting. A lot of vampires were also watching. He saw Ellie, Andy, Faust, Damian, Cardinal, Byron, and even Willie hiding in the background.

Jean-Claude was between Micah and Edward, Asher was on Edward’s side, and the two master vampires of the moment were opposite them.

Meng Die was like a China doll. She was slim and perfect all the way through. She had eyes that drew men to her like moths to a flame. Her long rich black hair was oftentimes ponytailed or knotted back. She looked like a stereotypical dominatrix. She had the skills of one too, and the only reason she was taller than Harry was because of the four inch spiked heels she wore.

Beside her was London. He was tall and athletic, dark curls ringed around his head with black eyes in a handsome broody face that was always sheet white even when he was full of blood. Draco described him as a modern Muggle Goth or a movie hit man. He was the sly watchful sort, rarely speaking and when he did it was oftentimes cruel.

Even if Harry hadn’t chosen Wicked Truth, he wouldn’t have chosen London if only for that last part. Harry didn’t like cruel people, Haven’s death was a testament to that.

But it wasn’t just them that caught his awareness, it was two young looking werehyenas that stood around Meng Die. Neither of them looked all that pleased to be there. It was like being trapped between a basilisk and an acromantula, either way someone wasn’t going to get out unscathed.

Asher had a look of rare fury on his handsome still slightly marred face. His golden locks had been pulled into a braid to the back of his head. Harry thought personally that Asher had never looked so handsome before, not even in the unblemished landscape over the fireplace did he look so - real - to him.

“-If this is your preference, then you are simply going to have to wait until a territory is opened to you. And if Narcissus wishes to be so foolish as to leave the safety of St. Louis for new borders, then by all means. Let’s see how that works,” said Jean-Claude.

Harry felt like he’d come in on a movie somewhere in the middle and had no idea what was going on. Rafael, who had been watching between Claudia and Bobby Lee, crossed over the moment Harry stepped into the room. Peter was leaning against the wall beside Nathaniel, but also nearer to Edward and watching the scene with cold calculating eyes. Something had happened.

“What’s going on?” Harry asked. But no one responded to his question. Rafael gently touched his elbow. “Rafael?”

“It seems that two masters are fighting for control of the werehyenas,” Rafael told him.

“You mean-” Harry looked from Meng Die to Asher. “I see.”

“I will not let this stand. I am Temoin and the hyenas are mine. We’ve had that agreement for years. You may be able to have them to call, but no way are you going to get them all in line, especially Narcissus. He won’t let a female rule over him.”

“You sure of that?” asked Meng Die with a pretty smile. “How many times has he asked you now for more? You have bound yourself in a life of monogamy,” she spat the word, “and his words have gone ignored. What could you expect?”

“We’ve granted his requests by adding more hyena guards where needed,” said Jean-Claude.

“Do you truly believe that you alone could get a hold of them all? Some may follow you seeing a tasty treat, but once they’ve had their fill they will run,” said Asher coldly.

“I do believe I have rights as a master vampire, and so does London. I do believe we’ve been disrespected all these years, and I’m now claiming that respect back,” said Meng Die, tilting her chin up.

“Do not get above your station, Meng Die,” Jean-Claude warned as the temperature in the room continued to drop.

“I may not be able to cross with you, Jean-Claude. But I am entitled by vampire law to rights that I deserve or are you going to shoot me between the eyes?”

“Decapitation would be more fun,” Edward said flatly.

“And then you would have war on your hands. You’d disgrace yourself because you could not win the game and so you take the easy way out.”

“If it works, who cares about your games?” Micah followed up. “Narcissus knows that if he chooses to leave the Coalition, our treaty with him will dissolve until he renegotiates. Not only that, but he will have to hunt for new space for how many werehyenas again?” He looked over at Asher.

“Hundreds.”

“Too many,” Rafael was close to Harry’s ear and had whispered it. “I don’t like it, they’ve never been good at community.” Harry used a thread of magic as he pressed closer to Rafael so the man could talk to him in peace without being overheard. Rafael grazed down Harry’s back as he nodded at the man. “Not ten years ago we were at war with them. Nikolaos thought it was a good game.” Harry wound his arm behind Rafael. Sometimes it was a pain being short.

“No one won that game I bet.”

“No. No matter how many were slaughtered for a child’s game,” said Rafael, turning fractionally. Harry curved into the man’s muscled body. He enjoyed the warmth and the way his energy ran across his skin. He’d always had a connection with Rafael and it had only gotten stronger over the last year. He’d been mingling a lot with the wererats. Bobby Lee and Rafael being the bigger ones at his side for the power rush of the ardeur. Bobby Lee and Lisandro often pretend to fight over who got to be his guard. Lisandro had been great during their bachelor party. Harry wouldn’t mind fucking him again, but the man had gotten in trouble with his wife. Harry was comfortable feeding on them, and all were great lovers. In return, their power became stronger.

“I’ll do my best not to let that happen,” he breathed as Bobby Lee took up Harry’s other side.

“So you are denying our rights?” asked Meng Die.

“Not precisely. I am asking what it is that you are wanting, Meng Die? What do you hope to get out of this sudden demand? Did I not decree that today be off-limits for business? If I accept and agree to these rights of yours then you will have no choice but to accept a punishment for not following my orders,” he warned, and Harry felt him wrap a layer of thin cold power around him.

He saw Meng Die tighten up and London’s eyes flicked, but neither moved. “You are holding me back, Jean-Claude, just as Belle Morte held you back,” she hissed. “You’re holding both of us back from what we are rightly owed. I have the power to challenge Asher here if I so choose for the right of second, and then we can see who the werehyenas prefer.”

“You could not get control of the wolves. So you attempt to try and snatch my Temoin’s animal to call without so much as asking his permission?”

“I’m stronger than him! I don’t have to ask.”

“Are you really?” Asher asked with a smile. When he smiled it was surprisingly cold and even a bit malicious, which was not like Asher. Asher was a sweet and gentle sort.

“You’re broken, no matter how you age,” spat Meng Die.

“Even if, by some miracle, I accepted this challenge between the two of you, that would mean I would have to trust you, and that is the kind of power you do not have that Asher has over you,” said Jean-Claude. “So be very careful, Meng Die. I do not wish to have to dispose of one of my creations. You are toeing a line.”

“If you do it will be mutiny,” said London. “We’ve already contacted Belle Morte.” That drew a lot of breaths and Harry’s hand tightened on the back of Rafael’s shirt.

“She agrees with us,” said Meng Die. “She agrees that we have our rights, and that we should seize them.”

“Ah, but you are not her childe, Meng Die. London may be, but you are mine. She is merely the distant grandmother of you. A tie that is tenuous at best as I am no longer hers but my own Sourdre de Sang. She has no say in what belongs to me,” said Jean-Claude. When he took a step forward, the fear finally flashed onto her face. “So, Meng Die, what is it that you truly want? You will never be my Temoin. I hold a place for you in my heart, but you are not trustworthy. You may have power, but you don’t know how to use it well. You are still a child, still unrefined. Your beauty can only carry you so far, and if you are not careful you may become a catamite in the clutches of masters far more unkind than me. If I am forced, I will remove you from that place. London, is this the route you truly wish to take?”

“As a master vampire and your fourth I demand to be formally greeted,” said Meng Die. “London is also within his rights. He would have rats to call if it were not for interferences.” her eyes shot a look in Harry’s direction.

“You have rats?” Rafael resisted smirking. “Sorry, never felt the call.”

London’s jaw clicked. “I wonder why with your cock so deep in the human slut over there.” He didn’t flinch when the barrel of a gun pressed to his chest, and Truth was suddenly there right next to London. He’d moved so fast that no one had noticed, his obsidian blade right at his throat.

“You want to go that route?” Edward asked.

“How did you get so fast?” Meng Die gasped.

“How indeed,” said Truth blankly.

“It’s him who made him fast. He feeds on them and they’ve become masters again, haven’t you?” London asked tightly.

“Not of importance to you.”

“We are no one to you as you are to us,” said Wicked solemnly.

Normally, Harry would interfere and throw a bit of magic around to scare others in compliance, but he had come to learn that if he did this too much then it could be construed as Jean-Claude being too weak. It was the only reason why Edward hadn’t simply ended their sorry existence already. Jean-Claude could not be seen as weak by anyone right now. Not with everyone’s eyes on them. Jean-Claude was the Master of the City, and husbands or not, he had to sometimes fight those battles on his own.

“How does this work?” asked Micah to Jean-Claude.

“She wishes for what you call a pissing match, mon Chaton,” he said coldly. “Whoever sees her as dominant can greet her, and whoever feels they are dominant or equal to her, she will throw up a challenge.”

“It will see her dead,” said Edward.

“Oui. It will. I suppose her survival instincts have become null and void. She wishes to try her power over others. The ritual is an offering of blood. The dominant or master, is within his rights to take what is offered. That is how it was originally done centuries ago. The master would pick one of the offerings and feed, and by offering to be submissive to him you give him right to choose to feed.”

“You cannot by vampire law turn down my rights,” Meng Die snapped. “Unless you wish to tell every master vampire that may or may not want to come to your city that you are holding their rights hostage.”

It would be seen as mutiny, Harry realized. It could hurt all of Jean-Claude’s relationships that have been built, and with the werehyenas on the verge of crossing over to Meng Die it could see an upheaval.

Then Harry had a bright idea. It was like a light-bulb flashed into his head. “Sure, but that’s going to be a short list considering the wererats are mine, the lions are mine, the leopards are mine, and the wolves are mine and Jean-Claude’s.”

“Don’t forget the tigers,” Bobby Lee added.

“Ah, yes, the tigers. They are also mine, and of course Damian is my vampire servant, and no servant of mine is going to be subservient to you and to me. I mean, that would just be laughable wouldn’t it?” He reached out a hand, and Damian who was in the corner watching came right to him. He ignored the hissing from Cardinal as a warm hand enveloped his own. Harry drew him in for a kiss if only to show a point. “So, who does that leave? Ah, yes the werehyenas and vampires.”

“You consider yourself above me? A servant?”

“Human Servant and member of the Tetrumvirate to the Master of the City of St. Louis who is your master and creator. Noble and old blood,” said Harry. “I do believe a certain Traveler that we shall not name reminded me where the old blood stands,” he said with a smile at the open joke. “It stands as a warning. Careful not to cross.” He moved from Rafael right then. “Because you never know what tricks lie in our blood. Unless you are too young to remember.” Apparently, there had been a mini-war eons ago and the vampires had lost. Since then, no word had been spread about them. All the vampires ran in shame to hide and the magical world had built up blocks and runes to slowly make the world forget they existed. Much like the muggle world, but now the barriers were breaking down. “So, in essence everything we have to call, in our sphere of four, are bound by the old blood. Do you want to try it, Meng Die? London?” he asked sweetly. “We can stick to the rules, the traditions, but you’d have to play by them too.”

“Oui, you are correct, mon Amour,” said Jean-Claude with a smile. “Do you wish for this, Meng Die? We have not denied rights, but instead formed a community of not only vampires, but every creature. You sticking to the old ways, like Europe, is only diminishing your powers. I embrace the modern, and never forget the darkness that we all were birthed from.” He sent shivers down every spine in the room, including Harry and them. “We are in America. We are not in Europe. If you wish to leave the city... by all means, let’s see what master will have you. Yen will not allow you back in his territory and has spoken negatively enough of you to other strong masters you may have issues finding someplace in America. If you wish for your own territory then you are going to have to wait your turn. Just like all of us have had to wait our turn.” Harry highly doubted that Meng Die could control an entire city. She was way too mad and powerful. “So I ask, Dares and Perses, do you wish to go down this road with Meng Die?”

“Come to me,” Asher hissed, and with his voice he layered it with vampiric powers causing both men to turn toward him.

“No!” Meng Die cried out and she poured out her own powers causing both men to shake their heads as if trying to clear their minds.

“Come to me now!” Asher held out his hand and Dares made it across. Asher snapped his fingers. “Knees.”

Perses kept struggling between both masters, his body began to sweat, and Meng Die pulled on the power like a rope.

“You break Narcissus’ hyenas he will never forgive you,” Asher sneered.

“These ones are disposable,” Meng Die spat and that had been the wrong thing to say.

“But I thought you loved me?” Perses gasped.

She snorted. “Lust, not love you dog! I fuck you and you obey me! Come to me now!” Her voice fluctuated with a high amount of power, but Perses got control of himself. He seemed to reach through the metaphysical hooks around him and he walked with heavy footsteps to Asher who curled around his waist and drew him into his side. Perses curled into the safety of Asher’s arms.

Meng Die let out a roar and made to attack Asher head on without care. Her anger rose until all reason was lost, but Jean-Claude was there in an instant and he snapped his fingers, sending her onto her knees in front of him.

“You do not treat others in such a manner,” Asher growled. “You are unworthy. Hopefully Narcissus will have learned his lesson.”

But she couldn’t speak, she was drawn into Jean-Claude’s eyes as he bent down to stare at her, nose to nose. All was quiet. A pin could drop and everyone would jump from the noise. Then Meng Die began to scream. She brought her hands to her head and she screamed out.

“You best remember what you once were. How I made you. You begged me to make you and I did. I sculpted you and I can break you. Do not forget it.” London drew back a few steps. His eyes flickering from one person to the other. “This is my city and these are my people. My family, and no one is going to come in here making demands. If there is one thing I have learned from my own human servant, it is this. It does not do to have the strongest, if the strongest are weak of mind and heart. I shall take the weakest, most affable and gentle so long as their mind and hearts are strong. You - who have been wound up by Meng Die, London, what has you acting out so?” He turned on the man and stared him straight in the eyes.

London’s coal black eyes flickered with pain. “You brought me here, Jean-Claude. You brought me with the promise that I would be the pomme to the only human to ever possess the ardeur. The only reason I left the court, and then you all ignore me. You shove me aside and pretend I do not exist.”

“I said could, mon ami, not that you would be. It is in the end his decision.”

“I don’t even know you,” Harry huffed.

“You did not know of Requiem or Byron, and yet you took them.”

“Against all of our wills and I almost died for it,” Harry reminded the vampire.

“Uh - no, Duckie, I was extremely willing to have your hands on me,” said Byron who had been standing beside Ellie and Andy to watch the fireworks. “And Requiem is so over the moon about ya!”

“It’s the principle of the matter. I’m not a vampire.”

“You’re a living vampire,” said London, turning his gaze on Harry. “If you would feed from me, the power would be exponential, and both of us would grow. With me, you would not need to feed from anyone else. You would have no worry about anyone being drained again. You can drop all the men as they would become unnecessary.”

Maybe at one time that could have been an option that he might have considered, but now that he was so far in, he loved his friends and family. It wasn’t about the food. It was about touch and companionship. Yes, they nourished him and he in return gave them a rise in their natural powers. But they were his family. He couldn’t drop them now if he wanted to. Harry cringed inwardly, and the only reason he didn’t show it outwardly was because Micah’s arm snaked around him to keep him from doing so. Edward kept his eyes trained on London, his gun loose at his side. He wanted both hands available, obviously.

“Instead, I have been ignored. I have been cast aside like I’m a newly made vampire despite being hundreds of years older than most in this room. It’s insulting, Jean-Claude,” He spat.

“It doesn’t matter what I am or what I’m not, the fact is: I don’t know you. I think this is the first time we’ve ever spoken to each other directly.”

“I don’t want to talk to you. I want to fuck you,” London growled. “I’d be the best fucking lay you’d ever have, and you’d never have to feed the ardeur on anyone else.”

It wasn’t that easy. Harry drew back into Micah. He didn’t know what to say to this.

“No,” said Micah sharply.

“You have no say, Leopard King,” said London.

“Husband, you mean,” Micah smirked. “And I do as a matter of fact. He is my Nimir-Ra,” he continued. “No means no. We made the mistake once with Haven. Let’s not go down that road again.”

“My husbands say no, they mean no,” said Harry. “I would rather have multiple lovers that know and care about me. Ones that I trust. Ones that would fight for me and I them. You call me a human slut and then you get angry because I won’t do you. What gives? Why should I even bother trying to like you?”

“Oui, mon Amour. London, I think it best you step out and unwind yourself from Meng Die; otherwise you may go back to Belle Morte and her court. You can be great food then.” If London had been human, he would have flinched. “Make your choice carefully.”

"Hold her," Edward called out while keeping eye contact with London. He waved his gun at Meng Die who was still on her knees, trapped in her head. Bobby Lee and Claudia moved forward and grabbed her arms. Without hesitation, Edward pulled a second gun and shot her twice. "Burn the remains," he said in the silence that followed.

“You killed her. Why?” London asked, looking at her dead body as the guards carried her out of the room.

“He is Death and she wasted her second chance at living with this attempted coup.” Jean-Claude said morosely. “She had warned previously.”

Meng Die and Harry never got along. Didn’t mean his heart didn’t break for the loss of his husband’s childe.

Chapter Text

Something woke him from the blissful sleep he’d fallen into. All around him were the loving men he’d married with the addition of Nicky. They were easily taking up the entire expanse of the bed. Edward was on one end with Jean-Claude’s beautiful body up against him, and Harry was between Micah and Nicky, both had an arm around him, and their bodies hugged against him. All were naked with sweat dried to a gel like film layered on top of their skin.

“Something is coming, and I can’t stop it!” the constant devil on his shoulder cried out. For a brief second he saw a flash of Voldemort’s ghostly visage before the room around him began to bloom and the overpowering scent of rose tainted with jasmine filled the air.

“Guys!”

She filled their metaphysical minds like air blowing into a balloon. Everyone stiffened and Jean-Claude clenched Edward as she grew bigger and wider inside of them. She was dressed in gold, a deep rich satin that made her pale brown eyes look more amber than they were. Her brunette hair was curled in careful ringlets on top of her head to cascade around her oval face. It looked complicated and untouchable.

She spread her arms wide, chin coming up as Jean-Claude grew still like stone. “I am Belle Morte, I am Beautiful Death, gaze upon me, desire me, but come to me, my petite ones, and I will give you all you desire.”

Jean-Claude’s memories flowed through him like a wave on another length, and he knew Micah and Edward had captured the memory as well. She was making that same speech to Jean-Claude and Asher, and they fell under her spell.

But now, now that they all lay there, not a speck of temptation lay within any of them. All simply stared at her with their mind’s eye as though she were a passing figment. Jean-Claude’s mind was crystal clear. ‘Love is not an illusion and love does not go away. We went away and we no longer bow to you.’

Harry and his men, including Nicky who rose up confused at the image in his head, all stared at the figure with varying degrees of cold disinterest.

For one brief second, Belle Morte couldn’t seem to understand their expressions or their lack of interest as she tried to caress herself and blow a kiss of lust toward them. None of them flinched as it seemed to dissolve into the air. He could feel her body puff up, indignance over being ignored. Indignance over the rejection. Her eyes cast a glow about her face.

“He is not with you,” her voice sounded like honey, but Harry knew there was a deep-seated poison inside of the thick sweet syrup. She must be talking about Asher.

“He is with another, and he shall never touch you again,” said Jean-Claude boldly.

“Who is that?” Nicky asked, and on instinct he drew Harry and Micah with one arm closer to his body. “What is that?”

Micah stroked his cheek and neck, and for the first time gave him deference with a nip on the chin.

“Belle Morte,” Jean-Claude answered.

“Your creator.”

“Oui.”

However, Harry felt as though there was something off with this image. Something was wrong with her appearance happening so suddenly. She hadn’t been able to breach his mind since that last time. It shouldn’t be possible.

“Looks like she’s speechless,” Micah said dryly.

Harry watched as the anger filled her eyes with a pale brown fire. It was like staring at the sun through a dark glass. Just as the sun can burn skin if magnified through glass, so could Belle’s power if one rejected her.

But, Harry was, if nothing else, good at reflecting the sun’s rays and when she tried to flood them with an ocean’s worth of ardeur Harry felt Edward reach up with a metaphysical hand and smack it away. She jolted, her angry eyes growing wide as she stared at the ice blue that took her head on.

“Not even going to touch us,” said Edward silkily. “You want to try again?”

“Lust is no longer my only weapon,” she said, holding her hand out to the darkened room.

Harry could feel the shadows and noticed that the only light shining was from a torch. Jean-Claude had gotten rid of the torches months ago once the electricity and magic had finalized in the dungeons. Where on earth was she?

“Feel my new power and learn to fear me again!” the nose burning scent of overpowering roses grew around them as the pulse of magic ran through the air, and on the edge of that perfume was the scent of jasmine. Not a scent associated with Belle Morte at all.

It caused a thrill of anxiety and uncertainty to flash through him when a hint of jungle rain wormed its way between the flowering scents. Jasmine and rain had been the scent of the Mother of All Darkness, but she had been blown up by an operation employed by Edward to Leo Harlan and Olaf. Even the Traveler had helped by supplying information on where her body lay. It’d been a quiet operation, one that not even Asher and the others had been aware of in case they were ever interrogated. It had been Black Orders, ran through so many channels and back again.

“She’s not Belle…” As Harry made the connection the person acting as Belle blew through him, raising the beasts that were locked deep inside of him.

First was his leopard, she stirred awake and rose like a force that Harry had never felt before. It sent his body into a plume of internal flames that had him sweating as his skin threatened to rip him apart. He took in a deep gasp as Belle reached out and managed to lay her metaphysical hands on him. His leopard liked the scent of Belle and was drawing close without resistance. It was something she’d never done before. “You are still warm, ma poupette. Jean-Claude can cut the vampire away from me, but he doesn’t hold leopard in his power and you know too little to be able to fight me.”

But Micah sneered at her, reaching a hand out to Harry’s cheek and turned it as he heaved. “Look at me, Baby.” But as Micah’s mouth touched his lips to take Harry’s leopard, all the metaphysical links inside of him opened wide. Harry couldn’t shield from the combined powerful vampire magics. He reached out and tasted Damian’s power with a thread of panic causing the redhead to rise up out of Cardinal’s arms from where he lay and made his way out toward him. He could taste all of those he’d ever touched with the ardeur and called them to him. Wicked Truth were moving from their guard positions. Jason was rising away from Logan. Rafael and Bobby Lee were on their feet. More and more men flickered, face after face, body after body.

Instead of invoking Harry’s leopard to pour into Micah, Micah went the opposite route, kissing and lovingly pressing Harry’s creature down, down, down and back inside of him. It didn’t hurt this time like it had when Marcus shoved the wolf back down his throat. Instead, it was soft and gentle. As if Micah’s leopard was leading her to safety. His leopard listened, bowing to her Nimir-Raj and retreating. It was pulling away from the addicting touch of Belle Morte.

Harry heaved out. “How-?”

“Domino and Crispin have been teaching me,” said Micah with a loving smile. “It’s how the weretigers have bred pure all these centuries. Apparently, I’m a natural at it.”

“You have done my bloodline proud, ma poupette; look at all of them, you should taste and feel them,” Belle swooned. “And you, my little leopard, why don’t you come to me?” She reached a perfect hand out and Harry expected Micah’s leopard to be drawn to her as everyone else, even him. But Micah grew bigger where he sat wrapped around Harry, and his beast came rushing out metaphysically with a roar causing Belle to snap her hand back before it could bite. It was only a shadow, a figment, but it was there.

“No,” he said clearly. “You have no power over me.”

She drew back, her eyes searching each of the men on the bed. “And you - how is it that you are awake, my lion-kitty?” She turned to Nicky after a moment. As if she was trying desperately to find some power.

“I’m Harry’s. Not yours,” Nicky snarled.

“My, my, you are a poupette after my own heart, aren’t you?” she purred and then drew back. Her eyes darkening.

“You might as well go, there is nothing here for you,” Edward sneered.

“All women are unattractive. Pushy women more so,” Nicky followed up.

Belle’s beautiful face drew back and the shadows began to gather around her. The powerful scent of rose lowered as that jasmine scent took center stage. Underneath the smell of the perfume was a dry heat and then she was calling the lion. However, Nicky’s hand reaching out to grip Harry’s knee was enough to help chase it back. Nicky’s lion and Micah’s leopard both made their way metaphysically out to stand in front of Harry like two still knights made of stone with glowing eyes.

“That scent,” Edward pointed out and Harry nodded.

“It is,” he said, trying to keep his voice even and not as shaky as he felt. He was growing cold from the shower of sweat his skin had given off when she rose his leopard, and being naked wasn’t helping.

“Belle, what have you done?” Jean-Claude gasped, and Harry knew that no matter how angry and furious Jean-Claude became of her, she would always have a special place in him. That was the humanity that never died in Jean-Claude like it had so many others. Somewhere. Even if he no longer loved her. She was his creator after all, even if the ties had unwound.

She smiled and the scent grew stronger. “She was the Mother of us all. If we had let her power die with her, we would have all died.”

“That is a lie,” said Jean-Claude. “A lie to keep us from attacking those that made us.” Wicked Truth were proof of that.

“We were not willing to take that chance,” she said, and Harry felt her power reaching out to them. It was like a visible fog as the doors burst open and their room was flooded. All of them froze at the presence, their minds filling in the void of confusion with Belle Morte’s image.

Harry had no idea what she meant to do with the power at her fingertips, but he knew it couldn’t be good. The mist gathered thicker and it tried to trick them into looking in the wrong direction. Then Harry let out a cry as the pain of a claw digging beneath his ribs lanced through him. It tore a gasp from him, and blood began to spill as men piled on the bed around him in chaos. Belle had never been able to cut from a distance with her animals, and Marmee Noir had only been able to toy with their animals, but not cut. However, combined together it seemed that they most definitely could.

Micah and Nicky held their position, gripping Harry tight as the leopard and lion tried to rise up again. “Here, kitty, kitty,” Belle cooed and then she called it in French, but the language didn’t matter, only the power. Harry writhed and fought hard not to scream out. Someone, or several someones, were touching his stomach. He could feel the calm steady control of Damian’s white palms, the dark tanned skin of Rafael pinning him back. “I am not so easily stopped now, Necromancer. I have the power of the Mother of us all in me, and you cannot stand against me!”

Logan was suddenly there moving beside Rafael and pouring some of his powers into Harry. He saw Jean-Claude and Edward shift to accommodate everyone climbing onto the bed. Jean-Claude clenching Edward tight while trying to keep the vampiric powers at bay.

He saw Peter had slipped into the room following Nathaniel, who answered the call along with all that he had ever fed on that were in the area. He could feel them moving in and closer. Someone knelt by his legs, Edward’s hand pressed to his back to push his null power through Harry and at Belle Morte in an attempt to drive her back.

For a moment, Harry lay there suspended, unable to breathe or comprehend. Then he felt Micah, Nicky, and Logan’s beasts slide into place within his soul from where they laid a hand on his skin. He became surrounded by a bay of warmth, and their silken fur rubbed against him. Each of the beasts greeted each other as they rubbed. Everyone began to push her back away from Harry and his creatures.

As his Ulfric, Rex, and Nimir-Raj pushed the powers of Belle Morte/Marmee back, back, back, something dark and musky with a jungle scent began to appear on the corner of Belle’s vision.

“I told you it would take more of us,” said the man’s voice, and Harry saw him right then as he smelled the pine and grass heat of a lion, the thick forest and the musk of wolf, and the rain and jungle. It was thick and exotic. Leopard. Harry knew who it was before the vision cleared. It was the Master of Beasts who stood with Belle Morte. He had one of the darkest complexions Harry had ever seen on a vampire, even Mirembe who was originally from Uganda before she was brought to the new world on a slave ship. He had strong Indian ties. He wore a pair of harem pants with a matching sparkly vest over a silk shirt. He was another Council member and he’d come to St. Louis once, only to be chased out. Harry had forced him to relinquish his son in exchange for his own life. What was kind of sad was that Harry might have let the bastard live if the Master of Beasts had been willing to sacrifice himself. But a parent, this vampire was not. “He is much too powerful to be left untamed, and in the hands of a child.” He stared blankly at Jean-Claude.

“You again,” Edward growled somewhere in the distance, and Harry could still feel his hand flat on his back. He was keeping Harry upright, and the men around him were trying to mend the claw attack while others placed themselves like a barrier between Belle Morte and him. He could taste his own blood, that coppery metal of tang with a hint of sweet.

The Master of Beasts could call almost every kind of wereanimal, and he had three of them clustered around him. He smiled out at them unpleasantly. “Jean-Claude, Master of the City of St. Louis, greetings from the Council on high. We have come to tame you tonight as I have tamed all my beasts.” With the exception of his wife, who had been a wererat and given him his now deceased son, he ruled by fear and power. Just as Belle ruled by seduction, power, and fear.

It was disgusting.

“You may very well try, Beastmaster, but you shall not succeed,” Jean-Claude said as he settled back against the bed, one hand still clutched to Edward’s thigh. No amount of firepower was going to help them right now. It was a mind battle of the century.

“You lied to us. You said you were a Triumvirate, and then we hear news of more. You really think you could hide what you were from us?” the Beastmaster laughed cruelly.

“We did successfully when you were here in person. Only one figured it out and they saw no reason to share that information.” Jean-Claude smiled as if this was the easiest thing in the world, not a mind attack that it truly was.

“So, he did figure it out after all? No matter. He is not a part of this.”

“No, because he would not agree to your schemes,” said Jean-Claude. “He is a smart man, unlike yourself these days. You and Belle Morte are not the whole of the Council, and I know the Dragon would be infuriated if she knew what you have done.”

“Does not matter. We have something better and bigger than the Council,” and before they knew it he called the two familiar others with his hands. Captain Thomas Carswell was still dressed in a version of the British uniform he’d worn when he was a soldier for Queen Victoria in the 1800s. His dark gold hair was still cut short and neat, but the brownish mustache that curled across his upper lip and up to meet his sideburns always reminded him of those in his world. He was the poor and pitiful human servant to Padma, and Harry knew that there was no love between these two.

In fact, he and Gideon, Padma’s animal to call, despised their master. Gideon’s hair was still somewhere between brown and blond, but it was longer than last time, shoulder length now, thick and straight with an edge of wave to it as if the longer it got the more it would wave. His eyes were yellow with orange pinwheels, tiger eyes. He also had fangs on the top and bottom of his mouth. Padma had forced him to stay in tiger form for too long and now Gideon couldn’t come back completely. Thomas looked at Harry with a pained expression as he raised a slow hand. “If I had a choice, I would not help him do this.”

“I know,” said Harry, and then the air cut-off completely as the power washed like a storm over them. A hot wind traveled the length of Harry’s body. He and Damian started screaming and writhing on the bed beneath the hands that held him. Pain curled through Harry, all of the weres inside of him were being stirred and brought out, forced from his body with snarls and anger for the disturbance. More doors slammed open. So much pain it was like a thousand needles or a dozen cruciatus curses shooting through his body. Harry tried hard to draw that pain away from Damian and the others. He cloaked himself in that pain and let it focus on him, causing Damian to heave against him. Padma was muttering in French beneath his breath. He couldn’t understand the words, but the beasts could and they were clawing and fighting inside of him like a crowd with one narrow door and a fire behind them. Except the fire was the storm of power.

Micah, Logan, Nicky, and now Domino, who ran into the room, formed a circle of power around Harry to shield him. They continued to draw the beasts back. Unfortunately, Domino only held the power of two of the weretigers, and while exceptionally strong Nicky could hardly chase back the lion thanks to the Master of Beasts and his own lion to call. It was like two Nicky’s backed by vampiric power that overwhelmed him from the inside out. He let out a roar as his eyes began to bleed gold. “I’ll hold it off with everything inside of me,” he roared out.

Padma’s attack narrowly focused on him, so angry at him for what he’d done. “I control all the beasts you carry, Harry Potter-Black. I am the perfect weapon against you.”

There were no claw marks on the outside of his skin; this was a different power, and it was his skin that pushed out as if things were fighting to get out through his body. That was when Rafael moved between all the bodies in the room to climb up onto the bed and was suddenly above Harry, his dark chocolate eyes zeroing in on him. His coal black hair flickering down onto his forehead. He was warm and smelled of the woods. He held Harry’s face with one hand to still him with some strength.

“Are you sure?” Rafael spoke to someone above him.

“Do it,” said Edward.

Harry had been in too much pain to hear them conversing, but whatever it was, Harry trusted him. Harry trusted them all, and he cried out only to go quiet when Rafael’s mouth slammed into him while the other free hand transformed into a pair of sharp claws. Harry didn’t cry out when Rafael’s power swooped over him nor when he felt those claws pierce his skin to drag down. A compounding energy thumped like a heart-beat and began to spread into his mouth. He opened up to the Rom of the Rodere. A beast that Harry had never seen before began to gather like a shadow until it became solid. It stood upright on hind-legs. It was large and fuzzy black with a white tipped nose. Its tail was long and winding and had a tuft on the end where most rat tails were smooth, and on the head was a strange white marking that circled the top. His eyes were a brilliant moon yellow green. Harry moaned as the pain began to dissolve and energy rushed through him.

His rat began to nuzzle at each of the beasts who had been warring with each other to get out of the tunnel, and that tunnel began to expand. Gentle waves crashed down upon him and Harry’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as he swallowed a memory hidden deep within Rafael. Rafael’s power was like an ocean wave that was warm and salty. It felt as if it had always belonged. As if it had always been there and simply waiting for a claim. It was waiting for something.

Once as a child, Rafael lived in a small and poor village on the borders of Texas and Mexico. Rats were always in abundance. He lived alone with his mother and father until one night they were slaughtered by a Rom who had sought him out specifically on the words of a manipulative psychic. Rafael was going to be his downfall.

Child Rafael did become his downfall in the self-fulfilling way Harry was Voldemort’s, when he slew the former King only to fall upon the fangs and claws. He lay dying in a burned down village that no one cared about until footsteps got closer, and someone knelt down by him. “Poor child, look at you.” Harry recognized the woman as a young Dr. Lillian. Her hair was longer and tied back. It was a soft chocolate brown, no gray in sight. She rolled the injured child over, and noted the crown on his arm. “New King. Do not fuss, I’ll tend to you. Come. Let’s be off from here.” She lifted the child as if he weighed nothing.

And Harry understood. He understood how they had bonded so quick and easy. Both of their pasts were really quite similar, both had been branded. Both had been given titles and names before reaching adulthood. Both were survivors with a power that others craved.

He drew back as the world became calm, he was lying on a pair of legs that he knew to be Edward’s. Rafael above him, his eyes watery with unshed tears. Harry stroked his face, aware of the blood coating his front. Rafael tilted his cheek into the palm and licked his fingers of the blood. Harry could feel other men in the room lick at him, tasting his blood. Micah, Nicky, Logan, Jason, Domino, Damian, Wicked Truth, on and on Harry could feel small bits of his blood pass into the men in his life that were in the room, adding to their power and strengthening their connection.

A scream of fury and anger from the visions of Belle and Padma were thrown out, and their image began to blur. “Together, Padma!”

However, Harry was no longer crying under the mess of pain and power that suffocated him, and he could feel the rat deep inside stirring the others and distracting them from the power. A Mischief indeed, Harry thought with a smirk as he raised his own power, the symbol on his neck began to spark.

“Touch him!” Rafael ordered and everyone on the bed, husbands, lovers, and friends all laid their hands on him.

“You will not win!”

“Wrong. Guess when Mummy Dearest couldn't get into me she went for a consolation prize of a second choice. Or is that third? Split between multiple vampires. Sad that it takes at least three to match what she would have had with me.” Harry growled. His power began to brew and he borrowed a little of everything from each of them. From everyone who had tasted his blood that night and he managed to turn it into his own by a mixture of Necromancy and his magical blood. The blurring images began to scream as they began to break apart like smoke.

“Belle Morte, you go down this road and there is nothing you will ever do to worm your way here again,” Jean-Claude warned as his own power rose.

“You cannot stop me, childe, I made you. I can unmake you.”

“I’d like to see you try. You may have made me, but you are no longer my Sourdre de Sang. You must take the power of taint and corruption itself to even hope to come close to bettering me. You have long since expired your welcome. He is my human servant. He is my husband, and if you continue to break the laws then I shall see to your own end. All of you, no matter the cost!” He swelled to such power that it tore the storm from Padma’s Triumvirate away from them in one sweeping motion. He became bigger, stronger, more powerful, and Harry knew it brought great pain to both of them as their images continued to decay.

“You must be tamed…”

“Not on your life, Master of Beasts!”

“We see the power you’re drawing, we see the American vampires are following at your heels, Jean-Claude, and we, the mighty Council, shall not allow it! We will see you all dead before you usurp our position.”

“Then let’s fight,” said Edward sharply. “Bring the fight, and this time bring it physically so we can see exactly how useless you really are.”

“I wish it had not come to this, but we are overruled,” said Belle, placing a hand to her mouth automatically.

“Belle, do be quiet!” Padma hissed.

Then Jean-Claude smiled, and tilted his head back. “I must thank you, Belle.”

“Thank me?”

“Harry is my human servant and husband. I have been able to gain powers through him by having all of these powers used against us. Until now the power could not stay with me long, but I think this time it will. I think you have shown me how to do what I’ve been wanting to do. I know exactly how to unmake those who dare rip at us. I shall turn our powers all into one. Do take cover because Death may will out.”

Belle Morte screamed. “No!” She thrust that power and there was no lust to it; it was all about anger, rage, and underneath that was pain.

Harry could taste her regret like something bitter and sweet on their tongues. Harry was by nature not an angry person. He did not know how to swallow anger, but he knew how to cover it. He knew how to squash it, and so he did by layering the rage with his own brand of power. All the love he held in his heart for everyone in his life. He turned that into one large blanket of power. He could feel her body falling. Her gasping breaths as she hit her knees. Jean-Claude and Harry continued to press their powers upon her backed by the weres in bed and the Tetrumvirate that swept the Master of Beasts away from them.

“Your anger will never touch him, Belle Morte. He does not feed or understand anger. He does not understand hatred or such rage in the way we corrupt creatures do, and that is the piece of the Mother that you took into you. It wants him because it has never touched anything like him before. She wants him regardless of gender. She craves that which she has never had. Anyone can lust, but not everyone can love. It is a superfluous piece that is controlling you. She is not dead, she is living within you. Did the rest of the Council take her power into themselves?”

“Yes, most of us” Belle said before she could stop herself.

“Then you are all poisoned, and I shall see you dead,” said Jean-Claude coldly.

“You could not. You would kill Asher if you slew me.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. We shall see about that.”

Padma faltered in the image, his Triumvirate not so strong anymore as Harry and Jean-Claude pushed their energies over them. “She offered her power to us like a dark wind,” he confessed with a lost look.

“You hold no fear, ma poupette,” Belle whispered, staring at Harry. “the Lover of Death would not be able to hold you would he? The Lover of Death feels nothing for you, except that your death would be wise. But he hungers for slaughter and deaths to feed upon, and this new, more modern Council controls him. This new power in the New Lands is suppressing his strengths. Only the Dragon and the Traveler hold respect for you. The Traveler is too far away from me, hiding in the brush from my powers. My soul fills many bodies now. You would have to kill all of them to destroy me.”

“Separable soul,” said Jean-Claude.

“You are nothing but a Horcrux,” said Harry in a sneer.

“How do you know that word?” Belle Morte/Marmee demanded.

“How? For I was once a Horcrux to an evil, and I fought it. I became the Master of Death.” Winds of power blew like an icy storm. The shadows gathered from all sides of them. Great big shadows with no real color or form. All shapeless and moving. Everyone’s skin began to prickle. The temperature in the room dropped to the point that even Jean-Claude and other vampires in the room began to breathe distorted puffs of white.

For the first time, Belle and Padma froze with fear. Harry continued to stare at them. He wasn’t breathing. He was hardly moving. But he was staring at them. Something had entered him, something strong and intangible. “Only one Master of Death survives at any given time, and that is me. Your so-called Lover of Death is an imitation. A Necromancer is a laughable title compared to the hallowed stillness that flows inside of me. You want real death, I’ll give you real death; and then I shall have you punished for all eternity unable to sleep, unable to move.” He began to draw the power of the vision into his body, sucking it through his mouth and down his throat like a Dementor’s kiss.

Screams came from Padma and Belle as both of them started crumbling. Padma and his Triumvirate disappeared first, and all the beasts in the room began to cool down. Then Belle was on her knees taking deep heavy breaths.

To Harry’s surprise she managed to raise her head to him, and her eyes had cleared for a moment. She looked right at him, and said the most confusing thing ever. “We are not descended from the Darkness. We are descended from the realities of Death. Destroy her before she destroys us!” With a wave of tears that trailed through the visage and dream like glittering diamonds, the woman picked up her hefty skirts and ran from the vision. She ran as the fear ran out of her. A terror that she’d never known. From the mistake she had made, all for a penance of power.

Their minds went quiet and the dream world they’d been in this whole time shattered, leaving no smells except for that of Harry’s blood behind.

“Bloody Fucking Hell.”

Chapter Text

He faded in and out, and didn’t hear what was said between his husbands, Rafael, and the rest of the men in the room. He did feel it as Rafael carried him bridal style to the large open bath. Nothing on him wanted to move after all the trauma his mind and body had endured at the hands of way too many power hungry bastards. He was covered in his own blood and he rested his head against Rafael. He could hear the steady staccato of the man’s heart from where his ear was pressed. His eyes began to flutter close as Bobby Lee ran the bath. He could hear the porcelain swans spilling heated water from their beaks and the heat of the water warmed Harry’s clammy cool skin. He’d been starting to chill.

“Go on out and help clean up,” Rafael told Bobby Lee, who nodded and said not a word as he swept out and closed the door.

Harry shivered as the heat met the chill of his skin when he was submerged in the water gently. He weakly cracked his eyes open as he was pressed against the side of the tub.

He saw Rafael’s handsome face staring back at him, his expression was closed off. He stood and began to undress himself in swift movements. Harry allowed himself to tiredly admire the man’s body. From his hard earned muscles to some of the scars that littered white along his arms and chest. He’d been in many fights and battles. His body was nicely sculpted with good broad shoulders, and the calluses on his hands were twice what Edward had from his construction company.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, raising Harry and then sliding in behind him.

“Cold.”

“That’s the infection,” Rafael confessed as he settled with his legs on either side of Harry. A hot hand brushed down his shoulder causing him to hum and lean closer to it. “Rat infection is faster than even wolf.”

“It’s not the infection,” said Harry with a weak smile. “It’s that cold power that I brought on that always sleeps inside of me. For all this time, I thought it was Voldemort. But I think it’s Death. I think Death is literally in me.”

Rafael paused in his ministrations. “You are sure?”

“I once saw something in Las Vegas. I thought it was Voldemort, but it didn’t have a form. It was like I couldn’t see it. No one could. It was formless. I’ve begun to think that this whole time the devil on my shoulder is not my once enemy. He just takes that visage because it’s what my mind can understand best. I mean, can you really look at Death as a person?”

“I suppose you cannot,” said Rafael after a moment. “You do not worry about the infection that I gave you?”

Harry shook his head. “No. Not at all.” He reached for Rafael’s hand and squeezed it. Rafael pressed closer to him, cheek to temple. “I trust you and besides, I’d be proud to hold your strain. I’ve told you that before. Might as well add another. It was getting too feline in there anyway.”

Rafael chuckled roughly, and he lifted the sponge to carefully run down along the large claw cuts along Harry’s front. First Belle and now Rafael’s own touch. But Rafael’s hadn’t been painful, and he noticed the scar wasn’t as prominent. All the blood began to dissolve away into the water and some strength began to return with the skin to skin contact. His body was heating up, the chill dying away. Fingers combed through his hair and he relaxed back. “Good news, I think your rat is a male.”

Harry laughed tiredly. “Good. For once something that matches me for a change.”

“Indeed, I suppose having all females is frustrating.”

“You have no idea. At least they don’t have periods or have forced me to.”

Rafael laughed some more. “You make a point. The thing is, Rats are omnivores, and it’s not all about food after all,” said Rafael. “There is no Queen involved. Only a Rom, and it has been like that for centuries. It’s much like swanmanes. Though technically the Swan King does have a Queen, they rarely ever show themselves or are born. We have the power of choice. We always have. It’s why we are abundant. Although, quite an interesting one you have. A tufted tail?”

“Don’t ask me!” Harry groaned. “You’re the expert.”

Rafael laughed. “No one is an expert on you, Harry. You are one of a kind.”

Harry raised his head and tilted it. “Careful there, you’re naked and in a bath with me.”

“Yes, I am,” he said seriously, making Harry snicker. “What is strange to me is that I could have sworn I infected you previously during the ardeur release by accident. We tied together like an animal to call only for you not to manifest. Yet, when I did it deliberately, it appeared almost instantly. That is unusual.”

Harry brought his shoulders up. “Beats me. Maybe it was scared off by all the ladies crowding around in there.” Rafael grinned against him. “Powerful personalities they seem to have.”

“All with their own minds and agenda, their own instincts. A rat is one of the most versatile creatures in the world. We move together in a group. We are no good apart. It feels like a different connection, like the link was only partial, and yet at partial it kept us from becoming slaves to the vampires,” said Rafael, grazing his palm lightly down Harry’s shoulder.

“Good,” said Harry, noticing the flow of energy making his rat stir around inside of him. It seemed to be a bit more active than the others. If Harry could describe it, he’d say it was running around inside of him, checking out the new digs. He hoped the beast approved because he did not need anymore trouble. “Most important thing is freedom.”

“Yes, I agree,” said Rafael. “Maybe for you to truly be infected there is another component required.”

“Jean-Claude mentioned that I might have to be physically attacked, and not the other way around. I didn’t catch leopard from Gabriel when I willingly bartered my blood for Gregory, but I got it when Gregory accidentally cut me. I did catch wolf or a wolf strain when Teddy accidentally attacked me. I was attacked repeatedly by lions during the Chimera thing before his end, and then of course Soledad who tried to make a litter box out of my stomach. Oh, and I might have caught the snake either from Voldemort’s abilities or a Basilisk that attacked me when I was twelve.”

Rafael laughed. “Yes, unfortunate, but in a way also fortunate. It is a defense.”

“And a weakness. You saw the Master of Beasts,” said Harry with a frown.

“But we can fight it,” said Rafael into his ear. “You beat it back.”

“Not me, we,” Harry corrected.

“Perhaps it is that special magic of yours in play. When it is expecting something it defends you, but when it comes from nowhere that’s when your defense comes down.”

Harry considered this all the while enjoying the energy that played between them. “Good excuse as any.” He had always been fascinated with Rafael, always liked touching him when he was close. “Does it always feel like this?”

“No, but then you are a special something.”

“Something is right,” Harry said dryly. He sagged against Rafael, and he sighed when the man’s hands started at his shoulders and neck and then ran down the length of his chest, his fingers dancing as though it were playing a piano. Harry drew in sharp breaths when the power played on his skin, healing the wound that Belle had left behind as well as the one he’d left.

“I shall not be the reason you are scarred,” Rafael hissed, and Harry leaned back and pressed his head to the man’s shoulder so that he could look up at him better. A full pair of lips began to kiss him and his body burned red-hot as he melted into it.

Everything in him stirred, including the newly acquired rat that seemed to brush against Rafael’s with excitement. Its tail twitched, noses touched, and Harry felt as though he were drowning. Harry opened his mouth as if begging Rafael to crawl inside of him. Harry’s hands moved smoothly down Rafael’s body as he shifted with a new strength. Rafael pulled him up until their chests were touching. His wrists went around the man’s neck as he hungrily slid himself across the large cock between them. He was still stretched enough that he didn’t have to work himself open. With the hot water lapping over them, he slid down making Rafael groan into his mouth. Harry’s hips moved with lively arousal as the cock sank deeper until they hit the natural barrier. It was a slow and smooth ride that took them both. No ardeur between them, and Harry seized it, rocking back and forth. Moving up and down as Rafael hissed into him. Hands touched him, everywhere, strong fingers clenched him, and all he could do was keep riding as their beasts mingled with each other.

Rafael kissed and then turned them into the water. Gently pinning Harry to the corner of the tub. His legs spread open around the man’s waist as he worked himself deep inside. Harry kissed up and down his body, and back up to his neck and chin where his lips waited on him. He licked and kissed deep, their eyes never closing as they brought each other to multiple orgasms. The energy of their beasts sparked like electricity sending jolts up their bodies. Rafael groaned as his hips clenched, his muscles tightened, and he held Harry so tight that most of the air seemed to leave him. Harry moaned as he buried his face into Rafael’s neck. He teased down Harry’s back as he was stroked and petted.

“You are a precious person, Harry. Inside and out.”

“And always horny,” Harry mumbled.

“So are rats, so it works.”

Harry snickered. “But, I know from that first time. You hadn’t been with anyone in a long time,” he breathed out as he kept his legs wrapped around Rafael. Most of the water was cooling and becoming a bit on the foggy side from the cum floating about.

“Restraint as a leader is extremely important, and most leaders do not have that sort of restraint. The wolves were a perfect example of that.”

“I have no restraint these days. Sometimes, I fear I’m going to get lost in the lack of,” Harry confessed.

“But you have restraint in every other part of your life. You never overuse that power of yours. You never abuse your positions. You love everyone, and you care for them as if they were your own. You have protected and defended us, and technically you never had a tie until that night in the car. Yet you fought for us. You stood by our side. We Rodere would never forget that. You truly are one of us.”

“Especially now,” Harry pointed out.

“I hope your husbands don’t mind.”

“Nope, not at all, because I love you. I love you and all the wererats,” said Harry, snuggling and kissing his chin.

“I can say for certainty that we love you too, Harry.”

As the water began to drain, Rafael pulled the both of them out in one easy movement. Harry did not fuss about being totted around. He was sat on the cold granite counters as a cool draft of air hit him, making him shiver.

Rafael pulled out a fluffy towel and swooped it around Harry’s body. He kissed Harry on the forehead. Bobby Lee had left fresh clothes for them on the counter. He was dressed in a pair of snug red shorts and one of Edward’s t-shirts. Rafael put on shorts, but didn’t bother with a shirt. Harry made to slide off the counter, feeling boneless and tired, when Rafael took him again. He was taken back to the room where his husbands were waiting along with Damian. Wicked Truth and Bobby Lee stood against the wall just inside the entry. In case they were needed.

“All the rest have gone back to bed, but they are close-by should they be needed,” Bobby Lee told them.

“Thanks, Bobby Lee,” said Rafael.

“Anytime, Rom. Hellcat or is that Romni?” Bobby Lee teased.

Harry looked puzzled. “Romni?”

“If I were female, I’d be called Romni, but I do believe Harry has enough on his shoulders and good news, his creature is male.”

“Still a delicious Hellcat,” said Bobby smirking.

“Male, huh?” Micah grinned. “Finally.”

“I’ll say, the girls can be so irritating.”

“Much better,” said Jean-Claude with a weak smile. He was curled up against Edward and Micah was on the other side. “Did you and Rafael have fun?”

Harry and Rafael grinned at each other. “Lots of fun.”

“Good,” said Micah, rolling and kissing his cheek.

“Nicky’s gone to rest out of the room for a bit, the Master of the Beasts got a good lick in on him,” said Micah. “You should come to bed with us too, Rafael.”

“Sounds good to me,” he said as he placed Harry in Edward’s arms and crawled onto the bed to spoon up against Micah’s back.

Harry let out a tired sigh as he stretched out over Edward and gave him a kiss. “Little Raven? How are you feeling?”

“Better.”

Jean-Claude raised his head and traced Harry’s cheek with a finger. “Are you sure? I had not expected that to have happened.”

“We knew that there was a chance that it wouldn’t be completely successful,” said Edward.

“I had dearly hoped, mon Tueur d’Ombre.”

“We can beat it. We did just now. We can do it again,” said Micah assuredly.

“Looks like we might be Horcrux hunting again,” said Harry lamely. “Great. I thought I was through with that.”

“Horcrux? I was surprised by the reaction from her,” said Jean-Claude.

“A Horcrux is a piece of the soul that has been torn off from the original soul. It’s contained in another object, every rare now and then it can be in a living being. It’s one of the worst and most truly evil of magics. Voldemort had employed it. I became the unexpected final one of his.”

“I saw that,” said Rafael, who had been stroking Micah’s arm.

Harry turned his head. “You did?”

“When we passed memories.”

Harry flashed back to a child Rafael slaying a Rat King. “Ah, I guess that’s when we both became what we were?”

“Sounds about like it.”

“You saw what?” asked Micah, confused.

“His memory, the night he died at seventeen,” Rafael reached a hand over and stroked Harry’s shoulder when Micah snuggled closer to him. “Harry didn’t raise his magic at all. He stood there and let the enemy kill him,” he said solemnly. “I saw the entire scene. I saw what they had turned him into. He sacrificed himself for that entire world of his.”

“I didn’t know until the end what I was. It was hidden from me this whole time. It’s what made me so angry at the man I trusted so much. It was always in me and he knew it. He didn’t tell me. Instead I was led to slaughter like a dog.” He tilted his head to look up at Edward. “Why do you think I respected you so much? You told me the truth, how it was, no matter the sting.”

“You are one of a kind, Little Raven,” said Edward. “I will always afford you the truth.” he bent over and kissed Harry’s forehead. “Do you have wererat now?”

“He does,” said Rafael. “An interesting mixture. As you know, I figured that would disrupt and chase back his creatures if I were to infect him. On a normal person it would have canceled the beasts, but since Harry here seems to collect them I thought maybe the others would be distracted.”

“It worked, Rafael.” Micah reached out and laid his hand on Harry’s back.

“We thank you for your sacrifice and always defending us.”

“That is what friends and family do, Jean-Claude. You have won my loyalty, not through manipulation or your strength. You won it through hard work and honesty. I thought your image was a pipe dream because it was once my own image, but I see now that it is a dream becoming reality.”

“To keep it, we will have to constantly fight for it,” said Edward, threading his fingers through Jean-Claude’s curls.

“If that is what we must do then we shall do it,” said Jean-Claude. “What do you boys believe?”

“We are guards,” said Truth.

“We do not exist in your conversation,” said Wicked.

Harry raised his head, looked over his shoulder, and glared at them. Bobby Lee chuckled. “I don’t think he approved of that.”

“Handsome in suits or not, guard or not, you have a say too.”

“Mother of Darkness is a being unto herself,” said Truth solemnly.

“However, we believe that with enough resources she may be felled,” said Wicked, looking directly at Harry. “We will stand ready. Even at our deaths.”

Damian stared at Harry. “We will do what we must to keep our peace. I do not wish to go back to those days of darkness.”

“You won’t, Damian. I promise you.” Harry held out his hand for the vampire who crawled onto the end of the bed and took it. Jean-Claude encouraged him to fold across Harry. Even Edward stroked his head.

“We were all slaves in those days.”

“Oui,” Jean-Claude agreed. “It was a slave’s life for anyone the least bit affable.”

“Well, let’s not get hasty now,” said Bobby Lee grinning. “We ain’t dyin’, we’re just getting started!” His southern drawl came out quite thick in that regard making Harry giggle as he rolled between his men. “Fun times are ahead! Just tell me where to shoot.”

Edward smirked. “I couldn’t have said it better, Bobby Lee.”

“I think our Little Husband needs sleep,” said Micah. “He’s delirious.”

“Might be the infection,” Rafael followed up.

“Or it might be that cock that was lodged inside of him. Next time, I want to watch!” said Edward, causing everyone to laugh, even Wicked Truth.

“You should have come in then,” said Rafael simply.

“Next time,” said Edward as Micah rolled and pinned a kiss to Harry’s lips. He rolled back and snuggled into Rafael just as someone’s phone rang in the pile of clothes on the floor.

Wicked moved to sift through the clothes on the floor, Harry was too tired to summon it, and he found it amongst the clothes. “It’s yours.” Harry had an electric green casing on it with a leopard paw print on the back. A gift from Vivienne.

Harry took the number and frowned at the area code. “It’s Vegas.”

“That is Max’s number,” Jean-Claude said, pointing out.

“Why is he calling you?”

Harry shrugged and answered the phone. “Hello, Max?” He made it a question.

“What the hell are you guys doing tonight?!” Max’s voice streamed out over the phone in a panicked bass like growl. “Every weretiger in the city has gone insane! Bibi woke up screaming about the dark trying to eat her, and all the weretigers were crying out that they had to get to St. Louis. She made me call you, Harry, said you and Jean-Claude would know what was happening to her. Do you - know, I mean?” His voice was uncertain now.

Harry took a breath as Edward helped him to sit up. “Yeah, I know what happened, though when Bibiana calms down I’d love to hear exactly what the dark did to try to eat her.”

“The dark can’t be who it used to be, Harry. Didn’t you mention that the Mother of All Darkness was dead?”

“Presumed, we did not say outright that she was dead. Merely that she was blown up in an explosion. Her body. We had no idea what kind of powers she truly had, Max. Even you don’t know and you’re older than me. Jean-Claude didn’t even know,” Harry said. “I’d never heard of this woman until she started harassing us.”

He took a rare human breath.”You’re correct. You are right, please accept my apologies. But this nightmare… it cannot be. Not after all this time. It’s been almost a year, Harry. Why now? How? What happened to you tonight that sent all our male weretigers into a frenzy?”

Harry looked back at Edward, Micah, and Jean-Claude, and all of them nodded to him to say what he needed to say. All of them were going to be in on this if they wanted to beat it. All would have to come together to fight this madness.

Harry told him the abbreviated truth about what had happened, Rafael suggested that the others who were still covered in blood go clean up. Damian’s entire front was stained from the chest down. His arms were suspiciously clean.

Micah and Edward pressed kisses to Harry’s temple before they crawled out of the bed. Rafael slid closer and spread his warmth. Damian kissed Harry chastely before joining Micah and Edward in the bathroom at their urging.

As Harry finished, Max said the only thing that would ever make sense about the Mother of Darkness. “Motherfucker.”

“Yup,” said Harry.

“Bibi insisted that everyone that was going to St. Louis leave early. Victor, Cyn, Rick, and the others will be in the air and headed your way by morning light.”

They weren’t planning on arriving for another two days. Harry frowned and looked at Jean-Claude who leaned forward at this. “Say what? Max, no insult is meant to anyone, but we have something a bit more important than trying to have Chang Bibi throw your tigers on me, and I am not going to sleep with Cynric.”

“I already told her that, but Bibi insists that our only hope to defeat the Dark is to have another Master of Tigers, another Father of the Day.”

Jean-Claude stilled and Rafael was sitting up now.

“I do not think I have that kind of ability,” said Jean-Claude succinctly.

“He appreciates your vote of confidence, Max, but tiger isn’t his animal to call, and the only vampire we have who is able to walk in the day isn’t a master of anything.”

“Your vampire servant Damian right, he’s your day walker?”

“Yes.” Not that he would ever do that.

“And who made him a day walker? It wasn’t Jean-Claude, no offense to your Master. It was you that made a weak vampire able to do one of the rarest feats among us bloodsuckers.”

“Don’t go there, Max, and he already had the ability to an extent. I just made it more viable, but he’d never actually do it.” Jean-Claude couldn’t walk in the day, but he could walk during the hours right before dusk and a few after the sun had awakened. He was careful about who he revealed this particular information too.

“Still, it’s an amazing feat. We’re not sending our boys to Jean-Claude, Harry. We’re sending them to you. I have tried to reason with Auggie of Chicago who says we should send him some of our women-”

“Non!” That was when a knock came at the door.

“Damian! Are you in there? I want you out now!”

Jean-Claude glowered beautifully as he stood. “I shall be back, mon Amour.” Rafael pulled Harry closer. “I trust you to handle all you need.”

“No women, Max.”

“I can’t control Auggie, you know that. I tried to tell him it wasn’t advisable, but he thinks that maybe he’d inherit your power to call like you inherited his ability to call wolf.”

“I didn’t inherit the wolf from him, Max! I inherited it from a combination of Jean-Claude and my son. I had her for years before I met Augustine.”

“Your son?”

“Yes, he nipped me one too many times. He’s a natural born wolf. Besides, what would it matter? So I have female weres inside of me. I am still male.”

That was when Harry heard the slide of clothing moving, and a moment later, Chang Bibi of the White Tiger Clan was on the phone. “Harry,” and her voice was tear-filled, almost hiccupy with emotion.

“Chang Bibi?”

“It’s too late for titles between us, Harry.” She took a shaky breath and said. “You must embrace my tigers when they arrive. You must bring the tigers with you into their full power.”

Harry inwardly cringed. He had been fighting this tooth and nail. “I know this is what you wanted, but the other tiger clans don’t want you favored above everyone else,” he said, trying to find the only saving grace he could get. He was not going to sleep with a bunch of tigers again. He’d had to do it once already. “Besides, most of them came into their powers already when I had to feed at Max’s club. There’s no point in doing it again.”

“We need to be stronger, all their Changs have had the same nightmare that I had, Harry. They have seen the Darkness, and they remember in the heart of them when she tried to rule us all. The Father of the Day, he saved us once upon a time. He controlled us and kept her from harnessing all the power of the tigers. She only defeated him by destroying the last golden queen.”

Harry frowned at the phone as he settled against Rafael. He could hear the shower going in the bathroom. “It was legend, fairy tales, Harry. I didn’t believe in stories of the Living Dark, a dark Goddess and a God of Living Light who created our people. Who believes in such things?”

Harry believed a lot of things he couldn’t see coming from the worlds he lived in. “I would, nothing is impossible. Nothing is unbelievable.”

Except ignorance, Rafael mouthed into his arm. He could feel his lips moving and resisted smiling.

“Look, we’re all in a bit of shock over this, but small things like electricity and fire aren't going to defeat her if even a bomb couldn’t.”

“You have only seen what the weaker of my clan can do, Harry.”

“Domino isn’t weak. He’s come into his powers and so did Crispin. I brought your tigers into their powers already so I don’t need to do it again. I mean, isn’t Victor’s electricity strong as hell now?”

“We need more, we have to all come together. We need a new Master of Tigers, and you are the only one that anyone can agree fits the bill. It’s why she is so terrified of you. It’s why she hones in on you. It’s why the Father of Day wanted you so bad. You remember the red tiger that you slept with sometime ago?”

“Which one?”

“The reporter, Alex Pinn?”

“Ah, yes, I remember.”

“He can call fire to his hands now. He’s a pyrokinetic. They exist even today among the humans. Black tiger is water, Harry. You said Domino managed to come into it?”

“Yes.”

“That shouldn’t have been possible. He’s both black and white, and the stories told they cancel each other out. Yet you brought it out in him. We must get stronger.” Merlin, this was driving him nuts. “Blue tiger is the power of air. Legend says that Blue could raise storms and make them obey their will. The golden tigers controlled earth and all energies upon it.” That meant Earthquakes, like the Earthmover. Merlin, he didn’t need another one of those.

“Cynric managed to get power as a cast-off when I fed off the others. I willingly passed it along to them as a gift for your assistance. There is no need to send him to me for anything more, unless you want him to be here for safety, but I don’t think he’s going to be that safe. I’m in the line of fire. It’s me they are honing in on.”

“You are the only threat to her, and your powers with your husbands are making that crystal clear. We need to draw our powers together. Cynric can now create a small wave, but it is not sensational like it should be.”

“Probably a good thing. I’m not sure how I feel about a seventeen year old with that kind of power in my city.”

“But it won’t be his power, Harry. It will come to you. If you raise it in the tigers it will come to you, and you will be too powerful for the Darkness to eat.”

“I’m not a vampire,” Harry said, already tired of this conversation. “And you do realise that my magic does everything you’ve listed and more?”

“But you are a vampire, you just don’t drink blood, Harry. The time for pretty lies is past. The hour is late, and the Darkness is coming. If you do not save us she will possess all the tigers, including you, and once she has the golden queen - which is you - as her vessel, she will destroy us all.”

“I am not a weretiger, I can’t shift, and no matter the gender of the creatures inside of me, I am most definitely male.”

“It matters not, the darkness can shift you into her liking. She took on the Master of Beasts after all did she not?”

“The Mother of Darkness is nothing more than a Horcrux that needs killing.”

“She is so much more than you can imagine, Harry. Please consider this. If she gets a hold of you, it’s all over for everyone. No one will stand a chance. You are strong. I know this. Your powers are infinite where the rest of the world becomes stagnant. You must put boundaries and morals aside and look to the greater good.”

Harry’s anger rose like a snake in the pit of his stomach at the mere mention of ‘greater good,’ a deep line of disgust poured from him. All his men returned in a haste.

“What’s going on?” asked Micah.

Harry was frozen solid. “Greater Good can kiss my ruddy arse. I won’t let it tell me what it thinks is best.”

“Please, listen! The Yellow, the Gold, was meant to be our ruler over all, a sort of High Queen. Some say that the power to move the ground is only to the Yellow. We won’t know for sure until you bring more of us into our full power.”

“What are we missing?” asked Micah, kneeling in the bed. He looked beautiful, freshly showered and washed. His hair was damp and the water dripped off his hair onto his bare shoulders. He had tanned so much in the last year that he now had a line of freckles, which Harry sometimes took to counting late at night.

Edward moved to his other side and Damian was already curling around him. “Where is Toy?”

“He went to tell someone off, but I don’t know where he got to,” said Harry tightly. “Chang Bibi, all of this you are saying is speculation.” He pushed the memory of the conversation through their shared link, including Jean-Claude so that he didn’t have to repeat it.

“You should not doubt it. You must believe. It must be real. You must harness the power of all the clans. It is you, people trust. Most do not even trust ourselves, this is not a ploy to gain power. It is survival. You must believe. If you fail, the Darkness will rise up and consume us all.”

“You’ve said this.”

“But you are not hearing me!”

“I don’t like that term, Greater Good. Don’t use it again,” requested Harry icily. “It fills me with a need to make sure the world dies when you say it.”

“Very well, if you wish for political correctness.”

“Not political correctness. What’s that modern pop culture term? Triggery? Greater Good is my trigger like the word bitch or cunt to women.”

“Understandable.”

“Bibi, apologize,” Max ordered in the background.

“I do apologize, but you need to know that it was she who destroyed the yellow tigers so long ago. It was the Darkness who whispered evil in the ear of the First Emperor. She knew once we lost the golden, that the Master of Tigers wouldn’t have enough power to stand against her. She crushed him, and nearly destroyed us as a people of any color.”

“Do you know how she ended up in the… coma in the caverns?” Harry knew that the vampire Council had tried to abandon her a few times when world wars forced them to move countries, but there had been a compulsion that wouldn’t let them leave her body behind. But none of the vampires knew why she had fallen to sleep. They only knew one night she had not woken. For over a thousand years she slept, until now.

“If all the legends are true, then it was her own guards that did it. Those who the vampire are not allowed to name. She let some of them keep their golden tigers as animal to call, because she believed them to be totally loyal to her.”

“How did they do that?”

“The story speaks of a spell and a sacrifice of lives. They meant to slay her, but they could not.”

“Would not,” Harry corrected at the same time Edward did.

“I’m going to check on Jean-Claude,” said Micah, stroking Harry and leaving the bed. Bobby Lee opened the door for him.

“They could not, Harry. They could not figure out how to kill her permanently. They tied her to the body she last inhabited and left her there.”

“Why would the guards tell the tigers?”

“So that if they were all lost, there would be some memory of what happened and what would be needed to defeat her.”

My Death, it was a reminiscent of everything he had lived for seventeen bloody fucking years! His mind growled. Once again, everyone was pointing fingers at him to be their bloody fucking savior. “I’m done being a savior,” he said what he was thinking. “I’m not a weretiger savior.”

“Not savior, Harry. Master. You must be the Master of Tigers. You must be the daywalking vampire who defeats the night once and for all. Queens are gender neutral. You should know this by now. All things in the preternatural world have a chance to be neutral in gender. You are an example of that. Our former Father of Day, the original Master was an example. You killed him. You have his legacy now.” Harry reached up and clenched the Hallows symbol that dangled around his neck. The Nameless Guards she was referring to was the one and only Harlequin. Jake had given them the warning about the Mother of Darkness. He must have been there when they sent her to sleep the first time.

Harry did not fear easy. He and Edward were most alike in this way, but the Harlequin had been terrifying. When they blew through town in their nameless endeavor, Harry and plenty of others had become victims. Marcus’ abandonment had been the result of their machinations, and then there was Cisco and Remus who had lost their lives.

The Harlequin were elite among the vampires. Higher than even the Council as they answered to no one, but what they perceived as justice. None had territories but that wasn’t because they weren’t strong. They chose to cut ties to their bloodlines and be a combination of spy, police, and execution service for the community. Supposedly only the Council could set them in motion, but Harry didn’t believe that. It was like Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Most of his Death Eaters had done more damage than he did. He mostly laid in shadow and worked behind the scenes, but the Death Eaters were the ones who were at the forefront. His mind was clicking over to those survivalist days. It was like slipping into a familiar skin, but that skin was too tight and suffocated him.

“Harry, are you there?”

“Sorry, Bibiana. You’ve given me a lot to process. I’m thinking.”

“Do not think too long, Harry. I will contact the other queens of the clans. I will urge them to send people to you. Our only hope lies in a swift rise to power.”

Harry cringed inwardly. “I haven’t agreed to this. I will not be some fuck charged plaything for a world gone mad. No. I’ll die for people, but I won’t let this thing take my will.”

“Then you condemn all of us. Our time to hesitate has been lost. We have only action before us, and I pray that it is a swift action on your part. Boundaries be damned.”

“If she possesses anyone we take her out, destroy her soul. We have means of doing that without me fucking the goddamn bloody world!” Damian reached out to take his wrist to calm his raging emotions. It wasn’t often that he got angry. Rarely ever did he, but things like this just buggered him all to hell.

“You still do not understand what she is. She is one of the first. She has powers that the others mimic, but none of them hold the same level of ability. They are all but pale imitations of her. She can and will possess someone who is not vampire if it serves her purpose.”

“Vampires and cats?” Harry guessed.

“Correct.”

“This is a lot of guessing and no actual evidence.”

“If Adam and Eve suddenly walked in through your door, would you not have to believe in the serpent?”

“Say what?” Harry asked, confused.

“This is a story as old to the tigers as the Garden of Eden is to the humans.”

“Sorry, but I don’t know that story.”

“You should read more.”

“Reading is boring. I’ll leave that to those who enjoy it. I prefer learning as I go along. It works better for me that way. Reading always has explosive tendencies.” Like boredom. No one wanted Harry Potter bored for too long. It could cause trouble.

“We believed that the story was a metaphor, too, but when the evil from that story turns out to be real, then the story is simply true. The story is true and you must process, or whatever word you choose, that fact immediately; and act upon that truth. You must do this for everyone, Harry. Or she will take the vampires one by one, and then she will move against the tigers. She will take them too, and when she has that much power to wield she will rise and cover the world in darkness. Do you not understand that?”

“Unfortunately, I do,” said Harry, throwing his head back. But what was he supposed to say? That he was scared? Nah, if the world burned that was okay. It was meant to burn. He looked over at Edward who was looking at him in contemplation. Wicked Truth had sat down on the bed to listen. Bobby Lee was crossing his arms leaning against the wall. But, they would go down swinging one way or another.

“You have felt her power, Harry. You have felt that she does not love or care. You need to stop trying to throw logic at nightmares. Your reaction tells me that you are not taking this seriously enough.”

“Oh, I’m taking it seriously. But I have a different way of doing it is all.”

“Sometimes the monsters are just monsters, and the only way to defeat them is to be the bigger monster.”

“Why would I be the bigger monster?” Harry asked.

“Do you really believe that you could hold all that power and resist the temptation to use it?”

“Yes,” Everyone in Harry’s room said.

“You heard them.”

“Harry…” she said Harry’s name like she was some sort of mother or guardian. Harry wanted to reach through the phone and slap her for that.

“My mother was named Lily, please stop with that cynical maternal rubbish.”

“It is not cynical. You truly believe you are above the power that you could wield?”

“You don’t know what I can wield. You don’t know what I hold inside. You couldn’t possibly.”

“Perhaps that is true, and perhaps that is why I trust that once you’ve used the power to defeat the Dark, you won’t turn all that light and power against us like our former Master of the Tigers did. I’m trusting in your sense of honor and morality as much as I’m trusting in your abilities.”

“You can’t trust me that much,” Harry grumbled.

“I’ve put everything I own on a plane to you, including the only blue tiger in existence. If I didn’t have faith in you, would I send you such precious things?”

“I can’t promise what is going to happen. I will not be sleeping with Cynric, but perhaps I can do what I did before and spread the ardeur out and out with them nearby or something. We’ll see. I make no promises, and I’ll try to keep them safe and unhurt.”

“See? It’s not that you will do your best, but that you will do your best for them to be safe and unhurt. You merely need to get past the idea that sex must be emotional.”

“Ah, don’t go there, lady,” Harry warned. “Leave it alone. I said I’ll do what I can. I am allowed to have one clause in my life. It’s my decision, and no one, not even the monster of all, is going to decide what I will do. I’d rather see the world burn than bow to the whims of another dark idiot.”

“But don’t let it be the clause that sees us all killed.”

Harry fell back onto the bed as the phone went dead. “Kill me?”

“No way, Little Raven. Our fun has only begun,” said Edward. “Are you truly scared?”

Harry looked at him. “Do I look scared to you, Husband?”

“Part of us wishes you would be,” said Wicked.

“But we trust you, so we will not be scared either,” said Truth.

Damian made a noise and Harry smirked. “Your girlfriend is looking for you.”

“Oops.”

“You can go back to her.”

“No,” said Damian, hugging Harry. “You need me. Let me do what I can to be your calm.”

“Where are Micah and Jean?” Harry asked.

A head poked into the room. It was Jason. “Jean-Claude wants me to let you know he’s on the phone with Masters Yen and Mirembe. Both had rude awakenings. So both of them are doubling up on duty.”

Harry was about to throw the phone when it began to ring again. “Now what?” he grumbled as he brought the phone to his face.

“Chicago,” said Edward, seeing the area code.

“Dammit,” Harry growled. “You answer it.”

“Not my job.”

“Yes it is. You’re a husband to the master too.”

“Yes, but you are the one he’s going to want to talk to. If he wanted to talk to the Toy he would have called him directly. He waited to talk to you,” said Edward smirking. “Give me someone to shoot.” He kissed Harry’s forehead. “I’ll shoot them. Talk? I’m not good at talking.”

“Bastard,” Harry grumbled as he hit the talk button. “Hello, Augustine.”

“I was visited by someone you assured me was dead.” He wasn’t his usual teasing self.

“We didn’t assure anything, Augustine. We told you what we saw, and we did say presumed. Besides, you are not the only one surprised,” he muttered unhappily.

“If Jean-Claude is supposed to be our de facto leader in the US, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise,” said Augustine.

“She was blown up, Augustine. It’s all we knew of her. How are we, who are younger than you are, supposed to know what kind of powers she holds? She has no body, but she has a mind and her soul is still surviving.” He was working not to get mad again and Damian, who noticed the spike in blood pressure, draped over him to make as much skin on skin contact with him. Damian had a calming ability. Harry rarely needed it, but he was sometimes a godsend when he did.

“I guess you’re right,” he sounded angry.

“Look, we all got a shock tonight. Tell me what legend or dream or whatever you saw, what she did, or tried to do to you.”

“She pretended to be Belle Morte, but she is not her.” There was regret in that last word. Augustine, like most vampires who were once part of her inner circle, always regretted her loss even as she terrified them. Harry only knew of three who broke that mold, and those three were the ones she wanted to keep most. Jean, Requiem, and Asher. Her blue-eyes trio. “She tried to enter me. She tried to take me over, Harry. But she needed permission. I got the impression that if I’d said yes to the seduction by the false Belle, it would have given her the permission she needed to take me over. Then she was ripped away from me. I felt anger, fear, and that she needs a vampire who has big cats as her animal to call. She is weaker than she was, or she wouldn’t need permission, she’d just rape her way inside one of us.”

That gave Harry a lot more information than Bibiana had. “It took her a year to do this to the Council,” said Harry. “I think she’s been hanging around like a parasite until she was strong enough to strike at them. The bombing hurt her body, but not all of her.” So reminiscent. She was a vapor like Voldemort had been until he managed to find something usable. History repeating itself was not something Harry was in the mood for.

“It wasn’t enough.”

“Agreed.”

“What did she do to keep herself alive and how did she grow stronger? If we could figure that out, then we might be able to keep her from getting any stronger than she is at this moment. Just keeping her from growing stronger would be something.”

“She has likely ripped her soul into many different pieces and is trying to claim someone with them. Enticing them with Belle’s body and power is a good start. She managed Belle Morte and Padma. It’s strong enough to make her a major problem. She may also be in Morte d’Amour.”

“Blessed all, that is even worse news,” Augustine cried out. “Both are soft and relenting compared to him. We must get ahead of this. Perhaps if Jean-Claude could get a hold of the lions, and along with you we might have a foothold in the power structure to draw them away from her. As you know, the strongest wins the battle of tug-o-war,” he said bitterly.

That bitterness meant that he knew that Jean-Claude and Harry had beat him, twice over now. Not only did they get the better of him and reverse Augustine’s attempt at controlling Harry and unleashing his ardeur on him, but they also got control of the lions.

“What are you proposing?” Harry asked carefully.

“I’m sending some female lions that could help with your pride, build it up stronger.”

“That is not needed. We have a new Rex.”

“But you have no enforcers. You have only a Rex, and while I hear he is pretty capable and powerful he is not enough.”

“Why women? What is the goal of that?”

“You need to have Jean-Claude try the new females that I’m sending. They’re not like Megan or the bimbos from before that were brought in by Haven. I think you and Jean-Claude will like them both better.”

Harry resisted snarling, the beasts inside of him were stirring awake and becoming angry. Damian was doing little to be able to control him. “No.”

“This is no time to be so sensitive!” Augustine growled. “I’ve already sent them. By now they should be there.”

Edward’s eyes narrowed. That was when he felt the strong werelion energy in the distance. Something or someone was entering their lands. “Dammit, Augustine. Why can't anyone respect our wishes?”

“It’s foolish.”

“No, it’s not foolish. It was a single request and you couldn’t do that. None of you seem to be able to.”

“You need to learn control. You are the Regina now. You need to learn to control those powers so that the Mother of Darkness does not control you.”

“You are all under the impression that I am going to fall prey to this bint when I’ve said no to her since she first popped around! I cannot be controlled and I will not. You’re just trying to stir up trouble. I can get a hold of my powers without sex, thank you.”

“Are you truly going to be a child about this?”

“Why not call him and tell him what you’ve done? Why me?”

“Because I know you’re the one behind it. You are the one preventing him from doing what is necessary.”

“He thinks so?” Edward drawled quietly.

“I heard that, is that the assassin husband?” asked Augustine. “Surely, he could see the logic in my plans. You may be a Regina with no outside form, but you have no idea how to control them. We wouldn’t be doing this if you hadn’t killed off Haven. He could have been a great ally.”

“He was a rapist, Augustine.”

“He was powerful.”

“And he’s become fertilizer somewhere after being digested,” Harry scorned. “You could not have shopped for a man or someone that we might all actually like? Instead you send lions that you know we will decline. You want your people dead that badly?”

“If Jean-Claude can use the ardeur to call the lions through sex then perhaps he can tie the lion faction to him as his animal to call.”

“He’s been with Nicky.”

“But Nicky is yours.”

“I share nicely. I’m sure I can figure out how to do that and make Nicky Jean’s if I had to,” said Harry. “I am not letting anyone come into our lives and disrupt us.”

“If Jean-Claude has sex with one of the female lions at the same time you’re doing the Rex, he might be able to bridge the powers together to make it more complete,” said Augustine. “I know when you sent the ardeur through all of us, and fed off our lust remotely, that you had all of us in a tizzy. You enslaved Haven so thoroughly that there was nothing he wouldn’t do to have another piece of it.”

“I did not enslave Haven,” Harry growled. “I never made him my animal to call. I only ever slept with him once and never touched him with the ardeur after that one time.”

“That one time was enough. Your powers are potent and so is Jean-Claude’s. You rise together. Make a sacrifice, dammit, or we’re all fucked.”

Personally, Harry would rather die, but he didn’t say that out loud and kept his mind concealed. Harry could get behind a lot of things. He could make concessions here and there and almost everywhere. But he thought it would break something in him if they went that route over all of this.

He felt like he was once again stuck in a hole that he couldn’t get out of, and everyone on every side was vying for something from him. None of them wanted to let him keep one thing to himself. None of them wanted him to let him have one thing. He admitted to a great fear inside that he’d kept quiet. He feared that if a woman were to break through one of his men, then he would be left alone eventually. He would be left because they have something that he did not. They could give his men something that he could never do. He could never give them directly biological children. Sure they could have kids like Asher and Draco, but not without a female surrogate. He could never have the things a woman did. Did it make him jealous?

Yeah, yeah a bit.

“Just meet with them.”

“Not like we have a choice, they’re already here,” said Harry, trying to keep the bitter notes out of his voice. Why was it that when bad things happened everyone he loved got taken from him? Somehow or another? It broke his heart.

Edward was already up and getting dressed. Rafael and the others were following suit as he agreed to meet with what was brought. He kept his mind carefully masked and shielded, he didn’t want his men to know that he’d rather the world burn and die then for any of them to fall in love or be with a woman.

Grin and bear it, Harry. Grin and bear it.

Chapter Text

It was absolutely astounding how fast Edward, Rafael, and all the security could get everything together. Nicky, who was now the Pride’s Rex, was taking front and center. Between the warnings from Bibiana and the knowledge of what they’d done to Haven, none of them were taking chances.

Harry hardly noticed as Micah dressed him. His head was so foggy and cloudy, and his stomach was swimming. But he kept his mind clear. Edward-clear because if he thought too hard about some things, it might not go over well. So, he simply went quiet and said nothing. He said nothing because saying something might end up with him puking his guts out.

Everyone around him was wearing a lot of black he noted, except for himself. Jean-Claude and Edward had been quietly speaking to each other, and then Micah dressed him in white. A pair of white leather trousers that were skin-tight and knee high white boots that tied up the front. His shirt was so clingy and white that it was almost iridescent. It was a second skin and on the back of the shirt was a silver set of wings.

A blue-tooth earpiece was affixed to his ear by the peppering kisses of Micah who looked absolutely exotic in coal dark leather that laced up the sides with pine green. His shirt was silk and also pine green making his yellow-green cat eyes more green. Edward was wearing a deep red silk button down, a bit loose so that he could store his guns and weapons without obstruction. He too had leather trousers, they sat nice and tied in places. Harry noticed the hidden side pocket that held a charmed silver sword that looked black so it blended in.

Jean-Claude had opted for the usual painted on leather, but his shirt was a long-sleeved black mesh t-shirt that covered all that pale chest. Yet it let you see his skin like a ghost through the fabric. He had similar boots to Harry’s except they were black. His hair was soft damp curls that sat over his shoulders beautifully.

Harry soon found himself ushered to the living room to wait. Behind him were Rafael and Domino standing at the ready. Jean-Claude and Edward were on each side of him with Micah sitting languidly on the floor in case he’d have to shift. He was between Harry and Edward’s legs.

Logan had come out but Jason stayed behind, same with all those who were not fighters. Jamil and Shang-Da took up a corner in perfect locations, and Harry could hear Bobby Lee, Claudia, and Abraham through the ear-piece. Abraham, or Bram for short, was a new wererat recruit. He was ex-military, discharged immediately following a vaccine mishap. He was a deep dark skinned man with short-short hair. His form was a bright yellow. It seemed that the color of the fur was not genetic, but rather what had attacked them.

Wicked Truth were at each side of the entrance that the new lions would be coming through. Asher sat in an armchair with two of his werehyenas from earlier. It was a full house tonight it seemed, and Peter of all things was at Edward’s elbow. He looked good in all black, Harry noted. Now that he had graduated, Edward was allowing him into the security plans more and more. Harry knew he was armed and he knew how to use it. His hair had grown long enough that it could be tied back out of his face. It was a deep chestnut brown and it matched his eyes. His face was young, but maturing. His eyes were steady with a story that made him look older if you looked carefully. He had put on some good athletic muscle in the last year, and so far his height was topping at six foot. He was still expected to grow an inch or two more before it finally stopped. His shoulders had broadened enough to take the child out of it.

Once upon a time, Harry would feel bad having fed on Peter and allowed him into the circle of adults, but that ship had sailed because he was not a child. He’d never been one, and he just didn’t have enough shame in him anymore.

But.

Harry wasn’t feeling too good right now. He wanted to close his eyes and meditate, but knew that the moment they saw something on his face they would be questioning it. Was Harry willing to let the world and everyone he loved die over this?

Maybe.

Is it a big deal? Even once?

Maybe.

Did Harry hate himself for it?

Yes.

But a person couldn’t change how they felt. He spun the wedding ring on his left finger making a continuous motion to fill the desire to fidget.

Nicky sat in an armchair opposite of Asher. He looked absolutely startling in a deep blue crew neck and tight black leather. His muscles bulged, and he was proudly carrying like the rest of them.

Edward had even gotten snipers into place, Abraham was one and Ares the other. Harry thought it might be overkill, but whatever. It seemed that there was going to be some powerplay involved. Some taming of the beasts so to say, and Harry had no idea how to tame them. It was why Jean-Claude was being propositioned to do this. But, Harry wouldn’t say anything. He was tired of it. He was tired of the back and forth. All the pressure, all the shouts that Harry was weakening Jean-Claude all because the vampire wouldn’t fuck women. He glanced at Micah and Edward, noting that they had careful expressions. All blank. He wondered what they thought about it? Neither of them had said much.

His stomach swam again and he locked down his throat and evened his breathing. It wouldn’t do for anyone to catch his anxiety.

Could Harry be overreacting? Some thoughts began to crop up that he’d tried to shove down for a long time. Did they miss women? Did all of them miss women? He knew Nicky despised them. Apparently, he had a real bad past that saw him keeping away from every woman he could unless he had no choice but to seduce them for something.

Could he be holding them back from who or what they were? Is it just him who didn’t want this? Merlin, he wasn’t good at this. He didn’t know how to do this. He wanted to run and hide. He’d have to see if Lillian had time in her busy schedule to meet with him soon. Maybe she could help him work through it.

“Eagle here, darling,” Bobby Lee’s southern draw always made him feel warm. He was easily one of Harry’s favorites of the wererats. He was a tall and slim older man in his forties. He had a dark military cut and a set of dark eyes. He was handsome inside as he was outside in a way that his personality will always leave an impression first. A real gentleman for the most part. But he was a killer, a mercenary. Most of the Rats tended to be. Rafael was no pushover after all.

“Yeah?” And then there were chuckles over the line. “I mean, erm, White Queen here?” Eagle was whoever was in charge of the guards overall on a shift. White Queen had become Harry’s call sign. Go figure. It wasn’t his idea. Jean-Claude was the Black King. Edward was a Jack. Micah was an Ace. It was simple really but Harry’s head was in the clouds. So far up there that he didn’t want to come down.

“The lions are on their way down to greet us. All Chicago’s. Looks like two bodyguards and two new female lions.”

Crispin had managed to get Noel and Travis to the Circus before Chicago arrived, and so now they were on each side of Nicky to represent the lions as a whole. There were at least four more lions in the group, but Noel and Travis were the ones they worked with the most. Travis was sort of a pseudo-Rex, and everyone was fine with it. Nicky couldn’t do emotional stuff unless it was with Harry, and so he relegated it to Travis. A second in command sort of thing.

Harry knew that after the Haven debacle that there were no real enforcers in the Pride. Just Harry and Nicky. Those positions were anyone’s for the taking and this is why Augustine had been so adamant. He was trying to ignore the sneaky voice in his head that said the only reason Augustine was doing this was because he wanted to get between Harry and his men. Rumor had it that he’d been furious that he couldn’t get what he wanted out of them. Not even at the wedding, as he hadn’t been invited to the afterparty orgy. Jean-Claude was trying to play nice because he was an old friend, but the politics and games were right there in the open for all to see.

“How you feeling White Queen?”

“I prefer Hellcat,” said Harry.

“Me too!”

“Our goal is to tame the stronger lions, and make them the Black King’s animal to call, correct?” This came from Claudia.

“As far as I know that is Augustine’s idea, thing is Augustine didn’t even ask. He just sent them,” said Harry with a wave.

“We need to get control of that,” said Edward bitingly.

“Augustine is terrified,” said Jean-Claude calmly. “Mon Amour. You did not answer Eagle’s question. How are you feeling?”

Harry brought his shoulders up. “Doesn’t matter. We do what we have to do, right?” he said, and he didn’t bother to try and smile or be his usual self. He didn’t have it in him. “You need more ties, Death knows I can’t do it all. So, do what you have to,” he said neutrally.

“We don’t have to do anything, Little Raven,” said Edward tightly. “I think it’s stupid.”

“I kind of agree,” said Micah.

“Do we let them in or not?” asked Bobby Lee.

“Maybe we should at least meet them?” Nicky suggested. “Nothing has to be decided tonight. If they go over the line - well - let’s just kill them and send them back to Chicago in pieces.”

Harry couldn’t help but smile at this. If only things were so simple.

Lisandro and Fredo came through the doors first followed by Jesse and Payne leading the way. Harry had met them once before. Once a part of the St. Louis Pride, but after Haven was killed they were sent packing. Now they were back and trying to push their energy through the room. Nicky didn’t bother rising as he drew out his own energy to block it. Jesse was a tall, dark, and he supposed, a handsomely powerful alpha lion. Payne was tall, pale, and also good looking. Looks were often a requirement in these kinds of things.

Harry’s lioness stirred from beneath the depths of his soul at Nicky’s energy, and she rose up and out like a tall gallant figurehead. His energy naturally began rising to meet Nicky’s energy and fill the room. Travis and Noel let out a deep breath, and Payne and Jesse’s eyes flickered in acknowledgment.

Jean-Claude stood gracefully. “Welcome back to my home, Payne, Jesse.”

Harry could see their lions around them like a halo. One had a mane that was almost black and the other so pale it was ghostlike. He could feel the two women’s lionesses between them. Neither of them were weak like Megan or Amber had been, and his lioness was hissing at them with clear warning.

First was one who was tall, strongly built, and of course Augustine was always a man about curves and she had them. She had short dark hair. Her lioness was tawny with darker marks so that she looked almost spotted in places. The other was much shorter, with long yellow hair. Her lioness wasn’t small at all. It rose up huge and strong. It was golden and it was snarling at Harry’s through her human body.

“Jean-Claude.” Jesse spoke first, and then he turned to stare at the new Rex who rose. “So you’re the new Rex? We didn’t get a chance to meet after we were tossed back to Chicago in a haste.”

Harry felt Nicky’s lion. It was big and burly, muscled all the way through. It stood like a golden flame that grew bigger and bigger in the most subtle ways. Its mane always reminded Harry of a darker sunflower with threads of tawny and brown streaking because fur and hair was never one solid shade.

“Augustine insists that we come and play nice,” said Payne, but his face showed exactly what he thought of playing nice. “But, Augustine is not here in these lands, and you don’t have control, Master Jean-Claude.” He looked over at Jean-Claude.

“Do I need it?” Jean-Claude asked smoothly. “You were sent away to keep the peace. You were brought in by Haven and brought your crimes here despite the rules set. We did not wish for any more deaths than necessary. Your return was for your safety.”

Payne and Jesse turned to stare at Harry who had not moved from his position. “A Regina in the body of a man,” He commented with a turn down of his lips. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. These are Rosamond and Kelly, handpicked by Augustine himself.”

Everyone’s lion was now pacing in a series of circles. Harry’s was creeping around the edge, watchful as Nicky moved closer and he and Jesse’s began to revolve. Harry felt the two women staring at him, their lionesses sizing him up. They didn’t seem hostile now, more curious and maybe even a bit confused.

“Dissension is not tolerated here in St. Louis, and it is not up to Augustine what we decide. A grave situation threatens all of the preternatural world. You are only one of many great cats out there. I do believe Augustine was a bit hasty because while the lions here are small and few in comparison to Chicago, they are also backed by the whole of the community. Do you know why you are sent here?”

“To form a connection. See if you have the ability to make lions to call,” said Jesse. “Normally, this task would have fallen on Haven when we first arrived.” He shot a dark look at Harry. “Haven, who you ruined.”

“I didn’t do anything to that thug,” said Harry, sharply. “It was his own choices. I never even touched him with the ardeur after that one accidental moment when Augustine brought him the first time. He was not mine to call. I met Nicky before Haven returned to take over the Pride,” he said, slowly rising and placing his hands behind his back.

“But then why didn’t he become the Rex?” asked one of the women looking at Nicky. Her eyes were trailing him up and down.

“He had his own Pride at the time. He was a traveling lion who happened to meet my lioness on a whim. It was nothing more than a one night stand.”

“Augustine is under the misguided notion that because I am a man who houses Belle Morte’s ardeur in full that it must be a young lady who warms my bed so that I can form that connection. But that is simply false. He does not understand that each form of the ardeur is its own variant tailored to the vampire in question. He, who is a lover of women, does not see nor does he understand that it can be shaped with enough power and will. Mon Amour here is a rarity. He houses all of the powers of the ardeur, I do believe between me and himself it is stronger than Belle Morte’s ever was, and it has been tailored by many things over the years. It is true we could do with more lions in our Pride, but if you have come to find a bed, then you need to turn around and go back home, and let Augustine know that your services are not required.”

“We are forbidden to leave until you’ve made a bond with a werelion. I brought these two, you can choose one of them,” Jesse waved his hand.

“Non. I will not. I am a Master, I do not bow to you nor do I bow to Augustine. It is no sleight to either of you lionesses. You are fetching, but you are not needed nor wanted.”

To Harrys’ surprise both of them looked relieved. “You didn’t want to do this?”

Kelly shook her head. “No.” Payne let out a growl, but Kelly raised her chin. “I am not lying to the Master of the City, Payne! And the only reason I agreed to be here at all was because I wanted to be away from Chicago.”

“Haven was a criminal, and I was damned relieved when he left Chicago. I’m not surprised that he wound up in more than one stomach,” said Rosamond backing Kelly up. “We’re not pinup kitties. We know our way around muscle and gun, and we have no real desire to sleep with everything that walks. Sure, whatever power he holds in him is drawing us close, but the Regina there is hissing like mad. We’re disrespecting him, and you think you can get away with it because he’s male so he doesn’t qualify. However, I can feel his presence right alongside his Rex! I can feel the insult. We have insulted him.”

“It’s not so much you insulting me, as I am very much aware of the insult intended from the lack of acknowledgement of visiting lions to the Rex and Regina of St. Louis. Not to mention the insult of coming without negotiations first. We can ignore those because of the friendship the Master of Chicago has shown the Master of St. Louis in the past. However, next time it won’t be ignored. Augustine has pushed the limits one too many times. It’s this whole bloody thing going on,” said Harry crossing his arms over his chest.

“Augustine said we had no time to draw up negotiations in a match, and that haste being made was of life and death. Somehow, he believes that the power you hold might be enough to protect the lions from becoming slaves to the dark,” said Jesse.

“You’re hiding behind excuses now,” said Micah, rising from where he’d been lounging on the floor.

“This does not concern the Leopard King,” Payne snarled, his lion getting aggravated.

“Oh yes it does,” said Edward, coming to a stand. “Everything that enters our territory concerns us all. Or have you not noticed the eyes on you from the moment you entered the borders?” It occurred to Harry right then that Edward, Micah, and Rafael must have had plans in play to start watching the inside and outside of St. Louis territory. Likely all the way to the edges of the largest territory owned by the leaders here. Harry knew that Micah and Rafael’s territory technically covered many states because of the lack of other groups, only individuals, in the area; including Illinois. Rafael once said that he had eyes everywhere, rats were everywhere. Is this what they meant? Harry wouldn’t be surprised if rats in Chicago called the St. Louis based Rodere members the moment the lions moved. Geez, Edward must have had so much fun helping with those plans. He, unlike Harry, loved stakeouts.

“We have no choice now but to offer some penance of our blood,” said Rosamond with a dip of her chin.

“Merely the offer has put you in much better standing,” said Micah carefully.

“It is not necessary. It is understandable why Augustine would be in such panic. A brewing darkness is gathering, and he has only seen the destruction. He was not alive for the beginning and end. He only saw the aftermath, as old as he is. He is still a bebe compared to the Mother of All Darkness. He has panicked. He has always had a panic streak in him,” said Jean-Claude. “We have plans to do all we can to see our forces drawn together. But a panic is not going to get us anywhere, and there is more than one way to - ah- what is the phrase? Skin a cat?”

Micah smirked. “Meow?”

He gave Micah a loving look and stroked his shoulder as he turned to look at Nicky. “Besides, I do believe that mon Amour has given me an idea to make you, Nicholas, my lion to call.”

Nicky turned. “I’m all ears, whatever you need.”

“Augustine’s haste has always been what sets him back at times. He did not even give us a second to allow the information we had gained to digest before he was making plans. You see, mon Tueur d’Ombre is no vampire as you can tell, but he has a certain thread of control over the leopards. I could probably get full control of lions in the same way that he did the leopards.”

Edward tilted his head. “Perhaps. I don’t see why you can’t.”

“It also brings me to mon Amour, and the wererats.” He turned to look at Rafael. “He had only a partial connection until a few hours ago. He had you to call much like mon Tueur d’Ombre has the leopards. I do believe that partial control I already have over the lions, through mon Amour and Nicholas being the beautiful King and Queen of the lions, I could probably draw on it to let it become mine.”

“Impossible!” Payne sneered.

“Everything is possible in St. Louis or have you not heard?” asked Jean-Claude with that pretty smile. “We are able to move mountains. I have been careful not to feed on Nicholas when he was engaged with mon Amour in fear of draining him completely. A Rex and Regina right here all for me, in my bed already. Why do I need another?”

“Hey, whatever works. You can feed on me all ya want,” said Nicky smirking. “I don’t mind.”

“Weak!” Payne snarled. “You’re weak.”

Nicky slid his blond wedged bangs back to show the blindness of his eye. “At least I don’t have to beg for a spot in their beds. What’s weak about that?”

“You’re only half a Rex with that disability. How could anyone respect you? Must mean they too are weak,” Payne stepped up, his energy rising and the lion brewed inside of him rising up over him.

Nicky’s came out to meet it and the two glared at each other. Gold on gold. “Are you challenging me?”

“Maybe I am. I might not be as good as Haven, but then again it also took two to take down Haven.”

“Actually, it wouldn’t have. It was two because he tried to take our Queen from us,” said Micah. “It was a compromise. He gets half, I get half. Harry is my Nimir-Ra, he is Nicky’s Regina, and you are no one.”

“You’re about to cross a line. If you even somehow managed to defeat the current Rex, no way are you going to take over the Pride,” said Rafael. “You need permission from all of us leaders as a collective. It’s not about individual clans anymore. How many have been wiped out because they were singular? We decided to fix that outdated tradition. If you attack him, we will challenge you once it is completed. If you survive. Either way, Augustine won’t be getting any lions back and you risk breaking the relationship between the Masters.”

“I have the full power of Chicago at my back,” Payne snarled. “Do you possibly think you can stand up against all of us?”

“All of this because Jean-Claude won’t fuck Augustine or his lions?” Asher snorted “You’re the one being ridiculous.”

“It’s no longer about that. It’s about pride and the insult!” Payne was puffing himself up, his energy levels rising and rising, and Harry saw his control begin to lose out from the influx of energy.

Jesse was frowning at Payne. “Payne, calm down!” He ordered, but then Payne reacted and not against them, but his own Pride. He brought his hand up and the power flooded the room sending Jesse, Rosamond, and Kelly crashing to the floor with the weight of his energy. His lion was bearing down on them.

“You will obey me or fall!”

Micah, Rafael, and Nicky all moved to stand in front of Harry. Edward pulled his gun and Jean-Claude stood extremely still as the familiar smell of cloying jasmine spilled in through the influx of powers.

“Payne, what the fuck is wrong with you!” Rosamond screamed.

“He’s not Payne anymore,” Harry shouted.

“Now!” Edward ordered. Harry was drawn back by Jean-Claude when dozens of guns fired in the same direction.

But the bullets seemed to slow as they were fired from their chambers, and Payne made a move that saw the bullets flying back too fast. Harry threw up his hands causing the magic in the room to stir, and block the spray of reverse bullets.

“Help me, my children!” Payne let out a screamed cry, cross between female and male as if the two were fighting for dominance. Backed by the strength of the Mother and his own powers, Rosamond, Kelly, and Jesse were forced to act. “Give me carnage!”

A darkness swirled and gathered, it was like a thousand ants or bees buzzing and it started to compress and pull apart as it layered through the room combined with the power of the lions. Rosamond and Kelly tried to fight it, tried to resist, but they were transforming, their skin breaking apart. Jesse, who had less resistance than the two women, had already fully transformed.

Micah leaped at Jesse, transforming in a flash. Rafael moved like a blur. Damian, Wicked, Truth, and Asher pinned Rosamond and Kelly to a wall as they snarled and lashed out. Blood flew as everyone joined the battle, but Payne/Marmee Noir was twice as strong in person taking over another than she had been when she was in a vision. Claudia and Lisandro crumpled in an arterial spray of blood, and they kept on attacking. Fighting and snarling, Rafael pushed his powers into them to bring their beasts out for the charge. His hands had transformed into furred claws, longer than Harry had ever seen on a human-man hybrid. Edward had managed to gut Jesse with the sword that had been hidden in its sheath sending him to his knees. But it was Payne that was the problem.

Her powers lashed out at all the felines and vampires in the room, sending them into themselves, and tearing at the metaphysical walls. Asher began to scream as he was forced to let go of Rosamond and Kelly. Damian had a bit more resistance. Wicked Truth went stone solid, not screaming or attacking but not making a noise either.

A suffocating darkness began to eat away at the Circus, swallowing everything whole until they could only see through a small tiny scope.

“Cease!” Jean-Claude and Harry moved forward in an instant causing everyone to back off as Payne who had been enveloped in shadow rose from his bloodied position. Both of them were locked hand in hand to raise their powers. Still alive, body still pouring out energy waves, his human body was flayed at the skin as if he were roasting. He looked like one of the skinless back in New Mexico. His eyes bulged bloodshot and gold. His hands were clawed, and his face twisted with fangs. “No more!”

“As if a catamite of Belle can stand against me!”

“You are wrong about that!” Jean-Claude threw up his shields, and he spread them up and out bathing everyone in the invisible force including Kelly and Rosamond who were barely breathing from the attacks nearby. “You will cease and desist you unruly parasite!” He built his power higher and higher pushing the receding darkness back. She fought against the power, and it was like a tug of war. Darkness and light fighting over control. “You will not come into my city and hurt my people!”

“I will take them, Jean-Claude. I will take them and then I will consume your necromancer!”

“You have tried and you only ever fail, Mother. I do believe it is you that will be consumed. We will tear the evil out of you!”

“It’s too late, the seeds are sown, and I will devour all to be stronger!” It was the smell mixing with the familiar jasmine that caught them all off guard. A stench of death and rot so decaying that even the vampires looked about to be sick. Payne’s mouth opened and he snapped his head up. What looked like a puddle of smoky crows spilled out of him, and every single person in the room was suddenly bathed in an intense need for hunger and flesh. Even those that were human began to crave it as if they craved the ardeur and lust. It rolled through them like an iron wrecking ball.

“Ahhh!” Claudia let out a scream. Followed by more screams. That was when another voice flooded over them as the smoky black crows circled them like carrion beasts. It was male and oily.

“Feed and I will feast,” and then he laughed, a manic high sound.

Most people in the room ended up on all fours, their fingers and nails digging into the white carpet. A need to rip and tear into each other. To eat and feast until their deaths hung heavy.

Jean-Claude doubled over, trying to keep grips on the shield to block Marmee’s darkness. He could do nothing about both of them at the same time. As the smoky crows circled, they moved faster, their beaks and talons becoming more corporeal.

“What are we going to do? We’re going to eat each other at this rate!” Asher hollered. “It’s the Lover of Death, God help us all…!”

“Even I cannot hold both her and him at the same time! We must choose.”

“Release the ardeur!” Edward called out. “If you release the damn thing then he can’t feed on us right? He can’t do lust like Belle Morte could.”

Everything inside of Harry had gone still. So utterly still that he could not move once his knees ended up on the carpet. Jean-Claude gasped. “Mon Amour! He’s growing cold…”

But, Harry did not hear them as he stared down at the blood soaking the carpet. He could see chunks of meat but it didn’t register. Something inside of him was stirring with discontent. Something in him was insulted. Something hot and cold poured through him at the same time rising up through his chest to his mouth and into his head. He could hear the tinkling of wind chimes.

“His eyes…”

“They’re red…” And then a power began to swell in the room, but this power was empty and filled with void.

When Harry’s mouth opened, words came out that were not his own. A voice was used that did not belong to him. He raised his head to the crows. “You have trespassed. You are not Death nor are you its lover. Only one holds Death as its master, and you are not it. I do not understand anger or hatred. I do not understand the lust that drives man, but I do understand how to fill myself. It is through my master that I fill my empty chalice with what I did not understand, but you, I understand fully. My creation. Not me. I shall swallow you.”

Everything around him went completely black. No sound. No world. Nothing.

Chapter Text

It’s been a while, Harry thought as he stood in the corridor of hundreds of doors. Across from him was his devil.

“You’re not Voldemort,” said Harry, eyeing Voldemort’s visage.

“I am a phantasm of him as he is what you perceive as the strongest tie to death. He does reside in you after all. He is what has shaped you. I took what you could comprehend. You have his power, but you also have mine. I am formless after all.”

Harry should be worried. He should be scared. He should feel something, but he didn’t. “Hm, is it me or is this awkward? What happened? What did we do?” Yes, business. He could talk business. “Doesn’t everyone have your power? I mean, they all die.”

“Correct, not many draw this conclusion too often. It may sound abstract but you are the first to truly embrace me. You are the first to give me something beyond my creation. We swallowed the death that was imminent. Your power lies in death as bestowed upon you. I have to exist after all. No world could survive without me. My children were created, and some of them are naughty. Most get above themselves and their station. I cannot control freewill. It is uncontrollable. You, who house all the freewill the world could ever have, should realize this. Most have only one or maybe two aspects, but you hold many aspects. So many that they stretch endless and boundless. A necromancer who draws everything into him. You are like your beasts. You are ever changing, but you have pulled something more. I do not understand many things. My task is death and death alone. I am everything and nothing. You are full to bursting. You are everything, and nothing does not exist where you are concerned. It was a whim of fate that brought us together. But it doesn’t matter how. All that matters is that it is. You have shown me certain aspects that I never had.”

Harry groaned and rubbed at his metaphysical cheek. “Riddles. I’m not good at these,” he pouted. “Are you saying you don’t understand anything but death?”

“I am not made to understand anything but death. It’s why I must be housed. Everything comes back to balance in the end. A natural order to the way the universe works. You cannot have chaos for too long, and the first is pure unrelenting chaos. I am glad that the fates allowed me to be stored within you. You understand the fight. You do not hold death responsible for your suffering.”

Harry shook his head. “You can’t blame death for what it was made to do.”

“You are so full of things that I couldn’t understand for eons. I have never understood emotion or feelings or care. All those that I have inhabited have all been lacking. It is love in your heart that has managed to move me. Your constant sacrifice. Your selflessness.”

Harry snorted. “I’m not selfless enough. I’d rather watch the world burn and be swallowed than sacrifice one small thing that could help.”

“That is what makes you human and that is what makes you master.”

“Am I a human? Why do I gain beasts? Why do I not manifest them? Why is this thing so attracted to me?”

“She was one of the first to house me. She got furthest and then she failed. You gain beasts because Death is in everything. You don’t change because you are human and I am Death. Death does not change. You can’t change Death. You can play with an aspect. You can mask it. But you can’t change it. You are my Master. I thought putting myself in one of my creations was what was best, but it turned out to be the worst. My creations are all born with nothing in them, like me.”

“You mean they’re all born sociopaths?”

“That is your human word, but yes. All must be filled from the start. Some fill that chalice fast. Some move slow and never get to the top. Your Jean-Claude was fortunate. He was changed by someone who knew love. He retained humanity. It is their choice to learn and pick these up, to fill their chalice so that they are not broken.” It made sense, Harry thought. Asher and Jean-Claude both knew how to love deeply. Requiem did too. Belle Morte was a confusing woman. He couldn’t tell with her.

Also looking at Damian, Wicked, and Truth. All of them had been near empty. Damian’s former mistress had taken everything out of him and left him with nothing. Now, they were all filling themselves up, learning behaviors. Maybe in the end, all of them had to learn behaviors. It wasn’t just a sociopathic thing to do. Maybe everyone did it subconsciously, and most took a lot longer to fill than others. It was food for thought, but so not the point right now.

“Nature and nurture are one in the same when it comes to my creations. All were once wereanimals, but that aspect was ripped apart by freewill. It’s why the ties are so strong. Many have collected my tools, but none have mastered them. It is not hard to hold all three in your hands. But it is hard to master them.”

“So those were created by you?”

“Yes, through Necromancers so that I could one day be in the right one who will set the course. You have set the course.”

“Why did you choose me?”

“I did not. You chose me.”

“I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have set Voldemort on baby me,” Harry reminded. “I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have fulfilled the damn prophecy if I’d had a choice. My free will was taken from me.”

“And it’s back in your hands. Is it not? I am free will.”

“But you just said you weren’t free will!” Harry groused with a roll in the back of his throat. “Make sense please!”

Death laughed at him and it was Voldemort’s laugh. High and rich, sometimes a bit nasal like. “You are entertaining.”

“I’m entertaining? You’re the one who makes no sense at all.”

“Am I meant to?”

Harry wobbled. “So, how did I choose this? I mean, how?”

“Only you know that.”

“Bloody hell, you’re as annoying as everyone else!”

“I do annoy a lot. I come when people least expect me. It’s in the description of the job.”

Yeah, that was about right. “So, uh, is God real?”

“Do you want him to be real?”

Harry threw up his hands. “I give up.”

“No. You don’t know how to give up, and that right there is your answer. You chose because you don’t give up. Are you not happy in the choice you have made? In the husbands you have brought together? In the world that you are forming? Is it a coincidence that America started moving in this direction the moment you crossed the pond? Death affects everything it touches.”

“Mhmm. I’m done asking questions,” Harry snarked dryly. “Can you help us?” Or not.

Death smiled that lipless smile. “I am helping you. I help you every day. But I do feel that you are owed something from me personally. I shall send them to call. You should return.”

“Wait! How do I defeat her?”

“That is not up to me. That is up to you.”

“Can I hex you?”

“If you would like.” And then Voldemort’s face smiled at him once more, and the inner world of madness inside of him turned black.

His eyes stung when they opened and he could hear the sounds of movement. Soft words were being spoken, but he didn’t quite register their meaning.

“Mon Amour?” Jean-Claude was right there above him. His beautiful face shining down on him like some dark angel. His eyes were shimmering with unshed tears.

“What’s wrong?” Harry asked, feeling his throat was tight. “Why are you looking like that?”

“Oh thank God!” Micah cried out and there was movement. He was on a bed. He tilted his head to see his Nimir-Raj who fell over top of him.

Fingers were working their way through his hair, and he knew that it was Edward. “Once again, you defied the world by not breathing or having a heart-beat, Little Raven,” said Edward, and for the first time Harry heard a shakiness on the edge of his flat tone.

“Blame Death. He’s a bastard I want to hex,” Harry grumbled, causing several people in the room to choke. Harry managed to sit up. Jean-Claude settled back onto the bed, his legs tucked around him. Just about everyone was around the bed he was in, watching and waiting. He could feel others outside, moving and pacing. “What happened?”

“You swallowed Morte d’Amour’s attack, mon Amour. You took it in like we drink in the ardeur.”

“You weren’t yourself. You didn’t smell like you,” said Micah.

“I have never seen that devil so terrified in my life,” said Asher who was sitting at the edge of the bed.

“He was here?”

“For a moment we all saw his image,” said Jean-Claude solemnly. “We saw real terror, something I have never witnessed before. He gives terror, not feels it. He loves it. He relishes it. But you terrified him.”

“It wasn’t me,” said Harry.

“The Mother of Darkness and Morte d’Amour fled fast. I don’t know where they went, but they are gone for the time being. I don’t think they are coming back so quickly without a plan,” said Jean-Claude.

“Is everyone okay?”

“Nothing that couldn’t be healed,” said Rafael, coming down to sit. “Of course, Payne is dead as is Jesse.”

“And the women?”

“They are alive as they fought against the power. Even if they lost, their wills were not to harm us. So we’ve offered them clemency,” said Jean-Claude.

Harry nodded. “Good, they don’t deserve that. We should return home and regroup before the tigers land. It might be a good idea to call our friend in too. See what information they can share.”

“It’s noon, Little Raven, they won’t be up.” Harry loved it when his men knew exactly who he was thinking of without him having to say a name.

“But he will.” Micah added. “We shouldn’t wait until we’re home to call. Call now and then we’ll move. Give them the most time to move if needed.”

Rafael reached to the floor and found one of their phones. At his movement, Harry registered the fact that they were all naked again in bed. Nicky was curled around Jean-Claude’s back. Stretched out like some Greek statue. Wicked Truth were also naked having joined the fray. Only a couple of guards were dressed and guarding the doors. It seemed everyone had come to the party in bed. Travis and Noel were nearby taking up one small corner. Cute.

“Not that I’m complaining… but why are we all naked?”

“Healing for everyone, Harry.” Rafael chuckled as he passed the cell phone over.

“Huh.” Harry shook his head and pulled up his contact list. It didn’t take long to find the number he wanted and dial. A few rings later the call was picked up.

“Nostro caro. What can we do for you tonight?”

“I’m sure I don’t need to go into detail of who has visited us three times last night in borrowed bodies.” Harry started as he leaned back between Edward and Jean-Claude.

“Not at all, that is why we are enjoying some fun in Australia. She did not take no as an acceptable answer and we had to leave quickly.”

“Australia can’t be that fun.” Harry ignored the pleasured moans and sounds of vigorous sex he could hear in the background of the call. “You know you’re always welcome here.”

“We did not think she would move so quickly after gaining control of others. We had planned to call you tonight after gathering some things, but well… I’m sure you can hear what is going on. The local weres needed some persuasion first...” A shout of pleasure interrupted whatever else was going to be said. It was close enough that Harry wondered how many were involved in the orgy. It wouldn’t surprise him if they had answered the phone while buried deep in others. Despite not being members of Belle’s line nor incubi themselves, both were quite fond of sex with males. Probably what made them such good friends, they too would not stand for females in their bed.

“Mio caro” purred over the line.

“Arsenio, pleasure to hear your true voice again.” Harry smiled. Only those close to the leaders of St. Louis knew that Arsenio was the Traveler’s true name. The only time he used that name was when in his original body, which means that Baltasar and the Traveler had to flee with everything. “Thank you again for coming to the wedding.”

“It was a pleasure, mio caro. It will take us some time, but we will be with you soon. Good pet, yes you may suck me clean.” The last was said slightly muffled as if Traveler had taken the phone away momentarily.

“Will you need a lot of space? You know you are welcome to stay with us. We can get facilities set up for other things if you are bringing them.”

“You are precious. Just us two. Oh, and a few guests for your Circus. Baltasar and I do enjoy staying at your lovely manor.”

“You are always welcome, Master Arsenio.” Jean-Claude added. He still showed difference to the Traveler in formal situations.

“Good, we can talk about gift exchanges once there and don’t tell me it’s not needed. This tradition I insist on following. I’m sure you’ll be happy with what we’re bringing. Jean-Claude, Edward, Micah. I expect all of you to take care of him.” He hung up leaving Harry to scoff.

“As if I can’t take care of myself!”

“You are his favorite,” said Jean-Claude with a pleasurable smile.

“I think it’s all Teddy. Speaking of, where is he?” Harry asked, looking around.

“Peter has taken him home this morning,” said Edward.

“He didn’t wake through all that, did he?”

“No, Jason crawled in with him,” said Jean-Claude.

“How did you hold her back, Jean-Claude?” asked Rafael.

Jean-Claude looked at him. “I honestly do not know. All I remember was something gold inside of me. A need to protect everything. To fold back the darkness with some light. It was like a big bird flying through me. It was crying. I was going to cast the ardeur on us all so that we could avoid the Lover of Death’s calling card,” he said, closing his eyes. “He cannot consume lust, and so he would have gotten nothing from it. But then you, mon Amour...”

“More like the annoying riddle of a devil that speaks in one end and out the other.” Harry then paused, screwed up his face, and then looked at all the vampires. “How are you awake?”

“He’s a fast one today,” Bobby Lee teased. Harry flung a playful hex making Bobby Lee dodge, and smile. “That all you got, Hellcat?”

“Are you in the mood for giggling?”

“Not unless I get sex first.” Everyone chuckled, and they began to migrate off the bed.

“Do you know what magic it was you cast?” asked Lisandro.

“I don’t even know what happened once things went black,” said Harry. “You look okay. Did the pile help that much?”

“It was healing for you,” said Abraham, stretching his arms wide in the air.

Harry resisted looking down. He was certainly a hair away from a horse. He had a ripple of hard earned muscle. Some scarring from his military background, and not a speck of fat could touch him. He was so dark in skin tone that he looked almost purple in some glistening areas. His abs had the perfect formation of indents as though he’d been carved with careful hands.

“So what did happen exactly?” Harry asked, noticing that everyone kept mentioning other things, and not telling him what had happened to him specifically. What had he done? “Edward said I wasn’t breathing and I had no heart-beat. So was I just laying there on the floor?”

“Not exactly,” said Nicky.

“Why are you stalling? What aren’t you telling me?” Harry turned to look at everyone who kept shifting their gazes. Even Edward was suddenly interested in Travis and Noel who had sat themselves up, looking sheepish. Nicky probably brought them in knowing that Harry wouldn’t trust any lion from Chicago with them alone. Even if it was ladies who didn’t seem to be into the whole trade-sex-gift idea. “Damian.”

Damian straightened. “It’s hard to explain. It was like all your beasts came out of you. Some of us started to attack each other, the blood was enticing beyond anything I’d known. Even waking up for the first time as a vampire.”

“Oui,” said Jean-Claude.

“Did you hurt each other?”

“Only Ellie and Andy fell victim,” said Jean-Claude sorrowfully. “As they are from his line, they couldn’t resist attacking each other. Wicked and Truth managed to lock them out, but not without consequence of their own power levels.”

Wicked and Truth nodded. “It was worth it,” both said at the same time.

“You didn’t let us get that far, but the thoughts brought on, the near idea that we almost turned on each other is enough to shame us all, Harry,” said Rafael solemnly.

Harry nodded. “So, what did I do?”

“It’s hard to explain. It was like something came out of you, Hellcat,” said Bobby Lee.

Lisandro nodded as he sat himself at the end of the bed. “Your eyes were red and the power was bright and white. All of your beasts came out of you in a spiritual sense like a ghost. Almost like winging out of your body. You covered everyone in the room. All of your beasts covered each of us, and began to heal us. It took the damage out of our minds, and it cleared the eating darkness.”

“You had no scent. No smell at all,” said Micah. “You weren’t you, Baby. It was like you sucked up all of the power that was breathed into the room in one swift blow.”

“Your body started aging. You began to grow, older and older, and then you collapsed,” Edward picked up. “Everyone felt your death, Little Raven. No one liked it.”

What was Harry going to say to that? “Oh.” Such a serious moment, Harry thought to himself. “Does that mean I’m no longer forever seventeen?”

“Non, mon Amour. When you collapsed you reverted to how you were before. Same lovely little mon Amour.” Harry pouted as Jean-Claude kissed his cheek.

“I think we can all agree that you, at any stage, are very fuckable.” Lisandro gave a light grin. And the spell of fear and uncertainty dissolved as laughter began to flow. Even Edward was chuckling quietly.

“Well damn. I could have used a few years,” Harry mumbled.

“Personally, I’m just glad we didn’t all end up in an all out orgy,” said Micah. “I don’t mind when it’s just the home team and we’re having fun. Everyone here respects the rules.”

“That’s because everyone here had a part in making and enforcing them.” Rafael pointed out.

“Not to mention remembering. If I blew the ardeur through there’s a good chance no one would remember who or what they had done,” said Jean-Claude. “But it is always a better option to eating each other.”

“I’ll take a no-memory orgy over eating each other any day,” said Abraham.

“Hey, if I’m part of an orgy I don’t remember I can’t get in trouble,” said Lisandro smirking.

“We’ll need to make use of port-keys to get everyone to the house,” said Edward.

Harry nodded. “I’ll go ahead and make them. I guess this means I slept right? I don’t feel tired. Who knows when it decides to hit me? When are the tigers getting here?”

“Probably not till this evening or the morrow. I also need to make a few calls to the other Masters.”

“But all are dead,” Travis pointed out the obvious.

Jean-Claude smiled. “Exactly.”

Noel blinked. “I don’t get it.”

Harry chuckled. “It’s a cock sizing game. Jean-Claude and our Kiss are awake. They are not. He’s going to push his energy onto them, forcing them to rise and acknowledge that he rose them.”

“Oui, you catch on quick, mon Amour. Besides, after what Augustine said about the Mother of Darkness asking for permission to possess him, we need to check on the Masters who are not nearly as strong willed.”

“We should also check on Malcolm,” said Edward. “His so-called flock would be the first to fall with how weak they are. We have hundreds of potential enemies right next door.”

“I’ll send some rats over,” said Rafael, nodding to Bobby Lee to do exactly that.

“Asher can you call Draco so he can get Luna? We might need her. This is a really bad time for Hermione to be pregnant. But then again, do we ever have a good time for that?”

Asher bowed his head as he wrapped Harry into his arms. “Of course, mon ami. I am ever so pleased you are alright. I do not wish to be the reason for the light to leave Draco or Jean-Claude’s eyes.” He kissed Harry on the forehead.

“Yeah well, Death is a pain in my ruddy arse, and if I could hex him I would.” He stomped off for the bathroom. He needed another shower. “After I shower, we need to prepare for some guests. Nicky, can we leave you, Travis, and Noel to deal with the two women?”

“Of course, Regina.” Travis smiled and he and Noel got off the bed. “Leave them to us to get sorted.” It was the first time they called him Regina, at least to his face. Instead of correcting them, he left it alone because isn’t that what he was in the end? Both kissed his cheek before taking their leave.

Did he choose this life like Death had implied? Yeah, yeah he supposed he did.

All of the vampires were port-keyed back to the house, and while Harry could have apparated he chose to go with Edward and the rest. Jason and Logan would be meeting up in their car with a few of the wolves.

He could already see Jean-Claude preparing to look his best in front of the camera to his fellow Masters. It was all hands on deck, and it was going to be a busy twenty-four hours.

Harry sat in the middle with Edward driving. Rafael and his men had taken their own vehicles back. Micah was beside him. Surprisingly, Edward let Nicky drive his hummer once they were through with the ladies who would be staying at the Circus under the watchful gaze of Fredo, Claudia, and a half a dozen others. No one quite knew what to do about them. Good news, Harry’s fear of them stealing his men away from him had receded with all the events of the night.

Bad news? Harry had become even more freaky. Micah was on the phone, and when he hung up he pulled Harry over for a cuddle. “Rafael’s ordered a ton of food from the Olive Garden. He’s going to have some people pick it up.” Olive Garden was one of his favorite restaurants. He’d never had anything bad from that place yet, and the desserts were fabulous. His stomach rolled, and all his beasts made movements inside of him to let them know that they were famished.

“Oh yeah, I’m kind of hungry.”

Micah snorted and Edward shook his head. “You always do that, Little Raven. Good thing we take care of you.” He reached a hand and squeezed Harry’s a bit tighter than he normally did. Harry must have really scared them when he had aged and died like that.

Harry kissed his cheek. “Yes, good thing. Are you okay to make your interview? It’s that important one, isn’t it?” He was lobbying for rights of lycanthropes to serve, meaning they could stay in the military, they could be doctors and nurses in the health care industry, and for fuck’s sake they could be in law enforcement. The argument was why were humans allowed to police each other? To fix each other's wounds, prepare food, and serve in their country, but lycanthropes were not allowed to? Did it make any sense for humans with human genetics to be fighting with packs of criminal lycanthropes? Was that even fair to the humans? Why not have a mix. A little bit of everyone?

It had picked up steam in the government branches. Ballots had been shot down twice before, but they didn’t have Micah and even some of the magical government pushing for it. Even a lot of FBI were calling for it, backed by Bradley and a few others.

“I would argue if this was really the time, but it is important,” said Micah. “I just don’t want to leave you alone, Baby.”

“What is this guy beside me?” Harry poked his finger into Edward playfully. “Stone statue?”

“He could be,” Micah snickered.

“Funny,” said Edward, and Harry noted the tightness around his eyes.

“Guys, what’s up?”

“You aged and died, Baby,” said Micah. “It’s still fresh in our minds. We don’t want to leave you so soon.” He wrapped his arm around Harry and pulled him closer.

“I’m still the same ol’ me. I just have good ol’ Death stuck inside of me somewhere, and he likes to riddle me to death. Bloody berk makes no sense!”

“When I stopped smelling your scent - any scent that you give off, it was like you were cut off permanently. I didn’t like it. I love your leopard scent. I love your lion, wolf, and rat. I love everything that makes up who you are.” Harry’s heart thumped, and he stared at the pained expression.

“For the briefest moment I went back to nothing,” said Edward. “Everything I gained disappeared for one second.” He looked at Harry with blank eyes when they stopped in front of a light. “You are the key to everyone’s heart now, Little Raven. It is not allowable that something should happen to you. Even Toy had this look as though he’d aged a thousand years. His beauty was lost and his face was rendered and marred far worse than Asher ever was. It was a lot to take in. It was so brief, and yet so on point.”

“I’m sorry?” Harry bit his lip. “It seems that Death being the nothing that it is has to be housed and has to serve because it knows nothing more than what it does. It’s not even a he or a she. It simply is. His creations are made as a balance and they are empty at birth. All are sociopaths, and they are learned and taught. Nature and nurture are combined. Apparently, I’m the first one whose ever been successful in bridging things together.”

“I can see that,” said Micah. “You’ve won a lot of hearts. So let me ask you something before we get back to our family. Would you have really let Jean-Claude take a woman to bed?”

“Yes,” said Edward. “He would have because he is ridiculous and needs to be spanked.”

“Edward!” Harry whined. “I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“That’s the same thing, Little Raven. Just know, it’s not going to happen.”

“And no, we are not tired of you. We do not miss having women in our bed, that is stupid,” said Micah.

“But is it? I am the only one who is truly gay. I know this,” said Harry. “It was always in my mind. Mostly back in the early days when Jean-Claude’s kiss compared me to a woman and seemed disappointed in meeting me. I always wondered if I was holding you back.”

“As I said, he is ridiculous.”

“Yep.”

“I have a question for you, Little Raven? What did we marry?” Edward asked.

“Huh?”

“What did we marry?”

“Me?”

“Exactly. What we want is you, and our relationship is all of us together in this. We all compromise. We all have something that we wish to keep to ourselves, and none of us have any interest at all in the opposite sex.”

“Why not?” Harry asked boldly. “Things like that don’t flip off like a switch.”

Micah laughed. “They do when you cherish something, Baby. You know that.”

“I don’t have a switch. I simply am, Little Raven. You need to stop holding back. You are our husband. We married you with the knowledge of what that was going to mean for the rest of our lives.”

Harry snagged down and snuggled into Edward’s side, Micah snuggled into him.

“It’s a bit crowded over here,” Edward quipped, leaving Harry to snicker and Micah to grin.

“Tough. Be lucky Jean-Claude isn’t in the car with us.”

“Or Nicky. He’d be a heavy one!”

Edward kissed Harry on the forehead, and he passed the kiss onto Micah as the light turned green. They sailed through before taking the usual turn to home.

Chapter Text

Why was it the moment he stepped into their house all of his worries were left at the door? There was something so calming about being home. Wicked and Truth were staring out one of the windows in the Entrance Hall, gazing out at a sun they never got to see. Damian was nowhere near it. Harry went over as Edward went to check in at the den, and Micah went to see to the food that the rats had brought in. Olive Garden got a lot of business that day.

“You okay?”

“It’s so bright,” said Wicked.

“I’m not sure if I ever remember the sun being so strong on our faces,” said Truth. “Damian ran away when he saw the sun. It does not penetrate the glass?” He reached a finger to push boldly on the pane of the window. No sunlight streamed on his finger. All shadow.

“Rune layers,” he said, curling his arm around Truth. “If it bothers you I can blot it out.”

“No,” said Wicked.

“Don’t,” said Truth. “We may never see this again.”

“I love you boys.” Harry raised onto his toes and kissed Truth on the cheek, and then did the same to Wicked before heading to the kitchen.

Everyone ate in the den this time, and the vampires kept inching toward the glass in wonderment. Requiem was staring wildly from his place beside Luna who sat on a pile of cushions.

“Bullets did nothing,” said Edward calmly, taking a seat.

“If it hadn’t been for Harry’s magic it would have come back to us in an instant,” said Rafael who had gotten some lasagna and a few breadsticks.

“Are you sure you need these weres to get together to kill her?” asked Hermione who was sitting on an overstuffed armchair. Draco was on the arm of it with Asher behind them. Louie had work so he couldn’t be there.

“We do not know enough, ma cherie. It is the problem. Everything we know is speculation,” said Asher.

“It’s all a fairy tale. A myth that we do not know for sure, but I would hazard a guess that it might very well be.”

“It sounds to me like she’s a Horcrux,” said Hermione. “It’s killable.”

“Everything is killable, but how many is the question?” asked Edward.

“Voldemort was the only one we knew who made more than one, the act of ripping the soul is so obscure that there is simply not much known. It’s an old art. I have some books in the library here. It’s in our restricted section,” she told them. “Just one book, but it tells of making one, not more than one.”

“Likely dates back to her time. With her being a former necromancer, souls would be her cuppa,” said Harry who had the chicken scampi and some soup. Teddy was on the floor beside Nathaniel, enjoying his lasagna too. He had Snow and Cone draped over him and everyone pretended not to see him slip both of them pieces of meat. Yang was sitting next to Edward, hopeful as she looked to the man for food. Everyone pretended he didn’t slide her some. The pets were ridiculously spoiled. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she held some of my own powers. It might be why she was drawn to me. One can only guess because during that time period there was no established structure.”

“Not until the founders of Hogwarts. All magic was learned through clans and families,” said Hermione.

“All these tigers did was put her to sleep,” said Micah. “A temporary solution, we need a permanent one. Sleep is not going to work again. I think we can all be sure of that.”

“Then how to kill her?” asked Lisandro. “I’d rather not think about eating everyone again.”

“That’s the question isn’t it?” Jean-Claude began to rub at his temples. “I have spoken with many masters. All of them are having a time trying to keep their houses in order. Most of them have had the dreams. Most of them have been approached, but I personally cannot tell if one has changed over the other. For all we know she has been inside of the Council for a year before striking.”

“Maybe she’s always been there,” said Luna, logically.

“What?” Requiem blinked.

“Perhaps she’s been there for eons. You told us that the Council was compelled to stay at her side. Maybe she’s always been in them, broke herself into them for all this time. Maybe that’s how she got stronger over time when she was confined in that coma. She siphoned their powers and their children’s powers.”

“It makes sense, as the first time I saw her it was through Belle Morte,” said Harry. “From Belle to her, and I was warned some time ago that something was coming, and they weren’t sure what or how. At the time I thought it was the Council, but I’m thinking that she’s been waking for sometime. Necromancers, real ones, don’t die easily.”

“You’re telling us!” Abraham shook his head.

“We could try and get a hold of some basilisk venom. Unfortunately, it’s an illegal substance,” said Hermione.

“I can get it,” said Draco.

“If you do, perhaps I can turn them into bullets,” said Edward.

“Better than what we’ve got. Right now most of our bullets are useless,” said Rafael.

There were simply too many variables with the weretigers coming in at various times today and tomorrow. Not to mention there was the Traveler and his mysterious group. It was going to get busy quickly.

“What we do know is that tigers and cats are her animal to call. If she manages to get control of them all we may not stand a chance. So whether it is a myth or a legend or not even true, we must put all we can into collecting the tigers. Perhaps if we can gain control of them, then she cannot. We’d have to do it together as a Tetrumvirate.” Jean-Claude looked at Harry, Micah, and Edward.

“Whatever we need to do to see this thing done,” said Edward. “But no woman will be accepted into our relationship or into our bed.”

“I’ll see to procuring some basilisk venom. You’ll have to have dragon hide gloves, touching that stuff with free hands will be an instant death,” said Draco.

“Good thing Little Raven got me some for Christmas then.”

Harry was soon full on food, and exhausted. Teddy pipped in, worried about everyone, and questioned the bad lions that he smelled and felt. Micah was preparing to leave for his interview.

“Mon Amour, perhaps you should go and rest. Passing out is not the same as much needed sleep,” said Jean-Claude stroking him and kissing the top of his head.

Harry wanted to argue, but he knew that if he didn’t get rest he was going to be no good to anyone. It couldn’t hurt for a few hours. “Okay.”

He stripped out of his clothes and crawled into bed again. Despite having been passed out, it felt like he hadn’t ever been in bed at all. He felt boneless, so he curled up in Edward’s usual spot, and drew a cover over him as Micah sifted through the closet. Yang hopped up onto the bed and curled up at Harry’s side, settling in for her own nap. He watched with no sense of time as Edward, Jean-Claude, and Micah came in and out, talking softly. He could see their figures and register they were there, and let their ambient voices soothe him into a sleep.

He was peripherally aware through his sleep of several people coming in to check on him. A hand to his chest, a couple fingers to his neck, and even a few threading through his hair. At one point someone crawled into the bed behind him, and hugged their chest to his back. A tight arm around his waist. A flush of soothing heat.

Images sometimes floated in and out, dreams that weren’t very dreamlike as he could taste, smell, hear, and even feel the world behind his eyes. He knew it was the link to his husbands. Sometimes, he saw a time the world had forgotten. Oftentimes he would feel the wind blowing through coarse fur and the pads of paws hitting the earth. A feeling of freedom that Harry had only ever had when he was flying. And then there was the sense of order and regime. A time where yes sir, no sir, thank you sir was all there was along with the feeling of gunmetal and the smell of smoke and a dozen men. He knew all of this was a link to his husbands’ minds, and it was most sensitive when he was asleep. He knew they got some bleed through from him, and never questioned what it was they saw. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear it. Some things were better left in the past and not brought up.

It was Micah’s beautiful face and scent that traveled across him, and he could see through the light sensitive eyes of chartreuse. He noticed that the vision was better than it was, and it was as though they’d been healing for some time. He could see more color, less black and white. Less night vision. He shook hands with a slim bodied business woman who gave him a smile that was part flirtatious and part business. But it was the smell that drew his attention. It was of a too strong perfume. So strong in fact that the natural scent of flesh and blood had become toxic to the nose, and the reflex to gag was strong. All wereanimals tended to group things into two categories. Natural and unnatural, and smelling her was about as unnatural as they came. A lycanthrope smelled everything milliseconds before they ever saw anything.

As the visions faded in and out, he was drawn back to a clump of shadows, something hazy in the distance of his dreams. Memories of a time forgotten, rotting flesh, and the scent of death. Flashes of white pale skin rotting off the bones onto the beautiful strapped down body of Jean-Claude. Long coal hair dried up and clumped out as the figure sunk himself deep against his husband’s will, controlled him, used him. He was a plaything because of sacrifice. Belle Morte had sacrificed him. Punishment. His heart hurt, and the images faded causing him to take in a shuddering gasp as he woke in bed.

“Harry?” A hand gently shook him, and that aged smell of decaying flesh vanished as Edward, Micah, and Jean-Claude mixed and mingled on the pillows and sheets. Another smell, this one had a hint of lilac and vanilla. He opened his eyes to see the deep chestnut color staring back at him.

“Peter?” Harry breathed through his nose as he raised his head. Confusion rattled around his brain for a moment as the images became foggy and started turning white. He shivered when Peter’s hand ran down his cheek. He looked over to see Jean-Claude was out. “Times it?” he asked as he rolled over onto his back.

“About six. I’m babysitting.”

“Sorry about that.”

Peter shrugged. “No big deal.” He kept rubbing at Harry’s neck stirring the heat in the pit of his stomach. He hadn’t fed the ardeur since last night before all the events happened, and now he was aware that he hadn’t fed it. It was surging through him, reminding him of its hunger. A belly beast that was warm.

“Where’s Nathaniel?” he asked carefully. “You two have been attached at the hip. I don’t often see one without the other these days.”

“Work. Your skin is getting hot.”

“You keep rubbing me,” Harry sulked as he sat up. He could smell Peter’s shampoo and the soap he’d used. A hint of lilac and vanilla from Nathaniel. “You smell like Nathaniel.” He ran his nose across the teen’s shoulder and up his neck making him take in a sharp breath. Realizing how forward he was being, Harry drew back, shook his head and noticed Yang was no longer in the room. She must have slipped out to play with someone. “Sorry. I’m up.”

He shoved down the beast inside only to flood with heat when Peter pushed himself right up against Harry. “Peter!” he let loose a moan. “You’ve gotten bolder.”

“Probably. I can feel your heat flowing out onto my skin,” Peter confessed. “It’s trying to get into me.” He swept a hand over Harry’s cheek and down his neck.

“Y-you should go. I don’t want it to unleash on you,” Harry whimpered when Peter kissed his neck, and then he bit down making all the tiny hairs on the back of his neck rise.

“Jean-Claude told me that your ardeur reacts more to those you’re attracted to,” Peter said.

Harry squeaked. “I-it… no, that’s not it!”

“Are you sure? You find me attractive.” Peter ran a hand up to fist Harry’s hair while he started a hickey on Harry’s neck.

“You’re lovely, Peter, and I’m jealous of you.”

“Why?” Peter asked, pulling back fractionally. Surprise on his face.

“You’re growing up. I’m not. Of course I’d notice how beautiful of a man you’ve become.” Harry kissed him, unable to resist the tug to do so. He tried to keep control on the tug that drew him in. Peter had become confident in himself. Confident enough to war with Harry over control. His fingers ran through Peter’s hair as their mouths fought each other before Harry’s tongue licked slower and gave in as he sucked the teen’s bottom lip into his mouth getting a groan. He felt himself being pushed to the bed and complied. Harry let out his own groan as Peter climbed on top of him, keeping the kiss going. The ardeur was ready to pour out when the cellphone on the bedside table rang.

Peter scowled, and Harry couldn’t help but admit how relieved he was. He didn’t mind giving Peter attention sometimes, but he didn’t want to do it too much. In a group it was fine. Everyone was having fun, but alone like this with only Jean-Claude out beside him ran the risk of other things. He wanted to protect Peter as much as he could. Harry kissed him on the chin. “Sorry, luv.” He reached for the phone but that didn’t stop Peter who dived into his neck to continue the hickey, making Harry moan out when teeth ran along his skin. He cupped the back of Peter’s neck as he was pinned back down once the phone was in hand. Peter shifted to be between Harry’s legs and pushed up until Harry could feel the teen’s budding erection against him. Harry couldn’t help but grind against him. He didn’t bother to check who was calling.

“Hello?” Harry was getting better at speaking on the phone while engaging in a sex act. As long as his mouth was free. Harry swooped his legs around Peter’s hips as one of the teen’s hands slid down to grab his ass; reminding Harry he was wearing nothing in bed.

“Harry!”

It took all of a few seconds to get the haze from the rising lust to figure out who was on the line. “Zeze?” Harry shuddered when Peter’s fully erect cock rubbed against his. He could have sworn the teen was wearing pants.

“Oh thank fucking God, you’re alright!” His voice sounded short and panicked, a bit high as if someone had kicked him in the balls.

“Uhm, yeah, why wouldn’t I be? I don’t think my sheets are going to kill me.” However, the boy on top of him was certainly trying. He shot Peter a look, he only smirked as he dipped down and sucked at the pulse in his neck making Harry muffle the sound that threatened to emit. It definitely didn’t help when Peter moved a hand beneath the sheet and started caressing his cock. “Although I have had dreams of tapestries strangling me before, and a turban once.”

“Normally I’d laugh at a joke, but… Harry…. I just got word from a fellow officer in the DEA. He’s undercover ops, and he told me that a call just came over the underground about a hit.”

“A hit?” Harry said as Peter’s smirk dropped. While the lust was still on his face he drew back carefully, hands leaving Harry’s body.

“A what?” Peter asked, and Harry quickly put the phone on speaker.

“Did you say a hit, Zeze?

“Yes. Ever since that last hit on your life I’ve managed to make some friends with the undercover ops divisions. More specifically a hit on the Master of the City of St. Louis Jean-Claude, Federal Marshal Ted Forrester, Head of the Coalition Micah Callahan, and Necromancer and Federal Marshal Harry James Potter-Black. He’s told me that it was big money. Huge, the largest hit he’s ever heard of for one of these things!”

“Shit… Peter go get Edward.” Peter rose off Harry in an instant, slipped his pants back on, and quickly rushed from the room.

“Harry, what the fuck is happening? Why is there a hit on you and your husbands? I haven’t told anyone at the precinct yet. Dolph is going to flip if I keep this from him. I’ve managed to contain it because the guy who works in undercover knows that it's you and the Master of the City who have kept the drugs out of the were hands.”

About a year ago, Harry and Logan devised a huge operation to deal with the darker side, and with the help of Rafael and a bunch of his wererats, they managed to get rid of most of the dealers and usage. They quickly destroyed the ties that Haven had started in the region and they terrified anyone even thinking of going down that road. Micah had worked his Coalition politics magic to get more help on that front, and with Jean-Claude backing them, well, no one really wanted to go against him considering his powers. You don’t mix weres and drugs. Some of the younger members were trying to talk their leaders into okaying marijuana. No word on how that was going.

“Look, Zeze I don’t want to lie to you. But this is bigger than any human can handle. For the safety of St. Louis and the rest of you guys, do not let this leak. It’s so big that every major Master in America right now is terrified beyond belief, all feline weres are about to go into hiding, and everyone is looking at us for help. We’ve been attacked remotely three times in twenty-four hours.”

Zerbrowski started swearing over the line, not something he did often. “Mother of God help us!”

“It’s going to take more than God this time, Zeze. She melts crosses, makes them burst into flames if you’re a true believer. Right now a cross isn’t the way to defend yourselves because she can get to you in your mind, and you’d become a roman candle. Good news, she’s not interested in the plebeians who aren’t sensitive, and if you need proof talk to the psychics on your force. See if they’ve felt something not quite right.”

“You’re right, Tammy came to me in a panic. Her husband, Larry woke in a cold sweat saying the darkness was trying to swallow him whole. She felt as though ants were crawling beneath her skin and she couldn’t get them off. And then there are two of our guys who are asking to switch to the night squad because they need to sleep in the daylight. But, Harry. You guys have to be careful.”

Harry laughed. “I’m sorry, but there’s no being careful for us. It’s me she wants most.” He had to get out of bed. He had to put a stall on the ardeur. He wrapped it up tightly and swallowed it down into his stomach. He didn’t have time. He could hear movement, steps being taken too loud. Voices going back and forth. Not normal in their house. Most weres and vampires were instinctually quiet when they walked and moved unless you were a child like Teddy. Edward and Harry were naturally silent, and no one liked to raise their voices over another.

“Why?”

“I’m strong?” Harry laughed. “Strong enough to catch the attention of one of the first Necromancers who was turned into a vampire. She is the first. She would be considered the Lilith in your Holy Bible,” he explained. “They call her the Mother of Darkness, Night Mother, Mother Dark, Marmee Noir, and so on. She is the living embodiment of darkness. Her body was blown up last year, but her mind is strong and so are her powers. She’s already managed to possess at least three overpowered masters who have tried to kill us.”

Zerbrowski was quiet, likely running all this over. “What can I do?”

“Just keep your ears open. Don’t tell anyone, Zeze. Just let us work on it.”

“Dammit, I don’t like this. I don’t like not being able to help you!”

“It’s not your fault. It’s not even the vampires’ fault. I mean, all of them are scared, and these are vampires that have been powerful and strong and terrifying for centuries. But they are all absolutely mortified, and all of them are calling us.”

“How many lives are going to be taken?”

“I can’t answer that. You know what I chased from here to Las Vegas?”

“Yeah…”

“He was known as the Father of Day. She is the Mother of Night. Once upon a time every vampire could trace their line to the two of them. She made him powerless for eons. Now she’s powering up after her own children tied her down for centuries. She’s on a hunt for tigers.”

“You have tigers, don’t you?”

“I have the tiger that she wants most. You get me, you get them all.”

“I guess protective custody isn’t going to work?”

Harry laughed. “All the walls in the world aren’t going to protect us, Zeze. No. It’s best to take the fight to her. Straight offense with no defense in sight because there is none to be had.”

“This goes beyond the law, doesn’t it? No human law at all can comprehend what’s going on right now.”

“Completely.” Edward came through the room with Peter right behind him. “How long ago was this hit taken out?”

“A few hours ago at least.”

“Okay, thanks Zeze.”

“Keep yourselves alive, alright? I’ll do my best to keep it from spreading. Do what you need so you don’t make me and Katie cry. We don’t want to go to your funerals so soon after your wedding. Let us know if you need us to watch Teddy during this. I’m sure he’s got plenty of options, but know we’ll watch him too.”

“Thanks Zeze. That’s sweet. We got to go.” Harry hung up and turned to Edward.

“Just got a call myself, Harlan,” said Edward.

That was when Nicky came through. “Jacob just called. His Pride were offered the hit. He said, hell no. Rafael’s running down his own contacts.” He came over to Harry and wrapped his arms around him.

“What did Harlan say?” Harry asked, leaning into the touch.

“He was offered one million for each of us, and a five million bonus if he could get us all.”

“Sounds cheap,” said Harry, hand on his hip.

“Not cheap enough, Little Raven. Someone’s going to take it, and I can’t reach Alpha.”

Harry frowned. “Isn’t he back yet?” He was trying to keep his heart from jumping out of his chest.

“No,” said Edward.

“Mind?”

“I can’t reach him. I can’t even feel him.” He didn’t like the sound in Edward’s voice. It was rare that the man held worry. But it was there, lining on the edge. It made Harry’s stomach twist. “His phone goes to voicemail every fucking time.”

“Let me try,” said Harry. “Micah? Micah?” He reached through the links, and he frowned when he felt nothing but a solid wall between him and his men. “Someone’s blocking our link. Are there any witch assassins?”

“A few,” said Edward.

“I was just dreaming about him before I woke. He was at his interview.”

“Could she be the assassin?” Nicky asked.

“No. For one, she smelled so strongly that she made him want to gag, and when Micah shook hands with her they were soft. So unless she was a poisoner I doubt it, and even then all poisons work out of a were in minutes except silver, and his pendant would light up if silver gets too close to him.”

“Can’t he do what you did to Ellen?” asked Nicky.

Harry shook his head. “Sadly, no. I’ve tried. Jean gets the closest because he can tap into my magic.” He moved out of Nicky’s arms and began to pace. “Who would be ballsy enough to take a hit on you?”

“Plenty,” said Edward calmly, sitting down. Peter was leaning against the bedpost, quiet and listening. “Most know they wouldn’t be successful. But, it doesn’t stop a few from wanting to try.”

“You’d be the hit of the century.”

“So would you and Toy, Little Raven.”

“Yeah, but you’re the top assassin. First name on your tongue, Edward,” Harry said as Edward stared at him blankly.

“John Grace, they call him Gracie,” he answered instantly. “He places eighth in the lineup of assassins. We’ve run across each other a few times, he’s always resented that my kills were always faster and sharper than his abilities.”

“Is he good?”

“They say so.”

“You say?”

“Competent.”

“How would he do it?”

“He has multiple methods. He’ll use a gun, but he’d rather not. He prefers accidents.”

“I need to get dressed.” He headed straight to his closet.

“I’ll get with Rafael, get some men together. It should be a straight shot from here to the restaurant he was meeting the journalist,” said Edward on his feet. “Peter, Nick, with me.”

He shrugged into a pair of tight fitting white jeans, and snagged the first shirt on the rack, which was purple, thin, and sleeveless with a V collar. He quickly stuffed his feet into some white boots with a silver zipper, and rushed to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He came out with his phone in his hand. Harry kept trying Micah’s phone, but it went straight to voicemail.

Noah was downstairs with his head in his hands. “I told him I needed to be with him at all times, but he insisted!” he growled. “Insisted that having a guard during his interviews was tasteless. I should have ignored him!”

A lot of people had shown up, Rafael had sent out over a dozen wererats, all of them led by Bobby Lee. Peter was on the computer. Last month the sneaky teen had managed to sneak into the traffic cameras around St. Louis, and the only reason he didn’t get slapped on the hand for it was because Edward thought it might be a useful skill for the future. Edward was behind him leaning down as Peter was pulling up the footage. He’d become quite skilled at hacking into some technology, especially those he shouldn’t be able to access.

“I can call and get a BOLO out on the Lexus, but it’ll draw attention,” said Harry. “Maybe Logan can sneak it through.” But before he could do that, his phone rang again, and his heart flipped when he saw it was Micah. “Micah? Micah?! Where are you?”

“Sorry, Harry, it’s not Micah.”

“Zeze? Did you find Micah?”

“No. But we found your old car and a lot of blood, Harry. Micah’s phone was inside. Once the license plate was ran it was sent straight to me since you’re one of us. I’m sorry, I can’t keep this contained.”

“Just keep her out of it, okay?” said Harry.

“Gotcha.” He gave Harry directions.

“There!” said Edward pointing at the screen as he raised his head. “Go back two frames, kid,” he said, clenching his hand on Peter’s shoulder. “Glad you had me go with gut, Little Raven.”

Harry came around to see the wide computer screen, and he saw the moving traffic cameras, the time-stamp was a half hour ago. Harry’s Lexus drove by, and three cars later so did another car.

“There. It’s Gracie. Can you zoom in or something?”

“Yep, give me a minute,” said Peter, tapping at a few keys.

“Edward, I have to get to Zerbrowski. He’s found my car.”

“Take someone with you,” said Edward. Noah was on his feet instantly. “Not you. You’re coming with me. We’re going for Gracie. Peter, go with him. You’d be a lot less threatening looking.”

“Let me come with you,” said Luna. “I can probably help with a tracking spell. You mentioned he could be a witch. Which means even if he is only a psychic, he still has enough energy that I can probably use a point me spell to get us to his general location. You two go first and I’ll follow behind.”

Peter went to grab his belt that hung in the entrance hall. Harry didn’t argue about Peter coming with him. He could get away with being at the scene with all of RPIT better than anyone else aside from Edward. He could say he’d been driving Peter to some final school function when he got the call if anyone questioned his presence.

“Micah isn’t weak,” said Peter when they both slid into the car.

“No, he’s not. But he has no idea there’s a hit out there for him. He doesn’t think like you and Edward.” He backed out, and sped down the lane. He didn’t pause as he took a sharp left. “My cars are practically bulletproof, and that worries me even more if there’s blood in the car. I can protect everyone from crashes, and even protect the weres from most silver issues. But the unexpected, I can’t protect against that, and psychics are always unexpected.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. I mean, he survived that one monster didn’t he?”

“Chimera. Yeah, but I don’t like this cut-off. I can’t feel anyone. Unfortunately, he hasn’t cast it over me or I would have known what was going on the second it started.”

“How’s that ardeur?” Peter said, trying to distract him.

Harry flushed. “Not now!” He smacked Peter on the leg. “Bad boy!”

“You sure you’re not going to eat the police?” he taunted, and Harry scowled.

“No. I can shove it down when it's an emergency. Although, it has a habit of coming back with a vengeance when I do,” he confessed. “You horny boy.”

“Everyone is horny, so that’s irrelevant,” said Peter.

Harry smiled. “Got me there.” Peter was easy to be around, he admitted. His smiles and smirks came much easier. He was more playful. Not over the top. More subtle. “Keep your guns out of sight.”

“I know the drill.”

It was just off the highway about a mile from the restaurant that he was meeting the journalist. Bright flashing lights in the dim dying sun accompanied yellow police tape and cones were dotted all around the area, the police vehicles were lined up to block anyone’s view. A couple of uniforms were directing traffic around it.

Harry pulled off to the side, hugging up against a bunch of tall spindly trees with big leaves that like to slap a person in the face. He grabbed the beaded chain with the marshal badge attached and threw it on as he and Peter got out.

Harry balked when they got up to the tape, and he saw a large white delivery truck. Its front was smashed in like a popcan straight to the windshield. Someone was sitting in the ambulance bleeding and crying.

Harry’s Lexus sat in almost perfect condition except the doors were open, and some of the uniformed cops were scratching their heads and looking confused. Not even the glass had been busted out of it.

“Wow. Looks like your charms worked,” said Peter as they slipped with ease beneath the tape and around the car.

One of the uniforms let out a shout. “Whoa, whoa you can’t-” An oversized cop made a hard jog around two of the cars to get to him.

But Harry shoved his badge into his sweaty face. It seemed running just that much was too much with how red it looked. “It’s my car, Federal Marshal Harry Potter-Black. I’m with RPIT.”

He looked at Harry in disbelief, and then looked at Peter who stood there trying to play innocent. “He’s with me. I’m going to see Zebrowski, and you’re not going to stop me, are you?” Harry sweetly said, placing a bit of energy into his voice.

“No, no. I’m not going to stop you.”

“Thank you.”

Both of them veered around the delivery truck. It was smoking from the top, and the grill looked as though a semi had been taken to it. He saw Zerbrowski standing beside Detectives Clive Perry and Rob Merlioni.

“Zerbrowski?”

“Hey Kid.” said Merlioni, though the smile wasn’t there.

Perry nodded. “Harry. Who’s this?”

“Clive, this is Peter. We were on the road when you called. Tell me what happened?”

“Look for yourself,” said Zerbrowski, stepping aside so that Harry could see better. “For some reason the cops can’t get around it. Every time they try they end up backing off in confusion.”

“I’d like to hear the explanation for that myself,” said a voice that Harry hadn’t heard in over a year. Harry turned fractionally to see the tall, slowly aging Rudolph Storr standing there like a stone wall. He was one of the largest men that Harry had ever seen. But, time and stress was eating away at a once strong and handsome face.

“Lieutenant,” said Harry crisply.

“Potter-Black. You better be ready to explain what the hell is going on,” he said, his voice barely calm.

“Also, why is the car in perfect shape and the truck that should have been fine look like a popcan?” asked Merlioni, slightly bemused.

Harry stepped forward to look as Peter remained behind him, watching the crowd of cops critically.

He frowned when he smelled the blood. A lot of it was sprayed across the front of the dash, and some of the windshield. Had he been stabbed? Harry thought, trying to keep his head in place. He was trying to control the dizziness that threatened to take hold of him as he inched forward. Micah was fine. Micah was alive. He knew this, but dammit. He was hurt somewhere.

“Where’s Logan?” Harry asked.

“I sent him off into the forest, thought maybe he managed to get out,” said Zerbrowski. Harry knew he likely sent Logan out there to track Micah if he ran from the scene and shifted for healing. Smart man.

“I always protect my cars. A basic layer of enchantments to keep them from crashing, going off the road, and all of that. Draco did this car when I first bought it. Ever since a friend of his died as a result of a drunken driver, he went a bit over the top to make sure these never truly crashed. Now, I know my car will not go off the road or its lane even if you take your hands off the wheel and cover your eyes. So, why did the truck crash into it?”

Zerbrowski took out his notebook. “Delivery driver Steven Heinz said that the car came to a skidding halt all of a sudden. He smashed into it causing it to flip twice before it landed back on the wheels.” Just picturing it was about to make Harry faint. All of a sudden the pavement looked mighty nice. His whole face and body grew warm, and he stumbled slightly.

Peter was surprisingly the first person to catch him. “Careful, Harry.”

“I’m fine,” he said quietly with a thick swallow. “So whatever happened, happened before he ever came to a stop?”

Zerbrowski nodded. “Sounds about right. Why couldn’t the cops get close?”

“I don’t know them?” he said with a small smile. “You can get close, right?”

“The three of us could get into it, but the cops and the Dolph are unable,” said Zerbrowski.

“Proximity wards around my cars. First week I was in St. Louis the damn thing got keyed,” said Harry, lying.

“Hah, at least yours didn’t get egged!” said Merlioni. “Happened to me a few times.”

“What does that mean?” asked Dolph.

“It means, if I don’t trust you. You can’t get near it.”

“So why did he stop?” asked Zerbrowski.

“Drunk?” Dolph came up with, and Harry flashed him a dark look.

“He doesn’t drink. Ever,” said Harry coldly. “He’s never even had a sip of alcohol.”

“Never?” asked Merlioni. “Not even for your wedding?”

“No, he’s a leopard. Most lycanthropes do not and will not drink.”

“Why not?” asked Dolph.

“Because if they get pissed they can lose control, and Micah was eighteen when he was viciously attacked with his family when they went deer hunting. You want that information, ask Agent Fox of the FBI what happened on the case. He’s the Coalition Head and Representative. He was coming back from an interview.” If he could focus on the task at hand. He wouldn’t feel sick. Peter moved closer to Harry on instinct.

“Human’s First?” Merlioni suggested.

Harry shook his head. “No, only way they could have potentially breached my car is magic, and they hate witches as much as they do everything else. That’s another reason I ward my cars.”

“Can you get the trunk open? We can’t,” said Dolph, making a motion, and Harry saw Tammy of all things come across the road.

“Hello, Harry,” said Tammy. “A lot of magic for one car,” she said, glancing at it. She still didn’t understand Harry’s magic, and it drove her crazy that she couldn’t.

“My magic.” He took the keys from Zerbrowski’s hand, and went around to the trunk. Good thing the armory had been taken out a year ago. He had no idea what was in the trunk now. He hoped to Merlin that it wasn’t weapons.

“Why is the kid here?” Dolph asked sharply.

“Because whatever attacked Micah, I don’t want it to touch him by proxy,” said Harry, turning the key and opening the trunk up wide. He resisted smirking when he saw a few small duffle bags. A couple of them were glittery and colorful. One said Guilty Pleasures in red on it. “The car is shared by a lot of people,” he said. He stepped back letting them sift through it. Mostly clothes. A lot of booty shorts, g-strings, meshes, and other things that one would wear at a strip-club, and then someone pulled out black leather chains with fuzzy cuffs. Tammy had gone bright red when she saw it. Merlioni was cough-chuckling. Even Zerbrowski was half smiling.

“God, I wish this moment wasn’t so ruined by the seriousness of it,” said Zerbrowski. “I really want to tease you.”

“Then I will. Your style?” Merlioni teased lifting it up.

“I wondered where those went,” muttered Peter, causing everyone to turn to look at him. “What?” he deadpanned.

“These are yours?”

“My boyfriend’s,” Peter corrected. “Is the chastity belt in there?” he asked seriously.

Zerbrowski cocked his head, trying to hide a smirk. “Well, Merlioni?”

“Er… let’s see. What does a chastity belt look like, kid?” he asked, guffawing.

“Aren’t you his guardian?” asked Tammy wild-eyed.

“He’s eighteen, and as much as I love Peter I’m not his parent.” he defended. “He has a boyfriend, who drives this car sometimes. Micah’s been meaning to get his own, but hasn’t had a chance to do so.” It was the fact that Micah wanted to buy one with his own money. Edward, Jean, and Harry didn’t think it was necessary. “Besides, I have my own cuffs or has your detective eye gotten as gray as your hair, Merlioni?” He raised his wrists to show the cuffs.

Zerbrowski looped a finger through the ring, and tugged it. “Sounds fun.”

“Sometimes.”

“Besides, his wrists would be way too small for these,” said Peter with careless ease.

Harry left them to the back to check over the car. He held his breath as best as he could. His stomach was swimming. He was doing his best to distract himself from the reality, the threat that was looming over them. He closed his eyes, and dug deep inside of him. Come on, Micah, where are you?

“HARRY!”

It was Logan. Harry turned, and moved in a blur. Peter quickly moved to back him up as everyone shouted after him.

He skidded down the side of the road into the brush of the woods. He moved quickly, following his Ulfric’s energy.

“Harry! Get down!” Peter shouted, and Harry did a roll into the grass as something sharp dived over his head and speared itself into the tree. It was an arrow.

“Clear the area!” Everyone moved into action.

“Get the kid out of here!”

“I’m not leaving him! Back off, I’m his guard,” Peter snarled as he veered around Tammy. “Move or I’ll move you!” he barked in the distance.

A branch came flying out at him. “He might be telekinetic!” Harry shouted in realization. Another arrow went flying, this one was tipped in silver.

Then Harry turned and he saw the man standing there, tall and slim. His eyes were dark, almost black. He wore traditional wizard robes. He stood still and straight like a statue. He raised his hand, his fingers curled around the hilt of a wand when shots were fired. But they went whizzing away with a wave of Gracie’s magic. Harry did the only thing he could think of and apparate out of the way and re-appeared only for Gracie to do the very same thing.

“You’re a real wizard!” Harry said in surprise.

“You think you’re the only one special? Millions are at stake, Boy-Who-Lived. Nothing personal.” His wand was out, and Harry dodged as a green spell left the man’s wand causing it to crash into a tree.

Harry fired a stream of spells, but Gracie was no slouch. He managed to evade them, throw up a shield, and evade all the bullets that came at him.

“Stay back! He’s a wizard,” Harry hollered. “Your bullets aren’t going to touch him!”

“Back!” Zerbrowski ordered the uniforms and detectives. “Let him handle it!”

“But, Sergeant!”

“You heard me. Stay out of his way.”

“I’ve killed your husband, but you have two left right?”

“He’s not dead,” said Harry, diving out of the way and following up with a sectumsempra that managed to land across his chest. Blood spurted out as it slashed him.

Gracie growled as he stared down at the deep slice. “I knew you’d be good, boy. But I’m not bad myself.”

“You’ve bitten off way more than you can chew, Gracie.” Harry managed to appear behind him only for Gracie to throw him away, sending him crashing into a tree.

“Crucio!”

The spell hit true causing screams to rip through the air as the pain curled through him like a thousand white hot needles. He fell to the ground rolling. It’d been years that he’d felt something so awful.

As Gracie pulled up on the spell, he followed up with the killing curse only for Harry to roll at the perfect time, and get back on his shaky feet. Back and forth the two sent their magic at each other, popping in and out all over the forest. He ignored those watching in the background.

Gracie made a step behind the tree and came out on the other side. “Avada Keda-” But then he froze. His eyes went wide as he dropped to his knees. Peter had snuck up behind him and rammed a hunting knife into his spine severing it in one clean hit. Blood spilled out on both sides and regurgitated out his mouth. His eyes were empty as the man fell forward, and the battle came to an end.

Harry moved with a tremoring twitch. “Great job, Peter,” he said, glancing down at the dying man.

“He’s not dead yet,” said Peter flatly. “But, my knife is coated in a poison that makes the bleeding twice as hard,” he whispered.

“Pity there are too many watchers for you to finish it,” said Harry softly. “Is that an important knife?”

“Kind of, it was the first one Ted gave me.”

Harry waved his hand slightly causing the knife to duplicate. “Give me the original, and hand over the copy. Act like you’re in a panic,” he muttered as Zerbrowski and the others came sliding down the hill. As they switched, Harry made the original vanish before everyone got around the large trees.

Peter let out a gasp. “I’m so sorry, Harry. I just - I reacted!” he said, holding out his hands and staring at them, there were flecks of blood on the one that had held the knife. He was really good at the lost puppy look.

“It’s alright, Peter. You did what you could do,” said Harry as Zerbrowski met them first.

“Are you okay?” Zerbrowski asked wide-eyed. “Peter?”

“I’m - fine.” Peter stared down at the body. “I’ve hunted with Ted tons but I’ve never attacked a human. God, it’s so different from shooting an animal. But I couldn’t let him keep trying to hurt Harry!”

Harry curled around Peter, drawing him closer for comfort. “I’m fine, Zeze, it’s been a while since I’ve been in a wand fight,” he said, rolling his shoulders. “Cruciatus, not a fun spell to hit you.” He shook his head. “He’s still alive,” said Harry. But he wouldn’t be. Harry would make sure he was dead and couldn’t talk if Peter’s knife didn’t do the job for him.

“I think I went too far. I just wanted to stop him!” Peter squawked.

“Hey, kid, why don’t you come with me,” said Merlioni, in a rare gentle tone. Peter looked at Harry who nodded encouragingly. Zerbrowski sent for a medic as they turned him over. Blood was spilling out his mouth and pooling out around him. He had no choice, but to help stem the bleeding.

“Wow, Peter did a lot of damage.”

“He does a lot of hunting with Edward,” said Harry, following him down to see that the wound was far worse than just a severed spine. “He knows where to hit after a bear last year almost made him food.”

“You let him go hunting?” Tammy gasped on his right.

“My husband is a regular hunter and a Federal Marshal, and Peter wants to be a preternatural Federal Marshal like us,” he said in defense. “How else is he going to learn to do the job?”

“He’s not going to survive,” said Dolph, roughly. “You said he’s a real wizard?”

“Yeah, he apparated. Only witches and wizards from my world can apparate in and out,” said Harry.

“That - that should not be possible. I mean, the air can be manipulated and it’s particles to allow a person to seem invisible when really it’s an illusion. But literally making your body disappear in one place and appear in another is impossible!”

“Not for us. It’s the basic mode of travel once you’re seventeen,” said Harry, trying not to roll his eyes. Harry took his wand so that there was no chance he’d get up and attack again. Zerbrowski found a bow and a fleet of arrows tipped in poison. He wasn’t as shocked as he should be when he pulled them out of a small black bag.

Tammy was stunned. Her mouth kept opening and shutting.

Dolph was glancing at the black bag. “That’s like your pouch?”

Harry nodded. “Yeah.”

That was when Gracie started choking. “Looks like I failed to kill the Boy-Who-Lived. Just like everyone else,” he spluttered.

Harry bent over, hands on hips. “You should have known.”

“I knew,” said Gracie. “But how can I resist? Your name, Ted’s name… the Master of the City? Your pet husband was the easiest. He never saw it coming.”

“What did he mean by that?” Dolph demanded.

“It means I have enemies, Dolph,” said Harry lamely. “We all do.” Harry looked at Gracie coldly. “Looks like you're the real pet. You accepted a vampire’s mark after all.”

Gracie’s face went slack. “What?”

“Mhmm, you accepted a mark from a vampire equal to Voldemort. How does it feel being the real pet? Shlepping for some bloodsucker. Who has the last laugh now?” He stood back up as the medics came around to load him. Harry could see Peter in the distance playing up the shocked teenage boy.

“Harry! Over here!” Logan called out.

“What did he mean by all that?”

“My first priority is Micah. Question me later,” Harry growled at them as he turned on his heel, and ran in the direction of Logan’s call.

Micah was deep inside a knoll having transformed into a leopard. He was on his side, and Logan had his hands on Micah trying to heal the wounds with his energy. He was bleeding from his stomach, but he was alive. A lot of blood was pouring out. Harry’s white jeans were going to be soaked, nevermind the grass stains, as he rushed to his husband.

“Micah!” Harry fell to his knees.

He was alive and he was mobile as he raised his chartreuse eyes and licked Harry’s chin.

“A lot of damage,” said Logan. “Normally shifting should have healed all his wounds.”

“Magical wounds are long lasting,” said Harry. “Real ones,” he told the man as he stroked Micah’s coarse fur. “We gotta get back home. We can’t go to the hospital right now, Logan.”

“Harry!” Merlioni called out to him as he skidded down into the holler. “Shit, here let me help.” He ripped off his suit jacket, and came around to Micah’s head to raise it so that he was elevated.

“What are you doing? You’re risking infection!” Tammy squawked from her place at the top of the hill.

“You risk your life every damn day on the job, chika, this ain’t no different. Get your ass down here or get back to the ambulance!” he snarled. “Wait, I thought shifters healed fast?” His respect for Merlioni shot straight up.

“They do, and Micah is one of the fastest healers I’ve ever met,” said Harry, aware of Dolph’s hulking shadow.

“I’ll call for transport to that hospital of yours,” said Dolph with a grunt as he pulled out his phone.

“Where’s Peter?”

“He’s with Perry.”

Harry felt the moment Gracie died because the invisible magical wall came crashing down, and all of his links came rushing back like a storm. He took in a sharp breath as he felt all three of his men at once. Jean-Claude had risen sometime after Harry and Peter left the house. He could feel the vampire pacing and swearing in French about how useless he was. Harry pushed his own feelings through, along with the information on Gracie.

“Don’t bother, Dolph. I’ll have him healed,” said Harry, pulling off a healing potion. “Can you transform back?”

Micah made a noise, and licking Harry again he began to change back. Almost too fast for human eyes. He was still badly wounded, and his once expensive Italian cut suit was in shreds. His hair was soaked in blood. “He - appeared in the car,” he breathed sharp as if trying to hide the pain he was in. “Like you can. He shot me with the killing curse.”

“That’s why you stopped,” said Harry, taking in deep a breath. Edward had been hit with it once before. It was the only reason he hadn’t gone sheet white with Micah’s announcement. It looked like Lorcan’s information about the only way to kill them was becoming more and more real.

“But then I came to, and he flipped. He started attacking me with knives. Some sort of poison with silver tips.”

“I thought poisons worked out too fast in a lycanthrope?” asked Merlioni.

“It does, unless it’s exposed to the bloodstream directly. There are also loads of poisons from the magical world. Not something I had considered to be attacked with admittedly. It’ll still work out fast like a diabetic, but the effect will be immediate for a few seconds.”

“Few seconds too long,” Merlioni recognized. “Jesus, kid, glad you’re okay. Come on, Logan, can you carry him or do I have to?”

“I got him.”

“I never thought about putting an anti-apparation ward on my car. Most aren’t skilled enough to apparate into a moving object,” said Harry as he watched Logan lift Micah in his arms. “Note for the future.” A rush of relief was flowing through him as he watched Micah chug the potion. He knew that MACUSA was going to have to get involved in this as they made their way back to the road.

Peter came to him like the worried boy he was pretending to be. Harry wrapped him in his arms, or was it the other way? He was so tall now. He could feel the teenager grinning into his neck.

“You’re taking advantage of this,” Harry muttered with a stroke.

“I’m a panicked child, Harry. You need to comfort me,” his hot breath hissed on his skin followed closely by a small lick; and now that Harry knew Micah was safe he could joke again.

“Guess that’s true. What am I, Mrs. Robinson?”

“Oh, you know that term do you?”

“Blame Micah.”

“He’s injured. You can’t blame an injured man.”

“Sure I can because he can’t defend himself, and now that he’s alright I can laugh again.” Peter had to fight from laughing as he squeezed Harry extra tight. “Oomph. I am so jealous…” he whined.

“Can you get Micah released from the hospital? We can’t be separated like this, Little Raven.”

“I can do my best.”

“We have the weretigers in a couple of hours.”

“Dammit.”

“Calm down, Little Raven. You focus on Micah, I’ll work on our end with Toy. Keep Peter with you. I know you haven’t fed the ardeur.”

“Too stressful at the moment. They’re loading him into the ambulance now. Jean? Are you there?”

“I am here, mon Amour. How is our husband?”

“He’s alive. Injured, but alive. You better reward Peter, Edward. He did a good job. Took out a fully armed and very dangerous wizard.”

“You do that better than I do.”

Harry resisted smiling and used Peter’s shoulder to hide it. “Yeah, looks like Peter is a bit attached to me and Micah.”

“It’s nice that he can have an attachment. It means he’s not ruined.”

“Who knew sexual attention could be the fixer?” Harry drawled. “I should be very uncomfortable, but I just don’t have enough fucks to give. Besides, he’s a sweetheart.”

“I think you prefer them giving the fuck out, and you riding it.”

“Hush don’t get the ardeur started. We’ll save it for tonight. No doubt Jean has a plan to tie the tigers to us?”

“Oui, I have a plan brewing. Even a way to capture the young ladies without touching a single one of them or having them too near us. We’ve done it before, remote feeding. If we combine our ardeur we can spread it through the entirety of the Circus, tie everyone together. But we’d have to release it all at once at the same time. Once we do that we may not remember who or what we are doing.”

“How can we avoid doing what we don’t want to do?” asked Edward. “It’s going to make security iffy if we do this. We’ll all be vulnerable.”

“Simple. A magically closed door. The ardeur only knows what is closest so we will take what is closer to us. If mon Amour and I feed through Nicholas together we may be able to transfer each others’ abilities.”

“I did something like that in Las Vegas. I fed through Victor and his tigers to get to the women. None were in the room with us. I had my hands full.”

“Oui. We can power our people that way, all the while avoiding what we do not wish to physically be intimate with. I had never considered this as an option. I was not taught this way, but you, mon Amour, have taught me that even with the ardeur I have the power to choose. It is a freeing feeling.”

“Good, let’s get Alpha better so he can join. We can’t be without him,” said Edward, passionately.

“Of course, Lovers. I’ll be with you soon. Jean? Don’t be too hard on yourself. We’d be little without you at our side. Even support is enough.”

“You are a tresor as always, mon Amour.”

Harry could feel Jean-Claude sending waves through the link toward Micah as he and Peter climbed into the ambulance. Logan agreed to take Harry’s car. That was when Dolph heaved himself up and into the ambulance. The EMT didn’t look happy. “We don’t have that much room, Lieutenant.”

“Too bad, keep working. I’m riding too.”

Great, Harry thought. He was not ready for this. Zebrowski would have been a much better choice.

Chapter Text

Dolph kept on him like a shadow. He wanted to speak to Micah without chancing anyone getting to him first. It wasn’t like Harry couldn’t communicate with his husband through his mind, but for now Micah had to heal without expending any more energy. It seemed that his nervous system had taken quite a shock. Harry was betting that Gracie had used the cruciatus on him at some point. He kept twitching and showing the signs common to those who had been tortured by it.

It was Dr. Lillian and Cherry who took him over when they arrived at the hospital. Rafael, a few of the rats, and all of the leopards arrived not long later. Nathaniel had been pulled from work, and Tammy’s eyes rounded when he rushed Peter for a hug. Nathaniel was in nothing more than tight booty shorts that matched his eyes and a glittery gold transparent shirt. He had fresh sweat that clung to his perfect body. His braid was a bit on the messy side. Zerbrowski smiled, greeting Nathaniel as he always did. Dolph said nothing. Merlioni and Perry had gone with the body of Grace.

“Nimir-Ra, what happened?” asked Nathaniel, hugging Peter who tried not to touch him directly with his blood coated hands.

“He’s okay, Nathaniel,” said Harry, petting the younger man.

He took Peter’s wrists carefully to check him over. “Why is there blood on your hands?” asked Nathaniel.

“Just the enemy,” Peter assured.

“You should go wash up, Peter. I think the police have all the photographs and evidence they need,” said Harry.

“I’ll help,” said Nathaniel. “Come on.”

Harry let out a deep sigh and sagged down. “Okay there, Harry?” Rafael asked, looping an arm around him.

Harry didn’t care about the eyes on him as he snuggled right up into Rafael. “Better now that he’s fine.”

“Good. Just so you know, he had help,” he murmured into Harry’s hair.

Harry raised his head slightly. “Huh?”

“The delivery driver,” Rafael whispered. “He was a known associate of Grace, and often worked with him on big jobs.”

“I see…”

“So while you were all distracted with finding Micah, we took care of it. Luna is quite inventive.”

Harry smirked. “You’re telling me. I love that girl.”

“We have security all over this building, and we’ve been running down known associates who might have more information. Nicky is calling his own set of leads. That's why he isn’t here.”

Gregory came over and curled up beside Harry. His beautiful blue eyes staring wide-eyed. “He’s okay, Gregory.” Harry laced his fingers with Gregory.

“I know, I just, I fear going back to the way things were,” he confessed. Harry squeezed Gregory who was practically shaking at the thought.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Can you promise that?” asked Gregory with big eyes, and Zane was suddenly there with Caleb’s hand in his.

“I promise!” he said emphatically. “Nothing is going to happen. We might get hurt, but we’re not dying, I assure you of that.”

“Can you really assure that?” asked Caleb, practically falling between Harry’s legs.

“Caleb,” Rafael hissed at the eyes that were on them.

“I’m sorry, but I just had flashbacks of Chimera,” Caleb murmured as he tightened his hold on Harry. “I don’t want Merle to come back. I’m so glad he’s gone.”

Zane bent over and wrapped his arms around Caleb’s neck. “Hey, it ain’t happenin, Caleb.”

He wasn’t in the right position to be kissing his boys and reassuring them that they were all safe, or as safe as they could be, and that no one was dying. So he did what he could by hugging Caleb and kissing him on the cheek, fingers working into his curly hair. He ran some of his energy through Caleb causing the younger man to shiver. Zane felt it and so did Gregory who drew in calm breaths.

A clearing of throats and a hulking shadow interrupted him. Harry raised his eyes to see Dolph standing there, Tammy and Zerbrowski on each side. “I think we’ve waited long enough.”

Dammit. He didn’t have time for them. “Is MACUSA here yet?”

“Why would they be coming?” Dolph asked with a frown.

“Who’s MACUSA?” Tammy asked, they all ignored her.

“They’ve been contacted, we expect them any moment. Shall we wait for them in another room?” Zerbrowski suggested.

“Sure, but you may want to find Reynolds something else to do.” Harry shrugged. He kissed Caleb on the forehead, and did the same with Zane and Gregory before standing. Zane took his place and Caleb literally crawled onto his lap. Rafael settled into the seat next to them, he wouldn’t let anything happen to Harry’s submissives.

“Excuse me? I’m lead psychic on this, I am not going elsewhere.”

“You will unless you want to take a trip with MACUSA and leave Zerbrowski and Dolph to explain to Larry why his wife may or may not be coming back; and if you do you would be highly inefficient once they are done with you. MACUSA doesn’t look kindly on you outside practitioners.”

“He’s right. Reynolds, find something to do that keeps you out of their sight. No need for further issues here.” Zerbrowski waved her away as the three men started walking away.

Harry followed them to an empty room down the hall. “Is the kid going to be okay?” asked Zerbrowski.

“You know how sensitive Caleb is,” said Harry. “He fears losing one of us more than anything.” Not long after they entered the room a knock came at the door. ”Enter,” Harry called out before the others could move. He couldn’t help but smile slightly when Auror Glotston walked into the room.

“Marshal Potter-Black, RPIT, thank you for contacting us so quickly. I also hear that congratulations are in order Marshal, was there a name change with the wedding?”

“Hello again, Auror Glotston, no name change. We all figured it would be too much paperwork and too many hyphenations.”

“The victim in this case is your husband, Coalition Leader Micah Callahan, according to the doctor.” Glotston looked at his notes.

“That’s right. Wizard and assassin for hire John Grace attacked Micah. When we showed up at the scene he attacked me. I engaged with him and learned of his magical status. My husband’s ward, Peter Parnell, got Grace with a knife in the back just as the wizard was firing the killing curse at me. Grace died of blood loss.” Harry calmly watched as a dict-a-quill worked to copy down everything stated in the room.

Dolph jerked. “How do you know he died? I didn’t tell you that.”

Harry arched a brow. “I saw the wounds, Dolph, it was only a matter of time.”

“Thank you for the quick summary, Marshall. Why was wizard Grace after you? Do you know?”

“I heard Grace. I heard something about a hit.” Dolph interjected.

Harry brought his shoulders up. “We have a lot of enemies. Someone is always out to get us, and with Micah being the Head of the Coalition he has his own enemies who aren’t really up on the whole peace and community thing.”

“But you knew. You knew about the hit,” said Dolph.

“Yeah, I knew. I found out about twenty minutes before Zerbrowski called me about Micah. He was the only one out of the house at the time.”

“I want to know what the hell is going on. Why there is a hit and I heard Grace saying there was a hit on all of you. Why are you and your newly minted husbands suddenly targets?”

“I’m always a target for megalomaniacs. This one happens to be a vampire.”

“Does this have something to do with the nightmares of the darkness Reynolds mentioned?” asked Zerbrowski, checking his notes. Harry knew he was doing his best to keep silent on what Harry mentioned the first time he called, but Harry may need to spill the beans anyways.

Harry just looked at Dolph blankly. “What do I say?” Harry asked desperately inside. “For once I am at a loss for words. How truthful can I be?” “Even if you knew Dolph, there is nothing you can do. How do you fight a horcrux?” he asked. “How do you fight a spirit that has no body to call their own? Fight someone who isn’t even physical anymore?”

“I leave it to you and your judgment, mon Amour.”

“It’s a tricky situation. Too much information and it’ll be information overload. Too little and they’ll come after us. With MACUSA there you might be able to get them to take lead since Gracie was a wizard.”

“Are you saying we have another situation like Voldemort?” Glotston asked slowly, as if he was reluctant to make the thought real with his question.

“What does that mean?” Dolph asked. “Does this have anything to do with the case in Las Vegas? A couple of practitioners said they were attacked by something without form.”

“What would you do if you knew this information, Dolph? You can’t do anything. No human on this earth can do anything right now. We are dealing with a vampire turned into multiple horcruxes. Every vampire, master or not, is running scared from her. They are coming to us for answers because Jean-Claude is the most powerful master in America. She is bigger, badder, and more dangerous than anything I have ever met. She has no body, but she has power and a mind. She is known as the First, and she is a problem.”

“If she’s so powerful then what the hell is she doing hiring hitmen?”

“She’s possessing master vampires, taking them over. Some have given permission, some have not. She’s already tried to kill us three times now within the last twenty-four hours. She didn’t succeed, and so now she’s going the practical route. She has no physical body. It was blown up.”

“Merlin…” Glotston blinked in shock. “I’m pretty sure we’ll need higher ups involved for this…”

“How do you know this?” asked Dolph with a frown. “Did you do it?”

“I saw it. I wasn’t there. But I saw it.” A glance at the Auror showed the man frozen in shock. “She’s been gaining power for some time, Auror. You know how ancient things can be. Since she was somewhere out of the country and the laws didn’t affect us, we had some people go on a hunt to try and end it before it could become a dangerous problem.”

“Understandable.”

“Why you?” pressed Dolph.

“I’m a Necromancer, Dolph. I see the dead. I see spirits. I see souls. She’s drawn to me. I hate being conceited or showing my conceit. But I’m powerful, Dolph. Power is attracted to power. She wants to consume me, but she can’t. So now she’s going to destroy me or try to. No amount of muggle machinery and order is going to work. She can be in Timbuktu and possess someone clear across the world. I want you to think about that, and then ask me again why I don’t tell you anything. It’s because your human mind cannot comprehend it. No matter how smart you are.”

“Marshal, I’m going to need to call in the President for this. If we have a vampire with multiple soul fragments,” Glotston shook his head. “Do you have protection?”

“Yes, Auror Glotston, and more on its way. I’m sorry this has arrived here and is making America its battle ground.”

“At least we have a possibility to get ahead of it, Marshal. Leave your floo open at your house, we’ll be in touch. I need to start the emergency procedures for this. Expect a call.”

“Of course, there may be a delay depending on when the call comes in; but I will make sure that someone is watching the floo who can answer.” The three watched as Auror Glotston apparated from the room.

“I’m surprised he didn’t take over the whole case right then.” Zerbrowski mused.

“Oh, expect it to be taken once the emergency protocols are initiated.” Harry shook his head.

“How bad is this going to get?” asked Dolph.

Harry paused. “She has managed to possess three of the most powerful vampires I have ever met in my life, and managed to damage a lot of weres without even being in the room. Just a dream. Like Freddy Kruger only real,” he said, staring at the door and not looking at the two men. “A war is coming, and no muggle army is going to be able to do a damn thing about it. It’s going to take working closely with the vampires and weres of the world to protect everyone, and until the humans realize that, they are going to die. But good news, St. Louis houses the generals of this war. So, everywhere else might get fucked over, but St. Louis will be safe… mostly. Good luck.” He waltzed out, and hoped he’d left them too stunned to say anything more. If he was lucky they’d leave him alone with his guys for the rest of the night.

Rafael took the leopards back home with him, Nathaniel was encouraged to go back to work for now. Peter remained behind with a plethora of guards hiding out of sight. Until Micah was released no one was going to allow Micah and Harry to be without guard at the hospital.

Micah was coming to when the two of them entered the hospital room. He had been transferred to a bigger bed. Most of the hospital’s beds were bigger for the purpose of shifting and puppy piles, which was one of their most common practices for any were patient. Even if the were had come in alone, there was a group of weres on standby for that very purpose.

The head of the bed had been elevated so that he could see them. “Hey, they put me in a dress,” Micah complained tiredly, making Harry smile and come around on one side as Peter took the other. Both settled on the bed easily. “What’s with the face? I’ll be alright, Baby.”

“I’m so sorry,” said Harry. He brushed a hand through Micah’s curls.

“I just feel stupid that I didn’t see it,” said Micah. “I was taken off guard when he popped into the car. Is it someone after you, Baby?” He took Harry’s hand.

“No, not just me. He was a hired hitman. After all of us.”

“The Mother?” Micah realized.

“Yup. He just happened to be a wizard as well. Probably saw my name and thought it was a perfect chance for him. He’d rise in standing if he could kill me and Edward. Peter finished him.”

“Really? Edward will be proud of you.”

“We had to send the Pard home. Some of them were panicking.” Harry stated.

“Caleb?” Micah winced.

“And Gregory.”

“Caleb is terrified that Merle will come back and take over again.”

“I’ve let them know that wouldn’t happen. Besides, it seems you have an immunity to the killing curse, that’s two of us now or is that three, me being the first? Guess Lorcan was right.” Harry laughed.

“I feel like everything blinked out for a moment. No world at all, and then I come too in a rush of sound. He flipped when I woke up, that’s when he started attacking me.”

“I think he realized then that he was way in over his head. I was the only one who was ever known to have survived that spell in the magical world. It was a big deal when it happened.”

“We need to get him out of here,” said Peter, glancing back at the entry. Harry knew there were wererat guards out there.

Harry nodded. “Yeah, we can’t be separated like this. All four of us need to stick together. Not to mention we have the weretigers arriving tonight. Just so glad you’re okay. I did not like seeing blood in our car.”

Micah pulled him closer and swooped an arm around his waist drawing him down. Harry kissed him. His hands moving down the gown.

“Molesting him here?” Peter teased.

“He has to heal,” Harry sulked. He pushed down the thin knit blanket and ran his hand beneath the hospital gown to the warm flesh beneath. He could feel lines of scars and tape. He didn’t like it.

Micah’s lips curved into a smile. “Best part about being an injured were is you get a lot of touching.”

“Does that really help?” asked Peter, doubtfully.

“Weres respond to touch better than almost anything, especially when it comes to healing. Packs and Pards are more than just about survival and keeping together. You can return energy and heal wounds faster and much safer. Especially because a lot of drugs don’t work on us with how fast we metabolize everything. Since we can’t just go out and start hunting to heal we use touch. Sometimes sex.”

“Like what Nathaniel said about if you can fuck it, you shouldn’t eat it?”

“Exactly.”

“I can speed it up, all the healing. I can bring you back to perfect,” said Harry, shifting on the bed and shuffling the gown further up.

“You can’t feed off him now can you? It’d take his energy.”

“Not feed myself, no. I can feed him,” said Harry, dipping down and licking Micah’s perfect washboard stomach making him groan softly as he made a strip down his belly and sucked. “I can give him my ardeur and feed him.”

“But then you won’t have anything. You already haven’t fed today,” said Peter logically.

“I can wait, we have tigers tonight I can use. I’m pretty good at control these days,” said Harry working his way up and down Micah’s chest.

Micah let out a moan, his fingers running through Harry’s hair.

“Should I leave?” asked Peter, though it was clear he didn’t want to. He was staring at Harry who was making trails up Micah’s perfectly tanned flesh.

“You don’t have to,” said Micah smirking. “You can stay. You’re allowed to play with us all you want.”

“Mhmm.” It was all Harry could think of to say because his mind was being taken over. Yes, his body was hungering and the ardeur really wanted to sap him. But instead of turning it inward and collecting for himself, he spread it out his mouth and through Micah, making the man moan out as he threw his head back.

“Hah… Baby!” His body reacted as Harry pushed the cover aside. He had nothing on below, and so his large cock was able to swell freely. Harry’s fingers curled around it.

“Did you not want to learn how to suck a good cock?” Harry teased as his own hunger began to roll through his belly. “I can feed from you and give to Micah.”

“Who is bigger? You or Nicky?” Peter asked while staring at Micah’s growing cock.

“I’m longer by a couple of centimeters. He’s thicker.”

“I don’t think two centimeters counts,” said Peter.

Hungrily, Harry flicked his tongue out around the thickening head. Peter’s eyes honed in on him as he used his breaths to make Micah increase his own. He could taste Peter’s arousal rising to the surface. “He’s perfect.” Harry swallowed him, and began his adventure down to the base making Micah’s hips come up. Harry filled his mouth, taking it to his throat, and he continued as he manipulated his mouth to accommodate Micah.

“Fuck, that is hot,” Peter growled, and then Harry began to glide back up, slow with his tongue twisting around the veins. “Can I try?”

“Kiss first,” said Harry and he pulled Peter so that Micah’s cock was between them and they passed tongue fucking kisses back and forth. “Yum,” Harry purred, pulling back tasting Peter’s hunger nestled in his stomach. It was like its own beast, and when Peter went down on Micah, Harry stroked his face and encouraged him to take it as far as he could. Peter bobbed his head a few times, spending time sucking on the head of the cock when he was at the tip before going back down. Which wasn’t far, but that was okay. Harry came down to make up the rest, running his tongue along the base.

“Uhhh!” Micah moaned as Peter and Harry swapped turns sucking. His legs spread so that Harry could reach his smooth balls, and suck them into his mouth. “Fuck… ahhh!”

“How do you go all the way down?” asked Peter.

“You manipulate your throat like swallowing a sweet.”

“Fuck you!” Micah groaned. “You’re explaining like that is not helping my dick…”

“Poor baby. You just lay there and enjoy us,” said Harry. “Watch me.” Harry swirled his tongue and then he went down. Peter watched him carefully as he went down, down, down, and then he tightened his muscles along his jaws making Micah cry out. Peter reached around and placed his fingers on Harry’s throat as he worked his muscles in perfect tune to Micah’s panting moans.

“Shit, I can feel where his cock is stretching your throat. You breathed through your nose. Wow!” Peter gasped.

He came back up with a deep breath. Saliva coated Micah’s cock. “Mhmm, I’m not Jean. I can’t take him without breathing,” Harry chuckled. “You can train your gag reflex. I never did have much of one.” He licked and lapped at the edges of Micah’s cock and Peter took the other side. “You can just practice. Suck and suck, Peter, and eventually you’ll have them controlled beneath your hands, and isn’t that the best tasting part? You can control them with your mouth. Fuck them silly. Look at him? He’s a slave to me.”

Peter chuckled and Micah scowled. “Damn you! Suck me and stop talking.”

Harry flicked his tongue out, and then he swallowed him up and down fast and hard, sending Micah writhing on the bed as he sucked in Peter’s rising arousal. He collected it like he collected the ardeur. A splash of hot cum pooled out of Micah with his moans. Harry spun the ardeur through Micah to keep him hard as his body twitched and spasmed. “Ngh!” Micah gripped the edge of the bed.

Peter moved around on the bed, sliding between Micah’s legs and curling around Harry to undo his belt and jeans. Harry kissed Peter deeply as he squeezed and taunted Micah’s throbbing cock. “I think I should try on you,” said Peter. “I bet I can get all of you in my mouth.”

Harry grinned. “If that’s what you want.”

“You better share him with me,” Micah ground out with a series of pants.

“Being normal has its advantages,” Harry chirped as he kicked his pants off. He shivered when Peter kissed him with arousing heat behind it.

“You should work him open,” said Micah, watching them as he stroked their backs. “We wouldn’t want him to scream too much.”

Peter dropped, and Harry gasped out when Peter managed to take all of him. Not that it was hard. He was as normal as could be in size. Harry moaned, his fingers tightening on Micah’s cock as Peter’s mouth worked him. Massaged his cock and worked him so good.

“I think I get it. Fuck I’m so hot,” Peter groaned around Harry. He filled his mouth as Harry lost his first orgasm. Peter took him in, and then Micah pulled him so that the two could kiss, swapping Harry’s cum between them.

Harry bent down and unbuttoned Peter’s jeans, releasing the hardness from his shorts. He swallowed Peter who moaned out as Micah tongued Peter’s open mouth. “Best you’ll ever taste.”

Peter grinned. “Now, let’s see if I can do you.”

He shimmied down, Harry shifting along with him with Peter’s cock down his throat, and gathered Micah back into his mouth. Harry met his timings and sucked. Everything Peter did to Micah, Harry would do to him making it harder for the teen not to spill out too early.

It didn’t matter that Dr. Lillian and Cherry had both come in at some point to check on Micah. Both just let them at it with Cherry brushing a hand along Micah and Harry, sharing her leopard energy for the healing. They weren’t the only ones to use sex as a way of healing. It was a preternatural hospital after all.

He swallowed Peter’s cum and his lust, feeding his ardeur and making the boy lose himself. He managed to get Micah almost all the way down. Only a couple inches shy of the base as turned on as he was.

“Now for the finish,” said Harry, using magic to coat himself.

Peter moved, and he settled back at Micah’s feet to watch Harry. “You’re real tight. You should be stretched open.”

“You want to do the honors?” Harry said, straddling Micah who climbed his fingers up and down Harry’s hips.

“Oh yes,” said Peter, moving forward and caressing Harry’s ass. He slid his fingers between Harry’s cheeks. Harry rolled his hips, his body tingling when a finger worked its way into him. “Jesus, Harry. How do you let them fuck you so hard? You’re tight as hell!” Peter groaned. “So small…”

“Feels good? Edward only ever stretches me with two fingers, and then he demands a good fuck right after.”

Micah grinned. “Our sadistic husband.”

Harry bounced back on Peter’s fingers, moaning softly at the nerves that were teased. His body tightened with pleasure. Peter hissed as Harry ass clenched around his fingers.

“You can work him better if you fuck him,” said Micah, pulling Harry’s wrists and drawing him up so that their chests lay flat to each other. Harry rubbed his cock against Micah. Peter’s fingers vacated Harry as he worked the rest of his shorts off with a fling of his foot. He shifted to get behind.

“Won’t be too much weight on you with us both?” Peter’s hands rubbed and gripped Harry’s ass as Micah shook his head no. He rubbed the head of his cock up and down Harry’s coated entrance.

Harry reached a hand back to coat Peter’s cock with lube, and his eyes rolled at the pleasure that chased after the pain of being entered. Peter was usually relegated to blowjobs and handjobs. It was only on special occasions that he got the opportunity to sink into Harry’s ass. He needed all of Peter’s lust. He accepted Peter as Micah cupped his face and brought him up to watch him take it. Peter worked him nicely, and oh, he’d gotten better! He knew exactly where to hit, and how hard to hit it before withdrawing. Harry gathered Peter’s hunger and he pushed it into Micah through their kissing.

Peter could go longer and better now after the six months of practice he had. His thrusts were more streamlined and made Harry purr. Oh yes, he was going to be a fantastic lover for Nathaniel. He met Peter’s thrusts, making the teen groan. Peter’s lust was thick and hot, it swooped out layering the room. Harry sucked it up, transferring it to Micah as he made it tangible in the air. He was fucked harder and harder, faster and faster. Peter’s orgasms came out heavy and hard. It coated Harry’s ass inside and on the outside as he pulled back while still cuming. “Ah…!”

Harry took that time to mount Micah, and ease his way down on the thick rod that twitched in anticipation. Micah moaned, and Peter settled back to watch from a perfect view. He even had to help Harry get the rest of it in. Harry rocked, his hips moving in a pleasurable rotation. He bounced on Micah hard and fast. Peter’s cum helping the lubrication, and he could hear Peter stroking his cock as he watched them.

“An injured man shouldn’t be this fucking horny!” Micah groaned as he encouraged Harry’s bouncing.

“You want me to stop and fuck Peter senseless instead?” Harry teased as he lost himself in the motions. Up and down, the squelching and thick slide made him tremble as the icy hot pleasure rode him as he rode Micah.

“Ngh, maybe Peter should fuck your ass too.”

“How does that work?” Peter asked intrigued.

“Slide your dick inside of him with me.”

“Can we do that?”

“You’ve never fucked Nathaniel with two cocks? You and Ares?”

“No, Nathaniel said he can’t take that.”

“I suppose not all can. Come on, Baby loves it when he’s owned.”

Harry stilled his hips and wiggled them on Micah’s cock.

“Okay… you don’t have to talk me into it,” Peter said, heaving himself up onto his knees again, cock hard again in interest. “Will it hurt?”

“Mhmm, hurts real good. Control me, Peter. Fuck me real hard,” Harry hissed through his teeth, and Peter didn’t have to be encouraged as he settled behind Harry and slowly slid his cock inside to meet Micah. It was a tight fit, and Harry cried out as he was stretched. His body convulsed at the flash of pain.

Peter moaned, gripping Harry with one hand and pushing in until Micah and he were settled completely. “Oh, God, it’s hot and even tighter… he’s not going to rip is he?”

“Oh no, we’re just getting started,” said Micah, taking Harry’s hips. “Ready, Baby?”

“Yeah, fuck me.” He poured more magic between them so that their cocks were slick as they moved back and forth in and out of Harry’s stretched entrance. Harry could hardly catch a breath because everytime Micah’s cock teased his nerves and pulled back, Peter would be right there to catch the slack. Peter started moving harder and sharper. He clung to Harry as he pounded inside. His dick against Micah’s caused a chain reaction as Harry’s body was used to milk them. His ardeur reached a gathering peak and then he sent the rest of it out of him and into Micah. He emptied himself and filled Micah up, sending the energy shooting through the room.

“Baby - careful! I’m going to shift at this point.” Micah gasped as he came in Harry, his cum mixing with Peter’s.

Peter had collapsed on top of them, and Micah was still writhing, his toes curling, and he clutched Harry as he pulled out his control to keep the leopard from crashing through his body. Harry and Micah’s leopards began to rub against each other with soft little purrs, and then they turned on Peter, making the teen jolt as he felt their metaphysical fur roll through him.

“Huh? What is that?” he breathed out wide-eyed.

“Us,” Harry breathed out. “It’s us, Peter. Our beasts.”

Peter shivered and clutched Harry. “I can sometimes feel Nathaniel’s… but… this is different.”

“We are Nimir-Ra and Nimir-Raj, and it’s not just pretty words, Peter,” said Micah, reaching behind Harry to stroke the teen. “You may not be a leopard, but you have the strain in you. So you may take on traits, may be able to feel us every so often. Our energies are so high that we have to have sex or our control will slip. You may be experiencing that very thing but on a smaller scale since you can’t shift.”

Peter tilted around, pulling out of Harry as Micah pulled him down to lay beside him. Harry dipped down and kissed him on the lips. “Is that why in the last year I’ve been so fucking horny? It’s like I can’t stop, and I want to tear into something.”

“Pretty much. It’s why we gave you permission to have fun with us, so you never hurt Nathaniel. We love you very much, and we know you love Nathaniel.”

“You're right. I do. I don’t want to hurt him. He’s been hurt in the past. I always want to be gentle with him when he lets me. But with you guys, I just want to…”

“Lose control,” Micah finished.

“Yeah, lose control. Just, you know, not with Ted. That’s too parent-like, and I don’t have a dad kink.”

“Never,” said Harry laughing. “We know our boundaries, Peter. We all set them for each other.”

“I don’t mind watching. It’s fucking hot, and a dick is a dick in the right moment. Plus, it teaches me things. But yeah, you two - you aren’t parents,” Peter confessed.

“Not to you anyway,” said Micah with a laugh. “I think I have been overhealed. I want to float out of the hospital right now.”

“Good, that means the good doctor won’t flog us,” Harry laughed, kissing Micah’s chin.

“I have a question, Nathaniel mentioned that you never had sex with him, Harry. Can I ask why?”

“I love Nathaniel. He’s beautiful, inside and out. But, he had less control than you did. He needed someone in his life that cared about him, and not his body. Someone who wants him for him and not for what he can give. He had no ability to say no to anyone, and my leopard saw him more as her kit than all the others. I didn’t want to do that to Nathaniel because I couldn’t put him number one, and he deserves to be someone’s number one. Now if we’re all having fun together, that’s fine. He has a number one. You.” Harry kissed Peter. “If I thought for one second that all of us having fun together would hurt you. It would not happen, no matter the ardeur’s wants and needs.”

“But then, who takes care of you?” asked Peter.

“We do,” said Micah. “We make sure Baby is taken care of as he takes care of everyone else. You take care of him, he takes care of you.”

Chapter Text

All three of them had only just walked through the door of their house when Harry’s cell phone rang. “Now what?” Harry groaned as he fished into his pocket to retrieve it. “Harry here.”

“Is this Marshal Harry Potter-Black?” a man’s voice asked.

“Yes, sir, and you are?” Harry asked.

“Marshal Finnegan.”

Harry straightened. “Marshal Finnegan? What can I do for you?” Oh death, he hoped the service didn’t need him now of all times!

“I’d like you to take a look at some crime scene video.”

“Be glad to. You want to email it to me, or give me an address and password for a site?”

“Got a pen and paper?” Peter grabbed the paper and pen for Harry on the stand by the rarely used landline. Mobiles were becoming more and more prevalent, and Harry admitted to preferring this method at times.

“Yep, let me have it,” he said as Peter turned to let him use his back. Micah went to get Edward without even needing to be asked.

He gave Harry a web address and a password. “This will let you view it for today. We’ll change the password later this evening. Just standard protocol.”

“It’s okay, Finnegan. I wouldn’t want someone I didn’t know personally having full access to my stuff, either.”

“Yeah, but I’m asking for your help, not the other way around. I hear you preternatural marshals aren’t team players.”

“Mostly because no one will let us be. But Ted and I play nicely with others.”

“Yes, so I’ve heard. Congratulations on that by the way,” he laughed.

“Thank you, when do you need me to get back to you?”

“ASAP.”

“I’ll do my best to get back to you.”

“Just watch the video, then you decide how quick you need to get back to me. I think you’ll be calling back very soon.”

“That bad?”

“Yeah, actually.”

“I’ll watch it and get back to you as soon as possible.”

“Ben Carter says good things about you, Potter-Black.”

“Ah, Carter, I only looked at some surveillance tapes for Marshal Carter.”

“Yeah, but he says that you saw things on it that none of theirs caught.”

“It’s more about understanding what you’re seeing. Everyone saw the same thing. But I knew what it meant.”

“None of the rest of us knew enough about vamps to catch it.”

“I’d be bollocks on forgery and counterfeit cases, we all have an expertise, except Ted who is an expert in everything,” Harry said, making the man chuckle roughly. “What am I looking for on these videos?”

“We’re looking for reasons, Potter-Black.”

“Reasons?”

“When you see the video, you’ll understand. We just want to know what the fuck happened.”

“I’ll let you know what the bloody fuck happened when I see it.” He deadpanned.

He laughed. “I like you. I hope we get to meet sometime.”

“Hopefully, not in the field, those are not good first impressions with the adrenaline so high and lives at stake.”

“True.”

“Where are you currently?” Harry asked. “I mean, what city did this crime happen in?”

“Sorry, I thought I said. Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia.”

“Okay, I’ll get to a computer and take a look.”

“I’m on landline, but here’s my cell. You’ll get me anytime.”

Harry quickly used Peter’s back again. “Got it.”

“I hope you come up with something.”

“Me too.”

Micah returned with Jean-Claude. “Mon Amour?”

“Are the guests already at the Circus?”

“Oui, we must hurry. Edward has gone ahead of us with Nicholas and the others. Ooh, you are drained, mon Amour.” he pulled Harry close and kissed him. Harry knew his lips were a bit on the blue side for Jean-Claude to say anything. “You are also filthy. We have to clean you up.”

“He used it all on me,” said Micah.

Jean-Claude smiled and kissed Micah deeply. “Then it went to a good cause. How are you, Peter?”

“Satisfied?” Peter tried, and Jean-Claude chuckled.

“Oui, you would be.” He kissed Peter on the cheek too.

“How about this, I go check the computer to see what has Finnegan so nervous he’d call me of all things. You go pick my clothes out. You and Micah go ahead to the Circus and me and Peter can catch up? If we spread out our appearances then we can stall a bit longer so I can get decent.”

“You should not be alone.”

“I’ll apparate.”

“Oh no,” Peter groaned. “Do I have to do that too?”

Harry grinned. “Yes, luv, you do, unless you want to go by port-key with Jean and Micah.”

“Fine,” he muttered. He hated the port-key even more. It had a habit of making him throw up.

“Get something down your tummy to offset the ardeur’s needs. Let’s go, mon Chaton, I shall dress you too. Peter, do you need a dressing?”

“Er… should I say yes or no?”

“We must all show our best in these times. It’s going to be a play of politics.”

“Just go with it, next time you can have Nathaniel dress you.”

Peter shook his head. “Okay.”

“First, I need Peter’s help with the computer. I’m not that savvy with it. I tend to get frustrated.”

“I’ll have Damian make you a quick plate of food. We have some leftover pasta that will suit you nicely.”

Peter drew up another chair to sit beside Harry at the dining room table. Damian soon came through with a small plate of fettucini and some salad.

“What are you doing?”

“A Marshal called me about something. Peter’s going to get me into the site.”

Curious, Damian veered around the table and Harry drew him a seat to sit. It didn’t matter that it was an ongoing investigation. There was no one in this house he didn’t trust.

“Here it is,” said Peter, clicking on the image and bringing a popup video out of the page. He set it to full-screen on the big flat screen monitor, and the horror that followed in HD was impressive.

Peter pressed in against Harry who settled back with his salad. Yes, it might seem gross to eat and watch horror at the same time, but Harry knew he was on a time-crunch. It seemed they were in a vampire’s cavern because it was deep underground, and down a short flight of stone steps. Moisture seeped down from some of the walls, and the first body was at the foot of the stairs with some natural sunlight filtering from higher up the stairs. The first bodies were obviously vampire victims with neat bite marks at both sides of the throat, wrist, bend of the elbow, inner thigh, bend of the knee. So many bites that it was hard to make the eyes focus. No human being could feed that many vampires in one night and live under most circumstances.

Harry shoved some tomato and lettuce into his mouth that was covered in vinaigrette sauce. Peter stole a tomato from his plate.

“Where is this?” asked Damian.

“Atlanta.” More bodies lay against the walls or in the middle of the tunnel. Lay where they had all fallen. No one had taken any time to reposition them. They’d killed them and left them for the next victim.

“The bites are getting messier,” Damian noted in a voice that was still as his body. He curled around Harry and pressed his chin to Harry’s shoulder.

Harry and Peter ended up sharing the plate of fettuccine, both hungrier than they expected. Harry didn’t wince as he saw that Damian was right. The bites weren’t getting neater, instead they were getting messier. There was tearing of the skin around the bites. The next man’s neck was torn open on the side; blood had poured out of him. A pattern of dried blood.

“Pause that,” said Harry to someone, and Peter moved quickly to do that.

“They didn’t even try to feed on him,” said Damian.

Harry leaned forward and pointed at the screen as Peter took his fork. “Are those the marks of knees? As if whoever tore his throat out was kneeling and let the blood pour over him?”

“I think so,” said Peter. “Must say something about us being able to eat and watch this.” He did anyway.

“We’ve all seen worse,” said Harry. “It’s bad, but I’m assuming Federal Marshal Finnegan is a normal marshal, not a preternatural. Unpause?” Peter did so as he took the fork back to spin some white coated noodles, and shoved them into his mouth. “An ME doesn’t not take lunch just because of what he sees on his table.”

The images began to march down the corridor again. Someone’s inner thigh had been torn out, blood pooling between the body’s legs. So much blood, and then the camera moved and Harry saw the second woman with her own neck and thigh torn so that the blood of both women pooled together in the narrow corridor. There was no way for the police or the crime scene people to avoid stepping in the blood. It was either step in it or stop moving forward.

They watched the camera operator hesitate. The camera pointed downward, then up the corridor where the camera light picked up more pale, naked bodies as far as the light could touch. He, or she, picked their way through the mix of blood and bodies and found more of the same until the corridor went into a wider opening.

Harry knew it was going to get worse, so he quickly shoved more food into his mouth, and handed his fork to Peter who did the same thing. He could feel Damian becoming still as death. No breath, no beat of his heart. Nothing. “Damian, can we get something to drink please?” Damian took his chance to get away from what they were seeing. “Can you handle this, Peter?”

“I’m fine,” said Peter, and Harry hoped so. He kissed Peter on the cheek and settled in to watch as the camera shakily went into the dark wide opening.

A devolution of slaughter was an understatement. Peter took in a sharp breath. It was a strange harem of torture porn meets slasher flick with a end of snuff. So many bodies that it was just a mass of dark shapes at first.

“Holy shit,” Peter gasped.

“Holy shit is right, luv.” Body after body lay scattered like broken dolls on the dirt floor. The bodies were torn apart, not by claws and fangs, but strength. The vampires had torn them from limb to limb, spraying blood and internal organs like some meaty, bloody jigsaw puzzle. He was only thankful that they couldn’t smell it because perforating the lower digestive system would be akin to an overflowing outhouse setting in the desert sun for days.

More bodies were piled around a central coffin that was on a raised dais between two huge candelabras that were still burning, though the wax was low and dripping over the sides. Lights had been set up in the corners of the room. Harry could see the internal organs and huge bloody strands like flesh rope.

Some of the bodies were piled in pieces almost to the lip of the open coffin. There were bodies lying on the parts as if they’d been placed there. “Pause it, please?” Peter reached over and did so, his hands slightly shaking. Harry leaned closer to the screen. “I think those are vampires.”

“What? You can tell?” asked Peter, slightly pale around the edges.

“Sometimes, when you look at this carnage you have to try and focus on the small things. I’m looking at the mouths, too many bites to try and gauge sizes, not to mention the camera lens are much like eyes in the way it views. So unless it’s flat and up-close I can’t get a measurement of bites. So I look at the mouths and bits to identify. See here, focus on her mouth, the fang poking out. Let your eyes see the nasty parts as one big art mess, and focus on the tiny things.”

“I see the fang,” said Peter.

“Also, if you look here, these ones that are stacked are not torn apart like the others. I think we’re looking at an entire kiss with his or her human and maybe even were members. They bedded down on the mound of their dead. Also, if there were victims that were intact, they’d have been moved for medical attention just in case they weren’t dead.”

“You ever seen anything like this?” asked Peter.

“No, luv, I have not.”

Damian appeared with their drinks. But he kept on the opposite side of the TV. “Is it bad?”

“Bad,” said Harry. “I’ve not seen anything this bad since the skinless, and those ripped apart in New Mexico. I wish I can copy this video so I can show Edward.”

“I can,” said Peter. “It’s pretty easy to record this. I’ve figured out how to download the video even when it’s embedded with an encryption.” Harry saw him bring up some black box with primitive white typing.

Harry watched him work as he sipped at his ice tea. “Once you’re done you can unpause it.” Once Peter downloaded the whole video, he hit the play button again.

The camera rose and aimed at the figure in the coffin. Blood pooled around it as if the body were floating in the blood. How had they even gotten that much blood in the coffin? It was as if they’d hung the dead over it and drained them, but nothing in that room had been thinking enough to do anything so organized.

Unless.

“Gives new meaning to the word disorganized,” said Damian, chancing a glance at the footage.

The corpse in the coffin looked old, like they’d found a badly decayed body to put in the blood. But, then Harry saw the fangs in the gaping skull and knew this was the master. He’d been blown apart with a shotgun so that the top of his head was missing, but the jaws were still intact. His chest had been shot up, too, so that the thickening blood pooled into the ruin of his heart.

“Do vampires decay like that?” Peter asked with a frown.

“No.”

“Only descendants of the Lover of Death rot like that.”

Harry closed his eyes. “I wish you had not thought the same thing I was thinking, Damian,” he said sorrowfully.

Harry scrambled for his phone, and quickly dialed Finnegan’s number. His heart thumped fast into his throat. “Potter-Black, that was fast.”

“I know that you have to film evidence before you torch the place, but tell me the vampire executioner did torch the place already.”

“Morgan killed the Master of the City. Took his head, took his heart. We’re already hearing complaints from the vampire lobby lawyers that we may have condemned all low-level vamps to certain death. Apparently, without their master they may not wake up at dark, but we’ve found out that the lesser vampires that do wake up are usually fine. When the Master of the City goes crazy like this, kill him or her, and the crazy goes with him.” Wicked Truth sprang into his mind. He was beginning to wonder if Sourdre de Sangs weren’t all they were cracked up to be. If so, this was some proof that they could be killed, and only those poisoned by them may perish too. Interesting.

“All of this is potentially true, Finnegan, but you see the Master of the City is a rotting vampire. Taking just their heart and head with a shotgun doesn’t kill them ever. The only reason he didn’t get up and eat your executioner is that it was daylight and he couldn’t rise from the grave. If he’s as old as most rotters he will rise as early as late afternoon underground, and definitely at full dark. Worse yet, some of the intact vampires might not rot unless shot up, so you may have an entire crypt of rotters or they’re his victims.”

“You make that sound bad.”

“Finnegan, get your people out of there.”

“You helped write the new law that makes us leave the lesser vamps alive when we can prove that it’s the Master of the City gone apeshit,” he said. “Now you’re telling me that it’s going to get my people killed?”

“I’m saying the bloody Master of the City is still alive, and when it gets dark enough he’ll rise and he will force all his blood oathed vampires to rise with him and slaughter people. They won’t have a choice. The new law only works if the Master of the City is really, truly dead.”

Finnegan swore on the other end of the line. “I’ll try to clear the scene. I hope you’re wrong.” He hung up.

“Dammit. Who’d he say was the Executioner on this?”

“Morgan,” said Peter.

“I’ve worked with him once, unless we have two of them.” Harry flipped through his contacts hoping that the name was in there. He found it and hit the screen. Once again, his heart was thumping like a jack rabbit. Damian veered around to wrap his arms around Harry and calm him down. Harry kissed his pale wrist in thanks.

“Harry, I take it you saw the tape?” said the man’s voice on the other line.

“Morgan, where are you?” he asked.

“Atlanta.”

“No, I mean where are you standing?”

“I’m outside the crypt in case some of the little vamps wake up still crazy.”

“Are there still techs down there?”

“For another hour and then we’ll clear it, except for me.”

“You have to get them out now, abandon all protocol. Just get them out and blow the damn thing up!”

“What? What are you talking about? He ain’t getting up. I took care of it.”

“Not if he’s a rotter, Morgan. They don’t die when you destroy the brain and heart. Even sunlight might not do it. Fire is the only certainty and then ashes need to be scattered over different bodies of flowing water.”

“He didn’t rot until I shot him, Harry. Once they look like a corpse, they’re dead.”

“No, he didn’t turn into a decaying corpse because he’s dead. He turned into a corpse because he rotted away. It’s way different. Look, I’ll take full responsibility with the law for this. Just get your people out of there and flamethrower everything.”

“But we’re still dragging bodies, Harry. I can’t fry the evidence. We haven’t even started to identify the dead.”

Harry was fighting the urge to scream. Damian held him tighter. “Morgan. Please. Just humor me. Get the personnel out of there okay? Just do that and we’ll debate everything later. Just do it.”

“You really think he’s a genuine rotting vampire. Those are really rare in the United States.”

“I know how rare they are, Morgan. Just a couple of years ago I met a rotting vampire, and she told me to my face that her master wanted to destroy everyone. She was burned alive by a pyrokinetic, and even then it took hours to really kill her. Blue and white flames and all.”

“Fuck, you’re not kidding? Alright, but unlike you and Ted I don’t carry a flamethrower as part of my usual vampire-hunting kit.”

Harry preferred magic. “I’ll call MACUSA then.”

“You’re bringing them in? Seriously?”

“We have no choice. If not, you’ll all be dead, the bug squad will take ages, and I know you non-magicals will fight me on it.”

“You’re right. I have to ask my superiors, but they aren’t going to let me burn everything down here. The lesser vampires may wake up sane and fine now that he’s dead.”

“Look, don’t even bother. Just get out of there. He’s not dead, Morgan. He’s going to come out of there and all hell will break loose.”

“I never pegged you for being overdramatic, Harry. I always thought that was Blake’s thing.”

“Blake is an idiot who thinks the laws should never bend for some twisted sense of morale. I care about lives, all lives, but even I know when sometimes you have to break the rules to get out alive, Morgan. I’m begging you. Get out of there. I’ll take the fall if I have to. I’ll take the blame if I’m wrong.”

“She wasn’t a bad teacher you know. Rotting vampires rise earlier than most, though they can’t pass for human until full dark because they look like decayed corpses until then.” He sounded like he was quoting. Morgan was one of the newer executioners who had been recruited for the job, and not grandfathered in like most of them. He was part of a new breed of hunter who were trained in classrooms with books and guest lectures. It wasn’t a bad way to learn, but it was also safe, and it caused these newer executioners to believe they knew more than the ones who didn’t come out of a fancy school. “I’ll clear the crypt, Harry, but that’s all I can do until I clear this with someone.”

“I told you I’d take the fall if I’m wrong. I’d rather be in trouble than all of you dead. Just get your people out of there, now!”

“I will.”

“Now!” He pushed some of his energy into his voice, causing it to go a bit deeper and more soprano causing Peter to shiver as Damian nuzzled into his neck.

“I’m walking toward the entrance to the crypt as we speak, good enou-” and then the phone fell against something loud enough that Harry had to take it away from his ear.

“Morgan? Morgan?!” More noises as the phone picked up. “Morgan, talk to me.”

Harry heard someone swallow as though his throat hurt. It was a wet sound. “I’m afraid Marshal Morgan can’t come to the phone right now. To whom am I speaking?” The voice was male and thick, as if he had a speech impediment or injury to his mouth.

“Marshal Potter-Black.”

“Ah, Harry Potter-Black,” the voice coughed as if to clear something.

“And this?” Harry asked, going extremely cold and calm.

He already knew when the man answered. “I am Clayton, Master of the City of Atlanta, Georgia, but my true masters have filled me with purpose. Do you know what that purpose is, Mr. Potter-Black?”

“Feeding Morte d’Amour of course,” said Harry calmly.

“You do know what’s happening then. Good.” And he hung up leaving Harry frozen where he sat with Damian so still around him.

“Damian call the Circus and make sure Ellie and Andy are detained.” Just in case. Damian was gone in a flash. Harry quickly called Finnegan’s number.

“Morgan isn’t picking up his phone,” said Finnegan on the other line.

“He’s probably dead.”

“How do you know that?” Harry told him everything. “Clayton isn’t supposed to be a rotting vampire. He’s never shown any signs of it.”

“He was hiding it, Finnegan. It’s not hard to hide it if you feed enough. People may want to be vampires, but they want to be the sexy ones. They don’t want to spend eternity looking like a decayed corpse.”

“How many others are hiding in plain sight, Harry?”

“I can’t give you figures, Finnegan,” he said feeling tired. He could hear sirens in the background, lots of them.

“I’m almost there. I’ll call you, let you know how bad.”

“Finnegan, wait, please. I’m begging you not to do what Morgan did, and ignore my warnings. Bring an extermination team with flamethrowers. He walked out in the daylight. Only fire will kill him.”

“That’s not standard issue.”

“Please, I’ll take the fall. I’ll take all the fall for it so long as you get your ass out of there alive. Morgan might be lost, but you’re alive. We need more of you alive than ever right now!”

“Fuck! If we all live through this, I’ll call you back, and promise to try and be careful. But we have to contain it. Somehow. I’ll get fire.” He hung up.

Harry quickly dialed Auror Glotston’s number. “This is Glotston.”

“Auror Glotston, this is Harry Potter-Black.”

“Yes, Harry, what can I do for you? We haven’t heard back about your incident yet.” And Harry quickly explained to him the situation going on down in Atlanta.

“Fuck, you’re not kidding?”

“No, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better, and the damn Muggles insist on protocols before bringing out the flame. I even told them I’d take responsibility, but they’re barmy and not listening! I’d try and pop over there and help deal with it, but I’m trying to deal with our bigger problem,” he said, meaning the first.

“Do you have a plan for that? I have let our President know what is going on. He’s mobilizing units, and then we will be filling in the No-Maj Preternatural Squads with new orders, but that’s going to have to come later.”

“It’s a working plan. All of it based on myth and a little legend. You know how old things are, Glotston. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t. Good news, we have plans within plans, so hopefully we won’t have to come up with a plan C,D, and E.”

“We’ll come up with the C,D, and E, Potter-Black. You do what you can on your end, and we’ll back you should you need it.”

“I’m hoping things won’t get that out in the open. It would have been in-house if Micah hadn’t been such a visible target. I don’t like to tell RPIT more than I have to after their Lieutenant lost it.”

“Most no-maj’s do, Harry Potter-Black, their minds simply cannot understand the arcane. Give them a hundred years and they’ll waste away being in awe of our magical fireworks and rabbit tricks, but give them the true side of horror, and they’ll balk every time as if their own hasn’t been involved in some of the most heinous crimes known to man.”

“I have tried to use that logic for years and I’m still getting resistance. You have to accept the good with the bad.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, I hope I don’t give you too much bad. I’ll do what I can, in the meantime there’s a guy on ground zero, Finnegan. Morgan’s likely dead already.”

“I’ll send a team out.”

“Fire! Lots of it.”

“Gotcha, thank you, Marshal.”

“No thank you for being reasonable.” He resisted the urge to throw his phone across the room. Damian was still holding onto him. “It’s barely nightfall and the games have already begun.”

Peter cocked his head. “You going to be alright?”

“Just stressed. No one wants to listen to reason,” he grumbled. “And now we have to go get dolled up for some fun and games.” He opened his mind to Jean-Claude, Edward, and Micah and sent them through what he’d found from Finnegan.

“Well fuck,” said Edward.

“About sums it up, Lover. I’ve had Peter download the whole video for you. But I doubt you’ll need it to understand the picture.”

“There is nothing I can do, I am sorry. We have detained Ellie and Andy for the time being. Surprisingly they understand why they are being detained as they are. We will treat them well, but until this issue is resolved or Morte d’Amour has been finished we cannot take chances.”

“They’re young. Andy hates being a rotting vampire, and Ellie more so than Andy. Plus, they both still have their humanity. It wasn’t lost like so many others.”

“Oui.”

“Get here soon, Baby. Traveler’s arrival is moments away, and Jake is here and would like to talk to you personally in Asher’s office,” said Micah.

“Jake? Why?” Harry asked suspiciously. “Are you truly going to let him?” Jake was one of the animal’s to call to a Harlequin member. No one knew whether to trust him or not. But he had helped them once before.

“If we get a chance to get one or more of them behind us, mon Amour, I think we should potentially seize that opportunity,” said Jean-Claude. “Of course we shall be there with you.”

“As much as it pains me to say this, I do too. We need all we can get right now,” said Edward. “If Atlanta is a small part of what’s going on, we’ll need our own army. Not just St. Louis.”

“I’ve called in MACUSA to handle Atlanta.”

“Good. Please arrive soon, mon Amour. I have managed to entertain our guests with meet and greets. We are in the process of handing out our gifts. So that will give you a good hour or two. I have left all of you some clothes to wear.”

“Be there soon, husbands.” Harry pushed back from the computer. “Ready for a party?”

“No,” said Damian flatly.

Peter couldn’t help but laugh. “You don’t like parties?”

“I know what those parties are going to delve into.”

“You can stay, Damian. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Go and curl up with Cardinal where it’s safe. She can’t come here because I don’t know her well enough. But you can go there. I’ll try not to see you dragged into it.”

Damian shook his head as he wrapped his arms around Harry, and hugged him tightly. “I need to be by your side. I won’t leave you.” Harry reached up and kissed Damian on the lips before he swept off for a shower.

Merlin knew he needed a few minutes alone to process the overload of information that was pouring down on him. It seemed when shit hit the fan, it continued to gain speed until it burned itself out.

oOo

“Jean-Claude!” Harry’s voice might have stretched over the link accompanied by a low growl that involved every were nestled deep inside of him. “Jean, are you ignoring me? Do you want to explain what you are putting me in? Details, please,” he purred in a sickly sweet voice that promised a good amount of pain.

Micah snickered. “Is something wrong, Baby?”

“Something wrong? Lover, do you know what he’s putting me in?”

“I’m sure it’ll be sensational on you, Little Raven. The Toy doesn’t have bad taste after all.”

“Anything from the very vampire dressing me?”

“I love you?”

“Love you too, our lovely husband, but that’s not going to work. At this rate I might as well walk around naked!”

“If that is your wish. I thought you’d like the simple coverings.”

“What coverings? I don’t know what kind of eyes you have, Jean, but I’m not seeing much being covered here!”

Micah started laughing through their heads, and admittedly it was nice to hear him laughing after almost being gutted. It was one of the rare instances where Harry was happy that his ardeur was so strong to the point that it healed his men.

“And if I just refuse?”

“That is your choice. You can refuse and choose something else. But can you pick out something that will stand out? You are already the star in our eyes and all of St. Louis, but we need to make an impression. You are our star, we revolve around you. We are one together. We are using the ardeur to own them tonight, mon Amour.”

“Right, I think this is more like you want to show as much of my skin as possible, and leave very little to the imagination.”

“You are absolutely gorgeous, mon Amour. I want to show you off, I want everyone to see what we have, and while they may have you for a fleeting moment you are ours. It is the passionate need to make all those wish they were us, beg for a small piece of us. Make them crave us and their own desires so much that they will hold out their palms like a cup. No holds barred, that is what you would call it.”

He wouldn’t mind wearing this if this was just for his husbands and everyone to have a bit of fun in. He wasn’t body shy by any means nowadays, but this was just… over the top.

First was the glittering silver and gold g-string, which would be entirely on display thanks to the sheer white harem wide-legged pants that clung to parts of his thighs and hips so that when he moved the fabric moved too, swaying and offering little in the way of imagination. It was snug at the waist and sat loose at the bottom; almost touching the floor with a slit up each side to his hip. It was accompanied by a paper thin vest that was the very same sheer fabric with only hints of gold when it hit candlelight. He had only white sandals with silver and gold. It meant he would most definitely be the shortest in the room unless Jason was there tonight.

Not a place on him would store any weapons.

“Lover, you do know I can’t store weapons, right? You might want to get him for this,” He tried one last ditch effort as Micah’s snickers spread through them. A gleeful feeling rolled through his belly as he felt the leopard purring on the other side.

“You can make your protections invisible can’t you, Little Raven?”

He could not imagine anyone seeing him wearing this right now. His chosen outfit enhanced his hair, eyes, and the white hot diamond and emerald torc around his throat. It was such a subtle fabric that just a brush would send shivers up and down Harry’s body. He messed with his hair for a moment before giving it up.

He stood there for several long minutes. He was slowly coming to accept that people saw him as something special, but he thought this was a bit much. He could see Jason wearing something like this or Stephen and Gregory, even Nathaniel.

Harry did not have the broad builds that all the men in his life had. Even Stephen and Gregory had a good pair of shoulders. Harry was a bit on the petite side except for his ass, which was very obviously on display when he looked behind him in the mirror.

He lifted the two diamond snaking bands that went around his upper arms. He had light workable muscle. Like a ballet dancer, Jason had told him. He didn’t mean one of the men who lifted others, but one of the fair faced men who got lifted and surprised the audience by their fair bodies. Whatever.

At least he didn’t have to go the route of complicated makeup. No eyeliner or anything on his face as he situated the armbands. He admitted silently that maybe he did look pretty good, and that was a lot for someone like him to admit to. But, this seemed ridiculous. Once Jean-Claude or Micah got beside him no one was going to really care what he looked like.

“Wrong!” All three chanted in his head.

“Get out of my head,” Harry grumbled with a mental flick.

A knock at the door. “Harry?” It was Peter.

Harry tried not to go red in the face as he slipped out of the master bathroom. He stood in front of his door for all of five seconds before bracing himself and opening the door.

Peter’s dark eyes went round, tracing Harry from head to toe, and then they went back up from toe to head in a very slow, ‘I’m-taking-you-all-in-fashion.’

“God, you’re gorgeous!” Peter choked.

Peter was lucky. He was wearing a blood red silk button down that showed off his athletic chest, and made emphasis of how nice and broad his shoulders were becoming. He had black leather trousers that set well with a belt. He had a gun on one side and his trusty hunting knife that he’d used on Gracie had been cleaned, washed, and likely re-poisoned. He had more on him obviously, and then there were the dragon-hide boots Harry had gotten him for his birthday. He liked them a lot. His hair was tied back to the base of his neck.

“Five hundred bucks if you can successfully prank Jean-Claude for me,” said Harry, causing Peter to chuckle as he crossed his arms.

“Five hundred, huh?”

“Look at me!” Harry spun around.

“Oh, I’m looking…” he said. “And my pants are going to split if I get a hard-on right now. I can already feel the strain. Come on, you look hot as hell!”

“I guess,” said Harry with a pout.

Peter shook his head. “That only makes it worse,” he pointed.

Damian’s face was blank when he came up the stairs to see Harry standing in the doorway. Harry groaned. “Five hundred bucks, prank his arse! Prank it so hard for me, Peter. Or Damian?”

“If you order me to, I will have to,” said Damian, his green eyes soaking Harry in. “It’s not that bad.” Harry glared, and Damian smiled without faltering. “Least it works with you, and it’ll be eye catching.”

“Eye catching is right,” Peter chirped.

“I’m going downstairs!” Harry squawked with a stomp.

“I’ll be… right behind,” Peter leered as he followed along a bit too fast. “I wonder if Nathaniel has something like that.”

“He’d do well in lilac,” said Harry, getting to the entrance hall, and thanking Merlin that Teddy was not here right now or Hermione or anyone else that would stare at him. The house had been relatively empty. All hands were on deck at the moment.

Damian looked like the most normal as Harry had dressed him. A green tunic with white criss-cross lace-ups at the front and some black hip-hugging slacks accompanied with some ankle length black boots. His hair was down and folding around him in fiery layers. He was sure something, Harry thought, glancing at him fondly as he held out both hands for them.

“I would prefer to fly.”

“Not with my arse on display. How could I ever face the human populace looking like this?” Harry asked.

Peter sighed and took Harry’s hand, and Damian took his other. He froze them in place with a small surge of his magic, and with a pop they all disappeared.

Chapter Text

Bobby Lee was the first to sling an arm around his waist. “Well hello there, Little Hellcat!” He swung Harry around and planted a kiss on his mouth all the while squeezing his on-display ass.

Harry laughed beneath him, and grazed the man’s five o’ clock shadow as he titled his head and emphasized the kiss with a bit of tongue. “Hello to you too, Bobby Lee,” said Harry with a deep breath. “You like?”

“Hell yeah!”

“What’s not to like?” asked Lisandro, coming around with a smirk. “You’re supposed to be on guard, Bobby Lee.”

“Hey, I am guarding. I gotta guard this sweet ass, boss’ rules after all! Seems you got a personal date with one of those clowns,” he grunted.

Harry’s smile began to wilt. “Why does he want to talk to me?”

“Not a clue. I didn’t like it, and neither did Rafael.” He was placed back on his feet. “We’ll be right outside. Damian, can you take Peter downstairs?”

“Why can’t I join Harry?” Peter asked defensively. “I’ve been protecting Harry all day!”

“Yah, I heard about that. Good aim, kid, but this ain’t a slasher meeting unfortunately,” Bobby Lee grunted.

Harry turned and touched his arm. “Not for this, these are the same guys that screwed with us.”

“Then should you really be going in there alone?” Damian moved to stand on Harry’s other side. “At least let me in there, I’m his servant. He can’t forbid Harry’s servant.”

Bobby Lee rubbed his prickly stubble. “I suppose it’s alright. Anyone in there with ya means I can breathe a bit easier.”

“I’ll take him down then.”

“Go kick Jean in the arse for me if he’s alone. Tell him it’s a love tap from me.”

Peter looked at him seriously. “How much?”

Harry tallied it. “A hundred?”

“Got it!” He turned with a grinning Lisandro who clasped him on the back.

“You’ll do just fine, kid.”

Bobby Lee barked in laughter and even Damian smiled lightly. Harry stepped back and adjusted the ridiculous garb. “Alright, let’s go.” He took Damian’s hand in his, and he was led to one of the large permanent blue tents that was housed within the Circus.

Asher’s office was at the top of the seats in the very place that Harry had met Micah the first time. But the walls and interior had changed much since then. No longer were the walls covered in wallpaper of black with gold oriental designs. Instead, Draco had made his touch. A few silvers, blues, and blacks were married together. The office was set up almost like a press box, but there were drapes over all the glass windows and the door in the back wall led to a temporary bedroom. They even got rid of the bed, which Harry thought was a missed opportunity for comfortable office sex.

Damian swept in behind Harry to see Jake. Jake was of average height, short dark hair with a medium complexion, and looking a lot younger than he really was. He was handsome in that manly-man kind of way that Harry would never be. He was very nondescript. It was perfect for an Elite assassin.

Harry was now glad that he’d brought Damian in with him because the energy, while tightly wrapped up, was buzzing through the outer room along his skin because he was not alone. All of them were the opposite of Jake in every way. All eye-catching blonds, tall, beautiful or handsome, and somehow otherworldly. It was as if they’d only recently been let out of their cages. None of them were meeting his gaze, but several were staring at his body. A mix of curiosity and desire wafting off them. He went through to Asher’s office and greeted Jake.

“Are you sure about talking in front of him, Harry?” Jake asked, his eyes searching Damian with blank brown eyes.

“Damian is my servant, Jake,” said Harry, comfortably taking a seat in Asher’s cushioned chair. “His will is my own.”

Jake shrugged at Harry. “I guess I have to trust your judgment since I trust you with the pretty kittens.”

Harry arched a brow. “So, you want to tell me what was so urgent you wanted to talk to me alone?” Damian stood behind Harry like a beautiful shadow.

“I’ve known these kittens their whole-lives. I think they’d be safer here with you.”

Harry kept his face blank. “I don’t know Jake, you may be bringing your lambs to the slaughter right now. You know why we’re late right?” He told the man about the assassination attempt on Micah.

“Amateurs,” he said with a wave of his hand.

“I agree, and the only reason we were caught by surprise was because it was a wizard like me. Not many you see traveling the court of assassins. MACUSA is a lot harsher than the normal government over that sort of thing. I’m just telling you so that you know, the fire is starting here and it’s brewing out.”

“But you’ve kept your men alive,” Jake pointed out. “You’ve taken care of them. You’re a Lupa to hundreds of werewolves, and it works even after your Ulfric flew the coop. You stepped up and found a perfect replacement.”

Harry’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t bring Marcus up,” he warned. It was their bloody fault for Marcus leaving. It might not have been a hundred percent their fault, but without their machinations Harry is certain that they could have worked things out. He would not have him point something out like he hadn’t been partially responsible. Maybe not directly, but it was still a sore point for him.

“Fair enough. But you get my point. You are also a Nimir-Ra, and now a Regina, is it? You’ve managed to find the perfect counterparts to you every fucking time, Harry. You have a gift for finding the right people. You have a gift for protecting everything that comes into your sphere. It’s the only reason the Traveler is boldly moving around and not hiding.”

“Where is the Traveler? I’d like to greet him.”

“I needed to talk to you because he’s under a misguided assumption.”

“The Traveler is hardly ever misguided, Jake. She can’t touch him.”

“No, she can’t. I think it has something to do with you.”

“Cut the flirting, Jake, tell me why you think they’re safer here.”

“Better,” said Jake leaning forward, and that was when Harry saw the tired lines around his eyes. He looked a bit like a raccoon as if sleeping was only an afterthought. “They aren’t survivors of an attack, Harry. They’re Pureblood tigers.”

“Clanless? I thought all Purebloods have clans.”

“One color doesn’t have a clan.”

“You’re not talking about blue are you? You mean gold or yellow or what have you.”

Jake nodded. “Exactly.”

“You’ve brought the gold here?”

“Yes.”

“The Traveler found you didn’t he?”

“Yes,” said Jake. “Interesting, you have a Council member in your corner. I am impressed.”

“He likes my ass,” said Harry, waving his hand.

Jake arched a brow. “You think that’s it?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. So, gold is clanless?” He pushed.

“The last yellow tiger died in St. Louis after she tried to kill you,” said Jake. “She belonged to the Harlequin.”

Harry didn’t flinch at the name that caused terror through many. He was glad that Damian didn’t react either. “Last I checked it was against the rules to say that word out loud unless we were contacted by them first. In fact, saying it out of school is a death sentence.”

“But you know that I am the Animal to Call of one of the Harlequin.”

“Yes.”

“Everyone knows. Somehow, my master’s powers did not work on any of them, have they?”

“I have no answer to that. Everyone here is strong.” Harry shrugged.

“Of that I have no doubt, but my master has never been thwarted. If he doesn’t want you to remember, you’re not going to remember.”

“Sorry, I remember everything as though it were yesterday. So does everyone who was involved.”

“Everyone that has consumed you, right?” Harry said nothing. Jake continued. “You make them strong. You give more than desire. Belle Morte’s powers are about feasting and making her stronger, and only sometimes do they grant more than the addiction offered. Your brand is much more powerful because of your Necromancy and ties to a magical world that has ignored our existence since they almost destroyed us.”

“You know a lot, Jake. Tell me things I don’t know. Are you contacting us officially?”

“Yes, and no. I am here as an agent of some of the Harlequin, but I am not sanctioned by the Council to be in St. Louis, except by the Traveler.”

“The Traveler is a man unto himself,” said Harry.

“You trust him?”

“Maybe. Let’s just say that we had some remote visits from a few members.”

“Then you know what has happened.”

“You tell me what you know, and I’ll tell you what we know, and we see how deep we are.”

“The Mother of Darkness isn’t dead.”

“Yup.”

“She’s visited you,” he said, sitting up from his comfortable slump.

“Something like that.”

“When she felt her body destroyed by the bomb, she sent her essence out in search of a home. She found fertile ground in some of the Council. Once, so long ago that most do not remember, that was what the Council was, Harry. They would come to sit in their great chairs, but the deep dark secret was, once they took their places on the Council the Mother possessed them. She had more trouble possessing some than others. Most of the Council only pretended to vote and be fair; in truth they were all her puppets. It seems that those that won their places after the first were more likely to be able to fight the possession.”

It was like Luna theorized, and it was no wonder the Traveler had gained an interest in them so quickly. Smart man.

“The Traveler and his human servant can’t remain here for long, but he knows where to cast his bets.”

“Yes he does. Are some of the Harlequin on her side, still?”

He nodded. “We are at war with each other. It is a very quiet, deadly little war, more like a series of assassinations, but we are at odds with each other.”

“Do you really think we can hide you from some of the greatest warriors and killers that ever lived? We’re good, Jake, but I’m not sure anyone’s that good.”

“No, I come to offer my gun and my strength to help fortify your safety, not the other way around.”

“You think the others are going to come after us?”

“I know they will.”

Harry took in a slow breath and rolled this through his mind. As if they needed more problems piling up. “When?”

“It depends on how fast we can kill the ones that want to kill you. If our side loses enough manpower, they’ll come for you. Right now they see the other Harlequin as their greatest threat. Once we are neutralized, then they will turn to you.”

“Practicality.”

He smiled. “I didn’t come here for that, Harry. We will live or die as we always have, by our own hands.”

“Then what do you want from us?”

“Depending on how our private feud goes with the other Harlequin, others of us will come to your aid, or to spy on you. There are some who are more neutral because they do not believe that your unique…” he rolled his tongue as if he was trying to find the word.

“Tetrumvirate,” Harry said with a smile.

“Yes, that’s it. Tetrumvirate could be Master of Tigers. No one seems to understand what this unique power of yours truly means, especially with a Necromancer involved and a magical one at that.”

“But you do?”

“I have my suspicions. The last remaining tigers that are not red or white belong to the Harlequin as their animals to call. When Mother Dark took the power of Father of the Day, she gave some of that power to us. We gained the tigers through it. Your blue boy is not the last of the blue, there is one more, but she is busy fighting for her life alongside her master, so soon your Vegas teenager may be the only blue tiger left in the world.”

“Are she and her master on our side?” Harry asked.

“They are.”

“So, you have a black tiger or two?”

“We have one. We had two, but when the Father of the Day regained some of his powers, he called Sebastian away from us. I heard he died.”

“Thanks to the hubris of those who believed they were better, yes,” said Harry. “So, he was a Harlequin, hm?”

“Sebastian was and wasn’t one of us. He had been, but the Father of the Day was truly his master, so the Mother of All Darkness didn’t trust him. She allowed him to live, but he had no one. My master and I kept track of him, but he has been on his own for a long time until his death of course. We were sorry to hear of that.”

“Doubt you could do sorry,” Harry muttered. “It’s what happens when treatment of your ‘servants’ goes wrong. So, are you going to tell me who is on our side or isn’t?”

“The remaining black tiger’s master is not. We have another male gold tiger, and he and his master have agreed to be on your side if we can prove to them that you can be Master of Tigers.”

Harry sighed and settled back. “How do you propose we do that? Most of what has happened to me has been through accident.”

“All of it? Accident?” Jake said, tilting his head. “Interesting.”

“Honest, all accident.”

“I believe you. I can taste your honesty. Even your vampire servant had been an accident. A series of unrelated events culminated in him becoming yours, right?”

Harry shrugged. “Something like that, yes.”

He sat up and almost shook himself like a bird settling its feathers. “When the Mother of All Darkness declared the gold clan to be destroyed, some of us hid a few of them. We helped them escape to various parts of the world, including the New World. We’ve been helping them to hide, waiting for another Master of Tigers. One who wasn’t evil.”

“Or a sexual sadist,” Harry reminded.

He gave a very small smile. “That, too.”

“The other clans think the gold is destroyed and the strain of lycanthropy inside of me is the last remnant of them,” said Harry.

“They would be wrong.”

“You’ve hidden the gold tigers since the first Emperor of China; that’s twenty-two hundred years right? As in 200 BC? That’s a long time to be planning,” said Harry, wide-eyed.

“We’ve been hoping for that long. Once he figured it out, the Traveler has assisted us on some of our travel plans when needed, but has mostly kept out of it until now.”

“Casting his bets on the long shot. Sounds familiar.”

“Indeed. When you live forever and don’t age, it gives you the time to hope. Not all of us can be so lucky to find everyone and everything they need like you, Harry. You will never age. You weren’t aging when you met Jean-Claude, right? You were all of seventeen. A war in your world. You died only to rise back once more, and you never moved from that moment have you?”

“Seems you know it all, Jake. What else do you want me to say?”

“Nothing. It’s everything I have gleaned since I left.”

Harry resisted the urge to rub at his temples. “So, you’re saying the tigers with you are gold?”

He nodded. “They are the purest of their line that we have been able to preserve. There are some who are like your Domino, of more than one clan. We have found that the tiger survivors mated with the gold breed mostly true.”

“It’s America, Jake. Pureblood is sort of overrated. It’s a nation that’s all about the melting pot, which was one of the benefits of me choosing it to hop over. The non-magical British side is okay and all, but the magical world had whole wars over the Pureblood thing. It’s been abolished since then.”

“By you,” said Jake.

“Sort of. It was a group effort.”

“The tigers are not, it’s important to them.”

“So, what do you want from me? Us?”

“I want you to bond with them, Harry. Pet them, fuck them, mind-fuck them, whatever it is you do when you gain a tiger to call. The Mother of Darkness is trying to turn the Council back into her puppets. We must stop her.”

“And how are you going to go about this? She is a living Horcrux, Jake. She’s ripped herself into hundreds of pieces and lodged them in others. We would have to find each and every piece of her and destroy it one at a time until we find the very last one.”

“Exactly. We believe that by being powerful enough to cut her off from each body until she is nothing but spirit and spite, she will start fading.”

Harry shook his head. “You're wrong,” he said, leaning back. “Wrong. She will not fade. She will take lessers, she will work hard, and she will do something to bring her body back to full once more.” Jake’s face had become pale. “If you knew about me and did your research, you will know that I saw what happens with bodiless spirits, they don’t fade. They become more angry and more mad over time until there is nothing left of them. What we need to do is find the main source and destroy it. We can stall by circumventing the bodies that she inhabits until we get to the first. Perhaps the very first that she ever possessed that’s still living is the key.”

“You think so?” asked Jake.

Harry raised his bangs. “I was a living Horcrux, Jake. My darkness put himself in me as a baby. I let him kill me that night. It backfired, hitting him in return because souls that are the same do not like fighting each other.”

“It forced the power to create a bond. A bond you couldn’t leave?” said Jake, thoughtfully.

“Exactly. Not until the last of the deaths. But, let’s get back to the matter at hand. I will not mind-fuck anyone, and neither will Jean-Claude unless our lives are at stake. We have been thinking of the tigers, this is true. If she gets them or kills them her powers will get stronger.”

“Yes.”

“But, Jake, we used the powers of Belle Morte’s own line to free her. We don’t carry the power of anyone else.”

“You’re lying or you’re ignorant.”

“I’m not either,” Harry scowled.

“Harry, you carry the power of every line that’s attacked you. You collect vampire powers like butterflies. The Master of Beasts attacked you and now you can call all manner of wereanimals. The Dragon barely touched you from a distance and you dissolve the anger. I also heard you even did her nifty trick of using the vampire’s own aura against them to cut like glass.”

“Only once, and Jean-Claude is way more adept at that than me. It’s his power now,” said Harry. “I don’t swallow anger. I can’t feed off of it because I don’t understand it, even if I sometimes feel it. It doesn’t work with me.”

“Maybe because you’re not evil,” said Jake with a smile of satisfaction. “Good enough for me. It seems this universe likes you. It gravitates toward you. We also want Jean-Claude to gain the powers, too, Harry. We need him to be powerful enough.”

“Enough for what?”

Before Jake could say anything more the door gracefully swung open.

“I do believe, Jake, that you’ve had him for long enough alone,” Harry couldn’t help but break into a smile when he saw the Traveler. He was in the body of a handsome athletic man with a strong jaw and startling blue eyes. Even not being his real body, Harry knew his energy and Baltasar coming in behind was a big clue. Harry stood to greet the two instantly. “Ooh, what Jean-Claude puts you in. His taste is never droll, mio caro!” He was wrapping around Harry in an instant. He was pulled right into the body he was borrowing. “Pity you won’t let me kiss you,” the Traveler whispered against Harry’s neck.

“You know how that works, Traveler,” said Harry, curving his mouth along his jaw and kissing the man’s cheek. Not in a faux body. It was their agreement.

“What? I promise you that he is willing. So very willing for me to crawl deep inside of him.” He pushed the body right up against Harry who grinned at the grind of cock against his own. The Traveler had chosen a body only slightly taller than Harry’s this time.

“Just this once.” The Traveler kissed him hard and deep, large hands cupping his face like he was a doll, before sweeping down to squeeze his ass. For a moment the world popped away only to come back when Baltasar stepped up with a devilish smile.

“Good to see you, Harry.”

“You too, Baltasar.” Harry leaned over to greet the man with a quick kiss as the Traveler continued to play with his ass.

“We were not finished, Traveler,” said Jake, unhappily.

“No, but there is no reason for all of us to be kept waiting. It is particularly rude.”

Jean-Claude, Edward, and Micah swept through behind him.

Edward smirked when he saw Harry standing there and Micah grinned. “Excuse me, Traveler, but I’m going to be rude for a moment!” He nudged the Traveler out of the way to get to Harry. “Looking wonderful, Baby.”

“Shut up. I look silly.” Harry moaned as Micah nibbled at his neck.

“Nonsense, I never make you look silly, mon Amour,” said Jean-Claude with a pet to Harry’s head. “Does he not look scrumptious, Traveler?”

“Of course he does, mio amico. Especially delicious tonight. You were correct in saying it would be something to see. Almost like the fabric isn’t even there, even by touch.”

When Edward came to stand in front of him he raked his eyes up and down, and then pulled Harry to him for one of his harsh kisses that could freeze the Sahara, but somehow managed to warm him. How that worked, Harry would never know.

“Have things been finalized with you, Traveler?” Harry asked as Edward released him from the kiss and pushed him back into the Traveler’s arms. The master vampire was quick to place his hands back on his ass. Everyone loved his ass. Edward moved to stand with Damian, his arms behind his back like he was in the military. He was staring at Jake with that typical emptiness.

“Of course, mio caro. Nothing changed from the agreement we already had set up. All is in order.”

“Brilliant. At least one thing is going right.”

“Have you been introduced to everyone yet?” The Traveler asked as Baltasar wrapped his arms around the borrowed body. One hand ended up on Harry’s hip, the other slid between their bodys to rest on Traveler’s stomach after a brush against both cocks. It was Baltasar’s way of acknowledging the agreement.

“No, we’ve been establishing the baseline of understanding.”

“Well, we should move things along so that we can get to the fun part of the evening.”

“Don’t worry, Traveler, there will be plenty of time for fun.” Micah grinned. “Especially with Baby looking like that.”

“I do love playing with husbands. There’s just such great chemistry to work with.” The Traveler mused as he looked over them. None of them had issues with sleeping or playing with the Traveler and Baltasar, but their agreement was only when the Traveler was in his true body.

“Done with the greetings yet? Can we get back to our meeting?” Jake growled out. Harry had to resist pouting, he didn’t want to get back to serious. Serious meant acknowledging that Jake wanted Harry and Jean-Claude to do anything in their power to take the tigers he had brought with him. They already had to deal with the tigers arriving from Las Vegas and across the US, these new ones added an annoying level of complications.

Harry drew out of the Traveler’s arms after the master got another squeeze in and moved to sit in Asher’s chair again. “Alright, Jake. You want to talk business. Continue,” he said.

“As I was saying, we wish for you, Jean-Claude, to also gain the powers of the tigers. We need you powerful enough.”

“For what?” asked Jean-Claude, diplomatically as he stood between Micah and Edward, one hand on Harry. The Traveler and Baltasar took casual seats on the loveseat against the wall, looking pretty as pictures.

“I don’t see why you wished to talk to Harry alone about this,” said Edward.

“If you would stop interrupting,” said Jake coldly.

“Your fault.”

“Can you not speak mind to mind?”

“We could,” said Micah. “But that runs the risk of letting those like you and your unknown master in, so we’re very careful.”

Jake inclined his head. “Understandable. Traveler has made mentions of a Council that may be forming here in America, and you to become the head of it.”

“I did not mention anything,” said the Traveler. “I simply said there are better business ventures in the New World.”

“Same thing.”

“So, what do you wish from us? I am aware you want to make the tigers ours to call, and perhaps place mon Amour here as the Master of Tigers. Please be direct.”

“A vampire wanting directness, now I know why people might like you,” said Jake. “We want you to choose one of them to make your own. Your animal to call, both of you. We brought the girl for Jean-Claude, but Traveler insists that was not going to happen.”

“So you thought you could corner me and then push her on us?” Harry asked, frowning.

“Of course not. All it means is that it works better if everyone likes each other. Your line of power is based on sex, lust, and sometimes even love. So your liking everyone who sleeps over is a good thing. Maybe even a necessary thing for you.”

“But then you would know a young lady is not going to work for us,” said Jean-Claude.

“Choose a man then, I don’t care which is your preference. One will give you control over all of them. If you each choose one, and manage to tie them to you as your animal to call, then the others will be unable to resist you. We even want your other men in on this because the more power and the strength behind your own powers, the better the chance of you being successful. If you are unhappy with the ones we’ve chosen then we can get more if they make it here alive.”

“Someone is killing the clanless weretigers because they suspect what you’ve done?” Harry asked.

“Someone, probably another Harlequin, has figured out that we saved the gold tigers, but they don’t know how weak the bloodline has gotten. So they’re just killing every weretiger they find.”

“I haven’t heard anything about that,” said Harry.

“They’re only hitting the clanless. They know the bloodlines for the clans, and they know about Cynric. They aren’t worried about them. Please, Harry. You, Micah - all of you take them to bed with you. We need you to bond with a gold tiger, as soon as possible.”

“Why is it so important?” asked Edward.

“Because you would have all the colors under your control, you will gain an astronomical amount of power, and so will the tigers. The Mother of All Darkness will have a much harder time breaking through your defenses if you can do this.”

It would be nice to have a break from all this rubbish, but that also meant taking on more men. “That’s what Bibiana said.”

“As I said, once you have the gold tiger, all the other colors won’t be able to resist you. They will choose you over her, and all the other Harlequin members that have tigers to call? You would have the power to recall them.”

“But, I don’t understand why didn’t the gold tiger who tried to kill me and her master rule the tigers?”

“Because she was only gold.”

Now, Harry was confused. He looked at his men for a moment and then back to Jake. “I thought gold automatically gave you all the other colors?”

“Not if it’s a one-off, it’s just like all the other tigers.”

“Then how are you so sure that giving me a gold tiger will give me all the tigers then?”

“Because you already have black and white, and I know that when you fed in Las Vegas you sent out an areawide call to every unmated male. You passed the ardeur through Victor to Cynric to give him power. You drew more than tigers to you. You drew rats and lions and leopards and wolves to your side. You drew the Father of the Day’s own personal tiger to you. You drew him out of the Master’s grasp and into yours. If you can do that without knowing you were doing it, I can’t imagine what you could do with the actual knowledge. You damn near caused a riot with our gold males, Harry. They were ready to get on a bus or a plane or whatever it took to come to you. We had a hell of a time stopping them. Soledad’s mistress couldn’t call all the males, and neither could Soledad.”

Harry rubbed at his forehead and he turned to look at his men. “What do you think?”

“You want an exchange?” Edward asked. “We help you with the tigers and you help us with the assassins?”

“I know Rafael’s rats are on it now along with a good handful of the werewolves,” said Jake.

“You know quite a bit,” said Micah.

“I have good information gathering skills,” said Jake simply.

Jean-Claude folded his arms. “Traveler, what say you?”

“It’s your show. Most are very pretty pets, I must admit. Feeding from one can’t be a bad thing.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “They’re not livestock.”

“Of course, mio caro. You are the heart of the family, aren’t you?”

“That goes to Teddy,” he corrected, making the Traveler throw his head back and laugh.

“Indeed it does.”

“I suppose we should be meeting these tigers of yours?” said Harry, finally standing aware of the pleasant heated stares he was getting from the Traveler and Baltasar both. He was so going to kill Jean-Claude. Merlin, if this was their reaction he could just imagine the tigers’ brought in by Jake and Las Vegas.

“They aren’t mine.”

“You’ve known them since they were born. Don’t you feel anything for them?” Harry asked indignantly.

“I’ve watched them grow up; of course I do.”

“Then how can you just offer them to us like they’re not really people with their own free will?” asked Micah for Harry.

“They were raised for this moment.”

Harry shook his head. “I’m not sure if I’m willing to take those who can’t think for themselves, Jake. I’m not that kind of person. You’re making them sound like farm animals. Domino chose us, and I admit I might have accidentally rolled Crispin because I didn’t know better at the time, but his will is his own. No one is food, they’re family and friends.”

“I don’t mean to, but we didn’t keep them hidden and protected for thousands of years out of the goodness of our hearts, Harry. We did it because we needed them. We needed them so we could give them to you, and you could make them food.”

My Death, he sounded like Dumbledore. Dumbledore didn’t take and protect him out of the goodness of his heart. He did it because he needed Harry. But at least Harry wasn’t considered food. Just sacrifice. What was the real difference?

“Your words are pretty, but we both know what they are, Harry. You can mask it however you want. We have married them, bred them, and watched over them like our special little flock of sheep for over two thousand years, Harry. When the new Master of Tigers emerged, there was no guarantee that he, or she, would be a kind master. We had to stay detached because when the moment came to give them to someone, we had to be willing to do that. If I loved them the way you love your so-called family, I might not have been able to do that. Do you understand that?”

“I do,” said Edward flatly. “But, Little Raven isn’t going to and neither will Micah, no matter how practical he is. Jean-Claude will, but it isn’t his preference.”

“I do understand that the big bad wolf has been watching the flock, when they thought you were the sheepdog,” said Harry, frowning slightly.

“You’re right. They call me Uncle Jake.”

“And if I’d been an honorable, but cruel person, you’d still have offered them up?”

He looked at Harry, and he saw the coldness in his eyes, pitiless and broken. “I would have.”

“There’s a reason I don’t like most uncles,” said Harry dryly. “I couldn’t be evil. No matter what.”

“Even to keep the Mother of All Darkness from spreading across the entire world like an evil, death-spreading plague?”

Harry smiled at him. “No. I’d watch this world burn before I step over that line or I’d have someone who loves me more than anything in this world kill me before it got that far.” he looked at Edward who actually smiled at him. Empty. But it was a smile. “I’m not self-righteous, but I have a line, and crossing over is not what I will ever do. I’d watch everyone burn for the better.”

“Then you are better than most, I suppose. It’s a good thing that you aren’t evil, then isn’t it?” said Jake plainly. “Not sure how to feel about the fact that your answer would not be the same as mine. You’d let your husbands burn over taking the evil path?” He asked, leaning forward.

“Yes,” said Harry, confidently. “Because what is the point if I’m not myself? What kind of lover would I be if I let them stand in this world that was wrought with a plague?”

“Good thing you have a heart then, Harry Potter-Black. You will do your best not to hurt them, so I can do my duty and not be evil this time. But I never lie to myself. I know the only thing that keeps giving those kids to you from being evil is your own goodness. But if you were the most evil bastard on the planet and it would save the rest of us, I would give you all my golden kittens; and that is evil.” He offered Harry his hand, but Harry didn’t take it. Nope.

“We should meet them,” said Edward. “We have much to get done tonight, and wasting time is not helping.”

“You’re right of course.” And then Jake bowed, and as he turned his back on them, Harry saw the shine of tears in his eyes. He said he never lied to himself, but it was obvious he had. He said he didn’t love them like children.

But he was still too Dumbledore-like for Harry’s tastes, and so he said nothing as he followed behind.

Chapter Text

Everyone was out the door and going down the fleet of steps when Harry’s phone rang again. He let out a groan as he brought it out. “Potter-Black here.”

“Check your email, Marshal.” It was Clayton and everyone froze before they reached the bottom.

“What did you send me?”

“A video. I do love these new gadgets, don’t you?” He hung up leaving Harry to stare at it.

“You should go talk to your tigers. I’ve got to see what the bad guy sent us,” said Harry.

“What bad guy?” Jake asked.

Harry shook his head and held out his phone. “Who is the most tech savvy? Do I need to get Peter again?” he asked, but Edward was taking it.

“Kid is better, but I can do this much,” said Edward, moving his finger around the screen.

“You know we do have spies in almost every major city, Harry. We have us in every major city.” Did Harry have to exterminate them all? He wondered because he would if Jake kept it up. That wasn’t evil. It was practical.

“What are you offering?” Jean-Claude asked for them.

Jake glanced back at the tigers with a circle of their guards around them. Bobby Lee and Abraham being two of them. “Tell me what’s happening, and I’ll tell you if we have anyone or anything that can help.”

“Here, got it,” said Edward.

“Hold the thought,” said Harry and turned to Edward. He handed the phone over, but stayed close to watch. Everyone was crowding around, even Micah had to move closer to see it.

The screen was surprisingly clear, like a small TV. There was a figure in white crime scene scrubs top to bottom, even with a hood on, and a face mask. She was crawling on the ground in front of the camera. Harry knew it was a she because she was crying out. “No, please, no!”

A decayed hand with bones showing through the putrid flesh reached past the camera. She screamed, scrambling faster on her arms and one good leg. The other leg was covered in blood, the coverall torn so they could see the spurt of blood timed to the beat of her heart in the back of her knee. Something had attacked her down in the crypt. The other vampires were alive and still crazed, and once daylight was completely gone they’d be coming out. Only their master could brave the daylight.

He grabbed her by her wounded leg and dragged her back to him while she screamed. He sat on her waist, pinning her to the ground. She just screamed, one long ragged scream after another as he jerked her hood down, spilling long brown hair, and tore her mask off with his rotting hand so her face was bare to the camera. Her fear was palpable and Harry watched with blank eyes as he gripped the front of her throat and squeezed until her face turned dark, purplish with lack of air, and then let her go. He let her breathe and then reached for her throat again.

“Nothing we can do to stop that,” said Edward. “He’s already killed her before he sent this.”

“How do you know?” asked Micah.

“He’d need both hands to send the video.”

“Right…”

“Merde,” was all Jean-Claude could come up with.

“Glad she’s dead,” said Harry to Jake’s surprise as he watched when Clayton grabbed her by the throat this time. He didn’t strangle her, instead he dug his thick decaying fingers into the front of her throat and tore it out. Blood gushed up and out. Her eyes rolled and she made sounds; horrible, wet choking sounds.

The camera stayed on her until her eyes glazed and the only movement was involuntary twitches. Death claimed her with only the twitches left over.

He put the camera on his face so that Harry could see the Halloween mask that was all he could have for a face in the daylight. Even the rotting vampires that could brave the light couldn’t pass for human in the day. But it didn’t matter now because Clayton wasn’t trying to pass anymore. The face that stared back at him was a monster and happy with it.

“Come and get me, Harry Potter-Black. Come and get me, because I and my vampires will kill as many as we can for as long as we can.” His cheek was collapsed on one side, and Harry could see his tongue working in his mouth.

A gunshot exploded over the speakers and his body jerked. He moved the phone so that Harry saw the second shot go through the chest. “Oh, look, more police to kill.” He turned and the camera swung so that Harry saw the uniformed officers shooting into him as the vampire strode toward him, no hesitation.

“No one ever listens to me,” Harry muttered in disgust as the screen went dead. “Do I even bother calling again?”

“Do it,” said Edward.

“What?” asked Jake.

Harry dialed Finnegan’s phone number, wondering if he was alive to pick up. It went to voicemail, and so he hung up only for the phone to ring again. “Gah!” He answered. “Potter-Black.”

“Returning your call.”

“Is the vampire still at the cemetery?” Harry asked.

“No. He broke through the officers and he’s gone. He’s a rotting corpse like you said, and he just disappeared. How can we not find him?!” He was almost yelling.

“He sent me a video.”

“What?”

“I think he used Morgan’s phone to send me a video.”

“Send it to me.”

“You sure? It’s not pretty.”

“Send it.”

“Okay. It’s him killing one of your techs and about to kill some uniforms. While he’s in rotted corpse form he’s almost invincible to bullets. Once he looks solid, human, then bullets will work again.”

“Why?” asked Finnegan.

“I don’t know. I just know that’s how this kind of vampire works.”

“How do we find him, Potter-Black? And what the fuck do we do when we find him?”

“Burn him like I’ve been telling you to! Did MACUSA touch down yet?”

“Not five minutes ago.”

“Good. One wizard for each of you, and it’d be nice to have cadaver dogs or follow the trail of bodies unless he’s hidden them. He’s a decayed corpse, Finnegan. Right now that’s what he is; get some dogs and track the bastard. And don’t forget to torch the entire crypt. Right now it’s all or nothing.” He also thought wolves would be helpful, but didn’t bother trying right now.

“Got it. But I don’t know if we have that many cadaver dogs. Eight wizards have been sent to us, four more coming I’m hearing.”

“No city does. Get the bug squad on them then, flamethrowers all of you or get the hell out of its way!”

“I’ll call for the dogs and squads. Send me the video.”

“Will do, I could be on the ground in a couple of hours if need be?” Harry offered, but Edward scowled at him.

“No, Little Raven. It’s a trap,” he said sharply.

“Is that Ted Forrester?”

“Of course it is,” said Harry.

“He’s right. If he’s sent you the video then he’s mocking you and wanting you here. We can handle this, and the dogs are a good idea. We have the wizards too. Auror William Barker says to stay away from here, and handle whatever it is you’re doing on your end.” Barker was the first one he’d met officially back when things were oh so simple and backwoods police and errant covens were running amok.

“Gotcha. Call me if you’re alive.”

“I will.”

As they hung up, Edward was already sending the video to Finnegan.

“I hate to be insensitive, but we should leave Atlanta to them, mon Amour.”

“I know. Just feel helpless to help them. If only they’d listened to me.” He shook his head at this.

“That isn’t on you. It’s their own damn fault if they call you for advice, but they don’t take it,” said Micah.

“What is going on?” Jake asked for the thousandth time. Harry saw no reason to keep it from the man, and so he told him. It was way too big to keep it out of the media. A lot of death and way too much sensationalism. “Tonight Morte d’Amour hit Atlanta. Tomorrow night he’ll hit another city.”

“How many other Masters are descended from his bloodline?” Micah asked.

“A few.”

“Either share your information, Jake, or get out of our way,” Harry growled. “Just so you know, I’m the nice one here.”

Jake’s eyes flickered to Jean-Claude and Edward, and then back to Harry. “We can save the others of Morte d”Amour in this country, Harry, including your two young ones.”

“How?”

“Pick one of my kittens.”

“That has yet to be decided,” said Jean-Claude. “All four of us will have to come to an agreement before we ever step foot near your kittens, Monsieur.”

“You guys are acting like women over this,” said Jake with a frown. “I thought being all men, this would be much easier.”

“No, we’re married. All decisions are made with all of us in agreement or not at all,” said Micah sharply. “Some don’t like to listen to reason, and we’ve had it up to here having women thrown at us!” he managed to keep a snarl contained as he drew his hand up higher than him to make his point.

“If you would only fling your powers around a bit, lovelies, I am sure they would listen more,” said the Traveler coming up behind them. “I allowed the ladies to come as a courtesy because I know not all in the court are gentleman oriented. Besides, it is better to have them in our grasp than to sling them away for the Mother of Darkness to claim them.”

“You have your bets cast don’t you?” Harry asked with a cock of his head.

“Of course, I always know where to cast them, mio caro.”

“I think it is best that we all go down below, have a good conversation, and get to know each other,” said Jean-Claude. “Jake, I will ask you to take them down, and we will be along shortly. I do think proper introductions are in order.”

“Okay,” said Jake, moving ahead of them. Jean-Claude nodded to Bobby Lee when he caught their eye, and the fleet of weretigers were taken out of the tent causing Harry to let out a deep sigh he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“Are you alright after seeing all that tragedy, mon Amour?” Jean-Claude asked, turning Harry. “We do not have to do this if this is your wish.”

“There are always more options,” said Micah.

“It won’t matter to me.”

“I just - I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I mean, everyone we’ve met and have joined us up to now has been organic in some way, and I - I’m just not good at this rubbish. You know that.” He rubbed the side of his head. “But, if we don’t then they’ll either be killed or we might not have enough power to take this thing on.”

“Is it really that big of a deal to just fuck someone?” asked Baltasar.

“I don’t like strangers.”

“Mio caro is not us, Baltasar,” said the Traveler, wrapping an arm around him. “He must feel his way through the room. Feel the people around him. He works with his heart rather than head. If he doesn’t feel it, I have a feeling that it won’t work like it’s supposed to.”

“You’re saying he’s too good of a person,” said Baltasar.

“Exactly. While there are many like us out there, no one is quite like mio caro.”

Harry tried to ignore the Traveler’s words as he rubbed at his temples. “It’s okay when we’re just having fun with the family, but we’re talking about tying a complete stranger to us. I don’t want to go back down the Haven road again.”

“Whatever we decide does not have to be tonight,” said Jean-Claude. “We can speak to them, get to know them, and no matter our choice we can offer them safety and protection at the least.”

“Whatever we do we’ll have to keep them from being taken by the Mother of Darkness,” said Edward. “Even if we have to kill them ourselves.”

“Practical,” said the Traveler. “It is your choice. It is too bad because a few of the males are quite scrumptious.”

“I’d rather it not come to that. If what I’m sensing is true, then these guys are going to have very little will of their own,” said Harry, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Freedom to choose is important to him,” said Damian.

“It is because it’s your choices that make you who you are. I don’t want fakes. I don’t want someone pretending. If you’re an arse, be an arse. It’s much easier that way. Let’s go!” He knew he was stalling the inevitable, and he led the way.

“I hate to see him go, but I love watching him leave,” the Traveler teased, causing Harry to fling a tickling spell. The Traveler danced out of the way with a laugh. “I have so missed being here! St. Louis will end up a second home at this rate.”

“You know you are always welcome, Arsenio.”

Lisandro, Domino and Nicky were waiting at the top of the passageway for them, and were soon following them down the steep spiral steps that went on for what seemed like forever. For once, Harry relished the length of time it took to scale each step.

His walk down ended far too soon. Nicky and Domino moved ahead, once there was room, to open the double doors for them. Lisandro followed at their back, making sure they were well guarded.

All four walked in together with Harry between Micah and Jean-Claude. “Did you replace the drapes?”

“Oui, Luna was a wonderful help,” said Jean-Claude with a smile. “She is here tonight with Requiem to help distract.”

Peter was standing behind the large white sofa in the middle. Domino and Nicky took up each side of him. Lisandro stayed on the door. Several wererats and a couple of hyenas were in attendance as guards along with Jamil and Shang-Da. Logan was sitting in an armchair with a friendly look on his face. Jason was sitting on the arm of that chair looking just as inviting.

Asher was the first to rise to give them deference as second, and then Requiem and Luna. Everyone greeted Jean-Claude and their men in equal time before they graced Harry with their kisses. Ever since they got married a lot of tradition had changed. Jean-Claude insisted that during formal occasions when out of town visitors were here the greeting protocols were an even distribution in power, and then kisses to Harry.

Most Masters of the City would insist on them being the one showered with kisses, but Jean-Claude was good at kicking the status quo in the behind. There were also too many times visiting masters got unruly with Harry, so they had agreed to having it noted that Harry was the center. He was the one they kissed because he was the one they would fight for first and foremost. Yeah, Jean-Claude was not like the others, and that was why everyone rallied around him.

Although the Traveler was the most powerful master in the room, he was more than fine staying in the shadows right now and letting Jean-Claude have center stage.

Wicked Truth were near the fireplace, their stances marking them as bodyguards with the weres. Jean-Claude took Harry’s hand and led him over to the empty couch. Micah and Edward kept perfect steps with Jean-Claude.

Jake stood on the far side of the room with Rafael beside him. Harry saw two of them that had to be the gold weretigers. Harry knew there were more, but likely the guards forbade them all from cloistering around them just in case Harry’s beasts reacted unexpectedly.

Jean-Claude sat Harry down before he himself sat. Merlin, it was uncomfortable in this outfit around strangers, he thought to himself as he kept Jean-Claude’s hand as Micah came down next and then Edward, who looked like the prime example of a casual person.

Hah, so not casual. He had everyone in the room that was not theirs marked and ready for the taking should the need be to do so. Nicky and Domino took their places.

Harry could feel that there was something different about the two tigers in the armchairs, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what.

Both men were looking back right at him. One had curly yellow hair that fell around his ears, longish, but not too long. It was kind of like Harry’s except it lay nicely in perfect curled waves while Harry’s own stood all over the place without a care. The same could be true for the other one, though his hair was straight with only the slightest wave.

Both of them had strong faces; one was a little more triangular through the jaw and the other more square, but they looked alike, down to the arrogant expression on their handsome faces. Ulgh, he was not ready for this.

They had pale eyes, even the curly haired one who had the palest color of brown Harry had ever seen. Brown eyes shouldn’t look pale in a golden-tanned face, but these did. The others were pale blue and gold, more akin to hazel. His skin also held a soft gold tan.

“Lo’ I’m Harry Potter-Black. You are?” he asked finally.

The one with the straight hair and blue-hazel eyes said, “Mephistopheles.”

Harry looked at the curly haired one to see a tiny scowl about to form. “And you?”

“Pride.”

Interesting names, but he’d heard worse. “And the other-?” Harry asked, knowing there was another here somewhere.

“Her name is Envy,” said Mephistopheles.

Harry then looked at Jean-Claude. “Are the ones from Las Vegas okay waiting so long?”

“Oui, we have tended to them for the time being. They understand the full gravity of the situation at hand,” said Jean-Claude.

“Are these the ones you guys picked? I know there were more of them.”

Micah nodded. “We chose beforehand, thinking it would be best if we not crowd you, Baby.”

“Let me guess, Jean chose Pride and you chose Mephistopheles?” Merlin, that was going to be a mouthful and fast.

Micah cracked a smile. “Good eye.”

“And what do you think?” Harry asked, leaning down to look at Edward.

“You’re the one who has to put up with them, Little Raven.”

“Envy insisted on being included. You should be the judge, not them,” said Pride.

“Probably right on most accounts, but my husbands know me better than I do half the time. I can get a bit overwhelmed. You do know this isn’t usually how these things go?”

“I don’t understand?” asked Pride.

“Do you like children?”

“What?” Both were caught off guard by the non sequitur.

“Question. Do you like kids? I figure if I ask enough questions the awkwardness of this whole thing will go away.”

Mephistopheles shrugged. “Don’t know. We’ve never been around kids. We’re the latest generation.”

Harry looked at Pride whose arrogance rose a notch. “I don’t see why that is relevant.”

“It is. It’s a big question and on that note. Do you guys even want to stay with us?” he asked, catching them off guard once more.

Both of them looked at each other and then at Jake before Pride said. “We were told we don’t have a choice.”

“I’m a big believer in choices.”

“If we leave here, they’ll kill us,” said Mephistopheles.

“You can stay here until it’s safe to leave if that’s what you want. But, what I’m trying to get at is, do the two of you want to stay here with us and be our tigers? Is this something you want to do?”

“What will you do if we say we don’t?” Pride asked.

“I don’t like forcing anyone to do anything against their wills,” said Harry. “We can still protect you. Maybe offer you jobs in whatever you might be good at. But we’re not going to force anyone to do anything they’re not truly willing to do.”

“That’s not what we heard,” said Mephistopheles.

“And what is it that you heard?” Harry asked evenly. “Everyone in this community has their choice.”

“Word has it that the former Rex was rolled by you and made into a slave,” said Pride, darkly.

Harry frowned and looked at Jean-Claude. “Someone is really spreading that?”

“Likely to save face on what really happened, mon Amour,” said Jean-Claude.

“So it’s not true?” asked Mephistopheles.

“Haven was a career thug. A mobster, do you know what one of those are?” Harry asked. “He tried to force me, and then when I refused to comply he tried to destroy his own Pride just to get at me. I never forced Haven to do a damn thing. Everything he did was his own choice up until his death. He is what we want to avoid with you guys. He couldn’t even stand a child having my attention, let alone my fiancees at the time. He was not very big on sharing, and I can get around that so long as he wouldn’t try and force me to do the same thing.”

“Then why was he Rex?” Mephistopheles asked.

“Because my plate was already full to bursting. I couldn’t take any more groups on. I didn’t know Nicky at the time or at least not in the sense I do now. I had no idea he was my animal to call until I met him again.”

“You didn’t know?” asked Pride.

“Nope.”

“It was a one night stand,” said Micah smirking. “Baby went out to get his frustrations in order. Who knew he’d pick the perfect Rex?”

“It’s not something I normally do. I mean, it’s not like I have to look for someone. I love everyone. But it wasn’t about sex. It was about getting the hell out of madness land for a moment.” Harry shook his head.

“I try,” said Nicky, smirking. “And then I just so happened to try and kidnap you.”

“That was entertainment,” said Edward. “Up until the end of course.”

“I’m saying it was Nicky’s choice to come and be my Rex,” said Harry. “I never made it for him even though he was my animal to call. He could have walked away. He could have gone back to his Pride, and I would have been fine with that.”

“But I wouldn’t have,” said Nicky. “I was tired of traveling and moving anyway. I was tired of getting nowhere, and having little purpose. We weren’t far from Haven, but I’m too sociopathic to be a psychopath.”

“He’s a sociopath?” Mephistopheles said, a blink of surprise.

“He’s in good company,” said Harry, serenely. “It was Domino’s choice to come back with me from Las Vegas. He didn’t have to.” He waved at the gorgeous man behind him.

“It’s nice having a choice,” said Domino. “I loved my Clan, but I was raised so that my Chang’s will was my will.”

“Not to mention the sex is mindblowing, right?” Micah teased as he flashed a smile at the tiger.

Domino flashed a cocky smile. “Of course, especially when you can choose your partner.”

“But can we choose?” asked Pride.

Harry turned and looked at him. “Of course. Why would we ask if you can share if we don’t do the same thing? Just because you bond with us and become our tigers to call doesn’t mean you can’t have your own life.”

“Does that mean we can choose women?” asked Pride.

“Sure. If that’s what you want. Damian’s got a girlfriend, and he’s as monogamous as he wishes to be,” said Harry with a wave of his hand toward his vampire servant. “Crispin’s girlfriend is a regular at dinners, and Stephen’s girlfriend is one of my dear leopards. So my question to you, are you willing here? Are you both okay with the male equation? I’m not asking you to do everyone. But I am asking what your preferences are because I will not force someone to do anything they wish not to do, especially if they are staunchly heterosexual.”

Before anyone could answer voices sounded from farther down the hallway. Luna and Requiem, who had disappeared after greeting them, came through. Harry smiled when he saw the adorable couple together, but they weren’t alone. Luna was talking sweetly with another woman who could only be the other tiger. The family resemblance was too great for anything else. She had long yellow and white curls that spilled around her shoulders. Her eyes were the same blue and gold of Mephistopheles’ eyes. She was tall and curvy, and gave off a roll of energy when she saw Harry sitting there. He could see the emotion behind it, she was scared.

“Rooms are nice,” she said, but even her voice held a thread of nervousness.

Luna smiled. “We’re glad you like them. Harry, this is Envy.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Harry.

“You should sit and get to know them,” said Luna smiling. “Although, please remember that while you are welcome here, you won’t be picked by them,” she said gently, leading her to a free armchair.

“I don’t understand that. Uncle Traveler said the same thing. Am I not desirable?” asked Envy, her eyes full of innocence.

“Of course you are pumpkin,” said the Traveler, who had been quiet this whole time and watching the games unfold. “Just not to these four.”

As if to prove this, Requiem took her dainty hand and kissed her knuckles. “You are absolutely fetching. But even the most open have boundaries, m’dear.”

“Oui,” said Jean-Claude, inclining his head. “But that will not change our offer of your safety. Please, have a seat. You are all here for more or less the same reasons, the styles are simply changing is all.”

“I thought you said women were fine?” asked Pride.

“For you,” Harry clarified. “Just as we would not force you to be with a man. We will not be forced to be with a woman. It’s about respect, you know? So, can you answer my first question? What do you think of kids?”

“That’s an odd question,” said Envy, sitting primly.

“But if he’s asking twice, it’s important,” said Mephistopheles. “I don’t really understand it.”

“Like Peter here,” said Harry, waving his hand back at the youngest in the room. “Just sometimes smaller and younger.”

“He’s your kid?” Pride asked. “Is that why he smells like you?”

“He’s Edward’s ward. He’s not my kid. He smells like me because we fuck sometimes. But we also have a child, and that’s not the same context.”

“Besides, I’m eighteen,” said Peter. “Hardly a kid.”

“Pride and Mephistopheles don’t care either way though Pride does prefer women,” said Envy boldly, causing Pride to glare at her. “We were raised to please our master, whether they be male or female.”

“We don’t care either way,” said Mephistopheles. “Kids are kids. I guess.”

“What is the point to these questions?” asked Pride.

“Well, how else do we go about finding out whether your tiger likes mine?” Harry asked. “I’m at a loss here. I don’t know you. You don’t know me. I don’t even think you like us, and so what is the point?” he asked, feeling his frustrations about to overflow.

“The question is more for your safety. It’s not so much as a human question as it’s a beast question,” said Micah. “Haven signed his death warrant with Harry’s lioness the moment he put his hands on two of the Pride members. Ones that Harry claimed as his own children. All because that child required attention, age doesn’t matter.”

“All your beasts are female?” said Pride, in realization. “It’s why you’re different. You smell different. I can’t pinpoint one thing you smell like. You smell like everything.”

“All except one,” said Harry. “And thank Merlin for that. No offense, Envy, but I like being male.”

Envy giggled. “It’s fine. I like being a woman so I guess I too would be confused if my beast was a male.”

“How does that happen?”

“How does anything happen?” Harry asked back. “So, what do we do about this?”

Mephistopheles stood up right then, making everyone’s eyes flicker at him when his power flowed through the room as if someone had just turned on a hot bath. It drenched the room causing a few people to shift in place. Edward’s hand casually moved toward his hip.

Harry’s creatures peaked out from their hidden spot, and Pride let out a sharp breath at the energy that was let out. He too stood. His eyes went narrow with concentration. Envy was wide-eyed and clutching her fingers together as she stared up at Harry who rose to meet them. “What do you want to do?” he asked, and his voice had changed slightly. It had dipped into the realm of soprano again, but this one was almost purr-like as his beasts continued to peek through him.

“We have been trained all our lives to meet the needs of every bloodline, and that includes Belle Morte,” said Mephistopheles.

“I wonder what you’re called during sex,” said Micah. “That has to be a mouthful.” And to all their surprise, Mephistopheles blushed.

“As he said, we’ve been trained in sex for Belle Morte. Combat for the Dragon, and more combat for the Lover of Death. Traveler has assured us that his line would not be able to capture the tigers, and so we didn’t bother. The Earthmover never made enough vampires to be a bloodline that would come up, and the Master of Beasts is a weakling.”

“And the First?” asked Edward.

“She’s not a bloodline,” said Pride, never taking his eyes off Harry. “She’s the enemy.”

Harry swept across the floor to stand a few feet from Pride and Mephistopheles, and both men were drawn toward him, heads tilting down as they were much taller. “Well? What do you want to do?” He was at a good enough distance that everyone would react should they try an attack. But also close enough to feel their energies breathing across his skin. He wished he was more clothed because he could feel the goosebumps rising on his skin.

Pride licked at his lips thoughtfully. “A kiss may do it, but sex may be necessary,” he said it as if he were talking about the weather.

“You don’t sound too thrilled, and I don’t force anyone to have sex with me,” said Harry, folding his arms across his chest. “So I suppose we can just kiss and hope for the best.”

Mephistopheles considered this. “You don’t want to have sex with us?”

“It’s not about me, Mephistopheles. You are the ones who will be potentially tied to me or Jean-Claude. We all need to be on the same page here. It seems you men are having some issues, and the last thing I need is more ruler sizing arses in our lives to stir the pot.”

Mephistopheles balled his hands into fists and his power went up another level. Harry could feel the gold shadow stirring around him and he saw her right then for the first time as the power flowed hot across his skin. She was hiding in the shadows, her skin cream with stripes of yellow-gold. He could see her intricate markings and Pride came closer to sniff the air.

“He smells like us,” Envy whispered, standing suddenly. She looked dazed.

Mephistopheles came to stand in front of Harry. For a second, he thought the man was going to kiss him. However, his hand darted out in a movement so fast that Harry wasn’t sure what he was going for. Harry’s wand was suddenly there, in his hand and pressed to the man’s chest.

Four guns were trained on them. “I wouldn’t do that, Mephistopheles,” said Harry sweetly.

Mephistopheles stared down at the wand.

“You’re of the old blood,” Envy breathed.

“Something like that.”

“No human, and few vampires, would have been able to see I was going for their weapon, let alone gotten to it in time to turn it on me.” He had the sound of being impressed.

“We’re not average. None of us are. You saw my wand, hidden?”

“I smelled it, the polish. I knew it was against your forearm,” said Mephistopheles. “Beneath the fur of your Nimir-Raj.”

“Uncle Jake wouldn’t have sent us to anyone average,” said Envy.

“We’re supposed to make sure whatever vampire tries to possess us is worthy of us.” He was a little afraid, but not so much that he couldn’t think straight.

“Careful with the tests because everyone can get trigger happy, and I don’t need a wand to stop you.”

That had Pride’s interest. “Don’t you want us to prove that we’re worthy of you too?” he asked.

“I don’t need anyone to prove anything to me except for you being who you are,” said Harry. “I have warriors for days in our lives. I’m not a vampire.”

“What are you then?” asked Mephistopheles.

“A bit of everything these days. You’ve been raised in a culture that I don’t understand.”

“You being male we would normally do hand-to-hand, but we outweigh you by more than a hundred pounds,” said Pride. “You smell of female, but you have a beautiful male shell. You call the one over there a kid, but you smell just as young. It’s no offense, but you being so much smaller we can’t hold it against you. It’s not about training. It’s about size.”

“I wouldn’t underestimate him if I were you,” said Micah cautiously. “He’s got a headbutt that could send you into another realm entirely.”

“But we will also not stand by while you try to hurt the most important person in this room. Even for your games,” said Edward flatly, holding his gun lazily in his hand.

“I thought the Master of the City was the most important?” Envy tilted her head.

“Not in our world,” said Jean-Claude. “Not in my court, young lady.”

“So how do you want to do this? I’m giving you the choice,” said Harry. “So that you can’t be angry with me,” he said simply.

Pride and Mephistopheles looked at each other again. “You are asking us?” Pride clarified.

“I am. You can try and test me by way of attacking, but that might not end well. I don’t think Jake brought you here for that, and I can’t promise that you won’t get severely burned in the crossfire.”

“Burned?”

“My magic may react before I do if you put your hands on me, and I don’t know or trust you. So, what do you want to do? I’m not sure if I’m into the sex idea yet.”

“You fuck a lot of things we’re told.”

“Men. Family and friends. Everyone I care about and love. Most of us are polyamorous, and Belle’s line would never see me monogamous, so I embrace it. Everyone is together in some respect. You will find no city in America to ever be so trusting of everyone as we are. If I were at my weakest I know they would come to my aid, and they know that I would stand in front of a dozen Mother of Darknesses no matter the cost.”

“No place in the world,” added Bobby Lee from his place. “Little Hellcat and our livelihoods are worth dying for.”

Pride and Mephistopheles cast their gazes around the room at everyone, and then landed on Harry. “Perhaps a kiss to start?” Pride suggested finally.

“Who first?” Harry asked.

Pride was thoughtful and shared another look with Mephistopheles. “See who smells the best.”

“Perfectly reasonable,” and before Harry could suggest their wrists, both men were slipping their shirts over their heads. “Well, this is escalating fast,” said Harry looking back at his husbands precociously causing Micah to chuckle and Jean-Claude to hum with a smile. His sapphire eyes glittering and making Envy stare with - well - envy at the look Harry was getting from the men on the couch, and most of the room.

Edward arched a brow. “It’s going to be interesting either way, Little Raven.”

“Aren’t they lovely?” The Traveler purred.

Harry turned back, and found his eyes staring up and down at the beautiful bare chests mere inches away. Harry’s head came to just below Pride’s pectoral muscles, and a little lower down the ribs on Mephistopheles. All muscled and half-naked, not a piece of flesh was marred.

“Jean, why am I not in boots to at least get some height?”

“Would it have mattered? Besides, boots would have been unusable in that outfit.”

“Your fault. I hate this outfit,” Harry sulked.

“But we don’t,” Domino grinned. “I’m having a good time staring at your ass.”

“We all are,” Peter added, smirking.

“You have gotten so cheeky lately, mister!” Harry chastised with a pout.

“You’re only making it worse, Kitten,” said Nicky.

Harry turned back, and flinched when both men were right there so suddenly. He brought his hands up to stop them from sandwiching him. His fingertips grazed their stomachs, but Mephistopheles and Pride took each of his hands and pressed them firmly against their chests and stomachs.

Harry’s tigress rose up out of the shadows. She let out a roar that vibrated his heart and soul and drew breaths from everyone in the room. That was when all the other tigers came out of the darkness and sniffed the air. Harry had only seen glimmering rainbows of them, but never their full beast as they fanned around the gold that stood in the middle. None of them tried to burst out of Harry, they didn’t do anything but stand there in a soft line and sniff the air.

Pride and Mephistopheles caused him to shiver when they bent over to sniff along the skin on his neck.

“Oh my God, he smells of all the tigers,” Mephistopheles gasped.

“Not possible,” Pride whispered as he laid his face against Harry’s cheek. He rubbed into Harry causing that hot raging beast to start rising from his stomach. His skin became bathed in a hot sweltering heat, and fingers danced down his shoulders. Pride stepped away only to be pulled back until they were nose to nose.

Mephistopheles did the same. He felt someone try to reach for his back with a whimper.

“No Envy, why don’t you come with us,” Luna purred, curling her arm around her.

“But, he’s all of them! I want to kiss him,” Envy begged, “Please?”

But as Harry turned his head to say something, Mephistopheles was swooping around him and Pride trying to get closer. “Husbands?” Harry pleaded as his body became supercharged by their touch.

All of them were on their feet, and Luna turned Envy toward Requiem, her eyes bled with hunger as Requiem wrapped around her. “I think a bedroom would do nicely.”

“We’re supposed to be proof against vampire powers, but I want to touch you, and I want you to touch me. Why?” asked Mephaistopheles.

“I want them,” said Pride, staring at Jean-Claude who was suddenly right there next to Harry. “Why do I want you? Is it your ardeur?”

“Non. It is me and mon Amour together. He is the tiger, and I am his. He is not a servant, but my equal, Pride. Shall we take this to a more suitable room? Envy will remain with Luna and Requiem. We can feed her while we feed you and we can all be happy.” Jean-Claude reached a hand out and Pride took it, being drawn into Jean-Claude’s embrace.

Micah came up behind Harry and squeezed his shoulders. “Do you understand what it means that we are willing to put him in your hands? Do you understand all the consequences of this choice?”

Mephistopheles licked his lips and stared down at Harry. “Yes. You are the King.”

“I’m his King, yes, that is never going to change. However, there is room for more within our wider relationships,” said Micah. “More than sex. A place to call home. It’s what we are. All of us.”

“I understand.” Mephistopheles said after sharing a long look with Micah. Harry felt himself be pushed into Mephistopheles as Pride was kissed deeply by Jean-Claude. Mephistopheles moved his lips against Harry’s and the energy pouring out was hot and toe curling as he wrapped himself around Mephistopheles. “I just want to put as much of my body against as much of your body as you’ll let me,” the weretiger breathed into him.

“We shall offer what we are to you if you do the same,” said Jean-Claude.

“Part of me wants to resist. I do not have much of a taste for men, but, I don’t want to at the same time,” said Pride.

“It is your choice, we shall not make it for you, Pride.”

Mephistopheles’ mouth had dropped to Harry’s collar and started nibbling as hands roved around his waist, fingers slipping through the sheer slit of his pants to get to flesh. “Is this okay? Can I touch your Queen, King?” asked Mephistopheles.

“Please,” said Micah. “I think our other husband wants to watch.”

“Oh, I’m watching,” said Edward smirking.

“We all are.” Peter muttered.

All of Harry’s beasts were rolling through him hot. They touched each one of their mates, but then all of them curled around Micah for a moment and breathed against his King beast as if reminding him that he was theirs first.

Micah responded with a physical kiss to his lips, and they were guided to one of the larger rooms that had been set up for everyone so that the guards and those who did not want to participate weren’t caught in the crossfire.

“I feel a wound,” Mephistopheles breathed against Harry’s skin. “Something in you is unhappy.” He was dropping to his knees before they got to the bed. “I want to lick that wound closed. Do you not have an Ulfric?”

“We do, but he’s not mine like my Rex and Nimir-Raj are,” said Harry. “Mine ran away.”

Pride and Mephistopheles sandwiched Harry, and Edward sat back at the head of the extra large bed that awaited them. Jean-Claude pressed to Pride and Micah was behind Mephistopheles.

“He was a fool then,” Mephistopheles growled, making Harry shiver as his tigers rolled through to meet him. Micah pressed their energies together causing the gold tiger to moan as Harry’s mouth moved toward his neck and began to suck.

Mephistopheles seemed to like Harry’s stomach. His hands and mouth kept gravitating toward it, kissing and sucking. He bit down, making Harry throw his head back. Micah was working their clothes off, and Edward came around to assist.

“I’ve always wanted to belong. I am simple. We have been waiting for a long time. Pride,” said Mephistopheles, “he is perfect. We are not stronger than them. I don’t want to fight them.” Micah let Mephistopheles go, and Harry let him be pulled and kissed. “I want all of them, and I know you do too. What other purpose do we have? To be naive and shut-in for the rest of our lives? Fearful and hiding from the dark?”

Pride turned and captured Jean-Claude’s mouth, and all of them began to move at their own pace. Clothes were being pulled off. Harry moved across Mephistopheles as Micah stretched out and came down on him for an intense kiss that Harry could feel through their leopards.

“Almost a pity to take these off,” said Mephistopheles, running his hands beneath the slits and squeezing Harry’s ass. He looked over at Edward. “Are you going to join?”

“I like watching,” said Edward smirking. “Maybe at a later date some more fun can be had, but Little Raven is going to need all of you, and you are going to need your energy for all of them.”

Jean-Claude was laying Pride out and moving down his chest along his body making the tiger thrust his hips as Jean-Claude drank from him. Micah folded over and kissed Jean-Claude’s neck. Everyone’s power and energy traveled back and forth as they tasted, touched, and swapped partners. Mephistopheles ended up in Jean-Claude’s hands, and Pride couldn’t resist growling and placing a bite to Harry’s ass when he buried his face into it. It was like the gold tigers were winding their power around Harry and Jean-Claude. Micah made his way to Mephistopheles, settling down on top of him and drawing trembling groans as Jean-Claude slipped behind Micah to take the weretiger at the same time he was sat on.

Pride enjoyed manhandling Harry and moving his small body into perfect positions. He spread him open and dived in, making Harry’s head fall back. He captured Edward’s gaze as Pride bit down on his shoulder and slammed his hips deep.

“Ngh!” He began to spasm, hot energy pouring through him. Just keeping his eyes open on Edward was enough to fill him to the top.

They took both of the tigers, and they consumed them. Drank them down until both drowned. Jean-Claude and Harry timing their powers with the tigers’ pulsing thrusts. At one point, Micah was beneath Harry’s body and he pinned his wrists around Micah’s neck. Mephistopheles moved with sedated hunger between his wide open legs that dripped with Pride’s cum. None of them seemed to be able to stop. Mephistopheles pushed deep inside of him, stretching him open further. The tiger was slightly smaller than Micah and Nicky but larger than Edward and filled him to the very top. Harry’s tigers purred as Harry’s body spasmed again.

“Is he always like this?” Mephistopheles heaved. “He’s burning up inside… I’ve been with men, but this is… different.” He rolled his hips making Harry whine.

“Yes,” said Micah, smiling.

Mephistopheles worked his way in until Harry’s hips came up off the bed, and began to grind with the man who pressed his chest to Harry’s, their mouths seeking each other. Jean-Claude and Pride let out cries beside them. “What if I hurt him? I’m a bit big.”

Micah laughed. “I’m bigger,” he asked, holding himself. “Fuck him.”

“Fuck me, please!” Harry groaned. “Really fuck me or I’ll fuck you.” He had about all the foreplay he could take. He needed motion. With Micah’s cock wedged on his back so hard and pulsing, he was really craving it as Pride’s moans filled the room.

Harry’s thin nails tried to dig into Micah’s flesh when Mephistopheles drew himself out just enough and then he slammed deep inside trying to fill him to the very top. Harry hummed loud as the man began to fuck him. He found a deep, pounding rhythm and with the help of Harry’s own hungry body he simply let go to the motion.

Harry could see through his blurred gaze that Pride was losing himself in Jean-Claude. Edward had joined now, and Jean-Claude was sucking him down as fingers worked through his coal black curls. Harry moaned at the visual stimulation. Micah’s cock was coating his back in a thick layer of cum from watching everyone.

“He keeps squeezing the cum out of my cock? How much more can I go?” Mephistopheles cried out as he hung over Harry with his full weight so as not to crush him. “Still so hard… I have good control, but this is ridiculous.”

Micah pulled him up by his blond hair and kissed him. “Try it, see how much he can go. Move those strong hips or do you need Edward to show you how it’s done? You haven’t even gotten to Baby’s peak yet. ”

“He’s not at his peak?”

“He’s not gradual like women are. He may be soft and feel delicate to touch, Mephistopheles, but he’s a man, so he’s constantly on all the time.” Micah dropped down and kissed Harry’s burning face. “You won’t break him.”

“Ngh!” It was an invisible flame that was riding through Harry, and with the still cock lodged inside of him combined with the one at his back and Pride, Jean-Claude, and Edward, Harry was about to lose all sense of direction. His ardeur was circling high above them. It was hungrily watching and mixing with Jean-Claude’s. He burned with so much pitiless arousal that he used his strength to pull himself from Micah. He hooked around Mephistopheles, and gave him a drenching kiss, and turned him over so that Harry was on top.

“Oh you’ve done it now,” said Micah with a moan.

All Harry could remember from then on were Mephistopheles’ pleasurable screams followed by new faces, and fresh kisses as the beast hijacked everyone into oblivion.

Harry awoke to the sweltering heat of skin against skin, and the buzz of energy traveling through him at a rate that should be impossible. Men were lying on top of him. He could smell Micah against his nose, and another scent was to his left. He was completely pinned, and so when his eyes flickered open all he saw was different shades of skin from multiple arms.

A deep throaty chuckle in the room made Harry groan as he pushed his hand between the bodies. “Help!” It was Rafael who reached into the pile of men to rescue Harry from the depths. Harry heaved a deep breath of air as he was pulled to the man’s chest. He turned to look at the bodies.

Nicky had managed to join sometime after Harry lost consciousness, and he was not the only one. It seemed Damian was on the floor, knocked out completely for the day. Jean-Claude was wrapped around Nicky and Micah was wrapped around Jean-Claude. The Traveler and Baltasar were also on the bed. Since when did that happen? Pride and Mephistophles were curled together looking rather beautiful if Harry was honest. He could feel a hum coming from Mephistopheles. It was a separate conscience and heartbeat that was settling down beside him. Not quite the same as Micah and Harry or Nicky and Harry. It was closer to what he felt with Domino and Crispin as tigers and Rafael with his rat. All their powers drawn together and spreading out to touch each other.

“How did they get in here?” Damian’s girlfriend wasn’t going to be pleased, and as he reached over to touch the pale vampire, memory clips rolled through his mind and the cool white flesh of Damian entering his body. His mouth clamped to Harry’s throat and sucking with a great hunger.

“Your energy aroused the entire Circus. You fed and released, fed and released repeatedly.” he drew Harry back and traced his fingers along the bite marks on his naked body. Harry followed the tracing. “Jean-Claude at one point had to suck the rest out of you, drain you completely so that you didn’t drain each other. Apparently, you and this gold tiger are quite compatible the way Pride is with Jean-Claude. I think it worked.”

“Oops?” Harry tried for. He reached for the Traveler and Baltasar, and he could see the pieces come together as Harry was on his knees, naked in bed with Mephistopheles and Micah kissing his body. He drew the Traveler to him as Jean-Claude and Pride took Baltasar. “Damn…I hate fucking Traveler in borrowed bodies. What else did we do? Is Edward hiding evidence of someone who shouldn’t have been here?”

“No, Little Raven, I am not hiding evidence,” said Edward, coming through the room fully dressed. “You have nothing to be ashamed about.” He swooped around Harry’s naked body, lifting him from Rafael with ease. Harry wrapped his legs around the man’s waist to keep from dropping. He loved being held, especially during confusing moments. “Rafael was brought in to watch over you. You may have tied these two pets to you and Toy, but I do not trust the others who have been moving about.”

“It took all of our shifter energy including Logan’s to keep the spread of the energy from taking everyone,” said Rafael. He was still examining the bites on Harry’s body. Micah had a bunch of them too. Even one on his hip, but that looked human, which meant that the bite might be Harry’s. He reached out to touch Micah, Edward brought him over to do so, and he saw where Harry had been taken from behind by the Traveler, Micah’s ass was facing him and Harry had started sucking and kissing around his hip. Baltasar was enjoying Micah’s thick cock and Harry watched while biting and being filled by the Councilman. Another touch to Pride and Mephistopheles showed Damian going down on Mephistopheles and at one point Pride and him were trying to stuff Harry’s mouth with both of them.

“Jean-Claude said that because you gave all of your ardeur to Micah for his healing that left you dry, so when you pulled on the energy of the new shiny pets it overwhelmed you and the ardeur.” Edward stroked Harry tenderly.

“No one against their will was involved were they?” He winced at Damian.

“You are his master, Little Raven. He wants you even if you think he shouldn’t. It’s the way it is,” said Edward, cupping his neck and kissing him on the cheek. “Nothing was done here that you wouldn’t have wanted. Jean-Claude and I were clear-headed, so we managed everyone. We prevented the other gold pets from trying to get in. Wicked Truth removed them from the scene. Requiem passed out about six this morning. We were still going.”

“We also had to prevent Asher from being overwhelmed, Draco came quickly to help there. So nothing was done that you wouldn’t have agreed to,” Rafael promised.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I don’t mind fun, but I don’t want to take wills. I can’t do that.”

“We know, Little Raven. It’s why we’re here to watch you.” He trailed his palm down Harry’s back and to his ass. Harry smiled at him. “I did enjoy the sights last night. You challenged the gold tigers and they rose up to the challenge.”

“Your standards?”

“So far. We shall see.”

“So what time did I finally fall asleep?”

“Eight hours ago,” said Rafael. “It’s roughly three o’ clock. We don’t have too much time, and Las Vegas will be arriving to be formally acknowledged tonight at about six. Good news they are sent sight-seeing with some of our best until the evening of the banquet and party. We’ve kept them entertained.”

He got flashes of Edward gently removing him from the men around him and wrapping him in his arms for a kiss and a slower than usual sex that ended with Harry falling asleep. Edward had taken his body and laid him with Micah. Edward kissed him. “I do think we all had some entertainment last night, Little Raven. You were the belle of the ball.”

“As usual,” said Rafael, reaching into a drawer for a silk robe.

“I didn’t mean to be,” said Harry as he was wrapped in the cool silk. It was a deep blue like Jean-Claude’s eyes. “Sometimes I fear this is all going to be too much.”

“Sex is your power now, Little Raven. It is best to embrace it and not have shame,” said Edward.

“You’ve taken that power and turned it into something more. More, that most would kill to cling to. I do believe we can power ourselves up with the tigers, and take this Mother of Darkness once and for all,” said Rafael. “Shall we get him washed?”

“I think so. He has another long day, and he needs real food.”

“Going to keep carrying me?”

“It’s an idea.”

“What about your gun hand?”

“You have hands.”

Harry smiled. “I love you.”

“I know you do. You can’t not love me, Little Raven.”

If he ever needed to feel better about his actions, being with even one of his husbands helped immensely, and really he wasn’t ashamed of his actions or the decisions he’s made up until that point. Jean-Claude lived with this power for six hundred years. If he was ashamed of it, that would mean Harry was ashamed of Jean-Claude. What kind of husband would Harry be if that were the case? His only wish was for everyone to be happy with who they were. It’s what family was supposed to do after all.

Love all no matter the flaws.

Chapter Text

Edward had taken to monitoring Harry’s phone overnight, and found three more videos from Clayton, and the national media had gone absolutely ballistic. Nathaniel had cooked breakfast with the not-so-helpful Peter. At least he made the coffee. He was kissed good morning by both of them.

“Did you have fun, Nimir-Ra?” Nathaniel asked coyly.

“From what I can remember,” Harry answered, taking the coffee mug from Peter. “Did you feel it?”

“Everyone felt it,” said Peter smirking. “You sent Claudia running for the underground training room.”

“Oops.” Claudia was an asexual, she did not like much of anything to do with sex or sexuality. No interest. None. She didn’t even want to smell sex. A rare thing for weres, but not unheard of.

“We had fun though. Zane, Violet, and Caleb joined us.”

“How did that go?” Harry asked, looking at Peter.

“It was good,” said Peter.

Nathaniel nodded. “All of us had fun.”

“You didn’t mind Violet?”

“No. She was fine,” said Peter. “I only have a problem when they climb on top of me,” he admitted.

“Sudden helplessness,” said Nathaniel. “I used to have that issue with men.”

“You don’t anymore?” asked Peter concerned.

“Somehow it’s turned into an eagerness I can’t resist,” said Nathaniel. “I used to fear taking cock because of my past. I wasn’t sure if I could ever do it, even though I like men. A lot. More than women even.”

“What changed?” asked Peter. “How did you get through it?”

“Nimir-Ra and Jean-Claude,” Nathaniel admitted.

“How did I do that?” Harry asked, sliding onto the kitchen counter. He was aware that they were being watched and spied on by a couple of the golden tigers. He pretended not to notice them as he leaned forward with his mug of coffee.

“You reminded me that I do have power. Zane and I both were something else when you met us. We tried to get in your pants, if you remember.”

“Yes, you both did, and he’s still trying, but at least neither of you cry anymore when I say no.” Harry kissed Nathaniel on the cheek.

“We thought we were doing something wrong. Gabriel trained us all to take it, me and Gregory were trained the hardest. He’s more addicted than I am. I just want the pain and someone to control me. Gregory wants to be fully owned. Part of him wants to be torn apart only to be put back together again. It’s one of those cycles. You either reject it and all that comes with it or you end up embracing it. But when you reminded me that we all had our own choices I asked Jean-Claude if he would cast the ardeur over me. It was back when Remus was alive. He told me to ask Nimir-Raj or your permission. You were away at the time so I asked Nimir-Raj. He gave the okay, thinking it would help me. He warned Remus to know when to stop even if I begged him not to. He was my first male partner that I chose and trusted.”

“And you do. Besides at the time I could barely keep up with the three men I had let alone you men too!” Harry squawked. “I was very shy and easy to blush.”

“I can’t imagine that now,” said Peter.

“Oh he was. He blushed at everything,” said Nathaniel grinning.

“Still like men better,” Peter admitted. “Girls are hot and all, but I don’t think I’d like to be alone with them.”

“You don’t have to,” said Nathaniel.

Harry nodded. “I’m not particularly comfortable either, Peter. So you’re not alone there. It’s nothing anyone’s done to me. It’s just a preference that’s become extremely strong over the years. I mean, I can admire them and if I did like women well, Requiem would be a sad master vampire again.” Nathaniel chuckled.

“Do you ever wonder what it’s like?” Peter asked.

“Hm, not really? I have worried that my husbands are missing out, but they insist they’re not. I know they’re not one way like I am. I guess that idea has been bothering me. It doesn’t help that all these masters are throwing people in our faces and ignoring our requests. I feel like I’m in the wrong here, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Peter shook his head. “I don’t think you are.”

“I think you’re overthinking that. All of you can have whoever you want, Nimir-Ra. You can, Gardien, Nimir-Raj, and Jean-Claude, but they choose this one thing for all of you to be possessive and monogamous about. In a relationship that has more than one you have to have something to hold onto, and for you this is it. It’s the same for them. I don’t think they’d appreciate a woman’s hands on you or any other, Nimir-Ra. In fact, I know they wouldn’t.” said Nathaniel. “You haven’t been to Guilty Pleasures at the same time Nimir-Raj and Jean-Claude are recently. Nimir-Raj gets incensed and Jean-Claude has the habit of using his wiles to change the direction of the women who think Nimir-Raj is an easy score. Really, sex isn’t that different or that much better or worse. It all depends on the individual. Now that I’m able to fuck men without constantly feeling my stomach tighten in fear I don’t really have a desire to go back to women who might look at me as a sort of pet. At least, most of the women I’ve been with have been this way. Violet and our own are different.” He wound his arms around Peter and squeezed him. “It’s why I took a chance on you, Peter. You’re younger than me, and I think that’s helped me put things into focus that I do have a choice. You’re also so damn cute.”

Peter scoffed. “I should take offense to that, but I don’t.”

“Tough it out, Peter, you’re a sweetheart,” said Harry with a rub up his arm. “Everyone has dark sides, it’s using those sides constructively that makes all the difference.”

Nathaniel nodded. “You’ve grown so much since we met you. Since you started your sessions.”

Peter kissed Nathaniel on the forehead. “I think that’s the whole thing. If it had been someone else outside the leopards, I don’t think I’d have been agreeable. Or it might have triggered something in me.”

Harry slid off the counter. “Here, let me help. Looks like we have a lot of people to feed.”

“A lot of us leopards and the wolves have been damaged, some of us thought it was beyond repair,” said Nathaniel as Harry helped out with the eggs.

“No Rats?” Peter asked curiously.

“Maybe before they became part of the Rodere,” said Harry. “But after? No way, he’d have them gutted if they tried.”

Peter smirked. “Probably why Ted and him are such good friends. He even admits it these days.”

“Don’t say that around him. By the way, you don’t win a hundred bucks,” Harry sulked.

“Oh? A hundred? What’s this for?” asked Nathaniel, eyes shining.

“To kick Jean in the arse for me.”

“I’m working on it. It’s hard to kick anyone in the ass when they’re sitting down or inside of you,” said Peter. “Besides, I have five hundred bucks at stake. Just hold your horses. I’ll get to it.”

“Maybe that’s true,” said Harry with a sly smile. Nathaniel and Harry managed to fix enough delicious food for at least two dozen of their carnivorous groups of people.

Harry was ever so relieved when Mephistopheles said that his nickname was Devil, and so Harry cheekily shortened it to Dev. The gold tiger that liked to wrap himself around Harry, who didn’t seem to mind. Pride was trying his best and failing not to be besotted by Jean-Claude, but he couldn’t resist touching him throughout the day. He also did the same to Harry when he thought he could get away with it. He was kind of a prickly pear in that regard, and Micah made it a habit to tease him. If only a little bit.

Harry surged Damian with enough energy to get him waking, and he was very apologetic about the bites, but unashamed about what happened. The Traveler had been moved to a safe location once they roused Baltasar from his slumber. The human servant was grateful they woke him before the others.

Most of the golden tigers remained out of their way, but Harry did meet a couple of the others that couldn’t resist the draw to Harry and Jean-Claude. Dev’s sister was named Good Angel, and then there was Thorn. Thorn was a literal Thorn and kept trying to challenge Micah. Even making fun of his and Harry’s size, only for Harry to snap his fingers and force Thorn onto his knees to make him shorter.

“You can stay there. Do not move,” said Harry as the golden-brown-blue eyes widened at him. “Act your age, not your shoe size.” He went off leaving Thorn scowling after him. Micah ended up placing a piece of duct tape on his mouth. Mephistopheles had actually laughed his ass off. Apparently Thorn was a bit of a bully, and liked to show it even on his cousins.

Memories anyone? Yeah, not in his city!

Envy was a bit sad that Jean-Claude and Harry didn’t want her as their animal to call. She had a lot of fun with Requiem and Luna, but kept wondering what she’d done wrong to have them reject her. It seems she, like many others, just didn’t understand.

“Maybe if you just try it?”

And that fell on deaf ears because what else could Harry say without being mean to her? She wasn’t being rude and cynical like some of the masters. She was just naive and innocent, and didn’t understand.

Everyone was rushing around in a bid to get ready for the buffet. The first part of the plan that night was to introduce Harry and Jean-Claude to the tiger clans now that they had a gold tiger bound to them. But, it was more than Harry and Jean-Claude. All of them were in it together from Micah and Edward to Nicky.

It was going to be another game of politics that night with the party. Harry learned that he wasn’t going to be the only one dressing up. Micah, seeing Harry’s discomfort, had announced to all the attending leopards that they themselves would be wearing the same thing Harry wore. Harry’s was the same sheer outfit with the same slits, the only difference was that instead of gold g-string it was silver. He was asked to go shoeless.

Micah’s harem outfit was a sheer gold that shimmered next to Harry’s. It set his beautiful glowing tan skin alight, and his chartreuse eyes seemed to get more yellow than green this time.

Edward seemed to like what he was seeing from the two of them and slapped their asses on his way past them.

“I’m starting to understand how you feel, Baby,” said Micah. “I feel very exposed.”

“Better to be naked,” Harry muttered.

“Almost.” He wound his arms around Harry and drew him close. “Are you okay with everything?”

“Mhmm.”

Nathaniel had come through wearing a pale lilac ensemble of the same shade, and the twins Gregory and Stephen were in sky blue. Stephen was a werewolf of course, but he would stay at Harry’s side, and then there was Seth, their lone werejaguar, who wore a soft green. He would be hovering near Damian though Cardinal could be seen scowling in his direction.

A few knives and his wand sat in various hidden locations. He doubted he would need anything more, but just in case Nicky, Wicked, and Truth would be rotating in a circuit between him and Jean-Claude. Edward was also going to be part of the background, and only pop up from nowhere every so often.

The gold tigers and Jake were going to stay out of sight until Harry and Jean-Claude managed to take the others. It was more than Las Vegas out there. Several other clans had been sent to them, and Micah reminded him that some of the dominant little queens in attendance weren’t going to be pleased with him. One, he was male, and they were not raised to follow men. For another, it hit their pride that a male of all things could draw others away from them. Be it looks or power. It was going to be one hell of a power play.

Harry was ready to play. At least, he hoped so. The Traveler and Baltasar were out of sight and out of mind. Both agreed to stay in Jean-Claude’s room at the Circus behind the wards while everyone met with the tigers. Since even the Harlequin never saw each other completely unmasked, Jake would have a high percentage of not knowing the bare face of the spies. It was so Death Eater-esque that it was startling.

Whatever Nathaniel had put on his and Micah’s skin seemed to make it shimmer. It wasn’t glitter or any of that, but some sort of scentless lotion that drew attention, and kept them in the center. Harry wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about the whole pomp and fromp, but Jean-Claude seemed to be enjoying himself.

Micah snorted. “Least he doesn’t have to wear this,” he murmured quietly.

“Now you have sympathy for me,” Harry teased.

“Sorry, Baby, I was horny last night.”

Harry patted him on the cheek. “I’d forgive you, but you’re always horny so that’s irrelevant.” He smiled as Micah chuckled and snuggled against him. All of their alpha men were dressed in varying colors of black with red shirts. Nicky and Rafael had gold shirts to designate they were leaders. Nicky’s was so stretched over his muscled frame that just moving a certain way might very well see him splitting it. Edward had chosen red, he was a leader, but he wanted to blend in. Throw off the other tigers in the room and the potential spies. Crispin and Domino would also be part of the crowd weaving in and out and carefully monitoring the tigers actions. Anything that could be seen as a sleight that Harry wouldn’t know about would be snuck back to Edward so that they could handle it without letting the insult go.

It was all about politics.

The Circus’ large dining room had been transformed into a sort of speakeasy. It was a huge natural cavern with gas lamps in the walls, giving a soft, warm glow to everything. The large black walnut table had been moved to one side of the room and had candles that lit brighter than they should have, giving the room a sort of mystical glow. All soft edges with shadows that played across the stone walls.

Except, instead of a quiet speakeasy bar setting, it was more of a cocktail party with everyone standing around sipping drinks, eating appetizers, and chatting. Harry had never been to a cocktail party and had no idea what was expected of him.

Harry was currently on Jean-Claude’s arm. He looked beautiful as ever in deep gold traced with thin crimson stitching. It was open at the chest. His hair lay in long soft curls, and he caused a lot of men and women’s breaths to catch when he passed them by.

Damian was on Cardinal’s arm nearby, within easy reach of Harry, and Peter trailed behind him with Nathaniel hooked onto his arm. He had garnered quite the admirers. All the rest of the submissives were dotted around and in very obvious view. All of them looking and feeling lovely. Even Violet was wearing a soft rose shade that contrasted lovely with her darker shading. She was the only lady who wanted to be a part of everything tonight. Cherry would have except she was on shift at St. Hedwig’s.

That was when Victor, the weretiger and son of the Master of Las Vegas and the white tiger queen, Bibiana, met them. Looking at Victor was like looking at a younger, taller Edward. He was broad-shouldered and handsome with his short blond hair carefully cut. It looked as though someone had styled it one hair strand at a time. But, he was definitely not like Edward. Harry had come to learn this very well in Las Vegas. His suit was expensive and tailored. Victor’s tiger eyes were a rich, deep blue. Bluer than Crispin’s. Harry’s white tigress was really quite fond of him. More than Harry wished her to be. He took Harry’s hand when he offered it, and the moment they touched Harry wished they hadn’t. His power breathed along Harry’s skin in a warm spill down his arm and through his body. It made it harder to breathe for the briefest of seconds. Harry watched as Victor’s eyes went a little wider. His breath came out in a shaking exhale as he let go of Harry’s hand. It seemed to take visible effort for him to stop touching.

He laughed, and that shook, too. “Is it my imagination or are you even more captivating now than you were a year ago, Angel?” he asked with a soft lingering smile.

“Thank you, but I don’t know?” Harry meant it as a question. Harry’s tigress wanted him to move forward into Victor, but Harry was the one driving the bus, not his tigress. He pulled back the urge as he pulled on the human memories that knocked Victor off that breathless pedestal. “How are you doing, Victor?”

“I’m-”

“Aren’t you going to introduce us?” A woman was there so suddenly, and she leaned against Victor in a possessive way that some girlfriends tended to do.

Harry’s white tiger didn’t like it, he felt the insult creep around his skin. For a fleeting moment, he had the urge to mark Victor as some sort of territory, he quickly squashed that feeling. Harry had worked with him in Las Vegas. He’d also been very attracted to him when they all had sex, but the politics and intricacies of Las Veas had sort of ruined Victor for Harry in the human way. His tigress didn’t give a damn about that.

The woman had long pale curls, mostly white, but with edges of pale golden brown here and there. Harry knew that meant she was a white tiger. She had the same lush curves as Bibiana, but on a body that was nearly a foot taller. Part of it was the silver stiletto heels she was wearing. It made her legs look longer than Harry was tall. Her dress was silver, too, and managed to both cling and billow as she moved. Harry thought he would be way underdressed, but it seemed that wasn’t the case considering he could easily see her bra through her dress.

“Julia, this is Harry Potter-Black, Jean-Claude’s husband,” said Victor with a real smile.

“One of them,” Harry corrected with a freeform smile as he held out his hand.

She had perfectly manicured hands. Harry’s of course were well tended to, but definitely nothing fancy. Julia wrapped her hand around Harry’s, and his eyes narrowed instinctively when she sent a flash of power through him. Harry’s white tigress was suddenly there, and it roared up through his skin. It spilled its power out around Julia like a flame.

Victor let out a noise before he could muffle it, and when Julia tried to take her hand back, Harry refused, tightening it as his tiger spilled over and through her body. Harry could taste her, saw her tiger with its pale stripes, and knew that she was no queen. She tried to metaphysically slap him, like a girl, but Harry’s grip was too hard causing her to squeak.

“Let go!” she said, her voice was high and afraid. Fear meant she was food and weakness.

Harry only smiled at her. “I know the game, lady. You started it, I must finish.” His eyes narrowed into sharp jagged points, and Julia’s chest began to heave as more and more power was pushed into her. “You can make me if you think you can,” he said, keeping his voice pleasant, but the power and his eyes were anything but.

Victor and Jean-Claude had moved a little away from them, and the other white tigers had formed a circle around them. Harry could feel the rest of the tigers beyond the white like a distant hum, but in that moment the white tigers were what he wanted to focus on, needed to focus on to show his ownership. He already had a match with Crispin for his white, but now he had to prove his superiority. One color at a time.

She tried to use her otherworldly strength to pull Harry off his feet, but he didn’t even move. He threw his power into her causing her to let out a shriek as the power combined with his magic and began to bloom into the air. She continued to pull, but Harry didn’t move a single inch, and the power continued to pulse into the air, higher and higher. She had a good thirty pounds on him, not to mention her height against his, but Harry remained solid as a wall.

“You’re going to rip your own arm off,” Victor warned Julia, but she wasn’t listening. She was panicking.

“Do you not have the strength, my dear, to pull a simple male human off his feet?” Harry purred out in that slight contralto voice that some of his creatures liked to use. It rippled around the room and breathed down everyone’s skin. “I want an apology for interrupting me or I won’t let go.”

Julia’s pretty eyes had become almost as round as saucers. Then Harry smoothly pulled her around and had her on her back, touching the stone cold floor. More power flooded the room as he hovered over her and stared down into her eyes. He thrust the rest of his white, hot energy into Julia. He shot it through her eyes, and her tiger began to flow so fast that there was no time for her skin to break or leak. She cried out in shock as her body shook with the wash of fur spilling over her skin. One moment she was human, and the next the fur and muscle had taken her over. She lay on her back, still in the silver dress, though the shoes had been split. She blinked at Harry, the fear and confusion was lost in her eyes.

“How is it female?” Julia shuddered out when Harry brushed his cheek right up against hers. She stiffened beneath his touch, and then she rubbed back as that deep thundering purr began.

One by one the other white tigers crowded around them and rubbed their human faces against him, and Julia. Victor was last. He didn’t kneel, and instead he came around and lifted Harry off his feet as the tigers rolled around their legs. Harry could see his tiger, white and untouched by any stripe. He was a great white beast and it rolled through Harry, and whether his human side liked it or not didn’t matter. Harry felt as if he were at the center of some warm, wonderful fire, and every tiger at their feet was a fuel for it. His arms locked around Harry, strong and tight. The energy grew, thicker, richer, deeper, and more. Victor kissed him. It was hot and rich, and the power was thrust into each other, and it spread out to all the others. It was like his beast and Harry’s were trying to exchange places, one sliding into the other. Like what his leopard often did with Micah’s but it didn’t quite happen. Harry could feel every single tiger around spread out in a spiderweb branch.

All of them were his own now. He spent extra time pouring his energy over Crispin and Domino, and both men responded to him. Much stronger and much deeper than the others in the room. It proved to him that he now had ties to the whites.

With a ball of energy wrapped in his palm, he threw the extra energy into the others in the room. He felt Cynric already at the edge of the white, such easy prey. He was already Harry’s from the fun he had had in Vegas, whether Harry wanted him or not. He was hardly worth a taste, but then Harry’s energy hovered over something new.

He climbed down out of Victor’s arms, and moved through the bodies aware of Domino and Crispin’s power flowing through him like a warm hot spring. Both men were following his progress in the room, shifting to keep an eye on him. It was when Domino’s touch lingered on Harry that he felt her.

She was standing against the wall out of the gas lamp’s light’s touch. She was so far back she was nearly covered in shadow. The color of her hair and the familiar energy to Domino told Harry that whoever she was, she was a black tiger. He spared a moment to wonder if Domino knew her.

“She does not smell right,” Domino breathed right up against Harry’s ear so that no one could hear them. Harry acknowledged the statement with a caress to the man.

She had come with a group of weretiger survivors. She was clanless like many in the room. Harry wondered if the scent had anything to do with how his magic responded.

She looked like Meng Die had, with the same straight shining black hair, except hers was long, sweeping past her waist. She was even wearing one of those short Oriental-style dresses, in bright royal blue. Her eyes looked brown and human from where Harry stood, but the power inside of him knew better.

Harry tried to sweep through her the way he could Domino and Crispin, but she stayed by the wall. Something was strange. A tingle on the back of his neck. As if a warning. Harry’s eyes connected to Edward, and he twitched his face into a small frown to signal. It seemed that he didn’t have to because Crispin was whispering to Edward. Did he notice too?

Her lips were stained as red as blood, and he could taste her heart-beat rapidly rising at refusing the call. Her eyes darted away from him. Her pretty face twisted slightly before going back to slack. She was powerful, but beneath that power was a layer of something else. Almost vampiric.

Harry moved toward her, the black tiger’s energy riding on the strength of the white and blue, so that each color grew and fed off the others. Domino remained at his side, touching him allowing the black tiger to bloom through the others. His tigress was like a dark image blurring and growing more solid around her. He’d never seen it so clear until that day. Domino let out a moan and drew closer to Harry, putting his nose into his ear. His breaths were hot and left goosebumps trailing down his neck.

She flinched as he drew closer. “Don’t,” she hissed.

“What?” Harry asked, tilting his head slightly. “I haven’t done anything.”

She glared at him through her oh-so human eyes and Harry curled his fingers discreetly, vanishing the colored contact lenses so that he saw them blazing an inky black.

She gasped and pressed her back hard against the wall. “Don’t touch me!”

“I’m not touching anyone. Just wonder why you are pretending to be a survivor of an attack? When I can feel something behind your eyes.” He reached inside of her through his necromancy powers rather than his tiger. She let out an undignified yelp as temperature in her body began to drop; and there it was, behind metaphysical walls, was a shadow of a vampire. He tasted like a master.

Her back was hard pressed to the wall, the goosebumps riding her skin. “What are you doing to me?”

“I can taste him, your vampire. You’re a black tiger. So you must be one that has infiltrated.”

“Master, help me!” the woman begged as Harry moved in closer until they were nose to nose. But he hadn’t touched her.

Her vampire master tried to shove his power into Harry, but with his necromantic powers active, the black tigress in him refused to respond. He lashed out with it, using the power they’d learned from the Dragon, and the laughter that had been about to spill out of his mouth dropped when the black tiger woman dropped where she stood. Her body ribboned from the solid attack. Harry knew he had managed to hit the vampire that was working through her.

“Is she one?” asked Edward, standing beside him suddenly.

“Yes, I can feel her master. You’re one of the many hunting the survivors aren’t you?” Harry snarled as he bent down over her. She flinched away when he seized her by her hair.

“I won’t answer,” she spat, but then she flinched when Harry’s tigress reached into her like a phantom and wrapped around the throat of her own tigress. He pressed his energy into her, smothering her beast until she let out a scream. “Yes! Yes! I am!” she screamed out.

“Yes what?” Harry crooned at her. He stroked her face, making her lips twist, the blood was running on the floor.

“Yes, yes! My Master is one of the Harlequin!” she cried out, and then she started rolling around as if something was attacking her from the inside. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Master! I had no choice, he’s too strong! I can’t…!”

Harry saw her master through the woman’s eyes. He tasted the name Jade, or rather Yiyu, but Jade in English. The master was as dark as a vampire of centuries could be while at the same time being considered pale. He had curls like Domino, and he was roaring with fury. Harry reached through Jade with his Necromantic powers. He’d never done this through a vampire’s animal to call, but it couldn’t be that different could it? Her will was his will after all. Their minds were connected.

“Come to me,” Harry cooed, causing him to flail around. “Come to me.”

He hadn’t realized that saying this aloud would draw more tigers toward him. Jean-Claude was shuddering at Micah’s side from the feel of the energy.

“Your powers have grown, mon Amour, even I can feel them.”

“Help me pull him out of her,” Harry requested.

“Oui, but she might not survive it. You should use Damian. He is your servant. I think it is time to learn to use him effectively.”

“She’s a traitor, don’t let her survive,” Victor hissed. “Her and her kind seek to kill us all! It’s why we are here today to prevent that from happening.”

“If we take him now, then we have one down,” said Edward, smirking.

“He’s close, close enough for me to call him. Damian, come to me!” Harry ordered, and instantly Damian was at his side. Not even Cardinal, who was pulling on him and protesting, could keep him back.

“What will you have of me?” Harry reached up and laced their fingers together, and the power between them began to pulse strong. It swept through the room making all the lamps and candles flicker, and the frigid air drew many tigers to one another for warmth.

They combined their powers, and Damian let out a cry as he fell to the floor wrapping around Harry’s legs. Domino kept his arms around Harry as a conduit, and they sank their powers through Jade who thrashed and lolled her head from side to side. Her screams were drowned by the power in the room.

“Bite me, Damian,” Harry ordered, and Damian didn’t hesitate to get up. He stood and turned into Harry’s neck, sinking his fangs in sending more power straight through the lines.

A shock of power ended in a painful icy grip, and Harry could see the master vampire being pulled from his place in the hotel room. His screams and thrashing, the fear that laced through him went into Jade, and surged into Harry. Harry feasted on that fear. His death came smooth and cold.

Damian released and sagged into Harry, his emerald eyes glittering with sedation as he nuzzled himself into Harry. Happy with the flow of power that he’d never been able to feel. He’d witnessed it, but had never been able to capture it. As a result of draining and destroying Jade’s master, Damian was given quite a nice boost in power. Harry had been the conduit that sucked up the master’s powers, and fed them to Damian. Because, try as Harry might, he was no vampire. He could also feel the energy rising from Domino who was holding him tight. He licked at the fang marks and the thin dribbles of blood left over.

“No need to get it on your pretty clothes,” Domino excused. Not that he had to, Harry thought fondly.

Harry couldn’t be sure if Jade was alive or dead by the end of that. Her whole body had grown cold, and she didn’t look to be breathing. But these two things never did seem to bother the extra-strength preternatural.

“I’ll take her for more questioning, if she’s alive,” said Edward. “And then we’ll see whether she needs to be disposed of or not.”

Domino cleared his throat. “I don’t think she’s going to wake. I can feel her powers flowing in me. Her black tiger energy… it’s mine now,” he said quietly as he flexed his hand, and five sharp knife-like claws appeared where his fingers were, and none of the rest of him had changed. His orange eyes swirled and glittered as he flexed some more. Each claw was long and delicate, curved. Several gasps came from around the room. “I couldn’t do that before.”

“Careful with those,” Micah chided. “Put them back! You can play with them later.”

“Sorry, it’s new,” said Domino with a chuckle.

“It’s a shame. She could have found solace if she hadn’t feared you for being male,” said a soft voice somberly, and Harry’s eyes scanned the room and locked on a man instantly.

Not long after the words left the handsome man’s tongue did they realize they had another Harlequin spy in their midst. His name was Topaz, and he was immediately bound in metal shackles with silver beneath it. Truth and Wicked were on either side of him. Harry hadn’t even drawn a complete breath in the time this transpired. Damian was pinned to Harry’s side, refusing to let go no matter how much Cardinal tugged on him to do so.

“She was looking for a way out,” said a male tiger morosely. His hair was cut short, and he was pale. His eyes were a soft amber.

“Then why did she set her master on me?” Harry asked. “All she had to do was say so.”

“Your gender made her fear you more than freedom,” he said, licking his lips. “Are you going to do the same to me?”

“All depends, currently you’re not trying to attack us or have your vampire attack us,” said Harry carefully.

“But that can change,” said Micah coolly. “We understand that those who come to call sometimes don’t have a choice but to do as their master bids them to do. However, every servant, every creature has a way of defying expectations. Unfortunately attacking and seeing us as an enemy is not the way to do that.”

Harry nodded, and really took a look at the man. “You’re not as old as Jade was.”

That surprised the weretiger. “How do you know?” he asked, and his voice, like the rest of him, seemed delicate. He was like most older weretigers, not big, but still taller than Harry.

“You feel younger.”

Harry could taste the golden yellow of his tiger color and found it rich on his tongue. It tingled and drew him closer metaphysically. “You love your master. He is not our enemy.”

“You can taste that?” he breathed.

Harry nodded. “Yes, but we will have to hold you until we know more. Do not hurt him.” He told his men.

“We’ll keep him company,” said Truth, who laid a hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Indeed, we can do that well,” said Wicked.

“We need all the allies we can get right now, and fighting amongst each other isn’t going to solve our current problem,” Harry said, licking his lips. He honestly did not feel good about what he’d done to Jade. But how else was he going to break her from the vampire that kept hold of her? He supposed it simply hadn’t occurred to him to use the ardeur to break him away from her, not to mention the idea of using the ardeur forcefully on a woman who hated men? No. Hell no. At least in death, she was at peace.

“He isn’t a gold tiger,” a woman’s voice said.

Harry stepped back from the kneeling man, and turned so that he could see who the voice belonged to. It was one of the two female red tigers in the room. She had red hair cut just above her shoulders so that the end edges of it framed her face. The hair was so dark that it was almost a kind of black.

He already knew that the power of politics had once more resumed. Beneath the austere of beauty and air of were energy, there was a bout of nerves. “And you are aware of this as fact - how?” Harry asked, turning in a perfect pivot. His men were once again at his back. Domino’s claws had retracted for now. His orange eyes blazing with a wonder as he cast a look at Harry with something like adoration.

Damian wasn’t far behind. He could feel the tightly controlled power swirling through Damian, and Damian was likely too shell-shocked by the sudden surge to really focus on it. Especially with so many potential enemies in the room.

She made a derisive sound, crossing her arms across the shining cloth of her own designer dress. It was a deep dark red. It wasn’t very flattering. Not that Harry was great at identifying style and what-not, definitely not like his dear vampire husband, but the coloring seemed off with her skin and hair. “Because gold is supposed to control us all. If there were a true gold tiger in this room, we would all be bound to his will. I feel nothing. He’s just a survivor with delusions.”

And she was an idiot, Harry thought. Could she not taste Topaz’s energy? It had a flavor to it, not to mention there was a whole room of gold weretigers just waiting to be presented. He had to stifle the urge to snicker at her.

“Tigers are very effective at hiding what they are for obvious reasons,” said Harry with a wave of his hand. “And you are?”

“She’s Reba,” said Victor for him. “Daughter of the Red Queen.”

That made her the sister of Alex Pinn, Harry thought. “Oh is Alex here then?” he asked cheerfully. Harry had met Alex in Jason’s hometown of Promise. He had enlisted his help after an all night orgy in tracking down Jason and Logan, who at the time had been kidnapped. He’d been great fun once Harry got over the ‘reporter’ bit. It was at the same time he’d first met Crispin.

“No,” she said in almost a hiss. “He is out of the country on some journalist assignment.”

“Still in Afghanistan then?”

Her eyes widened. “How did you-?”

“We converse every so often,” said Harry with ease. It mostly amounted to postcards that Alex liked to send him, and the last one was of a beautiful temple in Afghanistan.

“He never told me this,” Reba hissed. “But, he’s already catching a plane and disrupting all his plans because you and your master put out the call. There is no way you have a female tigress, you’re male. It has to be a psychic trick.”

Before anything more could be said, the men around Reba began to stiffen as Victor unfurled his energy. Just enough to get the room stirred. “So you’re calling me a fool?” he asked carefully.

“All of you. He’s male!”

“I don’t mind male,” said a male near Reba, and Harry cocked his head.

“Wait, you were in Las Vegas. Hunter right?” Harry recognized. He was a beautiful man with hair color that was fire engine red. His eyes were a pure yellow and they glimmered in the candlelight.

Hunter bowed, and Reba let out a fierce snarl. “At your service. I am surprised you remember me after that night.”

“It’s still hazy,” Harry admitted. “It was a bad time but a lot of fun.”

Hunter chuckled. “Yes, indeed.”

“Don’t flirt with him! You’re straight!” Reba scowled.

“I’m fluid, as we all are. We’ve all been made to be fluid with the restriction on sex with women. How else have we become such good lovers? Practice makes perfect after all, and I don’t mind the continued practice!”

Harry couldn’t help but laugh cheerfully. “You know I always did wonder how everyone seems like such rockstars. Merlin, Jean-Claude had a time with me.”

“Non, mon Amour. You were a fetching kitten.”

“More like a mole who hid beneath the covers,” Harry teased, and for the briefest moment the chilly air that Reba had caused had thawed, though Victor was still glaring at her through his bright blue eyes. Edward was moving fluidly into a strategic position. Just in case. Wicked and Truth were still with Topaz, not bothering to move yet.

“You are what I say you are, Hunter,” Reba interjected with a snarl at the edge of her lips. “My mother made us come, but I am the dominant red here, and that means what I say goes!”

"I've been nice about this whole thing. Don't force me to stop playing nice." Harry snarked back.

"What's that mean?"

Harry stepped out into the middle of the room, and held out his hand. He understood now, by being a gold tiger, that he had a hold over everyone he slept with and touched metaphysically in Vegas. He was ready to do something a little less dramatic. "Hunter," Harry smiled, "come to me."

He was tired of playing. He was tired of the theatrics of the whole damn thing. If tigers like her wanted to whine, throw the wool over their eyes, and not see the danger for what it was, then that wasn’t his problem and he wasn’t feeding into them any longer.

Hunter’s lips spread into a slow smile and he began to do exactly as Harry told him.

“No!” Reba squawked. “Don’t let him bewitch Hunter too!”

“Come to me, Hunter,” Harry opened his arms as his red tiger circled inside of him. She looked up through his soul, and seemed to expand causing several of the reds nearby to take in shuddering gasps. Reba let out a low growl as she sniffed the air.

Harry didn’t bother echoing her as he made a beckoning motion, and the two men who had been holding Hunter back released him. They all made their way toward Harry. “Come to me. All of you come to me!” He called again, pulling on that lasso of were energy, making all of them lurch. Even Reba faltered, her feet trying to move upon command. The weretiger deep inside of him rose up and out like a golden light, bathing the room, and causing deep sharp breaths to be taken. A ripple of shudders burst through the room, and Harry could see Jean-Claude and Micah smiling on either side of him, pleased to see him taking charge and command. Edward watched with a rare sense of wonder in his eyes, and being so close to Damian had boosted his powers. Boosted everything, making the former Danish Viking’s power rise to meet his, and that was only a fraction.

“You are not our master! You can’t make us cross this room to you. My mother sent us because all of the other tigers urged her to, but like me, she believes you are just a pretender to our throne.” Reba flared her power forcing the men to stop. “The white males are teaching our secrets to outsiders and giving him and his vampire master delusions of grandeur.”

“You haven’t tasted his full power yet,” Victor shook his head. “Taste it and then tell us how Crispin and Domino are still ours to command.”

Harry shared a smirk with Victor and flared his tiger call higher, easily over powering Reba’s. Hunter and the other males by this point reached Harry and reached out to touch his skin.

“You can’t do this!” Reba shouted just as Hunter took Harry’s hand. Hunter started dropping kisses to Harry’s hand and up his arm, like that husband in the goth cartoon that Teddy used to watch. Each kiss stirred Harry’s red tiger more and started to raise his ardeur. The tiger with pale red hair soon made his way over as well. “Jared, come back here! Hunter, stop that!”

Hunter shifted to Harry’s back and started kissing along his neck. Harry happily tilted his head to give Hunter more space. Jared touched his hand, causing Hunter to let loose a snarl over Harry’s shoulder. In reply, Jared dropped to his knees showing difference to Hunter.

“No fighting over me, Hunter; you know how much fun I have with groups.” Harry sent a small electric zap at Hunter. He could feel the tiger pout before turning his attention back to forming a hickey on Harry’s neck. Jared stayed on his knees and started rubbing his cheek against Harry’s hip, scent-marking him. The last red male started making his way to the group as well.

“No!” Reba yelled as she grabbed the other woman by the arm. It looked like she was going to do whatever she could to not let the last tiger move. The man stopped, torn, looking back at the women.

Hunter, tired of kissing, bit Harry’s neck. It was such a reminder of sex with Micah and the others that Harry unconsciously let out a moan. Jared’s hand drifted up Harry’s leg, easily passing through the side cuts to direct skin contact, soon he was caressing Harry’s ass. He could feel the ardeur mixing in with the red tiger energy he was releasing in the room. Soon a third pair of hands started tracing along his body. The last male weretiger had dropped to his knees besides Jared.

Everyone felt the spike of angry energy as Reba let out a growl. Hunter stopped biting Harry to look across the room. Harry looked up and saw Reba held a knife in her hand. The knife was dripping blood on the floor. She had slashed the other woman and was holding her by her wrist. “You can’t have us! I refuse you.”

“Lacey!” The third male called out in shock.

“She’s his twin sister.” Hunter murmured into Harry’s neck.

Harry’s eyes narrowed into sharp emerald points. To attack one's so-called family like that was despicable. “Really? Are you so powerless that you require a blade? Are you not Queen enough to shift your hands?”

“How dare you!”

“She only has one form.” Jared added.

“That’s disappointing. Not sure if I want you anymore. Maybe I’ll just take the men and Lacey from you?” Harry mused allowed. “We don’t need fake Queens. Alex, at least, was strong. You would treat your own family this way? How disgusting of you. It’s no wonder, your so-called straight men would come to me, and I haven’t even touched them with my ardeur yet.” That single response only made Reba more furious. Her face was becoming as red as her hair. Humiliation and embarrassment never did anyone any good, and he’d just done both in the span of a second.

“They belong to my mother and I. How we treat them is no concern of yours.” Reba pulled the woman’s arm up hard, aiming to further hurt her. It pissed Harry’s red tigress off. She missed her own kind and didn’t like seeing other reds hurt, even if they weren’t hers yet.

“Let her go.” Harry stated calmly.

“She’s mine!”

“I’d listen to him.” Victor warned.

“Shut up, this has nothing to do with the Whites. You have no say in this.” Reba snarled at Victor who held his hands up as if in surrender. He has offered warning, not his fault if she chose to ignore it.

Harry released his red tiger, watching metaphysically as she ran at the woman. As soon as the tigress reached Reba she took a swipe, startling Reba into letting Lacey go. Once she was released, Lacey scurried over to her twin. Harry flared a little magic and healed her cut. He wasn’t going to let a silver blade mar a tiger, not if he could help. The gasps that ensued when they watched a potentially silver cut across the young woman’s face vanish. It had taken them all by surprise. Lacey let out a moan, and reached out to Harry who smiled and kissed her knuckles.

“Do correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t it against every rule for you to use a knife to discipline your people? If you aren’t Queen enough to shapeshift and do it right, then you aren’t allowed to pretend to be Queen.” Harry stated.

“Look who’s talking, human!” Reba spat. “You can’t shift period!”

“Ah, but Reba… I never claimed to be Queen. It’s all of you who declare me as such. I also never discipline through physical harm. No one learns that way and it doesn’t foster loyalty.” Harry watched as his energy knocked Reba to her knees. “Change for me, Reba.”

“You can’t make me. You’re a survivor of an attack, not a pureblood. You have no position over me.”

“If I force her to change from here, does that mean I win this pissing contest?” Harry asked the room. He wanted everyone in agreement to the outcome tonight.

“The White agree. It’s how Queens are chosen when there are multiple candidates in a family after all.” Victor smirked at Harry.

“I don’t agree.” Reba spoke, Harry could tell she was starting to panic. She knew if Harry forced her to change she’d have to accept his control over the Reds.

“You have no choice. Change.” With the last word Harry forced his energy into her. Filling her up and calling her tiger out. Everyone could see her trying to struggle against the call. However, she couldn’t keep the fight up, unable to match Harry’s powers, and the forced change was swift. He also made it a little more painful causing her to scream as if she were a rookie weretiger having been attacked rather than being born.

Harry stared down at her without a hint of remorse or other emotion. “How does it feel being so pure now?” he asked, smirking. “All pure means is you’ve got way too many relatives in the wrong places, lady. Been there, seen that, and we don’t need that here in St. Louis. We all come together, no matter the blood. You can take that or you can leave it. I have power over you, so what do you want to do about this?”

Reba was soon on all fours. Exceptionally big, but not more so than some female alphas he’d seen before. The red was striking against the browns and white of her body. Her eyes glowed an ember like color that had a hint of yellow in it. She bowed her head until her nose was into the ground.

She’d been beat, and everyone knew it. He could taste her fear. He could taste her submission. Even if it was by coercion. She had no choice but to submit.

Good. That made things easy.

“Perhaps, mon Amour, we should enlighten our newest friends of our other friends?” Jean-Claude asked with a dazzling smile. He drew the attention back to him as he drew Harry from in between the red tigers into his arms. Harry was glad the men let him go without a fight, he didn’t need a fight from them.

Jean-Claude and Harry both tugged on the thread of golden energy that tied Pride and Mephistopheles to them. When the door to the antechamber on the right opened, both of them stepped out with Envy bringing up the rear. It was their strength and power that caught everyone’s attention.

Victor gasped. “So you did claim them.”

Reba raised her tiger head, her eyes widening as Harry held out a spare hand for Dev as he made his way across. Pride took Jean-Claude’s hand.

“We are the Master of All Tigers, and you are all ours. You treat us with respect, and we shall honor you.” With his hands clasped in Dev’s, Harry called upon a great amount of energy that swept through the room, clasping around each and every weretiger, no matter its gender or color. They all submitted. It was a power that if used wrong could destroy an entire world, Harry noted as he tasted the addicting substance on his tongue. His skin was lit with energy, spilling deep into his soul, stirring every one of the colors inside of him to life. It was kind of like a peacock the way they fanned out through him. Whether physical or metaphysical it didn’t matter because everyone could see, taste, touch, and feel the beasts inside of Harry.

He blamed it all on Death because really Death was to blame for everything.

Chapter Text

Between MACUSA and the cadaver dogs sent to Atlanta, they were able to track Clayton. A team of Aurors managed to take him apart piece by piece and then burn him to ash with the help of a group cast of fiendfyre.

Micah made a comment that Harry could cast fiendfyre alone when Hermione explained that the spell was especially hard, and oftentimes took multiple wizards or witches to be able to control one casting of it. “You mustn’t forget, he’s Harry. He can do just about anything.”

Harry scoffed. “Don’t forget who taught me that spell,” he playfully tossed a ball of brightly colored yarn from the floor at her head. Cone jumped up and snatched it before running off. Snow not far behind her. Teddy and Yang were out in the woods together with Rafael, Lisandro, and Lisandro’s children, Luca and Sammy. The three kids were chasing Yang about under the wererats’ supervision. Luca and Sammy were both human, Lisandro having contracted the rat strain after they were born, but very open minded; they saw the Rodere as an extended family on their father’s side.

“Hey! That was mine. I need that for the onesie!” Hermione called out. “Asher! Draco!”

Both men were at her side almost immediately. Harry and Micah watched all the while concealing their laughter as Asher and Draco were forced to bow to Hermione’s ever growing whims. Even Asher was going to have a time chasing Cone around the house. Likely the feisty kneazle would make her way up to the final floor that housed all the spiders.

Edward had taken Peter to his shotgun qualifications test now that he was eighteen years old. He still couldn’t own a handgun unless he went through a boat-load of mental and physical screenings. It was only five years ago they had lowered the age requirement from twenty-one to eighteen. Harry was slightly concerned about him passing the mental screenings but figured if Edward could pass it Peter would be fine.

It wasn’t more than a couple of days after the tiger debacle, and everything seemed to calm down for now. Most of the tigers went home with the exception of Dev, Pride, and Envy. It seemed that Envy was slowly becoming besotted with Requiem and Luna; and she enjoyed being near Harry and Jean-Claude even if she couldn’t have them like Dev and Pride could. Harry didn’t think that the two planned for her to be a permanent lover, but he was happy for them to distract her.

Victor and his white tigers went back to Las Vegas, along with Cynric who had put up a bit of a fight about staying around. Especially once he learned that Harry would feed the ardeur on Peter, but not him. Harry insisted that he’d call if he was needed, but he should go home. Not that he ever planned to.

Peter seemed to have enjoyed himself boasting to the kid that he’d had Harry; multiple times. Had slept with Micah as well. Harry pretended not to notice Peter doing this, and went on about life.

Morte d’Amour had hightailed it back over the pond for now, and Harry was in regular talks with MACUSA and the ICW on what to do about the Mother of All Darkness. The fact that she had split herself up and was trying to inhabit the various European Council Members got them nervous. Turns out the ICW was very aware of who made up the European Council and had a room to keep tabs of political maneuvers they made. ICW researchers were being put on the task of figuring out where she might show up next and how many pieces of her were around. Thank Merlin he had Hermione and Draco hanging around to help him out there.

The Traveler and Baltasar were remaining at Harry’s for a few days before they planned to move on. Neither wanted to stay in one place long and chance Mother Dearest finding them and trying to forcibly take control. The Traveler’s body had been relocated deep below the manor. It was backed by a plethora of light and dark wards, and not even an A-bomb would see it disturbed. Only Harry and Baltasar had access to the chamber. Not even the Traveler’s borrowed bodies or others in the house could make their way down there. He would have to ride Baltasar or the air to get back to it. It was all in the name of his protection of course.

Teddy liked having them around. Then again, so did Harry; and Edward quite liked watching them together. Both of them really knew how to have mind-blowing sex, considering neither held any form of the ardeur, and Baltasar enjoyed teaching Harry and Micah some new techniques. It also helped that Jean-Claude was getting a lot of strength and power from all the fun they had. It was more important now than ever. Harry was also pretty sure that Baltasar had a crush on Micah, the same way the Traveler had one on Harry, if the looks and attention he gave Micah were any indication.

Harry thought it was cute. Micah didn’t complain. Finally he wasn’t the only one their fun lovers gravitated to. Peter, Domino, and now Baltasar all happily approached Micah as a lover, not as if he was an extra when being with Harry. Micah still insisted that sex only happened when Harry was with them, but he didn’t shy away from kissing or touches.

It was too early to tell if the golden tigers would fit in with their family or not. Mephistopheles, or Dev as he agreed to be called, was much more easy going than Pride, who lived up to his name. Leave it to Jean-Claude to choose the difficult ones, Harry thought fondly.

Jake on the other hand was gearing up to help Harry and Edward track the Master of Beasts to free him completely of Marmee’s control. He seemed to have some renewed spirit after the stunt that Harry had pulled at that bloody cocktail party. Harry hoped that the politics and shenanigans would go away for a while. He’d had more than enough to be going on with.

It wasn’t often that Harry found himself completely and utterly alone. Most were out doing something important, and Harry had a moment to simply sit out back under the star speckled sky with Yang curled up next to him. In the city there were too many bright lights to see the world for what it really was, but out there there were no streetlights. Not even from the gated community across the way and nothing to take away from the raw beauty of the world. He didn’t get moments like these too much, not that he needed them.

He thought about everything that had happened in his life from the moment he was born up until now. He didn’t get much time to reminisce or think about it. How different his life had turned out, how happy he was that it had changed, and that he had made that leap all those years ago to do something radical.

None of it had been expected. First Edward then Jean-Claude or was it the other way around? He supposed it was Edward that he sought permission from. No, not permission. That wasn’t the right word. Acceptance? Yes, that was it. Edward had been the first after a string of mentors to be so raw and truthful with him that it could sometimes sting. It had been a sort of honesty that he had needed. A good kick in the arse. Of course, he knew that Edward hadn’t expected this direction, but then Edward didn’t expect too much except the best in whatever was being done.

It also meant that Edward choosing them meant that Edward would give his best. No matter what.

He thought back to when Edward told him that when he ‘died’ everything faded from him, and he had seen the hurt flash briefly on the man’s face. It was not something he wanted to lose now that he had it. Harry was his key. Harry was finally realizing that he was the key to a lot of people in some way. Love, power, shelter, and safety. It was a long list, and Harry came upon a realization as he watched a shooting star streak across the vast open sky. He ran his fingers through Yang’s fur as the fox lightly wagged her tail, thumping it against the ground.

Harry needed to be needed. He was useless if no one needed him. Maybe in the end that was why he left the magical world, no one needed him any longer. Sure they wanted him, but he wasn’t needed, not like he was needed here. Maybe it wasn’t Dumbledore who made him flee. Maybe it wasn’t Voldemort who gave him a push. Maybe it was this desire to be needed and to help. A lot of maybes without a solid answer. Who knew? Harry was an odd duck. He knew that much. No maybe about it.

“Am I disturbing you?”

Harry smiled at the warmth of the connection, and he looked up into striking emerald eyes so like his own. “You know better than that, Damian.”

Damian sank down elegantly beside Harry. His fingers threaded through Yang’s fur. “You’ve made me a master vampire. Do you know that?” His pale face was illuminated by the stars and partial moon that hung in the sky.

Harry leaned forward and brushed a kiss to Damian’s cheek. “Nothing less than you deserve.”

“I’m not sure that’s true,” he said. “You look at me like I am a good vampire, but I am not.”

“You told me, and that’s okay.”

“Is it?”

“Are you happy, Damian?” Harry asked to change the subject because he really didn’t know how to answer that. He knew his own morals and boundaries were a bit skewed in that regard. He worked on feeling more than he did sight. True, Edward could get away with anything and Harry wouldn’t flinch. He didn’t know why it would be different if someone like Olaf was around. A bit of hypocrisy maybe?

Damian thought about Harry’s question. “I think so. Yes,” He answered honestly.

“Good, then that’s what matters. I can’t give you a real reason. It’s more a feeling. You belong to us. Your girlfriend isn’t too mad at us is she?”

“It does not matter. You are still my master.”

“But you are a master vampire.”

“Because of you. It’s like Edward, and how he can feel something. I’m strong because of my tie to you. You made me this way.” He curled his fingers into Harry’s and brought it to his lips for a kiss. “Thank you.”

Harry smiled. “You’re welcome.” He pushed Damian’s deep red hair over his shoulders and caressed his cheek. Damian settled beside him in the lovely pasture, and both of them raised their eyes to the sky.

“It’s peaceful out here.”

“Yes it is.”

“I don’t want to leave.”

“You never have to. It’s not only my home, Damian. It’s yours too. You’re family.”

“Maybe literally.”

Harry grinned. “Probably. I’ve never met anyone else with my eyes. Have you?”

“No.” Damian cracked a smile.

“It doesn’t matter. There’s more out there than blood that makes a family.”

“Heart,” said Damian. “Something I’ve never held in my hands before. I’ve never seen it before. I still don’t completely understand, but I like it.”

And that was all that mattered.

He hated that word that people liked to use for him; savior. Chang Bibiana had used it. Even Augustine had used it at some point. He really didn’t like the label, but perhaps they weren’t as far off as he wished they were.

A savior was someone who was needed. He was willing to be his leopard’s savior, and the rest of the Community. In the end, his husbands and family had become his savior. Something that he desperately needed. Ties that gave his life meaning. Damian looped his arms around Harry who snuggled up against him. Yang had decided to drape herself over them both.

In the end it was all about choices, and Harry so did love having a choice.

He was happy.