Aubrey and Valentine lean against a wall, watching her carefully. Nicky asks if Anita has any jokes, thankfully for us all Anita shakes her head, stating that she didn't feel very funny.
Nicky taunts her by asking if they've broken her so easily, causing a wave of anger to flow through Anita, meaning that she responds with a "what do you want?"
For some reason this pleases Nicky, she goes on to state that JC should be starving in his locked coffin but isn't and asks Anita why this is. Assuming that it's a rhetorical question she doesn't respond.
Apparently it wasn't a rhetorical question as Nicky gets annoyed that she wasn't answered, when Anita admits that she doesn't know why JC isn't a starving husk right now, Nicky doesn't believe her. Instead of having another circular argument about what she does/doesn't know, Anita changes the subject to why they are torturing Phil.
It turns out that Phil is being punished for standing up to Nicky the night before at the party, getting out of her chair she skips towards Anita, going on to explain that she was pissed at her so Nicky decided to torture her lover, which just makes me think that she is extremely poor leader letting something like this eat at her in such a manner.
Anita asks why Nicky is angry at her, turning to face her human servant Nicky asks him if it's possible that she doesn't know why, he admits that it is a possibility which apparently makes JC a very bad boy since he gave her the second mark without her permission.
It turns out that vampire servants can live for as long as their master allows them to (aka the master dies so do they) there are four marks to becoming a full human servant so Anita is clearly half way there, she claims that JC wouldn't do that to her, why? Gods knows, he's a vampire who would starve without using her, it's pretty clear that anyone would do the same in that situation.
They have more back and forth covering what I just summed up, Nicky now believes Anita that she didn't know that she was now bound to JC, but not that Phil isn't her lover since apparently to stand up for someone you have to be sleeping with them.
Wow, a lot of people owe me sex then......
[...] "What can Phillip and I do to make amends?"
"Oh, so polite I like that." She put a hand on Burchard's waist, a casual gesture like petting a dog. "Shall we show her what she has to look forward to?"
His whole body tensed as if an electric current had run through it. "If my mistress wishes."
"I do," she said.
Alright, I'm not going to quote the entire thing, but basically to gain the fourth mark and become a human servant for real you have to drink the blood of your master. Burchard drinks from Nicky's breast which seems a little to pedophilia for me, I don't care how old she is, she's in a pre-teen body so that makes it squicky for me.
If that was LKH's intent, good going, but honestly I think the fact that he's drinking her blood is suppose to gross me out more (it certainly concerns Anita the most)
I looked away, staring at anything but them, as if I had fond them having sex but couldn't leave, Valentine was staring at me. I stared back. He tipped an imaginary hat at me and flashed fangs. I ignored him.
That... REALLY isn't helping with the pedo-bear vibe happening. Just saying...
Burchard was sitting beside the chair, half-leaning against it. His face was slack and flushed, his chest rising and falling in deep gasps. He wiped blood from his mouth with a shaking hand, Nickolaos sat very still, head back, eyes closed. Perhaps sex wasn't such a bad analogy after all.
It turns out that Nicky has a coffin fetish since Willie has just been locked up in one since he felt sorry for Phil and apparently needs to be cured of such instincts, or some BS.
Then on a totally random topic change, Nicky demands to know if Anita can see her scar today... Wait, how did she know Anita had seen it in the first place?? I don't remember Anita mentioning it to her, if I'm wrong correct me, but... Yeah... Random.
Anywhose, Anita says no, she can't see the scar. Nicky claims that she's using extra energy to make this so, why? I dunno, the power of vanity?
Nicky then goes on to state that JC has a lot of followers and that if she merely kills him they will make a martyr of him, but if she kills something that he has giving his protection too, it will prove to his followers that he is powerless and unable to protect them if shit hits the fan.
Winter grabs her arm while Nicky orders Aubrey and Valentine to go kill Phil, for some reason Nicky clouds Anita's mind so she doesn't see them leave. Besides basic power play I don't see why she would waste energy doing this...
Anita then hears a man's scream. Phillip's scream. While screaming out the stereotypical 'no!' Anita then pretends to fate, this someone allows her to reach her ankle knife, since Winter is a bloody awful guard who is looking at Nicky for further orders it allows Anita to drive the knife up into his groin, pulling the knife free she makes for the door.
Racing to the cell that Phil is held in, she finds him with his throat torn out, exposing his spine (yay for random gore!) seriously... They are vampires I don't see why they would waste the blood, they didn't know Anita was going to escape and attempt to rescue him, which makes me wonder how Phil managed to scream in the first place if they ripped his throat out.
Aubrey stepped between me and Phillip. He was covered in blood. "I look forward to visiting your lovely friend Catherine."
I wanted to run at him screaming. Instead, I leaned against the wall, knife held down at my side, unnoticed. The goal was to kill Aubrey. "You son of a bitch, you fucking son of a bitch." My voice sounded utterly calm, no emotion whatsoever. I wasn't afraid. I didn't feel anything.
Aubrey's face frowned at me through a mask of Phillip'd blood. "Do not say such things to me."
"You ugly, stinking, mother-fucking bastard."
Oh burn??
Seriously, you expect me think that a vampire as old as Aubrey is going to fall for something so bloody obvious?
Well, in another book he probably wouldn't or the protagonist would use better insults first.
BUT this is an Anita Blake book so grab your logic and quietly drown it because it has no place in this universe!
Aubrey of course finds this extremely insulting and glides towards her, allowing Anita to stab him in the heart with the knife everyone conveniently missed when they searched her.
Valentine was instantly there, kneeling by the body. "What have you done?" He couldn't see the knife. It was shielded by Aubrey's body.
"I killed him you son of a bitch, just like I'm going to kill you."
Before Anita can make good of her threat though, Nicky decides that she's had enough of this bullshit and comes into ruin the party.
Anita runs for it, the vampires were nice enough not to seal up the hole the ratman left in their FREAKING DUNGEON, see if you had Edward with you Anita you could have used this extremely useful entrance to your advantage!!
Before Anita could make good of her escape though Nicky grabs her ankle and drags her back.
The lips had receded, exposing the fangs and teeth. The skeletal head hissed. "You will learn to obedience, to me!" it screamed in my face, and I screamed back. Wordlessly, an animal screaming in a trap.
Basically Nicky places the first mark on Anita, going on to claim that one day soon Anita will call her master and mean it. Pinning her down she then sinks her teeth into Anita neck, causing me to wonder why anyone would want Anita as a human servant, Nicky already has one and he seems pretty good at his job.
Since it isn't cannon that a vampire can have only one human servant at a time, why swap a decent servant for one that'll make your life hell over revenge?
Kill her and be done with it!!!!!!
Though, that's just wishful thinking on my behalf.
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