The place was at the Circus of the Damned. The time was sometime after 9:00. And the mood: I was pissed. I sat on the couch in Jean-Claude’s living room, at the far end. As far away as I could get from the vampire sitting at the end of the couch, and the werewolf sitting on floor in front of me.  

“But Anita--”  

“But ma petite--” 

“NO! The answer is no. No. No. No.” 

“Anita,” Jean-Claude used my first name, I was in trouble now. “If you do not take the fourth mark, if we do not marry the marks, we all will be in great danger.” 

“What else is new? There’s always something trying to kill us. So far we’ve come out all right. I don’t know why that would change.” 

“You never know, Anita. What about in Albuquerque? You almost died,” said Richard.  

“But I didn’t. In fact, I kicked that monster’s ass pretty sufficiently.” 

“With our help,” said Jean-Claude. 

“You guys helped me heal. Great. I boost your power. Great. We don’t have to take it any further.” 

“But think of the advantages, ma petite. We all will gain so much power. You will be able to sustain even more damage than already. You will have eternal life!” 

“I don’t want eternal life! I don’t want to live forever! I want to hold on to as much humanity as I can!” 

Jean-Claude sighed, covering his eyes with one hand, and slouching back on the couch. “Then what do you want, ma petite? I think we can offer you anything you could possibly want. Do you want the high life? Sophistication, expensive dinners, the ballet, silk, and fantastic sex? That I can give you. Or do you want a white picket fence, with two point whatever children, a dog in the yard and a garden in the back? This is something Richard can give you. Or we can give you both, whatever you desire.” 

Both the vampire and the werewolf looked at me in earnest. I frowned. “I don’t think you guys are listening to me. I don’t want either of those. I don’t want to do this. Quite frankly, I just want to be left alone.” 

“We cannot do that, ma petite.” 

“I bet you can.” With that last remark, I stood from my seat, and headed for the door. Suddenly two hands restrained me on both of my wrists. One was cold as the grave, and the other was all hot electricity. “Let me go.” My tone was empty, calm, cold. I had gone to my killing place. I felt nothing. Jean-Claude released me. Richard, however, was not so smart. He drew me to him. I let him, and with my other free hand, I drew the browning. Richard pulled me to his chest, and was surprised when he felt the cold metal of the barrel of my gun pressed against his abdomen. “Let me go, Richard.” He did, no arguing. I backed out of the room, eyes trained on the vampire and the werewolf, but gun trained on the ground. When I reached the door, I turned and fled up the stairs, into the parking lot, into the jeep, and away from the Circus.  

*** 

I pulled into the driveway, and shut the engine off. I sat there for a few moments with a sigh. Could my personal life get any more complicated? I would un-complicate it. I was seriously considering breaking it off with both of “the boys.” The frustration just didn’t seem to be worth it anymore. I got out of the car, and walked into the house after unlocking it. Coffee. I needed coffee. I immediately started up the coffee machine as soon as I walked into the kitchen. After I poured myself a cup, the damn phone rang. 

“Hello?” I almost growled into the receiver. 

“Hi Anita.” 

I mentally sighed, and rolled my eyes. “What do you want, Richard?” 

“We need to talk.” 

“No, we don’t! The fucking answer is no!” 

“You can’t just cut us off like this Anita! You need us!” Richard was angry too. Goody. 

“I am just beginning to realize I need you two like I need a hole in the head. In fact, I don’t want either of you at all. And you can pass the message on to the vampire.” With that, I hung up. 

I tossed my empty coffee cup into the sink. I leaned against the counter, trying not to see red. But I should be happy, shouldn’t I? Things would be a lot less complicated now.  

“Very good, Anita.”  

The Browining Hi-power materialized in my hand, pointed in the direction of the voice I knew all too well.