Incubus Dreams--chapter 80

Yeah, it's another short one, boys and girls. I still feel like utter shit. No collapsing, thank goodness, but I don't want to do another goddamn thing in this heat. I swear it is getting worse.

Also because...well, let's just get this over with.

Anita is driving home. I spent this entire segment expecting her to get launched off the road by hungry vamps, but all that happens is she feels sorry for herself because she's got vampire bits in her hair. Apparently if you really regret the amount of killing you've done, it makes everything okay.

It also take several pages for her to explain why she's going home and not to the Circus. It's because she wants to go home. Great.

Nate and Micah are pissed because she didn't let them know she was fine before she went home. She feels very sorry. This takes a few more pages. Then Jean Claude calls. He asks her when the last time she "fed" was. She realizes she hasn't fed the ardeur all day.

And this part? This next part? Yeah, the entire universe just shot itself in the face with the plot.

See, Jean Claude has been holding in Anita's chunk of the ardeur all day so it doesn't overwhelm her. Apparently it's been twenty four hours since she last had sex. I know. The math doesn't really swing, but there you go. Damian is still alive. This kind of negates all the smexing with Damian, so Jean Claude tells Anita that he gave the Ardeur to Damian so Damian could feed it.

Temporarily. He only lent it for a little while. Oh, and he gave it to Richard too!

So you can give the ardeur to another person the way you lend a t-shirt, but he can't take it back from Anita because....

 OH AND HER SORROW AND SELF DOUBT OVER HAVING KILLED A LOT OF PEOPLE TODAY IS BECAUSE SHE HASN'T HAD THE ARDEUR TO GIVE HER STRENGTH. THE ARDUER IS LITERALLY BLOCKING ANITA'S CONSCIENCE.

Jean Claude took it back long enough for Anita to do a crime scene and not get dead, and now he's going to give it back because (Let's face it) without it, she'd murder his ass until it was a red smear, and then move on to do the same to his crew. HOW IS HIM BRAINWASHING ANITA WITH SEX NOT CANNON. IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT MAKES SENSE.

The whole thing with the ardeur is that Anita can't control it and Jean Claude can't take it back. HE JUST DID. Why is this still a major plot point?

Anita takes Micah to the bathroom--which she is told to do three times, phrased the same way each time--and the chapter ends just before they start having sex, and THAT is why I'm going to bed now.

I REALLY HATE THIS BOOK.