I opened the door and called after him. “Can I use the phone?”
He answered from his bedroom. “Make yourself at home.”
I took that for a yes, and went into the kitchen. The phone was on the wall. I got a card out of my fanny pack, which I’d been forced to carry like a purse. You couldn’t fasten the jacket over the fanny pack, and the open jacket would have shown off the gun.
The card was white with a number printed in black script, nothing but the number. I dialed and got Edward’s twenty-four-hour answering service. I left a message, saying to call me ASAP, and Richard’s number.
Richard’s answering machine sat on the counter, connected by wires to the wall-mounted phone. The message light was blinking, but it wasn’t my machine, so I didn’t check it.
Richard came into the kitchen. His hair fell around his shoulders in tight, foaming waves, curlier from the French braid. His hair was brown, but light of almost any kind brought out golden highlights, hints of bronze. He was wearing a flannel shirt, forest green, with the sleeves rolled above his elbows, showing the fine muscles in his forearms. I’d seen the shirt before. It was high-quality flannel, soft as a blanket to touch. He had on jeans and no socks. He padded barefoot towards me.
The phone rang. It was nearly one o’clock in the morning. Who else could it be but Edward? “I’m expecting a call,” I said.
“Help yourself.”
I picked it up, and it was Edward. “What happened?” he asked.
I told him.
“Somebody wants you dead quick.”
“Yeah. When you said no, they went out and bought some cheap local talent.”
“You get what you pay for,” Edward said.
“If there’d been two of them, Edward, I wouldn’t be here.”
“You aren’t going to like my news.”
“How much worse could it get?” I asked.
“I answered a message just before yours. They upped the offer to five hundred thousand dollars, if you were dead within twenty-four hours.”
“Sweet Jesus, Edward, I’m not worth that kind of money.”
“They knew you blew away their hitter, Anita. They knew the hit had failed.”
“How?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet. I’m trying to find out who’s putting up the money, but it’ll take a little time. The safeguards that keep me out of it protect the client, too.”
I was shaking my head back and forth. “Why twenty-four hours for the hit?”
“Something’s happening that they want you out of the way for, something big.”
“But what?”
“You know what it is, Anita. You may not be aware that you know, but you do. Something worth this kind of money that you could put a stop to. There can’t be that many choices.”
“I can’t think of a single thing, Edward.”
“Think harder,” he said. “I’ll be there as early as I can tomorrow. Watch your back. Don’t drive your car.”
“Why not?”
“Bombs,” he said.
“Bombs,” I repeated.
“For half a million dollars, Anita, they’ll get someone good. A lot of professionals will do you from a nice, safe distance. A bomb, a high-powered rifle.”
“You’re scaring me,” I said.
“Good, maybe you’ll be careful.”
“I’m always careful, Edward.”
“I apologize. You’re right, but be more careful. I didn’t expect them to try a local hit.”
“You’re worried,” I said.
He was quiet for a second. “We can keep taking out the hitters, but eventually we’ve got to get to the man with the money. As long as the contract’s out there, somebody’ll keep taking it.”
“It’s just too much damn money to pass up,” I said.
“A lot of professionals won’t take a hit with a time limit on it,” he said. “Some of the best are out of the running because of the deadline. I won’t take a hit with special circumstances.”
“I hear a ‘but’ coming up,” I said.
He laughed, quietly. “For half a million dollars, people will break their rules.”
“Not comforting,” I said.
“Not meant to be,” he said. “I’ll be at Richard’s tomorrow early.”
“Do you know where it is?”
“I could find it, but let’s not play games. Give me directions.”
I did. “I would tell you to stay indoors, but you’ve been dating Richard for months. A good hitter will be able to find you. I don’t know if you’re safer inside or on the move.”
“I’ll pack extra firepower and be more paranoid than usual.”
“Good. See you tomorrow.” He hung up, and I was left holding the buzzing phone.
Richard was staring at me. “Did I hear you say twenty-four hours for the hit?”
I hung up the phone. “I’m afraid so.” I hit the message button on his machine out of habit. It whirred as it rewound.
“Why, for God’s sake?” Richard asked.
“I wish I knew.”
“You mentioned money twice. How much?”
I told him.
He sat down in one of the kitchen chairs, looking shocked. Couldn’t blame him. “Anita, don’t take this wrong. To me you’re worth any amount of money, but why would somebody pay half a million dollars to kill you?”
For someone who knew nothing about assassins, he’d grasped the big question quite nicely. I walked over to him. I ran my fingertips through his hair. “Edward says I must already know what the big event is, that I wouldn’t be worth this kind of money, with this kind of deadline, unless I was already intimate with the situation.”
He looked up at me. “But you don’t know, do you?”
“Not a clue.”
He laid his hands on either side of my waist, pulling me against him, wrapping his arms completely around my waist.
The message machine clicked to life and made us both jump. We laughed nervously, not just from fear. There was a heat to his eyes as he stared up at me that made me want to blush or kiss him. I hadn’t decided which.
Two hang-ups, his younger brother Daniel, sorry Richard had canceled their rock climbing tomorrow.
I leaned towards Richard. His lips were the softest I’d ever kissed. The taste of him was intoxicating. How could I be thinking of giving him up?
The last message began playing: “Richard, this is Stephen. Oh, God, pick up. Please pick up. Please be there.”
We froze, listening.
“They’re trying to get me to do one of those movies. Raina won’t let me leave. Richard, where are you? They’re coming. I’ve got to go. Oh, God, Richard.” The phone clicked dead. A mechanical voice said, “End of messages.”
Richard stood up, and I let him. “I thought Raina had stopped making pornographic movies,” I said.
“She promised not to make snuff films, that was all.” He replayed the message. The time on it was 12:03.
“That’s less than an hour ago,” I said.
“I can’t leave you alone here tonight. What if another killer comes?” He paced in a tight circle. “But I can’t abandon Stephen.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said.
He shook his head, walking for the bedroom. “I can survive the games that the pack plays, Anita. You’re human, they’ll tear you up.”
“They’ll tear you up, too, Richard.”
He just kept walking. “I can handle myself.”
“Are you at least going to call some of the pack that’s on your side? Get some backup?”
He sat down on his bed, pulling on socks. He glanced up at me, then shook his head. “If I take my army, this’ll turn into a war. People will get killed.”
“But if you go in alone, you only endanger yourself, is that it?”
He glanced up at me. “Exactly.”
I shook my head. “And what happens to Stephen if you go out there and get killed? Who rescues him?”
That stopped him for a second
. He frowned, fishing his shoes out from under the bed. “They won’t kill me.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because if Marcus kills me outside the challenge circle, he doesn’t retain leadership of the pack. It’s like cheating. The pack would turn on him.”
“What if you accidentally died in a fight with someone else?”
He was suddenly very interested in tying his shoes. “I can handle myself.”
“Meaning if someone else kills you in a legitimate fight, Marcus is off the hook, right?”
He stood up. “I guess.”
“Raina is Marcus’s mate, Richard. She’s afraid you’re going to kill him. This is a trap.”
He shook his head stubbornly. “If I call in the wolves on my side and we go over there in a mass, they’ll be slaughtered. If I go over there alone, I may be able to talk my way through it.”
I leaned against the doorjamb and wanted to yell at him, but bit it back. “I’m going with you, Richard.”
“You have enough problems of your own.”
“Stephen risked his life to save mine once. I owe him. If you want to play politician, fine, but I want Stephen safe.”
“Going out where the assassin can find you isn’t a smart idea, Anita.”
“We’ve been dating for months, Richard. If a professional assassin hits town, it won’t take him long to find me here.”
He glared at me, jaw tight enough that I could see the small muscle on the side. “You’ll kill someone if I take you.”
“Only if they need killing.”
He shook his head. “No killing.”
“Even to save my own life? Even to save Stephen’s?”
He looked away from me, then back, anger turning his dark eyes almost black. “Of course you can defend yourself.”
“Then I’m coming.”
“All right, for Stephen’s sake.” He didn’t like saying it.
“I’ll get my jacket.” I got the mini-Uzi out of the suitcase. It was amazingly small. I could have shot it with one hand, but for accuracy, I needed two. Though accuracy and machine guns were sort of mutually exclusive. You pointed it a little lower than you meant to hit and held on. Silver ammo, of course. I slid the strap over my right shoulder. It had a little clip that attached to my belt at the small of my back. The clip kept the Uzi from sliding all over the place, but left enough play for me to slide the gun out and fire it. The gun rode at the small of my back, which was irritating, but no matter what I told Richard, I was scared, and I wanted at least two guns with me. The police had the Browning. I didn’t have a holster big enough for the sawed-off, not to mention it was illegal. Come to think of it, wasn’t the machine gun? I had a permit to own it, but they didn’t hand out carry permits for fully automatic weapons, not to civilians, anyway. If I got caught with it, I might be going to court after all.
I put the jacket on and whirled around. The jacket was bulky enough that it didn’t show. Amazing. The Firestar was more noticeable in its front-draw holster.
My pulse was beating hard enough that I could feel it thrumming against my skin. I was scared. Richard was going to play politics with a bunch of werewolves. Shapeshifters didn’t play politics much, they just killed you. But I owed Stephen, and I didn’t trust Richard to save him. I’d do whatever it took to see him safe; Richard wouldn’t. Richard would hesitate. It would almost surely get him killed one day. Tonight, for the first time, I realized it might get me killed.
No way should we walk into one of Raina’s little shows without more people. No way. Jean-Claude would never have tolerated Raina and Marcus’s games. They’d be dead by now, and we’d all be safe. I would have trusted Jean-Claude at my back tonight. He wouldn’t flinch. Of course, he’d have brought his own little army of vampires and made it a true battle. The shit could hit the fan tonight and be over before morning. Richard’s way, we’d rescue Stephen, survive, escape, and Raina would still be alive. Nothing would be settled. It may have been civilized, but it was a bad way to stay alive.
Richard was waiting by the front door, keys in hand, impatient. Couldn’t blame him.
“Stephen didn’t say where he was. Do you know where they make the films?”
“Yeah.”
I looked a question at him. “Raina took me to watch the filming a few times. She thought I’d overcome my shyness and join in.”
“You didn’t.” It wasn’t a question.
“Of course not. Let’s go get Stephen.” He held the door for me, and just this once I didn’t tell him not to.
7
* * *
I EXPECTED Richard to drive into the city, to some disreputable warehouse in a seedy section of town. Instead, he drove further into Jefferson County. We drove down Old Highway 21 between soft, rolling hills, silvered in the moonlight. It was early May, and the trees were already thick with leaves.
Woods hugged the sides of the road. An occasional house would break out of the trees, but for the most part, we were alone in the dark, as if the road stretched out forever and no other human had ever set foot on it.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
Richard glanced at me, then back to the road. “Plan?”
“Yeah, a plan. If Raina’s there, she won’t be alone, and she won’t like you taking Stephen.”
“Raina’s the alpha female, the lupa. I’m not allowed to fight her.”
“Why not?”
“An alpha male becomes Ulfric, wolf king, by killing the old leader, but the winner chooses the lupa.”
“So Raina didn’t have to fight for her place?”
“She didn’t have to fight to be lupa, but she did have to fight to be the most dominant female in the pack.”
“You once told me that the pack considers me a dominant. What’s the difference between being a dominant and being an alpha female? I mean, can I be an alpha?”
“Alpha is the equivalent to being a master vampire, sort of,” he said.
“So what is a dominant?”
“Anyone not pack, not lukoi, that’s earned our respect. Jean-Claude is a dominant. He can’t be more unless he becomes pack.”
“So you’re alpha, but you’re not pack leader.”
“We have about half a dozen alphas, male and female. I was Marcus’s second in command, his Freki.”
“Freki is the name of one of Odin’s wolves. Why would second wolf be named after something out of mythology?”
“The pack is very old, Anita. Among ourselves, we are the lukoi. There can be two seconds, Freki and Geri.”
“Why the history lesson and the new vocabulary?”
“To outsiders, we keep it simple. But I want you to know who and what we are.”
“Lukoi is Greek, right?”
He smiled. “But do you know where it’s from?”
“No.”
“King Lykaon of Arcadia was a werewolf. He didn’t try and hide it. We call ourselves the lukoi in his memory.”
“If you’re not Freki anymore, what are you?”
“Fenrir, challenger.”
“The giant wolf that kills Odin at Ragnarok.”
“I’m impressed, not many people would know that.”
“Two semesters of comparative religion,” I said. “Can a woman be Ulfric?”
“Yes, but it’s rare.”
“Why?”
“They’d have to win a knock-down drag-out physical battle. All the power in the world won’t stop someone from pounding your face into the ground.”
I would have liked to argue, but I didn’t. He was right. Not because I was female. Small men get their asses kicked, too. Size matters if both people are equally well trained.
“Why don’t the female alphas have to duke it out to win the top spot?”
“Because the Ulfric and his lupa are a mating pair, Anita. He doesn’t want to get stuck with a woman he can’t stand.”
I looked at him. “Wait a minute. You’re next in line to lead the pack. If you succeed Marcus, do you have to
sleep with your lupa?”
“Technically, yes.”
“Technically?” I said.
“I won’t choose one. I won’t sleep with someone just so the pack can feel secure.”
“Glad to hear it,” I said, “but does that jeopardize your standing in the pack?”
He took a deep breath, and I heard it sigh outward. “I have a lot of support among the pack, but some of them are bothered by my morals. They think I should pick a mate.”
“And you won’t, because . . . of me?”
He glanced at me. “That’s a big part of it. It wouldn’t be only one time, Anita. An alpha couple binds for life. It’s like a marriage. They usually marry each other in real life, not just in the pack.”
“I can see why the pack leader gets to pick his mate.”
“I’ve picked my mate,” Richard said.
“But I’m not a werewolf.”
“No, but the pack considers you a dominant.”
“Only because I killed a few of them,” I said.
“Well, that does tend to impress them.” He slowed down. There was a line of pine trees along the left-hand side of the road, too regular and too thick to be natural. He turned down a gravel driveway in the middle of them.
The driveway curved downhill, and at the bottom of a shallow valley was a farmhouse. Hills thick with trees poured out around the house. If there had ever been fields, the forest had reclaimed them.
The driveway opened into a small gravel lot that was crowded with cars, at least a dozen of them. Richard jerked the car into park and was out the door before I could unbuckle my seat belt. I had to run to catch up and was at his back just as he flung open the barn door. There was a thick wall of cloth hanging inside the door, not a curtain but more a barrier. Richard pulled it aside, and light flooded out around us. He stalked into that light, and I trailed after him.
There were lights everywhere, hanging from the rafters like large, ugly fruit. About twenty people stood around the open interior of the barn. Two cameras were trained on a set, made up of two walls and a king-size bed. Two cameramen were sort of draped on the cameras, waiting. A long table thick with take-out bags and cold pizza was set near the entrance. Over a dozen people were clustered around the food. They glanced at us as we entered. A handful of humans looked hurriedly away and began inching back. The lycanthropes stared, their eyes almost motionless, intent. I suddenly knew what it must feel like to be a gazelle near a lion pack.
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Collection 6-10 Page 6