At least two-thirds of the people in the barn were shapeshifters. Probably, they weren’t all werewolves. I couldn’t tell what animal they might be by looking, but I knew they were all shapeshifters. Their energy burned through the air like a hint of lightning. Even with the Uzi, if things went wrong, I was in trouble. I was suddenly angry with Richard. We shouldn’t have come alone like this. It was too careless for words.
A woman stepped out of the group. She had what looked like an industrial-strength makeup kit on her shoulder. Her dark hair was shaved close to her head, leaving a very pretty face open and clean, without a drop of makeup on it.
She moved uncertainly towards us as if afraid she’d get bitten. The air vibrated around her, a tiny shimmer, as though reality was just a little less firm than it should be around her. Lycanthrope. I wasn’t sure what flavor, but that really didn’t matter. Whatever the flavor, they were dangerous.
“Richard,” she said. She stepped away from the watching crowd, small hands running up and down the strap of her bag. “What are you doing here?”
“You know why I’m here, Heidi,” he said. “Where’s Stephen?”
“They aren’t going to hurt him,” she said. “I mean, his brother’s here. His own brother wouldn’t let him get hurt, would he?”
“Sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself, not us,” I said.
Her eyes flicked to me. “You must be Anita Blake.” She glanced behind at the watchers at her back. “Please, Richard, just go.” The aura of energy around her was vibrating harder, almost a visible shimmer in the air. It prickled along my skin like ants.
Richard reached out towards her.
Heidi flinched but stood her ground.
Richard smoothed his hand just above her face, not quite touching her skin. As he moved his hand, the energy around her quieted, like water calming. “It’s all right, Heidi. I know the situation Marcus has put you in. You want to join another pack, but he has to give permission. To get his permission, you do what he says, or you’re trapped. Whatever happens, I won’t hold it against you.”
The anxiety seeped away. Her otherworldly energy quieted until it was barely there at all. She might have passed for human.
“Very impressive.” A man stepped forward. He was at least six foot four, maybe an inch taller, his head bald as an egg, only his eyebrows showing dark above pale eyes. His black T-shirt strained over the muscles in his arms and chest, as if the shirt was the skin of an insect about to split and let loose the monster. Energy boiled off him like summer heat. He moved with the confident strut of a bully, and the power crawling over my skin said he might be able to back it up.
“He’s new,” I said.
“This is Sebastian,” Richard said. “He joined us after Alfred died.”
“He’s Marcus’s new enforcer,” Heidi whispered. She stepped back, halfway between the two men, her back to the curtain we’d entered through.
“I challenge you, Richard. I want to be Freki.”
Just like that, the trap was sprung.
“We are both alpha, Sebastian. We don’t have to do anything to prove that.”
“I want to be Freki, and I need to beat you to do it.”
“I’m Fenrir now, Sebastian. You can be Marcus’s Freki without fighting me.”
“Marcus says no, says I have to go through you.”
Richard took a step forward.
“Don’t fight him,” I said.
“I have to answer challenge.”
I stared at Sebastian. Richard is not a small man, but he looked small beside Sebastian. Richard wouldn’t back down to save himself. But for someone else . . . “And if you get killed, where does that leave me?” I asked.
He looked at me then, really looked at me. He turned back to Sebastian. “I want safe passage for Anita.”
Sebastian grinned and shook his head. “She’s dominant. No safe passage. She takes her chances like the rest of us.”
“She can’t accept challenge, she’s human.”
“When you’re dead, we’ll make her one of us,” Sebastian said.
“Raina has forbidden us to make Anita lukoi,” Heidi said.
The glare that Sebastian gave her made her cringe against the curtain door. Her eyes were round with fear.
“Is that true?” Richard asked.
“It’s true,” Sebastian growled. “We can kill her, but we can’t make her pack.” He grinned, a brief flash of teeth. “So we’ll just kill her.”
I drew the Firestar, using Richard’s body to shield the movement from the lycanthropes. We were in trouble. Even with the Uzi, I couldn’t kill them all. If Richard would kill Sebastian, we might salvage the situation, but he’d try not to kill him. The other shapeshifters watched us with patient, eager eyes. This had been the plan all along. There had to be a way out.
I had an idea. “Are all Marcus’s enforcers assholes?”
Sebastian turned to me. “Was that an insult?”
“If you have to ask, then indeedy-do, it was.”
“Anita,” Richard said, low and careful, “what are you doing?”
“Defending myself,” I said.
His eyes widened, but he didn’t take his glance from the big werewolf. Richard understood. There was no time to argue about it. Sebastian took a step forward, big hands balled into fists. He tried to step around Richard to get to me. Richard moved in front of him. He put out his hand, palm outward like he had with Heidi, and that roiling energy damped down, spilling out like water from a broken cup. I’d never seen anything like it. Calming Heidi was one thing. Forcing a lycanthrope to swallow such power was something else.
Sebastian took a step back, almost a stagger. “You bastard.”
“You are not strong enough to challenge me, Sebastian. Don’t ever forget that,” Richard said. His voice was still calm, with the barest hint of anger underneath. It was a reasonable voice, a voice for negotiating.
I stood behind Richard with the Firestar held at my side, as unobtrusive as I could make it. The fight was off, and my little show of bravado hadn’t been needed. I’d underestimated Richard’s power. I’d apologize later.
“Now, where is Stephen?” Richard asked.
A slender black man stalked towards us, moving like a dancer in a shimmering wash of his own energy. His hair was braided in shoulder-length cornrows with colored beads worked into them. His features were small and neat, his skin a rich solid brown. “You may be able to control us one at a time, Richard, but not all at once.”
“You were kicked out of your last pack for being a troublemaker, Jamil,” Richard said. “Don’t make the same mistake twice.”
“I won’t. Marcus will win this fight because you are a fucking bleeding heart. You still don’t get it, Richard. We aren’t the Young Republicans.” Jamil stopped about eight feet back. “We are a pack of werewolves, and we aren’t human. Unless you accept that, you are going to die.”
Sebastian stepped back to stand beside Jamil. The rest of the lycanthropes moved up behind the two men. Their combined energy flowed outward, filling the room like warm water with piranha in it. The power bit along my skin like tiny electric shocks. It rose in my throat until it was hard to breathe, and the hair on my head stood at attention.
“Will you be pissed if I kill some of them?” I asked. My voice sounded squeezed and harsh. I moved closer to Richard, but had to step back. His power poured over me like something alive. It was impressive, but there were twenty lycanthropes on the other side, and it wasn’t that impressive.
A scream shattered the silence, and I jumped.
“Anita,” Richard said.
“Yeah.”
“Go get Stephen.”
“That was him screaming?” I asked.
“Go get him.”
I looked at the mass of lycanthropes and said, “You can handle this?”
“I can hold them.”
“You can’t hold us all,” Jamil said.
“Yes,” Richard said, “
I can.”
The scream sounded again, higher, more urgent. The sound came from deeper in the barn where it had been divided into rooms. There was a makeshift hallway. I started towards it, then hesitated. “Will you be pissed if I kill people?”
“Do what you have to do,” he said. His voice had grown low, with an edge of growl to it.
“If she kills Raina with a gun, she still won’t be your lupa,” Jamil said.
I glanced at Richard’s back. I hadn’t known I was being considered for the job.
“Go, Anita; now.” His voice was dying down to a growl. He didn’t have to add, hurry. I knew that part. He might be able to stall, but he couldn’t fight them all.
Heidi walked towards me, behind Richard’s back. He didn’t turn any attention to her, as if he didn’t consider her a danger at all. She wasn’t powerful, but you didn’t have to be powerful or even strong to stab someone in the back, claw or knife, what did it matter? I pointed the gun at her. She passed within inches of Richard and he did nothing. My gun was the only thing guarding his back. Even now, he trusted Heidi. Right this minute, he shouldn’t have trusted anyone but me. “Gabriel’s with Raina,” she said. She said his name like she was afraid of him.
Gabriel wasn’t even a member of the pack. He was a wereleopard. He was one of Raina’s favorite actors, though. He’d appeared in her porno flicks and even one snuff film. I almost asked her who she feared most, Raina or Gabriel. But it didn’t matter. I was about to confront them both.
“Thanks,” I said to Heidi.
She nodded.
I went for the hallway and the sound of screams.
8
* * *
I ENTERED the hallway and followed the sounds of voices to the second door on the left. I heard at least two different male voices, soft, murmuring. I couldn’t make out the words. The screams changed to yelling. “Stop, please, stop. No!” It was a man, too. Unless they were torturing more than one person tonight, it had to be Stephen.
I took a deep breath, let it out, and reached for the door with my left hand, gun in my right. I wished I knew the layout of the room. Stephen yelled, “Please, don’t!”
Enough. I opened the door, shoving it against the wall so I’d know there was no one behind it. I meant to sweep the room, but what I saw on the floor stopped me cold, like some kind of flash-frozen nightmare. Stephen lay on his back, a white robe open, revealing his nude body. Blood trailed down his chest in thin scarlet ribbons, though there were no apparent wounds. Gabriel held Stephen’s arms, pinned underneath his body, behind his back as if they might already be tied. Stephen’s waist-length yellow hair spilled over Gabriel’s leather-clad lap. Gabriel was naked from the waist up, a silver ring through his right nipple. His curly black hair had spilled over his eyes, and when he looked up at me, he looked blind.
A second man knelt on the far side of Stephen. Curling blond hair fell to his waist. He wore an identical white robe, fastened. When he looked at the door, his slender, nearly pretty face was a mirror of Stephen’s. Had to be his brother. He was holding a steel knife. He was in midslice when I came through the door. Fresh blood welled from Stephen’s skin.
Stephen screamed.
There was a naked woman curled over Stephen’s body. She straddled his lower body, pinning his legs. Her long auburn hair fell like a curtain, hiding the last indignity from sight. Raina raised her head from Stephen’s groin. Her full lips parted in a smile. She’d worked him to erection. Even with his protests, his body had gone on without him.
It took a heartbeat to see it all, a sort of slow-motion shorthand. I sensed movement to my right and tried to turn, but it was too late. Something furred and only half-human slammed into me. I hit the far wall hard enough to make it shudder. The Firestar went spinning, and I fell, stunned, to the floor. A wolf the size of a pony loomed over me. It opened jaws big enough to crush my face, and growled, a sound low and deep enough to stop my heart.
I could move again, but that face was an inch from my cheek; I could feel its breath on my face. A line of saliva fell from its mouth to glide down the edge of my mouth. It lowered its muzzle that last inch, lips drawn back like it was going to take a nibble. The Uzi was pinned between my back and the wall. I went for one of the knives, and knew I’d never make it.
Human arms curved around the wolf, tore it back, away from me. Raina stood holding the struggling wolf like it was no effort. Her beautiful naked body rippled with muscles that didn’t show until they were used. “Draw no blood from her, I told you that.” She tossed the wolf into the other wall. The wall cracked and buckled. The wolf lay still, eyes rolled back into its skull.
It gave me the time I needed. I pulled the Uzi around on its strap. When Raina turned back to me, I was pointing it at her.
She stood over me, naked, perfect, slender where she was supposed to be slender, curved where she was supposed to be curved. But since I’d seen her sculpt her body at will, I wasn’t that impressed. When you could manipulate your body like she could, who needed plastic surgery?
“I could have let her kill you, Anita. You don’t seem very grateful.”
I sat on the floor, propped against the wall, not completely trusting that I could stand yet. But the Uzi was pointed nice and steady. “Thanks a lot,” I said, “Now, back up, slowly, or I will cut you in half.”
Raina laughed, a low, joyous sound. “You are so dangerous. So exciting. Don’t you think so, Gabriel?”
Gabriel came to stand beside her. Both of them looking down at me was too much, so I used the wall to brace myself and stood. I could stand. Great. I was beginning to think I could even walk. Better.
“Back up,” I said.
Gabriel stepped around her, bringing him almost close enough to have reached out and touched me. “She’s perfect for anyone who’s into pain and has a death wish.” He reached out, as if to run his fingers down my cheek. I pointed the machine gun at his waist, because it would kick upward. Aim too high and you can actually miss.
“The last time you pushed me, Gabriel, all I had on me was a knife. You survived having me gut you, but even you can’t heal from a submachine gun burst. At this range, I’ll cut you in half.”
“Would you really kill me just for trying to touch you?” He seemed amused, his strange grey eyes almost fever bright as they peered out of the tangle of his hair.
“After what I just saw, you bet.” I stood away from the wall. “Back up or we’ll find out how much damage you can take.”
They backed up. I was almost disappointed. The Uzi with silver ammo would do exactly what I’d said it would do. I could cut them down, kill them, no muss, no fuss, just a hell of a mess. I wanted them dead. I looked at them for a heartbeat and thought about it, thought about pulling the trigger and saving us all a lot of trouble.
Raina backed up, pulling Gabriel with her. She stared at me as she moved, back towards the wall where the pony-sized wolf was staggering to its feet. Raina looked at me and I saw the knowledge on her face of how close she’d come. I think until that moment she hadn’t realized I could kill her and not lose sleep. Hell, leaving her alive would cost me more sleep.
A roaring scream came from the other room. Howling vibrated through the barn. There was a moment of breathless silence, then growls, shrieks. The floor shuddered with the impact of distant bodies. Richard was fighting without me.
Raina smiled at me. “Richard needs you, Anita. Go to him. We’ll take care of Stephen.”
“No thanks.”
“Richard could be dying while you waste time.”
Fear flowed over me in a cool wash. She was right. They’d lured him here to die. I shook my head. “Richard told me to get Stephen, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
“I didn’t think you took orders that well,” she said.
“I take the ones I like.”
Stephen had curled onto his side, pulling the robe over his body. His brother sat beside him, smoothing his hair and murmuring, “It’s all right, Steph
en. You’re not hurt.”
“You sliced him up, you son of a bitch.”
He spread Stephen’s robe, exposing his chest. Stephen tried weakly to close his robe. His brother slapped his hands lightly. He wiped his hands across the bloody chest. The skin was perfect. The cut had healed already, which meant that all the blood was Stephen’s.
“Get off of him, right now, or I will blow you away.”
He eased back from him, eyes wide. He believed me. That was good, because it was true.
“Come on, Stephen. We’ve got to go.”
He raised his head and looked at me, tears sliding down his cheeks. “I can’t stand.” He tried to crawl to me, but collapsed on the floor.
“What did you give him?” I asked.
“Something to relax him,” Raina said.
“You bitch.”
She smiled. “Exactly.”
“Go over and stand by them,” I said to the brother.
The man turned a face to me so like Stephen’s it was startling. “I wouldn’t let them hurt him. He’d enjoy it if he’d just let himself go.”
“He is hurt, you son of a bitch! Now get over there, right now, or I’ll kill you. Do you understand me? I will kill you and be happy about it.”
He got to his feet and went to stand beside Gabriel. “I made sure no one hurt him,” he said softly.
The walls shuddered. There was a sound of splintering wood. Someone had been thrown through the wall of the room next to us. I had to get us out of there. I had to get to Richard. But if I was careless, I’d never make it. Richard wasn’t the only one in danger of getting his throat ripped out.
With this many lycanthropes in a room so small, they were too close. They could jump me if I went to help Stephen stand, but with a machine gun in my hand, I was betting most of them would be dead before they reached me. It was a comforting thought.
I spotted the Firestar in the far corner. I picked it up and holstered it without having to look. Practice, practice, practice. I kept the machine gun out. It just made me feel better.
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Collection 6-10 Page 7
