There was a knock on the door. I took the Browning out and held it on my lap underneath the magazine I’d been reading. I’d managed to find a three-month-old copy of National Wildlife, with an article on Kodiak bears. The magazine hid the gun nicely.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Irving.”
“Come in.” I left the gun out, just in case somebody would try to push in behind him. Irving Griswold was a werewolf and a reporter. For a reporter he was a good guy, but he wasn’t as careful as I was. When I saw he was alone, then I would put the gun up.
Irving pushed the door open, smiling. His frizzy brown hair encircled his head like a brown halo with the bald spot gleaming in the middle. Glasses perched on a small nose. He was short and gave the impression of being round without being fat. He looked like anything but a big bad wolf. He didn’t even look much like a reporter, which was one of the things that made him such a great interviewer but would probably always keep him from being on-camera material. He worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and had interviewed me many times.
He closed the door behind him.
I put up the gun.
His eyes widened. He spoke low, but not in a whisper. “How’s Stephen?”
“How did you get in here? There’s supposed to be a cop on the door.”
“Gee, Blake, I’m glad to see you too.”
“Don’t mess with me, Irving. There’s supposed to be a guard out there.”
“He’s talking to a very pretty nurse at the desk.”
“Dammit.” I was not a real cop, so I couldn’t go around yelling at them, but it was tempting. There was a law floating around Washington that might give vampire hunters federal badges soon. Sometimes I thought it was a bad idea. Sometimes, I didn’t.
“Talk to me fast before I get kicked out. How is Stephen?”
I told him. “You don’t care about Nathaniel?”
He looked uncomfortable. “You know that Sylvie is de facto pack leader while Richard is out of town working on his master’s degree, right?”
I sighed. “No, I didn’t know.”
“I know you’re not talking to Richard since you broke up, but I’d think someone else would have mentioned it.”
“All the other wolves creep around me like there’s been a death. No one talks about Richard to me, Irving. I thought he’d forbidden them to talk to me.”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t come in here asking for a story.”
“I can’t do this story, Anita. It’s too close to home.”
“Because you know Stephen?”
“Because everyone involved is a shapeshifter and I’m just a mild-mannered reporter.”
“You really think you’d lose your job if they found out?”
“Job, hell. What would my mother say?”
I smiled. “So you can’t play bodyguard.”
He frowned. “You know, I hadn’t thought about that. When one of the pack got hurt in public where it couldn’t be hidden, Raina always used to ride to the rescue. With her dead, I don’t think we have any alphas that aren’t hiding what they are. No one I’d trust to guard Stephen, anyway.”
Raina had been the wolf pack’s old lupa before I took the job. Technically the old lupa doesn’t have to die to step down, unlike the Ulfric, or King Wolf. But Raina had been Gabriel’s playmate. They’d shared certain hobbies, like making pornographic snuff films starring shapeshifters and humans. She’d been helping film while Gabriel tried to rape me. Oh, yeah, Raina had made it a real pleasure to punch her ticket.
“That’s the second time you’ve ignored Nathaniel,” I said. “What gives, Irving?”
“I told you Sylvie is in charge until Richard gets back in town.”
“So?”
“She’s forbidden any of us to help the wereleopards in any way.”
“Why?”
“Raina used the wereleopards in her porno movies a lot, along with the wolves.”
“I’ve seen one of the films. I wasn’t impressed. Horrified, but not impressed.”
Irving looked very serious. “She also let Gabriel and the cats punish wayward pack members.”
“Punish?” I made it a question.
Irving nodded. “Sylvie was one of the ones who got punished, more than once. She hates them all, Anita. If Richard hadn’t forbid it, she’d have used the pack to hunt the leopards down and kill them all.”
“I’ve seen what Gabriel and Raina thought was fun and games. I think I’m on Sylvie’s side for once.”
“You cleaned house for us, you and Richard. Richard killed Marcus and now he’s Ulfric, pack leader. You killed Raina for us, and now you’re our lupa.”
“I shot her, Irving. According to pack law, so I’m told, using a gun negates the challenge. I cheated.”
“You’re not lupa because you killed Raina. You’re lupa because Richard picked you as his mate.”
I shook my head. “We aren’t dating anymore, Irving.”
“But Richard hasn’t picked a new lupa, Anita. Until he does, the job’s yours.”
Richard was tall, dark, handsome, honest, truthful, brave. He was perfect except for being a werewolf. Even that had been forgivable, or so I thought. Until I saw him in action. Saw the whole enchilada. The meat had been raw and squirming, the sauce a little bloody.
Now I was dating just Jean-Claude. I wasn’t sure how much of an improvement dating the head vampire of the city was over dating the head werewolf, but I’d made my choice. It was Jean-Claude’s pale, pale hands that held my body. His black hair that curled over my pillow. His midnight-blue eyes that I stared into while we made love.
Good girls do not have premarital sex, especially with the undead. I didn’t think good girls had regrets about ex-boyfriend A, when they’ve chosen boyfriend B. Maybe I’d been wrong. Richard and I avoided each other when we could. Which had been for most of the last six weeks. Now he was out of town. Easy to avoid each other now.
“I won’t ask what you’re thinking about,” Irving said. “I think I know.”
“Don’t be so damn smart,” I said.
He spread his hands wide. “Occupational hazard.”
That made me laugh. “So Sylvie’s forbidden anyone to help the leopards. Where does that leave Stephen?”
“He went against her direct orders, Anita. For someone as low in the pack structure as Stephen, that took guts. But Sylvie won’t be impressed. She’ll tear him up, and she won’t allow anyone to come down and baby-sit them. I know her that well.”
“I can’t do this twenty-four hours a day, Irving.”
“They’ll heal in a day or so.”
I frowned at him. “I can’t sit here for two days.”
He looked away from me and went to stand beside Stephen’s bed. He stared down at the sleeping man, hands clasped in front of him.
I walked over to them. I touched Irving’s arm. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean.”
I turned him around, made him face me. “Talk to me, Irving.”
“You aren’t a shapeshifter, Anita. You aren’t dating Richard anymore. You need to get out of our world, not further into it.”
He looked so serious, solemn, that it scared me. “Irving, what’s wrong?”
He just shook his head.
I grabbed him by both arms and resisted the urge to shake him. “What are you hiding?”
“There is a way for you to get the pack to guard Stephen and even Nathaniel.”
I took a step back. “I’m listening.”
“You outrank Sylvie.”
“I’m not a shapeshifter, Irving. I was the new pack leader’s girlfriend. I’m not even that anymore.”
“You’re more than that, Anita, and you know it. You’ve killed some of us. You kill easily and without remorse. The pack respects that.”
“Gee, Irving, what a rousing endorsement.”
“Do you fe
el badly about killing Raina? Did you lose sleep over Gabriel?”
“I killed Raina because she was trying to kill me. I killed Gabriel for the same reason, self-preservation. So no, I didn’t lose any sleep.”
“The pack respects you, Anita. If you could find some pack members that are already outed as shifters and convince them that you’re scarier than Sylvie, they’d guard them, both of them.”
“I am not scarier than Sylvie, Irving. I can’t beat them to a pulp. She can.”
“But you can kill them.” He said it very quietly, watching my face, searching my expression.
I opened my mouth, closed it. “What are you trying to get me to do, Irving?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Forget I said it. I shouldn’t have said it. Get more cops in here and go home, Anita. Just get out of it while you can.”
“What’s going on, Irving? Is Sylvie a problem?”
He looked at me. His usually cheerful eyes, solemn, thoughtful. He shook his head. “I’ve got to go, Anita.”
I grabbed his arm. “You go nowhere until you tell me what’s happening.”
He turned back to me slowly, reluctantly. I let go of his arm and stepped back. “Talk.”
“Sylvie has challenged everyone higher in the pack than she is, and won.”
I looked at him. “So?”
“Do you understand how unusual it is for a woman to fight her way to second in command. She’s about five foot six, small-boned. Ask how she’s winning.”
“You’re being coy, Irving. That’s not like you. I’m not going to play Twenty Questions with you. Just tell me.”
“She killed the first two people she fought. She didn’t have to. She chose to. The next three challenges she made just agreed she was dominant to them. They didn’t want to risk being killed.”
“Very practical,” I said.
He nodded. “Sylvie’s always been that. She finally picked one of the inner circle to fight. She’s too small to be one of the enforcers; besides I think she was afraid of Jamil, and Shang-Da.”
“Jamil? Richard didn’t drive him out? But he was one of Marcus’s and Raina’s flunkies.”
Irving shrugged. “Richard thought the transition would go smoother if he kept some of the old guard in power.”
I shook my head. “Jamil should have been driven out or killed.”
“Maybe, but actually Jamil seems to support Richard. I think it really surprised him when he wasn’t killed instantly. Richard has earned his loyalty.”
“I didn’t know Jamil had any loyalty,” I said.
“None of us did. Sylvie fought and won the place of Geri, second in command.”
“She kill for it?”
“Surprisingly, no.”
“Okay, so Sylvie’s tearing up the pack. She’s second in command. Great, so what?”
“I think she wants to be Ulfric, Anita. I think she wants Richard’s job.”
I stared at him. “There’s only one way to be Ulfric, Irving.”
“To kill the old king,” Irving said. “Yeah, I think Sylvie knows that.”
“I haven’t seen her fight, but I’ve seen Richard fight. He outweighs her by a hundred pounds, a hundred pounds of muscle, and he’s good. She can’t beat him in a fair fight, can she?”
“It’s like Richard is wounded, Anita. The heart’s gone out of him. I think if she challenged and really wanted it, she’d win.”
“What are you telling me? That he’s depressed?” I asked.
“It’s more than that. You know how much he hates being one of the monsters. He’d never killed anyone until Marcus. He can’t forgive himself.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I listen. Reporters make good listeners.”
We stared at each other. “Tell me the rest.”
Irving looked down, then up. “He doesn’t discuss you with me. The only thing he said was that even you couldn’t accept what he was. Even you, the Executioner, were horrified.”
It was my turn to look down. “I didn’t want to be.”
“We can’t change how we feel,” Irving said.
I met his eyes. “I would if I could.”
“I believe you.”
“I don’t want Richard dead.”
“None of us do. I’m afraid of what Sylvie would do without anyone to stop her.” He motioned to the other bed. “First order of business would be hunting down all the wereleopards. We’d slaughter them.”
I took in a deep breath and let it out. “I can’t change how I feel about what I saw, Irving. I saw Richard eat Marcus.” I paced the small room, shaking my head. “What can I do to help?”
“Call the pack and demand that they acknowledge you as lupa. Make some of them come here and guard both of them against Sylvie’s express orders. But you have to give them your protection. You have to promise them that she won’t hurt them, because you’ll see to it that she can’t.”
“If I do that and Sylvie doesn’t like it, I’ll have to kill her. It’s like I’m setting her up to be killed. That’s a little premeditated even for me.”
He shook his head. “I’m asking you to be our lupa. To be Richard’s lupa. To show Sylvie that if she keeps pressing, Richard may not kill her, but you will.”
I sighed. “Shit.”
“I’m sorry, Anita. I wouldn’t have said anything, but…”
“I needed to know,” I said. I hugged him, and he stiffened in surprise, then hugged me back.
“What was that for?”
“For telling me. I know Richard won’t like it.”
The smile faded from his face. “Richard has punished two pack members since he took over. They challenged his authority, big time, and he nearly killed them both.”
“What?” I asked.
“He sliced them up, Anita. He was like someone else, something else.”
“Richard doesn’t do things like that.”
“He does now, not all the time. Most of the time he’s fine, but then he snaps and goes into a rage. I don’t want to be anywhere near him when he loses it.”
“How bad has he gotten?” I asked.
“He’s got to accept what he is, Anita. He’s got to embrace his beast, or he’s going to drive himself mad.”
I shook my head. “I can’t help him love his beast, Irving. I can’t accept it either.”
Irving shrugged. “It’s not so bad being furry, Anita. There are worse things…like being the walking dead.”
I frowned at him. “Get out, Irving, and thanks for telling me.”
“I hope you’re still thankful in a week.”
“Me, too.”
Irving gave me some phone numbers and left. Didn’t want anyone to stay too long. People might suspect him of being more than just a reporter. No one seemed to worry about my reputation. I raised zombies, slew vampires, and was dating the Master of the City. If people began to suspect me of being a shapeshifter, what the hell difference would it make?
Three names of submissive pack members who Irving thought were tough enough to play bodyguard and weak enough to be bullied. I didn’t want to do this. The pack was based on obedience: punishment and reward, mostly punishment. If the pack members I called refused me, I had to punish them, or I wasn’t lupa, wasn’t strong enough to back Richard. Of course, he probably wouldn’t be grateful. He seemed to hate me now. I didn’t blame him. He’d hate me interfering.
But it wasn’t just Richard. It was Stephen. He’d saved my life once and I still hadn’t returned the favor. He was also one of those people that was everyone’s victim, until today. Yeah, Zane had nearly killed him, but that wasn’t the point. He’d put friendship above pack loyalty. Which meant that Sylvie could withdraw pack protection from him. He’d be like the wereleopards, anybody’s meat. I couldn’t let that happen to him, not if I could stop it.
Stephen might end up dead. Richard might end up dead. I might have to kill Sylvie. I might have to maim or kill a few pack members to make my point. Might, might,
might. Damn.
I’d never killed before except in self-defense or for revenge. If I put my hat in the ring, it would be premeditated, cold-blooded murder. Maybe not in a technical sense, but I knew what I would be starting in motion. It was like dominoes. They all stayed straight and neat until you hit one of them; then there was no stopping them. I would end up with a pretty pattern on the floor: Richard solidly in power, Stephen and the wereleopards safe, Sylvie backed down, or dead. The first three things were going to happen. It was Sylvie’s choice how the last bit turned out. Harsh, but true. Of course, there was one other option. Sylvie could kill me. That would sort of open things up for her again. Sylvie wasn’t exactly ruthless, but she didn’t let anyone get in her way. We shared that trait. No, I am not ruthless. If I was, I’d have just called Sylvie into a meeting and shot her on the spot. I wasn’t quite sociopath enough to do it. Mercy will get you killed, but sometimes it’s all that makes us human.
I made the calls. I chose a man’s name first, Kevin, no last name. His voice was thick with sleep, gruff, like he smoked. “Who the hell is this?”
“Gracious,” I said, “very gracious.”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Anita Blake. Do you know who I am?” When trying to be threatening, less is more. Me and Clint Eastwood.
He was quiet for nearly thirty seconds, and I let the silence build. His breath had sped up. I could almost feel his pulse quickening over the phone.
He answered like he was used to strange phone calls and pack business. “You’re our lupa.”
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Collection 6-10 Page 45
