I was running full out and skidded on my high heels, grabbing the receiver as I slid into the wall and nearly dropped the phone. I yelled into the receiver as I juggled the phone, “Edward, Edward, it’s me! I’m here!”
Edward was laughing softly when I could finally hear him.
“Glad I could be amusing. What’s up?” I asked.
“I’m calling in my favor,” he said quietly.
It was my turn for silence. Once upon a time Edward had come to my aid, been my backup. He’d brought a friend, Harley, with him as more backup. I’d ended up killing Harley. Now, Harley had tried to kill me first, and I’d just been quicker, but Edward had taken the killing personally. Picky, picky. Edward had given me a choice: either he and I could draw down on each other and find out once and for all which of us was better, or I could owe him a favor. Some day he would call me up and ask for me to be his backup like Harley. I’d agreed to the favor. I never wanted to come up against Edward for real. Because if I did, I was pretty sure I’d end up dead.
Edward was a hit man. He specialized in monsters. Vampires, shapeshifters, anything and everything. There were people like me that did it legal, but Edward didn’t sweat the legalities, or hell, the ethics. He even occasionally did a human, but only if they had some sort of dangerous reputation. Other assassins, criminals, bad men, or women. Edward was an equal opportunity killer. He never discriminated, not for sex, religion, race, or even species. If it was dangerous, Edward would hunt it and kill it. It’s what he lived for, what he was—a predator’s predator.
He’d been offered a contract on my life once. He’d turned it down and had come to town as my bodyguard, bringing Harley with him. I’d asked him why he hadn’t taken the contract. His answer had been simple. If he took the contract, he only got to kill me. If he protected me, he thought he’d get to kill more people. Perfect Edward reasoning.
He’s either a sociopath or so close it makes little difference. I may be one of the few friends that Edward has, but it’s like being friends with a tame leopard. It may curl on the foot of your bed and let you pet its head, but it can still eat your throat out. It just won’t do it tonight.
“Anita, you still there?”
“I’m here, Edward.”
“You don’t sound happy to hear from me.”
“Let’s just say I’m cautious,” I said.
He laughed again. “Cautious. No, you’re not cautious. You’re suspicious.”
“Yeah,” I said. “So what’s the favor?”
“I need backup,” he said.
“What could be so terrible that Death needs backup?”
“Ted Forrester needs backup from Anita Blake, vampire executioner.”
Ted Forrester was Edward’s alter ego, his only legal identity that I was aware of. Ted was a bounty hunter who specialized in preternatural creatures that weren’t vampires. As a general rule vamps were a specialty item, which was one of the reasons that there were licensed vamp executioners but not licensed anything else executioners. Maybe vampires just have a better political lobby, but whatever, they get the most press. Bounty hunters like Ted filled in the blanks between the police and the licensed executioners. They worked mostly in rancher-run states where it was still legal to hunt down varmints and kill them for money. Varmints still included lycanthropes. You could shoot them on sight in about six states as long as later a blood test proves they were lycanthropes. Some of the killings had been taken to court and were being contested, but nothing had changed yet on a local level.
“So, what does Ted need me for?” Though truthfully I was relieved that it was Ted asking and not Edward. Edward on his own probably meant illegal, maybe even murder. I wasn’t quite into cold-blooded murder. Not yet.
“Come to Santa Fe and find out,” he said.
“New Mexico? Santa Fe, New Mexico?”
“Yes.”
“When?” I asked.
“Now.”
“Since I’m coming as Anita Blake, vamp executioner, I can flash my executioner’s license and bring my arsenal.”
“Bring what you want,” Edward said. “I’ll share my toys with you when you arrive.”
“I haven’t been to bed yet. Do I have time to get some sleep before I get on a plane?”
“Get a few hours’ sleep, but be here by afternoon. We’ve moved the bodies, but we’re saving the rest of the crime scene for you.”
“What sort of crime scene?”
“I’d say murder, but that’s not quite the right word. Slaughter, butcher, torture. Yes,” he said, as if trying the word over in his mind, “a torture scene.”
“Are you trying to scare me?” I asked.
“No,” he said.
“Then stop the theatrics and just tell me what the hell happened.”
He sighed, and for the first time I heard a dragging tiredness in his voice. “We’ve got ten missing. Twelve confirmed dead.”
“Shit,” I said. “Why haven’t I heard anything on the news?”
“The disappearances made the tabloids. I think the headline was, ‘Bermuda Triangle in the Desert.’ The twelve dead were three families. Neighbors just found them today.”
“How long had they been dead?” I asked.
“Days, nearly two weeks for one family.”
“Jesus, why didn’t someone miss them sooner?”
“In the last ten years almost the entire population of Santa Fe has changed. We’ve got a huge influx of new people. Plus a lot of people have what amounts to vacation homes up here. The locals call the newcomers Californicators.”
“Cute,” I said, “but is Ted Forrester a local?”
“Ted lives near the city, yeah.”
A thrill went through me from the soles of my feet to the top of my head. Edward was the ultimate mystery man. I knew almost nothing about him, really. “Does this mean I get to see where you live?”
“You’ll be staying with Ted Forrester,” he said.
“But you’re Ted Forrester, Edward. I’ll be staying at your house, right?”
He was quiet for a heartbeat, then, “Yes.”
Suddenly, the whole trip seemed much more attractive. I was going to see Edward’s house. I was going to be able to pry into his personal life, if he had one. What could be better?
Though one thing was bothering me. “When you said families were the victims, does that include kids?”
“Strangely, no,” he said.
“Well, thank goodness for small blessings,” I said.
“You always were a soft touch for the kiddies,” he said.
“Does it really not bother you to see dead children?”
“No,” he said.
I just listened to him breathe for a second or two. I knew that nothing bothered Edward. Nothing moved him. But children . . . every cop I knew hated to go to a scene where the vic was a child. There was something personal about it. Even those of us without children took it hard. That Edward didn’t, bothered me. Funny, but it did.
“It bothers me,” I said.
“I know,” he said, “one of your more serious faults.” There was an edge of humor to his voice.
“The fact that you’re a sociopath, and that I’m not, is one of the things I take great pride in.”
“You don’t have to be a sociopath to back me up, just a shooter, and you are that, Anita. You kill as easily as I do, if the circumstances are right.”
I didn’t try and argue, because I couldn’t. I decided to concentrate on the crime instead of my moral decay. “So Santa Fe has a large transient population.”
“Not transient,” Edward said, “but mobile, very mobile. We have a lot of tourism, and a lot of people moving in and out on a semi-permanent basis.”
“So no one knows their neighbors,” I said, “or what their schedules should be.”
“Exactly.” His voice was bland, empty, with that thread of tiredness underneath, and under that was something else. A tone—something.
“You think there�
�s more bodies that you haven’t found yet,” I said. I made it a statement.
He was quiet for a second, then said, “You heard it in my voice, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“I’m not sure I like that. You being able to read me that well.”
“Sorry. I’ll try to be less intuitive.”
“Don’t bother. Your intuition is one of the things that’s kept you alive this long.”
“Are you making a joke about women’s intuition?” I asked.
“No, I’m saying that you’re someone who works from your gut, your emotions, not your head. It’s a strength for you, and a weakness.”
“Too tenderhearted, am I?”
“Sometimes, and sometimes you’re just as dead inside as I am.”
Hearing him state it like that was almost scary. Not that he was including me in the same breath as himself, but that Edward knew something had died inside of him.
“You ever miss the parts that are gone?” I asked. It was the closest thing to a personal question I’d ever asked him.
“No,” he said. “Do you?”
I thought about that for a moment. I started to say yes, automatically, then stopped myself. Truth, always truth between us. “No, I guess I don’t.”
He made a small sound, almost a laugh. “That’s my girl.”
I was both flattered and vaguely irritated that I was “his girl.” When in doubt, concentrate on the job. “What kind of monster is it, Edward?” I asked.
“I’ve no idea.”
That stopped me. Edward had been hunting preternatural bad guys years longer than I had. He knew monsters almost as well as I did, and he’d traveled the world killing monsters, so he had firsthand knowledge of things I’d only read about.
“What do you mean, you have no idea?”
“I’ve never seen anything kill like this, Anita.” I heard an undercurrent in his voice that I’d almost never heard—fear. Edward, whose nickname among the vamps and shapeshifters was Death, was afraid. It was a very bad sign.
“You’re shook, Edward. That’s not like you.”
“Wait until you see the victims. I’ve saved you photos of the other scenes, but the last one I kept intact, just for you.”
“How did the local law enforcement like putting a ribbon around a crime scene and wrapping it up just for little ol’ me?”
“The local cops all like Ted. He’s a good ol’ boy. If Ted tells them you can help, they believe him.”
“But you’re Ted Forrester,” I said, “and you’re not a good ol’ boy.”
“But Ted is,” he said, voice empty.
“Your secret identity,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Fine, I’ll fly into Santa Fe this afternoon, or early evening.”
“Fly into Albuquerque instead. I’ll meet you at the airport. Just call me and give me the time.”
“I can rent a car,” I said.
“I’ll be in Albuquerque on other business. It’s not a problem.”
“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked.
“Me, keeping secrets?” There was a thread of amusement in his voice again.
“You’re the original mystery man, Edward. You love keeping secrets. It gives you a sense of power.”
“Does it?” he made it a question.
“Yeah, it does.”
He laughed softly. “Maybe it does. Make the ticket reservations and call me with the flight times. I’ve got to go.” His voice went low as if someone else had come into the room.
I hadn’t asked what the urgency was. Ten missing, twelve confirmed dead. It was urgent. I hadn’t asked if he’d be waiting for my call. Edward, who never spooked, was scared. He’d be waiting for my call.
2
IT TURNED OUT that the only flight I could get that wasn’t full was a noon flight, which meant I got about five hours of sleep before I had to get up and run for the airport. I also missed Kenpo class, a type of karate that I’d just started a few weeks ago. I’d have much rather been in class than on a plane. I hate to fly. I’d driven to as many of the out of town appointments as possible, but I’d been doing a lot of flying lately. It had lessened the actual terror, but I was still phobic. I hated to be in a plane being flown by someone I didn’t know, who I had not personally drug tested. I just wasn’t the trusting sort.
Neither are the airlines. Carrying a concealed weapon on a plane was a pain in the ass. I’d had to take the two-hour FAA course on carrying concealed on a plane. I had a certificate to prove I’d taken the course. I could not get on the plane without the certificate. I also had a letter stating that I was on official business that required me to carry a gun. Sergeant Rudolf (Dolf) Storr, head of the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team, had faxed me the letter on taskforce letterhead, always impressive. Someone who was a real policeperson had to give me something to legitimize my status. If it were real police business, even if Dolf weren’t directly involved, he’d usually give me what I needed. If Edward had called me in to help in an unofficial case, i.e., illegal, I would have avoided Dolf. Mr. Law and Order wasn’t real fond of Edward, a.k.a. Ted Forrester. “Ted” was around a lot when there were bodies on the ground. It made Dolf not trust him.
I did not look out the window. I read and tried to pretend I was on a very cramped bus. I’d finally figured out that one of the reasons I didn’t like to fly was that I also have claustrophobia. A 727 full of people was close enough to make it hard to breathe. I turned the little fan above my seat on high and read. I was reading Sharon Shinn. She was an author that I trusted to hold my attention even hundreds of feet above the ground with a thin metal sheet between me and eternity.
So I can’t tell you what Albuquerque looks like from the air, and the little walkway that led into the airport was like every other one I’d ever walked through. Even in the tunnel you could feel the heat pressing like a giant hand hovering over the thin plastic. It may have been spring in St. Louis, but it was summer in Albuquerque. I scanned the crowd for Edward and actually looked past him once before realizing it was him. Part of it was the fact that he was wearing a hat, a cowboy hat. There was a fan of feathers tucked into the front of the hat band, but it had the look of a hat that had been worn well. The brim was curved back on both sides as if he’d worked at the stiff material until the brim had formed a new shape under the constant run of his hands. His shirt was white and short-sleeved like something you’d get at any department store. It was matched with dark blue jeans that looked new and a pair of hiking boots that weren’t.
Hiking boots? Edward? He’d never impressed me as a country boy. No, definitely a city fellow, but there he stood, looking sort of down-homey and comfortable. It didn’t look like Edward at all until I met his eyes. Wrap him up in whatever disguise you want, you could dress him like Prince Charming on a Disney float, but as long as you could glimpse his eyes, you would still run screaming.
His eyes are blue and cold as winter skies. He is the epitome of WASP breeding with his blond hair and slender paleness. He can look harmless if he wants to. He is the consummate actor, but unless he works at it, his eyes give him away. If the eyes are the mirror to the soul, then Edward’s in trouble because no one is home.
He smiled at me, and it thawed his eyes to something close to warmth. He was glad to see me, genuinely glad. Or as glad as he ever was to see anyone. It wasn’t comforting. In a way it was unnerving because one of the main reasons Edward liked me was that together we always got to kill more than we did apart. Or at least I did. For all I knew, Edward might have been mowing down entire armies when he wasn’t with me.
“Anita,” he said.
“Edward,” I said.
The smile turned into a grin. “You don’t seem happy to see me.”
“You being this happy to see me makes me nervous, Edward. You’re relieved I’m here, and that scares me.”
The grin faded, and I watched all the humor, all the welcome, drain out of his face l
ike water leaving a glass through a crack—empty. “I’m not relieved,” he said, but his voice was too bland.
“Liar,” I said. I would have liked to say it softly, but the noise of the airport was like the crash of the ocean, a continuous roar.
He looked at me with those pitiless eyes and gave one small nod. An acknowledgment that he was relieved I arrived. Maybe he would have verbalized it, but suddenly a woman appeared at his side. She was smiling, her arms sliding around him until she cuddled against him. She looked thirtyish, older than Edward appeared, though I wasn’t sure of his actual age. Her hair was short, brown, a no-nonsense style, but flattering. She wore almost no makeup, but was still lovely. There were lines at her eyes and mouth that made me jump her from thirty to forty something. She was smaller than Edward, taller than me, but still petite, though she didn’t look soft. She was tanned darker than was healthy, which probably explained the lines on her face. There was a quiet strength to her as she stood there smiling at me, holding Edward’s arm.
She wore jeans that looked so neat they must have been pressed, a white short-sleeved shirt that was sheer enough that she’d put a spaghetti strap tank top under it, and a brown leather purse almost as large as my carry-on bag. I wondered for a second if Edward had picked her up from a plane, too, but there was something too fresh and unhurried about her. She hadn’t come off a plane.
“I’m Donna. You have to be Anita.” She held out her hand, and we shook. She had a firm handshake, and her hand wasn’t soft. She’d worked, this one had. She also knew how to shake hands. Most women never really got the knack of it. I liked her instantly, instinctively, and mistrusted the feeling just as quickly.
“Ted’s told me so much about you,” Donna said.
I glanced up at Edward. He was smiling, and even his eyes were full of humor. The entire set of his face and body had changed. He slouched slightly, and the smile was lazy. He vibrated with good ol’ boy charm. It was an Oscar-winning performance, as if he’d traded skins with someone else.
I looked at Edward/Ted and said, “He’s told you a lot about me, has he?”
“Oh, yes,” Donna said, touching my arm while still holding onto Edward. Of course, she would be a casual toucher. My shapeshifter friends were getting me accustomed to touchie-feelie stuff, but it still wasn’t my best thing. What the hell was Edward—Ted—doing with this woman?
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Collection 6-10 Page 131
