Hit List ab-20

by Laurell K. Hamilton

  “You think that George sensed it, too, and when he had a chance to kill Ethan and not get caught, he took it,” Edward said.

  “Maybe,” I said.

  “If that’s true,” Ethan said, “then I’m dead. They are the greatest warriors, greatest assassins and spies that ever lived. I am so dead.”

  He seemed oddly calm about it.

  Edward and I exchanged a glance. I saw the slight frown of disapproval around his eyes, which let me know he wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but that he wasn’t going to say no, because he wasn’t sure it was a bad idea either.

  “Then you stay with us, with me.”

  Ethan raised eyebrows at that. “How does that keep me safe?”

  Edward and I looked at him.

  Ethan smiled, quick and surprised. “Are you saying that the two of you are better than all of us?”

  I shrugged, not always the most comfortable thing in the shoulder holster. It made me have to resettle the straps with a shoulder movement that looked like what it was, adjusting a strap on a holster that wasn’t quite comfy.

  “I think it’s more that Ted and I trust each other more than we trust a bunch of men we don’t know.”

  “What she said.”

  “You’re human,” Ethan said. “You saw what just one of these people did to a hallway full of weretigers. They’re trained guards, Anita.”

  “They’re not as well trained as you are,” I said.

  He shrugged, and had to do his own version of resettling the straps; without his own marshal Windbreaker it was very obvious. “The other guards wouldn’t agree with you.”

  “You held your own with George. Hand to hand with him armed with a gun and a blade, and you kept him at bay.”

  “He was toying with me, Anita. He was keeping me enough in the fight so my body was blocking your shot.”

  “When did you figure that out?” I asked.

  “When he had an opening for the knife and didn’t take it.”

  “If you hadn’t sacrificed your arm to his knife and thrown yourself backward, I’d have never been able to shoot him.”

  Edward motioned at the bandage on Ethan’s arm. “So you let him cut you, knowing it was a silver blade, and threw yourself back onto the floor so Anita could shoot him?”

  Ethan nodded.

  Edward gave a small smile. “You trusted her to shoot him before he could fall on you and finish you.”

  Ethan nodded again.

  Edward studied the other man. “You trusted that George was more worried about Anita shooting him than about killing you?”

  “Yes,” Ethan said, and he was frowning now.

  “Why?” Edward asked.

  “Why what?”

  “Why would you trust Anita that much? You’d just met her.”

  Ethan frowned. He seemed to think about it for a moment or two. “Her reputation, and the fact that one of the greatest fighters to ever walk the face of the earth was that worried about her. He was that convinced that she would not only shoot him, but kill him. He was way more worried about her than me.”

  “So you trusted that the bad guy had researched Anita, and if he was scared of her, then you’d trust her to be scary?”

  Ethan thought about that for another moment or two. Then he nodded. “I guess so.”

  “You decided all that in the middle of a fight,” Edward said.

  “While healing a wound in his side,” I said.

  Edward looked at me. “What?”

  “When the bad guy made Alex go crazy with rage, he shoved Ethan into the machinery.”

  “I got that,” Edward said.

  “Did you also get that one of the broken pipes got shoved through Ethan’s side?”

  Edward raised eyebrows just a little at that. “No.”

  “He dragged himself off the pipe while I was trying to calm Alex.”

  “Dragged himself off the pipe?” Edward said.

  “Yep.”

  Edward looked back at Ethan, and it was a considering look. He finally gave a small nod. “That’ll do.”

  I smiled, because I knew what that meant.

  Ethan frowned at both of us. “What’ll do?”

  “You,” I said.

  He frowned harder. “What?”

  “You’ve passed inspection,” I said.

  Ethan looked at Edward. “His inspection?”

  “Our inspection,” Edward said.

  He looked from one to the other of us. “You guys have worked together a long time.”

  We glanced at each other and then back to Ethan. We both said, “Yes.”

  17

  EDWARD’S PHONE RANG. When it wasn’t Donna, apparently his ringtone was an old-fashioned ring. Good to know. “Forrester here.”

  I heard a man’s voice like a rumble over the phone. I wondered if Ethan could actually hear the other side of the conversation.

  Edward went straight into his Ted voice, all cheerful and aw-shucks. “Tilford, that’s good thinkin’ if ya got a good enough psychic.”

  Ethan raised eyebrows at the change in Edward’s voice, but it wasn’t just his voice. Edward stood a little differently; his facial expressions matched the voice. There was more than one reason that he’d been so good at undercover work. He wasn’t just good at killing people; he was, in his way, as good at hiding among his prey as the Harlequin.

  “Really, Morrigan Williams.”

  The moment I heard the name, my stomach tried to drop into my feet. She was a very good psychic. A little too good if you were keeping as many secrets as Edward and I were.

  “So Morrigan Williams was here visiting. You lucked out, Tilford.” Edward grinned at the phone as if Tilford could see him. He could do the Ted voice without the whole body and face going with it, but he tended to stay in character if we were with more law enforcement, as if he were more concerned about not dropping the act when he knew he’d be “Ted” for a long time.

  He’d mentioned the name twice so I’d be sure to get the point. Neither of us would want to be spending much time near her. She was entirely too good, and her specialty was things that dealt with death. She specialized in serial killer cases and other violent death. Violence spoke to her psychically, the way it drew Edward and me in real life.

  Edward got off the phone. The moment he was off, his face began to close down, go from smiling Ted to blank and serious. His blue eyes were cold when they looked at me. “You heard.”

  “Neither you nor I can be anywhere near her,” I said.

  “Why? She helps the police solve cases and talks to ghosts. Why should that be a problem for you guys?” Ethan asked.

  “I’ve had psychics tell me that I’m covered in death. That my energy was so stained with all I’d done that they couldn’t be near me. They were gifted, but like most psychics they got impressions more than anything else. From all accounts Morrigan Williams gets much more detail.”

  “You’re afraid she’ll see something about you two and tell the other policemen,” Ethan said.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “She’s that good?” He made it a question.

  “If her reputation is deserved, yes,” I said.

  “Can you avoid her?” Ethan asked.

  I liked that. We’d told him the situation and he went straight to testing for a solution. “I don’t know.”

  “Tilford has her at the first murder site now.”

  “You mean the first murder site in this city,” I said.

  Edward nodded. “You’re right, it’s not even close to the first, but yeah, he’s at the softball field.”

  “That was fast,” I said.

  “Apparently, she contacted the police. She was told that she could help them find what they seek.”

  “That sounds like the regular psychic stuff,” Ethan said.

  “True,” I said. I looked at Edward. “Maybe her reputation isn’t deserved.”

  “Maybe,” he said. We looked at each other for a minute.

  “Wh
at does Tilford want us to do?”

  “He’s got a feeling that she’ll give them a direction to hunt in, so he wants us back to help finish the hunt.”

  “That’s a lot of faith,” I said.

  “I think Tilford trusts you and me at his back more than Newman.”

  I grinned. “Well, who wouldn’t?”

  “Is Newman bad at the job?” Ethan asked.

  “No,” I said.

  “We don’t know yet,” Edward said.

  “He is literally the new man on the team,” I said.

  “So untried commodity,” Ethan said.

  “He’s fresh out of the training and he’s never been on a real vampire hunt.”

  “I wouldn’t want him at my back either,” Ethan said, “or at least not just him.”

  “We can’t leave Tilford hanging just because the psychic may see something she shouldn’t,” I said.

  Edward nodded. “I know.”

  “What are you going to do?” Ethan said.

  “We’re going to the crime scene,” I said.

  “What will you do about the Williams lady?”

  “We’ll try to stay at a distance,” I said.

  “Will that help?”

  Edward said, “Will it?”

  I thought about it. “She’ll be in the middle of experiencing a very violent crime scene. If she’s like most psychics, especially the good ones, she’ll be overwhelmed with violent images and really bad emotions. She probably won’t be able to tell our stuff from the crime.”

  “Probably,” Edward said.

  “Probably is the best I got unless you want to leave Tilford to hunt these guys without us.”

  Edward sighed. “No.”

  “Then we go,” I said.

  He nodded.

  Ethan asked, “Do you really think I’m in danger?”

  I looked at Edward. He motioned at me. “I’m not sure.”

  “He can’t go to the crime scene with us,” Edward said, “so he’s safer staying here, just farther into the underground where they’d have to fight their way in.”

  “If I knew for sure he was a target, then I might disagree, but I think it’s the best we got.”

  We all agreed. I made sure that the two guards on the door outside walked Ethan back away from the entrance. One of the guards asked, “What about you guys? You’re only human. He’s not.”

  “George is carrying my bullet in his side, not anyone else’s. I think I did okay.”

  “He moved through us like we were standing still,” the guard said, and his eyes looked haunted. “None of the rest of us could touch him. You did better than just okay, and you know it.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  He motioned to Ethan, and the three of them walked down the corridor. I unholstered the Browning and put a round in the chamber.

  Edward looked at me.

  “I shot him because I had the gun out and aimed. If I’d had to draw first, I’d have missed.”

  Edward didn’t argue, he just got out his Glock and jacked up a round, ready to fire. “Any other advice?” he asked.

  The fact that he asked me was very high praise. “I appreciate your asking, but no.”

  “Let’s go see if Morrigan is as good as her rep, and if Raborn will really let Tilford order a full-blown hunt on the basis of a psychic’s vision.”

  “I’m betting he won’t,” I said.

  “I’m betting you’re right,” Edward said.

  “Which is another reason Tilford wants us there. If Raborn doesn’t sign off on it, then we’ll be going in with just the marshals with us and some of the locals.”

  “Yep,” Edward said, already sliding back into his Ted persona. He started up the tunnel, and I fell in beside him. We walked out with our guns drawn and ready to fire. There were no bad guys waiting for us, but I didn’t feel weird about having my gun out and ready, I just felt safer.

  When we got to the SUV we put on the full gear for monster hunting, including the vest, which I hated the most. It hampered movement and it wouldn’t stop either a vampire or a wereanimal. They’d peel it off us like getting a turtle out of its shell, but regulations stated that the vest was part of the outfit. I had to change out my holsters to accommodate the vest, so that I could still get to the Browning, but the Smith & Wesson had to move even more to a front cross draw. Only the knives got to stay put.

  “Hate the vest,” I said.

  “Think of it like an air bag on your car.”

  I looked at him. “You wearing yours more often?”

  “Some.”

  And just like that I knew Edward had changed. Or was it me? I was harder to hurt and healed almost anything short of a death blow and Edward didn’t. He was more fragile than I was; it seemed so wrong.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Nothing.” And, in the end, there really was nothing to say but it made me sad.

  18

  EDWARD’S PHONE RANG. He slipped it from his pocket. “Forrester here.”

  I heard the murmur of a man’s voice on the other end but couldn’t tell more than that. Edward made little um noises, and then finally said, “We’re ten minutes out. Wait for us.”

  He listened some more and then turned to me, phone still to his ear. “The psychic has pinpointed the vampires as very close to the first kill site here. Close enough to find them and stake them before full dark. Some of the other police are pushing Newman to be a man and go into the woods before we get there. Apparently the fact that they think we’re fucking has cost both you and me credibility.”

  “They’re going in with SWAT, then?” I said.

  “They didn’t think the vampires would be in the woods. They didn’t put out a full call, and by the time they get out here to the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere, it’ll be dark.”

  “The vampires are still asleep, but the wereanimals aren’t. There is at least one wereanimal near the vampires, maybe more, I’ll guarantee that.”

  Edward handed me the phone and started driving fast enough to make the narrow tree-lined road exciting, but not in a good way. I held on to the oh-shit handle and hoped it didn’t earn its nickname.

  Tilford said, “Why are you so sure that the wereanimals are near the vampires?”

  “Because they are their animals to call, which means their main job is to help their vampire masters. If the vampires are just buried in the leaves in a wood, then no way would their wereanimals leave them totally unguarded during daylight hours. A large animal could uproot them and expose them to sunlight. It’s just too dangerous to leave a vampire alone like that. You saw how fast he was, Tilford. Do you really want to go into the woods around here with only a handful of marshals and local PD?”

  “No,” he said.

  “Then don’t,” I said.

  “You know if the rest of them go in, I can’t stay behind.”

  “Don’t let them bully Newman, then; protect him, damn it, and protect the rest of them even if it’s from themselves.”

  “The other marshals don’t think you and Forrester being here will make that much difference. They’d rather not lose the daylight.”

  “Do you believe that less than ten minutes will make that big a difference?” I asked. Edward took a curve and with the phone in one hand I had to brace my leg and hold on to the handle very tightly. I muttered “Jesus” under my breath.

  “What’s wrong?” Tilford asked.

  “Ted’s trying to cut down on our arrival time. We’ll be there really soon if we don’t go off the road.”

  “We won’t go off the road,” Edward said, eyes still on the road as he hit the gas harder, and I tried to pretend I believed him.

  “I’d rather have you both with us, but neither of you is exactly everyone’s favorite person right now.”

  “Because everyone thinks we slept together?”

  “I didn’t say that,” he said.

  “Ted said that’s why he lost his street cred with some of the marshals. I know my rep wa
s already trashed.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, which meant it was the truth.

  “They’re just jealous,” I said. I fought not to make one of those girly squeak noises as the side of the SUV brushed tree limbs on the side of the road.

  “What?” Tilford asked.

  “Either they want to know why I won’t sleep with them, or they hate the fact that I fucked someone and I still kill more monsters than they do.”

  “I don’t think the first, but the second, maybe.”

  “It’s a guy thing, Tilford; it’s not that they really want to sleep with me, it’s just if one guy is, then why not them? It’s just a fucking stupid guy thing.”

  He was quiet for a few breaths. “We’re going in.”

  “We’re almost there, I swear.”

  “If the thing that hurt Karlton is in there, the two of you won’t make that big a difference, Blake.”

  “You’d be surprised,” I said.

  “What can you do that we can’t?”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, but finally settled on, “I can sense wereanimals and vampires sometimes.”

  “So can the psychic,” he said.

  “But can she shoot them?” I asked.

  He gave a small chuckle. “Probably not. We’re going in.”

  “Tilford, please wait.”

  Edward half-yelled, “We’re almost there!” The SUV skittered around a corner and then Edward slammed on the brakes so hard that only my braced leg and the desperate grip on the oh-shit handle kept me from kissing the dashboard.

  “What the fuck, Ed . . . Ted?”

  “What’s wrong?” Tilford asked.

  “There’s a truck in the middle of the road,” I said.

  “A wreck?” Tilford asked.

  The truck was upside down, the cab partially crushed, some of the windows broken as if it had flipped. “Yeah.”

  “Any injured?”

  Edward and I kept staring at the truck. “No one we can see,” I said.

  “If there’s injuries we can have one of the locals call it in,” Tilford said.

  Edward’s hand was on the door handle, but he wasn’t getting out. I touched his arm. “We’ll call you back,” I said, and handed Edward his phone. He put it away, and we looked at the wreck, and then we both started looking around at the trees so close to the road.