Laurell Hamilton - Hit List

“We don’t have any submachine guns on us; we’re packing light,” I said.

Donny studied my face, and then he blinked first. He also frowned. “You’re being honest.”

“I try,” I said.

“But the point remains, you cannot go before Queen Cho Chun armed.”

“Great,” I said, “I don’t want to see her anyway. All I want right now is Alex.”

“Prince Li Da,” Donny said.

“Fine, all I want right now is Li Da.”

“Prince Li Da,” Donny said.

I shook my head. “Nope, I am Mistress of Tigers, so he’s not my prince. He’s Alex, or he’s Li Da, but he’s not Prince anything to me.”

“That is arrogant,” Donny said.

“No, it’s not, it’s just true, and I don’t technically have to stand here and dick around with you or Ethan here. I can just lay down the law and say, ‘Bring him to me.’”

“Queen Cho Chun would have the skin off my back if I let you get away with such insolence.”

I glanced at Ethan to see if Donny was exaggerating. Something in those soft, gray kitten eyes let me know that Donny was speaking the truth. Interesting; it didn’t work that way in Vegas with the white tigers.

I turned back to Donny. “She’d flay your back for just following my orders?”

“She is queen. We wait at her pleasure.”

I shook my head. I was back to staring at Ethan. I was oddly fascinated with the shape of his mouth. His upper lip was so deeply imprinted that it was almost like a dimple above the lips instead of under them.

“Anita,” Edward said. He moved in front of Ethan, blocking my view of the man. “You need to feed.”

I nodded. “You are absolutely right.” I turned back to Donny. “Either Alex comes to me now, or I do what I said I’d do on the phone: I call him to me. You and Ethan are right here beside me and trust me, with vampire powers, proximity counts. I don’t like you that well, Donny, nothing personal, but I like Ethan. My tiger likes him. If I call Alex, chances are he’ll never get here before I’ve fed on Ethan, and maybe you. Is that really what your queen wanted, or did she just want you to put me in my place?”

“It is not my place to speak for our queen. She knows what she intended; I do not.”

“I’m going to count to ten and then I’m going to call Alex, but I’m not lying about the possible effect on you and Ethan here.”

Donny said, “Ethan?”

“She smells of the truth,” he said. I couldn’t see much more than a shoulder around the edge of Edward’s body. I fought the urge to move so I could see more of him. It wasn’t good that I was this fascinated with a stranger. God, didn’t I have enough lovers in my life?

That Donny couldn’t be certain if I smelled or felt like I was telling the truth meant he wasn’t a very powerful weretiger. It also meant that he’d been guessing when he said I was telling the truth about our weapons. But now that it was important, he was willing to swallow his pride and let the more powerful weretiger answer the question. That was interesting.

“I will go and ask our queen what she wishes me to do.”

“Can’t you just call her?” I asked.

“Some questions must be asked in person.” He gave a small half-bow to me. I wondered if he even realized he’d done it. He strode off down the corridor.

I called after him. “Are you leaving Ethan here?”

“He is a guard; he will do his duty.”

“Even knowing that if you don’t get back in time I’ll feed on him, you’ll still leave him here?” I said.

“He is a good guard, but he is not pure.”

“What does the fact that he’s mixed tiger heritage have to do with anything?” I asked.

Ethan answered, “He means I’m not worth protecting.”

Edward turned so that we could both look at the other man. “Not worth protecting from what?” I asked.

Ethan shrugged. “Much of anything, but in this case, you. You stole away the loyalty of some of the few remaining pure red tigers when they visited you in St. Louis; that’s why I’m guarding you, because if you bewitch me it won’t damage the clan. It won’t cost them more pure-blooded red babies.” He said it with only the slightest edge of bitterness in his voice.

“That’s cold,” I said.

“That’s the truth,” Ethan said.

I looked at Donny standing there watching us. “So you leave him here to guard us or be the sacrificial lamb, and you don’t much care which.”

Donny glanced at me, then at Ethan, and even at Edward. “I will go tell Queen Cho Chun what you have demanded.” His eyes flicked to me, then to Ethan, and I realized Donny was nervous. I think my stating so bluntly that he was leaving Ethan to be food had bothered him a little. A lot of people can do awful things as long as they don’t have to look at it too clearly. Lying to yourself doesn’t work if the truth is clear enough.

He turned without another word and walked away. His black clothing melded into the dark corridor within a few yards. They needed more light down here.

We were left standing in the dim corridor in a strangely thick silence. I felt my red tiger stir like a streak of fire called to life from cold wood. It made me close my eyes, take a deep breath, but that was a mistake, because I’d moved closer to Ethan without meaning to, and he didn’t just smell like red tiger. White tiger came out of the shadows where the beasts lived inside me. I knew there were no shadows inside me, or tall ancient trees, that it was just the landscape my mind created to help me cope with the beasts being inside me.

I was standing in front of Ethan staring up into those soft, gray eyes.

“Step back, Anita,” Edward said. I felt his hand hover over my shoulder.

I said, “Don’t touch me right now, Edward.”

He didn’t argue, just dropped his hand. I felt the heat of it get farther away when he stepped back. “Is the ardeur rising?”

“It’s trying to, but it’s more . . .” I stepped in close to Ethan. A good guard would have moved back, but he didn’t. I was careful not to touch him, but my face was just above his bare arm, just above the skin; I breathed in the scent of him, deep.

Then another scent and my blue tigress rose and began to pace with the others.

“I thought we had the only blue tiger male alive today, but that’s where the gray curls and eyes come from. The white tiger paled you out, but you’re blue.”

“My grandmother was blue, but you do have the only pure blue tiger male. I’m so mixed up, I’m no color.”

“You’re not just red, or blue, or even white, you’re . . .” I didn’t say it out loud, because the Harlequin were trying to kill all the gold tigers; so far they’d missed them, but here was one that held a touch of that rich, golden power.

“I’m what?” he asked, and just looking up into his face I was almost certain he didn’t know that he held some of that precious bloodline. Interesting.

“How many forms do you have?” It came out as a whisper, with my mouth almost touching the skin of his arm.

“Three,” he said, and his voice was already deepening. I couldn’t tell if it was tiger, or just male reaction.

I wanted to ask, “Not four?” but I didn’t. The weretigers intermarried for genetic diversity, and most of them just looked like one side of their heritage or another.

At home I had Domino, who shifted to black and white, but physically his hair was black and white, showing the mix. If the human form showed just one, then one was what the tiger seemed to have. I’d never met another tiger who could do three colors, let alone four, but there was still that sweet scent of golden power. The gold tiger in me gave a soft, whuffing purr. I tried to think reasonably, but I didn’t feel reasonable. My skin felt heavy with need; things low in my body tightened. The reaction staggered me. Ethan reached out, took my arm, just instinct. Someone almost falls and you try to catch them. I could feel his hand through my jacket like heat and weight, as if his human shape were already only just something to hold all that power.