Laurell Hamilton - Hit List

The female Harlequin moved in front of him, blocking his path. She shook her head.

“Their masters cut their tongues out with silver. It’s something they can cut off us that won’t harm our fighting skills.”

“Why?” I asked.

“The tongues will grow back, eventually, and they are supposed to learn to obey their vampire masters. The Harlequin that stayed loyal to the Mother are very old-school, Anita Blake. Animals to call, no matter how skilled, are still animals, and they treat us like animals.”

The female looked back at the male. There was another shared look.

“If the Mother of All gains her body, then all the shapeshifters will go back to being animals,” the werewolf said.

“Is the other Harlequin, the one that carried in my friend, a lion, too?”

“No, she’s another leopard.”

The werewolf drew a blade and knelt by my feet. The woman touched his shoulder, but when he went to cut through the rope on my ankles, she didn’t stop him. I heard chains rattle and the other lion was unlocking the cuffs on Lisandro’s ankles. It was too good to be true, but for once I just let him slice through the ropes on my wrists. Too good or not, I’d take it.

He handed me my own guns. “I didn’t dare take more, and we’ve melted down your holy objects; they’re gone.”

I checked the Browning and the Smith & Wesson automatically to make sure they were loaded. They were. I tucked the S&W down the back of my jeans. “Don’t apologize, this is great.”

He handed Lisandro his main gun, too. He checked to make sure it was loaded just like I had. “Thank you,” Lisandro said.

“Thank me when you’re safe,” he said, and started for the door.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“She thinks you gain power over people with their names; it’s old magic.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to be rude,” I said.

“Thaddeus,” he said. “My real name is Thaddeus.”

“No matter how this turns out, thank you, Thaddeus,” I said.

He nodded, and led the way to the door. The silent werelions fanned out to both sides. Lisandro touched my arm so I’d let him go ahead of me. His thigh was completely healed already; let’s hear it for no silver, and let’s hope that our luck stays this good. Of course, no one’s luck stays this good.

ONCE WE STEPPED out into the corridor, I had my answer on whether we were underground: yes. I’d have said it was a basement but the single hallway was all stone, as if it had been hacked from the ground, or maybe begun life as caves like the Circus of the Damned underground. This underground wasn’t nearly as impressive. In fact the main hallway was narrow enough that we could only walk two abreast. There were doors on either side like the one we came out of, and a visible end to the hallway just down from our door. The other end vanished around a curve that hid anything more than twenty feet away. A dead-end corridor with a series of doors into dead-end rooms; I’d feel sooo much better when we got around that curve, and out of this nearly perfect ambush area.

“Where are our people?” I asked.

Thaddeus motioned up the hallway. “Last door on the left has your men in it.”

He started to lead us toward that door, but I glanced at the four other closed doors. “Are there more prisoners down here?” I asked.

“No, just our masters and their vampire henchmen.”

Lisandro and I exchanged a look. “We need out of this hallway,” he said.

I nodded, because I totally agreed. If it had been a normal vampire hunt we could have staked the vampires, or put silver bullets into their brains and hearts, but if the vampires died, then their animals to call might die, too. It would be really ungrateful of us to kill our rescuers, so we had to leave the vampires behind us, dead to the world for now. The back of my neck prickled with the thought of them behind the doors, waiting for night, and us having only one way out. I appreciated Thaddeus and the lions helping us, but we weren’t rescued yet.

Thaddeus led the way with the male lion beside him. Lisandro insisted on going next and putting me between him and the female lion. I didn’t waste time arguing. We just needed to get the others and get the fuck out of Dodge.

The door we wanted was nearly at the bend of the corridor, so the lion, whom I was still calling Thing One in my head, drew a gun and glanced around that blind curve. He didn’t startle or wave us off, so apparently no nasty surprises were up ahead. Good.

Thaddeus unbolted the door. It opened almost noiselessly. He said something harsh in a language I didn’t speak, and in English said, “They are not here.”

I tried to peer around the broad shoulders and cloak, but Lisandro was actually taller and looked over his head. “Shit,” he said.

I realized I’d never asked who they had. I understood in that moment that I’d been afraid to ask, because part of me didn’t want to know who they had as hostages. I was pretty sure it was Bernardo, because he’d had the coffee just like Lisandro and me, but Nicky and Olaf hadn’t. I hadn’t asked if they were captured, or dead. Having Olaf die in the line of duty would solve so many problems, but he was a good man in a fight and he was a fellow marshal. I couldn’t wish him dead. I admitted to myself that it was Nicky that bothered me most. Bernardo was a friend, but more a work friend. I’d be sorry, but my life would go on. Nicky dead would seriously change my day-to-day life. If he’d been my lion to call his death would have hurt me, and I’d have known, but Brides of vampires are often cannon fodder, the vampires that are left behind to delay the hunters while the masters get away. If you have the vampire ability to make brides, you can always make more. Most masters knew better than to fall in love with the cannon fodder.

“Who got captured with you?” I asked Lisandro.

“I came to with just Bernardo and a guy I didn’t recognize.”

“What about Nicky and Olaf?” I asked, and I forgot to use Olaf’s “marshal” name. In that moment, I didn’t try to correct it. I’d learned when accidentally giving away someone’s alias that just ignoring the mistake attracts less attention than repeating and correcting. Most people edit what they hear to match what they expect to hear anyway.

“I passed out when you did, Anita.”

“Shit,” I said. “Thaddeus.”

He turned and gave me those serious green eyes in their mask. “While I fetched weapons they moved your friends. I have failed you.”

“Who’s the man that Lisandro didn’t know, and what happened to the other two men with us?”

“The red tiger mongrel that you made your lover,” he said.

“Ethan?”

“I believe that is his name.”

“I’ve only slept with Ethan once.”

“You have a reputation for bonding very closely with your lovers after very little contact.”

“How did you get him out of the red tiger’s lair?”

“Our spy knew a way to get him to come to us.”

“Good ol’ George,” I said.

“That is one of his aliases.”

I wanted to argue, but wasn’t sure I could, so I pushed the thought away. I’d look at it later. I didn’t ask again about Nicky and Olaf either. If they were dead, there was nothing I could do, and there’d be plenty of time for mourning. Right now, I needed to get us out alive without being possessed by Marmee Noir; until those two goals were reached nothing else really mattered. I told myself that and almost believed it.

“Fine, where would they take them?” I asked.

Then a voice called from ahead, “Anita, we have your lovers; if you do not throw down your weapons and surrender we will begin cutting pieces off them.” It was Harley; great.