Лорел Гамильтон - Rafael

Diego drew a knife out from under his scrubs and moved toward the curtain. He moved just enough of the curtain to slide back through and said, “Let’s try that again, Pedro.”

Claudia said, “Pedro is an asshole.”

“He’s a bully,” Lillian said as she finished tugging my skin back together. My stomach did another roll and I squeezed harder on Pierette’s hand. She leaned down and whispered, “You’re going to break bones, my . . . Anita.”

I stopped squeezing and would have let go of her hand, but she held on. “It’s okay, Anita, you’ll get used to your new abilities.”

“I pulled a man’s arm off; how do I get used to that?”

“Time,” Claudia said. She knelt so that I wouldn’t have to crane my head up at her. Her face was all sympathy and something more, shared grief I think, as if me struggling with my issues had raised old ghosts for her. Had she torn someone apart like that, by accident? I wanted to ask, but staring into her brown eyes, seeing the pain in them made me hesitate. Bad memories shared isn’t always better; sometimes it just spreads the misery around but doesn’t lighten it for anyone.

“There, all done,” Lillian said. Her voice made me look at her smiling, aged face. I looked at the peacefulness in her eyes and envied her. Would I ever feel as peaceful inside as she looked?

“Thanks, doc,” I said. “Anyone have a T-shirt I can borrow? I’d rather not wear this much blood all night.”

“We might have some scrubs.”

“I’d really prefer a shirt, but if nothing else, I’d really prefer to be less bloody.”

“I’ll go see what I can find.” She went with the male nurse and his tray of instruments in tow like his only job was to follow her around and be helpful. Maybe that was his job, or maybe he just had that much respect for the doc.

I sat up on the bench and started pulling my pants up. I’d have loved to borrow pants, too, but the tac pants had too many weapons attached to them. I’d let the blood dry to me before I’d give up the easy carry of that many of my weapons for the night. I realized that this was the first time I’d been around this many shapeshifters while wearing this much blood and not had anyone get weird about the fact that I smelled like food. I stood up and Claudia stood with me; I realized she was there in case I needed to be steadied. She was in full bodyguard mode. Pierette was still sitting on the bench, looking up at us, and I realized that she was there in case she needed to give me a hand, too. They were both taking such good care of me, but if a fight started, it was against the rules for them to interfere unless it was to save my life.

Pierette reacted to me staring at her by laying her hand on my hip and smiling up at me. I couldn’t help it, I smiled back. I had a moment of thinking it felt wrong to be fastening my pants instead of taking them off with her right there. When you start thinking things like that about someone, they’ve crossed from casual lover to something else; exactly what that else was we were still figuring out, but it was nice to realize there was an else to figure out with her.

It must have shown in my face, or maybe my skin smelled different, because her smile widened and filled her eyes with an eagerness that made me smile back and let an answering eagerness fill my own eyes. I started to lean over for a kiss but felt the change in the air as the outer door opened. It made me stop what I was doing and finish fastening my belt.

I felt Claudia stiffen before she turned more solidly toward the door. “Hector, what are you doing here?”

“Is that any way to talk to your soon-to-be king, mi cariño ?”

“I am not your cariño .”

“Once Rafael is dead, you will be.”

I hadn’t even seen Hector in person, and already I hated him. Perfect.

22

PIERETTE AND I moved a little back and to the side of Claudia so we could see him and the room’s only entrance. Funny how that hadn’t bothered me until now. Hector was at least six feet tall, but that was still six inches shorter than Claudia, so he didn’t look nearly as impressive as he seemed to think he looked. He was wearing only fightwear shorts that hit him upper midthigh. They were even slit up the side and bright orange and black, which was a good color against the brown of his skin. The shorts left most of his muscled body bare to view. His long black hair was done back in a braid. If he hadn’t swaggered into the room like he owned it and everyone in it, I might even have said he was handsome. If this was Hector without a crown, God help us if he won tonight. It wasn’t just the loss of Rafael, it was just a bad idea for the tall, dark, and arrogant stranger to be in charge of anything. Maybe I was prejudiced against him, but I didn’t think I was wrong.

“I believe that Rafael will kill you tonight, but either way it doesn’t change the fact that I will never be your girlfriend,” Claudia said.

“I don’t want to be your boyfriend, Claudia. I just want to fuck you.” He was close enough now that I realized his eyes were even greener hazel than they’d looked when I fed on him. The eyes were pretty, and if I was totally honest, he was in good shape with pale brown skin so even and smooth over all that muscle that he looked pettable, but pretty is as pretty does. The nice package couldn’t make up for the way his gaze went up and down Claudia’s body so that it was very clear he was doing a lot more than just picturing her nude.

Her hands curled into fists at her sides.

“Now, Claudia, you know you can’t challenge me until after I kill Rafael.”

“He’s baiting you, Claudia, don’t allow him to manipulate you,” Pierette said.

Hector’s lascivious gaze moved to her, but in the second it took for it to change targets it went from sex to hatred. I wasn’t exaggerating either, he looked at Pierette as if he hated her. It was way too personal a look for just having met.

“What are you doing here, kitty-cat? You have no business here among us.”

“She’s with me,” I said.

His gaze stayed on hatred as he looked at me. “Anita Blake, you have no business here either.”

“Rafael says otherwise.”

“When he dies, your safe passage dies with him.”

“I didn’t get a safe passage through the rats outside. I fought my way through just like everyone else.”

“So, you really did tear one of us into pieces with your bare hands? Such dainty hands, I don’t believe the story now. Did you go for your silver blade as soon as you got scared?”

“I never went for silver.”

“Lies.”

“No lies,” Claudia said.

He looked at her and this time there was intelligence and something else, calculating his chances, debating something. I couldn’t read the expression. “If she is not one of us, then she could not have done what they are saying she did.”

“She bled Tony out with her bare hands, I swear it.”

“You smell of truth, but I knew Tony. A human couldn’t have killed him unarmed.”

“I never claimed to be human,” I said, but even my tone wasn’t happy. I still hated the idea that I wasn’t human; no, I hated that I had never been human, not if that meant normal.

“You aren’t one of us, and you aren’t a vampire, so you’re human,” he said.

“I saw my first ghost when I was ten, I raised my first dead at fourteen, I’m not sure human was ever what I was.”

Hector studied me out of those green-brown eyes. It wasn’t a teasing look, or arrogant, it was thoughtful. If the arrogant asshole was just the icing that hid an intelligent, deep thinker, Rafael was in more trouble than I’d thought, but then maybe he’d seen this part of Hector before, maybe it was what made him think the guy could be king someday. As a future leader smart was good; as an enemy to defeat, not so much.