Лорел Гамильтон - Rafael

“Point taken, Anita,” and he said my name the way it’s meant to be pronounced, A-nee-ta . He tried to walk around Claudia to get closer to me, but she moved so that he couldn’t circle around us.

He looked at her again. “I thought you didn’t like me, Claudia.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why do you keep attracting my attention every time I look at another woman?”

“I’m supposed to take Anita to Rafael.”

“Take? Are you her bodyguard here, where everyone must fight for themselves?”

“I did not guard her outside in the open.”

“But you guard her now?”

She hesitated but said the only thing she could say. “No.”

“Then I am going to move around you to talk directly to Anita; if you move between us again, I will take it as a challenge.”

Lillian came back from the depths of the lockers with a white T-shirt in her hands. “You are not allowed to challenge anyone but Rafael tonight, Hector, you know the rules.”

“Just as no one else can fight me before I kill Rafael.”

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means,” I said. I kept my face blank, wondering if he’d get the movie reference.

He scowled at me. “That made no sense.”

“I should have known you weren’t a Princess Bride fan.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We think Rafael will kill you tonight,” Pierette said.

“I do not have to talk to you, cat.”

“Fine,” I said, “we all think that Rafael is going to kick your ass tonight. Is that better? Did your little prejudiced feelings get hurt because the big, bad wereleopard talked to you?” Yes, I did the baby-talk voice to go with the teasing.

It was his turn for his fists to curl at his sides. “I will be king tonight, Anita, and then everything that is Rafael’s will be mine, including his lovers.”

I shook my head. “I don’t belong to Rafael and you know it.”

“You belong to your vampire master, Jean-Claude, we all know that, but here you are in our holy of holies. You should not be here, Anita Blake.”

“Tony agreed with you,” I said.

Hector blinked at me, frowning a little, and then his eyes narrowed. “Are you threatening me?”

“Would I do that?”

“She’s not threatening you; go change in the back, Anita,” Lillian said, thrusting the T-shirt at me.

“We wear the blood of our enemies with pride here,” Hector said.

“Have you ever been covered in someone’s blood and had to walk around all night still fighting while it dries on your body?”

“Of course,” he said.

“Liar, our fights are fast and over with. They never last all night,” Claudia said.

“You’re so hot when you’re being a pain in my ass, Claudia. I used to want to fuck you because you were hot, now I just want to shut you the fuck up.”

“With your dick?” I asked.

Lillian said, “Go change.” She even gave me a little push in the direction she wanted me to go, which was away from Hector.

“What did you say?” he asked.

“Nothing, she’s going to go change now, aren’t you, Anita?” Lillian said.

I’d have argued with most people, but she’d just sewn me up and healed me too many times to count; that gained her something. I actually tried to leave to go change, but I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, and I was just out of reach of Hector’s hand. He hadn’t even swung at me, just tried to grab me. Insult to injury, he’d treated me like a potential victim and not a potential opponent.

“No human could have seen that.”

“You’re the one who keeps calling me human, Hector. I’m not claiming to be something I’m not.”

“I will be king, Anita, and if you do not want to be part of the spoils of my victory, leave before the fight begins.”

“Rafael wants me at his side, so that’s where I’ll be.”

“This is your last chance, Anita.”

“I think you’re full of shit, Hector.”

Anger ran through his face, tightened the muscles in his shoulders and upper chest and one arm. His body was getting ready to take a swing at me. I half hoped he would do it, because I was within my rights to defend myself. I might not be able to win a full-blown fight, but I knew I could hurt him before anyone could separate us. If he hurt me first, then me hurting him too badly for the fight to go on tonight would be within the rules, or I was almost sure it would be. Hector having to bow out would give us more time to find his master. I wanted that time.

“If you hit her, she’s within her rights to defend herself,” Claudia said.

“Are you saying I can’t win against a little girl?”

“Tony attacked her with a silver blade, and she killed him without drawing a weapon.”

He glanced at Claudia, then back to me, considering. “You smell like the truth, but I still don’t believe it.”

“Take a swing at me and I’ll prove it to you,” I said, and that little smile curled the edges of my mouth. It wasn’t a voluntary smile. It was the one that I got just before I hurt someone. My BFF Edward called it my I’m going to fuck you up smile. I’d have hidden the smile if I could have, because if you knew me, it was a serious tell. Of course, Hector didn’t know me.

“What the hell are you smiling at, little girl?”

I wanted him to go for me first; he had to start the fight. “Is that the best insult you got, that I’m little and a girl? Because neither one is an insult, just true. Now I mean is it an insult if I say . . .”

“Anita.” Claudia said my name with that caution that my friends learn after a while.

“. . . you’re a little boy who’s totally out of his league?”

His upper chest tensed more, the one arm stiffening. If that was the arm he swung with, then Rafael would see him coming a mile away. His voice came low and careful the way mine did when I knew if I lost control of it, I’d do something violent that I wasn’t ready to do yet. “I am not a boy and I am not out of my league with Rafael.”

“I wasn’t talking about Rafael, Hector baby.”

He frowned as if my teasing was too hard for him to follow. Who was the real Hector, the confused boy or the intelligent man that kept peeking out? “What are you talking about, Anita Blake?”

“Us, me, Pierette, Claudia—you’re out of your league with us.”

His body relaxed; damn. The arrogance was back, so sure of himself. “None of you are out of my league for dating.”

I smiled and this time it was a happy smile. “I wasn’t talking about dating us, Hector, I was talking about fighting, but now that you mention it, all three of us are out of your league for both.”

He laughed; it was that sound of a big, athletic, handsome man who has been bigger, faster, stronger, and better than all the other men for most of his life. It can make a man be incredibly arrogant and have a sense of entitlement because no one ever tells him no.

“Have you seen my fiancés?” I asked. “You’re cute enough, but you so aren’t as gorgeous as they are.”

He frowned again, as if I was making him think too hard. I wondered if he was like some of the inner-city athletes who were great on the court or field, but all the rest of their lives had been skipped over so that they were undersocialized and couldn’t read well. “After the wererats are mine, your vampire master’s beauty won’t save him, and once he dies all that survive will be ours.”

I blinked at him, because that was a little too much truth in advertising for this early in the game. “So you’re just going to tell us your dastardly plan for citywide domination now and not wait for the villain speech later?”

“Would you rather I pretend that you and Jean-Claude are stupid?”