Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [1022]
He put that cave-dweller gaze on me. I shivered, because I couldn’t help it. He actually smiled. He liked that I was afraid of him. He liked that a lot. A part of me screamed, Kill him now. The rest of me really didn’t disagree with that little voice.
“We need the muscle,” Edward said at my side.
“You’re reading my mind,” I said.
“I know you.”
I nodded. “Yeah, you know me.” I glared at him. “And yet this is who you bring to my party.”
“He had no choice,” Olaf said in that deep, rumbling voice that seemed to come from the very center of that big chest.
“I heard that,” I said.
Claudia said, “Anita, what is he?” She jerked a thumb at him.
“Backup,” I said.
She gave me a look.
“He’s given his word of honor that he’ll behave himself while he’s in our city.”
“Behave himself how?” Remus asked.
I looked at Edward. “You explain it. I need to get some paperwork from Jean-Claude’s room.”
“Paperwork,” he said.
I nodded. “I think I’ve got warrants of execution for the two vamps that fucked us earlier.”
“I thought no one knew they were in town,” he said.
“They’ve been setting up some of the vamps from the Church of Eternal Life.”
“Busy girls,” Edward said.
“They were women, these vampires?” Olaf asked. His voice was neutral, I’d give him that.
I hated to answer his question, because if the driver’s license photos looked as much like the vampires Mercia and Nivia as I remembered, then I knew why two of Malcolm’s people had been naughty. The Harlequin were spies and covert ops; a little play-acting was right up their alley. Was I certain that Mercia and Nivia had pretended to be Sally Hunter and Jennifer Hummel? No. Was I almost sure? Yes. Was I sure enough to use the warrants to kill them? Oh, yes.
“Yes, they were both female,” I said, and I didn’t look at him as I said it.
“Are we going to kill them?”
“Probably.”
“What do they look like?” he asked, and his voice was losing its neutral edge.
“Why does that matter to you?” Claudia asked.
I forced myself to look up and meet Olaf’s gaze. I fought to watch his face while I said, “They fit your vic profile, if that’s what you want to know. One of them maybe a little tall, but the other one is juuust right.”
The look on his face…such joy, such anticipation. It made me want to cry, or scream, or shoot him.
“Vic profile,” Claudia said. “What are you saying?”
“Olaf is special ops. He’s an assassin, and a soldier, and a spook, and he’s good at all of it.”
“Not just good,” he said, “I am the best.”
“I’ll let you and Edward discuss that someday, but he’s good, Claudia. He’s backed my play before, and he was…useful.” I licked my lips. “But no woman of any description is to be alone with him at any time.”
“Why?” she asked.
“I gave my word,” Olaf said.
“I’m going to treat you like a recovering alcoholic, Olaf. Let’s just keep temptation out of reach, okay?”
“We are going to slaughter these two women together, correct?” he asked.
I licked my suddenly dry lips again, then nodded. “I think so.”
“Then I will not be tempted elsewhere.”
Normally, I’d have just used silver shot and blown holes through the vampires until I saw daylight. Or maybe a good old-fashioned staking. But they were Harlequin. I would have to treat them as if they were master vamps, heavy hitters. Which meant shoot them with silver shot, then decapitate them, take the heart out, and burn them both. You burn the body in a separate fire. Then you scatter the ashes in running water, different bodies of running water if you want to be truly paranoid. Was I paranoid, or just cautious? These two vampires had almost killed Jean-Claude, Richard, and me from a distance, using powers I’d never seen before. Paranoid it wasn’t.
It was a messy, dirty job to decapitate and take a heart. There were vampire executioners who quit after having to do it a few times, just didn’t have the stomach for it. Did I have the stomach for it? Yes. Would I let Olaf help me?