Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [1023]
Claudia asked again, “What do you mean he’s like an alcoholic?”
“You tell her, Edward. I’m going to go check my paperwork.”
“Not without guards, you aren’t,” he said.
“Fine,” I said. “Send guards with me.”
“Where is the paperwork?” he asked.
“In my briefcase in Jean-Claude’s place.”
“You can’t go to the Circus of the Damned without me, Anita.”
“Or me,” Olaf said.
“If I said ‘or me,’ would you get mad?” Peter said.
I frowned at him. “Yes.”
He grinned at me. He was entirely too pleased to be here with his guns and knives strapped to his body. He was even wearing a black T-shirt, but at least his jeans were blue, though his leather jacket was black. The boots were brown and looked like Edward’s, real cowboy boots, not boots you’d wear to go dancing like Olaf’s. Though the fact that I thought Olaf’s boots were club boots was probably a fact best kept to myself.
“I have to vote with them,” Claudia said.
“No one asked your opinion, woman,” Olaf said.
“Let’s get this clear, right now,” I said. “Claudia is one of our officers. You don’t like it, I know that, but I trust her with my life.”
“She nearly got you killed.”
“Didn’t I end up in the hospital a couple of times in New Mexico, when you were supposed to be watching my back?”
Anger flared across his face, thinning out his lips, making his eyes look even more cavernous.
“Don’t bitch at Claudia, if you can’t do better.” The moment I said it, I knew I shouldn’t have.
“I can do better than a woman.”
“Shit,” I said.
“Anita,” Claudia said.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Let me prove it.”
I sighed. “As amusing as the thought of you and Olaf going at it is, please don’t. I know where the two bad vamps are, and I have current warrants of execution.”
“How do you know where they are?” Edward asked.
“I saw hotel stationery fall from a table in the vision. If they didn’t wake up and move their asses, we got ’em.” I looked at Olaf. “If you don’t slow me down by picking fights with my guards, then we get to kill two vampires today. They’re powerful enough that we’ll have to take their heads and hearts.”
“Like we did in New Mexico,” he said, and there was an eager purr to that deep voice.
I nodded, swallowing past a feeling that might have been nausea. “Yes.”
“To hunt with you again, Anita, I will let this one believe what she likes.”
I understood what a huge concession that was for Olaf. Claudia said, “I don’t believe it, big man, I know it.”
“Claudia,” I said, “please, oh, hell, just don’t be around him, okay? He can’t seem to help how he feels about women. Just don’t crowd him and we’ll get this done, okay?”
She didn’t like it, but she nodded.
“Great. Edward, you fill in the guards on why Olaf isn’t to be alone with the women. I want to see Richard alive, not just in a vision. When you’re done telling everyone what a big, bad man he is, come find me, and you can drive me to the Circus of the Damned for the warrants.”
“I don’t want you going out of my sight without guards, Anita.”
“Jesus, Edward, it’s daylight.”
“Yeah, and you know better than I do that master vamps have human servants, animals to protect them, and just plain human victims who will do anything they’re told.”
I nodded, a little too fast, a little too often. “Fine, fine, you’re right. I’m tired, and I’m…oh, hell, just pick some guards so I can go see Richard.”
I should have understood if he picked guards, who one of them would be. Just shadowing me to Richard’s hospital room was an easy job, a safe job, or should have been. I went for the far door with one bodyguard in front of me and one behind. The one bringing up the rear was Peter.
30
OUTSIDE RICHARD’S ROOM I had a fight with my guards. The other guard was Cisco, who was all of eighteen. I felt like a chaperone at a prom. But the fact that they were both still teenagers didn’t make them less stubborn. Hell, maybe it made them more stubborn.
“Standing