Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [1046]
“Get out, Dolph, just go.”
“But he gets to stay,” and he pointed at Edward.
“He hasn’t insulted me. He’s been nothing but professional.”
“I guess I deserve that.” He seemed about to say something else. He held his hand out. Edward hesitated, then gave Dolph back his gun. Dolph just left, closing the door softly behind him.
Edward holstered his gun and we waited a few seconds, then looked at each other. “You are not going to be able to avoid answering him for very long, Anita.”
“I know.”
“It’s not just you that’s going to be in trouble.”
I nodded. “Richard.”
“He was hinting.”
“If he knew, he’d do more than hint.”
“Lieutenant Storr isn’t stupid.”
“I never thought he was.”
“His hatred makes him stupid in some ways, but it also makes him very determined. If that determination gets turned on you and your friends, well…”
“I know, Edward, I know.”
“What are you going to do?”
“There isn’t a law on the books that says I can’t date the monsters. Legally it would be like telling a federal agent he can’t date someone who’s not white; it would be a public relations nightmare.”
“But the human servant bit, that’s an area they haven’t covered in the federal regulations.”
“You’ve checked?” I asked.
“Before I took the badge, yeah, I read up. Nothing says you can’t be Jean-Claude’s human servant and a federal marshal.”
“Because the laws haven’t caught up to themselves.”
“It doesn’t matter, Anita; it still means even if Dolph finds out, you’re covered.”
“I’m covered legally, but there are other ways to be gotten rid of, if cops want you gone.”
“Like not calling you in on cases.”
“Dolph’s already doing that.”
“Frankly, I think they see you sleeping with the enemy as being just as bad as any metaphysical stuff, or worse.”
I thought about it. “They don’t really understand the metaphysics, but they understand fucking.”
“Your lieutenant seems almost as worried that you’re sleeping around as who you’re sleeping around with.”
“A lot of police are prudes at heart.”
“I think Lieutenant Storr would almost be as disappointed with you if you were just sleeping around with humans.”
“I think he sees himself as sort of a surrogate father figure.”
“How do you see him?”
“My boss, sort of. Once I thought he was my friend.”
“You’re sitting up—does it hurt?”
I thought about it, letting myself feel my body, sort of searching it for pain. I took a deep breath, all the way down to my stomach. “It’s tight, but not painful. It has that tight feeling that it gets if you don’t stretch the scar tissue out. You know?”
“I know.”
“You don’t have any scars as bad as mine, do you?”
“Only Donna knows.” He smiled.
“How is Peter, really?”
“Brave.”
“I meant, oh, hell, Edward, is he going to get the injection or not?”
“Still debating.”
“You have to tell Donna.”
“She’d take the injection.”
“Legally, it’s her decision.”
“One of the reasons we kept him Peter Black was so he could make the decision. I’ve been talking to your furry friends. Tiger lycanthropy is one of the harder-to-catch ones. It’s also one of the few that runs in families and can be inherited as well as caught.”
“That’s actually news to me,” I said.
“Apparently the tigers keep it a close family secret. I’ve been talking to the only other weretiger in town.”
“Christine,” I said.
He nodded. “Did you know she ran to a town with no tigers to escape being forced to marry into a clan of weretigers?”
“I didn’t know—wait, I remember Claudia saying that Soledad had come to St. Louis to probably escape an arranged marriage. Something about the tigers liking to keep it in the family.”
“That was her cover story.”
“How good was her cover?”
“It was good. I’ve seen her documents; they look real. They were excellent forgeries, and I know what I’m talking about.”
“I’ll