Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [821]
I said, “Yes.” I said yes, with Haven’s energy running through my body like a warm, hurtful blanket.
Richard said, “Thank you.” I wasn’t sure what he was thanking me for, but he knelt down beside us. He was on one knee, facing Haven. He wrapped his hand around the other man’s wrist, where it was trying to pull Noel’s head backward. The pressure eased on Noel’s hair, and his head began to lower. Haven’s hand shook with the effort to pull Noel’s head backward, but Richard pushed his hand down. It was a struggle, and slow, but it was like an arm-wrestling match when one person is simply the stronger of the two. The match wasn’t over, but one arm against one arm, Richard was the stronger man. He just was.
But Haven was one thing that Richard was not, a professional thug. He did two things simultaneously. He released Noel’s hair, and he tried to hit Richard with his other hand. That fist going over us was a blink of the eye, too fast to see, more just an awareness of air moving, and the afterimage. Richard saw it, because when the fist tried to land on his face, he wasn’t there to take the blow. He rolled backward, and pulled Haven with him, with one hand on the other man’s wrist. Haven’s own momentum made him fall forward, and Richard did a move that I’d showed him ages ago. His sport was karate, mine was judo. But if it had been me trying for the tomenage throw, I’d have failed. Because Haven was half-collapsed on Richard’s legs, not high enough above the ground, unless you had the strength to plant your feet in the man’s stomach and lift with your legs. I would have just ended with Haven on top of me, not an improvement in a fight, but Richard pushed him skyward and was strong enough to keep the momentum going.
Haven flew across the room and hit the fireplace. Richard had time to stand before the other man got to his knees, then charged him. The fight was on.
37
THE FIGHT ROLLED over the couch, and vanished from sight for a minute.
Noel shivered on top of me, and it wasn’t pleasure. “Are you hurt?” I asked.
His voice was breathy from pain or fear. I didn’t know him well enough to guess which. “Anita, you’re about to pick an animal to call.”
I patted the top of his curls, gently. “You’re not thinking clearly, Noel.” I started to try to sit up, but he wrapped himself around me. Not pinning me, but making it so sitting up would be an effort.
Richard was the one who staggered back from the couch, blood spattering his face. Haven got to his feet like he was on springs, and they squared off. Both of them went down into fighting stances that said that Haven knew some kind of martial art, too. Not good.
“Let me up, Noel.”
He raised his face, so I could see how frightened his eyes were behind his glasses. “You are about to have another animal to call.”
“Nathaniel is my animal to call.”
“He’s your animal for Damian and you, but Richard is your animal with Jean-Claude.”
Richard and Haven were circling in the bare area just in front of the far hallway. They feinted with legs and hands, but they weren’t fighting. They were getting the measure of each other. Once they had it, the fight would get serious. I didn’t want that.
Noel gripped my arms, turned my attention back to him. “Joseph thinks that something about the vampire marks is giving you an animal to call to match each of your beasts.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Everything you do is impossible, Anita. My Rex thinks it is possible. He hopes that if you feed from more than one lion, your power won’t bond to any one person.”
Travis collapsed to his knees beside us, blocking my view of the growing fight. He was cradling his arm tight against his chest. The side of his head was bleeding into his brown-gold curls. “But if you do have to bond to a lion, Joseph would prefer that the strongest preternatural power in his territory not bond itself to a lion who would try to take over his pride.”
It seemed