Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [1046]
The only chairs open at the table gave their backs to the bay window and the sliding glass door. I hated sitting with my back to a window or a door—especially a door. Nathaniel touched Zane’s arm. He glanced back at me then got up, coffee cup and all, and went around to the chair that backed the door. Cherry sat beside him, though her chair had been Claudia’s, and it was turned so that she had the view of both doors. Cherry moved the chair closer to Zane, giving her back to all that glass.
There’d been a time when I wasn’t this careful, especially at home, but today was going to be one of my paranoid days. Insecurity had that effect on me, even emotional insecurity.
Claudia sat beside me. Igor leaned against the island behind me, keeping an eye on Merle, I think. They didn’t seem to like each other.
I took the first sip of coffee, hot, black, and let the warmth fill me for a few seconds, before I asked, “Where’s Gregory?”
“Stephen and Vivian took him back to their apartment,” Cherry said.
“But he’s alright?” I asked.
She nodded, smiling that smile that made her look years younger than we both were. “He’s healed, Anita. You healed him.”
“I called his beast, I didn’t heal him.”
She shrugged. “Same difference.”
I shook my head. “No, I couldn’t heal him last night.”
She frowned, and even that was pretty. She was buzzed today, shining with it. I glanced at Zane, who was still gazing at her. Maybe it was love for both of them. Something had certainly put a twinkle in her eye.
“For heaven’s sake, Anita, you saved him, does it really matter how you did it?”
It was my turn to shrug. “I just don’t like the fact that Raina’s munin seems to be interfering more and more when I try to heal.”
The doorbell rang, and I jumped like I’d been shot. Nervous—who me?
“I ordered take-out,” Nathaniel said.
I looked at him. “Please tell me it’s Chinese.”
He nodded, smiling, I think at my pleased expression. We’d discovered that though no Chinese restaurant would ordinarily deliver out this far, that for a sizable tip, and I mean sizable, they’d make an exception for us. Nathaniel got up, but Caleb pushed away from the door. “I’ll get it. I don’t seem to be much use for anything else.” He set his mug on the island and threaded his way between us to vanish into the living room.
“What’s his problem today?” I asked.
Igor answered, “He tried to get friendly with Claudia.”
“And me,” Cherry said.
I looked from Cherry’s smiling face to Claudia’s frown. “And he’s not bleeding or bruised?”
“It wasn’t necessary to hurt him,” Claudia said, “only to be very, very clear.” The tone in her voice and the look in her eyes made my own eyes go cold. I don’t know if I’d ever met a woman that had that effect on me. It made me feel sexist to say that it was more unnerving because she was a woman, but it was still true.
Her nostrils flared, and I watched all of them sniff the air. Everyone moved at once, scattering around the room. Claudia stood, grabbed my arm—my gun arm—and pulled me back towards the far side of the kitchen and the wall. She already had her gun out in her right hand. I jerked my gun arm free as Igor moved with her and they stood in front of me, blocking my view. Igor had his gun out, too. I was about to ask what the hell was going on, when I smelled it. The acrid, musty scent of snakes.
I had the Browning out and pointed at the door, sighted two-handed when the first snake man came through the kitchen doorway with Caleb in front of him, a sawed-off shotgun pressed into the angle of his jaw. “Anyone moves, and he dies.”
40
EVERYONE FROZE , AS if we’d all taken a collective breath and held it. “No one has to die here,” the snake man said. He looked at me with a huge copper-colored eye. The strong black stripe that edged the eyes looked like dramatic makeup. There were no scars on this one’s face. He was shorter