Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [1047]
“Have him pick up the damn phone and make an appointment,” I said. I was staring down the barrel of the Browning at a point near the center of his chest, far enough up from Caleb’s head that I wasn’t worried about shooting him, but close enough to the throat that with the ammo I had in the gun it might pretty much decapitate him. If he ever moved the gun barrel out of Caleb’s jaw. A sawed-off shotgun, with silver shot at touching range, and Caleb would be gone. I didn’t much like him, but I couldn’t let the bad guys blow his head off, could I?
“He didn’t think you’d come,” the snake man said.
“You go away, have him call, and I promise to give it the consideration it deserves.” My voice was quiet because I was stilling my breath as much as I could, waiting for that one shot, if it ever came.
The snake man ground the barrel into Caleb’s neck, until he forced a small pain sound from him. “This is silver shot, Ms. Blake. At this range it’ll take his head.”
“The second after he dies, so do you.” Claudia said it, her voice as quiet and steady as the arm that held the gun that was pointed at the snake man’s head.
He gave a hissing laugh, and it was echoed from behind him. More of the things started to move up in the open doorway. I caught a flash of silver metal, more guns. “No one else comes through that doorway, or I’ll blow you away and let Caleb take his chances.”
He pushed the barrel of the shotgun into Caleb’s jaw until the smaller man had to rise on tiptoe, and I saw the first hints of panic on his face. “I don’t think she likes you very much,” the snake man hissed.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’m not letting you bring more guns into this room.”
“You promise not to hurt Anita.” It was Merle. I’d almost forgotten him standing to one side and behind us.
“We won’t harm a hair on her head.”
“We can smell that you’re lying,” Claudia said.
The snake head turned to one side, birdlike. “Most people can’t smell changes in us, can’t smell anything but the stink of snake.”
Cherry’s voice. “Anita.”
My eyes flickered to her, and I saw movement outside the sliding glass doors. They were trying to flank us. “We’ve got movement on this side,” Igor said.
For once other people had guns, and they seemed to know what they were doing. How refreshing. My gaze turned back to the snake man in time to see him motion with the barrel of the gun towards the glass. “We have the house surrounded. There is no need for all of you to die.”
Claudia fired a second before I did. Her bullet hit him in the face, mine took him high on the chest, low on the neck. His head vanished in a welter of blood and thicker things. My ears rang with the shots in the small space. The snake’s body jerked back; the shotgun went off as his hand convulsed. Caleb threw himself to the floor towards us. Two more snake men came through the door shoulder-to-shoulder, both with shotguns. Claudia said, “Left.”
I shot the one on the right, and she took the one on the left. Both of us hit what we aimed at, and the two fell to the floor, one shotgun skidding across the floor towards us.
Another shotgun blast exploded to our left. I turned towards the noise, I couldn’t help it. The sliding glass door had shattered, and I hadn’t heard the sound of falling glass, just the shotgun roaring. Igor was kneeling, using the island as cover, as he put two shots into the chest of a man. The man fell to his knees, abruptly, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
“Incoming,” Claudia said, and I turned back to the other door. I could see the barrel of a shiny revolver, something nickel plated. Claudia was standing with her body pressed to the cabinets on the near wall, almost hidden from the door. She fired twice at that shiny barrel, and there was a scream that overrode the ringing in my ears. A screaming that went on and on like the squeal of a baby rabbit when