Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [527]
“You would really kill me,” she said.
“In a heartbeat,” I said. I was getting tired of crouching in the water. Made it hard to be tough. Of course, being naked didn’t help, either.
“Why didn’t you kill me just now?”
“You’re the lupa for Verne’s pack. Killing you would rain all sorts of crap down. But I will do it, Roxanne. Now, back out of the room, close the door, and let me get dressed. If you still want to talk, fine, but don’t ever, ever pull shit like this again.”
“Without that little gun you wouldn’t be so confident.”
“Yeah, it’s a real confidence booster. Now, get the fuck out of the room, or I will shoot you.”
Marianne was suddenly in the doorway. “Roxanne, let’s go have some tea and let Anita get dressed.” I don’t know what Marianne did, but even I felt calmer. It was like she projected calm and peace into the room.
Roxanne let Roland and Marianne drag her back through the door. Roxanne pointed a finger at me. “You insulted my Ulfric, and you will pay for that, with or without the gun.”
“Fine,” I said.
The door closed behind them. The lock had shattered in a pile of splinters. Cherry’s voice came through the door. “I’ll stay outside the door until you’re out. I can give you a warning if any more bad guys come.”
Bad guys. Was Roxanne a bad guy or just psycho? I was betting on the latter.
40
I GOT DRESSED in record time. Black jean shorts, red short-sleeved knit top, white jogging socks, black Nikes. Normally, I’d have left off the shoulder holster inside a house, but I threaded it through the belt and slipped it on. The black holster looked very stark against the red shirt. I put the Firestar down the front of the shorts in the Uncle Mike’s Sidekick holster that it usually rode in. I left off the spine sheath. The leather was beginning to smell like sweat. I was going to have to let it dry out before I could wear it again.
I smeared hair goop on the hair and let it go. It’d dry on its own. Call it a hunch, but I didn’t think Roxanne was the patient type. If I took the time for makeup or blow-drying my hair, she might come looking for me. I don’t normally fuss, anyway. In truth, the only reason I’d planned on it was the fact that Richard was coming with Dr. Carrie Onslow, and I was feeling insecure. Me, insecure. How sad.
Richard had spent a great deal of the day with Dr. Carrie Onslow. I was jealous and hated it.
Of course, first I needed to go confront a pissed-off werewolf. I could figure out what the hell I was going to do with Richard after I talked to Roxanne. One thing I was pretty sure of, if I killed her, it would be war between the two packs. I did not want to bring that on our people, not if it could be avoided. Anita, the politician—now, that was sad.
I opened the door. Cherry looked up at me from her seat on the floor. There was something on her face, a hesitation, that made me say, “What?”
She pushed to her feet, using the wall. “You just look . . . aggressive.”
“You mean the guns?”
“The guns, the red and black. It’s all very stark and out there.”
“You think I should be wearing pink and something frilly to cover the guns?”
Cherry smiled. “I think that Roxanne is almost psychotically dominant, and if you go down there dressed like that, she’ll take it as a sign that she’s got to be just as aggressive.”
“You don’t even know her,” I said.
She said, very simply, “Do you think I’m wrong?”
Put that way . . . “I don’t have anything pink and frilly in my suitcase.”
“How about something not black, not red?”
I frowned at her. “Will purple do?”
“It would be better,” she said.
I went back in and changed into a top that was identical cotton knit, scoop necked, but royal purple. I had to admit that the purple was softer. I kept the shoulder holster on but transferred the Firestar to the small of my back. Theoretically, I could draw it from there, but it was not my favorite position. The only shirt I could find to match the purple and