Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [540]
Zane stood with his back against the sink. Asher leaned against the china cabinet close enough to Thompson that he could have touched him and certainly could prevent him from pulling the gun. The gun in question was a Berretta 10 mil in a shoulder holster. Same gun as on duty, just in a different holster. Letting Asher that close was careless, but Thompson didn’t seem to think that.
He smiled at me, and the smile was confident, arrogant, like he had me where he wanted me, and I couldn’t do anything about it. What was going on?
“How’d you find me?” I asked.
He stuck a thumb in the vampire’s direction. “The local Master of the City told us he could still feel you in town. They helped us hunt you down. Evidently, you’re easier to find than your boyfriend. Something about your power attracts them.”
I stared at the vampire. His face was unreadable, pale and empty. His eyes were dark grey, his hair straight and black. It was cut short and smoothed back over his forehead in a pompadour. That was what they’d called it in the fifties. The hairdo matched the feel of him in my head. He wasn’t fifty years dead yet.
“What’s your name?”
“Donald.”
“Hi, Donald, missed you at the wienie roast.”
Anger flared across the vampire’s face. He wasn’t old enough to hide it. “You told my master that you were here just to get your third out of jail. Once you had accomplished that, you should have gone home. You pretended to leave town but did not. If you had simply left, we would have accepted the murder of our people. By staying, you show that you intend to possess our lands and my master’s power.”
“Have you talked to your master lately?” I asked. “Or more importantly, has he talked to his human servant lately?”
The vampire glared at me, but there was no power to it. “Colin is injured but not yet dead. But the Council will slay you for . . . killing his servant.”
Asher said, “A human servant gives up their safe conduct if they attack another vampire directly. That is Council law. Anita did nothing that the Council will hunt her for. If Colin persists in trying to harm us, it is he the Council will hunt down and destroy.”
“Enough of the vampire crap,” I said. I turned back to Thompson. “So, what’s the message? I thought if we were still here after dark, Frank was going to do us all personally.”
“Ol’ Frank seems scared shitless of you. Howard keeps mumbling that the signs are real bad, that they need to leave town now. That if they stay, you’ll kill them all.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Having met Niley and his crew, I’m flattered at being their bogeyman. Now, what the fuck is the message?”
Thompson brought a small white box out of his pocket. It was like something you’d buy an inexpensive necklace in. He held it out to me with a smile that was so unpleasant, it made me afraid to take the box.
“It won’t bite,” he said.
I glanced at Asher. He shrugged.
I took the box. It was tacky on the bottom. I raised it to see a brownish stain on the white cardboard. The box was light but not empty. “What’s in here?”
“Don’t want to spoil the surprise,” Thompson said.
I took a deep breath and lifted the lid off. There was a lock of hair, curled over some cotton. The hair was long and thick and chestnut brown, tied with a bit of red ribbon like you’d use on a present. I lifted the lock of hair and it fell across my palm. The cotton it had been resting on was stained at one corner. Stained reddish brown.
I fought to keep my face blank. “So?” I said.
“Don’t you recognize it? Zeeman’s baby brother donated that.”
“You didn’t get blood cutting Daniel’s hair,” I said.
“No,” he smiled, laughed, squirming in his chair like a kid who couldn’t wait for the rest of the joke, “There’s another