Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [694]
I hadn’t just cut myself off from the men in my life for six months. I’d cut myself off from my friends. Even Ronnie, Veronica Sims, one of my few human friends had a new hot romance. She was dating Richard’s best friend which made socializing awkward. Catherine, my lawyer and friend, had only been married two years, and I didn’t like to interfere with her and Bob.
“You’re thinking something very serious,” Ramirez said.
I blinked and looked at him. “Just realizing how isolated I am even back home. Here, I am so . . .” I shook my head without finishing it.
He smiled. “You’re only isolated if you want to be, Anita. I’ve offered to show you the local sights.”
I shook my head. “Thanks, really. Under other circumstances, I’d say yes.”
“What’s stopping you?” he asked.
“The case for one. If I start dating one of the local cops, then my credibility goes down the tubes, and I’m not too high on some lists already.”
“What else?” He had a very gentle face, soft, as if he would be very gentle in everything he did.
“I’ve got two men waiting back home. Waiting to see who I’m going to choose, or if I’m dumping both of them.”
His eyes widened. “Two. I’m impressed.”
I shook my head. “Don’t be. My personal life is a mess.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“I can’t believe I just told you all that. It isn’t like me.”
“I’m a good listener.”
“Yeah, you are.”
“May I escort you back?”
I smiled at the old-fashioned phrasing. “Can you answer some questions first?”
“Ask.” He sat down on the ground in his dark brown pants, lifting the pants legs so they wouldn’t bunch.
I sat down beside him. “Who called the police?”
“A guest.”
“Where is he or she?”
“Hospital. Severe shock brought on by trauma.”
“No physical injuries?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“Who were the mutilation vics this time?”
“The wife’s brother and two nephews, all over twenty. They lived and worked on the ranch.”
“What about the other guests? Where were they?”
He closed his eyes, as if visualizing the page. “Most of them were off on a planned outing, an overnight camping trip into the mountains. But the rest borrowed the ranch cars that are kept for the guests’ use and left.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “They just felt restless, jittery, had to get out of the house.”
Ramirez nodded. “Just like the neighbors around all the other houses.”
“It’s a spell, Ramirez,” I said.
“Don’t make me ask you again to use my first name.”
I smiled and looked away from the teasing look in his eyes. “Hernando, this is either a spell or some sort of ability the creature possesses to cause fear, dread, in the ones it doesn’t want to kill or hurt. But I’m betting on a spell.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s too selective to be a natural anxiety like a vampire’s ability to hypnotize with its eyes. A vamp can bespell one person or a room full of people, but it can’t do an entire street except for one house. It’s too exact. You need to be able to organize your magic for this, and that means a spell.”
He picked one of the rough-looking blades of grass, running it between his fingers. “So we’re looking for a witch.”
“I know something about wiccan and other flavors of witchcraft, and I don’t know any way a lone wiccan, or even a coven could do this. I’m not saying there isn’t a human spell worker involved somewhere, but there is definitely something otherworldly, nonhuman, at work here.”
“We got some blood traces off the broken door.”
I nodded. “Great. I wish someone would tell me when we find a clue. Everyone, including Ted is playing it so close to the chest, I’ve spent most of my time going over ground that someone else has already figured