Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [703]
He looked at me, and he was angry now. “My mother was white. My father was Indian. I’m told he died before I was born. She gave me up at birth. No one wanted a little mixed baby, so I went from one foster home to another. When I was eighteen, I joined the army. They found out I could shoot. I killed things for my country for a few years. Then I went freelance. And here I am.” His voice had grown increasingly bitter until it almost hurt to hear it.
Saying I was sorry would have been insulting. Saying I understood would have been a lie. Thanks for answering the question seemed wrong, too.
“Nothing to say?” he asked. “Shocked? Sorry for me? Give me a little pity sex.”
I looked at him then. “If someone has sex with you, it isn’t out of pity, and you damn well know it.”
“But you don’t want to have sex with me.”
“It’s not because of your ethnicity, or lack thereof, or your background. I’ve got two guys waiting for me at home. Two is one too many. Three would be ridiculous.”
“Why doesn’t Edward like them?” Bernardo asked.
“One’s a werewolf and the other is a vampire.” My words were bland, but I watched his face long enough to see the reaction. He gaped at me.
He finally closed his mouth, and said, “You’re the Executioner, scourge of the undead. How can you be doing a vampire?”
“I’m not sure I can answer that question, even to myself. But currently, I’m not doing him at all.”
“Did you think the werewolf was human? Was he trying to pass?”
“At first, but not for long. I knew what he was when I took him to my bed.”
He let out a low whistle. “Edward hates the monsters. But I didn’t think he’d give a damn if one of his backups slept with them.”
“He cares. I don’t know why, but he does.”
“So he thought what? That one night with me would change your religion? Make you swear off the monsters?” He was staring at me now, studying my face. “I’ve heard that shapeshifters can change the shape of their bodies at will. Is that true?”
“Some of them can,” I said. We were in the outskirts of Albuquerque. Strip malls and fast food restaurants.
“Can your boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“Can he change the shape of all his body, at will?”
I felt the blush roll up my neck into my face and couldn’t stop it.
Bernardo laughed. “I guess he can.”
“No comment.”
He was still laughing softly to himself, a very masculine chuckle. “Is your vampire an old one?”
“Four hundred years and counting,” I said. We’d left the strip malls behind and turned into a residential area. We were coming up to the first landmark on the directions Edward had given me. We’d used up nearly an hour of daylight. I almost drove past the turnoff to Nicandro Baco’s place, but if I was right, if the thing we were dealing with was another type of undead from any that I’d ever heard of, then another necromancer might be nice to have around. For all I knew, this type of undead was a regional specialty, and Baco would know more than I did. I turned, checking the rearview to see that Ramirez was still behind me. We were actually all going the speed limit.
“Can you read the directions to me?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, just picked the piece of paper up off the dashboard, and began reading off street names. “You’re safe on the directions for a little bit. Let’s get back to our little talk.”
I frowned at him. “Do we have to?”
“Let me get this straight,” Bernardo said. “You’ve been shacking up with a shapeshifter that has such fine control of his body that he can make any one part of it . . . bigger.”
“Or smaller,” I said. I was counting streetlights, under my breath. Didn’t want to miss the turn. We had time to see this guy and get to the hospital before dark, but not if we got badly lost.
“No man makes things smaller during sex. I don’t care what