Circus of the Damned - Laurell K. Hamilton [75]
Tonight should have scared him off without my showing him my scars. But it hadn’t. Dammit, he’d stick, if he didn’t get killed first. “Alright, you’re staying for the rest of the semester, great, but promise me you won’t go hunting vampires without me.”
“But Mr. Burke . . .”
“He helps execute vampires, but he doesn’t hunt them alone.”
“What’s the difference between an execution and a hunt?”
“An execution just means a body that needs staking, or a vampire that’s all nice and chained up waiting for the final stroke.”
“Than what’s a hunt?” he asked.
“When I go back out after the vampires that nearly killed us tonight, that’s a hunt.”
“And you don’t trust Mr. Burke to teach me to hunt?”
“I don’t trust Mr. Burke to keep you alive.”
Larry’s eyes widened.
“I don’t mean he’d deliberately hurt you. I mean I don’t trust anybody but me with your life.”
“You think it’ll come down to that?”
“It damn near did.”
He was quiet for a handful of minutes. He stared down at his hands that were smoothing back and forth over the steering wheel. “I promise not to go vampire hunting with anybody but you.” He stared at me, blue, blue eyes studying my face. “Not even Mr. Rodriguez? Mr. Vaughn said he taught you.”
“Manny did teach me, but he doesn’t hunt vampires anymore.”
“Why not?”
I met his true-blue eyes and said, “His wife’s too afraid, and he’s got four kids.”
“You and Mr. Burke aren’t married and don’t have kids.”
“That’s right.”
“Neither do I,” he said.
I had to smile. Had I ever been this eager? Naw. “No one likes a smart alec, Larry.”
He grinned, and it made him look about thirteen. Jesus, why wasn’t he running for cover after tonight? Why wasn’t I? No answers, at least none that made sense. Why did I do it? Because I was good at it, came the answer. Maybe Larry could be good at it, too. Maybe, or maybe he’d just get dead.
I got out of the car and leaned back in the open door. “Go straight home, and if you don’t have an extra cross, buy one tomorrow.”
“Okay,” he said.
I shut the door on his solemn, earnest face. I walked up the stairs and didn’t look back. I didn’t watch him drive away, still alive, still eager after his first brush with the monsters. I was only four years older than he was. Four years. It felt like centuries. I had never been that green. My mother’s death when I was eight saw to that. It takes the edge off the shiny brightness to lose a parent early.
I was still going to try to talk Larry out of being a vampire executioner, but if all else failed, I’d work with him. There are only two kinds of vampire hunters: good ones and dead ones. Maybe I could make Larry one of the good ones. It beat the hell out of the alternative.
26
IT WAS 3:34, FRIDAY morning. It had been a long week. Of course, when hadn’t it been a long week this year? I had told Bert to hire more help. He hired Larry. Why didn’t that make me happy? Because Larry was just another victim waiting for the right monster. Please keep him safe, God, please. I’d had about as many innocents die on me as I thought I could handle.
The hallway had that middle-of-the-night feel to it. The only sounds were the hush of the heating vents, the muffled sound of my Nike Airs on the carpeting. It was too late for my day-living neighbors to stay up, and too early for them to get up. Two hours before dawn, you get privacy.
I opened my brand-new burglarproof lock and stepped into the darkness of my apartment. I hit the lights and flooded the white walls, carpet, couch, and chair with bright light. No matter how good your night vision is, everyone likes light. We’re creatures of the daylight, no matter what we do for a living.
I threw my jacket on the kitchen counter. It was too dirty to toss on the white couch. I had mud and bits of weed plastered all over me. But very little blood; the night had turned out alright.
I was slipping out of the shoulder holster when I felt it. The air currents had moved, as if something had moved through them. Just like that I knew I wasn’t alone.
My hand was on the gun butt when Edward’s voice came out of