Circus of the Damned - Laurell K. Hamilton [77]
“I’ll make you laugh until you beg for mercy.”
“Just tell me the damn name. Please, Anita. Help me.” The laughter drained from his eyes like the sun slipping out of the sky. I watched the humor, the humanity slip away, until his eyes were as cold and empty as a doll’s. “Don’t make me hurt you,” he said.
I think I was Edward’s only friend, but that wouldn’t stop him from hurting me. Edward had one rule: do whatever it takes to get the job done. If I forced him to torture me, he would, but he didn’t want to.
“Now that you’ve asked nicely, try the first question again,” I said.
His eyes narrowed, then he said, “Who hit you in the mouth?”
“A master vampire,” I said softly.
“Tell me what happened.” It was too much like an order for my taste, but he did have both the guns.
I told him everything that had happened. All about Alejandro. Alejandro who felt so old inside my head, it made my bones ache. I added one tiny lie, lost in all that truth. I told him Alejandro was Master of the City. One of my better ideas, heh?
“You really don’t know where his daytime resting place is, do you?”
I shook my head. “I’d give it to you if I had it.”
“Why this change of heart?”
“He tried to kill me tonight. All bets are off.”
“I don’t believe that.”
It was too good a lie to waste, so I tried salvaging it. “He’s also gone rogue. It’s him and his flunkies that have been killing innocent citizens.”
Edward smirked at the innocent, but he let it go. “An altruistic motive, that I believe. If you weren’t such a damn bleeding heart, you’d be dangerous.”
“I kill my share, Edward.”
His empty, blue eyes stared at me; then he nodded, slowly. “True.”
He handed me back my gun, butt first. A tight, clenched ball in my stomach unrolled. I could breathe deep, long sighs of relief.
“If I find out where this Alejandro stays, you want in on it?”
I thought about that for a minute. Did I want to go after five rogue vampires, two of them over five hundred years old? I did not. Did I want to send even Edward after them alone? No, I did not. Which meant . . .
“Yeah, I want a piece of them.”
Edward smiled, broad and shining. “I love my work.”
I smiled back. “Me, too.”
27
JEAN-CLAUDE LAY IN the middle of a white canopied bed. His skin was only slightly less white than the sheets. He was dressed in a nightshirt. Lace fell down the low collar, forming a lace window around his chest. Lace flowed from the sleeves, nearly hiding his hands. It should have looked feminine, but Jean-Claude made it utterly masculine. How could any man wear a white lace gown and not look silly? Of course, he wasn’t a man. That must be it.
His black hair curled in the lace collar. Touchable. I shook my head. Not even in my dreams. I was dressed in something long and silky. It was a shade of blue almost as dark as his eyes. My arms looked very white against it. Jean-Claude got to his knees and reached his hand out to me. An invitation.
I shook my head.
“It is only a dream, ma petite. Will you not come to me even here?”
“It’s never just a dream with you. It always means more.”
His hand fell to the sheets, fingertips caressing the cloth.
“What are you trying to do to me, Jean-Claude?”
He looked very steadily at me. “Seduce you, of course.”
Of course. Silly me.
The phone beside the bed rang. It was one of those white princess phones with lots of gold on it. There hadn’t been a telephone a second before. It rang again, and the dream fell to shreads. I came awake grabbing for the phone.
“Hello.”
“Hey, did I wake you?” Irving Griswold asked.
I blinked at the phone. “Yeah, what time is it?”
“It’s ten o’clock. I know better than to call early.”
“What do you want, Irving?”
“Grouchy.”
“I got in late. Can we skip the sarcasm?”
“I, your true-blue reporter friend, will forgive you that grumpy hello, if you answer a few questions.”
“Questions?” I sat up, hugging the phone to me. “What are you talking about?”
“Is it true that Humans First saved you last night, as they’re claiming?”
“Claiming? Can you talk in complete sentences, Irving?”
“The morning news had Jeremy