Circus of the Damned - Laurell K. Hamilton [81]
He was a small man, almost a midget or a dwarf. I wanted to say dwarf, but he didn’t have the jaw or the shortened arms. He looked well formed under his tailored suit. He had almost no chin and a sloping forehead, which drew attention to the wide nose and the prominent eyebrow ridge. There was something familiar about his face, as if I’d seen it somewhere else before. Yet I knew I’d never met a person who looked just like him. It was a very singular face.
I was staring at him. I was embarrassed and didn’t like it. I met his eyes; they were perfectly brown and smiling. His dark hair was cut one hair at a time, expensive and blow-dried. He sat in his chair behind the clean polished desk and smiled at me.
“Mr. Oliver, this is Anita Blake,” Inger said, still standing stiffly by the door.
He got out of his chair and came around the desk to offer me his small, well-formed hand. He was four feet tall, not an inch more. His handshake was firm and much stronger than he looked. A brief squeeze, and I could feel the strength in his small frame. He didn’t look musclebound, but that easy strength was there, in his face, hand, stance.
He was small, but he didn’t think it was a defect. I liked that. I felt the same way.
He gave a close-lipped smile and sat back down in his big chair. Inger brought a chair from the corner and put it down facing the desk. I took the chair. Inger remained standing by the now-closed door. He was defiantly at attention. He respected the man in the chair. I was willing to like him. That was a first for me. I’m more likely to instantly mistrust than like someone.
I realized that I was smiling. I felt warm and comfortable facing him, like he was a favorite and trusted uncle. I frowned at him; what the hell was happening to me?
“What’s going on?” I said.
He smiled, his eyes sparkling warmly at me. “Whatever do you mean, Ms. Blake?”
His voice was soft, low, rich, like cream in coffee. You could almost taste it. A comforting warmth to your ears. I only knew one other voice that could do similar things.
I stared at the thin band of sunlight only inches from Oliver’s arm. It was broad daylight. He couldn’t be. Could he?
I stared at his very alive face. There was no trace of that otherness that vampires gave off. And yet, his voice, this warm cozy feeling, none of it was natural. I’d never liked and trusted anyone instantly. I wasn’t about to start now.
“You’re good,” I said. “Very good.”
“Whatever do you mean, Ms. Blake?” You could have cuddled into the warm fuzziness of his voice like a favorite blanket.
“Stop it.”
He looked quizzically at me, as if confused. The act was perfect, and I realized why; it wasn’t an act. I’d been around ancient vampires, but never one that had been able to pass for human, not like this. You could have taken him anywhere and no one would have known. Well, almost no one.
“Believe me, Ms. Blake, I’m not trying to do anything.”
I swallowed hard. Was that true? Was he so damn powerful that the mind tricks and the voice were automatic? No; if Jean-Claude could control it, this thing could, too.
“Cut the mind tricks, and curb the voice, okay? If you want to talk business, talk, but cut the games.”
His smile widened, still not enough to show fangs. After a few hundred years, you must get really good at smiling like that.
He laughed then; it was wonderful, like warm water falling from a great height. You could have jumped into it and bathed, and felt good.
“Stop it, stop it!”
Fangs flashed as he finished chuckling at me. “It isn’t the vampire marks that allowed you to see through my, as you call them, games. It is natural talent, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Most animators have it.”
“But not to the degree you do, Ms. Blake. You have power, too. It crawls along my skin. You are a necromancer.”
I started to deny it, but stopped. Lying to something like this was useless. He was older than anything I’d ever dreamed of, older than any nightmare I’d ever had. But he didn’t make my bones ache; he felt good, better than Jean-Claude, better than anything.
“I could be a