Hit List - Laurell K. Hamilton [31]
For eyes that dark you usually needed brown contacts to hide the color, but the bodyguard standing next to Donny had soft gray eyes, the color of kitten fur. His hair was a blond so pale it was almost white, and it had what looked like gray highlights in it, though saying soft gray could be highlights sounded wrong. There was one streak of dark, deep red, from his forehead to the back of his skull. His hair was short, but had enough wave to it that he was forced to style it on top, so that it looked like he was ready for a night out on the club with his choppy waved hair and his excellent dye job. He wasn’t as tall as Donny’s six-foot frame, and he didn’t have the shoulder spread either. He looked almost delicate beside Donny, but it was Ethan who had a shoulder holster with a Glock in it, extra ammo on the other side of the holster from the gun, and the muscle tone in his lower arms that comes from a little bit of weights, but mostly some kind of athletic something. Just from the way he held himself, I was betting martial arts of some kind.
Edward touched my arm. It startled me. I’d been staring at Ethan. That made me realize that I really needed to see Alex sooner rather than later. A vampire with an animal to call is often attracted to that type of animal. Jean-Claude found it very peaceful to pet wolves, and that was his animal to call. I realized it wasn’t just the sex from home I’d missed; I was missing the touch and interaction of the shapeshifters I was drawn to, like tigers. The fact that I thought Ethan was cuter than Donny went against the way most dominant weretigresses pick mates. They tended to like the ones with the tiger eyes, but there was something . . . interesting about Ethan, or maybe I was just that hungry.
I took a deep breath, and that didn’t help because they both smelled like tiger. But Donny smelled like red tiger, and Ethan smelled like more. It made me move toward him, sniff the air near him, try to clear my nose of Donny’s closer, warmer scent.
“Anita,” Edward said, his voice sharp, “you need to find Mr. Pinn.”
I nodded and forced myself to step back from Ethan. “You’re right, absolutely right.” I spoke without looking at either of the weretigers. “Take me to Alex.”
“We can’t take you before our queen armed like that.” It actually made me look at what we were wearing. Since neither of us was on an active warrant, the U.S. Marshals Windbreakers hid most of our dangerous toys. I only had my Browning BDM, my Smith & Wesson M&P9c, extra ammo, two wrist sheaths with blades, and the big knife down my spine. The shoulder holster was specially made so the spine sheath attached to it, the handle hidden under my hair as long as I wore a jacket. If I wasn’t wearing the big knife I’d started carrying the Browning at the small of my back where the M&P was now. Edward had two handguns and some blades, too.
“We don’t have any submachine guns on us; we’re packing light,” I said.
Donny studied my face, and then he blinked first. He also frowned. “You’re being honest.”
“I try,” I said.
“But the point remains, you cannot go before Queen Cho Chun armed.”
“Great,” I said, “I don’t want to see her anyway. All I want right now is Alex.”
“Prince Li Da,” Donny said.
“Fine, all I want right now is Li Da.”
“Prince Li Da,” Donny said.
I shook my head. “Nope, I am Mistress of Tigers, so he’s not my prince. He’s Alex, or he’s Li Da, but he’s not Prince anything to me.”
“That is arrogant,” Donny said.
“No, it’s not, it’s just true, and I don’t technically have to stand here and dick around with you or Ethan here. I can just lay down the law and say, ‘Bring him to me.’”
“Queen Cho Chun would have the skin off my back if I let you get away with such insolence.”
I glanced at Ethan to see if Donny was exaggerating. Something in those soft,