Anita Blake 22 - Affliction (67 page)

‘Then a vote can be called and if enough of the clan votes no, she has to fight her own battle.’

Nicky glanced back and said, ‘Sounds like a way to assassinate a leader without actually doing the job yourself.’

‘It’s a way to spread the guilt around,’ Domino agreed, as if there were nothing wrong with it.

‘If you want the leader dead, you have to do it in a one-on-one fight. There are no substitute champions in our culture,’ Nicky said.

‘Of course, there aren’t,’ Domino said, ‘because werelions are just that awesome.’

Nicky glanced back again, and it wasn’t a friendly look. ‘This is one of the main problems with the Coalition, Anita. We are different animals, different cultures, with very different rules. It’s hard to bring us together when we can’t even decide how to elect a leader.’

‘Micah adapts to whatever animal group he’s visiting,’ Domino said.

‘I’ve never gone out of town with Micah before,’ Nicky said.

‘I don’t think he’s gone up against any lions yet.’

The phrasing sounded odd to me. We walked around the corner and could see the police outside the room again, but I stopped walking. ‘What do you mean, gone up against?’

Domino’s face suddenly got as blank as he could make it. He was perfect bodyguard empty, with an edge of angry intimidation around the edges. His energy prickled down my skin, and the fact that he’d lost control of his beast that much meant my question had stressed him.

I turned completely around to face him. Nicky took up his best bodyguard position at my back, but standing so he could see both up and down the hallway; again it was more guarding than I liked them doing around the police work, but I let it go, because I had a bad feeling about why Domino was suddenly nervous.

‘I asked you a question, Domino,’ I said, voice sort of soft. It wasn’t a good softness, though; it was a tone that said I was getting angry.

He looked behind me at the other man.

‘Don’t look at Nicky; look at me, and answer my question.’

‘I’m not your Bride, Anita. I’m just one of your many tigers to call. I’m not even bound that tight to you, because you already had a white tiger when you found me, so you just bound my black half. I don’t have to obey you.’ He was going all distant and angry on me, which was something he’d done when I first met him, but he’d stopped doing it with me.

‘What’s to stop me from asking Nicky, then? He has to tell me.’

‘He’s never traveled with Micah.’

‘He can’t answer the question, can he?’ I asked, staring at his sunglasses, as if I could see his eyes through them, but I’d found that even if I couldn’t actually see someone’s eyes, staring as if you can through dark glasses unnerves some people.

‘No, he can’t,’ Domino said, and he was arrogant and angry, and his power pushed like heat against my skin.

‘There’s a reason that Micah never takes Nicky, or Dev, or anyone who couldn’t keep a secret from me, isn’t there?’

‘Don’t do this now, Anita, not with Micah’s dad and family,’ Domino said.

‘Don’t do what? Find out that you’ve all been keeping something from me, including Micah?’

Domino’s hands started to flex over and over. It wasn’t exactly making fists; it was more like a cat will knead with its claws. It’s a sign of high anxiety among all the big-cat lycanthropes. Domino knew I understood what it was, and the fact that he was doing it anyway meant either that he was that desperate to calm himself down or that he couldn’t help it, which meant he was fighting for control. That scared me, because Domino had excellent control of his beast; if he was that stressed, then the answer to my question was even worse than I’d thought.

‘Jesus,’ I said, ‘Micah’s fighting for dominance to bring the groups into the Coalition?’

Domino shook his head, his hands kneading the air, fingers tensed and arched as he fought the growing heat that seemed to shimmer around him. I turned my head to the side and could see the ‘heat’ rising off him. It was a bad sign.

‘Anita, after what happened with Ares, if he loses it in front of the cops, they will shoot him,’ Nicky said.

I tried to calm myself down, because I couldn’t even think past the thought of how many times Micah went out of town to talk to different groups. No one could win that many fights in a month and have no injuries to show for it, and Micah wasn’t big enough, or physical enough … He was a leader, but not that kind.

‘Ease down, Domino,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to lose you because of something stupid.’

He bit his lower lip and shook his head, as if I’d asked him another question.

‘I’ll let it go, because honestly your reaction just now is answer enough.’

He took a few deep, even breaths and I felt him shove the heat of his beast back in its metaphorical box. I was finally able to shield enough that I’d only felt it as heat and not as a tiger. My own cats hadn’t even tried to surface. I was getting better at this. We all were. I just didn’t know how much better Micah had gotten at parts of it, like lying to me.

Domino finally spoke in a low, careful voice as if he were fighting to control even that. ‘I swear to you that Micah doesn’t fight every time he leaves town. Diplomacy and … softer methods work most of the time.’

‘What does
softer methods
mean?’ I asked.

Domino’s power spiked like a fever burning against my skin.

‘Let it go for now, Anita,’ Nicky said. He moved so he was blocking the police’s view of Domino.

I counted slowly to ten, though without being able to do the deep breathing that should have gone with it, it wasn’t nearly as calming. ‘I won’t ask you any more questions right now, Domino, I promise.’

I couldn’t see around Nicky’s body, but I could feel that another wereanimal was coming closer. Their energy breathed along my skin like a breath of hot air. This power stirred my beasts and I ‘saw’ in my mind’s eye my hyena stand up and shake itself like the big dog she resembled. She started trotting down a long, sunlit hallway that was usually shadowed, but the hyena trotted in the light, and tall yellowed grass appeared for her to do a curious sideways lope of a run. She moved so awkwardly compared to the cats, or the wolf, but she was still coming, and if I didn’t get control of her the hyena would try to burst out of my body and become real, but I was angry. Anger made everything harder to control. I was angry and afraid, because Micah was my size and no matter how tough you are, when fighters are equally trained, size matters. The thought of Micah going up against someone Nicky’s or Dev’s size made my skin run cold. The fear seemed to puzzle the hyena because she whimpered and sat down looking at me with those odd brown eyes, such a human color if the pupils hadn’t been slitted like a cat’s.

‘Control yourself,’ Nicky said, softly.

I closed my eyes and tried. I fought for calm, fought to find my still center, but Micah was my still center, and he’d been risking his life for years and I hadn’t known. I felt stupid. Had I really thought that diplomacy alone had made all those animal groups across the country join our Coalition? Yeah, I had. I’d had faith in Micah’s ability to persuade, to lead, to manipulate and bargain. I even knew that he had done all those things. I knew that he had slept with some of the female shapeshifters to seal the deal, or to gain allies who would help persuade the group leaders to our way. That was probably what Domino meant by softer means; Micah had told me about the sex, because he hadn’t wanted me to find out from anyone else. But the few times he’d come home injured, or with injured guards, he’d told me it just got out of hand, but in the end they had persuaded them. Had Micah ever come home without the group agreeing to join us, eventually? No, he hadn’t.

I was calm again, but it was the calm of water. It’s only still until the next breeze touches it. I opened my eyes.

Nicky looked down at me. ‘You okay for this?’

I nodded.

He stepped to one side and I was looking at Socrates. His skin was the color of coffee with one cream in it, his tightly curled hair cut tight on the sides and long on top, a lot like Domino’s hair, but Socrates’ hair was thick enough that it stayed in the nearly square top-layer shape almost like a hedge trimmed into a desired shape. His eyes were brown, but not the brown of the animal sitting inside my head now. Socrates’ eyes were perfectly human.

The hyena sniffed the air and made a laughing, cackling sound that raised the hair on my arms. I had a moment to wonder if I’d made the sound out loud with my human mouth and throat, but I didn’t think so.

Socrates rubbed his arms underneath his suit jacket. It gave me a glimpse of the gun at his waist. He was an ex-cop who’d been cut up when he helped bust an inner-city gang that had werehyenas for their enforcers. He’d been a hero, they’d cleaned out the gang, but he’d lost his badge and the job he loved.

‘When did you gain my beast?’ he whispered.

‘When a bullet went through Ares and into me,’ I said.

‘It should take until the next full moon for you to manifest your hyena. That’s two more weeks, but I feel it, smell it on you.’

‘I’m precocious,’ I said.

‘You’re something, all right,’ he said, rubbing his arms again.

‘You go out of town with Micah sometimes, don’t you?’

‘Why ask it like that, Anita? You know I have.’

I looked at him, just looked at him.

He looked past me to Domino. The look was angry, and eloquent, and seemed to be saying,
How could you be this stupid?
with a slight eyebrow raise and a tiny tilt to his head.

Domino’s power flared again. ‘I said nothing.’

Socrates’ look didn’t believe him, and neither did the rest of Socrates.

‘Did you really think I’d never figure it out?’ I asked.

He looked at me then and said, ‘I don’t know what you think you’ve figured out, so I can’t speak to it.’

‘Don’t you lie to me, Socrates, not anymore.’

Gonzales started walking this way. My watching him made Socrates glance back, too. We had the attention of all the cops. I was letting my emotions get in the way of business, oh, hell, in the way of common sense. Cops are a curious lot, especially about anyone they may have to trust their lives to, so us arguing among ourselves wasn’t going to reassure any of them.

‘Is there a problem, Anita?’ he asked.

If I said no, he’d know it was a lie, but … ‘No,’ I said, and the
no
was very firm, very certain. I’d actually made a waitress cry once by saying no. Gonzales didn’t cry – he was made of sterner stuff than that – but he understood that it was an absolutely unmovable negative. Sometimes I spoke too forcefully and made waitresses cry by accident, but sometimes it was exactly the amount of force needed to stop people from asking me anything.

Gonzales looked at me, then looked from one to the other of the men. ‘Okay, how are you feeling? You looked a little green.’

‘Let’s just say I’m wishing I’d stuck to something more liquid for lunch.’

He gave a little chuckle, but his eyes stayed wary and he did another glance around at all the men. His gaze came back to me and he showed me those suspicious cop eyes that said clearly I was full of shit and he didn’t believe me. Didn’t believe what, you might ask? He was a ten-year-plus veteran police officer; he didn’t believe a damn thing that anyone told him.

A man called out from down the hallway. ‘I thought you were tough, Blake. I hear you just tossed your lunch for no reason whatsoever.’ It was Travers come to give moral support to Sheriff Callahan, and to continue to be a pain in my ass.

‘What’s your problem, Travers?’ I asked, and it was a little loud just like his comment had been, because we were at the ends of the hallway from each other.

‘You, you and your … men are my problem.’ He was walking toward us.

I moved around Gonzales and started moving to meet Travers.

‘Anita,’ Socrates said, ‘don’t …’

I turned, pointed a finger at him, and just said, ‘Don’t even.’

Nicky caught up with me. ‘What are you going to do?’

I realized that Travers was looking for a fight and so was I. I stopped walking and said, ‘Fuck.’

He smiled at me.

But Travers didn’t have any voice of reason with him; he was just this big, angry guy waiting for someone to take the first swing so he could swing back. His body language screamed,
Give me an excuse
.

‘What are you smiling at?’ Travers asked.

I realized he was asking Nicky, who turned and looked at him. Travers wasn’t a rookie, he should have understood what that look meant, but he bristled, hands going into fists. Nicky planted one foot so he’d be able to pivot into his swing. I took a step ahead of him.

‘Anita,’ Nicky said.

‘It’s okay, Nicky.’

‘It’s not okay, Nicky,’ Travers said, doing a bad and unflattering imitation of me.

‘Travers, we are not going to let you use us to pick your fight.’

‘They’ll fight back, Blake, they can’t help it. You kick a dog, it’ll bite you.’

‘They aren’t dogs, Travers, nothing that domesticated.’

‘No, not domesticated, pussy-whipped.’

‘What is with everyone here and that phrase?’ I asked.

Travers was right in front of us now. His hands were still fists; his arms were actually vibrating with anger. He wanted, almost needed, to hit something. ‘You always hide behind your girlfriend, Nicky?’

‘No,’ Nicky said, and his
no
, like mine, was very firm, very sure of itself, and left no room for anything but the negative. He started to move closer to Travers, but I stepped between them.

I let down some of my shields, not all, not even all the way down, but enough so that when I touched Travers’s arm I could draw on his anger. Being able to feed on sex was Jean-Claude’s power, but I could also feed on anger and that was my power, my special little talent slice. I’d practiced until I could take the edge off someone’s anger, like skimming off the anger, rage-filled cream, leaving bland but healthier milk behind.

I didn’t so much feed on his anger, because that could cause confusion and get noticed by the other police. I sort of licked away a little bit of his anger, like taking the cherry off a milkshake.