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“Anita, are you hurt?” And it was my dad.
I turned to him still glowing with holy fire. He reached out as if to touch me, then said, “Your eyes, they’re glowing like a vampire’s.”
I let go of Ethan’s hand and took a step toward my dad. He backed up. I spoke loud enough that he’d hear me over the sirens that were screaming closer. “If God is for me, who can be against me?”
“Anita…”
I didn’t wait for him to find words. I turned and started walking toward the police car that screeched to a halt, lights twirling and sirens blaring. Ethan stayed at my side. I asked him, “Are my eyes still glowing?”
“Yes,” he said.
I had him help me take off the high heels while I unhooked my badge from my waistband. I left Ethan holding the shoes so I could hold the badge high for the cops to see. I was yelling, “U.S. Marshal,” before they got out with guns drawn like I knew they would. Maybe they didn’t hear me identifying myself as a fellow officer, or maybe they didn’t believe me, but it didn’t matter. I could have been covered in badges and all they would have seen was someone glowing with pale phosphorous fire, their eyes shining like cognac diamonds held up to a flame. I was the scariest thing they could see, and they were going to treat me accordingly.
I didn’t argue when they yelled for me to get down on the ground. I just did it; hell, it was why I’d taken my high heels off.
15
I was still onthe ground in handcuffs when the ambulance arrived. I was trying to lie still on the ground; if the skirt had been skintight it would have stayed in place, but I hadn’t wanted to shock my family, so I’d chosen pleated to be more family friendly and now the ladylike skirt was not staying in place. At least I hadn’t worn a thong tonight, and the panties were black. I was really glad I hadn’t worn the royal blue one. I wasn’t sure why, but bright color would have bothered me more. I also knew I was thinking about all the minutiae so I wouldn’t be freaking out about how hurt Wicked and Truth might be, or lose my shit at the uniformed officers who wouldn’t believe I was a U.S. Marshal. I understood them thinking I was a preternatural bad guy when they first arrived on the scene. I understood them disarming me, but they’d had time to call in and get my credentials verified a dozen times by now. So why the fuck was I still on the concrete with my hands behind my back and my lingerie complete with thigh-high hose bare to everyone? I needed to see Jean-Claude in person, though I could feel he was okay. I needed to find out what hate group our attacker belonged to; I needed to do a lot of things, none of which was lying here helpless, unable to do my job, or comfort my injured people, or…The one uniformwas standing by me while his partner was at their car or doing something out of my sight line.
“Officer Linley,” I said, through gritted teeth.
“I’m really sorry about this, Marshal.”
I tried to crane my head up to look at him but could only get as far as his lower pants leg because of where he was standing. “So, you know I’m Marshal Anita Blake?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Then why am I still handcuffed and flashing my ass to the world, because I can’t use my hands!” I yelled a little bit and had to do some deep breathing to calm down. Yelling at people never gets you uncuffed faster.
“New protocol says we keep any supernatural on site in restraints until we get one of the preternatural marshals down here to verify that it’s safe to uncuff or otherwise free the before-mentioned supernatural citizen.”
“Iama preternatural marshal!”
“The new rule doesn’t really cover the preternatural marshal being the supernatural citizen that we’re detaining, so we’re waiting on someone to tell us if we can uncuff you and have you be the marshal that says it’s okay to uncuff you.”
I struggled to be able to look at his face, and all I managed to do was make my skirt fall even further up my body. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I’m really sorry, Marshal Blake, we’re both really sorry about this.”
“So you’re just going to let me lie here on the fucking ground flashing everyone, including my father? Until someone with some common sense calls you back?” I was yelling, fuck it.
“Oh, geez, I…maybe I can I help.” He knelt down beside me, but it wasn’t until I felt his fingers brush my ass that I realized he was trying to pull my skirt down.
“Get your motherfucking hands off me!”
Linley fell, landing on his ass beside me. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
I felt the warm rush of werelion energy dancing over my skin. I knew the feel of that heat; in other circumstances I might have even enjoyed knowing Nicky was behind me while I was lying helpless at his feet, but this was not those circumstances.
“Did you touch her ass?” Nicky asked, his voice so deep it was more growl than human words.
Officer Linley stuttered, “I…I didn’t. I mean…I didn’t mean to. I…” He actually crab-walked away from Nicky so that he ended up on the ground near my head. I could finally see Linley better but still had to strain my neck to see his face. I put my cheek back on the rough coolness of the sidewalk.
Another pair of cheap but serviceable shoes came over to stand near Linley. I assumed it was his partner, Maric. “Is there a problem?” he asked, like he wasn’t nervous about someone with Nicky’s size looming over us, or maybe he was taller than I remembered. Maybe Nicky didn’t loom over him at all.
“Yeah, there’s a problem,” Nicky growled. “Your partner here just touched the ass of a U.S. Marshal while she was handcuffed.”
“That’s a lie,” the partner said.
