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“I know how fast different bullets are, but I had to look the paintball speed up. A standard nine-millimeter is half the speed of a sniper bullet, so we’ll start there if you truly wish to test it, but I’m not a fan of you doing so. If you lean backwards to avoid it, even if it’s aimed low, it could hit your brainstem or heart.
“Whoever shoots should aim for my thigh at first, I think. We’ll do it with Marco present, so he can help me heal myself if necessary.”
“Another test. Not as dangerous. A sniper bullet aimed near you, so it misses you, but fired from a half-mile away, a mile away, two miles away. We need to know if you can hear it, recognize it, and move out of the way in time.”
I immediately understood why he wanted to do this test first. The bullet would be traveling ten times faster than the paintball, but I should theoretically have plenty of time to move from one shot so far away.
“And if I move quickly enough, the shooter can move closer and closer, until we know how close someone will need to be to take me out. How soon can we do this?”
“When I take you to my home, we can use the Slayer training range.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want anyone to know about this particular ability. Those present tonight will know I avoided the paintballs, but I’d like to keep it to that.”
He nodded. “Understood. Marco could ask the bikers for access to their sniper’s practice range, since they already know you’ll be experimenting. The caveat is that they’ll likely have video surveillance that will tell them the results. Drake Security also has a range long enough, and you might convince Nathan to keep the outcome to himself, but I’m not certain he’ll agree to that.”
“The distances don’t have to be exact. Surely there’s a forested area with a clearing for powerlines we can ride motorcycles on. I’ll stay put, and the motorcycle rider can ride two miles on the odometer, turn, and fire. Ride a half mile closer, ditto. I’ll be listening for it and aware, so we’ll have to find a situation where I’m caught unawares to make sure I’ll still hear it and move in time, but it’s a start.”
“Yes. I’m aware of such a place.”
I pulled my phone from a pocket, opened my calendar app, and looked to see when I could do it. I telepathed Patience to ask when Marco had a three-hour window that corresponded to my having one as well, and she came right back with an answer.
“I can clear my schedule from two o’clock until dawn on Wednesday morning,” I told Ryan. “Possibly as early as one forty-five, though I suppose that meeting could go over by ten or fifteen minutes, but I don’t expect it to.”
“That works for me. Do you need to check Marco’s schedule?”
I telepathed Patience to let her know to write me into Marco’s schedule for that time, and asked her to have him contact me at his convenience so I could explain what we’d be doing.
Within moments, Marco was in my head. Patience said you need to explain why I’m on your schedule Wednesday morning?
Ryan is going to test me to see if I can avoid actual bullets. It seems a good idea to have you handy, to help with healing should a bullet inadvertently hit my heart or close to my brainstem.
Are you certain it’s a good idea to let the slayer know how best to kill you from a distance?
Do you know someone else who can shoot from a mile away and be certain he’s shooting within a few inches of me at first, and then certain they are shooting at my thigh and not my brainstem? He was watching the paintball match. Also, he’s known a few other vampires who could dodge bullets when fired from a reasonable distance. Not many, but I’m apparently not the only one.
Good to know. I wasn’t aware any of us could do so.
I’m with Ryan now.
I’ll get with him to arrange transportation.
Thank you.
Of course. You’re dear to me. I look forward to spending a few hours with you.
I looked back up, met Ryan’s gaze, and then remembered to be careful with it, but it seemed fine. “Marco will get with you about transportation.”
“You still owe me a chess game.”
I’d just looked at my calendar, so I knew when I had some free time. “I can meet you at my office around three-thirty Tuesday morning.”
He nodded, and I telepathed my eagle with an order to write Ryan in from three-thirty until dawn on Tuesday morning. I received the ping Patience taught him to send when he was acknowledging the order and confirming he felt capable of doing so, and I regretfully told Ryan, “I have a meeting I need to leave for in twenty minutes, and I should change clothes. I’m glad you showed up on the off chance I’d have time to spend with you, because it turned out I had a little.”
He stood and telepathed. I wish I could bend you backwards and kiss you, but that will have to wait for another time.
“I look forward to it.”
Twenty minutes later, I climbed into the back of a limo so I could arrive at the downtown TBC in style, since I was meeting Martin, the strongest tiger in town. Every note I read on him stressed how big of an asshole he is, or jerk, or other colorful term. The nicest thing anyone had to say about him was that he can be difficult to deal with. The downtown TBC location has an outdoor dining area on the roof that Josef assured me was appropriate for our engagement, and he’d arranged to have appetizers fit for a tiger brought up for the meeting.
