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“I promised Edward and others that I would never hunt my victim of choice on American soil. I have never broken that promise.”
“What about Dr. Patience Reed in Washington State?” I asked. She’d gone missing after we finished up a case that we’d worked with Olaf and others.
“I did not mean to kill her, but I was too new at being a werelion. My beast rose during sex and I only have scattered memories after that, until I woke hours later covered in her blood.”
I looked up at him, not afraid anymore, but impressed he’d actually answered that truthfully. “Wow, I’m sorry that was your first experience as a werelion.”
“I have gained control over my beast now.”
“Your control has been impressive on the cases we’ve worked since then,” I said, and it was such ordinary talk at least for the three of us that I stopped being afraid and relaxed into his arms.
“I’m glad you didn’t kill the doctor on purpose,” Edward said. “Now hold Anita’s head so we can get this done.”
Olaf moved so that my head was pressed into his chest as comfortably as it was going to get with the body armor on. He pressed his hand against the side of my head and held me in place while Edward poured the first dose of holy water on the bite.
51
Some pain istoo bad to take silently; you have to struggle against it, you can’t just give in without a fight, or I couldn’t. We ended up on the ground because even Olaf couldn’t hold me standing. He wrapped his legs around mine so I wouldn’t keep pushing up with my heels trying to get away from the pain. He used his size to pin me to the ground, pin me against his body. He was so strong, too strong, I hated his strength because it kept me from escaping the pain. Deimos loved my pain and drank it down through the bite that was causing me to hurt so badly.
I heard voices. “I’m going to crush her face if I keep pushing.”
“Hold her hair.”
A hand grabbed my hair and jerked my head to the side. It reminded me of Nicky and made me open my eyes wider, but it was Edward looking down at me; his helmet was gone and his hair looked so yellow, like I was seeing things in bright colors, and then I saw the bottle of holy water in his hand and I begged him to stop, not to do it.
Deimos was in my head, telling me to get away, to come help him, at the same time that he ate my pain. He was conflicted because the pain made him stronger, but he needed me to pretend to behealed, pretend to no longer be in his control, so I could get my weapons back, so I could…He showed me what he wanted. Shooting Olaf between the eyes didn’t bother me that much, but doing the same to Edward? No. He roared through my head,YES!
I screamed, “No!” Body bowing, hands straining, as I fought to be free to help my master and fought to be free of him. The handcuffs snapped and my hands-free state fed Deimos’s commands in my head. I froze for a second, and then my hand brushed against Olaf’s body and circled around that most intimate of parts and squeezed. I heard him yell, and then his hand was around my wrist. It would have been a race to see who crushed which body part sooner, but Edward poured holy water on my neck and the pain distracted me, helped Olaf move my hand. I was facedown on the ground with his knee grinding into my back.
“I have better cuffs in my bag,” Olaf said; his voice sounded strained.
Deimos whispered,Tell them what they want to hear and come to me. That made so much more sense than him telling me to fight my way free. It stopped me from struggling, like I was thinking about what he was saying, like I could think again, almost. Something moved in the leaves near my face. I blinked, trying to see what I was hearing, or sensing, and there was a rat looking back at me. The rat turned its head to one side so I could stare into the round, black eye. It was like a mirror, a black mirror that I could fall into. Deimos screamed at me, which made me jerk away from the rat’s gaze.
“Anita,” Edward asked, “Anita, are you all right?”
“There’s a rat.” Olaf sounded unhappy, but not like he was surprised to see it. That seemed weird.
“Rafael’s rats found Anita and this place.”
“I didn’t think wererats were this small,” Olaf said.
“They aren’t, but all the rats belong to Rafael,” Edward said. I heard the clink of chains.
No, don’t let them tie you up again, Deimos said.
“I’m okay, you don’t need the chains,” I said; my voice was rough from screaming but it sounded like me.
The rat looked at me again, that one shining black eye; tiny claws touched my hand, a different rat, and I could see Rafael standing by the emergency vehicles. He was the proverbial tall, dark, and handsome. His heritage carved into the high, slightly square cheekbones, the rich brown of his skin, those kissable lips. He held up a black mirror in his hand; it opened like a door and I fell through to find Neva and the other two brujas standing in the center of the sand of the fighting pit. Neva looked up at me and her black eyes were full of stars. “Remember who you are.”
I was back on the concrete and gravel with the leaves blown up to the edge of the parking lot. I could see every piece of trash in among the leaves; there was a half-eaten beetle. It was freshly dead like something had just taken a bite out of it.
“Anita,” Edward said.
I looked at him and I could see every weapon he was carrying, not just the obvious ones, but the hidden ones. I knew everything he had on him just like that. I could see what was hidden, and I wasn’t surprised when Edward said, “Your eyes.” I knew my eyes were black and full of stars just like Neva’s because the power came from a kindred source.
“Why do her eyes look like Obsidian Butterfly’s eyes?” Olaf asked.
I looked at him and could see all his weapons and everything else he was carrying on him, just like I could with Edward. Obsidian Butterfly was an Aztec goddess or thought she was Itzpapalotl; hell, maybe she was for all I knew. One thing I knew for sure was that she was a powerful vampire and the Master of the City of Albuquerque. She had placed a piece of her magic inside me without my permission and with an invitation for me to return with Jean-Claude for a visit. I never planned to visit again. The old vampire council hadbeen afraid of her, too. They’d basically drawn a circle around Albuquerque, New Mexico, declaringhere be monstersand leaving her the hell alone. What I hadn’t known until recently was that the rodere, the wererats, had their own brand of magic and it was close kin to Obsidian Butterfly’s power.
