Hit List

“So this shapeshifter from last night should be like a person in a fur suit,” he said.

I shook my head. “Not what I said.”

“You’re saying on one hand they’re just furry people and on the other that the dogs are so afraid of them they won’t track them. You can’t have it both ways, Marshal Blake; either they’re monsters or they’re people.”

“Tell that to the BTK killer,” I said. “He was a churchgoer, raised two kids, married, and resisted the urge to kill for decades. He was a person, but he was a monster, too.”

“But dogs will track a serial killer,” Newman said.

Edward tried. “Newman, it’s a good idea, but if he was even partially shapeshifted, and he had to be to hurt Marshal Karlton, then the dogs will be too afraid to track him. Did you ask for dogs trained on tracking shapeshifters?”

“I asked for the best dog we had nearby.”

I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter; the chance of having a shifter-trained dog is almost nil. It’s a seriously specialized training.”

“Why?” Newman asked.

I was already tired of him asking that. “Because, Newman, shapeshifters, even the nice legal citizens, don’t like training dogs designed to be able to hunt them down so people can kill them on sight.”

Newman blinked at me. “I don’t understand.”

I was tired of it, and him. “I know you don’t.”

“Explain it to me, then.”

“I don’t think I can. Some things you just have to learn in the field.”

“I’m a fast learner,” he said, and he sounded a little defiant.

“I hope so, Newman, I really hope so.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Great, I’d behaved myself and he was still getting upset with me. “It means that I had to watch last night while this shifter tortured and sliced up Marshal Karlton. He used her as a human shield so I couldn’t shoot him, and then he moved faster than any shapeshifter I’ve ever seen. All I could do was hold pressure on her wounds and try to keep her from bleeding to death and pray that moving her so I could keep her from bleeding out hadn’t just injured her spine and crippled her for life. It didn’t, thank God, but I didn’t know that last night, and a whole spine does no damn good if you bleed to death first.” I was up in his face as I finished, and though the closest to glaring into his face I could get was the middle of his chest, he flinched and backed away from me.

I just turned and walked away. My anger crawled over me and through me. The beasts in their hidden place inside me swirled so that I had a moment where things twisted, a hint of the claws to come pawing at my gut. It made me hesitate as I walked.

Edward called, “You okay?”

“Sure, yeah, fine.” I kept walking, but I needed to feed the ardeur. I probably needed to feed before we started tracking the shapeshifter, but since the dog wasn’t going to track it, I had time. I also had an idea. I’d go visit the local weretigers and see if they’d tell me things they wouldn’t tell the other marshals. They probably would, and I knew one of them would. Alex was the son of the local clan queen, my lover, and my red tiger to call. I’d tell the other marshals I was trying to gather information, and I would, but it was a booty call. A booty call to keep me from being torn apart by my beasts.

11

RABORN STOPPED US on the way to the car. “Where are you two going?”

“To see if I can find a clue,” I said.

“So you’ll miss the hunt just because they wouldn’t give you the warrant ?” he said.

“We’ll be back for the hunt,” Edward said, and went around to the driver’s side of the car, which left me with Raborn. Perfect.

“I heard a lot of rumors about you, Blake, but I never heard that you’d leave before the monster was dead. Everyone said you were tough.”

“I am tough,” I said. “You let the dogs do their best, but they won’t find these things, not today, not just with dogs.”

“How can you be sure of that?”

Edward leaned over and pushed the door open as a sort of hint that I needed to get in now. “Call it experience,” I said, and climbed in the open door. He was still frowning at us as we drove off.

I had Alex Pinn’s cell number and I’d called it, but he didn’t answer it. A man I didn’t know answered it. “Alex’s phone, whom may I say is calling?” It sounded way too formal, and I was betting an assistant of some kind.

“This is Anita Blake, to whom am I speaking?”

Edward glanced at me as he pulled out onto the highway, but he didn’t ask questions he knew I’d explain later.

“Then, this is the phone of Li Da of the Red Clan, son of Queen Cho Chun. Why are you calling our prince?”

“I think that’s private between Alex and me.”

“You are not alone?” He made it a question.

“No.”

“Can the person with you not be trusted?”

“He can be, but I share as few secrets of the clan with outsiders as I can.”

The man was silent for a moment, then said, “That is wise.”

“I do my best. What is your name?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m talking to you and it’s polite to know someone’s name when you address them.”

He hesitated and then said, “You can call me Donny.”

“Call you Donny,” I said.

“It will do until we see how much you can be trusted.”

“Okay, Donny, where’s Alex and why are you answering his phone?”

“Li Da is with our queen. She knew you would call him.”

“She did, did she?”

“Queen Cho Chun said you would not be able to resist the call of each other, and she was correct.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I was trying to feed the ardeur, basically a metaphysical booty call, but from the moment I’d accidentally tied Alex to me, his mother had been pushing for it to be more. She’d have preferred he settle down with a nice little weretigress, but she wanted me to choose among the clans and make Alex my official tiger king, which would make the red clan the top cat in the world of weretigers. I had no intention of doing that for a lot of reasons, but one of the main ones was that neither Alex nor I wanted it. Not to mention that Jean-Claude and all the other men in my life would probably get pissy if I ever actually married anyone, especially if that one wasn’t any of them. But I’d found that all the clan queens were pushy bitches, and serious as a heart attack about bloodlines, power, and marriage.

“Look, Donny, Alex is your clan prince, that’s true, but he’s also my tiger to call.”

“Come to our meeting place, and if you can call him away from our queen’s side then he is yours, but if you cannot then you are not the Mistress of Tigers.”

I swore softly under my breath. “Are you all aware that I’m in your city trying to solve murders? I’m trying to save the lives of other weretigers.”

“None of the dead are clan tigers; they are all survivors of an attack. Their deaths are unfortunate, but not clan business.”

“Do you understand that if they finish up the lone tigers that aren’t part of a clan, they may turn on the clans themselves?”

“We can defend ourselves, Anita Blake.”