right hand to draw the gun from its shoulder holster at the same time.
“You just drew your gun,” he said, in that deep voice that matched the big body.
I fought not to tense as I pressed the gun against the side of his body. “Yes.”
I felt him bend over me, and then he kissed me on top of the head. Again, so unexpected that I didn’t know what to do. I mean I couldn’t shoot him for kissing the top of my head and giving me a hug. It was too hysterical. But this new, more tender Olaf puzzled the hell out of me.
“I’ve held many women in my arms, but you’re the first who’s managed to draw a weapon.”
It was a little hard to be tough talking into his stomach, but having the Smith & Wesson shoved into his side helped. “They didn’t understand what you were.”
He spoke with his chin resting on my hair. “They understood in the end, Anita.”
“But not until it was too late,” I said, and I didn’t feel silly pushing the gun into the hard muscle of his side. It felt safer.
Edward spoke from behind me. “She will kill you, if you give her a reason.”
Olaf rose up enough to look at him more comfortably, but he was still holding me. “I know she will shoot me, if I give her cause.”
“Then let her go.”
“It is the possibility of danger that makes us both enjoy her, in our own ways.”
“You and I do not think of her the same way,” Edward said, and his voice was growing colder. I knew that voice. It was headed to the tone he used when he killed.
I wanted to tell Olaf to let me go, but I’d seen him move. He was fast, not shapeshifter fast, but close. I thought I was fast enough to get enough distance that he couldn’t try for my gun, but I might not be fast enough, and then I’d have to shoot him to keep my gun and to keep him off me. It seemed almost stupid to be thinking of that while he was still hugging me so normally, or as normally as I’d ever seen him interact with me.
“I’m stepping back now, Olaf,” I said, and started moving out of the hug, though I kept the gun barrel hard against his body. That would be the last thing I moved.
I thought he’d fight me, but he didn’t. He hadn’t done anything I’d expected him to do since I stepped into the room. Then the gun was the only thing touching him. I wasn’t looking at the center of his body like they teach you in boxing; I was more looking to one side. It was like being in the woods and looking for movement among the leaves; you see more by not looking.
The gun barrel left the side of his body but was still pointed at his center mass. I felt him move almost before he did it. I couldn’t have told you what moved, or what clued me, but I knew what he was going to do. He tried to disarm me and if I’d been human-slow, he’d have done it. He was that fast, that good.
I moved to one side, let his hand pass by my gun, my arm, my side, and hit his wrist with the butt of my gun as he missed me. I could have kicked his knee and dislocated it, but he was supposed to be on our side. I didn’t want him crippled for the hunt. When he wasn’t being all serial killer weird, he was a good man in a fight.
He came back at me with his other hand, and I had the gun pointed at his heart, and one of the sheath knives pressed to his groin.
Edward yelled, “Enough!”
I froze, Olaf ’s life in my hands twice. “If he behaves, so will I.” “You’re faster than I remember,” Olaf said.
“Funny, that’s what the weretiger spy said.”
“I told you she’s faster,” Edward said.
“I needed to see it for myself,” Olaf said. I could feel the weight of his gaze, but I didn’t look away from my two targets. He could stare all he wanted to; I had my priorities.
I spoke low and carefully, afraid my tense muscles would drive the knife a little into his flesh. If I ever stabbed him in the groin I knew it would have to be a killing blow, not an accident. “If you keep testing my limits, Olaf, one of us will get hurt.”
“I will step back if you lower the weapons,” he said.
“I’ll lower the weapons if you step back.”
“We are at an impasse then.”
Edward said, “I’m behind you, Anita. I’m going to step between you both, and you will both back the fuck up.” He came into my view, and then he did what he said he’d do, and began to step between us.
I let him back me up, and so did Olaf. We stood staring at each other. With Edward between us I was finally willing to look up into Olaf’s face, and what I saw there wasn’t comforting. He was excited: his eyes alight with it, his mouth half parted. He’d enjoyed being close to me, and the danger, or maybe he’d enjoyed something I didn’t even understand, but calling him a sick fuck seemed counterproductive to us working together, so I just thought it really hard.
“Now,” Edward said, glaring from one to the other of us, “we’re going to meet Anita’s backup and go hunt bad guys, not each other.”
“I will need a side trip,” Olaf said.
“Why?” Edward asked.
Bernardo answered from near the door, where he’d moved, apparently, when Olaf and I started our dance. “Hospital emergency room. She broke his wrist.”
Edward and I both looked at Olaf, and at his wrist. It wasn’t at an odd angle, so it wasn’t a bad break, but he was holding it still, and a little stiff against his side.
“Is it broken?” Edward asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“How bad?” Edward asked.
“Not too bad.”
“Will you be able to use a gun?”
“It’s why we all practice left-handed, isn’t it?” Olaf said. Which meant no.
“Fuck,” I said.
“You didn’t mean to break his wrist, did you?” Edward asked, looking at me.
I shook my head.
“I saw in the woods how much faster you are. I think you’re stronger than you realize, too. I’d be careful how hard I hit people if I were you.” The look on his face was so not happy with me. I couldn’t blame him. I’d just crippled one of his backups, and one of our most dangerous marshals. And I hadn’t done it on purpose. I lived with, trained with, sparred with, hunted, and killed shapeshifters and vampires. When was the last time I’d worked out with someone who was human? I couldn’t remember. Shit.
“I’ll take him to the hospital,” Bernardo said, “but what do we put on the paperwork?”
“Tell them it was a lover’s quarrel,” Olaf said.
“Over my dead body,” I said.
“Eventually,” he said.
“Don’t be a sick fuck, Olaf,” I said.
“I know what I am, Anita,” he said. “It’s you who keeps fighting the truth.”
“What truth is that?” I asked.
“Don’t do this,” Edward said, and I wasn’t sure which of us he was talking to.
“You hunt and kill just like I do, like we all do. There is no one in this room who is not a murderer.”
“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know,” and my voice showed the truth of it.
I had the satisfaction of Olaf looking surprised. “Then what makes you different from me?”
“I don’t enjoy killing; you do.”
“If that is the only difference between us, Anita, then we should date.”
I shook my head and stepped back. “Take him to the hospital, Bernardo; get him a cast, get him a pill, get him fixed, just get him out of here.”
Bernardo looked at Edward. He nodded and said, “Do it. Call me from the hospital and let me know how bad it is.”
Bernardo left, shaking his head. Olaf said, “I owe you for this, Anita.”
“Is that a threat?” I asked.
“Of course it is,” Edward said. “Now you get the fuck out of here. You”—he pointed at me—“stop talking to
