Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #29)(11)

Asher said.

“Not if he gets me alone,” Peter said.

“Explain your answer to Asher,” Edward said.

“I surprised Kane and myself with my speed, strength, and training. I won’t surprise him a second time. He’ll be ready for me now and he’s faster and stronger than I am, plus he can shapeshift into a form that has claws and teeth.” Peter turned to me. “Can Kane do just claws in human form?”

“Not to my knowledge,” I said, and looked at Asher.

“No, he cannot,” the vampire confirmed.

“Okay, but he’s still better than me physically and he knows how good I am now, so he’ll come harder, maybe hard enough to try and kill me. If he gets me alone I’ll have to assume that’s what he’s planning.”

“And if he attacks you in front of us all, as he will likely do?” Asher asked.

“If Anita and Ted are with me, or Nicky and a few others, I’ll try to fight until they can subdue him, but if he catches me alone or without the people I trust with me, then I’ll have to take care of it myself.”

“You do not trust that I can control my own animal to call?”

Peter looked at me as if to ask, What do I say?

“Tell him the truth,” I said.

“No, why should I when you don’t seem to have any control over him at all. In fact, he bullies and manipulates you and you let him do it. Why would I trust my life to you suddenly standing up to him and saving me? I’m much safer saving myself while you stand around wringing your hands about what to do.”

Asher stared at him, then turned to me. “Is this what you think of me, too?”

“Do you want the truth?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay, I think you’d stand there and watch Peter die at Kane’s hands and do nothing, not because you want Peter dead but because you don’t know what to do in emergencies, especially when Kane is involved.”

“Am I that useless?”

“Where Kane is concerned, yes.” In my head I thought he’d be one of the last people I’d count on in an emergency, but I kept that to myself. One hard truth at a time worked better if you wanted most people to do better, and I didn’t want to hurt him that much. I still loved him, or Jean-Claude loved him enough for both of us; either way it made it hard to be completely honest in that moment.

“So, you agree that Peter should kill Kane?”

“No, I agree that Peter shouldn’t let Kane kill him, and if that means he kills Kane first, then I’m okay with that.”

“Even if it means my death?”

Damn it, he wasn’t going to let this be easy, which was so Asher. “You are a master vampire, Asher, which means you can control your animal to call, which is hyena. I’ve seen you force werehyenas that hated you to attack people they liked better than you. Kane is your personal animal, your moitié bête, your beast half, so you should be able to control him and keep him from attacking Peter, but you won’t, not can’t, won’t. If you want to commit suicide by letting Kane do it for you, that is your choice.”

“Will you not miss me?”

I made an inarticulate sound that was somewhere between frustration and a scream of rage. “Damn it, Asher, don’t be the fucking girl in this conversation. Not every damn thing is just about you! I will not let your issues with Kane get Peter killed, period, end of fucking discussion. If Kane dies and that drags you to the grave with him, I will mourn your beautiful ass, but I will not let you kill or injure anyone else I love ever again. Ever!”

“I did not know you felt that way about Peter.”

“Wait, are you saying that unless I have a romantic love toward someone you think it’s okay for Kane to hurt them, or kill them?”

What I could see of Asher’s face looked confused. Oh my God, I was too stressed today for this shit. My phone rang and it was the ringtone for Captain Rudolph Storr of the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team.

“Answer the question, Asher, because we’re going to have a lot of people in for the wedding that I’m not fucking, and you have to understand that if Kane hurts them that’s still a death sentence on him.”

“That is your work ringtone,” he said.

“I know. I’ll call back. You must understand what I just said, or Kane is going to do something unfortunate, and someone will have to kill him, and that may kill you, which will take a piece out of Jean-Claude’s heart and mine, but Kane has no more free passes. None, zero, zilch. If he attacks anyone else the minimum is what Peter just did. I am about to have a lot of humans around me for fittings of dresses and shit, and Kane cannot take a swing at any of them, because if he kills any of them even by accident I will put a silver bullet between his eyes.”

“He is my animal to call; he might survive even that.”

I had to count slowly before saying, “You are not stupid, Asher, so you have to be deliberately missing my point here.”

“I thought you might discipline him with one bullet to make your point.”

I shook my head hard enough that all my own black curls flew back and forth. I was having to fight not to make my hands into fists. “It’s not my job to discipline Kane, it’s yours, but if you won’t do your job, you will force me to do mine. “