Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #29)(27)

“It’s not, and she probably never saw anything this awful before, could be just shock.”

“But you don’t think it is,” he said.

“I’d like a chance to question her and find out.”

“She’s a hero; the media has already gotten a hold of it,” he said.

“So?”

“We need to be sure on this before we change the narrative, that’s all.”

“Change the narrative,” I said. “Wow, Dolph, you have been reading the memos on how to handle the media.”

He smiled, then went back to serious in case someone else was looking. He had a reputation to uphold and that didn’t include smiling at subordinates at crime scenes. “I’m just saying we have to be careful here, Anita. We have a heroic woman, a maid, who saved this hotel from burning down with the New York hotel fire still headline news. The Sunshine Murders have been the leading news story for weeks.”

“I’m aware of all that,” I said.

“Can you be diplomatic in there with our hero?”

“I can be careful, not sure if I’ll ever understand diplomacy.”

“Fair enough,” he said, “we can turn on Officer Beecher’s vest cam so we’ll be on record.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Do you seriously think that this woman is involved in the murder?”

“I don’t know, but something’s off, and before we embrace her as the hero of the story I’d like to find out what that something is.”

“There’s a camera in the hallway,” he said.

“Can we see the footage before we go back in there?”

He nodded. “We can.”

“Do I need to talk to Officer Kay before we go off?”

“I’ll make sure she stays where she’s at, and that no one else lets her go before we’re ready.”

“It’s good to be the boss,” I said.

He gave that small smile again. “Better than not being boss.”

“Amen to that,” I said.

He smiled a little more, then ducked into the room to tell Officer Kay to hold the fort, and then we went to tell everyone else what Dolph wanted them to do. I even let McKinnon trail along with us to look at the security videos; as long as I didn’t use any of my psychic abilities around him we were probably good, and if that changed I’d tell him to get the hell away from me. I might do that anyway for experimenting on me and Jean-Claude with his little charm spell, but first we had a mystery to solve. I could always be cranky later.





8

I DECIDED TO BE cranky when I saw how small the manager’s office was; there would barely be room for Dolph’s and McKinnon’s shoulders, let alone the manager and me. I smiled and told him,

“We’ll be right back.” Then I motioned Dolph and McKinnon down the hallway so we wouldn’t be overheard.

“What’s up, Anita?” Dolph asked.

“The room is tiny. I don’t want to be in that tight a space with McKinnon’s charm.”

“You haven’t had another reaction to it,” McKinnon said.

“Because I have very carefully not used any psychic abilities since it went off on me. Some of my psychic abilities are almost automatic, which means I do them without thinking; what happens if I use them while you’re accidentally brushing against me? How much worse would the effect be if you were touching me?”

“I . . . I don’t know.”

“Then take the charm and lock it in your glove box, and don’t bring it out again while you’re in St.

Louis.”

“Is it just too powerful for you to be around, or is it a failure as a defensive tool?” McKinnon asked.

“It’s a small sample, but it stripped me of my control, my protection against vampires. What would happen if you used it on me near a cemetery and I accidentally raised zombies and I couldn’t control them? What if a vampire attacked the three of us and Dolph was depending on my abilities to save our asses, but your charm made me just another victim?”

“Would it do that to a vampire?” Dolph asked.

“You mean make them lose control?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

I thought about it before answering. “Jean-Claude doesn’t tease me with his powers like he did just now. We’re getting married, he doesn’t have to use his vampire wiles anymore, so I think the charm used the connection between us to strip us both of some of our control.”

“We were told that it would protect us from a vampire’s secondary powers,” McKinnon said.

“As far as I can tell, all it does is guarantee the vampire will be even more uncontrolled; maybe if it’s less than a master vampire it will do what the makers of the charm advertised, but if the vampire

is a master I think it will actually make them more dangerous. Hell, if you take away the gaze, that still leaves them with super strength and speed.”

“No, that’s the gaze, it makes people think they’re faster and stronger.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Shapeshifters are faster and stronger, but vampires have to cheat by using their secondary abilities.”

I looked at Dolph and made a little go-ahead gesture.