Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #29)(32)

I didn’t look around for Ethan and Ru, because if security is in a separate car, then if you don’t acknowledge them the reporters and any bad guys lurking around won’t know that they’re on your side. I didn’t have to explain that to either of them, they knew their job, so I just went toward my SUV, ignoring all questions and comments. I had my keys out and was almost to the vehicle when I felt something, someone, whatever it was, and it made me do a quick glance around. I might not be good at verbal sneakiness, but I was good at looking for danger without looking obvious. The parking lot was empty except for cars and empty pools of light. The police were keeping the crowd contained, but most people were probably waiting to have permission to go to their rooms and get their stuff so they could leave. Also, most people wouldn’t leave the scene of an interesting crime; they might get a video on their phones and post it first. Smartphones had raised looky-loos to a whole new level.

There was nothing to see, but the skin creeping between my shoulders and up my neck said that just because I couldn’t see it didn’t mean it wasn’t here. I didn’t call my necromancy because it was always there; all I had to do was stop blocking it and just let it out of the box. It flowed out from me like a breath of wind. I didn’t need much energy to search for undead near me. I had a lot of metaphysical talents, but necromancy was the first magic that had ever come to me, the one that I couldn’t refuse or hide from. Most people spent their lives trying to acquire more magic, more power; I’d spent my life just trying to control mine.

I sent that seeking power outward in a ring around me searching for anything it recognized, but whatever was out there wasn’t vampire, ghoul, or zombie, or any type of undead. One area of possibilities down, lots more to choose from. Oh, and it wasn’t human, or at least not wholly human.

Of course, I didn’t hit the radar as human anymore either, and the moment I thought that . . . I searched

with a part of me that was newer and less finely tuned. I wasn’t a vampire no matter how many internet rumors said otherwise, but I did have some vampire powers and they were not original to me.

I felt down the metaphysical cords that tied me to Ethan and Ru, different kinds of cords, but when I concentrated I could feel the connection. There on the edge of my awareness was something, no, someone else. It wasn’t like Ethan, one of my animals to call, and I’d already ruled out vampires that were connected to me, so that left Brides. I only had three of those. Nicky was helping test Edward’s and Peter’s skills in the workout area underneath the Circus of the Damned, and Ru was with Ethan, so that left . . . “Rodina, I know you’re there.”

“But where am I?” She said it out loud, but she could throw her voice really well, so I knew not to trust that for direction.

“These stupid games really piss me off, you know that.”

She laughed, but the sound seemed to come from more than one place. She’d had centuries to practice her spying and assassination skills.

“As my Bride it’s supposed to cause you physical pain if I’m unhappy; you shouldn’t be able to go against my express wishes.”

“No, I shouldn’t be,” she said, voice coming from an entirely new area of the circle of sound she was bouncing around me.

“Masochist much, Rodina?”

“The pain it causes me is outweighed by the pleasure I take in tormenting you.”

“This isn’t tormenting me, just irritating me.”

“Then I will have to try harder, won’t I?” There was something in her voice that sent a chill up my spine like I was actually afraid of her. I shouldn’t have been; she was bound by magic so that she could not hurt me. She was even bound to give her life to save mine. Yet as I stood there in the dimness of the parking lot I really wanted to know where the fuck she was, just in case. She was a wereleopard and they were fast even for a shapeshifter. If I drew a gun I’d have to shoot her and since she was supposed to be one of my bodyguards that seemed overkill, so I went for a blade instead. If she was close enough she’d magically appear beside me before I could get it drawn and lay her finger beside my throat or something equally creepy just to let me know that she could have killed me.

I had the blade in my hand, and she still hadn’t appeared. I was tired of playing with her. “This shit is making me late, Rodina.”

“Then get in your vehicle and drive away,” she said in that bouncing echo of a voice so that I had no idea where it was coming from, but even through the theatrics she sounded pleased with herself. I was suddenly almost sure where she was hiding.

“Get out from under my car, Rodina.”

“You’re only guessing.”

“Let me make this simpler, I command you to come out of hiding right now.”

“You don’t know where I am.”

“I gave you a direct order,” I said.

“I’m coming,” she said, no echoes this time, just a sigh. I don’t know if she rolled or scooted out, but she was suddenly on the other side of my SUV. She was as slender and as five foot six as when I

first saw her in Ireland. Her blond hair had grown out a little, just enough to let me know it might have waves if she let it get closer to her shoulders. The temporary dyes that she’d been trying on her naturally yellow hair were gone, leaving it silvery as she stood just out of the direct light from the tall pole above my car. I always parked in the light if I could, a holdover from when I wasn’t one of the things that went bump in the night. Rodina used the shadows and her all-black clothing to hide, except her hair gave her away. Maybe she read my thought, because she pulled a hood up from her sweatshirt and it was just the pale slightly long oval of her face ruining the look.