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"She&039;s forbidden any of us to help the wereleopards in any way"

"Why?"

"Raina used the wereleopards in her pornowith the wolves"

"I&039;ve seen one of the films I wasn&039;t i looked very serious "She also let Gabriel and the cats punish ard pack members"

"Punish?" Inodded "Sylvie was one of the ones who got punished, more than once She hates them all, Anita If Richard hadn&039;t forbid it, she&039;d have used the pack to hunt the leopards down and kill them all"

"I&039;ve seen what Gabriel and Raina thought was fun and games I think I&039;m on Sylvie&039;s side for once"

"You cleaned house for us, you and Richard Richard killed Marcus and now he&039;s Ulfric, pack leader You killed Raina for us, and now you&039;re our lupa"

"I shot her, Irving According to pack law, so I&039;e I cheated"

"You&039;re not lupa because you killed Raina You&039;re lupa because Richard picked you as hisany"

"But Richard hasn&039;t picked a new lupa, Anita Until he does, the job&039;s yours"

Richard was tall, dark, handso a olf Even that had been forgivable, or so I thought Until I saw him in action Saw the whole enchilada The , the sauce a little bloody

Noas dating just Jean-Claude I wasn&039;t sure howthe head va the head olf, but I&039;d made my choice It was Jean-Claude&039;s pale, pale hands that held ht-blue eyes that I stared into while we irls do not have preood girls had regrets about ex-boyfriend A, when they&039;ve chosen boyfriend B Maybe I&039;d been wrong Richard and I avoided each other e could Which had been for most of the last six weeks Noas out of town Easy to avoid each other now

"I won&039;t ask what you&039;re thinking about," Irving said "I think I know"

"Don&039;t be so damn smart," I said

He spread his hands wide "Occupational hazard"

That h "So Sylvie&039;s forbidden anyone to help the leopards Where does that leave Stephen?"

"He went against her direct orders, Anita For souts But Sylvie won&039;t be impressed She&039;ll tear him up, and she won&039;t allow anyone to come down and baby-sit them I know her that well"

"I can&039;t do this twenty-four hours a day, Irving"

"They&039;ll heal in a day or so"

I frowned at him "I can&039;t sit here for two days"

He looked away from me and went to stand beside Stephen&039;s bed He stared down at the sleeping man, hands clasped in front of hi&039;s ar me?"

He shook his head "I don&039;t knohat you mean"

I turned hi"

"You aren&039;t a shapeshifter, Anita You aren&039;t dating Richard anyet out of our world, not further into it"

He looked so serious, sole?"

He just shook his head

I grabbed hie to shake hi?"

"There is a way for you to get the pack to guard Stephen and even Nathaniel"

I took a step back "I&039;"

"You outrank Sylvie"

"I&039; I was the new pack leader&039;s girlfriend I&039;m not even that anymore"

"You&039;re more than that, Anita, and you know it You&039;ve killed some of us You kill easily and without re, what a rousing endorse Raina? Did you lose sleep over Gabriel?"

"I killed Raina because she was trying to kill me I killed Gabriel for the same reason, self-preservation So no, I didn&039;t lose any sleep"

"The pack respects you, Anita If you could find some pack members that are already outed as shifters and convince theuard them, both of the I can&039;t beat them to a pulp She can"

"But you can kill the my expression

I opened etForget I said it I shouldn&039;t have said it Get et out of it while you can"

"What&039;s going on, Irving? Is Sylvie a problem?"

He looked at htful He shook his head "I&039;ve got to go, Anita"

I grabbed his ar"

He turned back to o of his ared everyone higher in the pack than she is, and won"

I looked at him "So?"

"Do you understand how unusual it is for a woht her way to second in command She&039;s about five foot six, s"

"You&039;re being coy, Irving That&039;s not like you I&039; to play Twenty Questions with you Just tell ht She didn&039;t have to She chose to The next three challenges she reed she was do killed"

"Very practical," I said

He nodded "Sylvie&039;s always been that She finally picked one of the inner circle to fight She&039;s too small to be one of the enforcers; besides I think she was afraid of Ja-Da"

"Jamil? Richard didn&039;t drive him out? But he was one of Marcus&039;s and Raina&039;s flunkies"

Irving shrugged "Richard thought the transition would go suard in power"

I shook my head "Jamil should have been driven out or killed"

"Maybe, but actually Jamil seems to support Richard I think it really surprised him when he wasn&039;t killed instantly Richard has earned his loyalty"

"I didn&039;t know Jamil had any loyalty," I said

"None of us did Sylvie fought and won the place of Geri, second in command"

"She kill for it?"

"Surprisingly, no"

"Okay, so Sylvie&039;s tearing up the pack She&039;s second in command Great, so what?"

"I think she wants to be Ulfric, Anita I think she wants Richard&039;s job"

I stared at hi"

"To kill the old king," Irving said "Yeah, I think Sylvie knows that"

"I haven&039;t seen her fight, but I&039;ve seen Richard fight He outweighs her by a hundred pounds, a hundred pounds of ood She can&039;t beat hiht, can she?"

"It&039;s like Richard is wounded, Anita The heart&039;s gone out of hied and really wanted it, she&039;d win"

"What are you telling me? That he&039;s depressed?" I asked

"It&039;sone of the monsters He&039;d never killed anyone until Marcus He can&039;t forgive himself"

"How do you know all this?"

"I listen Reporters ood listeners"

We stared at each other "Telllooked down, then up "He doesn&039;t discuss you withhe said was that even you couldn&039;t accept what he was Even you, the Executioner, were horrified"

It was my turn to look down "I didn&039;t want to be"

"We can&039;t change hoe feel," Irving said

I met his eyes "I would if I could"

"I believe you"

"I don&039;t want Richard dead"

"None of us do I&039;m afraid of what Sylvie would do without anyone to stop her" He motioned to the other bed "First order of business would be hunting down all the wereleopards We&039;d slaughter them"

I took in a deep breath and let it out "I can&039;t change how I feel about what I saw, Irving I saw Richard eat Marcus" I paced the s my head "What canI do to help?"

"Call the pack and dee you as lupa Make soainst Sylvie&039;s express orders But you have to give them your protection You have to promise them that she won&039;t hurt them, because you&039;ll see to it that she can&039;t"

"If I do that and Sylvie doesn&039;t like it, I&039;ll have to kill her It&039;s like I&039; her up to be killed That&039;s a little premeditated even foryou to be our lupa To be Richard&039;s lupa To show Sylvie that if she keeps pressing, Richard hed "Shit"

"I&039;, but"

"I needed to know," I said I hugged hied me back

"What was that for?"

"For telling me I know Richard won&039;t like it"

The smile faded from his face "Richard has punished two packtime, and he nearly killed them both"

"What?" I asked

"He sliced the else"

"Richard doesn&039;t do things like that"

"He does now, not all the tioes into a rage I don&039;t want to be anywhere near hiotten?" I asked

"He&039;s got to accept what he is, Anita He&039;s got to e to drive himself mad"

I shookI can&039;t accept it either"

Irving shrugged "It&039;s not so bad being furry, Anita There are worse thingslike being the walking dead"

I frowned at hi me"

"I hope you&039;re still thankful in a week"

"Me, too"

Irving gave me some phone nu Peoplemore than just a reporter No one seemed to worry aboutthe Master of the City If people began to suspecta shapeshifter, what the hell difference would it make?

Three nah enough to play bodyguard and weak enough to be bullied I didn&039;t want to do this The pack was based on obedience: punishment and reward, mostly punishment If the pack members I called refused me, I had to punish theh to back Richard Of course, he probably wouldn&039;t be grateful He seemed to hate

But it wasn&039;t just Richard It was Stephen He&039;d saved my life once and I still hadn&039;t returned the favor He was also one of those people that was everyone&039;s victim, until today Yeah, Zane had nearly killed him, but that wasn&039;t the point He&039;d put friendship above pack loyalty Which meant that Sylvie could withdraw pack protection from him He&039;d be like the wereleopards, anybody&039;s meat I couldn&039;t let that happen to hiht end up dead Richard ht have to ht, ht Damn

I&039;d never killed before except in self-defense or for revenge If I put , it would be premeditated, cold-blooded murder Maybe not in a technical sense, but I knehat I would be starting in ht and neat until you hit one of the them I would end up with a pretty pattern on the floor: Richard solidly in power, Stephen and the wereleopards safe, Sylvie backed down, or dead The first three things were going to happen It was Sylvie&039;s choice how the last bit turned out Harsh, but true Of course, there was one other option Sylvie could kill ain Sylvie wasn&039;t exactly ruthless, but she didn&039;t let anyone get in her way We shared that trait No, I am not ruthless If I was, I&039;d have just called Sylvie into aand shot her on the spot I wasn&039;t quite sociopath enough to do it Mercy will get you killed, but sometimes it&039;s all that makes us human

I made the calls I chose a man&039;s name first, Kevin, no last naruff, like he smoked

"Who the hell is this?"

"Gracious," I said, "very gracious"

"Who is this?"

"It&039;s Anita Blake Do you knoho I a, less is more Me and Clint Eastwood

He was quiet for nearly thirty seconds, and I let the silence build His breath had sped up I could al over the phone

He answered like he was used to strange phone calls and pack business "You&039;re our lupa"

"Very good, Kevin, very good" Condescending is also good

He coughed to clear his throat "What do you want?"

"I want you to come down to St Louis University Hospital Stephen and Nathaniel have been hurt I want you to guard them for me"

"Nathaniel, he&039;s one of the wereleopards"

"That&039;s right"

"Sylvie&039;s forbidden us to help the wereleopards"

"Is Sylvie your lupa?" Questions are great, but only if you know the answers If you ask questions and the answers surprise you, you look silly Hard to be threatening when you look ill-informed

He was quiet for a second "No"

"Who is?"

I heard him s "You are"

"Do I outrank her?"

"You know you do"

"Then get your butt down here, and do what I ask"

"Sylvie will hurt me, lupa She really will"

"I&039;ll see that she doesn&039;t"

"You&039;re just Richard&039;s huht Sylvie, not and live"

"You&039;re right, Kevin I can&039;t fight Sylvie, but I can kill her"

"What do youme, I&039;ll kill her"

"You can&039;t hed "Look, Kevin, I&039;ve un at her head and pull the trigger I can and will kill Sylvie if she forces ames" I listened to my voice as I said it I sounded tired, al

"All right, I&039;ll do it, but if you let me down she may kill me"

"You have my protection, Kevin, and I knohat that means in the pack"

"It e you as dominant to me," he said

"It also ht your battles Seems like a fair trade"

Silence filled the phone lines again His breathing had slowed, deepened "Proet me killed"

"I can&039;t promise that, Kevin, but I can promise that if Sylvie kills you, I&039;ll kill her for you"

Silence, shorter this time "I believe you would I&039;ll be at the hospital in forty "

I hung up and reed to come down I&039;d drawn a line in the sand with Sylvie on one side andto like it, not one little bit Couldn&039;t blame her If our places were reversed, I&039;d have been pissed But she should have left Richard alone Irving had said it was like Richard ounded, like the heart had gone out of him I&039;d helped put that wound there I&039;d cut his heart into tiny little pieces and danced on theood, but you knohat they say about good intentions

I couldn&039;t love Richard, but I could kill for hiifts And lately I&039;d become very, very practical