Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 27)

I glanced at Livingston and realized he was bracing his body and the gun to prevent the force of Bobby’s head from moving him. Livingston’s eyes flicked to me. He seemed to be asking me what the hell was going on. Bobby was either totally oblivious to the pain, or he was trying suicide by cop. When Wagner had shot at him, Bobby had reacted automatically, trying to hide and save his own life. But now, with more time to think, he wasn’t trying to save himself. Maybe it wasn’t in the front of his head, but the back of his head wasn’t thinking survival anymore. If he changed tactics from slow pushing to sudden moves, Livingston would kill him.

“We called the coroner from the car on the way to your house,” I said.

Bobby moved his head toward me, which was just enough to help Livingston stop having to fight against moving another inch, or maybe he was fighting not to hurt Bobby more. Maybe both.

“I told you not to call Dale about any abuse nonsense,” Duke said.

“You’re going to bitch about that now,” I said, still staring at Bobby and Livingston. I didn’t have to see Duke to fight with him.

“This is my case, Duke,” Newman said.

“And this is my town,” Duke said. “You’re just visiting your girlfriend.”

“Are you telling the truth about Uncle Ray’s body?” Bobby asked. “It wasn’t . . . hurt that way?”

“You’re a wereanimal. You should be able to feel that I’m telling the truth.” I didn’t say we were telling the truth, because to my knowledge the coroner hadn’t gotten back to us yet, so Newman couldn’t know if our victim’s body had been raped.

“I should be, but I can’t feel anything, except that I’m afraid of what I did to Uncle Ray.”

“He just confessed. You all heard him,” Leduc said.

“No,” Bobby said, and tried to turn back to look at the hallway again. “I don’t remember.”

“Confess, Bobby, and it’ll all be over,” Leduc said.

Bobby opened his mouth, but Newman said, “I won’t execute Bobby because you trick him into confessing.”

“I keep telling you that we don’t have any other shapeshifters in this area. It had to be him.”

“And we keep telling you that it doesn’t look like a shapeshifter kill to us,” Newman said.

I kept my attention on Bobby and Livingston. Kaitlin had moved to the far corner of the cell, as far away from us as she could get without asking to be let out. A lot of people would have asked for someone to open the door by now. Points for her.

“Win, you can’t make it something it’s not just because you don’t want to have to kill someone you know,” Duke said.

Bobby’s eyes shifted completely. Only years of watching that change in people’s eyes made me positive of what I was seeing. The march of energy down my skin confirmed it. Livingston let out a breath loud enough for me to hear it. I did that sometimes just before I squeezed the trigger, too.

“Don’t shoot him,” I said.

“Give me a reason not to,” Livingston said, voice careful and controlled so that even his breathing didn’t accidentally make his finger twitch.

“Bobby, help me save you,” I said.

“What if I don’t want you to save me?” he asked. A shudder ran down his body from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. He was starting to give himself over to the change. Fuck!

I grabbed his wrist and the energy poured over my hand and up my arm like I’d plunged it into a tub of warm water. If I didn’t do something now, it would just get warmer. I lowered my shields and poured my own energy back into Bobby’s, like trying to stop a fire with a firebreak.

“Livingston, I’m putting energy into Bobby to keep him in human form. Don’t shoot him because of my energy, okay?”

“How do I tell the difference between your energy and his, Blake?” Livingston asked. His eyes were showing a lot of white now, too, but there was no answering energy from him.

“You probably can’t.”

“Fuck that,” he said, and he was gritting his teeth again, as if even his jaw muscles were holding on for dear life.

“If he starts to shift, you have to shoot him,” Duke said from the safe side of the cage bars.

“Shut the fuck up, Duke,” I said.