Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 27)

“She must stay nearby until she either executes you or the warrant is voided,” Olaf said. He’d walked back in so he could peer through the doorway to the cells.

Bobby’s face crumpled, going from happy smiles to confusion and fear. I touched his hands where they were still wrapped around the bars. He smiled at me again, but his eyes stayed scared. I squeezed his hands, and he moved his fingers so he could squeeze back.

“It’s going to be all right, Bobby,” I said. “We’re all working to get you free.”

“Thank you. Thank you all,” he said, still holding my hands through the bars, but looking at everyone he could see.

I fought the urge to rub my cheek against his fingers like a cat scent-marking. My inner leopard was trying to rise and comfort him, too, but I’d had enough of my beasts getting out of control. I took a deep breath and stepped back, letting Bobby’s fingers slide down my skin as I pulled away. He didn’t want to let me go. I knew it was part just human comfort, but part of it was his beast recognizing mine. Every shapeshifter I knew said it was lonely without more of your own kind around, and he had been alone a very long time.

“We have to go, Bobby, but we’ll see you tomorrow.” I smiled when I spoke, and he smiled back.

We left him in smiles. I tried to get Angel or Ethan to stay behind, but the sheriff didn’t want them there, and we were in a gray area legally. The case wasn’t a supernatural case at all, so technically it didn’t fall under the supernatural marshals’ jurisdiction. If I hadn’t still had a warrant of execution with Bobby’s name on it, we’d have had no rights in the case at all. But none of my bodyguards wanted to stay and babysit Bobby. They didn’t say it out loud, but I got the distinct impression that they were more worried about guarding me and one another than Bobby Marchand. I wanted to argue, but Bobby seemed relaxed and happy. Leduc had found a chessboard, and he was setting up the pieces for him and Bobby to play through the bars. The winner would play Deputy Troy. Apparently, Troy had been something of a chess prodigy back in high school, but football got him more dates than chess club. I just couldn’t picture the deputy being a deep enough thinker for chess, but then, maybe I wasn’t catching any of the locals at their best.

Ms. Brooks went to see if she could talk to the judge in person and get Bobby out of jail earlier. I took Leduc aside and asked him where Jocelyn was. I wasn’t sure how that reunion was going to go. She was back at the hospital under observation after her little fit with Muriel and Todd. They were talking about keeping her overnight under sedation. Bobby was as safe as I could make him. He’d be a free man in a day or two, and then I could go home with the first ever warrant of execution canceled without a death.

We all trooped out with Olaf and Edward joining us. It was time to talk metaphysics and dating serial killers. I’d have rather stayed and played chess or checkers or Parcheesi, and I didn’t even know how to play that.

74

“YOU ARE ATTRACTED to Bobby Marchand,” Olaf said once we got outside. Of all the things he could have started with, that hadn’t been on my list.

“I’m not attracted to Bobby,” I said.

“Lies! I saw you with him just now.”

His energy blazed around him so hot that I wanted to step back as if it were real fire and I was afraid of getting burned. God, he was so powerful. It really was a shame he was crazy. The moment I had that thought, I saw my lioness step out of the shadows. She stared at me with dark amber eyes.

“I’m not lying. I don’t want to date Bobby.”

“Why must you always make it about dating? I said you are attracted to him, not that you wanted a relationship with him.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My lioness took the first step forward, sniffing the air. So much power, such strength, he could protect us from the other lions. If we could only get him to hunt with our other lion, and I knew she meant Nicky.

“She doesn’t want to fuck Bobby,” Nicky said.

Olaf whirled toward him, all that power blazing bright and feeding on his anger. He suddenly smelled like food again. “I saw her with him! I saw her beast react every time they touched!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

“Your leopard did react to him, my . . . Anita,” Pierette said.

“Well, yeah,” I said.

“You admit it,” Olaf said.

“That my inner beast reacted to his, yes, but that’s not the same thing as being attracted to him.”

Angel made a sound that might have been a laugh. I turned and glared at her. “Why is that funny?”

“Your beast doesn’t react like that to just everyone,” she said with a smile.

“Stop grinning at me, and just tell me what that means,” I said.

“It means that you have more control over your beasts now, and they flare only if you are sort of attracted to someone.”

“Or if she hasn’t fed the ardeur in more than four hours,” Pierette said.

Edward said, “Do you really want to have this talk in front of the sheriff’s office?”