Crimson Death (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 25)

3

THE WHITE LIGHT died abruptly like someone had turned a switch. I took my finger off the trigger and pointed the gun in as neutral a direction as I could find. Cardinale stood there with her orange-red hair in careless curls around her shoulders, her blue eyes blinking at me in the careful makeup that made them look like a bright blue sky to match Damian's perfect summer green. My pulse was in my throat still; I hadn't even gone to the quiet place in my head where I normally went when I was going to shoot someone. Maybe I'd known she didn't mean it? Maybe I hadn't wanted to shoot her? My body felt so full of blood and heartbeat that I was shaking with it, which meant I'd have probably missed the shot anyway. Fuck.

Cardinale was very still as she looked at me. It wasn't just vampire stillness, though they could be statue still, but I think she was trying not to make any sudden moves. If she was trying not to spook me, she was a little late.

"Thank you for not shooting her," Damian said. I thought he was talking to just me, and then I saw the security guards in the doorway behind her. One had his gun out; the other one didn't. The fact that I hadn't realized they were there meant I was still shielding too tight not just against Damian, but vampires and apparently shapeshifters since both bodyguards were that, or maybe part of my metaphysical ability picked up normal humans, too, because as soon as I lowered my shields a fraction, I could feel more of the energy of the customers already out in the club beyond us.

It took me a second to adjust from almost no psychic input to having more, and in a shooting emergency that second could have cost me my life. I had to find a middle ground for shielding around Damian, damn it. But one problem at a time. "Where the fuck were you while all this was going on?" I asked.

The two men just inside the door glanced at each other, and then the one with the gun out, Ricky, said, "I didn't have a clear shot, Anita."

"I'm not mad that you didn't shoot Cardinale, Ricky," I said. I had my gun loose in my hand, but I still hadn't holstered it because once a vampire goes that apeshit around me, especially in a small room, I like my gun out.

"Then what are you mad about?" he asked, and he fought not to sound sullen. He was tall, dark, and handsome if you liked the standard Midwestern Romeo type who usually got the prom queen's virginity, or promised you the moon at the dance club with a few drinks, and meant none of it. I might be prejudiced; Ricky and I had had a serious misunderstanding the first time we met. He was still digging his way off my shit list, and I was still not his favorite boss. Fine with me; I wasn't here to win popularity contests. I was here to make sure everyone stayed safe and as happy as I could manage. Safe was easier than happy most nights.

The other guard was new, too, and I couldn't place his name. We had too many new people lately doing security; I should know the names of everyone that I might have to depend on for backing me in an emergency.

"What's your name?" I asked the other guard, who was standing there with no visible weapon and looking worriedly from me to Ricky and the vampires. God, he looked young, big and tough looking, but young.

"Roger, Roger Parks." Most shapeshifters didn't give their last name in introductions, which meant he was very new, maybe even to being a wereanimal. Great.

"Well, Roger, Roger Parks, what's the first thing you saw when you opened the door?"

He did that nervous glance around at all of us again, then said, "Light, white light."

"Is that all?" I asked.

"There were a red glow and a green-and-blue glow, which could have been either of the vampires."

"What alerted you that there was trouble?"

"Echo alerted us," Roger said.

I looked at Ricky. "Do I need to ask you the next question, or can you just answer it?"

He took in a lot of air and let it out slowly, licked his lips, and said, "We were told there was an issue in the manager's office, and that you and Damian were both in the room, and to be kept safe."

"What about me?" Cardinale asked; her voice was very careful as she asked, as if she didn't want to even raise her voice. She was being very careful now, which was good; she'd need to be very careful for a long time around me after this.

Ricky glanced at me, and I knew he was asking for guidance; he could be taught. I said, "You were endangering two of the principals that our security force is charged with keeping safe, Cardinale. That makes you a liability, not an asset."

"What does that even mean?" she asked, her voice holding more of that British Isles accent than her normal middle-of-nowhere one. It was like most of our British vamps had been given voice lessons to sound like all the announcers on the major news sources so that they blended in everywhere and nowhere.

Ricky looked at me again, and this time I just nodded.

"How blunt do you want me to be, boss lady?" Ricky asked.

"Tell her what you were told about your job," I said.

"Echo is head of security at Danse Macabre now, Anita."

"I'm aware of that."

"She uses pretty cold logic."

"That's fine. Just say it, Ricky. Maybe it'll help keep Cardinale alive."

He nodded, then looked back at Cardinale. "The job of security is to protect assets. Danse Macabre running smoothly and making money is an asset. Anita is one of the principal assets that we are all charged with keeping safe, and Damian is another asset both as the manager of the club and as Anita's servant. You are an employee here at Danse Macabre, but you are not one of the major dancers, or a headliner of any kind, nor do you have a direct metaphysical tie to any of our principal assets."

"What does all that mean?" she asked, her voice trying for neutral but holding the first hint of anger.

"It means you aren't a principal, so we don't have to protect you like you are one. You aren't an important financial asset either, so we have to put even less energy into protecting you, which means none of us has to put our body between you and a bullet, or whatever."

"So I'm not important at all," she said.

"You said it. I didn't," Ricky said.

"What are your orders when a principal is in danger?" I asked.

"To protect them at all costs and to take out the threat," Ricky said.

"Tonight that threat was you, Cardinale. If they'd come to the door before the light blinded us all you'd be shot, if not dead, so get jealous all you want, but don't do it on the clock where security is going to have to help deal with it, because it's going to get you dead."

"He was half naked and covered in blood down his back. How was I supposed to know that you hadn't already fucked each other?"

Damian spoke for the first time. "I have never cheated on you, Cardinale, never."

"But you were sleeping with her when you started sleeping with me." And she pointed a very accusing finger at me. I'd have said it was overly dramatic, but after all the glowing and holy objects, it wasn't that dramatic.

"I never lied about Anita

or anyone else, Cardinale. I never lied to you about anything."

"I can't stand the thought that you want to be with other people."

"I don't want to be with other people."

"But you think Anita is beautiful, and you think Echo is beautiful, and you admire Fortune."

"I admire beautiful women with a look, or a glance, but that is all."

"That is not all you do with the customers that you take blood from."

"That is not all you do with the ones you drink from either."

"But I don't enjoy it; it is just food, and it is more than that to you."

I felt like we were in the middle of an old fight, and I was tired of it already.

"I've told you that feeding was all the softness I had in my existence for centuries, so it means more to me than simple food. It was all the kindness She-Who-Made-Me would allow me."

"Why am I not enough for you?" She yelled that part.

"Because I cannot feed on another vampire! Because it is my job to seduce the crowd and choose someone to feed upon. It is part of the show here, and it gains us money and more customers, which makes us more money, and that is what this club is supposed to do."

"I cannot watch you flirt with all the women night after night, and know that if I would allow it you would fuck them while you feed." She wasn't yelling, but her hands were in fists as she fought to keep her voice even.

"I would not have public sex with strangers, Cardinale. That is very different from feeding on blood in public," he said.

"But you'd fuck Anita in private if I allowed it, wouldn't you?"

"It's a girl trap," I said out loud.

Damian looked at me and said, "I know, but I don't care."

"Do not drag me into this further than I already am."

"I'm sorry, but you're already in it, because she won't let you out of it," he said.

"What's happening?" Roger the guard asked.

"He's about to tell the truth," Ricky said.

"Why is that bad?" Roger asked.

"It just is."

"Shut up," Cardinale said. "This is between Damian and me."

"Then have the conversation with just the two of you," I said, and started for the door. Surely with two security guards to back me up, I could get out of the office without Cardinale doing something we'd all regret.