Crimson Death (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 25)

Mort actually hit Magda as she came over him to go for Donnie again. It didn't hurt her, but it threw off her leap and made her use the wall to turn and come back for him. I could see Mort as he fought with the blur that I knew was Magda. He was trying to land a blow, any blow, with the baton in his hand. I didn't understand how he was avoiding her blows, but I knew he was, because his other arm was coming up and he was moving like he was fighting. I started to be able to see her moving, but it was still like watching the afterimage as if you saw where she'd been, not where she was, because your eye just couldn't comprehend the speed. Mort had to be seeing her better than I did, because he was blocking her blows. It was like they were sparring, but it was movie-special-effects sparring, because no one moved like this in real life. It was like watching magic.

Donnie tried to back Mort up, and she got a few hits with her baton, but she seemed to have more trouble timing her blows with Magda's movements. Twice she almost hit Mort, because he moved with Magda and by the time Donnie swung she had a different target, one she didn't want to hit. It was like Mort and Magda were dancing and Donnie was trying to cut in.

Brennan staggered as he got up off the floor from where he'd fallen. He was shaken, maybe hurt. If you don't know how to fall, you shouldn't spar. Magda hadn't meant to hurt him, but she'd trusted that he knew how to keep himself safe.

Mort bent backward at the waist, so Magda swept over him. Donnie tried to come from the other side and Magda reacted to it, but Donnie was immediately on the defensive. "Don't try to see her. Feel it," Mort said, as he avoided Magda's blows and Donnie waded in and got shoved out of the way again.

Donnie said, "What do you mean, don't see her?"

Brennan tried to join the fight, but whatever had happened in the initial rush made him too slow. His baton vanished from his hand in a movement so quick that he was left staring at his empty hand as if it had literally vanished instead of Magda grabbing it and spinning away with it.

Mort finally hit her and he didn't expect to, so he connected harder than he'd planned. Magda slowed down enough that I saw her face clearly and the bright red at her cheek. He'd bled her. There was a second where he saw it, too, and his face showed that he was sorry, but she touched the blood on her face and then spun toward him with that blurring speed, and if I'd thought the fight was furiously fast before, I'd been wrong. Mort could not keep her from hitting him; no human could have.

Donnie moved in to help but was sent staggering back with blood on her own face. This had gone far enough. Apparently Brennan thought so, too, because he drew his sidearm and pointed it at the fight. Magda was moving too fast for him to be certain of hitting her and not Mort, and we were standing on the other side of the fight. There were too many friendly targets in the hallway. Fuck.

46

DONNIE YELLED, "BRENNAN, stand down!"

I had my gun in my hand and hadn't meant to draw it. Brennan couldn't get a solid target on the moving fight, but all I had to do was hit him. I yelled, "Brennan, down, put it down, now!"

Donnie stood up taller and was suddenly all I could see down the barrel of the gun. I lowered it and aimed at the ruined cell. "Donnie, down, floor!"

"Don't shoot him," she said.

"Disarm him, Donnie, or we will," Socrates said.

Flannery moved at the other end of the hallway. "Brennan, holster your weapon."

"It's the only way to stop it," Brennan said.

Mort fell to the floor and Magda knelt over him, the baton coming down. Nicky yelled, "Magda!" and his beast's energy filled the hallway in a skin-trembling rush. She hesitated, looking at him with eyes gone to lion orange. Socrates was already moving down the hallway in his own dark blur of speed, but he wasn't as fast as Magda. Nicky had chosen not to rush the fight, afraid he'd spook Brennan more. Nicky put his body in front of mine to shield me, so that I didn't see what happened next. The gunshot was thunderous in the hallway. You forget how loud it is without ear protection.

I tried to move around Nicky, but he kept his body firm in front of mine. Damn it! "What's happening?"

He moved enough that I could see around him, but he kept one arm sort of back so that he kept me swept mostly behind him. But I could see Magda helping Mort to his feet. Donnie was holding a gun in her hand, but I could still see her own gun in its holster at her side. Maybe she had a backup, but I was betting it was Brennan's gun. Had she disarmed him before Socrates could?

Flannery had Brennan up against the wall, talking low and urgently to him. The younger man wasn't fighting to get away, but he wasn't happy either. Socrates was standing beside Donnie and Flannery.

"What the fuck just happened?" I asked.

"Donnie and Flannery disarmed him before Socrates got there," Nicky said.

I still had my own gun out. I let out the last of a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding and holstered it.

The door behind us opened and I almost went for my gun again, but it was Edward and Nolan. I started to breathe again and tried to relax, but that wasn't happening completely. We needed out of this hallway, or I did.

"I thought Forrester had trained you up better than that, Blake," Nolan said; he was angry and looking for a target. I wasn't sure why that target wasn't Brennan, but if he wanted to fight, that was fine with me.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Nolan. It wasn't me who broke training."

"First your wereanimal goes berserk and then you draw your gun and threaten a target you had no intention of shooting. Didn't anyone teach you that you don't draw your gun unless you mean to use it?"

"Magda did exactly what you said you wanted. She tested your fancy jail cell and your people."

"Bollocks, she wasn't good enough to get past Mort." He yelled it, pushing past Edward to advance on me. Edward didn't try to stop him. He knew I could take care of myself, and part of him was going to enjoy the show.

"She could have had me a dozen times, Captain. She was incredibly controlled," Mort said.

"You fought well," Magda said.

He grinned at her, pleased.

"If you can't control your animals, then you need to go back to America!" Nolan was looming over me as he yelled.

I stepped closer to him, invading his personal space. I yelled back, "Don't you ever call my people animals again, when it was your man who pulled his weapon on us!"

He stepped into me and screamed, "I'll discipline my man, but who disciplines you for pulling yours?"

I realized I wanted to fight, because part of me knew that I would have shot Brennan. I don't shoot to wound, so I stepped into Nolan. I moved forward into the fight instead of trying to calm it down, because I didn't feel calm. Brennan didn't need killing, but I knew that was exactly what I would have done if Donnie hadn't stopped me. I stepped into Nolan until only the smallest fraction of space was left between us. It was aggressive and designed to make the fight worse. I was afraid of what I'd almost done, and fear has always translated into anger for me. My beasts came with my anger in a rush of energy that fueled the aggression. We could fight; oh yes, we could. I felt Nolan's beast flickering inside him, rising toward the surface of him in his own rush of confused emotions turned to rage. It wasn't the same kind of wolf as the one inside me, but they recognized each other. Bow-fucking-wow.

"Your man lost his nerve and pulled his gun, because he didn't know what else to do, Nolan! This is why you can't jail the monsters! This is why you kill them, because you can't do anything else!"

He snarled into my face. "You pointed your weapon at a friendly that you had no intention of shooting; if you were my man I would take your sidearm and you would not get it back!"

"I pointed my gun at an armed threat, and I don't shoot to wound!"

He almost snarled the next words into my face. "Brennan was pointing his gun at the threat he saw in this hallway."

Was there an edge of growl in my own voice as I spoke? "He staggered away from that wall. He wasn't steady enough to fire into a fight. H

e was a danger to your own man."

"My men are trained to fire during a fight!"

"I'm trained to end the fight!"

"What the fuck does that mean?"

I was damn near on tiptoes putting my face up into his, as I said, "I'm an executioner, Nolan!"

"You wouldn't have shot him!"

"The fuck I wouldn't! Donnie blocked my shot."

"I did, sir," Donnie called.

My wolf with her mostly white fur was just suddenly clear inside me. I could see her standing with the black saddle mark across her, the slight darkening around her eyes that was the beginning of the marks around a husky's or malamute's face. She looked up into his brown eyes with her gold ones and his energy rose to hers. His eyes changed to amber.

Nolan looked down at the floor, blinking, then leaned back from me. He took a step back, and in a much calmer voice he said, "Your woman still lost control."

"No, Captain Nolan, she did not, because if she had, there'd be fresh bodies." My voice was calmer, too.

When he looked at me again, his eyes were back to human brown. "If Donahue hadn't spoiled your aim on Brennan, would you have shot him?"

"I was taught that you don't draw your gun unless you mean to use it, and if you start shooting, then you shoot until the target is stopped. Dead is stopped."

Nolan looked at me. "I don't want to lose men to friendly fire."

"Then you need to train them not to lose their nerve the first time they realize just what they're up against."

"I did not mean for him to hit his head," Magda said. "I overestimated his ability to fight, as I underestimated this one." She clapped Mort on the shoulder. He winced. "Did I hurt you?"

"I'll be bruised, but so will you."

"No, I will heal any damage before bruises form."

"That must be nice," he said.

"Yes, it is," she said.