Skin Trade (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 17)

Chapter 36

ONE OF THE white female tigers with hair the color of pale buttermilk, and eyes like a spring sky, came and took Domino deeper into the penthouse. He didn't want to leave me, but between me and Victor, he did what we wanted. If he got out of my physical presence and started breaking free of the fascination, then I could leave him here to his life. If it didn't start to wear off at all, then I'd have to take him with me. What I'd do with him after that, I had no bloody idea. Other people pick up stray puppies; I kept collecting men. Crap.

The rest of us settled down on the overstuffed couches. Bernardo and I sat far enough away from each other on our couch that we wouldn't get in each other's way if things went south. Crispin sat as close to me as any boyfriend, an arm across the back of the couch touching my shoulders, one hand on my leg. I could have told him to back off because I was working, but it would have hurt his feelings, and I knew enough about lycanthrope society to know that touching was just what they did.

Bibiana sat across from us, with her son and Rick. No one touched her much. Maybe tigers were different from the other animal groups I was familiar with? I'd ask later.

"What do you know about what happened to the police here?" I asked.

"Only what we heard on the news," Victor said.

Bibiana simply looked at me with those uptilted blue eyes. Her silent scrutiny might have been unnerving, but between the morgue, Olaf, and what had just happened with my inner tigers, her stare just didn't have enough weight to move me.

If this had been a normal interrogation, there would be rules, methods. I should have volunteered little and asked repetitive questions. But we were burning daylight. Once the vampires rose for the night, and Vittorio added his power to his daytime servants... I had no idea what he would do. Slaughtering the SWAT team like that and mailing me the head was throwing down a serious gauntlet. I thought that if it was Vittorio and not someone framing him, or even if it were, then when darkness fell, all hell was going to break loose. We didn't have time for hours of questions.

Crispin began to move his hand on my thigh in small circles. He'd picked up my tension and was trying to soothe me. It didn't really work, but I appreciated the effort.

"Anita?" Bernardo said, making a question of my name. He looked at me, trying for blank, and failing to hide some concern around the edges. He'd seen some seriously weird shit from me in the last hour. In fact, he'd been a damn good sport about all of it. Did I owe him, like, flowers? What did you get a coworker for not freaking when you went all metaphysical on him? A card? Did Hallmark make a card for that?

Crispin leaned over me, his breath warm against my hair. "Anita, are you all right?"

"Anita," Bernardo said again, and this time he didn't try to keep the worry out of his voice.

Edward joined in my ear. "Bernardo, what's wrong with Anita?"

"I'm fine," I said, "I'm just thinking." I turned back to the weretigers on the other couch. "We're running out of daylight, so I'm going to talk to you like one master's lady to another."

Bibiana gave a regal nod. "I am honored."

"One, I need you to listen to Victor and Max, and not screw with my inner tigers until after this investigation is over."

"You could tell her just to leave your inner tigers alone," Victor said. He smiled, but his eyes were just visible behind the yellow glasses. Part of me was really bugged by the glasses, but I was trying to be human here, not all tigerish, so he could keep the glasses.

In the interest of being a little more human, I leaned away from Crispin, putting myself on the edge of the couch. All I had to do was lean back and he'd be there, but I needed to think, and something about a man you've had sex with doing little circles on your thigh isn't always conducive to clear thinking.

"I'm trying to negotiate in good faith here. I'm not going to start by asking Bibiana to promise something she won't deliver. I don't understand everything that she wants from my inner beasts, but I heard her say that I may be the only queen of their clan that Domino and the blue boy, Cynric, will ever see. Bibiana isn't going to let me walk out of Vegas without wanting to explore that again, are you?" I looked at her when I said the last.

She smiled and dipped her head, very demure. "No," she said, simply.

I smiled. "Good, no denials. I like that. Two, do we all agree that these murders are bad for business for both the vampire and lycanthrope communities?"

They all agreed.

"Then I need to know, honestly, if you know anything about the animal that helped this vampire kill these police officers."

"You say animal, but you come to us," Victor said.

Bibiana said, "You think it is one of our tigers." There was something about the way she said it that made me say the next.

"You think so, too," I said.

"I did not say so," she said.

I licked my lips, but not because they were dry this time. "You taste like the edge of a lie," I said.

"What does that mean?" Olaf asked in my ear.

Edward told him, "Let her work."

Bibiana smiled up at me. It was almost a flirtatious look. "I am not lying," she said.

I smiled at her. "Okay, then answer this: Do you suspect that one of your weretigers was involved with these killings in any way?"

She wouldn't look at me now, but concentrated on her small, neat hands that were clasped so ladylike in her lap. Her ankles were crossed. She was so prim and proper, but I knew it was a lie. She was one of those people that no matter how buttoned up they are, you can simply feel that if you scratch them hard enough, get them in the right place at the wrong time, there would be absolutely nothing proper about them. Women tend to give off that vibe more than men, but I've seen men do it, too. Some of them don't even know how much heat they're hiding behind the mask of civility. But Bibiana knew; she knew that human and prim was not really what she was at all.

"Do you want me to answer the question, Mother?"

She gave him a look so fierce, so vicious, that it turned that pretty face into something frightening. There, the masks were coming down. "I am still queen here, or do I have to remind you of it more forcefully?"

"Father told us that if asked, we were to answer Marshal Blake honestly and completely."

"Until he rises for the night, I rule here," she said.

I fought not to glimpse back at Crispin. He wasn't good at hiding his face. Instead, I glanced at Rick and found him visibly uncomfortable. I got the impression that this squabbling was common, maybe even growing worse. I knew enough about weretiger society to know that they were all run by queens. It was one of the few wereanimal groups that was always female run. Some groups had women that got to be top dog, or cat, but it was the exception, not the rule. So Victor, no matter how powerful, couldn't rule the White Tiger Clan. But he was certainly acting as if he wanted to be in charge.

"Bernardo reminded you of your promise, Chang-Bibiana. Now I remind you again that I have called Crispin to me from your side. You said if I could do that, that you would answer my questions. Is the word of the Chang of the White Tiger Clan to be depended on, or is there no honor in Vegas?"

I felt the couch move before Crispin put a hand on my back. It was a careful touch, not too sexual, but it was a physical reminder to be careful. I didn't resent it. If I didn't take Crispin back with me to St. Louis, this was his pond I was shitting in, and he'd be left alone to swim in it.

Bibiana turned those angry eyes to me. Her power started to pour toward me, in a nearly visible roil of heat. Victor stood up. He moved between that power, her, and me.

It hit him, and his head went back, his arms to the sides, as if it felt good. His breath came out in a long sigh. He shuddered and said, "Your Master of the City gave you express orders not to bring her beasts. I obey his orders, even if you do not."

She made a snarling sound. Crispin tucked himself up closer to me, as if afraid. Or was he afraid of what I'd do? I fought not to stiffen at his touch or look too nervous. I tried for calm, though I felt anything but at ease.

Bernardo had moved forward to the edge of his piece of couch, too. Rick was still sitting back, but the tension showed in every muscle.

"You are your father's tool and nothing more."

"I am my father's instrument in the daylight. I am his right hand, and I will not betray him."

"It is not betrayal to seek power for our clan and our people." I couldn't see her because Victor was still standing between us.

"You can seek power after the marshals have killed the traitor and his master."

"What traitor?" I asked.

Victor turned, giving his mother his back. I'm not sure I would have done that, but then she wasn't my mom. "The first murders were strippers, just like the ones in your city. But the last one had claw marks and vampire bites."

I cursed the Vegas PD for not mentioning this little fact to me. It would have been nice to know that the last victim had shown claw marks. That was a change from all the other cities that Vittorio had hunted in. It proved that some part of the Vegas force didn't trust me. That was going to make solving crime, any crime, harder here. Crispin picked up my anxiety again. His hand on my back began to make those soothing circles.

"What makes you think it's a weretiger?" I asked.

"Mother," Victor said, and stepped aside to let us see each other again.

She gave him a not entirely happy look, but spoke. "I have felt another vampire's pull on my tigers. As you tried today to call me to you, and ended by calling some of my children, so this other vampire was seeking. I thought I had prevented it, but now I believe that he managed to steal away one of mine. Or perhaps a different clan, but tiger, he was calling tiger."

"Do you know for certain that the vampire was a he?" I asked.

She nodded. "The energy was male."

"Ask her how she knows that for certain," Edward asked in my ear.

I held my hand out to the weretigers. I moved a little away from Crispin's hand, too. He took the hint and let his hand drop away from me. "Excuse me, she knows it was male, Marshal Forrester, because the energy tasted or smelled male to her."

"You can tell from energy if a vampire is male or female?" Bernardo asked.

I nodded. "Sometimes."

Bibiana smiled at me, as if I'd said a smart thing. "Yes, he tasted of men, but..." She frowned.

"But what?" I asked.

"You are of the line of Belle Morte?"

"Jean-Claude is," I said.

She waved it away as if I were quibbling. "Most vampire lines are cold things, but not hers. You are closer to the warmth of the wereanimal, I think. Can you taste someone's sexual energy from a distance?"

I thought about that. "Sometimes."

Again, she smiled like I'd said the right thing. "There was something wrong with this vampire's energy. Something stunted, or thwarted in some way. It was as if his sex had become rage."

"Have you ever felt something similar from anyone else?" I asked.

"We had a weretiger that came to us. We tried to discipline him, save him, but in the end he had to be destroyed for everyone's sake."

To his mother's explanation, Victor added, "He was a serial rapist. The attacks became more violent." He sighed.

"Ava's attacker?" I asked.

He gave me a startled look. "Did you look at her case file?"

I shook my head. "Just a guess."

"It was not a guess," Bibiana said. "You read his body posture. You smelled his scent."

I shrugged because I didn't want to argue, and wasn't entirely sure I could. "But you're saying that this vampire's energy felt similar to the serial rapist that you'd sensed before?"

"Yes, but..." She shivered, and this time I could taste her fear.

"He scared you," I said.

She nodded.

"My mother does not frighten easily," Victor said.

"I got that impression," I said.

He smiled at me. "We have answered your questions. Now, would you answer one of ours?"

"Sorry, but one more. Do you know who the traitor is?"

They exchanged a look.

"I swear that I do not. If this vampire has stolen one of our people, he has done it so completely that I did not suspect until the first claw marks showed on the bodies."

"If I could help you narrow down the field, would you gather them for me, and let us question them at the police station?"

They exchanged another look that included Rick. Finally, Victor nodded, and Bibiana said, "We would."

"How can you help us narrow it down?" Victor asked. "Are you hinting that you're a more powerful weretiger than we are?"

"No, absolutely not, but I've seen the bodies."

Olaf came on the earpiece. "Do not share this information with them."

I ignored him. "I know we're looking for someone under six feet in human form, or with abnormally small hands for his or her size."

"Anita," Olaf said.

Edward said, "She knows what's she doing, Otto."

"You measured the claw marks," Victor said.

I nodded.

"I do not trust the tigers," Olaf said.

"Let her work," Edward said.

I did my best to ignore it all, as Victor said, "That narrows it a little."

"Here's the real narrowing," I said. "This tiger is able to shift just his or her hands into claws, and teeth into fangs, without changing into half-human completely."

I'd shocked them, all of them. They weren't vampires, so they didn't try to hide it. "That would explain it," Victor said.

"Explain what?" I asked.

"Why my mother and I couldn't find the truth from our traitor. If he's powerful enough to do that, then he may be powerful enough to lie to us."

"That would have to be pretty damn powerful," I said.

"Yes," he said.

I stared at him, and then at Bibiana's stricken face. "You think you know who it is."

"No, but it is a very short list of possibilities. Some of our most trusted people are on that list," Victor said.

Bibiana gave me a look of such pain. "Whoever it is, it will hurt us as a clan. It will undermine our authority, and make us have to discipline our people."

"You mean, if they find out you missed this guy hiding in plain sight, some of them will challenge you for leadership."

"They will try," she said, and there was something so calm, so sure, so confident. I wouldn't have wanted to go up against her, and with Victor at her side, you'd have to be pretty confident-or nuts.

Then I had a thought, a bad one. "If Vittorio's animal to call is tiger, and he's master enough to do all this, then he's master enough to challenge Max for the city."

"The vampire council has forbidden Masters of the City to war against one another in America," Bibiana said.

"Yeah, and they frown on that whole serial-killer-slaughtering-cops thing, too. I don't think Vittorio sweats the rules much."

"You think he'll try for my father?" Victor asked.

"I think it's a possibility. I'd take extra security measures until we get him."

"I'll see that it's done," he said.

"He has more than just one weretiger at his daytime beck and call," I said.

"What else?"

"I'm not sure, but if I were you, I'd call that extra security in now. Because it would be a bitch to miss saving Max by a few minutes."

Victor and I had one of those looks, and then he simply reached into his pocket for a cell phone and started calling in more help. He walked to the far side of the room so I couldn't hear exactly what he was saying. I was okay with that.

Bibiana looked at me. "You are the first true queen with no clan that we have found since Victor showed himself worthy."

"Worthy of what?" I asked.

"Starting his own clan. We have not had a male king among the tigers in centuries. The little queens will hive off, but it is only because we do not wish to kill our daughters. It is not because there is enough power to make another clan. Victor has that power, but he needs a queen."

I stared at her. "Are you hinting that you want me to, what, be your son's queen?"

"I'm saying that if you were not already wedded so tightly to Jean-Claude, I would ask you to marry my son."

I stared at her. "Gosh, I don't know what to say, Bibiana."

Victor came back from his side of the room, clipping the phone back into his pocket. "I've got extra men around Father, and I'll up the security on our clubs, just in case." He looked from one of us to the other, frowning. "Did I miss something?"

Bernardo laughed.

Crispin said, "Chang-Bibi offered you to Anita in marriage."

"Mother!"

"You may never meet another queen of her power, Victor."

"She belongs to another master vampire. It is against every rule to interfere in that."

"I am your mother and your queen. It's my job to interfere."

"Leave Marshal Blake alone, Mother."

Bibiana smiled at us both, and it was that smile you never want to see on anyone's mother's face. That look that says they'd welcome you to the family in a hot second, if only their son would cooperate.

Bernardo saved me. "When can you bring the weretigers to the station for questioning?"

"We need to do it carefully." He looked at us. "I will admit this here, but never publicly. It would go better if the police in full gear went with us from weretiger to weretiger. If they are good enough to lie to us like this, then I won't be able to lie to them about why we want them to go to the police."

"I'll talk to the Vegas police." But I wondered how hard it was going to be to keep them from being a little trigger-happy as we hunted the weretiger that had killed one of their own? Everyone had been calm, almost unusually calm, about it all. It was almost like the pause between storms.

"You look worried," Victor said.

"How many weretigers on this list?"

"Five," he said.

"Six," she said.

"Mother..."

"You would leave the woman out, but she is powerful, and she is under six feet."

He nodded. "You're right, I would have left her off. I'm sorry. You get a team of your people ready, and I'll try to have them gathered in one place. I can't lie well enough to take them to the station for you, but I think I can arrange something."

"It might be better to take them in their homes," I said.

"Take them, you mean kill them."

"No, I really need this guy, or girl, alive. We need to question them about Vittorio, to find out his daytime resting place. If we get this weretiger and make him or her talk, then we could execute Vittorio before nightfall."

"We will give you the addresses, but if you want to question them, you will need Victor or me present."

"Why?" Bernardo asked.

"Because we can do things to make them talk that you cannot," she said.

"If it's illegal, I don't think..."

"He killed, or helped kill, police officers. Tell me that you can't get everyone to look the other way for just a few minutes?"

I looked at Victor and met his eyes in their gold glasses. I would have liked to defend my fellow officers, but frankly, if roughing up this guy would find us Vittorio before dark, I'd disable the cameras in the interrogation room personally. Was it wrong to admit that? Only on record. Which was another reason I was still more assassin than cop.