I was talking about fighting, but now that you mention it, all three of us are out of your league for both.”
He laughed; it was that sound of a big, athletic, handsome man who has been bigger, faster, stronger, and better than all the other men for most of his life. It can make a man be incredibly arrogant and have a sense of entitlement because no one ever tells him no.
“Have you seen my fiancés?” I asked. “You’re cute enough, but you so aren’t as gorgeous as they are.”
He frowned again, as if I was making him think too hard. I wondered if he was like some of the inner-city athletes who were great on the court or field, but all the rest of their lives had been skipped over so that they were undersocialized and couldn’t read well. “After the wererats are mine, your vampire master’s beauty won’t save him, and once he dies all that survive will be ours.”
I blinked at him, because that was a little too much truth in advertising for this early in the game. “So you’re just going to tell us your dastardly plan for citywide domination now and not wait for the villain speech later?”
“Would you rather I pretend that you and Jean-Claude are stupid?”
“I guess not,” I said, but my pulse was a little faster than it should have been.
Hector took a deep breath of the air. “I like smelling your fear, Anita. I like it better that you’re afraid of me now.” He smiled, but it was more a snarl than a smile, showing teeth to remind the other person that even in human form teeth can still tear flesh.
Pierette said, “So you declare that you will use the wererats to attack Jean-Claude and his vampires?”
“I do not answer to cats.”
I repeated the question.
“The wererats are the majority of Jean-Claude’s foot soldiers; take them and the numbers are on our side. He knows that. We all know that. Why pretend?”
“What will you do if you take the wererats and the vampires, then what?” I asked.
“Then I truly will be king.”
“You shouldn’t be this confident,” Claudia said.
“Perhaps Jean-Claude and all your pretty boys should be watching their backs tonight,” Hector said. He leaned in as he said it and I let him, because I was watching his eyes and not the rest of him. His eyes were a solid dark brown, no green at all, and down in the depths of that darkness was power that tried to pull at me.
I felt my eyes fill with my own power and I said, “You can’t roll me with your eyes, whoever you are.”
I felt Hector move a second before his elbow tried to connect with the side of my head. I moved my head away and my arm up to sweep his elbow away from me and let his own momentum carry him past me. I drove my foot into his leg at the same time. If he’d been human, it would have broken, but he just went to his knees and I was coming in at his back for a throat shot with a blade in each hand as he tumbled out of reach across the floor, coming up on one knee and foot, hands up and ready for me.
We faced each other, both of us breathing a little hard not from exertion but from the emotion of it. I’d have killed him if he hadn’t moved and he knew it. “Your speed and skill of arms is much improved.”
“Improved over what? We’ve never met before,” I asked, still in a fighting stance with naked blades in hand.
He blinked and his eyes were back to the greenish brown of Hector, all the vampire powers locked away. “Over what I was told.” He held his hands out, palms toward me, in the universal gesture of I mean no harm, or at least I’m done for now. “I think maybe it’s too dangerous to play with you, Anita Blake.” He stood slowly, carefully with his hands up so I wouldn’t have any excuse to rush him.
I came out of the fighting crouch and backed up slowly but kept the knives out. He’d just threatened everyone I loved. If I could kill him here and now without starting a war between the wererats and vampires, I’d so do it.
“I will go back to watch the lesser fights now, and you can decide if you want to watch me fight Rafael more than you want