Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #27) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,159

questioning.”

Olaf scowled at Nicky, and there was a flare of energy like the swat of a lion’s paw. It didn’t actually hurt, but it didn’t feel good either.

“Now I’m questioning your control,” Nicky said.

Olaf made a sound low in his throat that was almost a growl.

“Enough, Nicky,” I said.

“So, what was your last name again?” Leduc asked.

Nicky answered, “Murdock, Nicky Murdock.”

The sheriff turned to me. “So, Murdock, is your energy all gentle, too, like Mr. Flynn’s over there?”

“No,” he said.

Leduc looked at me. “Is Murdock another ‘fiancé’ like Jean-Claude or Callahan?” He gestured to make little quote marks when he said the word fiancé.

“No,” I said.

I thought, Nicky is my Bride, as in Brides of Dracula. Brides of Anita just didn’t have the same ring to it, and Nicky would be more a groom, but even Dracula couldn’t make groom as cool sounding. If I’d been a real blood-sucking vampire, Nicky would have been a vampire, too, but a weak one who obeyed my every whim. I didn’t want blind obedience, lucky for him, and somehow we’d ended up falling in love, which is something you’re never supposed to do with vampire Brides. They’re supposed to be cannon fodder you sacrifice to save yourself as needed. You can always make more.

Leduc said, “So if he’s not what Callahan and Jean-Claude are to you, what is he to you?”

“He’s my lover,” I said, though I still fought not to squirm.

I really hated introducing people like that, because it implied just sex to most strangers. Nicky and others in our poly group thought lover meant love as well as sex, so that was what we’d settled on. Nicky would have been fine without a specific label, but most of the rest of our group had started to get weird as the weddings approached since we weren’t putting rings on most of their fingers. If they couldn’t be my husband, or my fiancé, then they wanted to be something.

“And what are you, Petra?” Olaf asked.

The woman seemed to shrink in on herself from just that much attention. I’d seen her pound the hell out of people in fight practice back home, but now she played the meek mouse to perfection. I sort of hated how good she was at it. It made me doubt her more and more, but it also felt like manipulating Olaf when he’d been behaving himself admirably.

“I am a friend with benefits,” she said as if it was just true with no emotion attached. Pierette was content with being on the edges of our poly group. She and her master had been partners both in battle and in bed for so long, she didn’t really want to be dating anyone else. I was good with that; I was dating enough people.

“And what are you, Angel?” Olaf asked, and managed to make her name seem like either a romantic nickname or a naughty one.

She gave him that mischievous smile that held a touch of evil in it, because she thought he had started it. I knew that Olaf didn’t see what he’d done as starting anything.

“I’m fabulous. How are you?”

Custer laughed, and I sighed. I did not want Olaf to think we were making fun of him, but he surprised me, because he got the joke and upped the ante.

“I’m very good,” he said, and his voice was even a little lower as if he could make his testosterone rise at will. I wouldn’t have put it past him.

The corner of Angel’s mouth dropped, and she suddenly had a look I’d seen before as she worked her way through the dating pool in St. Louis, both male and female, because she was as bisexual as her brother. It was a considering look, a can-you-back-up-the-brag? look. She knew who and what Olaf was, so she should have known better, but the look seemed genuine.

If we’d been alone, I’d have asked her what the fuck she was thinking, but we weren’t alone, so I concentrated on business. “Otto, are you coming with me to question the witnesses?”

“Perhaps Angel would want to come with us?”

“She’s needed here,” I said.

“What about Petra?”

“What about her?”

“She could come with us.”

“No, she can’t,” I said.

Olaf smiled at me, and something about the look made me want to say, I’m not jealous of you and other women. I’m scared for them. But Leduc was there, and Newman. I couldn’t talk in front of the sheriff, so I didn’t try. I just went for the door with Nicky at