Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #27) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,84

smaller person gets lucky. Olaf wasn’t the kind of fighter who would leave room for luck. I realized I really didn’t want Micah here with Olaf.

“That case in Washington State where I met you for the first time makes this one look safe, Blake. You invited some of your people in for that one—maybe not Micah Callahan, but still people you cared about. So what makes this one scarier? What aren’t you telling me?”

I couldn’t tell him the whole truth about Olaf, so I was left not knowing what to say. I could have lied. I was even pretty good at it now, but I wasn’t good at complicated lies, and even the truth about Olaf was complicated.

I finally settled for a half-truth. “I know how to kill the monsters, but keeping them alive is harder, Newman. More things can go wrong.”

He shook his head. “No, Blake, killing them is harder. If I can help save Bobby, then maybe it will wash away some of the blood on my hands.”

“Newman, you knew what this job was before you took it.”

“I knew the facts, but nothing prepares you for killing people, Anita, for just killing them.”

“We save future victims by killing the predators,” I said.

“That’s a great thought. I even believed it once.”

“It’s the truth, Newman.”

“Maybe, but I don’t get to see the future victims we save. All I get to see is the people I kill now.”

“When a shapeshifter tries to kill you like they did in Washington State, do you think of them as people?” I asked.

“No, that’s survival, just like hunting vampires after dark. If they turn into monsters, it’s easier to pull the trigger, but when they’re like Bobby, it feels like murder.”

“You’re too close to Bobby to be on this warrant, Newman.”

“I know, but since so many of the newer marshals have refused warrants or quit, you need a good reason to pass on a warrant.”

“Being friends with the name on the warrant is a valid reason to pass on it,” I said.

“And if I had passed, then it turns out that Jeffries was next closest. Do you really think he would have waited to figure out that Bobby had been framed?”

I answered truthfully, “No, he’d have just executed him.”

“I took the warrant because I thought it was the right thing to do. I figured if Bobby was guilty, I could make sure his death was as quick and painless as possible. If there’d been a mistake and he was innocent, I figured that if I was the marshal in charge, I could help him.”

“It was good thinking as far as it went,” I said.

“I forgot the third option, didn’t I?” he said, face so sad.

“Yeah,” I said, “you did.”

“That he could be innocent, and I’d still have to execute him.”

“Yeah, that would be what you forgot.”

“What am I going to do, Blake?”

I started to say he should sign the warrant over to me, but I didn’t want to kill Bobby either now. He was too real to me. I’d put my body in harm’s way to protect him. I’d risked my life for him. Executing him now would seem wrong, like a violation of the natural order of things. There are three types of people in this world: those you protect, those who fight with you, and those who fight against you. You killed to save those under your protection and to defend your own life and the lives of the people who fought beside you. It was simple math until the monsters became your friends and the people who were fighting beside you still wanted to kill them. Then it all went to hell.

29

I FOUND ANOTHER quiet moment, but this time I needed more privacy than anything the local police station could offer, because the person I most wanted to avoid eavesdropping had super-duper hearing. I could have asked Newman for the use of his car again, but the woods were right there, and I was feeling strangely claustrophobic. I needed a breath of fresh air, literally. I took the time to put on the tac vest. It was technically a plate carrier, but since I was police and not military, I’d probably never put a plate in it, so I just called it a tac vest. I didn’t like the feel of the vest, and I’d spent some time in the gym trying to fight in it, because it restricted my movement, but it would stop most bullets and the MOLLE straps all