Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #27) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,86

wedding, and nothing bad happened.”

“We were all there for the wedding. Then Olaf crashed the party. This time he’s here first, and now that he’s a werelion, I want you to be able to make an informed decision. You’re a grown-up and one of the most competent people I know, so I’ll let you make the final call.”

“I can understand you calling and telling me he was there, because it would change the security I’d bring, but telling me not to come personally, that surprises me.”

I tried to put what I was thinking into words and finally gave up. “I don’t know what to say, other than he’s different this time. He’s more insistent about the relationship stuff. The last macho, super-violent werelion that had me as his first-ever true love was Haven, and you know how that turned out.”

“I agree that werelion society is one of the most violent cultures we have, but Haven lived all his life as a criminal, Anita. He was a mob enforcer starting in his teens and moved up to being a bodyguard for the mob boss and head vampire for Chicago.”

“I know all that,” I said, and sounded pissy even to me. There was no reason to be angry with Micah.

“Olaf has been in some kind of military service, a bounty hunter, and now a U.S. Marshal. He’s done things besides be a criminal. It gives him more life skills than just beating people up or killing them.”

“I’m not sure Olaf was ever in the real military. He may have only been a mercenary or a contractor of some kind, but I take your point.”

“Good,” he said.

“But Haven didn’t have hobbies that scare the fuck out of me.”

“Are you calling being a serial killer a hobby?” he asked.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“It’s not his hobby, Anita. It’s more his sexual preference.”

“Gee, Micah, that makes it way less creepy.” He laughed at my tone, but I didn’t laugh with him. “I really don’t think this is funny.”

“Anita, honey, what has he done this time that’s different? You seem shaken in a way that’s not like you.”

“Haven almost killed Nathaniel before I had to kill him, and he wasn’t nearly as dangerous as Olaf.”

“Do you really think he’d try to hurt me?”

“I don’t want to find out, and I don’t want to have to worry about your safety while I’m trying to keep myself safe while working on a murder investigation.”

“Has Olaf threatened me?”

“No, none of you. In fact he’s behaving himself pretty well for him.”

“And yet you don’t want me there with him.”

“No, I really don’t. I can’t explain it, and maybe I’m being paranoid, but I love you, and I want us to spend the rest of our lives together. If it’s a choice between Bobby Marchand or you, I’ve already made my choice.”

“I have good people on the Coalition. Thanks to Nathaniel wanting us home more, I found out that I have some great people that had just been waiting for me to delegate more responsibility to them.”

“Then delegate this one . . . please.”

“I’ll miss seeing you, but all right, since you said please.”

There was an edge of a smile in his voice, and I managed to put some of the same tone in my voice as I said, “I’ll miss you, too, and thanks for listening to me.”

“Listening to each other is part of being a couple,” he said.

I laughed then. “If only more people understood that.”

“It only matters that we understand it.”

“True,” I said.

I was smiling, and then suddenly I wasn’t. Something was wrong. I couldn’t have said what, but the hairs on the back of my neck were up. The woods had gone quiet as if everything was hiding. I spoke so low that if Micah had been vanilla human, he wouldn’t have heard. “Gotta go, love.” I pressed the button to disconnect without waiting for a response.

I stood there in the silent woods, fighting not to tense up, but to force myself to relax against the tree, into the bushes beside it. Tension catches the attention of a predator, and I knew that was what I was sensing. It wasn’t vampire or beast powers; it was the same sense I’d had years ago in the woods with my dad when there’d been a cougar. They weren’t supposed to be in the Midwest, but every once in a while one of them would wander through. You can’t hide from wild animals; they have better senses than you do. So make