Page 20 of Countdown to Murder
“I assume the same. I don’t have tochange— if I’m conscious, I can stop it, but if I’m sleeping or knocked out, the snake will take over.” I looked around. “In a tree like this, there are branches for me to grab on the way down. I can slow myself enough to land on my feet with no damage to my legs or torso. My hands might be a little bloody, but it’s just skin, so I’m still mostly functional.”
“How old were you when you started climbing trees?”
“I don’t know. Young. I did it before I had permission, and once my handlers saw the aptitude, they trained me for it. I had some gymnastics training as well, to help me learn how to manage myself on a series of horizontal bars. I’ve never been afraid of heights. King cobras are adept at climbing trees. I don’t know if the aptitude stems from that, or if it’s just who I am.”
“You’ve never been around other king cobras?”
“No. What about you? Lions are social, right? Are you in a Pride?”
I didn’t want to answer the question, but she’d been open with me, and I’d already learned that withholdingpersonal information from her wouldn’t go well for our partnership. “I’m both in a Pride and outside of it. I suppose you could say I act as security for the Amakhosi’s personal Pride. He trusts me around the women, knowing I won’t act inappropriately with them. I’ll never contest his leadership because I don’t want to lead, and I’dneverwant my own harem of lionesses. I’m outside the hierarchical structure, and yet part of the family. It works for me.”
“You didn’t want to tell me that.”
“No, but you’re being open and honest, so I owed it to you. Most of the supernatural community wonders why I’m allowed to stay. It’s none of their business.”
“But it’s mine?”
“Not really, but I appreciate your answers, so I reciprocated. You’ve told me some pretty personal things.”
“Why wouldn’t you want your own Pride? You make it sound like having your own harem would be a bad thing.”
“I know lions aren’t supposed to be monogamous, but I’ve always been kind of a one-man-one-woman kind of guy. It isn’t like I’ve had many relationships, but when I do, I can’t imagine trying to manage more than one woman at a time.”
We were still talking an hour later, our voices going lower and lower as the dark settled around us. The mansion was brightly lit, but we were in the shadows of the forest.I had my focus on the sky above the center of the roof, my peripheral vision taking the sky all around it while I trusted Panda to watch the ground and back of the mansion.
A blur caught my attention, coming from the right. My .308 AR was resting on a tree limb, so I had it to my shoulder, aimed, and fired in less than a second. The vampire dropped down below the level of the mansion, and I slid the AR to my back and dropped to the ground as quickly as I could without tearing my hands up too badly — I needed to keep them as blood free as possible if I was going to take this asshole out.
I hit the ground running and saw him floating outside one of the vacant second-floor rooms. He was hit, but not in the heart, and there wasn’t enough silver in the bullet to slow him down unless I hit his heart. My knives had a lot more silver content, and I wouldn’t have to worry about firing towards the house. I ran at him, arched my hand down and let my wrist do an almost shape-shift so the bone was bendable, grabbed a throwing knife, hardened my wrist again, and threw the knife without slowing. It hit his chest but he grabbed it and threw it back at me the instant it went in. It went in exactly where his heart should be, but he pulled it out so quickly, I wasn’t sure it’d gone deep enough to do any damage. The fucker was fast.
So fast, I wasn’t certain I was going to manage to get out of the way before the returned knife hit me.
And then something slammed into my side and I was on the ground with a furious lion on top of me. He was in human form, but the lion was looking out his eyes.
I sent my senses out, but the vampire was gone. My gaze locked with Panda’s, staring down at me from four inches away. His weight was on me and he was heavy, so I kept my muscles tensed to protect my bones.
“You’re angry?” I asked.
“He tried to kill you!”
“Of course he did. I tried to kill him first. I’m certain it wasn’t personal.”
He grabbed me under the arms and lifted me as he stood. I was more than capable of standing, but he kept his hands on me as if I needed help. Part of me wanted to shake him off, part of me wanted to lean into him.
Three of Jones’ team came towards us, so I stepped back and away from him.
“Thanks for the tackle. The fucker was faster than I expected.”
“What the hell did you do with your arm?”
I shrugged. “I’m flexible.”
“No shit.”
“I prefer to keep it under wraps.”
He stared at me a second, and nodded. “I’ll make sure the video is marked appropriately.”
“Thank you.”
