Page 106 of Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 29)

“What about a head shot?”

“If you can guarantee that it’s enough damage to qualify as a beheading, it should do it,” I said.

“If he is in human form, then there are those among the Harlequin or among the wererats who could make such a shot, but if he is in dragon form the head is...” She seemed to be doing a size comparison in her own head, then spread her hands in front of her like she was measuring a fish she’d caught.

“That’s three or four times longer than a human head,” Jake said.

“The head size doesn’t matter,” Edward said, “the brain size does. Most living animals have a smaller brain per body size than humans do, so the target is either the same or slightly smaller. I don’t have to take the whole head out, just the brain.”

“I’m not as proficient with a long gun as you are, so would you have enough time for a second shot to the base of the skull, or the upper spine, because beheading means the job is done. Shooting the brain is trickier because we won’t know exactly where the brain is sitting in the skull,” I said.

Edward looked at me, Richard, and then Peter. “If you biologists can help me make an educated guess, then we should be able to take him out from a nice, safe distance.”

“I’d rather take his heart, too,” I said.

“We’ll need the best protective suits we can find if we try carvinghim up like that,” Richard said. He didn’t even call me bloodthirsty or a lover of violence or whatever he used to call me, he was just helping me think it through, that was nice.

“In case we hit pockets of toxic or caustic substances when we’re trying for his heart,” I said.

“Yes.”

“Good thinking.”

“And if you’re wrong and hitting him with a sniper bullet causes him to explode or just spew out Greek fire?” Rodina asked.

“Then we’ll be glad we’re all far enough away that it doesn’t matter,” I said.

“So have we abandoned the LAW for sure?” Edward asked.

“I think so, I just don’t think we can guarantee that it won’t set off some bigger explosion and we’re just not sure what real, original Greek fire does,” I said.

“Good,” he said.

“Because you don’t have any with you,” I said.

He smiled. “Even a federal marshal can’t bring an antitank rocket on board a commercial aircraft.”

“Well, if anyone could figure out how to do it, I was betting on you,” I said.

He gave a nod like a bow of acknowledgment.

“So now we just have to find him, right?” Peter asked.

I nodded, and everyone else agreed.

“We can begin with searching for warehouses that have been rented recently,” Jake said.

“We have no way of knowing how long he’s been in town,” Rodina said. “He could have been scouting for weeks, or months.”

“He had to be here long enough to know that Jean-Claude was at his most vulnerable at Guilty Pleasures tonight,” Wicked said.

“I opened my power up to capture the audience, I did not think that it opened me up to being magically challenged,” Jean-Claudesaid. I felt the sorrow in his voice; the loss of performing would cost him, because he loved it so much.

“We will find a way that you can perform onstage again,” I said.

“Perhaps the other master vampires are correct, and it is beneath my dignity, and our safety.”

I put my hand on his thigh, feeling the solidness of it underneath the silky robe. I felt his anxiety ease a little just from that. “They’re old fuddy-duddies who wouldn’t know a modern idea if it bit them on the ass.”

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