Page 12 of Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 29)

“Then why can’t he live through the death of his animal to call?”

“I am still in love with Kane,” Asher said.

“I saw your reaction when Peter knocked him cold; that was not the reaction of a man in love.”

“I love him,” Asher insisted.

“But you’re not in love with him anymore, are you?” Edward asked.

Asher hesitated and then said, “I don’t know.”

“Yeah you do, you just don’t want to admit it.”

“Just to be clear, Ted, you can’t kill Kane unless he tries to kill you or Peter, or somebody else. He is not just a problem to be solved, not yet.”

Edward shrugged. “If you say so.”

“We can’t just kill Kane because he might hurt someone, can we?” Peter asked.

“You can’t,” Edward said.

“No one can,” I said.

“You mean that Peter cannot kill Kane in cold blood, but that you could,” Asher said.

“It would be a solution.”

“It could kill me.”

“It would still be a solution,” Edward said. I realized in that moment just how much he didn’t like Asher. He hadn’t even been around him that much, but he’d heard my stories and seen some of the damage Asher had caused; for Edward that would be enough.

I said, “No, it would not be a solution.”

Peter said, “Ted, no.”

“Then keep Kane away from me and Peter while we’re here. If he hurts Anita in front of me, I will not hesitate.”

“If he hurts Anita, that’s different,” Peter said.

Edward looked at his son, his eyes gone cold and distant like winter skies before the storm rolls down and buries you under a blizzard. “You’ve made Kane your enemy, Peter. He’s a wereanimal; that means he’s faster and stronger than you are, even now. What will you do if he attacks you?”

“I’ll defend myself.”

“Will you kill him?”

“If he tries to kill me.”

Edward shook his head. “You can’t wait that long, Peter, not with shapeshifters.”

“I can’t just shoot him on sight.”

“I can.”

“I can’t,” I said.

“I will do my best to see that Kane stays away from Peter,” Asher said.

Edward ignored him and looked at his son. “The biggest difference between Anita and me is that I can, and she won’t. It’s not that she isn’t capable of shooting and killing, Kane. It’s that she will wait until he does something that she feels justifies it, but by then someone else will be hurt or dead. If Anita weren’t here to tell me no, I would kill Kane before he hurts someone else.”

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