Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton

if his hair was as luxuriant as it looked. He was like a really fine sculpture; you wanted to run your hands over it and feel the lines.
    Magnus smiled gently. “The unseelie court is evil, cruel. What I do here is not evil. For one night these people can come here and be their own fantasies. They think it’s love charms, and I let them. We all keep the secret of this smallillegal act. The local police know. They even come down once in a while and join in.”
    â€œBut it’s not love charms.”
    â€œNo, it’s natural talent on my part. Using my own home-grown magic isn’t illegal if everyone knows I’m doing it.”
    â€œSo you pretend it’s love charms, and everyone looks the other way because they’re having a good time, but it’s really fairie glamor, which isn’t illegal with permission of the participants.”
    â€œExactly,” he said.
    â€œWhich makes it all legal.”
    He nodded. “Now if I was descended from the dark side of fairie, would I do anything to bring pleasure to so many?”
    â€œIf it suited your needs, yeah.”
    â€œIsn’t there a ban on unseelie court moving to this country?” Larry asked.
    â€œYeah,” I said.
    â€œNot if my family moved here before the ban went into effect. The Bouviers have been here for nearly three hundred years.”
    â€œNot possible,” I said. “Nobody but the Indians have been here that long.”
    â€œLlyn Bouvier was a French fur trapper. He was the first European to set foot on this land. He married into the local tribe, Christianized them.”
    â€œBully for him. So how come you didn’t want to sell to Raymond Stirling?”
    He blinked at me. “It would disappoint me greatly to find out you are working for him.”
    â€œSorry to disappoint you,” I said.
    â€œWhat are you?”
    He hadn’t asked who, he’d asked what. It was a very different question. It sort of stopped me for a second.
    â€œI’m Anita Blake; this is Larry Kirkland. We’re animators.”
    â€œI take it you don’t draw cartoons,” he said.
    It made me smile. “No. We raise the dead; ‘animate’ from the Latin, to give life.”
    â€œIs that all you do?” He was staring at me very intently,like there was something written on the inside of my skull and he was trying to read it.
    It was an uncomfortable level of scrutiny, but I’ve been stared at by the best. I met his eyes and answered. “I’m a licensed vampire executioner.”
    He shook his head gently. “I didn’t ask what you did for a living. I asked what you were.”
    I frowned. “Maybe I don’t understand the question.”
    â€œPerhaps you don’t, but your friend asked what I was. You said I was a fairie. I ask you what you are, and you describe your job. It would be like me saying I’m a bartender.”
    â€œI don’t know how to answer you, then,” I said.
    He was still staring at me. “Yes, you do. I can see a word in your eyes. One word.”
    When he said it, a word did come to mind. “Necromancer. I’m a necromancer.”
    Magnus nodded. “Does Mr. Stirling know what you are?”
    â€œI doubt he’d understand even if I told him.”
    â€œDo you really have the ability to control all types of undead?” Magnus asked.
    â€œCan you really make a hundred shoes in a single night?” I asked.
    Magnus smiled. “Wrong kind of fairie.”
    â€œYeah,” I said.
    â€œIf you’re working for Stirling, why are you here? I hope you didn’t come here to try to persuade me to sell. I’d hate to have to say no to such a lovely woman.”
    â€œCan the compliments, Magnus. It won’t get you anywhere.”
    â€œWhat would get me somewhere?”
    I sighed. “I’ve got too many men on my plate now.”
    â€œThat’s the God’s honest truth,”