Hit List by Laurell K. Hamilton

dick around with you or Ethan here. I can just lay down the law and say, ‘Bring him to me.’”
    “Queen Cho Chun would have the skin off my back if I let you get away with such insolence.”
    I glanced at Ethan to see if Donny was exaggerating. Something in those soft, gray kitten eyes let me know that Donny was speaking the truth. Interesting; it didn’t work that way in Vegas with the white tigers.
    I turned back to Donny. “She’d flay your back for just following my orders?”
    “She is queen. We wait at her pleasure.”
    I shook my head. I was back to staring at Ethan. I was oddly fascinated with the shape of his mouth. His upper lip was so deeply imprinted that it was almost like a dimple above the lips instead of under them.
    “Anita,” Edward said. He moved in front of Ethan, blocking my view of the man. “You need to feed.”
    I nodded. “You are absolutely right.” I turned back to Donny. “Either Alex comes to me now, or I do what I said I’d do on the phone: I call him to me. You and Ethan are right here beside me and trust me, with vampire powers, proximity counts. I don’t like you that well, Donny, nothing personal, but I like Ethan. My tiger likes him. If I call Alex, chances are he’ll never get here before I’ve fed on Ethan, and maybe you. Is that really what your queen wanted, or did she just want you to put me in my place?”
    “It is not my place to speak for our queen. She knows what she intended; I do not.”
    “I’m going to count to ten and then I’m going to call Alex, but I’m not lying about the possible effect on you and Ethan here.”
    Donny said, “Ethan?”
    “She smells of the truth,” he said. I couldn’t see much more than a shoulder around the edge of Edward’s body. I fought the urge to move so I could see more of him. It wasn’t good that I was this fascinated with a stranger. God, didn’t I have enough lovers in my life?
    That Donny couldn’t be certain if I smelled or felt like I was telling the truth meant he wasn’t a very powerful weretiger. It also meant that he’d been guessing when he said I was telling the truth about our weapons. But now that it was important, he was willing to swallow his pride and let the more powerful weretiger answer the question. That was interesting.
    “I will go and ask our queen what she wishes me to do.”
    “Can’t you just call her?” I asked.
    “Some questions must be asked in person.” He gave a small half-bow to me. I wondered if he even realized he’d done it. He strode off down the corridor.
    I called after him. “Are you leaving Ethan here?”
    “He is a guard; he will do his duty.”
    “Even knowing that if you don’t get back in time I’ll feed on him, you’ll still leave him here?” I said.
    “He is a good guard, but he is not pure.”
    “What does the fact that he’s mixed tiger heritage have to do with anything?” I asked.
    Ethan answered, “He means I’m not worth protecting.”
    Edward turned so that we could both look at the other man. “Not worth protecting from what?” I asked.
    Ethan shrugged. “Much of anything, but in this case, you. You stole away the loyalty of some of the few remaining pure red tigers when they visited you in St. Louis; that’s why I’m guarding you, because if you bewitch me it won’t damage the clan. It won’t cost them more pure-blooded red babies.” He said it with only the slightest edge of bitterness in his voice.
    “That’s cold,” I said.
    “That’s the truth,” Ethan said.
    I looked at Donny standing there watching us. “So you leave him here to guard us or be the sacrificial lamb, and you don’t much care which.”
    Donny glanced at me, then at Ethan, and even at Edward. “I will go tell Queen Cho Chun what you have demanded.” His eyes flicked to me, then to Ethan, and I realized Donny was nervous. I think my stating so bluntly that he was leaving Ethan to be food had bothered him a little. A lot of people can do awful things as