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I turned back to Wicked and Truth. «Did you guys wade into the dark and cut off his hand without being able to see anything?»
«Yes,» Wicked said.
«Of course,» Truth said.
«Then take his head.»
Pantalone, with a missing arm, stabbed, shot, moved in a black blur. Truth was his own dark blur, his sword so fast it looked like lightning. He took him through the heart again, except spitting him this time the way Pantalone had spitted Remus. Wicked's blade glittered outward and the head went spi
«Someone put the head in a sack. We'll burn it later, separate from the body.»
«We should take the heart, too,» Olaf said.
I nodded. «You're right. We'll do that after we take care of the other two.»
«You killed our master,» Columbine said.
«I would ask, does that frighten you, but I can taste your fear in your words. It tastes good. I'm going to ask you some questions. If you answer me truthfully, then you die quick, fairly painless. You fuck with me, lie to me, try not to answer the questions and I'll make your death something to write home about. I'll give you to Olaf. He's the big guy.»
Olaf glanced back at me, gun still trained on them. «Do you mean it?»
«Right this minute, yes. She's a petite dark-haired woman, she even fits your victim profile. If she doesn't answer my questions, never say I didn't give you a good present.»
«No,» Columbine said, «please.»
«You tried to kill me and the people I love. Your master killed my friend. Please isn't going to have much effect on me right now, not from you.»
«Please,» Richard said, «don't do this.»
I shook my head. «Go home, Richard.»
«Isn't there any other man in your bed who agrees with me, that there are some things you don't do, for any reason?»
Jean-Claude stood and went to Richard. He began to try to soothe him. It reminded me of when you gamed and you had to send the Paladin around the hill so you could loot the dead.
Nathaniel and Micah came to my sides. «You want to get closer to her?» Micah asked.
I nodded. «You don't think I'm a bastard for offering her to Olaf?»
«They've nearly killed you three times, Anita. You're my Nimir-Ra; I'll carve out her heart and serve it to you on a platter.» The threat seemed more real with him in his kitty-cat form.
«I'm your submissive, I don't argue,» Nathaniel said.
«Submissive when it suits you, lately.»
He smiled at me. «I won't carve her up, but I might watch Olaf do it. She almost killed you, and Jean-Claude, and Richard.»
I nodded. «And Peter.»
«And Cisco,» Nathaniel said.
I nodded, and started to turn back to look at Remus. Micah kept me moving forward. «Let's go ask your questions.»
We went to ask my questions. Olaf was whispering to her as we came up, what he'd do to her, what he wanted to do to her. «Please, don't answer the questions. Vampires die so much slower than humans.»
Guess what, she answered every question first time out. She and Nivia had killed the humans and tried to frame the church members. It had been to get leverage to try to force Malcolm to simply give the Church to them. Then I'd gone and spoiled it by killing Nivia. I didn't tell her that I wasn't even certain why Nivia had died, or what I'd done to cause it. Maybe Jean-Claude could help me figure it out later. Columbine was going to be the beard, the stalking horse, for Pantalone. Once he ruled here, even the Mother of All Darkness couldn't force him to abandon his territory. All of them, Pantalone, Nivia, Soledad, and Giova
«They'll kill me.»
«You don't have to be afraid of them anymore, Columbine.»
«You'll protect me?»
«In a way. You don't have to be afraid of the council killing you later, because we're going to kill you tonight, remember? All we're negotiating on is whether you die easy, or hard. Your choice.»
She shook her head.
«Olaf.»
«Yes.»
«We have to cut her heart out anyway. Want to do it first?»
He stared at me as if wondering if I was kidding. I remembered Remus's body in my arms. I knew now that I'd felt his body jerk as Pantalone had forced his arm through his chest, through his heart, dug his way through, and killed him. I could still hear his last whispered «I'm sorry.» Not «help me,» or «God, it hurts,» but «I'm sorry.»
«Do it,» I said.
They held her down, and they held Giova
Olaf didn't stop when she gave up the names. He'd gone to his happy place. It was like trying to argue with an autistic child; he just didn't hear us.
Columbine screamed, «I answered your questions. In the name of the dark, kill me.»
I told Wicked to behead her. He did, one clean blow that scarred the wood underneath her. I could never get a head to come off in one blow. Olaf looked up as the blood poured out of the neck in a crimson fountain. «I wasn't finished.»
«She gave the information up a while ago. I promised her a quick death if she told me what I needed to know.»
He gave me a look that wasn't friendly at all.
«You can still cut out her heart,» I said.
«It's not the same,» he said, and the look on his face was nothing I understood, or wanted to understand.
I started to apologize for not letting him cut out her heart while she was still alive, then I caught myself. Fuck, the shock was begi
He did finish cutting out her heart. I had Wicked behead Giova
I took Giova
«May I help?» Olaf was kneeling beside the body. His hands were bloody, too, but only one of them looked like he was wearing a red glove.
«Yeah, it's tangled. I think I'm just tired.»
He slid his hand inside the hole I'd made, so that his arm slid up alongside mine in the chest cavity. It wasn't until his hand cupped mine, pressing both our hands into the still warm heart, that I looked at him. We were both leaning over the body, our faces inches apart, with our arms up the much longer torso of the male. He looked at me over the body, our hands around the heart, blood everywhere. He looked at me as if it were a candlelit di
I thought very clearly in my head, I will not scream . I would be calm. Fuck, but I would be. Besides, he'd enjoy it if I screamed. My voice was only a little strained as I said, «I think it's just past my fingertips. Can you reach the ligament there?»
He slid his hand over mine, farther up the heart. He caressed my hand while he reached for the piece of the heart I couldn't reach. I started to slide my hand out as I felt him grab the piece of muscle or ligament. He laid the other heart on the dead vampire's groin and grabbed my arm before I could pull it out of the chest cavity. He held my hand inside so we'd be touching the heart together. If I struggled, he'd like it. I could yell for help, but he almost had it loose, and it would be over. I hesitated. He pulled the heart free of whatever had been holding it in place, and it spilled into both our hands. He kept his free hand on my arm, controlling how slow we eased out of the chest cavity. He made it last, and he stared at my face while we did it. I normally don't have much problem fishing around inside dead bodies anymore, but the sensation of our hands holding the heart, our arms pressed together as we slid out of the thick, bloody muscle, was too strangely intimate. For the last few inches of arm he looked down at the wound and not at my face. He watched our arms emerge from the bloody hole just under the sternum. He kept his hand on my arm and forced our hands upward, so that for a moment we held the heart together, and he looked at me over that bleeding muscle.
I knew I went pale. I couldn't help it. I knew he would enjoy my fear, and I couldn't stop it. Then he leaned in toward me. He leaned in over the bloody heart, the body, our bloody arms. He leaned in for a kiss.
I whispered, «Don't.»
«You don't want me to kiss you,» he whispered back.
«I don't want you to touch me,» I said.
He smiled then. «Perfect.»
He kissed me.
I had Fredo's blade going for a different chest when Olaf pulled back, out of reach. He laughed, a rich, deep laugh. A happy sound that didn't match anything we were doing. He'd left me with the heart in one hand and the knife in the other. If my hands hadn't been full I might have gone for my gun. Surely I could claim temporary insanity.
He wiped his bloody hands on his clothes, not just on his shirt, but wiped his bloody hands down his body, showing off all that muscled chest, stomach, and finally groin. He massaged his groin with his bloody hands, and looked at me while he did it.
That was it. I set the knife and heart on the floor and tried to run for the bathroom and never made it. I threw up in front of the door to the recreation hall. I threw up until there was nothing left. I threw up until my head was pounding and I was spitting up bile. Micah laid a cool and human hand against my forehead while I was sick. Nathaniel held my hair back, because my hands were still covered in blood.
Olaf left town. I've got a new recurring nightmare to add to the list. It's Olaf and me cutting up the body, except in the dream it's bloodier, and Giova
Peter didn't take the injection, and he didn't catch lycanthropy. He's back home recovering, human-slow, but he's sixteen and in good shape. He'll heal, but he's going to have some seriously macho scars. I have no idea what Edward told Do