Free Anita Blake 15 - The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton Page A

Haven back to Chicago. Joseph keeps trying to feed you his weak-assed pride of lions, and they aren't any better than Nathaniel. No offense, even Joseph's brother, Justin, isn't that much stronger."
    It had taken me a moment to remember who Haven was, because I still thought of him as Cookie Monster. He'd had hair dyed that color of blue, and had sported several Sesame Street tattoos. Haven was also an enforcer for the Master Vampire of Chicago. Haven had helped me handle the lion part of my metaphysical problem, but he'd also picked fights with three of the local werelions, including Joseph, their Rex, their leader. Haven and Richard had had a fight. Richard had kicked his ass, proving that Richard could be damned useful when he wanted to be. But also proving that Haven was way too much trouble to keep around.
    "You guys all explained to me how lion society works. If someone that tough, and that powerful, had moved into town, they would have felt compelled to take over the local werelions. The first thing most takeovers do is slaughter most of the pride."
    "I think you could control him."
    "You saw him, Lisandro, please. He's a thug, a professional thug, with a prison record."
    Lisandro nodded. "I've got a record, too, juvie, but some bad stuff on it. My wife straightened me out. I think you could do the same for him."
    "What, a good woman is all a bad boy needs to straighten his life out?"
    "If the woman has something that the man wants bad enough, yeah."
    "What does that mean?" I asked.
    "It means I saw the way he looked at you. I smelled what effect the two of you had on each other. The only reason you didn't have sex was that your head overruled the rest of you."
    "You know, Lisandro, I liked you better when you didn't talk this much."
    "I've seen Haven's record. He doesn't have anything on his sheet that I ain't got on mine."
    That made me give him the long blink. Because I hadn't known that about him. "That would make you a very dangerous man," I said, my voice low and even.
    "You've killed more people than I have."
    "This conversation is over, Lisandro."
    "If not Haven, then can Rafael put out feelers for some better lion candidates? Joseph is so scared that some big bad lion will come and eat his weak-assed pride that he won't ever bring anyone to town who will do the job for you."
    I started to say no, but Nathaniel squeezed my arm. "Rafael is a good leader."
    "He can't interview for new lions. He can bring in new rats, but it's not his place to bring in new lions," I said.
    "Lisandro is right on one thing, Anita. Joseph is scared. Everyone he's thrown at you in the last few weeks has been wimpy—not just weak in power, but innocent. Your life doesn't have room for innocents."
    I stared into those lavender eyes and didn't like what I saw. I was seven years older, but he'd seen as much violence as I had, or more. He'd seen what our fellow human beings could do, up close and personal. I'd solved crimes of violence, but mostly I hadn't been the victim. He'd been on the streets alone before he hit ten. Nathaniel was weak in some ways that Lisandro counted, but he was stronger than me in ways that most people wouldn't understand. He'd survived things that would have destroyed most people.
    He let me see in his face what he usually hid, that I was the innocent. That no matter how many people I killed in the line of duty, I'd never really know what he knew.
    "Do you think I was wrong to make Haven go back to Chicago?"
    "No, he scared me, but you need a werelion, and they need to know the score."
    "What does that mean?" I asked.
    "Two of the lions he sent you were virgins," Nathaniel said. "You're a succubus, Anita. You don't give virgins over to something like that."
    "You have to have had bad sex to appreciate really good sex," Lisandro said.
    Nathaniel nodded. "That, too, but what I meant was that we haven't met a lion yet who we didn't all think was weak." He looked at the tall guard by the door. "Some of them were