Anita Blake 20 - Hit List by Laurell K. Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page A

up in bed but didn’t reach for a weapon. Shit. There was no one in the doorway. It stretched pale and empty, filled with night and the artificial lights of the parking lot beyond. Then I heard it, a creak of board, and knew something was crawling on the floor, hidden from me by Laila’s bed.
    She had her gun in her hand now, and whispered, “What is it? Why is the door open?”
    I started to say, “It’s by you, on the floor,” but one minute she was on the bed with her gun and the next a black shape whirled over her and she was gone. I’d seen the speed of lycanthropes and vampires, but all I saw was the cloak like a black sheet and it dragged her over on the other side of the bed with it. It wasn’t just fast, it was as if the thing, whatever it was, was formed of the blackness of the cloth and nothing more. Fuck, that couldn’t be real. Had it mind-fucked me? If the answer was yes, I was about to lose in real life and not just in nightmare.

    “Yell for help and we kill her,” a voice said on the other side of the bed. It was male and growly; I was betting shapeshifter of some kind.
    “How do I know she’s still alive?”
    “Do you think I could kill her that quickly?” the voice asked.
    “Yes,” I said.
    He laughed. “Say something, girl.”
    There was a moment of silence, then a small pain sound, and Laila said, “I’m alive.”
    “Are you hurt?” I asked.
    “No.”
    “Oh, I’m sad that you think I haven’t hurt you yet. The next thing I do to you, you won’t doubt that you’re hurt.”
    “Leave her alone.”
    “We will if you give us what we want.”
    “What do you want?” I asked. I had the gun pointed in the direction of the voice, but there was nothing to shoot at. If I was patient maybe there would be; nothing is faster than a bullet.
    “You,” and it was such a direct echo from my dream that it startled me.
    “What do you mean, you want me? How? Why?”
    “Does it matter? If you don’t come with us, I’ll kill your friend.”
    “Don’t do it . . . ,” Laila said, and was cut off abruptly, and this time the pain sound was a little louder.
    “Ask her if she’s hurt again,” the growling voice said, and he sounded eager.
    I’d heard that tone before in voices; I knew that they liked causing pain, so I did what he asked so he wouldn’t hurt her again to make the point.
    “Laila, are you hurt?”
    Her voice was shaky. “Yes.”
    “What did you do to her?”
    “Nothing permanent, yet,” he said.
    “She’ll heal?” I asked, and as in the dream I pointed my gun toward the voice, but also at the open door. Most of the Harlequin traveled in pairs or more. But with their speed I wouldn’t have time to shoot twice. I’d need a target and a decision before I’d really had time to decide anything.

    “Yes,” he said.
    “What do you mean you want me? Sexually?” I was almost hopeful on that one; it wasn’t a fate worse than death and it certainly wasn’t a fate worse than having Laila murdered while I listened to her die.
    “We’re not allowed,” he said, and he sounded sad.
    “You’re not allowed to have sex?”
    “Just not with you.”
    That was interesting. “Then what do you want with me?”
    “My master is outside. Simply put down your weapon and walk out the door to him. I will release the girl and follow you.”
    Laila said, “Don’t do it, Anita!” She yelled it, and then she screamed for real. Edward and the other marshal were next door. Help was coming.
    The cloak rose up, and I saw the white mask, but Laila was held in front of him like a shield. Her eyes were fluttered back in her head, but she was alive. I raised the gun barrel higher so I’d hit the white mask and miss her. Then he was gone; I swear that he moved so fast Laila simply stayed in the air where he’d held her, and he was through the door and gone before she began to fall.
    Edward shouted, “Anita!”
    “I’m okay, did you see that?”
    “I saw something,” he called