Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter #16 - Blood Noir

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Blood Noir

Laurell K. Hamilton

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BLOOD NOIR

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Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels by Laurell K. Hamilton

GUILTY PLEASURES

THE LAUGHING CORPSE

CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED

THE LUNATIC CAFE

BLOODY BONES

THE KILLING DANCE

BURNT OFFERINGS

BLUE MOON

OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY

NARCISSUS IN CHAINS

CERULEAN SINS

INCUBUS DREAMS

MICAH

DANSE MACABRE

THE HARLEQUIN

BLOOD NOIR

STRANGE CANDY

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BLOOD NOIR

LAURELL K. HAMILTON

BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK

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A BERKLEY BOOK

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11

Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright © 2008 by Laurell K. Hamilton

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

BERKLEY is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

The “B” design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hamilton, Laurell K.

Blood noir / Laurell K. Hamilton.—1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN: 1-4362-2182-X

1. Blake, Anita (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Werewolves—Fiction. 3. Fathers and sons—Fiction. 4. Vampires—

Fiction. I. Title.

PS3558.A443357B57 2008

813'.54—dc22 2008006371

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To Jonathon,

who loves me when I am at my most dark

and helps me light a candle when it all grows too black to endure.
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Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

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Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

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Chapter 55

Chapter 56

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To Darla, who has made herself simply indispensable. Sherry, for organizing a house full of artists. Mary, for bringing order, and someone to call for advice. Charles, for security, research help, shooting range trips, and reminding both Jon and I that this really is cool. Shawn, for research questions answered, and for simply being the only other human being on the planet who understands. Marshal Moriarity, whose input came too late for this book, but we’ll fix it next time. Happy retirement.

To the winners of the Jason stage name contest:

Kim Montano, Maitland, FL

R. Malinen, Finland

Sarah Shelton, Arlington, TX

My writing group, The Alternate Historians: Tom Drennan, Rett MacPherson, Marella Sands, Deborah Millitello, Sharon Shinn, and Mark Sumner. Never give in; never give up. And Lieutenant Robert J. Cooney, Commander of Mobile Reserve, HRT, and K-9 1964–2008. file://L:\Azures L_Disc Shared Dowloads\EBooks\Anita Blake Series 1-17\(Book16] - Bl... 10/18/2009

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1

I CAME HOME
to find two men sitting at my kitchen table. One of them was my live-in sweetie. The other was one of our best friends. One of them was a wereleopard; the other was a werewolf; both of them were strippers. At least once a month they took off more than just their clothes on stage. They changed shape on stage in front of a live audience. Those nights the club was standing room only. I mean, you can go to other clubs to see men take their clothes off, but their entire skin and body…well, that was unique.

Nathaniel came to greet me with a kiss and a hug. I let my hands play in the long, thick auburn hair that trailed down his broad shoulders, the curve of his waist, the tightness of his ass, and the long muscular legs. He was five-seven now, an inch taller than when I’d met him. In my three-inch heels I was still an inch shorter than him. At twenty-one he was finally growing into the promise of those shoulders. His face was less soft than it had been, and more masculine. He would always be beautiful rather than handsome, but the bone structure had changed minutely so he just suddenly looked his age, instead of like jailbait.

He blinked down at me with the soft lilac of his eyes. On his driver’s license it said his eyes were blue, because they wouldn’t let him put lavender, or purple. His eyes were different shades of color, depending on his mood, or what he wore, but blue was never the color of his eyes. His hands slid underneath the jacket of my suit, and a little lower to trace the top of my skirt. His hands hesitated a little at the Browning BDM in its shoulder holster. Guns do get in the way of cuddling.

I wrapped my arms around the bareness of his upper body, breathed in the scent of his skin. He was wearing what he usually wore in his off time in the summer, little bitty jogging shorts. Most of the wereanimals would go around nude if you let them. I wasn’t quite comfy with that, so he wore the shorts to save my delicate sensibilities. There were some who thought I didn’t have any of those left, but they would be wrong, and they would be jealous.

Holding him, breathing in the warmth and sweet vanilla of his skin, I understood the jealousy. Though frankly, not all of it was about sex or even having found love at last. It was about power and them wanting it, and me and mine having it. It was about me being the human servant of Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire of St. Louis. It was about body count, and me having the highest kill count among the vampire executioners in the good ol’ U. S. of A.

“I would give a less favored body part to have a woman greet me at the end of the day like that,”

Jason’s voice said.

I had to peer around Nathaniel’s body to see Jason. He was still at the kitchen table nursing a coffee mug. It even smelled like coffee, but he huddled over it, as if it were something harder and more intoxicating.

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Jason was two years older than Nathaniel, which made him twenty-three now. Strangely, I’d met them both when they were nineteen. Jason was my height, give or take a half inch or so. His hair was that shade of yellow blond that movie stars are fond of, but his was real, and didn’t have to come from a good salon. His hair was cut businessman short. I liked long hair, but I had to admit that Jason’s face looked cleaner, better, more handsome even, without the hair to distract. He was wearing a blue T-shirt that made his eyes even bluer than they were. The color not of spring, but of summer skies, before the heat has gotten too hot, but you know it’s not May anymore. The clothes hid what I knew, that he looked even better out of them. It wasn’t for lack of cuteness and desirability that Jason wasn’t my sweetie. He was my friend, and I was his.

“What about Perdita, Perdy? You and she are going steady, right?”

He grinned at me. “Going steady, you’re so cute.”

I frowned at him. “What else do you call it?”

Nathaniel kissed me on the forehead. “You really are cute.”

I moved away from him and scowled at them both. “I’m serious, what else do you call it? You aren’t just fuck buddies. She isn’t a one-night stand. She’s a serious girlfriend. If it’s not going steady, what do you call it?”

“You make it sound like I gave her my class ring, Anita. Perdy and I were lovers, and she wanted it to be exclusive.”

“I thought you were exclusive.”

“Except for you, I was.”

“Wait, you’re talking past tense. Are you saying you and Perdy broke up?”

“She gave him an ultimatum,” Nathaniel said. He trailed his hand down my arm as he moved away. “I’ll get you coffee.”

I went to the table and took the seat that Nathaniel had started in. “What kind of ultimatum?” I asked.

Jason stared into his coffee cup while he answered. “She wanted me to stop having sex with Jean

-Claude and Asher, and you.”

“Wait, you aren’t having sex with Jean-Claude and Asher, unless there’s something I don’t know.”

He smiled at me. “The look on your face, man.” He raised his fingers in the Boy Scout salute. “I am not now, nor have I ever been having sex with Jean-Claude or Asher.”

Nathaniel set fresh coffee down in front of me and took a chair across the table on the other side of Jason, so we’d both be able to look at him. It also meant we wouldn’t be able to do more than hold hands, which was probably good; we tended to distract each other.

“But she didn’t believe you,” I said.

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“Nope, she didn’t.” He took a sip of coffee.

“Why wouldn’t she believe you?” I asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“If my feeding the
ardeur
off you through sex bugged your steady girl, you should have said something.”

“I am Jean-Claude’s
pomme de sang,
his apple of blood. I am his blood donor, and I go where my master tells me to go. The
ardeur
is your version of a blood feed and you’re his human servant. Jean-Claude shares me with Asher, his second-in-command, for blood and you for sex, and it’s his right to share me. I am his. I belong to him. Perdy knows that. She got kicked out of Cape Cod because she wanted to be more than just a blood donor to the master vampire there.”

“Samuel didn’t say anything about that. In fact, his son, Sampson, said that Perdy was here to spy on him for his mother.”