Page 55 of Beauty At Stake
“You see?” Killian pointed after her. “That'show a real soldier acts.”
Murdock paused to look back at Kill in surprise.
“Never mind that, Extinguisher. It concerns a private conversation I had with my wife. Not you. Gods, you're nosy!”
“Oh. Yes, Ambassador. But thank you all the same.” She nodded at him, then left.
Killian smirked after her, then looked at me. “Still, how cool would it have been if this guy's name was—”
“Kill!” I snapped.
“Sorry, Twilight. Go on. Do your thing.”
“Thank you. Besides, if we're going to make jokes, the obvious nickname for this man is Clifford the Big Black Vampire Hunter.”
“Oh, damn!” Killian high-fived me. “I wish I'd thought of that.”
“Racist!” Murdock called from the other room. “All of you are racists!”
“Fuck off and go on a Starbucks run, white girl!” Killian shouted back.
“Should I be offended by that?” I asked.
“Why?” Star asked.
“Cause I'm a white girl too.”
“Babe, you're every race.” Then Kill sang, “You're every woman.”
“Thank you, Whitney,” I drawled.
Then I remembered what I'd said to Losuc—that they were all my people. And that included humans. I had to remember that these hunters believed they were the good guys. They thought they were hunting real vampires.
I went to stand before the human and got serious. “Okay, Cliff—can I call you Cliff?”
“Yes,” the vampire hunter said.
“Thank you. Now, who are you working for?”
“Her name is Anita Summers.”
We gaped at him, all of us shocked that he actually gave us a name.
“On it,” someone said from the hallway.
“Hold on,” I said. “That sounds familiar. Why does that name sound familiar?”
“Summers is Buffy's last name,” Killian said.
I groaned. “And Anita Blake is a vampire hunter character from a book series.”
“Anita Summers,” Killian said. “I guess Buffy Summers was too obvious.”
“We can still look into an alias,” Sullivan said. “If she uses it for more than deceiving humans.”
I nodded and refocused on Cliff. “How did you meet Anita Summers?”
“There was an ad online that I responded to.”
