"Fine, I'm getting that, so what the fuck has got you so upset that you're sharing personal details with Zerbrowski?"
"Oh, hell, I don't know."
"That is not an answer," I said, glaring up at him.
"Well, it's the only answer I have, right now."
"It's not Anita and the relationship stuff you're upset about," Nicky said.
"You can say that because you have the kind of relationship the rest of us want and don't have with her."
"I can say that because I smelled how scared you were with the zombie tonight."
"We were all scared," I said.
"He was more scared than he should have been."
"She left me beside the grave like bait, not you," Domino said, pointing a finger at Nicky's chest.
"I didn't leave you as bait, Domino. It just happened to be where you were standing. I put myself at the edge of the grave at the end, too, and Nicky."
"But it was me that thing was staring at and saying Hungry, over and over again." His eyes were a little wide and his breathing was speeding up just talking about it.
"I didn't know the zombie would fixate on anyone. I didn't put you in harm's way on purpose."
"I wish I believed that."
"What does that even mean? I don't endanger any of you on purpose."
"We're her bodyguards; it's our job to put ourselves in danger," Nicky said.
"You stay out of it, lion."
"I'll stay out of it when you stop whining," he said.
Domino went very still, but it wasn't the stillness of the dead; it was more the quiet before the storm when the world holds its breath, just before all hell breaks loose. His arm was a blur, so fast I couldn't follow it, and only knew it impacted because Nicky rocked back a half-step. But the next blow landed on the arm Nicky raised to guard his face, and then he hit back. Domino blocked one fist, but the second got through his guard, taking him in the ribs. Domino flinched a little to that side and when Nicky feinted with his right for the ribs again he blocked, but Nicky's left hit him in the mouth and rocked him back. It rattled him, but he was able to keep moving. He backed up and avoided the next three blows altogether, but the knee that Nicky threw connected with Domino's hip, which doubled him a little, so the next knee was all ribs. I thought I heard something break, which meant I was probably too close, but they were so fast it was like there wasn't time to move. Domino tried to cover his face and ribs, so Nicky kicked him on the thighs, hips, and shins with legs, feet, and knees, over and over again in a blur of movement. Domino blocked some of it, but more and more of it was getting through his guard, so the barrage of knees, shins, and feet was punishing. Domino got in one more hit at Nicky's midsection, but he batted it away and the whole right side of Domino's face was open. Nicky closed with a hard left hook and then followed with a right uppercut that rolled Domino's eyes back and made him drop his hands enough for another left hook. Nicky used the momentum of the hook to send him spinning through with a kick to the side of Domino's face, and it was over.
Domino fell to the ground heavy. I knew by how he fell that he was completely out, even before I knelt beside him and checked for a pulse. It was there and a tightness in my gut went away; as long as everyone lived, it was all just good, painful fun.
"He's not dead," Nicky said; his voice was only slightly breathy, as if the fight had been a good warm-up. He was still in a fighting stance, slightly up on the balls of his feet, arms still half-raised as if Domino was going to get up again, or as if there might be someone else to fight.
Zerbrowski, Manny, and the grave diggers were all standing at a little distance, as if they'd run toward us to stop the fight but it was over before they could get here. It had been like most fights, over incredibly quickly. It probably hadn't lasted more than two, three minutes tops. It just seemed much longer when you were in it.
"Shit, he's fast," the tall blond grave digger said into the sudden quiet.
"Anita, do we need an ambulance?" Zerbrowski asked.
"No, I don't think so."
"This guy so needs an ambulance," the short, dark-haired grave digger said.
I couldn't really blame him for saying it. The lower half of Domino's face was covered in blood, his skin was pale, and there were cuts on the side of his face higher up. He lay utterly still as if he'd never wake up, and if he'd been human he might not have, but he wasn't human. One rattling breath came, and then he tried to sit up, but that seemed to hurt too much, so he fell back to the ground coughing blood, or maybe it was coming out of his broken nose, it was hard to tell. I helped him sit up enough so he didn't choke on his own blood.
Susannah was near enough now that she could comment. "That was brutal."
"He's not dead. If I'd been brutal, he would be," Nicky said; he was easing out of the fighting stance, but it was as if once put on alert he was having trouble letting it go.
Domino coughed more blood up and there was no way not to get some of it on me. Susannah came to kneel beside me, to help. "He's a lycanthrope," I said.
"I don't have any cuts for the blood to get into." She started trying to help hold pressure on his nose, but that made it harder for him to breathe. It was still a point for her that she was willing to touch a shapeshifter that was bleeding; a lot of humans wouldn't have.
"Don't press on the nose, you'll make it harder for him to breathe," Nicky said.
"Like you give a damn," she said, glaring up at Nicky, but she stopped trying to press so hard on Domino's face.
"Is this where you call me a brute and feel sorry for him?"
"You are a brute and a bully! It was vicious!" she said, and sounded totally indignant.
Nicky looked at me. "How about you, Anita? You think I'm a brute and a bully? That I'm vicious?"
"I think we just saw a serious cultural misunderstanding."
"What?" Susannah asked.
"They aren't the same kind of wereanimal. Domino comes from a culture where a fight like that would go so far and then stop; Nicky's culture finishes every fight pretty much like that." I didn't want to say what kind of animal each of them was, because it was like telling people what gun you carried; if they got spooked or wanted to make trouble for you, they could give details that made their bullshit seem more real to the police. I didn't think Susannah would do that, but it was just a rule when dealing with this many outsiders. I didn't know the grave diggers at all.
"You're not making any sense," she said.
"Can you sit up?" I asked Domino. He nodded, still coughing or wheezing out blood. Susannah came behind him and let him rest against her shiny fire suit. I wondered if it was dry clean only, or if the blood would even be able to soak in. One arm of my jacket and the side of my hip and thigh were bright with his blood. I tipped my dry cleaner generously and often.
"He threw the first punch," I said.
"But he didn't have to beat him senseless!" Susannah said as she cradled Domino.
"Well, that is true," I said.
"Yeah, that is true," Nicky said. He was standing more normally now, most of the tension of the fight drained away.
I stood in front of him, gazing at the tiny spot of blood on the corner of his mouth. "Did he actually make contact, or is that his blood spattered on your face?"
He licked the corner of his mouth. "Mine."
I smiled. "Once he drew blood it was all over."
Nicky made a little hands-out gesture, as if to say, Of course.
"You broke my damn ribs," Domino said in a voice thick with blood and the damage to his nose.
"The way you're coughing blood, one of them might have nicked your lung," Nicky said, but he didn't sound sorry.
"Does he need an ambulance?" I asked.
"A doctor, but not an ambulance, unless he wants to pussy out and says differently."
"Fuck you," Domino said; he coughed more blood, then bent over something that hurt.
"No ambulance, I guess," I said.
"He needs a hospital," Susan
nah said, "and you should be in handcuffs." She looked at Zerbrowski. He spread his hands wide and said, "Just because he lost the fight doesn't mean he didn't throw the first blow and start the fight."
"That's insane," she said.
"No, it's just the truth," I said.
"You're not going to call me a bully?" he asked.
"No." In my head, I thought, A lion maybe, and to the uninitiated that amounted to the same thing. Werehyenas would fuck you up quicker, cripple you, so the fight could end sooner, but werelions would kill you quicker, and they were more likely to start the testosterone throw-down among themselves. When dealing with other wereanimals they tried to tone it down. Our old lion pride hadn't worked that way, and it was only when talking with Micah about other prides having issues across the country that I'd learned some of the cultural divide. I'd also seen it when Nicky fought anyone. He didn't start fights, because he knew I wouldn't approve, but he sure as hell finished them.
"Are you going to be mad at me?" he asked.
I thought about it and shook my head. "No."
He smiled. "Does this mean the winner gets the girl?"
"Don't push it."
He smiled wider, which made him touch the cut in the corner of his mouth with his tongue again, more exploring to see how deep it was, which meant the wide smile had hurt, at least a little.
"I've still got to dump the ashes in the stream, and then we can get Domino to medical."
"I can put the ashes in the water," Manny said. "You take care of your boy."
I shook my head. "I'll finish my job, and we'll stop on the way home to dump more in the river, because I'm still working."
"You can't mean to make him wait to get medical attention while you do all that," Susannah said, holding Domino a little close and protectively.
"If he wants you to drive him to a hospital, or to the Circus of the Damned, that's fine with me."
"He beats me to shit, and you reward him," he said, and he was coughing a little less.
I went to one knee beside him. "Nicky didn't start this fight; you did. You drew first blood, and you did it while you were supposed to be on duty as my bodyguard, so you didn't just take your attention away from guarding me, you took Nicky's away from the job. If something bad had happened while the two of you were fighting, I'd have had to deal with it, with no help from either of you, because you let something spook you tonight. You let yourself lose sight of the job."
"Heaven help anything that comes between you and your job," he said.
"I'm done, you're done, we're done."
His eyes got worried then. "What do you mean?"
"I think I was pretty clear, Domino." I stood up.
"Anita, don't do this."
"You're the one complaining that I'm not as serious with you as I am with Nicky, that I don't have enough time and attention for you; well, you're right. There are too many of you and not enough of me, so if you don't like the way I run our relationship, then let's be done. Now you're free to find someone else who would think you're the victim here, and not that you just picked a fight that you were too fucking weak to win."
"I lose one fight and I'm weak."
"You knew better than to pick a fight with Nicky. You train with him, Domino. You've seen him spar. Hell, you've sparred with him. You knew what would happen the moment you threw the first punch, and if you didn't that makes you weak and stupid."
"Anita, how can you say that?" Susannah asked, and she seemed genuinely outraged, but I was done discussing it.
I started walking toward the slope that I knew would eventually lead me to the stream. Nicky fell into step beside me. "In case you need bodyguarding between here and there," he said, voice almost neutral.
I smiled and transferred the jar of zombie ash to my right hand, and offered him my left to hold. "What if we have to go for our guns?" he asked.
"I'll risk it."
"As your bodyguard I should refuse."
"It's up to you," I said.
He smiled and took my hand. His knuckles were skinned and bleeding a little. It probably would have bothered Susannah, but it didn't bother me. We walked through the graveyard, me covered in Domino's blood, Nicky skinned up from hitting him, and I was okay with that. I felt relieved to be done with Domino; one tiger down, a few more to go.
37
DOMINO WAS TRYING to get out of his clothes when we came back from the stream. Susannah seemed confused as he asked for help out of the straps of his holsters and his shirt. She looked up at me. "He's delirious."
"No, he just doesn't want to ruin his leather holsters when he shifts," I said. I squeezed Nicky's hand, knelt in the grass beside them, and started helping him take off the holsters that held both his handguns and the extra ammo clips.
Susannah was still half-cradling him as I started helping him slip his bloody shirt off. He flinched, and it was obviously hurting a lot. Nicky loomed over us. "Shirt's ruined anyway, just let it shred."
"Get away from him!" Susannah said.
"No, he's right. I can lose the shirt," Domino said in that stuffy voice you get when your nose is well and truly fucked up.
"Lose it, how?" she asked.
I helped him pull his shirt back down, trying not to hurt his ribs. "He's going to shapeshift and that will help heal some of the damage."
"Shift into what?" she asked, but she let him lean back without any sign of flinching.
"Pants aren't bloody," I said. "You like them enough to save them?"
"I'll do tiger, not half, pants . . ." He swallowed hard, as if something hurt when he talked. He coughed again, spat more blood, and curled his shoulders down like he was wanting to cradle an injury in his torso.
Nicky finished for him. "If he shifts into his full tiger form the pants may not rip; we'll just have to help him out of them once he changes."
"You're not touching him," Susannah said.
"You think we're enemies now, don't you?"
"You beat him senseless, so yes." She seemed outraged that he'd even mention it.
"We enemies now, Domino?" he asked.
"No, help me out of these pants, I'm not sure I can control what form I take, just got these tac pants."
Nicky took a knee on the other side of Domino. Susannah put an arm around Domino's shoulder and leaned them both back away from him. Domino made a pain sound, because bending that way obviously hurt.
"Don't touch him!"
"You're hurting me," Domino managed to say.
"You're bending him the wrong way," I said.
Susannah said, "How can you be so calm?"
I wasn't sure if she was talking to Domino or me, but I answered. "Because it's over."
"He's still bleeding and hurt; it's not over."
"The fight is," Nicky said, and reached for Domino's belt.
"What are you doing?" She sounded outraged, but she didn't bend him away from Nicky this time.
"He asked Nicky to help get his pants off, remember?" I said.
Nicky unbuckled the other man's pants with the same sure, deft movements he used when he got me undressed. I wore almost the exact same kind of belt these days; it was sturdy enough to hold up to gun holsters without buckling or getting too damaged, too fast.
It was when Nicky started easing Domino's pants down from his waist that she said, "How can you let him touch you like that?"
"It's going to take Anita and Nicky to get my pants off with minimum pain," Domino said.
I joined Nicky in helping to work the pants down around Domino's hips. I got to see that he'd worn black underwear today, a Brazilian, or Rio cut, so that it was high on the sides. I knew he was wearing it for Jade. It was one of the few strong preferences she'd expressed for men to wear around her.
"He tried to kill you!" Susannah said.
"If he'd meant to kill me, he would have," Domino said. He made a face as we got his pants down to midhip, and he tried to raise himself up to help us. He started coughing again, and a fresh gout of bloo
d came up very bright red in the morning light.
"If that's your lung, then we need to get you to a hospital, or you could die."
When Domino could speak without coughing blood he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said, "I'll heal, and Nicky knows it."
"I don't understand any of this," she said.
"You seem nice, but no, you don't understand."
"Then explain it to me, because this makes no sense."
Domino looked at her, and it was as if she hadn't really seen the yellow and red fire color of his eyes, and maybe she hadn't in the dark. She stared at his eyes and whispered, "Oh, my God, your eyes."
"Beautiful, aren't they?" I said.
She just stared into the fire of his eyes, like a mouse hypnotized by a snake.
Domino said, "You think I'm nice, because Nicky is less nice, but I was raised to be muscle for an old-school mobster; that is not a nice business. It is not gentle, or kind, and for me to stand as a guard beside the boss, neither was I. Nicky is a better bad guy than I am, but that doesn't make me a good guy, or not the kind of good guy you think I am."
"I don't understand any of this."
He turned and looked at me. "I think Susannah needs to go somewhere else."
I nodded. "Eddie, can you take Susannah to the truck? Domino would like a little privacy for his clothes coming off."
Domino looked at me. He knew, and I knew, that he didn't give a damn if she saw him naked. He just didn't want someone who was this much of an outsider making him feel like a freak, or maybe just continuously pointing out how very alien we all were from the "ordinary" folks.
Eddie came and helped his daughter stand up, which meant Domino had to support all his weight, using one hand and leaning to the side. He couldn't hide the fact that it hurt, and that he'd rather have it hurt that much than take the comfort of a pretty woman said just how much her attitude had bothered him. It's one thing to know you're a freak; it's another to have people's attitudes drive it home with an axe.
Zerbrowski said, "You need any help, just yell," and then he went to join the others, who had taken my request for privacy to undress Domino very seriously. The three of us were alone in the filtered sunlight playing through the trees.
We eased Domino's pants down his ass; the black undies stayed put. They were stretched a little tight across the front, but not as tight as they could get.