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It was early Septe the dead The pre-Halloween rush seemed to start earlier and earlier every year Every animator at Animators Inc was booked solid I was no exception; in fact, I'd been offered o without sleep could supply

Mr Leo Harlan should have been grateful to get the appointrateful Truthfully, he didn't have the look of anything Harlan was ht, dark hair, but not too dark Skin neither too pale nor too tan Eyes brown, but an indistinguishable shade of brown In fact theabout Mr Harlan was that there was nothing remarkable about him Even his suit was dark, conservative A businessman's outfit that had been in style for the last twenty years and probably would still be in style twenty years down the road His shirt hite, his tie neatly knotted, his not-too-big, not-too-sroomed but not manicured

His appearance told uely disturbing

I took a sip fro with the motto, "If you slip ht it to hen our boss, Bert, had put decaf in the coffee ouldn't notice Half the office thought they had mono for a week, until we discovered Bert's dastardly plot

The coffee that our secretary, Mary, had gotten for Mr Harlan sat on the edge of o of Animators Inc on it He'd taken a minute sip of the coffee, when Mary had first handed it to him He'd taken the coffee black, but he sipped it like he hadn't tasted it, or it didn't really matter what it tasted like He'd taken it out of politeness, not out of desire

I sippedto ar, the two basic food groups

His voice was like the rest of him, so ordinary it was extraordinary He spoke with absolutely no accent, no hint of region, or country "I want you to raise my ancestor, Ms Blake"

"So you said"

"You seem to doubt me, Ms Blake"

"Call it skepticism"

"Why would I come in here and lie to you?"

I shrugged "People have done it before"

"I assure you, Ms Blake, I a the truth"

Trouble was, I just didn't believe hi paranoid, but my left arm under the nice navy suit jacket was crisscrossed with scars--from the crooked cross-shaped burn scar, where a va claw marks of a shape-shifted witch Plus knife scars, thin and clean coht ar in comparison And there were other scars hidden under the navy skirt and royal blue shell Silk didn't care if it slid over scars or sht to be paranoid

"What ancestor do you want raised, and why?" I smiled when I said it, pleasant, but the setting my smiles to reach all the way up to my eyes

He smiled too, and it left his eyes as unaffected as my own Smile because you were s He reached out to pick up the coffee ain, and this time I noticed a heaviness in the left front of his jacket He wasn't wearing a shoulder holster--I'd have noticed that--but there was so heavier than a wallet in his left breast pocket It could have been a lot of things, but unI've learned to listen to hts You're not paranoid if people really are out to get you

I had un tucked under s up, but I did not want un Maybe Probably For all I knew it could have been a really heavy cigar case But I'd have bet al that that heaviness was a weapon I could either sit here and try to talk ht If I rong, I'd apologize later; if I was right, well, I'd be alive Better alive and rude than dead and polite

I interrupted his talk about his family tree I hadn't really heard any of it I was fixated on that heaviness in his pocket Until I found out whether it was a gun or not, nothing else much mattered to me I smiled and forced it up into , Mr Harlan?"

He drew a slightly deeper breath, settling into his chair, just a bit It was the closest thing I'd seen to tension in the et Harlan didn't

People don't like dealing with people who raise the dead Don't ask me why, but weHe was just sitting across the desk fro, nondescript eyes pleasant and e here and that he'd brought a gun hidden on his person in a place that wasn't easy to spot

I was liking Leo Harlan less and less

I satI'd freed up un would be step two; I was hoping to avoid that step

"I want you to raise one of my ancestors, Ms Blake I don't see where my work has any relevance here"

"Hu it slide out ofice

"Why should I?" he said

"Because if you don't, I'll refuse to take your case"

"Mr Vaughn, your boss, has already taken my money He accepted on your behalf"

I smiled, and this time it held real huer at Animators Inc, now Most of us are full partners in the firm, like a law firs, but he's not exactly my boss anymore"

His face, if it was possible, went quieter,at a bad painting, one that had all the technicalities down, yet held no feel of life The only humans I'd ever seen that could be this closed doere scary ones

"I wasn't aware of your change in status, Ms Blake" His voice had gone a tone deeper, but it was as empty as his face

He was ringing every alarht with the need to pullabout it It wasn't until his hands raised to the arms of his chair that I realized what I'd done We were bothto a better position to dran

Suddenly there was tension, thick and heavy like invisible lightning in the room There was no more doubt I saw it in his empty eyes, and in the small smile on his face This was a real s one of thecan do to another We were about to try to kill each other I watched, not his eyes, but his upper body, waiting for that betraying movement There was no more doubt, we both knew

Into that heavy, heavy tension, his voice fell like a stone thron a deep well His voice alone alun "I am a contract killer, but I'm not here for you, Anita Blake"

I didn't take my eyes from his body, the tension didn't slacken "Why tell me then?" My voice was softer than his, almost breathy

"Because I haven't coetting my ancestor raised from the dead"

"Why?" I asked, still watching his body, still treading the tension

"Even hitmen have hobbies, Ms Blake" His voice was matter-of-fact, but his body stayed very, very still I realized, suddenly, that he was trying not to spook me