The Lunatic Cafe (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series #4)
Anita has fallen for the leader of a local pack of werewolves. She's survived a lot, but this love thing may kill her yet.\ \ \ The local pack of werewolves comes to prenatural expert Anita Baker for help after a number of their pack come up missing--probably because she is dating the leader of the pack. Anita has survived a lot, from jealous vampires to killer zombies, but this love thing may kill her yet. From the author of Circus of the Damned. Original.\
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Vampire hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake is an expert at sniffing out the bad from the good. But in The Lunatic Café, she's about to learn that nothing is ever as it seems, especially in matters of the not-so-human heart.Jayne Ann KrentzA real rush...a heady mix of romance and horror.
1\ It was two weeks before Christmas. A slow time of year for\ raising the dead. My last client of the night sat across from\ me. There had been no notation by his name. No note saying\ zombie raising or vampire slaying. Nothing. Which probably\ meant whatever he wanted me to do was something I\ wouldn’t, or couldn’t, do. Pre-Christmas was a dead time of\ year, no pun intended. My boss, Bert, took any job that\ would have us.\ George Smitz was a tall man, well over six feet. He was\ broad shouldered, and muscular. Not the muscles you get\ from lifting weights and running around indoor tracks. The\ muscles you get from hard physical labor. I would have bet\ money that Mr. Smitz was a construction worker, farmer, or\ something similar. He was shaped large and square with\ grime embedded under his fingernails that soap would not\ touch.\ He sat in front of me, crushing his toboggan hat, kneading\ it in his big hands. The coffee that he’d accepted sat cooling\ on the edge of my desk. He hadn’t taken so much as a sip.\ I was drinking my coffee out of the Christmas mug that\ Bert, my boss, had insisted everyone bring in. A personalized\ holiday mug to add a personal touch to the office. My mug\ had a reindeer in a bathrobe and slippers with Christmas\ lights laced in its antlers, toasting the merry season with\ champagne and saying, ‘‘Bingle Jells.’’\ Bert didn’t really like my mug, but he let it go, probably\ afraid of what else I might bring in. He’d been very pleased\ with my outfit for the evening. A high-collared blouse so\ perfectly red I’d had to wear makeup to keep from looking\ pale. The skirt and matching jacket were a deep forest green.\ I hadn’t dressed for Bert. I had dressed for my date.\ The silver outline of an angel gleamed in my lapel. I\ looked very Christmasy. The Browning Hi-Power 9mm\ didn’t look Christmasy at all, but since it was hidden under\ the jacket, that didn’t seem to matter. It might have bothered\ Mr. Smitz, but he looked worried enough to not care. As\ long as I didn’t shoot him personally.\ ‘‘Now, Mr. Smitz, how may I help you today?’’ I asked.\ He was staring at his hands and only his eyes rose to look\ at me. It was a little-boy gesture, an uncertain gesture. It sat\ oddly on the big man’s face. ‘‘I need help, and I don’t know\ who else to go to.’’\ ‘‘Exactly what kind of help do you need, Mr. Smitz?’’\ ‘‘It’s my wife.’’\ I waited for him to continue, but he stared at his hands.\ His hat was wadded into a tight ball.\ ‘‘You want your wife raised from the dead?’’ I asked.\ He looked up at that, eyes wide with alarm. ‘‘She’s not\ dead. I know that.’’\ ‘‘Then what can I possibly do for you, Mr. Smitz? I raise\ the dead, and am a legal vampire executioner. What in that\ job description could help your wife?’’\ ‘‘Mr. Vaughn said you knew all about lycanthropy.’’ He\ said that as if it explained everything. It didn’t.\ ‘‘My boss makes a lot of claims, Mr. Smitz. But what\ does lycanthropy have to do with your wife?’’ This was the\ second time I’d asked about his wife. I seemed to be speaking\ English, but perhaps my questions were really Swahili\ and I just didn’t realize it. Or maybe whatever had happened\ was too awful for words. That happened a lot in my business.\ He leaned forward, eyes intense on my face. I leaned forward,\ too, I couldn’t help myself. ‘‘Peggy, that’s my wife,\ she’s a lycanthrope.’’
\ Jayne Ann KrentzA real rush...a heady mix of romance and horror.\ \
