Flirt - By Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,1

the dead? What do you hope to gain from it?"

"Gain," he said. "I don't know what you mean by that."

"I don't, either, but you keep not answering my original question; I thought maybe if I rephrased it you would."

"I don't want to answer either question," he said.

"Then I won't raise your wife. There are other animators at Animators Inc. who will be happy to take your money, and they don't charge my rates."

"Everyone says you are the best."

I shrugged. I was never sure what to say to things like that, and found silence worked best.

"They say you are a true necromancer and have power over all types of undead."

I kept my face blank, which I'd gotten better at over the years. He was right, but I didn't think it was commonly known. "You'll turn a girl's head with talk like that."

"You have the highest number of executions of any member of the U.S. Marshals preternatural branch. Most of them were rogue vampires, but some of them were wereanimals."

I shrugged. "That's a matter of record, so yeah, but it has no bearing on what you want from me, Mr. Bennington."

"I suppose it has as little to do with my request as your reputation as a sort of female Casanova."

"My love life really has nothing to do with my ability to raise the dead."

"If you can truly control all manner of undead, then it might explain how you can slay vampires and still date them."

Jean-Claude, one of the vampires in question, was a little iffy on who wore the pants in our relationship sometimes because of my powers; just as I was iffy on how much of our relationship was my idea because of his vampire powers over me. We had a sort of metaphysical detente. "Jean-Claude and I were in the papers recently, so that didn't take much research."

"One of St. Louis 's hottest couples, I believe was mentioned in the article."

I tried not to squirm with embarrassment, and managed it. "Jean-Claude is pretty enough that anyone on his arm looks hot."

"That much modesty doesn't become a woman," Bennington said.

I blinked at him, frowning. "Sorry, I don't know what you mean by that."

He studied my face, then said, "You really don't, do you?"

"I just said that." I felt like I had missed something, and didn't like it. "I am sorry for your pain, but you're not winning me over."

"I need to know if your reputation is real, or just talk, like so many of the tall tales about you."

"I've earned my reputation, but if you really did your research on me then you also know that I don't raise zombies for kicks, or thrill seekers, or tormented relatives unless they have a plan."

"A plan. What kind of plan?"

"You tell me. Why-do-you-want-your-wife-raised-as-a-zombie?"

"I understood the question, Ms. Blake; you don't have to say it slowly."

"Then answer the question, or this interview is over."

He glared at me, that anger darkening his eyes to a nice storm-cloud gray. His hands made fists on the chair arms, and a muscle in his jaw flexed as he ground his teeth in frustration. Iron self-control it was.

I stood up, smoothing my skirt down in back, out of habit. I'd been polite because I knew how much money he'd paid just to talk to me, and since I was going to refuse I wanted him to feel he'd gotten something for his money, but I'd had enough.

"I need you because there isn't much left of her body. Most animators need a nearly intact body to do the job; I don't have an intact body to work with." He wouldn't look at me as he said it, and there was a flinching around his mouth, a tension to those eyes he was hiding from me. Here was the pain.

I sat back down and my voice was gentler. "How did she die?"

"It was an explosion. Our vacation home had a gas leak. She'd gone up ahead of me. I was going to join her the next day, but that night..." His fists tightened, mottling the skin, and that muscle in his jaw bulged as if he were trying to bite through something hard and bitter. "I loved my wife, Ms. Blake." He sounded like the words choked him. His dark gray eyes gleamed when he raised them back to me. He held on to his unshed tears the way he held on to everything else: tightly.

"I believe you, and I really am sorry for your loss, but I need to know