Burnt Offerings Read Online Free PDF

I would put the gun up.
    Irving pushed the door open, smiling. His frizzy brown hair encircled his head like a brown halo with the bald spot gleaming in the middle. Glasses perched on a small nose. He was short and gave the impression of being round without being fat. He looked like anything but a big bad wolf. He didn't even look much like a reporter, which was one of the things that made him such a great interviewer but would probably always keep him from being on-camera material. He worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , and had interviewed me many times.
    He closed the door behind him.
    I put up the gun.
    His eyes widened. He spoke low, but not in a whisper. "How's Stephen?"
    "How did you get in here? There's supposed to be a cop on the door."
    "Gee, Blake, I'm glad to see you too."
    "Don't mess with me, Irving. There's supposed to be a guard out there."
    "He's talking to a very pretty nurse at the desk."
    "Dammit." I was not a real cop, so I couldn't go around yelling at them, but it was tempting. There was a law floating around Washington that might give vampire hunters federal badges soon. Sometimes I thought it was a bad idea. Sometimes, I didn't.
    "Talk to me fast before I get kicked out. How is Stephen?"
    I told him. "You don't care about Nathaniel?"
    He looked uncomfortable. "You know that Sylvie is de facto pack leader while Richard is out of town working on his master's degree, right?"
    I sighed. "No, I didn't know."
    "I know you're not talking to Richard since you broke up, but I'd think someone else would have mentioned it."
    "All the other wolves creep around me like there's been a death. No one talks about Richard to me, Irving. I thought he'd forbidden them to talk to me."
    "Not to my knowledge."
    "I'm surprised you didn't come in here asking for a story."
    "I can't do this story, Anita. It's too close to home."
    "Because you know Stephen?"
    "Because everyone involved is a shapeshifter and I'm just a mild-mannered reporter."
    "You really think you'd lose your job if they found out?"
    "Job, hell. What would my mother say?"
    I smiled. "So you can't play bodyguard."
    He frowned. "You know, I hadn't thought about that. When one of the pack got hurt in public where it couldn't be hidden, Raina always used to ride to the rescue. With her dead, I don't think we have any alphas that aren't hiding what they are. No one I'd trust to guard Stephen, anyway."
    Raina had been the wolf pack's old lupa before I took the job. Technically the old lupa doesn't have to die to step down, unlike the Ulfric, or King Wolf. But Raina had been Gabriel's playmate. They'd shared certain hobbies, like making pornographic snuff films starring shapeshifters and humans. She'd been helping film while Gabriel tried to rape me. Oh, yeah, Raina had made it a real pleasure to punch her ticket.
    "That's the second time you've ignored Nathaniel," I said. "What gives, Irving?"
    "I told you Sylvie is in charge until Richard gets back in town."
    "So?"
    "She's forbidden any of us to help the wereleopards in any way."
    "Why?"
    "Raina used the wereleopards in her porno movies a lot, along with the wolves."
    "I've seen one of the films. I wasn't impressed. Horrified, but not impressed."
    Irving looked very serious. "She also let Gabriel and the cats punish wayward pack members."
    "Punish?" I made it a question.
    Irving nodded. "Sylvie was one of the ones who got punished, more than once. She hates them all, Anita. If Richard hadn't forbid it, she'd have used the pack to hunt the leopards down and kill them all."
    "I've seen what Gabriel and Raina thought was fun and games. I think I'm on Sylvie's side for once."
    "You cleaned house for us, you and Richard. Richard killed Marcus and now he's Ulfric, pack leader. You killed Raina for us, and now you're our lupa."
    "I shot her, Irving. According to pack law, so I'm told, using a gun negates the challenge. I cheated."
    "You're not lupa because you killed Raina. You're lupa because Richard picked you as his