Laurell Hamilton - Affliction

Once upon a time, hunting vampires was all about daylight. You hoarded the hours while the vamps couldn’t be up and hunting you back so you could find them in their daytime lair and put a stake through their hearts, or decapitate them while they were dead to the world and couldn’t fight back, but we had two vampires in custody that might be able to answer all our questions. They probably knew his daytime retreat, but while the sun was up they couldn’t talk to us. Yes, there was that pesky lawyer thing, but now that the warrant was mine I could use all the power it granted me. That power included being able to force the lawyer to let me question them with him present, if I believed more lives would be lost without their information. We’d lost five people last night, and only two of them had a job that put them in harm’s way; the other three had been innocent bystanders. I had all the proof I needed to be able to question the vampires once the sun went down. I was looking forward to nightfall and being able to talk to them, at the same time that I was worried what this rogue master had up his undead sleeve. The zombies at the hospital and the rotting vampires that wouldn’t die had been pretty terrible, even by my standards. So, on one hand I was eager for the day to pass, and on the other hand, not so much.

Deputy Al went out with all the officers who could be spared to hunt up some of the more isolated people who weren’t answering their phones and hadn’t been seen in a while. Now that the warrant was officially mine I could include our guards in the investigation. It was a clause in the Preternatural Branch that had come into place after several marshals died because they were alone and hunting very bad things but couldn’t involve civilians. When they did, some of the civilians had been charged with assault and in one case murder, because it had happened in states where self-defense wasn’t as broadly defined in that individual state’s laws. Most people don’t realize how different some laws are from state to state. We are still the United States of America, and the founders of our country worded it that way for a reason. We’re supposed to be a bunch of individual entities under the umbrella of America, not just one entity known as America, or that’s how it was originally set up. The states may not be the nearly separate countries that the Founding Fathers thought they’d be, but legally there can be some surprising differences. In the days before I had a badge but was still expected to carry out legal executions, I read up on the laws of individual states, a lot. The Supreme Court had ruled in favor of some of the civilians who had saved the marshals’ lives, but they’d been in jail until that time, so a new ‘law’ had been piggybacked onto the Marshals Service. It was really an old tradition given new language and new legality. As the warrant holder I could recruit civilians if I thought they had skills that would help me stay alive and help me keep civilian casualties lower.

It was basically a legal version of the sheriff standing out in front of the saloon in the Old West and saying, ‘Let’s form a posse and go get these guys.’ It meant that I could have Nicky with me officially.

I found a little privacy in a corner of the room as everyone cleared out and called him to join me; he’d asked, ‘Do you want Dev?’

‘I think Dev has had enough of my day job for a while,’ I said.

‘Do you have a preference of who I bring with me?’

‘I don’t know who all is here now. Lisandro said that they’d only brought the best; with Claudia in charge I believe it.’

‘So let Claudia pick?’ he asked.

‘As long as her choice isn’t someone that you or I don’t like to work with, and it has to be someone who works well with the police.’

‘I’ll see who Claudia wants to send. Do you have a preference where Dev goes in the rotation?’

‘Do you? He and you partner a lot for guard duty,’ I asked.

Either he made a small pleased sound, or I could hear him smile over the phone. ‘I love that you asked my opinion, when you could just make your Bride suck it up.’

I smiled. ‘I guess I’m just not that kind of Groom. Honestly, until you made that remark in the hospital I thought you and Dev were good friends.’

‘I don’t know if I can explain it to you, but he’s a friend up to a point. When he lost it after the basement fight, his status in my friend list went down.’

‘Because he was weak?’ I made it a question.

‘And because if that fight bothered him, then he doesn’t want to know most of what I’ve spent my life doing. You can’t really be friends with someone who only likes parts of you. I can be work friends with Dev, and share you with him like in the shower, that was fun, but he couldn’t stomach who I really am, Anita. I know that now.’

Edward came up to me. ‘Can I put a vote in?’

I nodded. ‘Ted wants to put his two cents’ worth in,’ I said.

‘I’m cool with that,’ Nicky said.

I looked at Edward, raising my eyebrows. ‘Who do you want to play with?’

‘I don’t know everyone they brought with them, but if I can’t have Bobby Lee or Fredo, I’ll take Lisandro. If they brought him, Socrates would be okay, too. I’d say Claudia, but she’s not sure she likes me.’

‘Claudia’s never said she doesn’t like you, at least not to me,’ I said.

‘She suspects I get you into more danger than I help you get out of.’

Nicky chimed in. ‘I don’t want Claudia. She’s great in a fight, but she’s not comfortable around me.’

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘I’m a big, dominant male werelion; after what happened with your last lover who fit that description, she doesn’t trust me.’

He very delicately hadn’t said Haven’s name, because he knew having to kill him had hurt me in ways that I was still discovering. Claudia had never liked Haven, and when the shit hit the fan she’d helped me kill him, after he shot Nathaniel and her and killed one of the other werelions. It had been a mess.

‘Okay, I guess I can understand that,’ I said, ‘but I’d rather not use Lisandro.’

‘He’s good at the job,’ Nicky said.

‘Yeah, but he almost died last time he came out on a case. He’s the only one on the list who’s married and has kids. I’d rather not have to explain to his wife and kids why they’re down one husband and father.’

‘Lisandro knows the risks,’ Nicky said.

Edward said, ‘If you leave Lisandro home when it gets dangerous, then you’ve effectively ruined him as a guard.’

I sighed. ‘Maybe, but humor me, okay?’

‘If you’re talking to me, just tell me what you want and I have to humor you, remember,’ Nicky said.

‘I remember, Nicky. I was talking to Ted.’

Edward said, ‘Is Socrates in town?’

‘Socrates is good,’ I said.

‘Yeah, but he doesn’t trust me, makes it hard to work together.’

‘Why doesn’t he trust you?’

‘I’m a bad guy and he’s an ex-cop,’ Nicky said.

‘You’re not a bad guy,’ I said.

‘Yes, I am, Anita.’

‘We’ll agree to disagree,’ I said.

He gave that deep chuckling laugh. ‘No, Socrates’s cop sense goes crazy around me, and it should. I’m exactly what he thinks I am. I just don’t hide it as good as Ted.’

I started to say, But Ted isn’t a bad guy either , and then stopped myself. Bad and good were relative terms when it came to my best bud and to some of my lovers. I took a deep breath and let it go. It was a philosophical problem for another day.

‘No, of the people they brought I’d prefer Lisandro or Domino. Pride would be okay, but he was raised and trained with Dev. He might have the same issue in a rough fight. Ethan is good, but I don’t know if he can handle your job either,’ Nicky said.