Laurell Hamilton - Affliction

Edward and I looked at each other. We both remembered a case where ghouls followed a necromancer who had accidentally raised them. ‘I don’t think it’s ghouls,’ I said, to that look in his eyes.

‘No,’ he said.

‘If the zombies didn’t take the purse, who did?’ Nicky asked.

‘Maybe somebody broke in after they were dead and took the purse,’ Lisandro said.

‘Then why not take the man’s wallet? There’s over a hundred dollars in it, and a full set of credit cards,’ I said.

‘If it wasn’t robbery, then why take the purse?’ Hatfield asked.

‘If it was robbery, why not take more stuff?’ Lisandro asked.

‘So it wasn’t robbery,’ I said.

‘There were vampires with the zombies in the mountains; was this a mixed group, too?’ asked Nicky.

‘Maybe,’ I said.

‘Why would a vampire take some nice old lady’s purse?’ I asked.

‘What was in the purse that wasn’t in the wallet?’ Edward asked.

Lisandro, Nicky, and I all said, ‘Keys.’

‘They didn’t get in the window or the door. The couple barricaded themselves in, but then for some reason they opened the front door.’

‘Vampire mind powers?’ Hatfield asked.

‘Not if they were already fighting off zombies in the back. The fear and panic would keep almost any vampire from being able to get a hold on their minds unless they’d had previous contact. If they’d been mind-fucked earlier, then maybe,’ I said.

‘Unlikely, though,’ Edward said.

‘Agreed.’

‘You have killer zombies at the back. You’ve barricaded yourself in. What would make you open the front door?’ I asked.

‘Who would you open it for?’ Nicky asked.

‘Someone you know,’ Hatfield said.

‘Help,’ Edward said.

I turned to him. ‘What?’

‘You’d open the door in an emergency to help. If the house is on fire you’ll let the firefighters in; if you’re being robbed you’ll open for the police.’

I looked at him. ‘You’re saying a cop.’

‘I’m saying either a cop or someone they trusted and thought would protect them. Maybe an officer they knew,’ he said.

‘We can’t accuse another officer of conspiring with vampires and killer zombies on this much guesswork,’ Hatfield said.

‘We’re not going to accuse anyone in particular, Hatfield, but think about it. Every house we’ve seen has been torn apart in the area of the house that wouldn’t be seen by someone just driving by. Zombies, even killer zombies, don’t think that well. If they were being controlled by a vampire, then maybe, but if what I saw and felt in the mountains is any indication, then this vampire isn’t that cool a customer.’

‘Maybe he’s getting more disorganized as he keeps killing?’ Edward suggested.

‘You mean like a serial killer disintegrating as he feeds his compulsion?’

‘Yes.’

‘Maybe,’ I said.

‘But someone let the zombies and vampires out, then took the victim’s purse and calmly locked the door behind them,’ Edward said.

‘We’re all agreed on that,’ I said.

‘I’m not sure we’re all agreed on that,’ Hatfield said.

‘Would you agree it’s most likely?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘Everything I learned in class and in the field is that this does not happen. Flesh-eating zombies are incredibly rare. They do not run in packs, contrary to every zombie movie out there, right?’

‘Right,’ I said.

‘Vampires do not hang out with zombies, right?’ she asked.

‘Right,’ I said.

‘And now you want me to believe that a human, maybe a cop, is helping scout the houses, lead them in from the most unobtrusive way, and helping cover their tracks.’

‘Maybe,’ I said.

‘If he’s covering their tracks, then why leave the table in front of the door?’ Lisandro asked.

‘Why take the purse? He could have thrown it back through the opening at the edge of the door. There was room to shove a purse back inside,’ Nicky said.

That time we did all agree it made no sense.

‘What if he doesn’t want to cover for them anymore?’ Seamus asked.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

‘What if something about these victims made him rethink his allegiance?’

‘It goes back to him knowing them,’ Edward said.

‘Yes, or perhaps he looked at the pictures on the walls as I’ve seen all of you do and it affected him, too.’

‘So he’s beginning to want to get caught?’ I asked.

‘Not in the front of his head,’ Edward said, ‘but maybe in the back of it.’

‘You think he’ll just keep making more mistakes until he gives himself away?’ Hatfield asked.

‘Maybe, but that would mean we’d have to see more crime scenes to catch his mistake. I want to catch him before they kill again,’ I said.

‘Of course,’ Hatfield said, ‘but how?’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t know yet.’

‘Yet,’ Edward said.

‘Yeah, yet, it’s always yet, Ted, you taught me that.’

He nodded and gave that small, cold smile that I knew so well. It was one of the ones he wore when he killed.

‘We don’t know yet,’ he said.

‘But we will,’ I said.

‘And when you figure it out, then what?’ Hatfield asked.

‘We kill all of them,’ I said.

‘Even the human, if it is a human helping them?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘He’ll get a trial. His lawyer will go for an insanity plea and get a reduced sentence.’

‘No lawyer can help anyone connected to this,’ I said.

‘What do you mean?’ she asked.

‘She means that the warrant of execution doesn’t differentiate between perpetrators.’

Hatfield frowned. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘The language of a warrant of execution allows me to kill anyone who participates in the crime, Hatfield.’

‘You mean you can just kill a human just like that, no arrest, no trial, just bang?’

I nodded.

She gave me wide eyes. ‘If they’re trying to kill me, or someone else, I could pull the trigger, no problem, but you’re saying that if they were handcuffed, chained down like a vampire in the morgue, you’d just kill them.’

‘No, I’m saying I could legally.’

‘Humans don’t go dead at dawn. They’d be staring up at you, begging for their lives.’

‘Yeah, just like vampires do if they’re awake.’

‘You really don’t see a difference between taking human life and the undead, do you?’

‘No,’ I said.

‘Did you see a difference once?’

‘I believed sincerely that vampires were evil and I was saving the world by killing them, but that was a few years ago. I haven’t believed that for a while.’

‘If I start seeing vampires as people, I don’t think I could keep killing them.’

‘Then stay away from Anita’s friends,’ Edward said. ‘You can’t keep seeing them as monsters once you see them as people.’

Hatfield shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’

‘Let’s have the rest of this discussion outside, where it smells better,’ Lisandro said.

‘Wererats have one of the most sensitive noses in the animal kingdom,’ I explained to Hatfield.

She looked at Lisandro. ‘Wererat?’ she asked.

‘I know I’m too handsome to be a wererat – you were thinking werewolf, or wereleopard – but no, I’m just a great, big, giant rat.’

Hatfield fought her face, and finally lost and showed her disgust. She even shuddered.

‘You afraid of rats?’ he asked.

She gave a little nod.

He smiled, but it was more a snarl, a curl of lips that didn’t match the handsomeness. ‘Then you do not want to see me in animal form.’

‘No,’ she said in a small voice.