Laurell Hamilton - Affliction

‘Yeah, but training counts, too.’

‘You don’t have to defend them to me, Anita. I respect SWAT and their abilities. I’m just saying they’re human and Seamus isn’t.’

‘No arguments, and sorry if I was defensive.’

‘It’s okay. I’m going to talk to the Harlequin wereanimals and see if I can learn anything helpful about the Lover of Death.’

‘If you get any info that will help, call me,’ I said.

‘You know I will,’ she said.

‘If SWAT gets here before Lisandro and Dev arrive, then we’re gone. We need to use every bit of daylight we have.’

‘Understood; I’ll text Dev and make sure he and Lisandro understand.’

‘You know my objections to endangering Lisandro, because he has a family. Why send him?’

‘You know why, Anita.’ She sounded softly chiding.

I sighed. ‘Yeah, I have practiced with Lisandro and watched him against others. He’s not the strongest of the guards, but he’s wicked fast and he’s got the best all-around speed, endurance, strength, and technique of anyone in the MMA classes, except maybe Pride.’

‘Which is why one of them goes with you and one of them stays here, just in case.’

‘It won’t come to a one-on-one champion fight, Claudia.’

‘Probably not, but if there comes a point where you can maneuver Seamus into fighting Lisandro and leaving the rest of you out of it, I’d do it.’

‘You going to throw Pride to the hyenas, too?’ I asked.

‘No, we have a lot more guards here, Anita. We’ll overwhelm him with skill and numbers.’

‘But you’ll still keep Pride with you, just in case,’ I said.

‘Yeah,’ she said.

‘Send someone extra to Micah, too,’ I said.

‘I will.’

‘Keep them safe for me.’

‘It’s my job.’

‘Speaking of jobs, SWAT just pulled in,’ I said. I waved them over to let them know I needed to talk to them before we headed out. They spilled out of their black Tahoe looking all around six feet tall or over, broad of shoulder, trim of waist, like a sports team in body armor with weapons. Most SWAT and special teams were tall and athletic and had a certain we are just that good attitude. It wasn’t bragging, it was just training combined with surety; most of them had spent their lives being the toughest and most competent person in the room.

‘Kill this guy for us, Anita,’ Claudia said.

‘It’s my job,’ I said.

She gave a small chuckle. ‘Yeah, I guess it is.’

I hung up and went to tell SWAT we knew exactly where the vampire’s lair was located. I also had to tell them that we had another shapeshifter that might have been mind-fucked like Ares. If this kept up, they were going to change the rules so I couldn’t bring my furry friends along.

Two things kept us in the parking lot long enough for Lisandro and Dev to arrive and throw their gear in the back of our SUV: Little Henry’s request to borrow a gun, and my explaining what had happened with Seamus. The gun would have normally been not only no, but hell no, but they all knew him. They knew his skills in the field and at the shooting range. He’d actually been in the military with Machet and Wilson, two of our SWAT guys. Machete and Willy, respectively – most SWAT units were big on nicknames. Some were name-based like these two, but others were just call signs, like Sergeant Brock was Badger, and Yancey, who had come to see me in the hospital, was Swan. He pulled off enough of his gear so I could glimpse the nearly black hair with its hint of curl, and the smiling brown eyes. He didn’t look remotely swanlike.

‘So you’ve had another shapeshifter deputy marshal go rogue?’ he asked, studying my face as if he wanted me to say no.

‘This master vampire’s animal to call seems to be hyena. It gives him a step up on mind-fucking them.’

‘Any of you other guys werehyena?’ he asked.

Dev raised his hand, ‘Tiger.’

Lisandro said, ‘Rat.’

‘Lion,’ said Nicky.

Badger, whose skin was smooth and nearly as dark as the black gear he was wearing, said, ‘So if you guys get bitten you’re not going to try to kill us?’

‘You’re safe from us,’ Dev said, smiling.

‘Okay, Little Henry rides with us and draws us a detailed plan of the layout while we drive. We’ll have an entrance plan by the time we get there.’

‘Sergeant, not to put too fine a point on it, but the vampire rolled Little Henry, too. Being human doesn’t keep you safe from a vampire.’

He touched the cross pinned to his vest. ‘My faith will keep me safe.’

‘Yeah, mine, too, but if a human servant or zombie that he controls rips it off you, we’ll need a backup plan.’

‘Vampires are your side of things, so you got to have a plan that will protect us from the vampire by the time we get there,’ he said.

‘I’ll do my best.’

‘That’s all I ask.’

I looked at him a minute to see if he was kidding, then realized he wasn’t. Here was a man who would expect your best, period. ‘Then let’s saddle up, we’re burning daylight,’ I said.

He and Yancey grinned at me and then each other. ‘Another John Wayne fan— See, Badger, I told you I liked her.’

Badger nodded, still grinning. ‘Let’s mount up, we are burning daylight.’

Nicky drove, I rode shotgun, and Lisandro and Dev had the middle seat. We followed SWAT and Little Henry onto the main road, and away we went.

We were at the edge of town, about to head into the mountains, when a woman ran across the road in front of SWAT’s Tahoe. Their brake lights flashed red, and Nicky had to slam on his brakes to keep from rear-ending them.

A zombie ran across the road in front of both cars, in the direction that the woman had run.

‘Is that what I think it is?’ Lisandro asked.

‘It’s not dark yet,’ Nicky said.

Dev said, ‘Here we go again.’

‘Shit,’ I said, and reached for my door handle.

The moment I opened the door I could hear the woman screaming. I’d have loved to have time to put together a plan, a formation, something, but we were out of time. We spilled out of the SUV and ran toward the screams. SWAT was out of their truck, too. I heard one of them yell something, but if we waited the woman was dead.

I had my handguns and my knives. The AR and shotgun were still in the truck. I was betting that SWAT was taking the time to gear up. They were probably right, but I’d seen the zombie move; it wasn’t the shambling dead, it was fast, and when night fell it’d be faster.

We found them on the driveway between two small identical houses. Her legs were kicking uselessly at the ground, the zombie straddling her waist, holding one of her arms in its hands and eating the flesh off her forearm while she shrieked.

I drew the Browning, aimed at the zombie’s head, and fired. The force of the bullet rocked its whole body, but it just turned and stared at us, mouth scarlet with fresh blood, the woman’s arm still trapped between its rotting hands.

Someone exclaimed behind us, ‘Sweet Jesus!’

The zombie kept chewing on the meat in its mouth, as if we weren’t walking closer, guns out. It was like the ones in the mountain, in the hospital: no fear, no thought of saving itself. It wouldn’t run, not while it had meat to eat. It had ripped the woman’s arm to pink tendons and red muscle, blood pouring out of the wounds, drenching the zombie’s chin and upper body.

I shot it between the eyes; the head rocked back, the round hole bled dark blood, and some of the back of the head was shaped wrong now, but it bent back toward the woman’s arm. It was going to take another bite. I walked up almost point-blank and shot it in the mouth, twice, three times, until the mouth was shattered and most of the head was a red mess. It still tried to bend over the woman’s arm and take another bite, except now it had no working mouth to bite with.