Laurell Hamilton - Affliction

‘I heard he was a scout sniper and that he tracked the vampires for you. I didn’t hear that he taught you to shoot.’

‘He taught me to shoot far away. I learned to shoot close in a long time ago.’

‘I’m sorry, Marshal, I didn’t mean to bring up anything … hard.’

I nodded and looked down at my lap. I didn’t trust myself to look up. I wasn’t sure what would upset me more – seeing too much sympathy in Yancey’s face, or too little. Better not to know.

‘I really need to get Marshal Blake into X-ray,’ Dr Cross said.

‘Yes, of course,’ Yancey said, and backed up.

Dr Cross pushed me toward the elevators. Nicky stayed at my side, hand still in mine. Dev trailed us. The other officers stayed back, and I was grateful. When the elevator doors closed and the only stranger with us was Cross, the first hard, hot tear cut down my cheek. Nicky started rubbing his thumb across my fingers as we held hands. Dev came to the other side of me and touched my hair. ‘It’s okay, Anita,’ he said.

I shook my head, and the tears fell faster. I finally managed to say, ‘It’s not okay,’ and then I gave myself over to the grief and the horror and the unfairness of it all, and I wept.

Two protein bars, bottles of water for all three of us, and an X-ray later, we knew the break was completely healed. My phone started ringing as we got off the elevator on our floor. Nicky dug it out of the backpack and handed it to me. It was Edward.

‘Vampires alive, or dead?’ I asked.

‘I’ve got the execution delayed but can’t convince them that the vamps were mind-fucked themselves. You were right that the vampires are two of the missing. They were hikers that came up here about a month ago, so you called that, too.’

‘I’m good with the dead,’ I said.

‘So we hear.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I asked. It wasn’t like him to make snide remarks.

‘Some of the locals seem less happy the more right you are.’

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘Since you and I rely on each other to be right, I can’t explain why, only that it’s happening. My guess is professional jealousy. Marshal Hatfield has a serious hard-on to prove herself, and she seems to feel that your reputation hurts all women everywhere who wear a badge.’

‘I take it you don’t mean my reputation as a kickass law enforcement officer.’

‘No, the other reputation.’

‘Oh, that I’m a cold-blooded killer who shoots first and asks questions later?’

He gave a small chuckle. ‘Nope, the other one.’

‘You mean that I’m one of the monsters and that’s what gives me a leg up in the job?’ I asked.

He laughed. ‘No, the other-other reputation.’

‘You mean that I’m dating too many men?’ I asked.

‘Something like that,’ he said, his voice soft again.

‘She’s right there, isn’t she?’ I asked.

‘Yes,’ he said in a normal voice.

‘Have you defended my honor to her yet?’ I asked.

He lowered his voice again. ‘It’s hard to defend your honor when everyone believes that I’m one of your conquests.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘I’d forgotten that rumor.’

‘I hadn’t.’ There was a tone in his voice.

‘Do you get that much grief from the other cops about me?’

‘They’re just jealous,’ he said.

‘Of my success rate at the job,’ I said.

‘Yep,’ he said.

‘Or that I’m doing you?’ I asked.

He did that male chuckle again that he almost never did unless he was playing Ted. ‘Some.’

‘I’ll be there as soon as I can to question the vamps.’

‘It’s Hatfield’s warrant. You have to persuade her.’

‘And she already hates me,’ I said.

‘Oh, yeah,’ he said.

‘Perfect,’ I said.

Nicky held the door while Dr Cross pushed the chair through.

‘Make sure you eat before you get here,’ Edward said.

‘I’ve had a couple of protein bars,’ I said.

‘I think you need to eat something beefier than that,’ he said.

Dr Cross said, ‘I hate to interrupt police business, especially when you’re trying to save fellow vampires, but we need this room for sick people. You can go save the day, er, night.’

‘Hold on, Ted,’ and I turned to the doctor. ‘Thanks, doc. About Nathaniel Graison – is he being released, too?’

‘Yes, Mr Graison can leave when you do, though I would advise all of you to drink copious amounts of water to keep from having a relapse of elevation sickness. Don’t look at me that way, Marshal, it contributed to both of your illnesses.’

‘How much water do we need to drink?’ Dev asked.

‘You know that recommended eight glasses of water a day?’

‘Yes,’ Dev said.

‘Double that, doctor’s orders.’

‘We’ll never have time for that,’ I said.

He shrugged. ‘Then you or Mr Graison may both suffer ill effects again.’

‘I was shot, doc.’

‘But he wasn’t.’

I opened my mouth and closed it, not sure what to say.

Dr Cross said, ‘I know he is one of your animals to call and that you drained energy from him to heal yourself.’

I tried not to look surprised.

‘There is a reason they assigned a vampire as doctor on this floor. Sometimes it takes a preternatural citizen to understand another one.’

I nodded. ‘So you knew what was wrong the whole time?’

‘Not at first, but I’m absolutely serious that the elevation sickness contributed to both of you being hospitalized. It puts extra strain on your bodies.’

‘They’ll drink the water,’ Nicky said.

I scowled up at him.

‘I want both of you well,’ he said.

And just like that, Nicky won. ‘All right,’ I said.

‘I’ll go sign your paperwork. You can shower and get dressed,’ Dr Cross said.

‘I’m not sure I have time to shower,’ I said.

Edward said on the phone, ‘You have time and it will probably be your best bet to get your protein needs met.’

‘I told you I had two bars.’

‘I think you need some beefcake to go with those protein bars.’

‘Are you hinting that I need to feed the ardeur before I get there?’

‘I didn’t think I was hinting, but yes.’ He lowered his voice again and said, ‘I have now made Hatfield walk off in disgust. I believe she thinks the beefcake comment was us flirting.’

‘That would be bad flirting,’ I said.

‘Yep.’

‘You’re much smoother than that,’ I said.

‘Thanks, but feed, Anita. You don’t want to lose your shit here.’

‘Agreed,’ I said, but sighed as I said it.

‘Are Nicky and Dev still with you?’ he asked.

‘Yeah.’

‘You know there are a lot of women who wouldn’t see either of them as a hardship.’

‘It’s not that; it’s the fact that I have to have sex before I can go fight crime.’

‘And you healed a broken pelvis and a bullet wound in a little over twenty-four hours, so you have to have sex more often than most for that kind of healing ability. It’s not a bad trade.’

I thought about that and then said, ‘Good point.’

‘You’d be out of this investigation for good if you didn’t heal better than anyone I know.’

‘I’ll feed,’ I said.

‘But make it a quickie; you do need to question the vampires before dawn.’

‘First you damn near order me to have sex, and now you’re putting limits on how much time I have to do it. Geez.’

He laughed. ‘Just do what you need to do and get over here before dawn.’ He hung up, his voice already talking to someone at his end of the world.

‘Well, you heard the man; I need to feed and then we go question the vampires.’