Laurell Hamilton - Affliction

Edward ignored the insult. ‘Captain, where did the bodies from the woods get transferred?’

‘The hospital morgue has a special room for vamp and lycanthrope undead.’

‘Is it more heavily armored so they can’t get out?’ I asked.

‘No, it’s just separate so that the human dead don’t get … contaminated.’ He sounded a little apologetic when he said the last word.

‘To my knowledge normal dead just stay dead even if you mix them with a whole bunch of vampire and lycanthrope bodies, but are you telling us that all the dead from the woods are now in the morgue in the basement of the hospital where Micah and Nathaniel are? Where Sheriff Callahan is?’ Jean-Claude and the rest of the vampires had gone for the hotel because dawn was only two hours away, and traffic accidents happened, and there was no saving throw between a vampire and sunlight, so he was safe, but he also had some of the most dangerous guards with him, so it was a mixed blessing, damn it!

‘Yeah,’ Jonas said, ‘tell me for real, can these things heal enough to attack people again?’

‘Rotting vampires are really rare, but I wouldn’t trust anything short of burning them up like zombies,’ I said.

‘Agreed,’ Edward said.

‘You did burn up all the zombie parts from the woods, right, Hatfield?’ I asked.

‘We couldn’t burn them in the woods; the fire danger’s too high.’

‘What did you do with the parts?’ I asked.

‘Once dawn came, they stopped moving,’ she said.

I wanted to grab her and shake her, but I forced myself to be calm and dig my fingernails into my palms as I made fists so I wouldn’t do it. ‘What-did-you-do-with-the-zombie-parts?’

‘They’re in the morgue with the vampire bodies.’

‘Shit,’ I said.

‘It’s been dark for hours, Blake; if anything was wrong we’d have heard by now,’ Hatfield said.

‘Call the morgue,’ I said to Jonas. ‘If they say everything is hunky-dory, then Ted and I are wrong. I’m good with that. I’d love to be wrong.’

The captain called, because calling didn’t cost him anything. I’d never actually seen a rotting vampire this young in undead terms, so maybe they got their uber-healing powers after a few years. Maybe a few weeks wasn’t enough time to be that scary?

The phone rang a long time; I was getting nervous, and Jonas was looking worried.

‘See,’ Hatfield said, ‘you’ve both been on the job too long; it’s made you paranoid.’

‘Crap,’ Jonas said, and Hatfield and I looked back at the captain. ‘No one answered at the morgue,’ he said to whoever was on the phone. ‘No, I do not want you to send someone down to check. This is Captain Jonas of Boulder PD, and I want all the hospital staff to stay away from the morgue until I have some officers check it out.’

Whoever was on the other end of the line was talking, and he was trying to tell them, no, he didn’t want any of the staff to go down to the morgue. They wanted to know why and Jonas didn’t want to tell them, because in case it wasn’t vampires and killer zombies, but just a bad phone line, he didn’t want to scare everyone at the hospital.

We didn’t have time for this. I got my cell phone out and dialed Micah. It went to voice mail. I dialed Nathaniel’s phone without letting myself think about why Micah hadn’t answered. He was in with his dad, had turned off the ringer, that was it, that had to be it. Nathaniel would answer. When he picked up I thought my heart was going to choke me, so I sort of croaked out, ‘Nathaniel, everything all right there?’

‘Micah’s dad is struggling in his sleep like he’s having a nightmare. The nurse says he shouldn’t be able to move with all the drugs in him.’

‘Is he saying anything?’

‘No, he’s just struggling like a nightmare we can’t wake him up from. Micah and his parents are in with him now. Why would you ask if he said anything?’

‘Ares was possessed just by being bitten with the rotting disease. I wondered if it would work the same way on regular people.’

‘Wouldn’t Micah’s dad have manifested some sort of weirdness by now if it worked that way on humans?’ Nathaniel asked.

‘Probably me being paranoid. Do you recognize any of the cops in the hallway? Anyone who I’ve met since we landed and who didn’t hate me on sight?’

‘Having more trouble with the local police?’ Nathaniel asked.

‘A little, but I really need to talk to someone there right now if possible.’

‘Anita, what’s wrong?’

I had to swallow past a lump in my throat as I said, ‘They stored the vampire bodies in the morgue there, along with the zombie parts.’

‘They didn’t burn them?’ he asked. That was my boyfriend; he knew more than Hatfield did.

‘No,’ I said.

‘Why not?’

‘Fire hazard in the woods, and later I don’t know. Do you recognize anyone in the hallway?’

‘Deputy Al is here.’

‘Good, can you put him on?’

‘I love you, and you’ll explain everything later,’ he said.

‘I love you, too, and yes, I will.’

He didn’t argue, he just did what I needed. I loved him, but in that moment I loved him even more. The next thing I heard was his voice, distant, saying, ‘It’s Anita, she needs to talk to you.’

‘Hey, Anita, what’s up? Your boyfriend here has a serious face on him.’

I explained about the vampire bodies and zombie bits being in the morgue. Deputy Al said, ‘The fire hazard makes burning anything in the forests too dangerous.’

‘I accept that, but … Al, Captain Jonas can’t get anyone to answer the morgue extension. He’s trying to get someone in the hospital admin to let him send someone to check on it without panicking anyone. I don’t care about that, I just want someone I trust to see if the dead vampires stayed dead. I’m not sure if the zombie bits will be moving around, but it’s the rotting vampires that I’m most concerned about.’

‘We blew them to hell, Anita. Brain, spine, heart, all splattered. That’s dead for a vamp, according to most of you marshals.’

‘It is for most vampires, but rotting vamps are different, much harder to kill. Fire is the only sure thing, and even then I’d deposit the ashes in different bodies of running water.’

‘Really?’ he said, and sounded skeptical.

‘Look, if I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but if there is even the faintest chance I’m right, then the vampires have been walking around down there for a while. I have no idea how long it took for them to heal the damage we did to them, but by now, if they can heal it and walk again, they will be.’

‘Now you’re scaring me.’

‘Good, you should be scared,’ I said.

‘Shit, okay, I’ll grab a couple of other men from up here and we’ll go check in with hospital security and see if the morgue is full of dead people or not-so-dead people.’

‘Thanks, Al, and watch your back.’

‘Always,’ he said. ‘I’ll give you back to Nathaniel.’

Then Nathaniel was on the phone again. ‘I heard enough. So you think they killed everyone in the morgue.’

‘It’s a possibility, and I’d rather be paranoid and wrong than reasonable and really wrong. You and Micah be careful. Who’s with you for bodyguards?’

There was a knock on the door and a uniform finally came through with an ice bag wrapped in paper towels. I took it, because they’d gone to the trouble, but I’d actually forgotten my face hurt. I had to use my right hand to hold the ice in place since I was using my left for the phone.

‘Bram and Socrates. Micah sent everyone else home to get some sleep.’

‘Shit,’ I said.

‘What?’ Nathaniel said.

‘I’d just like you and Micah to have more than two guards with you, that’s all.’