Laurell Hamilton - Affliction

Gonzales said, ‘I’m going for Rush.’

‘I’ll stay with Forrester, Jenkins, and the guards,’ Al said. ‘Tell Rush … tell him I’m doing my job.’

Dev said, ‘But the sprinklers will put out the grenades, too.’

‘Phosphorus burns hotter when you get it wet,’ I said. Edward and I had a moment of remembering ghouls running through a stream screaming as they burned. It was old-fashioned phosphorus, and about the only people who still wanted it were vampire executioners. ‘Don’t die on me,’ I said.

‘I won’t,’ he said, and he leaned forward, lowering his voice so the other cops wouldn’t hear. ‘I’ve got European grenades in the car.’

I gave him wide eyes, because in parts of Europe where vamps and shapeshifters can be killed on sight just for being, they had grenades designed to burn longer than even the old-fashioned phosphorus over here. They were designed to explode, get nasty burny stuff on the targets, and the burn kept burning until it burned through the target. They were illegal as hell here.

I smiled and shook my head. ‘I’ll be back with more stuff when I can.’

‘I know you will,’ he said.

I looked at Al, and didn’t know what to say to him. Jenkins and the guards I’d just met, but Al had grown up with Micah.

I heard the doors bang as the zombies started working better as a unit. I’d never seen this many of them without a necromancer in control of them. I should have stayed with Edward and kept them contained. That would have been the best use of resources, but I was going for the loves of my life. Once they were safe I’d save the rest of the world; until that moment the world could take care of itself. Or that was what I told myself as I started running for the elevators with Nicky and Dev at my side and Gonzales bringing up the rear.

The elevator doors opened just as a huge crash came from behind us. I had to look back. Edward and the rest had thrown themselves against the door. He yelled, ‘Anita!’

‘Shit,’ I said.

Edward yelled, ‘They’re using a gurney as a battering ram. I need my gear now! I’m sorry.’

In all the years we’d worked together he’d never apologized for the job and the choices we had to make. Dev was in the elevator. He held out his hand. ‘Give me the keys, and you go on to Micah and Nathaniel.’

There was another huge crash, and the men at the end of the hallway all put their shoulders into it, holding on. ‘Anita, you know how I pack. You can find them faster. We need them faster!’ The doors bucked as if some giant hand had slapped them. They weren’t going to hold.

‘Anita, now!’

I got in the elevator. ‘Stay and help hold the door. I will be as fast as I can.’

Nicky stepped out. ‘Don’t make me stay.’

‘I’ll keep her safe,’ Dev said.

Gonzales stayed beside Nicky. ‘Hurry,’ Gonzales said. There was another thunderous crash at that far door.

The elevator doors began to slide shut and I had one of those moments of revelation. I knew Nicky was stronger, more ruthless, and better at fighting than Dev; he was the one to leave. The only reason not to leave him was that I loved him. I love-loved him, and I hadn’t known it for certain until this second. I moved as the door closed and said, ‘I love you, Nicky.’

He smiled then, and the doors closed.

I wished there’d been time to kiss him good-bye.

I dug the earpiece for my phone out of one of the pockets and called Micah from the elevator. He answered on the second ring. ‘Anita, vampire on this floor is dead. We’re okay.’

‘The morgue is not okay; I’ve got to help Ted contain it. I had to leave Nicky there to back him up.’ As soon as I said it, I realized I was looking for absolution, someone as strong as I was to tell me that it had been okay to leave someone I loved who wasn’t a cop down there with the other cops and the monsters.

‘What made you willing to leave him down there with Ted?’

‘Grenades and shit in Ted’s car, Dev and I are fetching.’ I transferred my badge from my hip to tuck it in a MOLLE strap on the front of my vest. We didn’t have any uniforms or locals with us this time. I wanted witnesses to know we were the good guys.

‘Because you know where the stuff is in Ted’s car,’ Micah said.

‘Yeah,’ I said, and the elevator doors opened.

Dev paused before he went through, checking to make sure it was clear; he gave a small nod and held the door for me, leaning against it with his gun already out. Most handguns wouldn’t do much against zombies or rotting vamps, but Dev had never seen real combat like Nicky had, or I had, which meant he was more comfortable with handguns than long ones. I had my AR to my shoulder checking the hallway – left, right, and up. Vampires fly, or float, sometimes. The hospital ceiling was too low to really be a place to hide, but checking up was a habit that was good to have when you hunted vampires that could fly and shapeshifters that could climb.

‘U.S. Marshals,’ I said, for the startled nurses and doctors. ‘Police.’ I added that just in case. I yelled ‘Police’ again and kept Dev and me moving toward the outer doors. I ignored the questions, because they would slow us down too much and I didn’t know what to say. Captain Jonas had said out loud that he didn’t want to start a panic; if I told them what was in the basement and wandering the hallways, they might panic. They should panic and evacuate everyone they could, but I wasn’t in charge, not like that.

Dev flashed them all his melt-in-your-socks smile. ‘We’ll be back, I promise.’

One of the scared nurses actually blushed at him. That was some good flirting.

‘We’re going outside,’ I said to Micah, low voiced, over the headset.

‘Be careful,’ he said.

‘I think it’s safer outside, but I’ll be careful,’ I said, as I moved toward the outer doors with the AR snugged to my shoulder.

‘I love you,’ he said.

‘I love you and Nathaniel. I didn’t get to kiss Nicky good-bye.’

‘You’ll get another chance to kiss him,’ Micah said, and that was it, he’d given me my absolution, my that’s-okay-you-didn’t-leave-your-lover-to-die pat on the ethical back.

‘Thanks, gotta run. I love you.’

‘I love you more,’ he said.

‘Love you mostest.’

He laughed, softly, and hung up.

Dev and I were outside now. I looked up at the night sky, electric-kissed with the pools of light from the hospital behind us and the light poles rearing over the cars. Nothing moved in the darkness above us. The parking lot stretched empty and so still you should have been able to hear city crickets if it hadn’t been too cold for them.

‘Can we run now?’ Dev asked.

‘Yes,’ I said.

He took off like something elemental, so fast that his speed left me immobile for a heartbeat, and then I ran, too. I ran fast, going from a dead stop to making the parking lot a blur to my vision like some movie special effect. I moved and it wasn’t just to be fast to save everyone and get the weapons, it was a release of tension to be able to move as fast as we could even for a few moments, to be able to RUN! I arrived at Edward’s SUV to find Dev there catching his breath. My heart was in my throat, trying to creep over my tongue and into my mouth. I felt alive, full of blood and thunder; it was the kind of energy that made you want to leave the guns in the holsters and wade into a fight with your bare hands. I wouldn’t do it, but I understood the urge.

Dev grinned at me, a fierce baring of teeth that still managed to be sexy and charming. I grinned back and unlocked the back of the SUV with my pulse thudding behind my own fierce smile.