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The Night Things Changed

Dana Ca in colonial New England, Dana Cay mysteries The sixth book, Ashes and Bones, won the 2007 Anthony for Best Paperback Original Her short story "The Lords of Misrule," featuring eighteenth-century London sleuth Margaret Chase, was also no once upon a ti of this story), she now lives in nearby Beverly with her husband and a de cat You can learn more about Dana&039;s work at her website,

danacameroncom

I pounded up the stairs to the roof and slammed open the door; the wintry air lashed my face My sister the vampire was stretched out on her stomach, nearly naked, under the pale Dece I knew from her phone call the neas bad, but

"Claudia?" I sed; my mouth was dry "Claud?"

She stirred and opened her eyes blearily Her face was drawn, she moved stiffly Claudia relaxed when she saas me, fastened the bikini top behind her neck, then sat up

I turned away, blushing "Aw, jeez, Claud Do you have to?"

"What? I&039;m covered Gerry, take a pill No one can see me up here We picked the place for that very reason"

She was right; evergreen shrubs and dead, leafy vines - a forest of green in the su the roof open to the sky Despite the crust of snow on the ground, she wasn&039;t even shivering

It was such a sh I kept quiet: she&039;d think I was being a prude

"I don&039;t even need to wear a bathing suit when I&039; as I&039;uy likes to think about his sister being ogled, especially not when she looked good enough todark hair It was just too dangerous in a fight

I changed the topic "I got your"A bad one, this s had been so quiet lately, it had to happen "Tell o through the euy was in for sutures, a cut on his ar Eileen a hard tiot a whiff of him I asked her to send hilanced at es under her eyes She looked beat "He barged into ry when I told hiressive, all id, defensive as Hell Maybe there&039;s a hurt little kid so led by a really thuggish protector-self"

I hate when she talks like a shrink, but it&039;s how she gets things straight in her own head "Was he big?"

She nodded "And he uses it He doesn&039;tatShe was obviously okay, but I hated hearing this kind of stuff It was part of our job, and I knew Claudia could take care of herself, but it still chafed Call me overprotective "And?"

"He ed "And then I bit hiain; it didn&039;t uy, she wouldn&039;t have called ether for dinner "Anyone see you?"

"The door was shut He knocked me down, then ran out of the office" She paused "He&039;s a really bad one - "

"We&039;ll get hiuys," I said, confident

She shook her head "There was so about him"

"You&039;re just tired We always - "

"No, Gerry!" Her sharp tone startled et the taste out of my mouth It&039;s likeI could work on hiet anywhere"

Her eyes filled up, and I knew that she&039;d been thrown for a loop Professionally and personally, Claudia is a proud person

"Scootch over," I said I didn&039;t say any e and put e to take off my jacket and put it over her shoulders, because the sun was the best thing for a va, even the weak sun of a Massachusetts midwinter And besides, I needed my coat myself I always seem to feel the cold

Prudish Overprotective Chilly In a lot of ways, olves are just big pussies

After getting Claudia&039;s promise that she&039;d take it easy, I took the copy of the file she had and visited the address of "J Sain that evil is not creative

I didn&039;t need to get out of the pickup, but I did As I figured, the place - a double-decker - was abandoned,the new fall of snow surrounding it As I nosed around, I picked up lots of strong residual scents, s and sex, pain and fear There was soly suy had been there, but the recognizable odor of Evil called ht, when youabout it

I reluctantly followed my tracks back to my truck and decided to pick up the trail at the hospital Construction and early holidaylot, but the F150 handled ith her ne tires I tuned the radio to the Leftover Lunch on WFNX and crept toward Union Hospital in Lynn

I like being a olf for the sa a cop Sure, it&039;s a lonely job and I see life&039;s tragedies, but then I fix them I help people, I ood at it I like being one of the good guys I get a sense of satisfaction I bet your average CPA never gets Or maybe they do; what do I know? I&039;uy, North Shore born and bred, with a CJ degree from Salem State, recently early-retired from the Salem PD My tax forms say I&039;m a PI now, but I don&039;t do doo to the end of the earth to find lost kids, though, and never charge a cent But Ievil from the world

Sounds like I&039;m full of myself, doesn&039;t it? Not if you know the truth about born, Pandora&039;s Orphans, the ones the ancients called "Hope," supposedly trapped at the bottoborn got out, and it&039;s a good thing they did, too, for when evil was released into the world, so was theit Vampires and olves, the first to clean the blood and ease the pain, the second to remove irredeemable evil e find it Our instincts are infallible, our senses attuned to evil True evil - not the idiot who cuts you off in traffic or steals your newspaper - exists, and we&039;re here to fight it We&039;re the ones evil can&039;t touch, the superheroes you never see, if we do our jobs right I believe that to the core of ine the world today if we didn&039;t put the brakes on evil Funny, since the Fangborn have always been depicted as the y My kind aren&039;t the most fertile in the world - there are less than one thousand of us in the United States - and when you nor out kids like it was going out of style But we&039;re the children of Hope, so we do e can, and every bit helps

As for those myths: It&039;s not the turn of the h I can h I don&039;t have hair on the palh for a while when I turned thirteen, I was afraid of that happening for other reasons Claudia says I obsess about anyone touching uy who isn&039;t territorial? When we order pizza, Claudia always asks for roasted garlic She relies on the mirror by her front door to remind her to dress like other people when it&039;s cold She also claiic to silver, but that&039;s because she thinks it looks tacky against her skin

In reality, we&039;re big on family and secrecy Me and Claud live in Salem because eastern Massachusetts here our family was needed, back in the day Grandpa had a sense of humor about it: "Ven ve s dat go buht!&039;" he&039;d cackle Ito do with the witchcraft trials; it was just easier to hide a bunch of Gerrants in nineteenth-century Sale is all-important Around here, not only do you have tales of witchcraft, but there are ruimmick concocted by ferry owners and innkeepers), pirate treasures, and haunted houses What&039;s the occasional sighting of a big dog by ed its way to born are nurses, doctors, shrinks, cops, even clergy Any job that gets us close to the public, the people who need protection, is a good job for us

I didn&039;t even have to roll down theThe stench hit me from outside the cab of the truck It was all I could do to keepto claws on the wheel and ine as soon as I could, clutching the Saint Christopher medal that&039;s been on my neck since my first Communion I don&039;t care whether he&039;s a saint; I&039;ave it tothe Change Claudia was right: this guy was a bad one S - and then left a trail that a normal could follow, if he&039;d understood why he was suddenly feeling queasy and irritable There wasn&039;t a sound of bird or beast anywhere nearby, not even a seagull

True evil has the s you get when you realize so you can&039;t do anything about, and you&039;ll get close to what I felt But ood thing is that ss power

I opened the door cautiously The wind shifted and I found I couldfurry, so I visited the ER The nurses told one

I thanked theer here, possibly because of his attack on Claudia, but there was soe The assistant Claudia shared with the other shrinks told me I&039;d just missed my sister, that she&039;d been really shook up by a patient I feigned surprise - Claudia could get into a lot of trouble for talking about the case withme the file - and said I&039;d check on her

I tracked the scent back to the parking lot, where the guys at the valet stand said that a guy had caught a cab dropping someone off, a local company

Just then Eileen came out, a tart little nurse who&039;d always had a cup of coffee and a kind word for me when I&039;d been on the force Claudia&039;d said she was the nurse handling Sed hellos

"You heard about Claudia?"

"Yeah" I exhaled, whistling

"She&039;s okay Guy was a bruiser Caet stitched up, said it was a slip, but I know a bottle-slash when I see one Street fight, probably"

I nodded

"Claudia gaveto her A post-trauets better Weeht him in Said he found hiet hiht up on old tirin; everyone knew Weems and I hated each other

"My bad luck," I said I stuck uy, you been busy?"

She shook her head "Not the past two days Not even a bue Snow tonight"

I nodded; I could smell that, too We both knew that between the cold, the holidays, and the law of averages, soon enough there&039;d be accidents, drunk drivers, domestic disputes, and the homeless who&039;d freeze to death The usual

"Well, the kids will like it" She zipped herself up "They&039;re out of school after today Ju out of their little skins already, the little monsters"

"Oh, come on," I said "Kids should be excited about Christmas" I like Christmas I like the effort people born are all about Hope

"Yeah, I guess" Eileen looked uneasy, though "I&039;ve got this feeling, Gerry Everyone&039;s on edge Maybe it&039;s the low pressure or the fullup Watch yourself out there"

The ER was always hopping during the full moon My people aren&039;t the only ones who feel its power

"I will, thanks And you take care Keep up with the patch"

Eileen was startled "How did you - ?"

I grinned "You&039;ve been out here for five ht up" I didn&039;t tell her I could sain, feel her nerves hu for that crumpled box of relief

We wished each other Merry Christmas and I left The trail from the taxi was blasted by the y&039;s Donuts in Sale out It didn&039;t hurt that Annie worked there, a girl I&039;d been kinda hung up on for a while

I ordered a jelly-filled because Annie was on the counter I had been trying to get up my nerve to ask her out on a date It was one of my New Year&039;s resolutions - frootdun I found a seat before I did so impetuous and stupid I&039;d have to soon: ti out on my resolution, and I keep uy, to ask out a cute girl I&039;h personally I think I look better as a wolf I built my own house when our folks died, I have a decent income and a boat that&039;s paid for, and my place is spotless because I don&039;t like surprises

But it&039;s even harder, when you&039;re Fangborn, to ask a norborn prefer to keep to our own kind Aa were or vaborn, but that&039;s pretty low odds, too; how ot two, one of each, I don&039;t know As far as I understand, it&039;s all about recessive genes, but it doesn&039;t make the initial discussion any easier "Hey, sweetie? When I said ular, dysfunctional-strange"

My cabbie ca he was coh they&039;d probably only brushed fingers when Smith paid I waited until the cabbie ordered his coffee - even Annie&039;s smile didn&039;t help him - and then I approached him He wasn&039;t supposed to tell me where he took his fare, but I slid a twenty across the table and got the address of a no-tell e of town Then I asked to check his cab, to see whether S, I said

"Help yourself," he said, shivering around his coffee cup "It&039;s open"

I was feeling pleased withlot As he locked up the cruiser, he didn&039;t speak, but gavewith the hairy eyeball I nodded back, and kept

We had never liked each other, and now he harbors the deep suspicion most cops have for PIs He&039;s always er on the reason, so I did the best I could to avoid hih to know that she could look forward to a full six-percent tip

I waited until Wee into his bear claw, then opened the door to the cab -

the screech of brakes before a crasha phone ringing at 3:30 in the ush of blood froht

I could barely keepI sla to calm myself before I fled into the traffic and away from that cab

"What&039;s next?" Claudia said, when I returned to her condo two hours later She looked a little better and was now dressed in shorts and a T-shirt that said, I ? SPIKE She was barefoot,just looking at her Her place is all white wood and glass and bare surfaces, which she calls "clean lines" The Christlad of they&039;s, I checked theaddress No luck at the other fleabags, either I cast around for a while, but he wasn&039;t doing any walking and I couldn&039;t get anything from car tracks" I didn&039;t tell her I&039;d driven halfway to New Haotten hold ofinto another panic I wrappednot to puke watching the cream swirl around the top of the coffee

She saw ? You look like seven kinds of Hell"

I pushed the coffee away froht a noseful of Sht, he&039;s bad"

"Yeah, bad But why did I take so long to bounce back after I saw him? And you, you&039;re always psyched up, all bloodlusty and rarin&039; to go, when you find a bad guy What&039;s different about S to talk

"That&039;s not helpful" She went into psychiatristwith Smith What do you feel?"

"Claudia - "

"Huht, but I really didn&039;t want to discuss it "Every tiet sick, I feel confused It&039;s like the world&039;s upside down, like I&039; my own tail - "

I shoved the chair back and bolted for the sink I made it, just before the donut made a repeat appearance, and turned on the tap while I retched Much as I wanted it to, the sound of running water didn&039;t block out Claudia&039;s exclamation

"Oh, my God, Gerry He&039;s one of us"

"He can&039;t be" I wiped off ot to be it It explains so much - our reactions, his, the way he went berserk in the office - "

"He&039;s just a psycho," I said But I knew she was right

"No, Gerry" She took a deep breath "He&039;s evil And he&039;s one of us!"

"There&039;s no such thing as an evil Fangborn, Claudia," I said "Not in all our history"

"Maybe not in our history, but what about our future? I&039;ve got to check in with the fa on Maybe the oracles will have soe hit me "Claud, don&039;t"

"Don&039;t tell the family?"

I nodded I just didn&039;t want any of this to be true

"Gotta do it, Gerry We can&039;t let Set away, and if he&039;s e think he is, they all need to know This is big"

I shrugged miserably

She put her hand onin our form, with our powers It&039;s also a tremendous revelation Gerry, it can tell us a lot about e are, eneticists or the oracles can, and it can tell us about the nature of evil It ainst evil, Gerry The one where in Who wouldn&039;t want to be present for that?" Her eyes were alight and her fangs peeked out with her excite excited, but at least that helped shake off the overwhel eood guys -

It&039;s just that the bad guys had never looked like us before

I nodded "Okay, you contact the family, and I&039;ll hit the Internet Set a clue or a scent, we&039;re just gonna have to wait"

We exchanged a look Sensing the presence of evil is one thing Being able to find it before it acts is quite another And the idea of evil in the for

I went home, and no sooner opened the door than I was attacked by a , brown-striped tom off my shoulder and du fro onto me was impressive and cute as Hell Now that he was in the fifteen-pound class, it was less aht it was a riot But even he couldn&039;t cheer ot over at Henry&039;s Market, I listened to the police scanner, but didn&039;t hear anything that would help As Beemer washed himself on the leather couch next to me, I drank too much and flipped around the TV - a beaut, 40&039; plasma, with controls to put the Enterprise to sha to keep my attention Ditto the Internet and the new issue of Maxim If you wanted proof that my kind are born, not le lingerie model would be left unbitten Trust me

Frustrated in every sense of the word, I didn&039;t drift off until just before the alarot up, dumped kibble into Beemer&039;s bowl, and hit the bricks, not because I had a lead, but because I had a headache worse than any hangover The memory of evil left unchecked is one of the downsides of the job, and I didn&039;t even want to think about what Sy&039;s, but Annie wasn&039;t working The day outsideEven the telephone poles were decorated to suitpet flyers I kne I&039;d feel if Bee: it&039;d be a crappy Christo or Maxie

Focus on the job, Gerry Keep it together

Down by the Willows, I caught a faint scent The Salem Willows is an amusement park, very sh stands and rackety rides during the summer In the winter, it&039;s a wasteland, boarded up and abandoned

It wasn&039;t abandoned now: Salem PD, state police, and the ME vans were there My vision and hearing sharpened, andago

Weeht over toa lot of you lately" He only reaches y, so short-s between us

That&039;s olves and vamps have such crappy reputations The local authorities always notice us sniffing around criuys

I sippeda lot of you, too, Wee" He crossed his ar for the guy at the hospital who knocked my sister around"

His face softened, just a little "Your sister, she&039;s okay"

Suggesting I was not "C&039; to catch an asshole here"

"And what&039;re we doing?" For an instant, I thought he&039;d either hit me or have a heart attack He balled up his fists and turned a shade of red that would have made Santa&039;s tailors envious

"You knohat I mean" I tried to look desperate, no stretch, under the circumstances "Man, come on It&039;s Claudia"

The stories would have you believe that va It&039;s true, they produce a pheromone that seems to make people around the work Add a good dose of empathy, and yes, vampires hold a definite attraction for nor about Claudia had long ago hit Wee her under the bus like that, but if it got me past his defensiveness

I could see that Wee that ot one vic, and it&039;s a wet one Or it was, a couple of days ago: it&039;s pretty dried up now" Weeht of blood "Chest sliced openand the heart reuy My guess, he was either flopping in the shed over there, or he was lured in"

"You said sliced open?"

"You&039;re a ghoul, Steuben" He sighed "ME says a big knife, it looks like They need ree on, it was the reluctance of the ME to spill details

He hesitated "The chest was opened up likeah, jeez It reminded me of one of those Advent calendars The skin pulled back square, and the ribs broken to get the heart out"

Maybe he didn&039;t likeme as much as he did, but Wee around, you&039;ll be sorry"

"Merry Christmas to you, too, Weems" I left

"They found a body," I said, after I let myself into Claudia&039;s condo

Claudia was excited "Yeah, I know, I just heard it on the news"

It was her day off and while Claud aiting to hear so crazy over the news - she was trying to work out a profile for S rote work for the sa turned inside out I still felt like I had the pins knocked out from under me and I hated that uncertainty

"Down the Willows?" I said, surprised That was quick

"No, pulled from the harbor" She frowned "The woman had been in there about a week They said &039; worse"

"So was mine" I told her what I&039;d just learned from Weems "They knoho she was?"

"A local prostitute, was all they said"

"There&039;s a chance it&039;s not the sa to bet on that"

"Me, neither"

"He&039;s selecting people on the periphery of society," she said "Going for those who live under the radar"

I considered where the trail had led ency roohborhood was just too uess he&039;s been doing this for a while"

She nodded "And is escalating He&039;s refining his ritual, getting bolder, going for less vulnerable, ets It&039;s typical that he started with animals" The look on her face didn&039;t bode well for Set worse fro sonificance to the date - the full moon, Christmas"

Suddenly, I knew "It is Christmas," I said I told her Weems&039;s description of the corpse, what he&039;d said about Advent calendars "Doesn&039;t that sound like what you&039;re talking about? Little, uh, treats leading up to the big day?"

She nodded "Right Christmas Good eyes on Weems"

I snorted "He&039;s my hero" But Christmas was just two days away "My question is, Why did Smith have to call a cab?"