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The house was still sreyish wisps of shosts Soh cupola on top of the building intact The lower stories were gutted and blackened, but the cupola rose like a white beacon above the wreck It looked like a black-toothed giant had taken a great bite out of the house

The fire truck took upalong the street like a shallow lake Firefighters waded through the water, rolling up miles of hose over their shoulders A uniformed police officer stopped us well back from the action

I eased down myand flashed my ID It was a little plastic clip-on card and looked official, but it wasn&039;t a badge Soh, and soo ask perton and would give vamp executioners what amounted to federal marshal status I wasn&039;t sure how I felt about that It takes a hell of a lot e, but for e to flash

"Anna Blake, Larry Kirkland, to see Sergeant Storr"

The officer frowned at the ID "I&039;ll have to clear this with sohed "Fine, we&039;ll wait here"

The uniform went off in search of Dolph, and aited

"You used to argue with theed "They&039;re just doing their job"

"Since when has that stopped you fro, which saved hi co about anything right now "So I&039;--a little So what?"

The srin,out of hisI wouldn&039;t think it was funny at all

"Is it being in love with Jean-Claude that&039;s ular sex?"

I sular sex, how is Detective Tammy?"

He blushed first I was happy

The unifor down the wet street towards us with Detective Taood

"Well, if it isn&039;t your little sugarplum now," I said

Larry saw her then The red flush brightened to so the color of raw flay with the effort to breathe The soot had been wiped ahich saved his face fro, will you, Anita? Tammy doesn&039;t like to be teased"

"Who does?" I said

"I&039;et to us "I apologize It will never happen again Please do not embarrass me in front of Tammy"

"Would I do that to you?"

"In a hot second," he said "Please don&039;t"

They were al and I won&039;t pull yours," I whispered

"Deal," he said

I eased down the , sood to see you"

Reynolds frowned because I was seldolad to see her She was a witch and the first police detective ever with preternatural abilities beyond psychic gifts But she was young, bright, shiny, and tried just a little too hard to be my friend She was just sooo fascinated with the fact that I raised the dead She wanted to know all about it I&039;d never had a witch make me feel like such a da souls Perhaps it was the fact that Reynolds was a Christian witch, aback to the Gnostics, who eical ability They were all but wiped out during the Inquisition due to the fact that their beliefs don&039;t allow theht under a bushel, but they survived Fanatics have a way of doing that

Reynolds was tall, slender, with straight brown hair falling around her shoulders, and eyes that I would have said were hazel but she called green Greyish-green with a large circle of pale brown around the pupil Cats have green eyes Most people don&039;t She&039;d tried to bethe dead, she&039;d turned to Larry He&039;d been reluctant at first for the same reasons I was, but she hadn&039;t offered e and into her arms

I&039;d have complained about his choice of sweeties if I&039;d any round to stand on It wasn&039;t the witch part that bothered ious-fanatic part But when you share the sheets with the walking dead, you don&039;t get a lot of room to bitch

I smiled sweetly at her

Reynold&039;s frown deepened I&039;d never been this happy to see her before "Good to see you, too, Anita" Her greeting was cautious, but seeood little Christian

I was beginning to wonder if I was still a good Christian I didn&039;t doubt God I doubtedpremarital sex with a vas

She bent her five foot ten frame to peer in thepast enuine, too Her eyes sparkled with it I could feel the waves of lust, if not love, going fro current

The blush had left Larry&039;s faceof freckles like brown ink spots He turned large blue eyes to her, and I didn&039;t like the way he looked at her I wasn&039;t sure it was just lust on Larry&039;s part Maybe it wasn&039;t for Reynolds, either, but I didn&039;t worry about her feelings the way I did Larry&039;s

"Detective Reynolds," he said Was it ination or was his voice just a touch deeper? Nah

"Larry" That one as full of too much warmth

"Where do you want us to park?" I asked

She blinked hazel eyes at otten I was there "Anywhere back here"

"Great"

She stepped back and let ered on Larry Maybe it was more than lust Damn

We parked Larry undid his seat belt carefully, grias station

"You want et the door?"

He turned stiffly towards the door, trying to keep his upper body immobile He stopped with his hand on the handle His breath caasps "Yes, please"

Me, I&039;d have gotten the door myself, just from pure stubbornness Larry really was the wiser of the two of us

I held the door for his, and we got hi He started to hunch from the pain, but that bent his back, which ht as he could, leaning against the Jeep, trying to get his breath back Pain will leave you breathless

Reynolds was suddenly beside us "What&039;s wrong?"

"You tell her I&039;ll go talk to Dolph"

"Sure," Larry said, voice strained He needed to be in bed, knocked out on painkillers Maybe he wasn&039;t that much smarter than me

It wasn&039;t hard to spot Dolph Pete McKinnon was standing with the towards two small mountains

Dolph&039;s dark suit looked freshly pressed, white shirt crisp, tie knotted against the collar He couldn&039;t have been out in the heat long Even Dolph sweats

"Anita," he said

"Dolph"

"Ms Blake, nice to see you again," Pete McKinnon said

I smiled "Good to know soot the dig, he ignored it "Everyone&039;s waiting for you"

"Dolph alas a rinned at hi personal"

Dolph frowned at us "If you two are through, we&039;ve got work to do"

Pete and I grinned at each other and followed Dolph across the wet street I was happy to be back in ht shoes

A tall, thin firerey mustache watchedhelmet and coat in the July heat Four others had stripped down to T-shirts with just the rubbery-looking pants on Someone had sprayed them doith a water They looked like an ad for a beefcake wet T-shirt contest They were drinking Gatorade and water like their lives depended on it

"Did a Gatorade truck just roll by or is this some arcane post-fire ritual?" I asked

Pete answered, "It&039;s daear on You dehydrate Water to rehydrate and Gatorade for the electrolytes so you don&039;t pass out from the heat"

"Ah," I said

The fire up the hose cale of face peered out froaze There was a lift to the chin, a way that she held herself that was a challenge I recognized the symptoms I had izing for assu she was a

Pete introduced me to the tall man "This is Captain Fulton He&039;s Incident Commander on this site"

I offeredabout it His hand was large, big-knuckled He shook hands like he was afraid to squeeze too hard, and dropped contact as soon as he could I bet that he was just pleased as punch to have a female fireperson on his unit

He introduced the fireperson in question "Corporal Tucker" She offered her hand

She had a nice firressive

I se"