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The parking lot was full, and I mean full So full that Zerbrowski parked in front of the church in the fire only zone We had Marconi and S with twoour strategy while I was trying to fix things with Arnet Apparently, Abrahae of theon Abrahaue teaht have been a little prejudiced right that moment

He had two uniforet their holy items out "Nobody leaves, unless you clear it with ested that there was another door at the parish hall entrance, and since we had enough manpower to cover it, Zerbrowski just nodded and said, "Do it" It was like he was channeling Dolph, but it worked Everyone just did what he said

Marconi shook his head and said what I&039;d been thinking "Coht, Zerbrowski"

"You&039;re just jealous that he&039;s better at channeling Dolph than you are," I said

Marconi save a nod But his hand was at his belt, and he was un a little more forward Sometimes the more jokes you do, the h that his eyes were all sparkly, and he was al at a leash He hadn&039;t been a detective for a er to prove yourself I hoped not too eager, since I&039;d recoave me a nod, like he&039;d keep an eye on hio in bold, or quiet?"

I thought about it for a second, then shrugged "They knoe&039;re here, Zerbrowski, at least the ones near the back"

"They can hear us?"

I nodded "But let&039;s ask an usher near the back to get Malcol"

He nodded, then went to the big, polished, wood doors Before he could push the with short brown hair and glasses I&039;d seen hian with a B, like Brandon, or Brian, or Bruce, or soht He eased the door shut behind hi to stare His brown eyes were still lovely behind his glasses, and there was still healing bite marks on his neck It was as if no ti the living

"You are interrupting our worship service?" His voice was soft, ht?"

His eyes widened just a little "I&039;m surprised you remembered me, Ms Blake"

"Marshal Blake, actually," I smiled when I said it

His eyes did that little widening act again "Do I say congratulations?"

"Is he stalling?" Zerbrowski asked

"Not in the way you mean," I said "He doesn&039;t want us to interrupt the services, but I don&039;t think he&039;d deliberately hide a"Murderer? What are you talking about, Ms Marshal Blake? We of the church do not advocate violence in any aspect of our lives"

"There&039;s a dead woue that, if she could," Zerbrowski said

A pained expression crossed Bruce&039;s face "Are you certain that it is the home of one of our members?"

We both nodded

Bruce looked down at the ground, then nodded, as if he&039;d decided so "If you will remain near the back of the church, I will tell Malcolm what has happened"

Zerbrowski looked at ed and nodded "Sure"

Bruce sood, please keep your voices low This is a church, and we are having services" He led the way through those highly polished doors The uniforms stayed outside, but Marconi and Smith followed us in

There was no vestibule inside the doors The doors led directly into the nave, so ere just suddenly facing pews packed full of congregationour way

Bruce motioned for us to stay where ere, then walked wide around the pews up the side underneath the red and blue abstract stained glass s Where there should have been saints or the stations of the cross, or at a least a cross or two, there was nothing but the bare white walls I think that hy the church always looked unfinished to me, naked like the walls needed clothes

It&039;s never coroup of people unexpectedly To be on display, especially when it&039;s a potentially hostile group Zerbrowski had his sood-to-meet-you smile The one that I&039;d finally realized was his version of a blank face Marconi looked bored A lot of cops perfect that I&039;ve-seen-worse boredom after a few years on the force Smith&039;s face was all shiny with excite around at everything and totally not bothered by the staring crowd I guess et to see inside the Church of Eternal Life much, or see hundreds of vampires in one place at one time Hell, even I didn&039;t usually see that many at one time in one place

The first fes had had their look-see at us, but the glances spread upward frolances hispers, so it was like a wind h the room A wind that turned faces toward us, widened eyes, sent h the rooely empty altar area at the front of the church

Malcol at the white altar, but had already stepped out from behind it andman ca up to it hite The only color was a strip of blue cloth that hung in the back of the sanctuary A brilliant royal blue that htly in the central air, as if the cloth didn&039;t sit flat to the wall I wondered as behind the cloth It was the only thing that was different since I&039;d last been inside the building, so had been fire-bo extremists The attack hadn&039;t stopped the church The attack had gotten the Church of Eternal Life soe ever, and donations had flooded in froainst violence I&039;d seen what had been left when the fire depart here noould never have known there had ever been even a small fire in this white, white space, let alone a bomb

Malcolm spoke with Bruce at the side of the altar area I wasn&039;t at all surprised when he came down the wide main aisle between the pews Bruce trailed after hi you notice about Malcololdfinch feathers Three hundred plus years in the dark will do that to bright blond hair The next thing is, he&039;s tall, and almost painfully thin, so that he looks even taller than he truly is He earing a black suit tonight, modest cut, but thanks to Jean-Claude&039;s fashion sense, I knew that that si suit was tailored to that lean body, and probably cost more than most people make in a month The shirt was a blue that helped point out that his eyes were the blue of a robin&039;s eggs His tie was narrow and black with a silver tie bar, unadorned Up close once you can look past the hair and the eyes, Malcolles needed sether

The first tiht him beautiful, but with even one vampire mark onhis vah tohe allowed hiht him one of the most powerful vampires in St Louis once; now as he moved toward me, he see too well now for his power to creep overhands, which always see on a beefier body He held it out sort of in between Zerbrowski and e and didn&039;t want to offend anyone The last time I&039;d seen Malcolm he hadn&039;t offered to shake hands He&039;d knoouldn&039;t take it

Tonight, I took his hand, because Zerbroas only human, and whatever I was, only human didn&039;t cover it

Malcolm hesitated in the middle of the handshake, as if I&039;d surprised hi with pleasure at the opportunity to help the police It was a lie He didn&039;t want us here He certainly didn&039;t want aas our hands touched, except that he was cool, so he hadn&039;t fed recently Other than that, I felt nothing, because I was shielding I&039;d gotten really good at shielding lately I realized that I&039;d been shielding almost as hard as I could since Jean-Claude, Richard, and I had bound ourselves together in that bed It wasn&039;t just guilt that had made me afraid So Malcolm&039;s hand was just a hand, cooler than human normal, but just a hand Good

I think ould have been fine if Malcolm hadn&039;t tried a little va too ant Whatever, he pulsed a little power down his hand into ot an iirl in the apartment before I pushed back I was still a little fuzzy on the whole psychic thing I tend to overcompensate when I feel attacked Yeah, I know, of course I overcompensated It was so terribly rip on his hand kept him on his feet His eyes ide, his mouth open in a little O of surprise If he had just been some powerful vaht hiation, but he was theirI hadn&039;t guessed Every human in the church had a mentor, and I&039;d assu them over when the time came I knew the mentors took blood from their human trainees, but when push came to shove, Malcolht over most of those hundreds, personally Which h hih him and into the rest

It was as if I could suddenly touch theh him, and into their bodies I felt their pulses, some hearts, some wrists, sogish and oh, so slow So long, so long since some of them had fed as they were meant to feed He didn&039;t let theo to the clubs and take willing food there I saw an endless streain sacrifices, offering their necks Only taking a little blood, just enough blood, never enough to be satisfied, just enough not to die

I saw the thick viscous punch in the parish hall, and I knew that it contained just a little blood from at least three different vamps Malcolm made sure of that He didn&039;t want to accidentally blood oath them to someone else But he never used his own blood, for fear of what it would mean

Malcolm jerked away from me, but it was too late I didn&039;t need hi dark hair and glasses It was the first varabbed her chest, and I knehy Her heart was beating But I saw other things I saw that once she&039;d been huiven herself over, but it was a thing of chaste hands on her covered shoulders No one had ever held her close, gripped her against their bodies, fed so powerfully that her body bucked against the compared to it

"Stop it," Malcolo!"

I turned slowly to look at him, and whatever he saw in ave them to me," I said, and my voice had a slow, honeyed feel to it Power, such power I&039;d learned only last night that vampires could act as a sort of witch&039;s faht it needed to be a va I could feed on theiant undead battery

Zerbrowski cah even he shivered when he was close enough to whisper, "Anita, what&039;s happening?"

"He tried to use vampire powers to find out what I knew," I said in that sa you could hold in your mouth and suck, like candy Jean-Claude&039;s trick, and the thought was enough He was suddenly aware of , he needed to know He was the Master of the City, not Malcolm He had tolerated the treaty that the old master had made before her death, but noell, we&039;d see But that was for another night This night was about murder

"Are you hurt?" Zerbrowski asked He sounded like he didn&039;t think so, but knew so

"No," I said, "no, I&039;ht, if I can feel some of their emotions, if I can look into their faces and see ht, Avery, Avery, where are you? I felt an answer, like a sainst my face I turned toward that wind, and the left-hand side of pews "Avery, Avery, Avery" I spoke his na, but with force in it

A vaht, with short brown hair, and a face that was handsoal when they killed him

I held out my hand to him "Avery, come to me, come to me, Avery, coh the crowd of other people A hand grabbed his wrist, a huo"

He jerked away fro next toht, burning like brown glass in the sun, but the look on his face was one I&039;d only seen on humans Humans that were bespelled by vampires Humans that couldn&039;t say, no

Malcolm&039;s rich voice filled the roo her call She&039;s is the Master of the City&039;s whore She will corrupt our Avery"

I have to say the whore coer fill my voice "I&039;ll corrupt them? My God, you&039;ve ruined them all You stole their mortal lives, for what, Malcolm? For what?" I yelled the last, and the words held heat like the wind froreat fire

All those little vampires that were still held on the lines of my power cried out I&039;d hurt them, and I hadn&039;t meant to I tried to er waspeople But Jean-Claude was, in a way It was that old, old problem of his and his line of vampires If the only tool you have is a hain to look like nails If the only tools you have are seduction and terror, and you&039;re trying to be nice well, there you go

65

I could taste their pulses on ue Not just one, but hundreds, as if I&039;d suddenly had a truckload of candy shoved in my mouth Candy that was hard and sweet and ue, but it wasn&039;t just cherry, or grape, or root beer It was like a thousand different flavors filleddelicious, it was overwhel

I couldn&039;t pick one flavor, one pulse to follow I literally couldn&039;t pick just one, because I couldn&039;t sort the on too many choices Until I could choose one thread to follow, I couldn&039;t s any of the in a thousand different scents, different skins I could smell their skin, that wonderful smell at the side of the neck where the skin smells sweetest when you&039;re in love But it was a different scent for each neck: aftershave, perfune, soap, sweat It was as if I&039;d walked up to each of theh to kiss--and breathed in the scent of theun out, but not pointed at anyone, sort of ceilingward "Anita, what&039;s wrong? Did he hurt you?"

Who, I thought? Who was he? There were so many "hes" Which one did he mean?

I tried to s past all those pulses in et this bite down It was too much

Jean-Claude&039;s voice was in ed to think, "Can&039;t"

"Who did you go there to find?" he asked

Who did I go there to find? That was a good question Who? It all went back to who

Zerbrowski grabbed ?"

He needed me I saw Smith and Marconi both eapons drawn They needed me, because they couldn&039;t feel it I had to function, to think, to speak, or things were going to get out of hand I was a federal ht, I had to re that had been washed away in all that scent

Avery, I needed Avery I thought the naue His skin s expensive so that it was powdery and sweet, alood perfume, but underneath that eat He hadn&039;t showered tonight The thought made me wonder what else besides sweat he hadn&039;t washed away It was as if I was close to hiain, as if my face passed down his body just above his skin My breath arainst his skin and helped blow the scents back from his skin to my nose, my mouth I didn&039;t simply smell the scents down his body, I tasted them A faint taste, as if sned differently than ever before More intimately, somehow That part wasn&039;t Jean-Claude&039;s power, but Richard&039;s and I fought not to think of him, not to open the links between us farther than they were already I did not want Richard in ht now

Jean-Claude let me knoithout words, or if ords, it was too quick to register, like a kind of telepathic shorthand, that he would guard me from Richard He would not let me drown in still more sensation But it was thanks to closer ties with Richard that I could smell and taste my way down Avery&039;s body and enjoy it, or rather not be disgusted by it Wolves, like dogs, do not think of scent and taste as a hus Avery had had sex and hadn&039;t cleaned up afterward I wasn&039;t disturbed by that, more curious, because, thanks to Jean-Claude&039;s marks and my oer, I knew Avery was as neat and

Zerbrowski squeezed h to bruise "Anita, damn it, we can&039;t shoot him The warrant doesn&039;t have our name on it We&039;re not executioners Anita, wake up!"

I blinked at hi just on the other side of hiainst Avery&039;s chest Avery wasn&039;t doing anything threatening, just standing and trying to walk forward against the press of the gun He was trying to come to me His face wasn&039;t e, and so very present in his skin, but I&039;d called hiainst his heart hadn&039;t stopped that order

"Stop," I said

Avery stopped trying toHe stared down at iven you, but I didn&039;t mind I wanted to pull his shirt out of his pants and rub his skin along e that ood, and I could carry the scent with me and explore it at s collect scents the way people collect rocks or houseplants--just because they like them, and they think they&039;re pretty Some smells just make you happy like a favorite color; the fact that sweat and stale sex was "pretty" to that part of me that was Richard was a puzzle for another day Now, I just tried not to question it too closely and not to do physically what I&039;d already done ht, Zerbrowski" But my voice was distant and lazy with power That I couldn&039;t help, but when he pulled me to my feet, I was able to stand Yea for me I took a step forward and said, "It&039;s okay, Marconi, I told him to come to me"

Marconi had a funny look on his face "Not out loud you didn&039;t"

I shrugged "Sorry about that" But I wasn&039;t looking at Marconi, I was looking at Avery I was looking at hiaze on a lover, but it was all tied up with food, and s trouble processing them I wanted to scent mark him He was mine I wanted to wrap his scent on my body and think about those smells and what they raph of a murder scene I could carry it around and "look" at it over and over again, think about it The sense of smell had jumped from somewhere near the botto that kept it lower than sight was that I was too much a priuns," Zerbrowski said, "welcome to the orld of weird vampire shit" He didn&039;t sound happy, but I didn&039;t look to see what face ith the tone, because that would haveaway from Avery, and I didn&039;t want to do that

He was a little clean-cut for my taste His hair was a soft, randfather would cut it The one out of style for fifty years His eyes matched his hair--a soft brown His eyebroere darker than his hair and arched in that way that men&039;s eyebroill, perfectly, while most women have to pluck for that line above the eye He didn&039;t have enough eyelashes, but they seemed thicker than they were because they were dark His face was a soft oval, only the dark scattering of beard stubble saving hier than he was He was alh I wasn&039;t sure why Everything about hi too bad happen to hi that was soft and undramatic; it was him He had that flavor in my head of soet to be a vaot sadness from him, but he didn&039;t feel like someone who had just killed a wo? Or had he not been the only vampire in that spotless apartment?

Avery stood in front of me with a look that was sad, so sad Did he know? Had he done it?

There was a knock on the church doors The sound startled all of us, I think You just didn&039;t knock on the doors of a church You came in, or you didn&039;t, but you didn&039;t knock A voice called, "Sergeant Zerbrowski?"

Zerbroent to the door and peeked out When he cah the door, he had a piece of paper in his hand It was thicker than it used to be, but s that would keepfor Avery&039;s health

Zerbrowski ca out the paper I opened it up and read it, though I already knehat it was It was my warrant of execution The days when any va the warrant first were past, but I&039;d gotten cautious sooner than some I&039;d also never been successfully sued One of our fellow hunters was still in prison for doing his job before the paperwork cah Everyone orked with me knew that without this little piece of paper, there was no vampire hunt With it, I had almost carte blanche