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Chapter Thirty-five

REQUIEM DIDN&039;T EVEN turn around He just said, "Leave us" But he said it in that "voice," that power-ridden voice that some vamps have That voice that was supposed to bespell and bemuse

I saw the flare of Dolph&039;s cross around his neck It made a halo around Requiem&039;s body I could see Dolph over Requieht inches on the six-foot-tall vampire I didn&039;t like the look on Dolph&039;s face

"He&039;s uys have him bespelled" My voice held more fear now than it had when I&039;d called for Graham The look on Dolph&039;s face made me afraid

"One vampire can&039;t bespell another," Dolph said I saw his arms move, and knew before he moved around the vaun He moved so that if he had to shoot, he wouldn&039;t risk ht - after all, the va bad wasn&039;t actually in the room

"These va controlled by one of the bad guys"

"Is that what is happening to me?" Requiem asked, and he looked confused

"He&039;s a vauy"

"They&039;re brainwashing you, Requiem," I said, and reached out to hiun up and pointed

Requiem&039;s hand closed over mine; his skin was cool to the touch, as if he hadn&039;t fed But he had fed; I&039;d felt his power "If you shoot him now, like this, it&039;s " I drew a breath of ently If I had a repeat of being thrown across the room by metaphysics, I was afraid Dolph would blame Requiehtwithwith you, and with Requie with you both"

"I&039;htaboutthem?"

I was too scared to be insulted "Listen to yourself, Dolph, please They are hts" I traced my power over Requiem, as delicate a brush of power as I&039;d ever attempted I felt the power, and I knew the taste of it It was Mercia If we all survived, I&039;d ask Edward how he host; her poithdrew before ave him up and left Maybe she didn&039;t want to risk anotherthe rail, and

"Get away froone, Dolph," I said

Requiem said, "Give me but a moment and I will do as you ask, officer I am unwell" He kept his face averted fro soft and steady It wasn&039;t glowing because of Requieh the door Olaf loo on?"

"This va to mind-fuck er to it like a fuse waiting to be lit He was holding a two-handed shooting stance; the gun looked strangely small in his hands

"Anita," Edward called

"Requie with him, but it&039;s over"

"Lieutenant Storr, we don&039;t have a warrant of execution on this vampire Kill hiood-ol&039;-boy best, apologetic, soht it was a shame, too, that they couldn&039;t just kill all the vampires, but shucks, it just didn&039;t work that way

Edward and Olaf eased into the rooone for a weapon There was already one too uns in this room I had an idea

"Dolph, this vampire s stronger You hate va Requie that"

"There&039;s nothing wrong with me," Dolph said

"You&039;re about to shoot an unarood-ol&039;-boy voice "Is that a good thing, Lieutenant, or a bad thing?"

Dolph frowned, and the tip of the gun wavered "He&039;s not a civilian"

"Well, now," Edward said, "I agree with you, but legally he&039;s a citizen with rights You kill hio down for killing one of the the law? Lose your badge saving some innocent human from a bloodsucker about to munch on &039;em That&039;d be satisfyin&039;" Edward&039;s down-ho deeper into the room He waved Olaf to stay near the door, then crept closer to Dolph

Dolph didn&039;t see, as if he were listening to things I couldn&039;t hear His cross kept up a steady white light He shook his head as if trying to chase off soun pointed at the floor, and he looked up The cross faded, but it had never had the light it should have for such an attack It was almost as if whatever Mercia&039;s poere, they somehow didn&039;t set off holy objects as much as they should have Dolph looked first at Edward "I&039;m okay now, Marshal Forrester"

Edward, with Ted&039;s s face, said, "If you don&039;t mind, Lieutenant, I&039;d feel better if you came out of the rooun and handed it butt first to Edward Edward let his face show surprise I didn&039;t try to hide the shock I felt No cop gives up his gun voluntarily, least of all Dolph Edward took the gun "You still not feelin&039; okay, Lieutenant Storr?"

"I&039;et past ain I almost shot him" He jerked a thumb in Requiem&039;s direction "I want to talk to Marshal Blake alone"

Edward gave him all the doubt on his face, and said, "I&039;ood idea, Lieutenant"

Dolph looked at me "We need to talk"

"Not alone," Requiem said

Dolph didn&039;t even look at hiry eyes on me "Anita"

"Dolph, this bad vamp wants me dead Even unarmed you outmuscle me I&039;d rather we had coer at Requiem "Not him"

"Fine, but someone"

He looked at Edward "You seem to feel like I do about the," Edward said, and the good ol&039; boy was starting to fray around the edges

"Fine, you stay" He looked at Olaf and the people in the hallway beyond "Just thelow to Olaf, who nodded He started to close the door

Dolph said, "No, the vampire leaves, too"

"His name&039;s Requieavestar; he hates what I aave it a kiss, then picked up his cloak from the floor and moved toward the door

He stopped closer to the door and Edward, away fro I listen; and, for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death, Call&039;d him soft names inone cold

"Not you," I said "I don&039;t think he was threatening you"

"Then what did heKeats &039;Ode to a Nightingale,&039; I think," I said

Requie it al at aze I met it, but it took effort

"I don&039;t care what he&039;s quoting, Anita I want to knohat heRequieuess, is that he&039;s half-wishing you&039;d pulled the trigger"

Requie his cloak as part of the theatre of it It was a lovely, graceful show of body, hair, and all of hiht, and my stomach jump My stomach didn&039;t like that, and I winced

Requieave me the full force of that handsos and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried, &039;La Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!&039; "

Dolph looked at lided out the door all black cloak and melancholy Dolph looked back at me "I don&039;t think he likes you very much"

"I don&039;t think that&039;s the problem," I said

"He wants to pick out curtains," Edward said from where he was slouched beside the door He only slouched when he was pretending to be Ted Forrester

"So hiave him the look the question deserved "That is none of your damn business"

"That&039;s a yes," he said, and his face was taking on that look, that disapproving look

I glared at hilare in a hospital bed hooked up to tubes It always h when you&039;re feeling weak "I said what I et defensive when the answer&039;s yes," he said The disapproving look was sliding into his angry look

"My answer&039;s always defensive when so if I&039; polite about it It&039;s still none of your business, but I ly about it"

He took in a lot of air, which with his chest was a whole lot, and let it out very slowly Olaf was taller, but Dolph was bigger, beefier, built like an old-style wrestler before they all went to heavy bodybuilding He actually closed his eyes and took another breath He let that out and nodded "You&039;re right You are right"

"Glad to hear it," I said

"Are you dating hi him, yes"

"What do you do on dates with a vampire?" It see topissy

"Pretty uy, except the hickeys are really spectacular"

It took him a second, and then he stared at hed and shook his head "I hate that you date thethem I think it compromises you, Anita I think it makes you have to choose where your loyalties lie, and I don&039;t think us mere humans alin the coin toss"

I nodded and found that it didn&039;t hurt my stomach to do it Had I healed ? "I&039;m sorry that&039;s how you feel"

"You aren&039;t going to deny it?"

"I&039;ry and defensive You&039;re being reasonable about your feelings, so I&039;ll be reasonable back I don&039;t shortchange the humans, Dolph I do a lot to ht andand the dead, the furry and the not-so-furry"

"I hear you&039;re still dating that junior high teacher, Richard Zee not to act tense about it To e the police didn&039;t know Richard was a olf Was his secret identity about to be revealed? I rubbed ive my eyes somewhere else to look and hoped that any tension in my body would be attributed to the wounds Hoped

"I asked you once if you were dating any huht not to look too relaxed, or too tense This was Richard&039;s world I was playing with "You probably asked during one of our many breakups We&039;re pretty on and off"

"Why?"

"Why all the questions about erous vampire out there to catch"

"To kill," he said

I nodded "To kill, so why all the questions about who I&039;?"

"Why don&039;t you want to answer questions about Mr Zeeround Dolph hated the ed to a va her as undead It had o froerous Did he know about Richard, or suspect?

"Truthfully, Richard ho I thought I&039;d spend my life with, and the fact that we see breakup still hurts, okay?"

He gavethe lie "What changed?"

I thought about how to answer that The first time we&039;d broken up had been after I saw Richard eat soot to have standards Or that&039;s what I thought at the tiain, would I have made a different choice? Maybe

Dolph was beside the bed now "Anita, what changed?"

"Me," I said softly, "I changed We broke up, and I started dating Jean-Claude I went back and forth between them for a while, and finally Richard just couldn&039;t takeSo he decided for us, for me If I couldn&039;t choose, he&039;d take away one of my choices"

"He didn&039;t want to share you"

"No"

"But he&039;s dating you again, now"

"So

Edward must not have liked it either, because he interrupted "Not that this isn&039;t fascinating, Lieutenant, but we still have a very powerful vamp out there She&039;s killed, or helped kill, at least toaret Ross" I think he used their na that "Shouldn&039;t we be concentrating on catching the bad va the marshal here about her dates?" He said it all with a smile and a face full of down-home charm I would never be the actor that Edas, but damn there were moments when I wished I could be

"How did you e not to catch both of the vampires in the hotel roo, Dolph would let the other topic go

Edward did his "aw, shucks" look, like he was embarrassed The reaction wasn&039;t his, but maybe the eet He came to stand by the head of the bed

One, so I could see him around Dolph&039;s broad build, but two, I think, so Dolph wouldn&039;t be able to scrutinize ot to the hotel room there was only one vaot there, but we took her head and heart, just like we&039;re supposed to I know that dead doesn&039;t always uys"

"That must have been Nivia"

"How did you know her name?" Dolph asked

I opened my mouth, closed it, and said, "An informant"

"Who, Anita?" he said

I shook my head "Don&039;t ask, and I won&039;t have to lie to you"

"You have someone who knowstheet to do the interrogation"

"It wasn&039;t like that"

"You&039;re good at your job, Anita, but you&039;re not a better cop than I am, or Zerbrowski is"

"I never said I was"

"But you exclude us You keep secrets from us"

"Yeah, just like you keep them from me I know you don&039;t call me in all the time anymore You don&039;t trust me"

"Do you trust me?" he asked

"I trust you, Dolph, but I don&039;t trust the hate in you"

"I don&039;t hate you, Anita"

"No, but you hate some of the people I love, and that makes it hard, Dolph"

"I&039;ve never hurt any of your boyfriends"

"No, but you hate the what they are, who they are You&039;re like an old-time racist, Dolph; your hate blinds you"

He looked down, took another deep breath "I&039;ve been to the co with" He looked at Edward, who looked innocently back at him

"Your fao into details

He nodded

"I&039;ed What was I supposed to say, that his wife, Lucille, had been frantic, afraid for hies had trashed a room or two of their house, ation room with me in it, once He&039;dhis badge, if he didn&039;t get a grip

"She said you&039;ve been helpful about it Her"

I nodded If Edward hadn&039;t been in the roolad I could help"

"I will never be okay with you dating theas you don&039;t let it rain all over police business"

"Fine, police business" He glanced at Edward, then reached into his suit coat and got out his notebook "What killed the vampire in the hotel room?"

"When her animal to call died, the master didn&039;t survive it It happens like that sometimes: kill one and they all die"

"The police have killed wereani vampire lairs, and the master vampire didn&039;t die"

"Most master vamps have an animal that they can control, but the phrase &039;an animal to call&039; means it&039;s the furry equivalent of a hu a vampire because of ht that once, too, but a human servant is more than that It&039;s a human with a preternatural connection, a mystical connection, with the vampire Sometimes the vampire survives the death of its servant, but the servant usually doesn&039;t survive the death of the vampire I&039;ve also seen the body survive, but the human servant driven crazy by theabilities that it shouldn&039;t have had It was al The lycanthropy healing, and the rotting vah off bullets, even silver"

"I thought you just woke up?" Dolph said

"I did"

"How did you know she rotted?"

"I didn&039;t, but her ani vampire, so I assumed she was one of them But even if she was, her animal to call should not have had that close a tie with the vampire&039;s powers It&039;s unusual, very unusual, as if the tie between master and servant was closer even than normal"

"She started to rot as soon as we took her head," Edward said

"Ol Otto must have been disappointed," I said

"He was, but at least they don&039;t smell like they look Why is that?" Edward asked "Not co,corpse?"

"I don&039;t know, I thinkIt&039;s like they, the va, then stopped The smell is fro, then no decoed "Truthfully, that&039;s just theory I don&039;t know for sure I don&039;t think I&039;ve seen more than a handful of them It doesn&039;t seem to be a common type of vamp, at least not in this country"

"They&039;re all rotting corpses, Anita," Dolph said

"No," I said, and met his eyes just fine, "no, they aren&039;t Most va like that, they are well and truly dead But the rotting ones can actually rot around you, then sort of heal the dead to looking normal"

"Normal," Dolph said, and made a sound

"Normal as they started," I said I turned to Edward "Do we knohere the other vamp went?"

Dolph answered, "We know that a white male, late twenties, early thirties, brown hair, cut short, jeans, jean jacket, carried a large duffel bag out to his car and drove ahile two uniforms watched"

"They watched," I said

"Civilians who saw the incident said the h his notebook, then read - " &039;You&039;re going to let o to my car, aren&039;t you?&039; The policemen replied, &039;Yes, we are&039; "

"Shit, he pulled an Obi-Wan," I said

"What?" Edward and Dolph said together

"You know, from Star Wars, &039;These are not the droids you&039;re looking for&039;"

Edward grinned "Yeah, while Otto and I were taking the other vampire apart, the man pulled an Obi-Wan"

"He had to do it to several officers, or some version of it," Dolph said "By the tiht daylight wasn&039;t good for va My guess, and it&039;s only a guess, is that as the weretiger shared herability, so the human servant of this other one shared herlike it, but it makes sense If I think of another theory that makes more sense, I&039;ll let you know"

"How did you know they would be at the hotel, Anita?" Dolph asked

"I told you, an informant"

"Was the informant a vampire?"

"No," I said

"No," he said

"No," I said

"Was the infor you the name, so it doesn&039;t matter, does it?"

"How many vampires are involved with these murders?"

"Two that I&039;m sure of"

"How close is your tie to your master, Anita?"

"What?" I just stared at hier in his eyes, just a demand He repeated the question

My pulse was in my throat, and I couldn&039;t help it My voice was al to catch these bastards, or are you going to go back to obsessing on how up close and personal I am with the vampires? I&039;m sorry that I&039;ve disappointed you, Dolph I&039;m sorry that you disapprove of round We have injured people Can we please, please, concentrate on that instead of your obsession with my love life?"

He blinked, slow, over those cool cop eyes "Fine, how did Peter Black get injured, and who exactly is he?"

I looked at Edward, because I had no idea what story he&039;d come up with I doubted the truth, the whole truth, had been involved

"Now, Lieutenant," Edward said, "I told you all this"

"I want to hear Anita&039;s version"

"My version, like you know it&039;s a version and not the truth," I said

"I don&039;t think you&039;ve toldthat bloodsucking son of a bitch"

"Politically, that bloodsucking son of a bitch is the Master of the City"

"Is he your master, Anita?"

"What?"

"Are you the human servant of the Master of this City?"

I&039;d outed myself once in front of Detective Smith I&039;d done it to save the life of a vampire Good Samaritan Apparently Smith hadn&039;t ratted me out I owed him a beer

I needed a ave me that moment "You know, Lieutenant, your persistent interest in Marshal Blake&039;s personal life is a little disturbing Especially as it seeation and capture of a double nored him and kept those cool cop eyes on ra Jean-Claude&039;s huht have just said yes, but I wasn&039;t sure, so I had to lie, or distract him "You know, Dolph, I&039;ve tried to be professional here, but you&039;ve asked me if I&039;ve fucked someone, you&039;ve persistently asked personal and sexual questions Did you miss the day they covered sexual harass to hi to anyone, Dolph I&039; some of them away Requiem wants to own me; that&039;s the vampire who just left, if you didn&039;t catch his name I don&039;t want to be owned, not by anybody Jean-Claude understands that better than any human I ever dated Maybe that&039;s what your son sees in his fiancee, Dolph Maybe she understands him in ways you never will" That last was mean, and meant to be, but we had to end this conversation

"You leave my family out of this" His voice was low and careful

"I will if you will Your obsession with vaot engaged to a vampire It&039;s not my fault I didn&039;t introduce them I didn&039;t even know he&039;d done it, until you told me"

"The Master of the City knew He just didn&039;t tell you," Dolph said

"Is that what you&039;ve been thinking, that Jean-Claude somehow sicced a vampire on your son, so she&039;d seduce hiave me a look "You&039;re not the only vampire hunter in this country now, Anita You&039;re not even the only one with a badge They tell me that the Master of the City has absolute authority That no local va without permission"

"If only that were true, but your son&039;s fiancee belongs to the Church of Eternal Life She&039;s Malcolht now, not Jean-Claude&039;s The Church of Eternal Life is its own little universe in vampireland Frankly, the other vamps are a little puzzled on how to deal with the Church when itsa policeman&039;s son"

"Why was it stupid?"

"Because most police still hate the vampires It&039;s just better policy to leave the cops alone if you can None of Jean-Claude&039;s va"

"He&039;s gone near you," Dolph said

"I wasn&039;t officially a cop e started dating"

"No, you were a vampire executioner He shouldn&039;t have coo near him"

"Who I date is not your business, Dolph"

"It is if it affects how you do your job"

"I do my job better because I&039;led to sit up a little, tired of hiht, but it didn&039;t hurt "You count onmore about the monsters Hell, every cop that co more about the monsters than they do How the hell do you think I found all that out? By keeping the the to people who treat them like shit They don&039;t volunteer information to people they know hate them If you want someone&039;s help you have to reach out to them"

"How many have you reached out to, Anita?" Such innocent words, but he h so I could help you every time you called"

He closed his eyes then, balled his fist around his notebook until so in it ripped "If I&039;d left you where I found you, raising the dead, Jean-Claude would never have met you You went into his club on police business the first time On my business" He opened his eyes and there was such pain in them

I reached out to touch his arm, but he moved back, out of reach "We did our jobs, Dolph"

"When you look in the h, Anita? At the end of the day, is that enough, that we do our jobs?"

"Sometimes, sometimes not"

"Are you a lycanthrope?"

"No," I said

"Your blood work says different"

"My blood work is puzzling the hell out of the lab, and it&039;ll puzzle the hell out of any lab you send it to"

"You know you&039;re carrying lycanthropy"

"Yeah, I&039; four different kinds of lycanthropy"

"You knew"

"I found out when I ended up in the hospital in Philadelphia, after that zombie case with the FBI"

"You didn&039;t mention it to anyone here"

"You hatedit" - I spread my hands - "I couldn&039;t depend on how you&039;d react"

He nodded "You&039;re right You were right not to tell me, but you could have told Zerbrowski or someone"

"It doesn&039;t affect ot a disease that I&039;m mostly asymptomatic for It&039;s no one&039;s business unless it impacts the job" In my head I wondered ould happen if the alot out of control on a case That would be bad I al else thatable to do my police work

"Anita, did you hear what I said?"

"I&039;m sorry, no, I didn&039;t"

"I said, how do you know it doesn&039;t affect the job? How do you know that your ties to the monsters don&039;t color your choices?"

"I&039;m tired, Dolph I&039;ht of that before? I was in a hospital, I could have just cried hurt Daht

He uncrumpled his notebook, tried to smooth it out as best he could He tried to fit it back in his suit pocket, but he&039;d daed it so bad it wouldn&039;t fit He finally just took it in his hand "I&039;ll want to talk to you when you&039;ve rested There coh secrets froin to wonder where your loyalties lie"

"Get out, Dolph, just go"

"But he gets to stay," and he pointed at Edward

"He hasn&039;t insultedbut professional"

"I guess I deserve that" He see else He held his hand out Edward hesitated, then gave Dolph back his gun Dolph just left, closing the door softly behind hiun and aited a few seconds, then looked at each other "You are not going to be able to avoid answering hi, Anita"

"I know"

"It&039;s not just you that&039;s going to be in trouble"

I nodded "Richard"

"He was hinting"

"If he knew, he&039;d do more than hint"