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THE ROOM LOOKED like a set for a slasher flick, with dirty walls; pale paint that ht have started as white had flaked away from the bricks, so that the paint debris lay at the base of the walls as if so had clawed at the walls The question was, had it been clawing to get in, or get out? There see underfoot, clinging to the walls, and coating the huge pillars that decorated the roo There were a fes very high up, al, but they were sht, let alone for escape The roo with only a handful of police and twotheir AR rifles at ease, but strangely ready, too, that combat ready, so that "at ease" is never really the truth I nodded to theht nod back The two uniforht ahead, their cross-shaped tie tacks visible Once the police officers had a reasonable fear for their lives, as in dead policeetting shit about the an implied threat to the prisoner

Zerbrowski had picked the vament, but it wouldn&039;t have been the prisoner I would have chosen The vampire was one of the ones that looked like she should be asking Chad to go to the junior high dance She was thin, body barely starting to have a figure, hands small and very childlike Her yellow hair was cut short and badly, in one of those feathered cuts that were popular somewhere in the seventies, but her hair was too thick for the cut, so that it didn&039;t quite work Did she know the haircut looked bad on her, that it made her thin face look even thinner, more childlike, rather than less? If she did, why didn&039;t she cut it? Because if she was like row her hair out; once cut, it would never grow longer again She was dead, frozen forever at that point Her als had stopped at one of the rowth spurt, and the legs and arly and your balance is bad, and that was it - forever

Jean-Claude and sorow their hair out, but I&039;d learned just a few h to do it He was the Master of the City of St Louis, which meant his power helped all the vampires blood-oathed to him in his territory rise at dusk His will, his power; and with his death soain, or that was the theory I kneo vampires that had killed the head of their bloodline and survived I&039;d been told that Jean-Claude took power from his lesser vampires and shared it with those he valued The person who told me had been an enemy, but still I had asked him about it His answer, "I am Master of the City, ma petite; that comes with a certain amount of power"

"You told row your hair out forhair, but Asher&039;s hair is longer, too, and the vay poith them, too?"

"Oui"

"Do you take it froain power from every vampire that is mine, but I do not steal frorow a single hair upon their heads, or add an ounce of e their level of power, but I gain froain with those I choose to"

So, like a lot of things about vairl vampire prisoner&039;s name was Shelby, and she wasn&039;t one of Jean-Claude&039;s chosen few; she was like most vampires stuck with how she&039;d died - she&039;d been about fourteen, a young, skinny, barely adolescent girl None of the new ular cuffs, chained to her waist, but none of the ankle shackles fit her She was just too sth to pop the chains, just as the one back at the police station had done, but his body had been six feet of ile-looking young girl I was hoping that th to break free, especially since I was about to scare her within an inch of her undead life

She watched e eyes, fear plain in them The older vampires could hide almost any emotion behind centuries of practice, but when you&039;re only about thirty years dead, you&039;re just like soe, except you&039;re dead and trapped in the body you wanted to leave behind in junior high Being a va abilities Just like it didn&039;t give you instant reat in bed - that cae ainedundead, orto her pitiful exterior, and the first chance she got she&039;d kill us all? Maybe One of the scariest vairl - she&039;d been a monster and over a thousand years old

Urlrich had co, the one I kept for more official executions When I was on a vampire hunt I killed them any way I could, and didn&039;t worry about theproperty that belongs to a taxpaying citizen, we have tofolded tarp with its one plastic-coated side Urlrich helped me spread it on the floor

Shelby the vampire whispered, "Please, don&039;t"; the soft words echoed in the big rooreat acoustics for screa out the stuff that the law said vampire executioners had to carry but I almost never used Since thethe witness/suspect, the contents of the bag were great visuals The stakes were first They were in a plastic carrier that folded over and tied; each of the six stakes had a slot where it rode so it wasn&039;t rattling around in the bag stabbing ed around in it I unfolded the plastic and took each stake out, laying them bare on the plastic in a sinister row of very pointy bits I al, but the ones I carried were very sharp hard wood, because if I did need theood as your equipood

The girl vampire whimpered, and said, "You can&039;t do this I haven&039;t hurt anyone"

"Tell that to the officers your friends killed," I said

She looked up at the unifor her small hands as far as the waist shackle would allow "Please, I didn&039;t know they would kill anyone We would have brought the girl over, but she wanted to be a vaot scared"

"Who&039;s we?" I asked

She looked atthe color to an alray "No," she whispered

"No, what?" I asked, and drew out a slender black leather cover It was tied closed like the stakes carrier had been I untied it and slowly, lovingly, unwrapped a shiny silver hand saw, the kind they used in surgery for amputations I&039;d tried to use it once, and hadn&039;t liked the feel and sound of the blade on the spine It was supposed tothe bodies easier, and the law said I had to carry it I&039;d never used it for taking the head off a vaht of it irl vampire screa her lips under, biting on the out The autoesture made me wonder what her undead life had been like, and how one into it She&039;d died when vaal in this country, able to be killed on sight, by anyone, just for being undead, so she&039;d had to hide for decades It&039;s hard to hide as a child vampire; you usually need an adult to help you pretend What price had she paid for that pretending?

Did I feel sorry for her? Yes Would it change what I was about to do? No The days whenpast Now, if s affected my job it was more serious, but happened less often

Urlrich knelt down besidehis equipment belt to one side He favored one knee as if it were stiff He spoke low "I&039;ht I would"

"She can hear you," I said

He looked startled, then glanced at the girl and back at ood?"

I nodded and drew out a clear plastic jar of pink rosebuds and red petals, all dried and ready to be made into potpourri

"Roses, what&039;s that for?" he asked

"To stuff in the arlic in a vampire&039;s arlicsmell, and the roses don&039;t, and they both work just as well" What I didn&039;t say out loud was that I&039;d never stuffed a piece of anything into a decapitated vampire head, or into a dead vaht burn the body parts separately and throw the ashes into different bodies of running water if the vamp was really old, or really powerful, but as far as I could tell the whole stuffing-crap-in-the- frorave The powers that be had added it as a step in theI&039;d come up as that it was quicker and less arlic, or roses, in the mouth than to stake them Maybe, if you were close to dawn, the vaot the plants out of their mouth, or maybe they&039;d choke? I had no idea, but as far as I knew it didn&039;t do anything metaphysical to the bodies of vampires But it did make the vampire in the room with us start to cry

Urlrich leaned in and whispered, "She&039;s the age of hter"

"No, she looks like she&039;s the age of your granddaughter, but she&039;s really the age of one of your children if they&039;re in their thirties, and she can still hear you"

He glanced at her again

I heard the chains rattle, and she said, "Please, please, help me I didn&039;t know they would kill them I was too small to stop them, too weak I&039;m always too weak"

Urlrich went very still as he knelt beside me I poked him in the shoulder; when that didn&039;t make him move, I punched him in the shoulder It moved his body, made him almost fall

"What the hell, Blake?"

"You were looking in her eyes, Urlrich; she was fucking with you"

The two SWAT teareen light, Blake, just say the word," Baxter said

"Not yet," I said I knew that Baxter had said it out loud to help spook the vampire, but I also kneas true A US Marshal with an active warrant of execution was a walking green-light zone for SWAT Give the word, it was a clean shoot

Urlrich looked at htful look on his face "Shit, I was thinking about hter and how much she looks like her, but she doesn&039;t My kiddo is dark-haired and younger, but for just a hter&039;s, as if she were her" There was just the edge of fear in his eyes when he looked at me then "Jesus, Blake, that fast, she mind-rolled me that fast?"

"It can happen, especially if the varanddaughter about the sae"

One of the uniforlow if she uses vah power, or ai to you, and she ave her my full eye contact, because I didn&039;t have to be afraid of a vampire as weak as this one, not just with mind tricks anyway "Very nice; I bet that pitiful act works for you alrown-up to protect you, or feed on"

Her thin little face went sullen, and there it was in those gray eyes, theout This was the truth, this hat had lived for more than thirty years, and fed on humans back when if her blood donors went to the authorities, she&039;d be hunted down and killed I didn&039;t think she was strong enough to wipe their minds clean; her only other option would have been to take blood and eventually kill theive her away Most child vah to make humans into vampires

"How many humans have you killed, not for food, but to keep the on you? How many have you fed on and then killed to keep your secret?"

"I didn&039;t ask to be a vampire," she said "I didn&039;t ask to be trapped like this The vaht me over was a pedophile, and he made me into his perfect victim forever"

"How many years did it take for you to kill hih to kill him," she said, and the voice was still a child&039;s, but the tone, the edge of force, that wasn&039;t childlike at all

"But you manipulated someone else to do it for you, didn&039;t you?"

"They wanted to save me from him, and I wanted to be saved You have no idea what it was like"

I sighed "You&039;re not the first child vaht over by a pedophile"

"He deserved to die," she said

I nodded "No arguments"

"Then please, don&039;t hurt me I don&039;t want to be hurt any eyes of hers

"You&039;re good," I said, "I thought you couldn&039;t act well enough to hide your fear, but you wanted me to see it You wanted everyone to see it I should have thought that in that body you&039;d have to be a "

"Tears and pity are all I have, all I&039;ve ever had to protectfor the door "I can&039;t watch this, it&039;s too close to home"

"Go, check on your partner, and remember she&039;d kill you as soon as look at you"

"I wouldn&039;t," she protested

I looked her in the face "Liar"

She hissed at ht she was a little girl anylow that o all vaive us clues before she went apeshit

"Blake?" Murdock said, settling his rifle very still against his shoulder; his partner followed suit

"Stop, or we shoot you in the heart, and the head, right now"

"Better a quick death than stuffed full of flowers and beheaded"

"None of this is for you, Shelby It&039;s for the bodies"

The glow began to leak out of her eyes "What bodies?"

"The dead vampires; you knoe have to take the head and heart once a varave"

"Why show me all this, then?"

"Help us find the ones who did the killing and et executed with theain, when you could have helped us stop it" I motioned at the stakes "This will be for you"

"If I tell you where they are, they&039;ll kill me"

"Not if I kill them first, Shelby I&039;ll have a whole team of SWAT with me; ill kill theain"

"Someone else will bully me; I&039;m too weak"

"Join the Church of Eternal Life; they have foster groups for child vaal, and you can go to college, hold a job, and have a life"

"To join the Church I have to drink the blood of your master, and then he&039;ll own me I don&039;t want to be anyone&039;s slave"

"The blood oath is to keep va Master of the City can keep his followers froer"

"He&039;s too powerful, and so are you, Anita Blake! It&039;s not like a blood oath to a regular Master of the City; you lose your will You turn us into hu our beautiful leader and his blood whore!"

I smiled "Sticks and stones, Shelby; call me all the names you want, but you watched two hu to stop it Under the law you&039;re just as guilty as the vas into them, and you will be executed for it Help us find theh, and live"

"I&039;m already dead, Anita Blake"

"No, no you&039;re not You&039;re alive You walk, you talk, you think, you&039;re still you - undead isn&039;t the sa as dead" I went to the door, opened it, and said, "Bring it in" Two officers brought a black plastic - wrapped body The face was pale and still showing It was the vairl I&039;d shot hiet to finish the job

"Lay it down in the middle of the tarp," I said

The two officers laid the body dohere I directed One of them half stumbled, and an arm flopped out of the plastic, liasped, and I thought that one enuine

I unrolled the plastic and looked down at the dead vampire The wounds in his upper and es, but the blood was still red enough that it had darkened his button-down shirt to shades of crimson, brown, and then the last color ofsleep, but a dead body doesn&039;t act like it&039;s asleep; even the unconscious don&039;t have the loose-boned fall of the freshly dead Soor ih for that; he was just like any dead body that was less than two hours old, though the blood wouldn&039;t pool in the body as it did in a human

"This is dead, Shelby; whatever you are, it&039;s not this"

I got the coveralls out of the other bag, the one that held the equipovernovernment didn&039;t tellthe laws had never had to do my job They&039;d never found out how much blood and mess comes out of a body when you remove its head and heart Until you&039;ve been covered in that ore, you just don&039;t understand Coveralls kept the dry-cleaning bills down and helped ht There&039;s only so ernails before you start going all Lady Macbeth and stop believing the blood is ever gone

I braided ht me to do With my curls it would never be as neat a braid as his, but it th hair into a skullcap I&039;d tried the disposable plastic shower caps, but I was just vain enough that I&039;d started to use the cheap skullcap hats; they were more expensive than the shower caps, but they looked less dorky It was harder to tuck my hair under the cap, but the black cap looked ht that counted

Shelby said, "Why are you putting your hair up?"

"Got tired of cleaning bits of people out of my hair"

"Bits of people" She said it low, like she was testing out the phrase

"Yep," I said I slid the plastic booties overup on one foot, and I didn&039;t track pieces of my work home with me I still hadn&039;t heard the end of the time I had a piece of brain matter stuck to one shoe and didn&039;t notice until I alking across the living rooht, honestly, I didn&039;t notice at all Micah noticed, and Nathaniel said he had no idea how to clean brains out of carpeting, so please don&039;t get it on the carpet But it was Sin&039;s reaction that er, noAsher had totally backed Sin, and thought it was beyond the pale He was the only vampire that complained I pointed out that with their all-liquid diet, they didn&039;t have to worry about stuff like this; the wereanimals did, so they could bitch Asher had said, "I don&039;t have to eat flesh to not want brain matter in the carpet" I&039;d called him a pussy, but I&039;d thrown the shoes out

There was another leather fold, tied tight so it wouldn&039;t shift in transport, but this one didn&039;t have wooden stakes in it I untied the leather thong, laid it on the ground beside the stakes, and undid the flap Blades glea softly silver They were knives that Fredo, one of our lead bodyguards and a member of the local wererat rodere, had helped me pick out after I&039;d borrowed one of his knives to cut out a vampire&039;s heart, because his knife collection was better Fredo liked knives the way Edward liked guns Fredo taught knife-fighting classes to the guards, and I took the class whenever I could

I took out a blade andit lie across ertip I loved the balance of this knife, but balance for fighting wasn&039;t always the best balance for carving someone&039;s heart out of their chest

"What are you going to do with that?" the vahtened voice

I didn&039;t bother looking at her as I answered, "You knohat I&039; to do with it" I slid the knife back into its leather ho to balance this one on ertips, because it didn&039;t balance that way I was never going to try to throw this one, and if I had to fight a "living" target with it, then things would have gone so pear-shaped I wouldn&039;t have to worry about how balanced ain

I put the blade on top of the leather, so that the vae glea one more time, and came out with a pair of paraloves

"What is that?" The vampire whispered it The tone of fear in her voice made me look at her Her face was pinched, and strained, not with vampire powers but simple fear If you&039;ve never seen a pair of the scissors, they are a little odd-looking, and you ht think they were some sort of metal cutters, or pointy pliers She didn&039;t knohat they were, or what I was going to do with them, and that bothered her The unknown bothered her , and potentially useful

I didn&039;t answer her The face shield was next, with its little strap that went around the back of the head That was govern blood out of your eyelashes loses its charm after a while The face shield sent my breath back to me, so that I could feel hoarht it off If I did it right, I didn&039;t really need it, but every once in a while the undead bodies acted weird, and they&039;d squirt at you when you weren&039;t expecting it I really didn&039;t want this guy&039;s blood on loves, and then put the longer rubber gloves over that They went up past my elbohich I&039;d need because of the way I took the heart out of the body A lot of executioners just destroyed the heart with a stake, a knife, or a gun, but left the reh the chest, so that I knew the heart was utterly destroyed, I&039;d do that, but when I couldn&039;t see into the chest cavity, I didn&039;t trust the heart to be destroyed enough New vaunshot wounds I&039;d put in his chest were probably enough to ensure he wouldn&039;t heal and rise unexpectedly, but I&039;d never gotten in trouble being overly cautious when it ca certain a vampire was really, truly, completely, dead

Of course, it was a little hard to see the extent of the gunshots through the clothes, which hy I had the para but metal, and even cheap s like handcuffs were proof against them - but clothes, no sweat

I knelt beside the body, tucking the scissors in between the buttons just above the waist of the jeans, cutting to one side so I could parallel the fastened buttons

"Just unbutton it," she said

"This is faster," I said, keeping

"But the buttons are right there," she said It&039;s funny ill bother sos that you would never dreahten someone, or creep them out, scare the hell out of them or make their skin crawl For whatever reason, it see beside the line of neatly fastened buttons, but not using the buttons

I usually cut a quick, clean line through a shirt, but now I slowed down, took my time, let her watch, let her think, let whatever it was about it have time to bother heran edge of franticness "Just cut through it, if you&039;re going to, or unbutton it Why do it like that? Why cut it off like you&039;re enjoying it?"

Ah, I thought, she thought what I was doing looked sensual, like I was enjoying it I wasn&039;t; it didn&039;t move me one way or the other The days when it would have creepedclothes off a willing lover who enjoyed that sort of thing was fun, exciting, sexy Cutting clothes off a corpse wasn&039;t any of those things It was just cutting the cloth away so I could see the chest and judge how e the bullets had done to the heart, so I&039;d know if I needed to take out the heart, or if the bullets had done the job fora piece of butchered ht have to cut up That was the only way to think of it; the only way to do it, and stay sane

"Just finish cutting it!" She half-yelled it