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EVERYONE AGREED THAT we&039;d hit the locations after dawn so the vampires would be dead to the world We had two dead cops; we didn&039;t need ets on your nerves There&039;s a chance to sleep for a few hours, and if you can do it, they&039;ll find you a cot in the back of the station so you can rack out Almost no one would sleep We had two of our own dead, and we&039;d be hunting their killers in a few hours It either buzzed you or made you think too hard; either way, sleep wasn&039;t happening Most of us had never known either officer personally, but it didn&039;t est dick in the world while he was alive, that didn&039;t e and so did you That meant that if you&039;d put out a call for help, he&039;d have coer, friend, it didn&039;t matter; you would have risked your life for him, and he for you, and if you had to, you&039;d have walked into a firefight with hie Itaway, you ran toward the proble to run into the shitstorm with you was your brother in arms Civilians think that cops react like this because they&039;re thinking, There but for the grace of God go I, but that&039;s not it, not the major part; we&039;re human, so there is sounshots We run toward the trouble, not away, and we trust that if another person with a badge is nearby, they&039;ll start running in that direction, too They&039;ll be beside us, and we&039;ll hit the big, bad thing together, because that&039;s our job; it&039;s e are

The vampires hadn&039;t just killed two cops, they&039;d killed two men ould have put their shoulders beside ours and hit the door They&039;d taken out two of the good guys, and that wasn&039;t allowed Part of the energy, as aited, was that eren&039;t just going to track the bad guys doere going to kill theal We&039;d hunt the a warrant of execution, because noe had an official warrant, but to me it was just a vampire hunt with SWAT backup

There were three locations, so I was the Marshal at one; Larry would be the Marshal at the second location, and our newest member of the Preternatural Branch, US Marshal Arlen Brice, would go in with the third team Brice was one of the new breed of preternatural Marshals, one who had been a regular police officer for at least two years and then trained for preternatural work in classrooms, not in the field I had yet to meet a Marshal who had been trained this ho caave theue wereanie, preternatural Marshals are legalized assassins We kill people in order to save lives, but our o their whole twenty without ever drawing their gun in the line of duty Most Marshals in the Preternatural Branch kill at least one vampire their first month in the field, so va real people should try it for a while and see how it feels I&039;ve killed hus in the line of duty, and honestly, other than the fact that they&039;re easier to kill, it just doesn&039;t feel that different

But US Marshal Arlen Brice didn&039;t know that yet

Brice was five-eight, five-nine, short, but with nicely cut hair in one of those in-between colors that was either pale brown or a really dark blond When I&039;d been a little girl I would have called it pale brown, but a girl in my class had hair almost the sane blond" My stepmother had confirmed it was an actual color, but most people called it "dirty blond" That childhood faux pas had left its mark, so Brice&039;s hair color was a mystery until he told me otherwise His eyes were a pale, almost ah to call

The rest of him was standard handsoher on one side and just see Detective Jessica Arnet and any other female officer who came near him reacted to him in a way that let me know that a more ordinary flavor of handsootten over her crush on Nathaniel, my live-in sweetie She still didn&039;t likeit secret that Nathaniel was my live-in lover had so some people

Zerbrowski and I threaded our way through all the extra people ere hanging around the headquarters for the Regional Preternatural Investigation Tea to sleep so we decided to catch food at a restaurant we both liked The first hint I had that Marshal Brice was behind us was Detective Arnet&039;s voice, high and lilting: "Hey, Brice, do you want to get a bite to eat?"

"I really appreciate the offer, Detective, but I already said I&039;d catch food with Detective Zerbrowski and Marshal Blake"

That stopped me and Zerbrowski in our tracks We looked at each other, and I knew from the look on his face that this was news to hi blank cop face, both of us waiting for Brice to catch up as if we&039;d

Larry was the next to offer food, but Brice just smiled and said, "Thanks, Marshal Kirkland, I&039;ll catch you next time"

Larry actually touched the man&039;s arm and said, "What kind of Marshal do you want to be, Brice?"

The question stopped Brice, lance back at Zerbrowski and ood at his job, Marshal Kirkland" He kept sed The look wasn&039;t directed at us, so from the side it was harder to read, but whatever was in those brown-gold eyes ood at my job," Larry said His words were soft, but they carried in one of those weird moments of silence that happens in noisy roooes quiet at the same time and suddenly everyone can hear

"I never said otherwise," Brice said, but he walked away from Larry