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Chapter One

MALCOLM, THE HEAD of the Church of Eternal Life, the vampire church, sat across from me Malcolm had never been in my office before In fact, the last tiic and being a whore I'd also killed one of his rounds, in front of hiation The dead vamp had been a serial killer I'd had a court order of execution, but still, it hadn't made Malcolm and me buddies

I sat behind : a little girl sat on Santa's lap saying, "Define good" I worked hard every year to find the er, could throw a fit This year'swas tame by my usual standards It had become one of my holiday traditions I'd at least dressed for the season in a red skirt and jacket over a thin silk sweater - very festive, for un in my shoulder holster A friend ofHi-Power for so that fit my hand a little better and had a sun safe, and the Browning Dual Mode was in the holster I felt like I was cheating but at least I was still a Browning girl

Once upon a tiht Malcolm handsome, but that had been when his vampire tricks worked on me Without vampire wiles to cloud my perception, I could see that his bone structure was too rough, alotten smoothed out before they put that pale skin on it His hair was cut short and had a little curl to it, because to take the curl out of it he'd have had to shave it The hair was a bright, bright canary yellow That's what blond hair does if you take it out of the sun for a few hundred years He looked at me with his blue eyes and smiled, and the smile filled his face with personality That saraic, it was just him Charisma, for lack of a better word There was force to Malcol to do ho he was, not what he was He'd have been a leader and a mover of men even if he'd been alive

The smile softened his features, filled his face with a zeal that was both co He was a true believer, head of a church of true believers The whole idea of a varowing denomination in the country

"I was surprised to see your name in my appointment book, Malcolm," I said, finally

"I understand that, Ms Blake I am almost equally surprised to be here"

"Fine, we're both surprised Why are you here?"

"I suspect you have, or will soon have, a warrant of execution for a member of my church"

I ed to keep my face blank, but felt the stiffness in my shoulders He'd see the reaction, and he'd knohat it meant Master vampires don't miss much "You have a lot of members, Malcolm; could you narrow it down a little? Who exactly are we talking about?"

"Don't be coy, Ms Blake"

"I' coy"

"You're trying to imply that you have a warrant for more than one of my vampires I do not believe it, and neither do you"

I should have felt insulted, because I wasn't lying Two of his upstanding vahty "If your vampires were fully blood-oathed to you, you'd knoas telling the truth, because you'd be able to enforce your moral code in entirely neays"

"A blood oath is not a guarantee of absolute control, Ms Blake"

"No, but it's a start"

A blood oath hat a varoup, a new kiss He literally took blood from the Master of the City It meant the ained in power, too If their h A weak master wasn't much help, but Jean-Claude, St Louis's Master of the City and ained power from the oath, as well The ained Like so many vampire powers, it was a tay street

"I do not want to enforce ood people," Malcolm said

"Until your congregation is blood-oathed to some master vampire, they are loose cannons, Malcolm You control them by force of personality and morality Vampires only understand fear, and power"

"You are the lover of at least two vampires, Ms Blake How can you say that?"

I shrugged "Maybe because I a two vampires"

"If that is what being Jean-Claude's hus he is teaching you"

"He is the Master of the City of St Louis, Malcolo unmolested by his tolerance"

"I go unreerful under the previous Master of the City, and by the time Jean-Claude rose to poere hundreds He did not have the power to bring me and my people to heel"

I sipped coffee and thought about ue with hiot where we are, Malcolm, you have several hundred vampires in this city Jean-Claude let you have the them We learned in October that you aren't Which means that the vamps with you are cut off from an awful lot of their potential power I'uess Their choice, if they understand that it is a choice, but no blood oath means that they are not mystically tied to anyone but the vamp that h the church deacons do recruit sometimes"

"How our church is organized is not your concern"

"Yes," I said, "it is"

"Do you serve Jean-Claude nohen you say that, or is it as a federal marshal that you criticize me?" He narrowed those blue eyes "I do not think the federal governh of vampires to care whether I blood-oath my people"

"Blood-oathing lowers the chance of vas behind the back of the master"

"Blood-oathing takes away their free will, Ms Blake"

"Maybe, but I've seen the daood Master of the City can guarantee that there is al his people"

"They are his slaves," Malcolm said

I shrugged and sat back in my chair "Are you here to talk about the warrant, or to talk about the deadline Jean-Claude gave your church?"

"Both"

"Jean-Claude has given you and your church members their choices, Malcolm Either you blood-oath them, or Jean-Claude does Or they can move to another city to be blood-oathed there, but it has to be done"

"It is a choice of who they would be slaves to, Ms Blake It is no choice at all"

"Jean-Claude was generous, Malcolm By varegation"

"And hoould the laould you, as a federal hter?"

"Are you saying thata federal marshal limits Jean-Claude's options?"

"He values your love, Anita, and you would not love a hter my followers"

"You don't add yourself to that list - why?"

"You are a legal vampire executioner, Anita If I broke human law, you would killthe same if I broke vampiric law"

"You think I'd just let him kill you?"

"I think you would kill me for him, if you felt justified"

A srandfathered in like most of the vamp executioners who had two or more years on the job and could pass the firear us federal rant us the ability to cross state lines and to control us reat; I wasn't sure how controlled ere Of course, I was the only va her Master of the City Most saw it as a conflict of interest Frankly, so did I, but there wasn't much I could do about it

"You do not argue with me," Malcolm said

"I can't decide if you think I' influence on Jean-Claude, or a bad one"

"I saw you once as his victier certain who is the victim, and who the victimizer"

"Should I be offended?"

He just looked at me

"The last time I was in your church you called ic You called Jean-Claude i like that"

"You were trying to take away one of my people to be killed with no trial You shot hirounds"

"He was a serial killer I had an order of execution for everyone involved in those crimes"

"All the vampires, you mean"

"Are you i that humans or shapeshifters were involved?"

"No, but if they had been, you would never have been allowed to shoot the you do it"

"I've had warrants for shapeshifters before"

"But those are rare, Anita, and there are no orders of execution for humans"

"The death penalty still exists, Malcolm"

"After a trial, and years of appeals, if you are human"

"What do you want from me, Malcolm?"

"I want justice"

"The law isn't about justice, Malcolm It's about the law"

"She did not do the cri brother Avery Seabrook was innocent of the criroup who joined Jean-Claude "wanderers" The fact that Avery, the vampire, had a last name meant he was very recently dead, and that he was an American vampire Vampires normally only had one name, like Madonna or Cher, and only one vaht over the right to use names Until now, until America We had vampires with last names, unheard of

"I cleared Avery Legally, I didn't have to"

"No, you could have shot hi under the law"

"I did not write this law, Malcolm, I just carry it out"

"Vampires did not write this law either, Anita"

"That's true, but no human can mess Humans can't fly off with their victims in their arms"

"And that justifies slaughtering us?"

I shrugged again I was going to leave this arguun to not like that part of my job I didn't think va theht back monstrous, with me as the monster

"What do you want me to do, Malcolm? I have a warrant with Sally Hunter's name on it Witnesses saw her leave Bev Leveto's apartment Ms Leveto died by vampire attack I knoasn't any of Jean-Claude's vampires That leaves yours" Hell, I had her driver's license picture in the file with the warrant I have to ado with it et the right one

"Are you so certain of that?"

I blinked at hiavefuriously "What are you trying to say, Malcolood at subtle; just tell me what you came to say"

"So powerful, someone powerful, came to my church last week They hid theation, but I know that someone immensely powerful was there" He leaned forward, his cales "Do you understand hoerful they would have to be for me to sense them, use all my powers to search the room for them, yet not be able to find them?"

I thought about it Malcolm was no Master of the City, but he was probably one of the top five her, if he weren't so terribly moral It limited him in some ways

I licked my lips, careful of the lipstick, and nodded "Did they want you to know they were there, or was that part an accident?"

He actually showed surprise for a ot control of his face He played hu to lose that stillness of features that the old ones have "I don't know" Even his voice was no longer smooth

"Did the vaance?"

He shook his head "I do not know"

I had a moment of revelation "You came here because you think Jean-Claude should know, but you can't let your congregation see you going to the Master of the City It would under"

He settled back into his chair, fighting to keep the anger off his face, and failing He was evenit this badly in front of someone he disliked Hell, he'd come to me for help He was desperate

"But you can come to me, a federal marshal, and tell me Because you know I'll tell Jean-Claude"

"Think what you like, Ms Blake"

We weren't on a first-na, bad vah to smoke him out, and you come to me, to Jean-Claude and all his immoral power structure You come to the very people you say you hate"

He stood up "The crime that Sally is accused of happened less than twenty-four hours after he, it, they came to my church I do not think that is a coincidence"

"I' about the second order of execution, Malcolht noith a driver's license picture of the vampire in question"

He sat back down "What name is on it?"

"Why, so you can warn them?" I'd almost said her, because it was another female vamp

"My people are not perfect, Ms Blake, but I believe that another va them"

"Why? Why would someone do that?"