«Shit, he pulled an Obi-Wan,» I said.
«What?» Edward and Dolph said together.
«You know, from Star Wars, 'These are not the droids you're looking for.»
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 time he drove off there were police all over that hotel. I thought daylight wasn't good for vamps.»
«I think the vampire was in the duffel bag. My guess, and it's only a guess, is that as the weretiger shared her master's healing ability, so the human servant of this other one shared her mind powers. I've never heard of anything like it, but it makes sense. If I think of another theory that makes more sense, I'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 informant human?»
«I'm not giving you the name, so it doesn't matter, does it?»
«How many vampires are involved with these murders?»
«Two that I'm sure of.»
«How close is your tie to your master, Anita?»
«What?» I just stared at him.
He looked at me, and there was no anger in his eyes, just a demand. He repeated the question.
My pulse was in my throat, and I couldn't help it. My voice was almost normal when I said, «Are we going 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'm sorry that I've disappointed you, Dolph. I'm sorry that you disapprove of my personal life, but we have dead on the ground. 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'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's version.»
«My version, like you know it's a version and not the truth,» I said.
«I don't think you've told me the whole truth about anything since you started dating that 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'd outed myself once in front of Detective Smith. I'd done it to save the life of a vampire Good Samaritan. Apparently Smith hadn't ratted me out. I owed him a beer.
I needed a moment to think how to answer Dolph. Edward gave me that moment. «You know, Lieutenant, your persistent interest in Marshal Blake's personal life is a little disturbing. Especially as it seems to be distracting you from the investigation and capture of a double murderer.»
Dolph ignored him and kept those cool cop eyes on me. If I'd been sure how the federal marshal program would have handled my being Jean-Claude's human servant I might have just said yes, but I wasn't sure, so I had to lie, or distract him. «You know, Dolph, I've tried to be professional here, but you've asked me if I've fucked someone, you've persistently asked personal and sexual questions. Did you miss the day they covered sexual harassment?»
«You are, you really belong to him, don't you?»
«I don't belong to anyone, Dolph. I'm so my own woman that I'm chasing some of them away. Requiem wants to own me; that's the vampire who just left, if you didn't catch his name. I don't want to be owned, not by anybody. Jean-Claude understands that better than any human I ever dated. Maybe that's what your son sees in his fiancée, 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 vampires and my personal life started about the time your son got engaged to a vampire. It's not my fault. I didn't introduce them. I didn't even know he'd done it, until you told me.»
«The Master of the City knew. He just didn't tell you,» Dolph said.
«Is that what you've been thinking, that Jean-Claude somehow sicced a vampire on your son, so she'd seduce him?»
He gave me a look. «You're not the only vampire hunter in this country now, Anita. You're not even the only one with a badge. They tell me that the Master of the City has absolute authority. That no local vamp does anything without permission.»
«If only that were true, but your son's fiancée belongs to the Church of Eternal Life. She's Malcolm's problem right now, not Jean-Claude'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 its members do stupid stuff like dating a policeman's son.»
«Why was it stupid?»
«Because most police still hate the vampires. It's just better policy to leave the cops alone if you can. None of Jean-Claude's vampires have gone near a police person of any kind for anything.»
«He's gone near you,» Dolph said.
«I wasn't officially a cop when we started dating.»
«No, you were a vampire executioner. He shouldn't have come near you, and you should have known better than to go 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'm up close and personal with the monsters.» I struggled to sit up a little, tired of him looming over me. My stomach was tight, but it didn't hurt. «You count on me knowing more about the monsters. Hell, every cop that comes near me for help counts on me knowing more about the monsters than they do. How the hell do you think I found all that out? By keeping them at arm's length and hating them the way you do? They don't like talking to people who treat them like shit. They don't volunteer information to people they know hate them. If you want someone's help you have to reach out to them.»
«How many have you reached out to, Anita?» Such innocent words, but he made it sound ugly.
«Enough so I could help you every time you called.»
He closed his eyes then, balled his fist around his notebook until something in it ripped. «If I'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 mirror, is that enough, 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'll puzzle the hell out of any lab you send it to.»
«You know you're carrying lycanthropy.»
«Yeah, I'm carrying 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't mention it to anyone here.»
«You hated me for dating shapeshifters; if you found out I was carrying it»—I spread my hands—«I couldn't depend on how you'd react.»
He nodded. «You're right. You were right not to tell me, but you could have told Zerbrowski or someone.»
«It doesn't affect my job, Dolph. I've got a disease that I'm mostly asymptomatic for. It's no one's business unless it impacts the job.» In my head I wondered what would happen if the almost-beasts that I carried inside me got out of control on a case. That would be bad. I almost had the ardeur under control, and now I had something else that might keep me from being able to do my police work.