I didn't have time to ask when he'd picked up my phone. I just answered it. «Hello.»
A male voice said, «I do not have much time.» The voice was familiar, but it was a strange monotone that made it sound like someone I should recognize and a stranger all at the same time. «The Harlequin are at my church.»
I started walking down the hallway away from everyone else. It was Zerbrowski I didn't want to overhear, not until I knew that I wanted the police to know. «Malcolm, is this you?»
The voice continued as if I hadn't spoken, «Columbine says she will blood-oath my congregation or she will battle me with vampire powers, for it is not illegal for a vampire to use vampire wiles on another vampire. She claims to have done nothing illegal in our country. She blames all crime on her dead partner. I cannot win against her, Anita, but I can give my congregation to Jean-Claude. Blood-oath them any way you like, but save them from the madness I sense in these two, Columbine and Giovanni. Give me permission to tell them they must duel Jean-Claude for these vampires, and not me.»
«Malcolm, is this you?»
The voice changed, holding fear. «What's happening? Who is this?»
«Avery, Avery Seabrook?» I made it a question, though I was almost a hundred percent certain it was him. I could see his gentle brown eyes, the short hair, that young, unfinished face. He was in his twenties, but tasted too innocent for comfort.
«Anita, is that you?»
«It's me. What happened? What's happening right now?»
«Malcolm touched me and I don't remember what happened next. I just sort of woke up on my cell phone in the back of the church.» His voice dropped to a whisper. «There are masked vampires here. I don't know them. Malcolm seems afraid of them.»
«You're blood-oathed to Jean-Claude, they can't hold you.»
«What is going on, Anita?»
What was I supposed to say, You're such a weak vamp that Malcolm mind-fucked you like you were a human? He sounded scared enough without me making him feel weaker. «Malcolm sent me a message.»
«What?» Then there was noise on the other end. I heard Avery's voice, a little distant, as if he'd taken the phone from his mouth to talk to someone there.
«Avery?»
The voice that came on wasn't Avery, or Malcolm. «Who is speaking, please?» It was male, and I didn't know the voice.
«I don't answer your questions, you answer mine.»
«Are you police?» he asked.
«Yes.» It was the truth.
«We are breaking none of your laws.»
«You're trying to take over the Church of Eternal Life here in my town. I'd say that's illegal.»
«We have offered no violence to anyone. This will be a contest of wills and magical power. It is not illegal to use vampire powers on other vampires in your country. We will not use our powers on the humans here. I give you my word.»
«How about the vampires? They're legal citizens of this country, too.»
«We will offer them no weapon, no hand of violence. Your laws protect only humans from vampire powers. In fact, the law could be interpreted to exclude all supernatural citizens from the protection the law gives against vampire manipulation.»
«Lycanthropes are still considered human under the letter of the law.»
«If you say so.»
«I say so. Give me your name,» I said.
«I am known as Giovanni. I would like to know who I am speaking with.»
Frankly, I wasn't sure that he'd treat me like a cop, or like Jean-Claude's human servant. I wasn't even sure which role would work best here. «I'm Federal Marshal Anita Blake.»
«Ah, the Master of the City's human servant.»
«Yeah, that, too.»
«We have done nothing, my mistress and I, to anger you in either of your roles.»
That was a little too close for comfort to what I'd just been thinking. Had he read my mind, and me not know it? Shit.
«If Columbine is your mistress, then yeah, she did piss me off.»
«We read your laws, Marshal. Columbine used her powers on you, your master, and his wolf. She did not use her powers on humans.»
«She and her friend Nivia framed two legal citizen vampires for murder, and two humans died to do that.»
«Nivia did that on her own. My mistress was most upset when she found that Nivia had done these horrible things.» He didn't even try to keep his voice from sounding fake.
He knew I couldn't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it hadn't been just Nivia, who was conveniently dead. It was her weretiger that had tried to kill Peter, a human. Again, conveniently dead.
«Son of a bitch,» I said, softly.
«Excuse me, Marshal.»
«I have a warrant of execution and it works just fine for you and your mistress.»
«But if you use it knowing that we did not do these crimes, then you are a murderer. Perhaps you will never be tried as such, but you will know that you have abused your powers and simply killed to protect your master like a good human servant, but not a very good federal marshal.»
«You've done your homework,» I said.
Micah was beside me now. I held up a hand so he wouldn't try to talk to me. I glanced back and found Nathaniel still talking to Zerbrowski. Whatever he was saying had the sergeant's full attention.
«We know you are honorable, and your master is honorable. We will not harm Malcolm or his people. We will simply challenge him for them, and use only legal means to win the challenge.»
«Avery Seabrook is already blood-oathed to Jean-Claude. He's off limits.»
«Very well, but the others are no one's flock.»
«Malcolm gave them to Jean-Claude. We haven't blood-oathed them yet, but they are ours.»
«Lies do not become you, Marshal Blake.»
«Can you taste a lie in my voice?»
«I have that ability.»
«Fine, then listen carefully, Giovanni. Malcolm gave his entire congregation to Jean-Claude and me. They belong to the Master of the City of St. Louis now. You can defeat Malcolm with your vampire wiles, but it won't win you shit. By vampire law you have to defeat the master that owns them before you can oath them to you.»
He was quiet for a second. I heard him breathing, which isn't a vampire thing. He was human, somehow; he was her human servant. He had more powers than most human servants, but then so did I.
«I hear truth in your words. But I heard truth in Malcolm's speech to my mistress only moments ago. She forced him to tell truthfully if Jean-Claude had a claim to his congregation. He said Jean-Claude did not.»
«You underestimated Malcolm's powers, Giovanni. He got a message to us, and you have a church full of legal American citizens with rights. You have a church full of vampires who belong to the Master of the City of St. Louis, and they have rights under vampire law, too. You've been very careful that my status as a police officer isn't invoked here. I'll hold you to vampire law just as tight as human law. You break either of them, and I will rain all over your parade.»
«But as the laws constrain us, they also constrain you, Anita Blake.»
«Yeah, yeah, you and the horse you rode in on.»
«I don't understand. We have no horses.»
«Sorry, it's slang. I mean that I understand what you said, and I'm not impressed.»
«Malcolm used your young vampire here to somehow give you this message, didn't he?»
«I don't have to give you information, not by either set of laws.»
«True,» he said, «but if my mistress blood-oaths enough of these vampires, then she will have enough power to defeat Jean-Claude.»
«You're Harlequin. You can't kill anyone without giving them a black mask first.»
«We are not attacking as Harlequin. My mistress has grown weary of being a tool for the council. She wishes to have her own lands in this new country of yours. Jean-Claude was harder to destroy with vampire powers than she anticipated.»
«You're supposed to give a formal challenge before you start battling to take over.»
«Did Jean-Claude give a formal challenge to Nikolaos, the old Master of the City, before you slew her for him?»
I took a breath, then didn't try to say anything. Truthfully, I hadn't realized that killing Nikolaos would make him master. I'd just been trying to stay alive and keep her from killing other people. But it had opened the way for Jean-Claude to own the city. Saying it had been an accident would make us sound weak. So I shut my mouth and tried to think.