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IT'S NEVER A GOOD THING WHEN YOU'RE AWAKENED fro on the front door

It's worse when you stumble downstairs and see it's a cop

A cop you recognize

My first impulse is to creep back upstairs and pretend I'one around back and checked the garage Bothand the Ford Crown Vic I use for work are parked inside He knows I'm home

Crap

I pull open the door

"Detective Harris What a surprise"

For a pain-in-the-ass cop, he's not bad looking Five-ten-probably one hundred eighty pounds Dark hair touched at the teray Square jaw, serious eyes Beneath that off-the-rack suit, a body I suspect is neither lean nor flabby Carries himself like he was once an athlete-a boxer, e spread and fro the battle

The suit tells me he's not here on a social visit

He givesshorts and a tank top As a vampire, I'm not bothered by the effects of a Or the nothing I earing two seconds ago when I crawled out of bed

A bed still occupied, by the way

Harris purses his lips, glances away as if uncomfortable "Sorry to disturb you so early Would you like to run upstairs and put some clothes on? I can wait"

I pull the door open wider and motion him inside He's the one who appeared at the door at seven a ers he sees every day on the street I wave away the suggestion "I'd rather put the coffee on"

He followsthe coffee the machine to brew He still hasn't said why he's here We're not friends Our paths have crossed a few tio of the ex-police chief, Warren Willia of course Harris doesn't know that

Or that Williams was killed by another vampire

Could it just be a feeeks? Seeer Williaed my life

Forever

I've got my back to Harris and allow a s

Harris clears his throat I turn, grab two s and join him at the table

He takes one of the s, says, "Thanks"

That's it?

I pause, waiting to see if he's going to tellvisit The bell on the coffeee and sugar from the counter, set out spoons and pour us each a cup of coffee before plunking myself down on a chair across from him

I take a sip, let thebrain cells Harris seein his hand with far more attention than he needs to

This is getting old

"Did you have a reason for stopping by unannounced at seven am, Harris? Or was my place closer than Dunkin' Donuts?"

When he looks up, there is a strange expression on his face And I've been on the receiving end of plenty of his expressions Negative expressions,the ot so it up

That's certainly out of character

I wish I could worm my way into his head the way I can with vampires But Harris is human and there is no psychic connection between van flaw for sure

Finally, whatever battle he's been fighting is resolved He sits up in his chair and pushes the cup aside

"I don't knohy I' to you with this," he says "You always see mixed up in The childthat ent But you had the respect of Warren Williaood man You were one of the last people to see him alive"

My turn to fixwith this?

"I know his wife believes you had so to do with his death," Harris continues "I don't But we just got the last of the forensic reports fro-"

He pauses, as if searching for the right word After aodd"

I wait, wondering Williams was set on fire by another old-soul va left but ash

Wouldn't there?

I compose the question carefully "What could you have found? I thought the body was completely burned"

"So did we At first" He pulls a sheet of paper from an inside jacket pocket and smoothes it open on the table "But turns out, our CSI's found so DNA And what they learned about that DNA has us baffled"

To keep the shock fro pull I don't know much about DNA, but I do know about va left to run tests on Willia

Finally, I lower the"I don't understand" An understatement

Harris raises his eyebrows "Neither do I When a body is burned at high temperature, like cremation, there's usually no testable nuclear DNA left But in this case, three things were able to be deter calledIt was human It was Williams' It was over two hundred years old"

My hand tightens around the esture not lost on Harris He leans toward me

"The FBI lab is asking questions Questions I can't answer"

"And you think I can?"

Evidently Harris can't or won't answer that question, either

My turn now to stall, e silverware, straighten the sugar bowl and creamer I have no idea what I'm supposed to say to Harris That Williams was indeed two hundred years old-a two-hundred-year-old vampire, to be exact-and he was killed by another va across the table fro coffee is yet another vaer than either of theht Williams many times and won One as kidnapped by Williams' killer, and in turn, killed the bastard when he tried to rape me

I feel Harris watching, waiting I throw out the only lame explanation I can think of "Maybe there was someone else in the car"

Stupid

Harris doesn't h He simply says, "Someone two hundred years old?" A shake of the head "The DNA belongs to Williams There's no doubt about that The comparison sample was taken fro question isn't who the DNA belongs to, but how it could be two hundred years old"

"And you're asking me, why? Ask the Feds The lab must have made a mistake"