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It was an October wedding The bride was a witch who solved preternatural cri It sounded like a Halloween joke, but it wasn&039;t

The grooe bow ties and white shirts The bride&039;s side wore orange fore prooing to have to shell out three hundred dollars for one of the ot to wear a tux Larry Kirkland, groouns He refused to make me wear a dress, unless I wanted to wear one Hmm, let e forain, or less than a hundred dollars to rent a tux that I could return Wait, let ot the tux I did have to buy a pair of black tie-up shoes The tux shop didn&039;t have any size seven in women&039;s Oh, well Even with the seventy-dollar shoes that I would probably never wear again, I still counted myself very lucky

As I watched the four bridese dresses walk down the isle of the packed church, their hair done up on their heads in ringlets, and morevery, very lucky They had little round bouquets of orange and white floith black lace and orange and black ribbons trailing down from the flowers I just had to stand up at the front of the church withcoordinator had seeroo equally e, if they didn&039;t keep their hands busy So she&039;d informed them that they were to stand with their hands clasped on opposite wrists No hands in pockets, no crossed arroins I&039;d arrived late to the rehearsal--big surprise--and the wedding coordinator had see influence on the irl It didn&039;t take her long to figure out that I was as uncouth as the ht we all behaved ourselves really well She just didn&039;t seem very coun I earing

But none of the groo for her to complain about This was Larry&039;s day, and none of us wanted to screw it up Oh, and Tammy&039;s day

The bride entered the church on her father&039;s arm Her mother was already in the front pew dressed in a paleand crying, and seemed to be both miserable and deliriously happy all at the sa church wedding Both Larry and Ta smaller, but Tammy didn&039;t seem to be able to say no to herwith his future in-law

Detective Tammy Reynolds was a vision in white, complete with a veil that covered her face like amore makeup than I&039;d ever seen her in, but the drama of it suited the beaded neckline, and full, bell-like skirt The dress looked like it could have walked down the isle on its own, or at least stood on its own They&039;d done so with her hair so that it was smooth and completely back fro she was I&039;d never really noticed that Detective Ta at the end of the groomsmen, me and Larry&039;s three brothers, so I had to crane a little to see his face It orth the look He was pale enough that his freckles stood out on his skin like ink spots His blue eyes ide They&039;d done so to his short red curls so they lay alazed at Taht between the eyes Of course, if they&039;d done two hours&039; worth of ht have been a vision, too But men don&039;t have to worry about it The double standard is alive and well The woroom is just supposed to stand there and not embarrass himself, or her

I leaned back in line and tried not to embarrass anyone I&039;d tied my hair back while it was still wet so that it lay flat and s my hair so it was the best I could do to look like a boy There were other parts of my anatomy that didn&039;t help the boy look either I am curvy, and even in a tux built for acoordinator had rolled her eyes when she saw me What she said out loud was, "You need roo makeup," I said

"Don&039;t you want to look pretty?"

Since I&039;d thought I already looked pretty good, there was only one reply, "Not particularly"

That had been the last conversation the wedding lady and I had had She positively avoided me after that I think she&039;d beenher keep the other groomsmen in line She seemed to believe that just because we both had ovaries instead of balls that we should have joined forces Besides, why should I worry about being pretty? It was Tam if, I ever got married, then I&039;d worry about it Until then, screw it Besides, I was already wearing more makeup than I normally did Which forme that when I hit thirty I&039;ll feel differently about all this girl stuff I&039;ve only got three years to go until the big 3-0; so far panic has not set in

Tammy&039;s father placed her hand in Larry&039;s Tammy was three inches taller than Larry, in heels, she was rooave Larry It was not a friendly look Tanant, and it was Larry&039;s fault Or rather it was Tammy and Larry&039;s fault, but I don&039;t think that&039;s how her father viewed it No, Mr Nathan Reynolds definitely seein fronant

Mr Reynolds raised Tammy&039;s blusher on her veil to reveal all that carefully made-up beauty He kissed her solemnly on the cheek, threw one last dark look at Larry, and turned s and pleasant to join his wife in the front pew The fact that he&039;d gone fro when he knew the church would see his face, bothered me I didn&039;t like that Larry&039;s new father-in-laas capable of lying that well MadeBut I was naturally suspicious, co Cynicisious

We all turned toward the altar, and the fas over the years, almost all Christian, alely familiar Funny, how you don&039;t think you&039;veuntil you hear it, and realize you have "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in Holy Matrimony"

It wasn&039;t a Catholic or Episcopalian wedding, so we didn&039;t have to kneel, or docoan to wander a bit I&039;ve never been a big fan of weddings I understand they&039;re necessary, but I was never one of those girls who fantasized about whatwould be like soot engaged in college, and when that fell through, I went back to not thinking about it I&039;d been engaged very briefly to Richard Zee, but he&039;d dumped me because I was more at home with the monsters than he was Now, I&039;d pretty much settled into the idea that I would never marry Never have those words spoken over me and my honeybun A tiny part of me that I&039;d never ad part, I think I would hatejust as le person to call my own I&039;d been raised middle-class, middle America, s aon how you looked at it, stillpainfully close to e uncomfortable about it, but there were issues that needed to be worked out For instance, who do you bring as your date to a wedding? The wedding was in a church complete with holy items, so two of the men were out Va Jean-Claude and Asher burst into flah the door would probably have put a damper on the festivities That left me with one official boyfriend, Micah Callahan, and one friend, who happened to be a boy, Nathaniel Graison

They&039;d coed, whichto do The woe spill of white flowers, and the ot to hand over the jewelry It all seemed so terribly sexist Just once I&039;d like to see the men have to hold flowers and the women fork over the jewelry I&039;d been told once by a friend that I was too liberated for aged again I&039;d decided either both of us got an engageetting ement was probably off the board, too Oh, well

At last, they were man and wife We all turned and the reverend presented theh I knew for a fact that Ta her maiden name, so really it should have been Mr Lawrence Kirkland and Ms Taot to offer my arm to Detective Jessica Arnet She took the arm, and with her in heels, I was about five inches shorter than she was She so, because she was flirting with Nathaniel, but it wasn&039;t until that moment that I realized she could be beautiful Her dark hair was pulled cole of her cheeks and chin was all you saw The makeup had widened her eyes, added color to her cheeks, and carved pouting lips out of her thin ones I realized that the orange that hlights in her skin and hair, e, it&039;s one of the reasons they use it in so many prisons, like an extra punishment But Detective Arnet looked wonderful in it It al lady talk me into the extra makeup Almost

I must have stared, because she frowned, and only then did I start forward, and take our place in line We filed out like good little wedding party roup shots He&039;d be hunting the bride and groo the bouquet, re line, I could fade into the background and no one would care

We all stood in a line as we&039;d been drilled Bride and groom at the front of the line, because, let&039;s face it, that&039;s who everyone is really here to see The rest of us strung out behind theers Tammy&039;s family were locals, but I&039;d never met any of them Larry&039;s family were all out-of-towners I knew the policemen that had been invited; other than that, it was all nod and smile, nod and smile, shake a hand, or two, nod and s very hard on the people I was , because it surprised me when Micah Callahan, my official date, was suddenly in front of ht Short for man or woman His rich, brown hair was nearly as curly as mine, and today his hair fell around his shoulders loose He&039;d done that for me He didn&039;t like his hair loose, and I understood why He was already delicate looking for ahile as Detective Arnet&039;s His lower lip was fuller than his upper lip, which gave hi wider than most women&039;s mouths didn&039;t really help But the body under his black tailored suit, that definitely helped make it clear he was a man Wide shoulders, slender waist and hips, a swih that wasn&039;t his sport Froirl It was just the face, and the hair

He&039;d left his shirt open at the neck so that it framed the hollow in his throat I could see lasses It was actually a little dilasses? His eyes were kitty-cat eyes, leopard, to be exact They were yellow and green all at the same time What color predominated between the two depended on what color he wore, hisToday, because of the shirt, they&039;d be very green, but with a hint of yellow, like dappled light in the forest

He was a wereleopard, Nihts he should have been able to pass for human But if you spend too much time in animal form sometimes you don&039;t come all the way back He didn&039;t want to squeak the lasses today

His hand was very warh to bring so that had kept h the ceremony like a second heartbeat He was Nih ement was closer to queen and consort, partners, but I reserved presidential veto I&039;m a control freak, what can I say?

I was the first huh since I raise the dead for a living and aal vaue the human part They&039;re just jealous

I started to pull hiave a sht If just holding his hand spedwould be bad Through a series ofclose to the beast that lived in Micah That beast and Micah&039;s beast knew each other, knew each other in the way of old lovers That part of us that was not human knew each other better than our hu about hiether On a hter than any ceremony or piece of paper couldwhat to do with hi piece He co this close, it all seein to wonder when the other shoe would drop and he would stop being wonderful I&039;d never had a man in my life yet that didn&039;t spoil it somehow Why should Micah be different?

He didn&039;t so ainst ht touch made me shiver so violently that he had to steady me with a touch onsives when he understands just how much his touch affects a woman I didn&039;t like that sranted The ht it, I kneasn&039;t true It wasn&039;t even fair So why had I thought it at all? Because I a works too well, I&039;ve got to poke at it, prod it, until it breaks, or bitesnot to do that anymore, but old habits, especially bad ones, die hard

Micah avelook out of her heavily painted but lovely eyes She opened her ht, but the next person in line distracted her Nathaniel was distracting, no doubt about that

Jessica Arnet was a few inches taller than Nathaniel&039;s 5&039;6", so she had to look down to eration on the color His eyes weren&039;t blue, but truly a pale purple, lavender, spring lilacs He wore a banded-collar shirt that was almost the same color as his eyes, so the lavender was even ly beautiful, those eyes

He offered his hand, but she hugged hied him, because I think for the first time she was in a public situation where no one would think it was strange So she hugged him, because she could

There was a fraction of a ed her back, but he turned his head so he could look at me His eyes said clearly, Help me

She hadn&039;t done thatwhere a handshake would have done, but the look in Nathaniel&039;s eyes was much more serious than what she&039;d done As if it bothered him more than it should have Since in his day job he&039;s a stripper, you&039;d think he&039;d be used to wo him Of course, maybe that was the point He wasn&039;t at work

She stayed , with only that mute look in his eyes to say he was unhappy His body see He never showed Jessica Arnet his confused eyes

The hug had gone on longer than was polite, and I finally realized what part of the problem was Nathaniel was the least do, but he could not be the first one to pull back Jessica had to let hietting all the wrong signals fro away Shit How do I end up with uess

I held out h that anyone down the hall would have seen it, and understood it He kept his face turned so Jessica never saw that look It would have hurt her feelings, and Nathaniel didn&039;t want to hurt anyone&039;s feelings Which lohat she thought was ht Nathaniel liked her, at least a little, but his face said otherwise To me, anyway

Nathaniel came to my hand like a scared child who&039;s just been saved fro to hter than I would have liked in public, but I couldn&039;t blame him, not really He wanted the coured out that Jessica Arnet had gotten the wrong idea

I held him as close as I could, as close as I&039;d wanted to hold Micah With Micah, it s, but not with Nathaniel With Nathaniel I could controlbraid of his auburn hair that fell nearly to his ankles I played with the braid, as if it were otherthat Jessica would take the hint I should have known that a little extra hugging wouldn&039;t have done the job

I drew back froaze on my face I could study his face and understand what she saw there, so handsoly beautiful His shoulders had broadened in the last few , or just the fact that he enty and still filling out He was luscious to look at, and I was alh he was living withmy errands, I still hadn&039;t had intercourse with hi to avoid that, since I didn&039;t plan on keeping him Someday Nathaniel would need to find a new place to live, a new life, because I wouldn&039;t always need him the way I did now

I was human, but just as I was the first human Nimir-Ra the leopards had ever had, I was also the first human servant of a master vampire to acquire certain abilities With those abilities ca to feed the ardeur every twelve hours or so Ardeur is French for fla consumed by love But it isn&039;t exactly love

I stared up into Nathaniel&039;s wide lilac eyes, cradled his face between ht keep Jessica Arnet fro them both at the reception to follow I kissed him I kissed him, because he needed ht thing to do I kissed hi, my apple of blood I kissed him because he was my food, and I hated the fact that anyone was my food I fed off Micah, too, but he was h to say no if he wanted to Nathaniel wantedto me, and I didn&039;t knohat to do about it Months from now the ardeur would be under control and I wouldn&039;t need a po What would Nathaniel do when I didn&039;t need him anymore?

I drew back from the kiss and watched Nathaniel&039;s face shine at me the way Jessica Arnet&039;s face had shone at hi up into that happy, handsome face, I was afraid that I couldn&039;t say the sa him Not for sex, but for food He was food, just food, but even as I thought it, I kneas partly a lie You don&039;t fall in love with your steak, because it can&039;t hold you, can&039;t press warm lips in the bend of your neck, and whisper, "Thank you," as it glides down the hallway in the charcoal gray slacks that fit its ass like a second skin and spill roohs that you happen to know are even lovelier out of the pants than in When I turned to the next s me a look It wasn&039;t an entirely friendly look Great, just great

2

The Halloween Thee and black crepe paper strealed everywhere; cardboard skeletons, rubber bats, and paper ghosts floated overhead There was a fake spiderweb against one wall big enough to hang so jack-o-lanterns with flickering electric grins The fake skeletons were long enough to be a hazard to anyonethe tops of their hair brushed by little cardboard skeleton toes Unfortunately, Taot her veil tangled with the decorations The bridesot Tammy&039;s veil unhooked from the skeletal toes, but it ruined the entrance for the bride and groom If Tammy had wanted the decorations safe for the tall people, she shouldn&039;t have left it to Larry and his brothers There wasn&039;t a one of them over 5&039;6" Don&039;t blame me Groomsman or not, I hadn&039;t helped decorate the hall It was not oing to get blamed for, but they weren&039;t my fault either Well, mostly not my fault

I&039;d escorted Jessica Arnet into the room She hadn&039;t smiled at me as I led her into the room She&039;d looked way too serious When Taone to the table where Micah and Nathaniel were sitting She&039;d leaned into Nathaniel, and when I say leaned, I mean it Like leaned on him, so that the line of her body touched his shoulder and arm It was bold and discreet at the saht not have realized what she was doing She spoke quietly to him He finally shook his head, and she turned and wove her way through the suests She took the last e party was trapped The last eot to sit down in the order we&039;d entered Goody

In the middle of the toasts, after Larry&039;s brother had room blush, but before the parents had had their turns, Jessica leaned over close enough that her perfume eet and a little too much

She whispered, "Does Nathaniel really live with you?"

I&039;d been afraid the question would be hard This one was easy "Yes," I said

"I asked if he was your boyfriend, and he said that he slept in your bed I thought that was an odd way to answer" She turned her head so I was suddenly way too close to her face, those wide-searching hazel eyes I was struck again by how lovely she was, and felt stupid for not noticing sooner But I didn&039;t notice girls, I noticed boys So sue me, I was heterosexual It wasn&039;t her beauty that struck ence, in her eyes She searched my face, and I realized that no matter how pretty she was, she was still a cop, and she was trying to smell the lie here Because she had smelled one

She hadn&039;t asked ot in trouble by keeping ave a small frown "Is he your boyfriend? If he is, then I&039;ll leave it alone But you could have told me sooner, so I wouldn&039;t have made a fool of myself"

I wanted to say, You didn&039;t make a fool of yourself, but I didn&039;t I was too busy trying to think of an answer that would be honest and not get Nathaniel and me in more trouble I settled for the evasion he&039;d used "Yes, he sleeps in ave a s over her face "That isn&039;t what I asked, Anita You&039;re lying You&039;re both lying I can smell it" She frowned "Just tell me the truth If you have a prior claihed "Yeah, I have a prior clai lines between the pretty eyes "Apparently? What does that mean? Either he&039;s your boyfriend, or he&039;s not"

"Maybe boyfriend isn&039;t the right word," I said, and tried to think of an explanation that didn&039;t include the words po The police didn&039;t really kno deeply involved with the monsters I was They suspected, but they didn&039;t know Knowing is different fro will hold up in court; suspicion won&039;t even get you a search warrant

"Then what is the right word?" she whispered, but it held an edge of hiss, as if she were fighting not to yell "Are you lovers?"

What was I supposed to say? If I said, yes, Nathaniel would be free of Jessica&039;s unwanted attentions, but it would also mean that everyone on the St Louis police force would know that Nathaniel was my lover It wasn&039;t my reputation I orried about, that was pretty irl can&039;t be coffin-bait for the Master of the City and be a good girl Most people feel that if a wo Not true, but there you go No, not ot out that he was my lover, then no other woman would make a play for him If he didn&039;t want to date Jessica, fine, but he needed to date so to keep Nathaniel forever, like aler social circle He needed a real girlfriend

So I hesitated, weighing a dozen words, and not finding a single one that would help the situation My cell phone went off, as I fu, I was too relieved to be irritated It could have been a wrong number at that moment, and I still would have felt I owed the nuional Preternatural Investigation Tea so that other people could attend He&039;d asked Ta any nonhumans, and when she&039;d said she didn&039;t like that term, but if he meant lycanthropes, the ansas yes, Dolph had suddenly decided he&039;d be on duty and not co a personal problem with the monsters His son was about toto persuade Dolph&039;s son to join her in eternal life To say that Dolph was not taking it as an understateation rooht up on charges I&039;d arranged a dinner with Dolph, his wife, Lucille, their son, Darrin, and future daughter-in-law I&039;d persuaded Darrin to put off the decision to join the undead The wedding was still on, but it was a start His son still being a had helped Dolph deal with his crisis of faith Deal with it enough that he was talking to h that he called ain

His voice was brisk, almost nor the phone with my hand It wasn&039;t like every cop in the place, which wasto, and why

"Got a body for you to look at"

"Now?" I ht? I didn&039;t call in the middle of it"

"It&039;s over I&039;m at the reception"

"Then I need you here"

"Where&039;s here?" I asked

He told me

"I know the strip club area across the river, but I&039;m not familiar with the club name"

"You won&039;t be able to miss it," he said, "it&039;ll be the only club with its own police escort"

It took me a second to realize that he had made a joke Dolph didn&039;t make jokes at murder scenes, ever I opened my mouth to remark on it, but the phone was dead in ood-byes

Detective Arnet leaned in, and asked, "Was that Lieutenant Storr?"

"Yeah," I whispered, "otta run"

She opened herelse, but I was already ies to Larry and Tao look at a body I was sorry to miss the rest of the reception and all, but I had a et away from Arnet&039;s questions, but I wouldn&039;t have to dance with Micah, or Nathaniel, or anybody The night was looking up I felt a little guilty, but I was glad so down at the dead wolad Guilty that even for a second I&039;d found the idea of someone&039;s death an escape from an uncomfortable social situation I wasn&039;t a child Surely, to God, I could have handled Jessica Arnet and her questions without hiding behind adown at a corpse than at the head table at a wedding said so about me and my life I wasn&039;t sure exactly what it said, orI probably didn&039;t want to look at too closely, though But, wait, we had a body to look at, a crime to solve, all the sticky personal stuff could wait Had to wait Yeah, sure

The body was a pale gli lot There was so bit of flesh, like, if I blinked, it would vanish into the October night Maybe it was the ti scene I&039;d just left, but there was so about the way she&039;d been left They&039;d stuffed the body behind the Dumpsters to hide it, then the black wool coat she wore had been opened around her allea lot Why hide her, then do so to draw such attention to her? It made no sense Of course, it may have made perfect sense to the people who killed her Maybe

I stood there, tugging my leather jacket around h for the jacket, but not enough to put the lining in it I had ed into the pockets, the zipper all the way up, ainst the cold I was fighting I stared at that pallid gli Not pity Not sickness Nothing So dead

I o see what there was to see and leave my worries about my moral decay for another time Business, first

I had to coht-hand Duht excla down at her, I could see how tiny she was My size, or smaller She lay on her back, the coat spread under her, still securely on her arms But the cloth had been spread wide, folded under on the side nearest the parked cars, so that she could be seen by a custo out to his car Her hair, too, had been pulled back, combed out If she&039;d been taller, that, too, would have been visible froht yellow around the Dumpster I looked down the line of her body and found the reason that soht she was taller--clear plastic stilettos, at least five inches high Lying down she lost the height Her head had been pressed to the right, exposing biteneck Vampire bite marks

On the mound of her small breast was another pair of bitefro to have toto have to ns of violence There&039;d been a time when the police only called me in after all the other experts had finished with a scene, but that was a while ago I had to make sure I didn&039;t fuck up the scene Which e

Lt Rudolph Storr wasn&039;t hard to spot He&039;s 6&039;8" and built like pro wrestlers used to be built before they all started looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger Dolph was in shape, but he didn&039;t go for the weight lifting He didn&039;t have time Too many crimes to solve His black hair was cut so short it left his ears exposed and somehow stranded on the sides of his head Which always otten a haircut, recently He always had it cut shorter than he liked it, so it would be longer between haircuts His tan trench coat was perfectly pressed His shoes shined in the parking lot lights He didn&039;t care what he looked like, as long as he was neat and tidy Dolph was all about the neat and tidy I think it was one of the reasons that murder pissed him off, it was always so messy

I nodded at the unifor the body and et messed with by anyone that wasn&039;t allowed to touch it He nodded back and went back to staring at the corpse So about hoide his eyes were made me wonder if this was his first vampire kill Was he worried that the victim would rise and try to munch on him? I could have calmed his fears, because I knew this one would never rise She&039;d been drained to death by a group of vamps That won&039;t ive the vamps their fun and not to make the vic one of them I&039;d seen this once before I hoped like hell it wasn&039;t another ue The last one had purposely left vics where we could find theal rights repealed Mr Oliver had believed that vahts, they&039;d spread too fast, eventually turning the entire human race into vampires Then ould everybody feed off of? Yeah, it would take hundreds of years for varee, but the really old vaot the tiain, because I&039;d killed him I&039;d crushed his heart, and no ht rise in old uarantee it Which roup of nuts on our hands, and they could have an entirely newHell, al citizens nohich es just like humans

But somehow it didn&039;t feel personal Don&039;t ask me to explain it, but it didn&039;t

Dolph sawtoward him He didn&039;t smile, or say hi, because one, it was Dolph, and two, he wasn&039;t completely happy with me He wasn&039;t happy with the monsters lately, which rubbed off on me because I ay too inti his son not to become a vampire had earned otten off of a leave without pay, with an infor that if he didn&039;t shape up, he&039;d be suspended, had also et Dolph and I were friends, or I&039;d thought ere We were both a little unsure where we stood right now

"I need to move the Dumpsters to look at the body I also need to move the body around to look forthe crime scene up?"

He looked atin his face that said, clearly, he was not happy to have lanced around at the other detectives, the unifor ambulance, shook his head, and azes follow us as we moved away All of the detectives there knew that Dolph had dragged ht of stairs at a cri God knohat the stories said now, probably that he&039;d hit me, which he hadn&039;t, but what he&039;d done had been bad enough Bad enough I could have pressed charges and won