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We cleared the far door, ht at our backs waiting for a clear angle We were in the parish hall, and in thehis leather jacket to shield his face frolow of the two uniforuns in one hand, and the crosses in the other, alhts, so that they were able to rip and still show the crosses Training will tell

I yelled, "He&039;s got a knife!"

I saw one of the men&039;s eyes flick to me, but only for a second "We&039;ll cover him, you pat him down"

"Don&039;t be a wussy, Roarke," Smith said, from behindthis close to hiun on the vampire and walked slowly toward him I talked while I moved, "Slowly, drop the knife"

The vampire didn&039;t move, except to cower behind his jacket

I stopped un at hi away inside ely peaceful place I hen I killed, and had time to rev up for it "I&039;ll ask one more time, Jonah Drop the knife, or I put a bullet in you I won&039;t ask again" All the air slid out of me, and my body went as still and peaceful as ht, that static, it was just quiet The world had narrowed down to the crouching figure and nothing else I wasn&039;t really aware of the police, Zerbrowski behind low of the crosses had pulled back, so that my vision was sharpened down to thedropped frolinted in the white glow, but it didn&039;t really register I didn&039;t think knife I had passed the point of no return I was coht entle, as if he understood that I was on the edge The edge where a sharp voice er for me

My breath caun at the ceiling, because I had to stop pointing it at theto shoot hially, I could have done it, but we needed him to talk to us The dead, the true dead, aren&039;t a chatty bunch

"I&039;ve got hiun nice and steady on the vaun to my forehead It didn&039;t feel cool, it ared next to e of my breast as I drew, so I&039;d learned that all those minimizer bras that spread the breast to the side are nota shoulder holster Push-up bras actually keep your breasts up and out of the way You just had to make sure that the bra actually covered the front of you, so you could run without falling out of it Why was I thinking about bras e had a doublevampire still to be subdued? Because I&039;d almost killed him I&039;d almost shot into the mass of his body, not because it was time, but because that&039;s what I did I rarely looked down the barrel of a gun without being able to pull the trigger

I&039;d almost killed him before we tried to question him I&039;d almost killed him, because my body and mind fell into it Fall into this is e do We look down the barrel of a gun, and we pull the trigger, and we shoot to stop Dead is stop

"Anita, how you doing?" Zerbrowski asked

I nodded and lowered the gun to point at the floor I trusted Zerbrowski to get a shot off and slow the vaun up in time to finish it I wasn&039;t sure in that moment that I trusted me to stand there with a bead on the vampire Funny, but I didn&039;t

"I&039;m fine, Zerbrowski"

He kept his eyes on the vaun "Okay It&039;s your warrant"

"Yeah," I said, " behind his leather jacket, and felt nothing He was just so that I wanted information from I couldn&039;t offer him a deal for it The law didn&039;t allow deals with vampires who had murdered But that was a problem for another hour

"Slowly, put your hands on your head and lace your fingers Now!"

His voice caely muffled "Have theht this second?"

He was quiet for a ain, "No"

"Then do what you&039;re told Hands on head, fingers laced, right fucking no!"

He tried to keep his face hidden in the jacket, eyes squeezed tight shut as his arms came up and he put his hands on top of his head

"Lace the fingers"

He did

"Now, on your knees"

"Can I use un back up and pointed "You are beginning to get onknees"

He did it Goodie

"Cross your ankles"

"What?"

"One ankle over the other, cross your ankles"

He did it Whichdown someone who&039;s alive, so much easier to search the dead for weapons How can you tell when you&039;ve been killing maybe a little tooto pat down someone who can still ainst his head "If you move, I shoot Is that clear?"

"Yes," he said in a strained voice

The other nice thing about only touching them after they&039;re dead is that you don&039;t hear the fear in their voices, or feel that fine tremble in their hands and arms You don&039;t have to know that what they&039;re afraid of is you You don&039;t have to think about the fact that the person you&039;re touching is going to have to die, and that nothing they can do, or you can do will stop it The law isn&039;t about justice or ive Jonah NoLastName, or me, options

He had another knife, this one was at the small of his back in a sheath on the inside of his belt He had a wrist sheath, eer sheath at his neck, hidden by the jacket&039;s collar I&039;d never known a vampire to carry that ht I&039;d been wrong about seeing the knife in the other vamp&039;s chest, but no, the bastard had stabbed him and had plenty of knives left I remembered the knife like an exclamation point in the vamp&039;s chest

It made me wonder I looked at one of the knives, hefted it, touched the flat of it with my thumb "Shit, it&039;s silver" I didn&039;t run back to the vaet Jonah the vah I knew that they would only slow him down, if he really wanted free We just hadn&039;t coainst a vath It was one of the reasons that they were killed instead of held over for trial One state had tried cross-wrapped coffins, but it had been shot down as cruel and unusual If I&039;d been asked, I would have asked the legislators that decided the coffins were too cruel, if they, themselves would rather be held in a small confined space until trial, or just killed I&039;d have bet they&039;d have chosen the coffin, but then, no one asked me I&039;d been invited to speak before a Senate subco switched, or the co, or it was almost as if someone didn&039;t want the committee to finish its report Probably political, but whatever, I hadn&039;t been called I&039;d just been asked, a date to be specified later Funny, but I think the committee would have liked my testimony better if they&039;d let me come talk when they first issued the invitation Lately, I had nothing co to say

"Sit hi funny, shoot hi?" Zerbrowski asked

"The knives are silver"

"So?"

"So, our good Sa for the door "If he&039;s going to survive, we&039;ve got minutes to save him"

"Save him how?" Zerbrowski asked

I just shook my head and went for the door

"Go with her, Sun so it was pointed two-handed at the floor "I got your back"

I didn&039;t argue with Sht We trusted each other to watch the bad vamp, but I had to check on the wounded vaave me backup Because neither of us trusted anyone else to cover Jonah the vaot the hero Life had been so much simpler when vampires didn&039;t come in hero-flavor

68

I couldn&039;t see our hero for the broad back of his friend The blond was still kneeling there, holding his hand The blond&039;s shoulders were slumped, and he turned a tear-stained face up to me Faint reddish-pink tracks down his face where the blood in his own tears had marked him The tears made me fear the worst, until I moved around the feet of the other varay eyes up at ish dark hair, and the beginnings of a beard around a wide ood, you&039;re not dead, but I ed not to Point for me

I knelt on the other side of hi out of his chest like an exclamation point I&039;d stabbed my share of vamps in my time, and I knew a heart blohen I saw one Blood welled out around the blade, soaking into the dark-haired one&039;s clothing It was bleeding a lot Which ht, or it was a bad injury, or both

"I didn&039;t realize the knife was silver until we disarmed him I&039;d have coot company"

"Sooner or later," a voice said behind us, "it matters not" Malcolm was behind us Other church uess

"It , Anita, and nothing we can do will save hiht the look in his friend&039;s blue eyes Blue eyes framed by the blue of his shirt collar "I&039;ve seen vampires survive worse"

"You have seen master vaets power from his line, his master," I said, "it isn&039;t always about personal power"

"Truth and Wicked have no masters, do you?"

The blond looked at Malcolm, and there was such hopelessness in his face I couldn&039;t even ets named Truth and Wicked? But in the face of such raw pain, I couldn&039;t do anything but say, "If you have so important to say, Malcolm, say it"

"They are masterless, Anita Thethat created their line was destroyed, too They survived the destruction of their line, but it weakened them"

I looked up at the blond&039;s face, Truth or Wicked, I didn&039;t knohich he was He was staring at Malcolm, but the look in his eyes said it was the truth "If you had blood-oathed theht now"

"I allowed them into my church Most masters would kill theround answered, "They fear us," in a strangled voice

The blond said, "Don&039;t talk, brother, I will talk for you They fear that if other va of our entire bloodline, then others ht wonder if they could kill those that enslave them, too, and survive"

"Brother?" I said

The blond looked up athis blue eyes a reddish cast "Truth is ht, if we remove the knife will Truth not heal it?"

"Once, yes, but the death of our line did weaken us When a silver weapon is used, we heal like a hu out of the vampire&039;s chest "If he was human, he&039;d be dead already, he&039;s not"

"He is dying, Anita, can you not feel it?" Malcolm said

I put my hand on the va blood in his clothes, and I concentrated I felt his energy, for lack of a better word, fading

He took a deep gasping breath and had trouble getting the next breath

"Shit, he&039;s bleeding to death" He was losing soto shut down Shit I looked at the blond "If we just sit here, he will die If we pull the blade out, I may be able to save him"

"How?" the blond asked I just couldn&039;t think of anyone as Wicked, not as a name

How? That was the question If Jean-Claude were here, we could blood-oath him Of course, noith the marks wide open between us, Truth could take my blood and be bound Primo had found that out by accident, now it had possibilities

"I&039;rees, I&039;ve got an idea" I called in my head, "Jean-Claude"

I had a sense of move?"

I didn&039;t use words, I let hihamazed "The Wicked Truth here in America"

"You know them?"

"They are the only vampires in our history to purposefully hunt down their line and murder them"

That threw me "What, why?"

"I knew theirThey arriors, ma petite, such warriors They were to battle what Belle Morte is to sex"

"So, are they too dangerous to bring on board?"

"Do you knohat happens when the source of a line goes mad?"

It see bad"

He laughed inside my head, and it hter people without pay, without politics, or motive of any kind I was still with Belle at the courts I know that the council was planning on sending assassins, but two of the va to attention in England, and for that the council was grateful, but they slew their source of bloodline, their creator, and that is a death sentence a us"

"So why aren&039;t they dead?"

"Because some on the council interceded I do not knohy, or even entirely who, only that Belle voted for them to live, but they were masterless and sent to roam as they would with the hand of any ainst them If they could slay their fountain of blood and survive, then erous to survive"

"How do you feel?"

"What are you offering, ma petite?"

"Remember what happened with Primo?"

"You will feed Truth, and he will be bound to me and to you, is that it?"

"Yeah"

"They are not the brutes of the Dragon&039;s line, but they are warriors that have survived centuries with every hand turned against them I met them once when their master came to the courts They were men of honor"

"What does he say?" Wicked asked

I held up a hand "He&039;s thinking about it"

"No one will risk it," Truth said in that horribly strained voice

Jean-Claude breathed through my mind, shivered over my skin I moved my hand back from the wounded vampire, so the effect didn&039;t spread I opened the h my body, over my skin His power hitbonfire It spilled my head back, bowed my spine, and spilled out from my skin It went out and out and out, and I could feel every vahts in the dark, as if with closed eyes I would know them all

"Back, my children," Malcolh the roaring in ic"

I opened my eyes and knew instantly that ed with black

"What&039;s about to happen?" Smith asked

I looked up at him, and he let out a surprised yelp He licked his lips and stared at htened

"If you don&039;t want to watch, then go back to Zerbrowski"

Smith shook his head "I&039;ll stay"

"You won&039;t like it," I said

He was fighting not to hug hiy of shapeshifters Nothing like being a little psychic in the middle of a ot your back, at least against anything that a gun will stop" That last ht He knew there were dangerous things in the hallway now, but nothing that guns could help with That was almost too smart I&039;d have to be careful around Sure out more than I wanted him to know

I turned back to the two vampires "I am Jean-Claude&039;s human servant We truly are blood of my blood to each other"