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Chapter 63

I WAITED FOR that fla happened The hands were still holding me down, I could still feel the press of power, of that brown flaold of the fla closer

A gunshot sounded so close that I was deaf for a second Then the flaht he meant to kiss me, but realized fro Another shot sounded, and then the people who&039;d been pinningvaht," he said, and he was suddenly standing and running in a movement that I couldn&039;t folloith o, my heart in my throat I&039;d seen only one other vampire that could move like that without , "Fuck, where&039;d he go! There! Did you see that!"

Edas suddenly standing above me, his hand held out I took it, and he lifted me to my feet I swayed a little, and he steadied ht?" he asked

I nodded

He gave me a look

"He tried to et past ave him"

Olaf loomed over us "Is she hurt?"

"I&039;o of Edward&039;s hand, hat I really wanted to do was collapse into his aruys were there now, an to wander around, asking what happened

Hooper was there, his face the only pale thing in the outfit "What the hell happened, Blake?"

"The hostages, the club, it was a trap"

"A trap for what?" Hooper asked

"Me"

Georgie ca personal, Blake, but then why didn&039;t he kill you?"

"He doesn&039;t want me dead"

"What does he want?" Hooper asked

"Me, as his hu to theup fro crowd

What was I supposed to say? "So like that"

"Then he&039;s too late," Cannibal said

"He thinks he&039;s powerful enough to takebut watching ht, he wasn&039;t"

Hooper&039;s mouth made a small ive hiht"

"Amen to that," I said

I turned to Cannibal, alias Sergeant Rocco "So psychic you are Didn&039;t you sense Vittorio working the crowd?"

"Sorry, Anita, but I only do memories"

"Shit, can&039;t any of you sense this kind of thing? Where&039;s Sanchez?" I asked

"Why?" Olaf asked

"I thought he ht have sensed the metaphysics"

"He&039;s with the second tea&039;s house," Edward said "Grimes wanted his practitioners to see if they could sense the demon"

"Why aren&039;t you with Sanchez?" I asked Rocco

"My ability is touch anda demon on purpose, and I don&039;t want thoseto see if they can sense the deets or farther away fro on what they find"

"Give et out there"

Edas beside un from a pocket in his tac pants

Rocco said, "You have vaht here; why chase dee situation I&039;otiator"

Bernardo ca down his face from a cut on his forehead; apparently someone had hit back

The people from the croho had tried to beat the hell out of police officers were being given blankets and hot drinks by Red Cross workers The tea them out, with his med tech by his side I heard a , but I couldn&039;t stop I had to do what the voice in my head told me to do I wanted to stop, but I couldn&039;t"

I stepped in front of Rocco, and he stopped, looking at me "If Sanchez and the other practitioners can sense the demon, it can sense them If it&039;s what killed the other operators, it could coic"

"Most deht," Edward said

"We&039;re aware that sos can sense psychic ability, Marshal We&039;ve got the arbled"

I was impressed and said so

"Psychic ability is just another part of the job for us," he said His radio crackled to life, and he turned to listen He started to do a slow jog, and the rest of us just fell into step with his were shorter "The vaes, and they surrendered"

"What&039;s the catch?" I asked If anyone heard me, they didn&039;t answer, but I knew there was a catch; with vampires there was always a catch

Chapter 64

SOMEONE HAD HIT the lights in the club so that it was bathed in bright lights Lower-rent strip clubs are not hts; they reveal all the cracks and bad paint patch-up jobs They show the illusion for what it is: a lie A lie about sex, and the pro it, if you just pay a little bit more money Nathaniel, my live-in sweetie, had explained toon the customer&039;s hope that real sex is possible It&039;s all about advertising but never really selling Under the harsh overhead lights, the scarlet wo, you wouldn&039;t want to buy

The dancer who had lost an ear was being rushed to the hospital, with the idea that they ht be able to sew the ear back on; the wound was fresh enough The other dancers were in the back roo interviewed, because we had the vaes The vampires were chained in shackles with the new special er, more well-funded police forces had for preternatural crie metal I hadn&039;t seen it put to the test yet, so I&039;d wait before putting my faith in it too co row, their hands held aardly in front of them because the chain went to their waist and their ankles I had to admit that even if they broke the h chain to attack before we could get a shot off Maybe just shackles were a good idea, though you had to get up close and personal to shackle a prisoner, and to e, the only person in this rooaze wasthe chained va out of reach, but he paced the of buying OrMaybe

Edward and Bernardo were interviewing the dancers Why was I with Olaf? Because the dancers knew a predator when they saw one, and even after an evening of being held prisoner by vampires, some of the to settle their nerves For a good interview, Olaf needed to be elsewhere Why didn&039;t I interview the woet as up close to the va bespelled My specialty ledto Sergeant Rocco, aka Cannibal, because either he or one of his ive the vamps direct eye contact, but they stayed close Frankly, Rocco made me a little nervous after our encounter at SWAT HQ, but the first time he h to er man have to ide around me-I just enjoyed that souys, this is the drill We&039;re going to escort you one at a time into another roost yourselves while we&039;re gone Marshal Jeffries and some of the nice SWAT operators will still be in the room, so er kindergarteners There wasn&039;t a vampire in the room that I would have been afraid of, one on one But there were ten of them, and ten was a lot Ten of any kind of vas all rush you at once and you won&039;t get them all

Officers helped the first vampire up to shuffle into a small room behind the bar It here the liquor was kept, and they put him in a chair that they&039;d found just for this I knelt by the first vahtly plump man with pale brown eyes and hair toHe was trying to be all harmless, friendly, helpful, but I knew that of all of them, he was the oldest I could feel him in my head, like an echo of time He was three hundred if he was a day He was dressed neatly, too neatly for the heat, for the town, for what he was pretending to be He had pale slacks and a slightly darker tan shirt tucked in and buttoned up The belt was good leather and matched the shoes His nondescript brown hair had been cut recently and well The watch on his wrist was gold and expensive, though once it doesn&039;t say Rolex, I can&039;t tell you what it is, but thanks to Jean-Claude I know quality when I see it

I smiled at him He smiled back "Name?"

"Jefferson, Henry Jefferson"

"Well, Mr Henry Jefferson, tell me what happened"

"Honestly, officer, I was in the casino, playing poker, and he came to stand by the table, just outside the ropes"

Ropes h-end tables, where a hand could start at five hundred, or ten thousand, or more "Then what?" I asked

"Then he made me cash out and told me to come with him" He looked up at me, and there was puzzlement and a hint of fear on his face "Maximillian is a powerful Master of the City He protects us, but this guy just came out of nowhere and I couldn&039;t say no"

The next vaer in every way Maybe only a few years dead, and barely legal when he crossed over to undead land He had healed needle scars at the bends of his elbows He&039;d been clean a long tiht?" It was the va denomination in the country Want to knohat it&039;s like to die? Ask a church oing on Church members wearsituation, you call the Church and have a vampire come and finish the job

The h to flash fang before he remembered Boy, he was new He recovered and tried to do what all the older va to the police: play human Not pretend to be human, but just don&039;t be vahtened, "how did you"

"The needle tracks The Church got you off drugs, right?"

He nodded

"What&039;s your name?"

"Steve"

"Okay, Steve, what happened?"

"I was at work I sell souvenirs just down the street People like buying from a vampire, ya know"

"I know," I said

"But he came up to the stand, and he said, Coazed up at htened "Why did I do that?"

"Why does a huaze?" I asked

He shook his head "I don&039;t do that The Church rules"

"Say no vaaze, but I bet you&039;ve tried it, at least once"

He looked embarrassed

"It&039;s okay, Steve, I don&039;t care if you&039;ve played slap-and-tickle with the tourists with your eyes Did this vampire catch you with his eyes?"

He frowned up at aze It was almost as if he said, Come with me, and I had to do it"

"So, was it his voice?"

Steve didn&039;t know

None of them knehy they had done it They&039;d left their jobs, their dates, their money on craps tables, and just followed him Sometimes Vittorio had spoken; sometimes he&039;d simply stood close to them Either way, they&039;d followed hiirl looked about nineteen, but except for Henry Jefferson, she was the oldest of theuess, and it wasn&039;t a guess Her hair was long and dark and had fallen over her face, so she was trying to blink it out of her eyes

We&039;d already been through name, rank, and serial nuet your hair out of your eyes?"

"Please," she said

I ray eyes She was the first one to ask, "You&039;re looking me in the eyes; most humans don&039;t do that I , but cops are trained not to look into our eyes"

I sh to roll me with your eyes, Sarah"

She frowned up at me "I don&039;t understand" Then her eyes ide, and what little color she had to her skin drained away You don&039;t get to see a vao pale very often

"Oh my God," she said, and her voice held terror

Rocco stepped up "What&039;s wrong?"

"She&039;s figured out who I am," I said, quietly

Sarah the vampire had started to scream "No, please, he made me It was like I was some human He just rolled me Oh, God, I swear to you I didn&039;t do this I didn&039;t mean Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God You&039;re the Executioner! Oh,to kill us all!"