Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #22)

Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #22) Page 29

57

They found a map, and the cluster of pins - red for known victims, green for missing people, yellow for missing people found dead of presumed natural causes - did form a pattern, but not the one I was hoping for. There was a cluster at the beginning in a remote spot in the mountains, but then the next cluster was miles away and less isolated, and the next one closer to one of the small towns in the mountains, and then bypassing it and heading toward Boulder.

The big surprise was that Travers joined us for the planning/briefing session. I'd known that Truth had sucked out the rot, but I'd assumed he'd been more hurt than just the vampire bite. He was bandaged up enough for the dressing to show at the collar of his shirt, and he moved carefully as he leaned against one of the pillars in the room, wincing as he settled his six-feet-plus frame. Everyone had said how glad they were to see him and hadn't expected him. I'd said hi and good to see him. He'd given me a tiny nod, his face guarded. Last I'd seen, me and my people had saved his ass twice. Something told me he was going to be weird about it. Sigh.

'How did we not see this?' Detective Foster asked. He was an older detective who was down to that fringe of hair, and in his glasses he looked more like a high school math teacher than a cop, until you noticed the width of his shoulders and the small muscles that played in his forearms.

'We didn't see it, because there's nothing to see,' Travers said, in his big, deep voice, all gruff like when he'd been trash-talking me in the mountains. 'That is every hiker and tourist gone missing for three months. It is not vampire victims.'

'You guys usually lose that many hikers in a three-month period?' I asked.

There was a moment of silence, and then Foster said, 'No, and that's what I mean about how did we miss it? Even if it wasn't vampires or some other preternatural, it's still too many people to lose. Someone should have red-flagged it.'

Captain Jonas stepped up beside the map. 'This is the first time that all the cases have been put together. Individually it was a bigger number of missing and accidents than normal, but not that much bigger.'

'It's the same problem we run into all the time as marshals. Different law enforcement agencies covering different areas mean that you don't share information unless there's a reason for it. Different jurisdictions, hell, different ranger stations cover at least two of these areas. Some of them could still just be runaways; an elderly man who wandered off and was found dead by a presumed fall and exposure may be just that. People die by accident all the damn time, especially in wilderness areas if they don't have experience and they don't understand how fast the temperature can drop or the weather can change.'

'How do you know so much about mountains? You're from St Louis - that's what, a few hundred feet above sea level?' Travers called out.

'I've executed warrants all over the country. I had one in the mountains where a snowstorm came up so fast we were lucky to find shelter, so I did more research on weather patterns and survival for this kind of terrain, because you're right, I'm a flatlander, and it damn near got me killed once. I've worked to make sure it doesn't happen a second time.'

'Aren't you just the little Boy Scout,' he said.

'What is your problem with Blake?' Hatfield asked.

He looked surprised. 'Since when did you become her biggest fan? I heard you called her a fur-banger and coffin bait.'

Hatfield looked embarrassed. 'I didn't know Marshal Blake then, and when I did I jumped on her bandwagon, Officer Travers. Since five people died last night, because I didn't have her expertise with the undead.'

'The vampires looked dead; they were dead. No one could have known the vampires weren't dead enough,' Travers said.

'Blake knew. Forrester knew.'

'Bullshit,' he said.

'Travers, what the hell is your problem? Everyone else who came off that mountain with her has nothing but good to say about her. I hear one of her vampires saved your life,' Captain Jonas said.

'Yeah, one of her vampire lovers fixed me all up.' He sounded bitter.

'Travers, shut the fuck up. If Blake has to keep defending her honor against all our people, I'm going to run out of people to send into the field,' Jonas said.

'I heard about Rickman. He's good in a fight; she got a lucky shot,' Travers said.

Edward laughed.

Travers glared at him. 'You got a problem, Forrester?'

'Anita didn't get in a lucky shot.'

'I say she did,' Travers said, and pushed away from the pillar and winced, but he straightened so all six foot five of him towered over the room, and by implication Edward.

'Anita didn't need luck to win the fight,' Edward said.

'You were there, right?'

'No.'

'Then how the hell do you know what happened? You ever even meet Rickman?'

'I don't have to meet him,' Edward said.

'What does that mean?'

'Anita doesn't win because she's lucky. She wins because she's just that good.'

'Well, I guess you'd know how good she is,' Travers said.

Edward pushed off the desk where he'd been half-sitting.

Travers started moving toward him slowly, stiffly, but moving. He was smiling. I knew that kind of smile. It meant he wanted a fight, but he wasn't picking on me; he wanted a piece of my 'boyfriend.'

Jonas said, 'That's it, Travers; go home.'

'You need every man you can get,' he said.

'I need every man and woman who wants to work as a team and do their damn jobs. I know Rickman is like one of your best buds, but now that Blake beat his sorry ass, you don't need to take his place as her bully.'

'I got no beef with Blake.'

'Then stop trying to pick a fight with her and Forrester. Make one more out-of-line remark and I will send you home and write your ass up officially.'

'Write me up for what?'

'Sexual harassment, for starters,' Jonas said.

'I didn't sexually harass anybody.'

'Maybe my memory is better than yours, Travers, so I'll quote you back to yourself: "Well, I guess you'd know how good she is." That was a sexual remark aimed at both our visiting marshals.'

'I wasn't talking to Blake, so how is that harassing her?'

'Did you sleep through the last sexual harassment seminar? Comments made in the presence of a female officer can also constitute harassment.'

Weirdly it sort of hurt my feelings that Travers seemed angrier with me now than before I'd saved his ass in the mountains, and then I wondered if he hadn't liked being saved by a woman and a bunch of preternaturals? If that was it, it pissed me off even more.

Hatfield stood up for me. 'If one of her vampires hadn't sucked out that rotting disease, you'd be dying like the sheriff.'

'I didn't ask for the help,' he said.

'Ungrateful bastard,' I said.

He turned those angry eyes to me. 'You want a piece of me, Blake?'

'If you mean sexually, no thanks.'

He flushed, his face coloring.

'If you mean a fight, I'll wait until you're healed. It wouldn't be fair while you're wounded.'

His face darkened even more, and he started walking toward me, which meant toward Edward, too, since we were beside each other.

'Don't finish walking over here, Travers,' Edward said, 'because I don't care if you're wounded.'

'You think you can take me?'

'I know I can,' and he smiled as he said it, which was the guy equivalent of saying he didn't want the fight at the same time he was encouraging it.

Travers kept coming. Captain Jonas intercepted him. He looked small beside the other man, but there was nothing small about his attitude. 'Go home, Travers. I'll be recommending you get some counseling, because you're obviously traumatized by recent events.'

'I'm not hurt that bad; I can help find this bastard.'

'I didn't say you were hurt, I said you were traumatized. Now go home while I can still give you the benefit of the doubt. If you touch either Forrester or Blake, I will suspend you without pay, now - go home right now!'

He turned to go but had to throw a comment over his shoulder. 'I don't owe your vampire anything, Blake.'

'Truth didn't save you so you'd owe him something. He saved you because it was the right thing to do and he respects fellow warriors.'

'He is not a fellow warrior. He's just a damn bloodsucker!'

'Would you rather be rotting away in the hospital like Sheriff Callahan?' I didn't yell it, but my voice was getting louder.

'Why didn't your vampire save him?'

'Because the disease has spread through his body, and there's no one place to suck the poison out.' I felt the bite of tears behind my eyes. I would not cry in front of this bastard. 'It's too late to save Micah's dad, but we were able to save you, you fucking ungrateful, misogynistic, prejudiced, racist, undeserving bastard.'

Travers's face sort of froze, and then it was like he looked lost - that was the only word I had for it. That one expression was enough; something about the fight in the mountains, being wounded, being saved by Truth, had affected him deeply, and not in a good way. He just turned without another word and walked out.

'What the hell was that about?' Jonas asked, to no one in particular.

Since the question hadn't been directed at anyone in particular, no one answered it. In fact, the silence was a little thick.

It was Deputy Al from the back of the room. 'Sorry I'm late, but damn, Anita, you cuss real pretty.'

It made people laugh, at least a little. I smiled as Al walked farther into the room. He smiled at me, and the look on his face let me know he'd heard enough of what had just happened to want to make it better. Travers might be an ungrateful bastard, but for every one of those there was an Al, and a Hatfield, and a Jonas. I had more friends than enemies in most cities. It was just that I didn't understand why some people kept resenting me; I just didn't get it, and I never would. I wasn't much for hating people for things they couldn't change, like the way they looked, or psychic gifts, or whatever. I was grumpy and killed people almost everywhere I went, but I didn't hate them. That probably wasn't much of a comfort to the people I executed, but hey, sometimes you take what you can get.

58

Once upon a time, hunting vampires was all about daylight. You hoarded the hours while the vamps couldn't be up and hunting you back so you could find them in their daytime lair and put a stake through their hearts, or decapitate them while they were dead to the world and couldn't fight back, but we had two vampires in custody that might be able to answer all our questions. They probably knew his daytime retreat, but while the sun was up they couldn't talk to us. Yes, there was that pesky lawyer thing, but now that the warrant was mine I could use all the power it granted me. That power included being able to force the lawyer to let me question them with him present, if I believed more lives would be lost without their information. We'd lost five people last night, and only two of them had a job that put them in harm's way; the other three had been innocent bystanders. I had all the proof I needed to be able to question the vampires once the sun went down. I was looking forward to nightfall and being able to talk to them, at the same time that I was worried what this rogue master had up his undead sleeve. The zombies at the hospital and the rotting vampires that wouldn't die had been pretty terrible, even by my standards. So, on one hand I was eager for the day to pass, and on the other hand, not so much.

Deputy Al went out with all the officers who could be spared to hunt up some of the more isolated people who weren't answering their phones and hadn't been seen in a while. Now that the warrant was officially mine I could include our guards in the investigation. It was a clause in the Preternatural Branch that had come into place after several marshals died because they were alone and hunting very bad things but couldn't involve civilians. When they did, some of the civilians had been charged with assault and in one case murder, because it had happened in states where self-defense wasn't as broadly defined in that individual state's laws. Most people don't realize how different some laws are from state to state. We are still the United States of America, and the founders of our country worded it that way for a reason. We're supposed to be a bunch of individual entities under the umbrella of America, not just one entity known as America, or that's how it was originally set up. The states may not be the nearly separate countries that the Founding Fathers thought they'd be, but legally there can be some surprising differences. In the days before I had a badge but was still expected to carry out legal executions, I read up on the laws of individual states, a lot. The Supreme Court had ruled in favor of some of the civilians who had saved the marshals' lives, but they'd been in jail until that time, so a new 'law' had been piggybacked onto the Marshals Service. It was really an old tradition given new language and new legality. As the warrant holder I could recruit civilians if I thought they had skills that would help me stay alive and help me keep civilian casualties lower.

It was basically a legal version of the sheriff standing out in front of the saloon in the Old West and saying, 'Let's form a posse and go get these guys.' It meant that I could have Nicky with me officially.

I found a little privacy in a corner of the room as everyone cleared out and called him to join me; he'd asked, 'Do you want Dev?'

'I think Dev has had enough of my day job for a while,' I said.

'Do you have a preference of who I bring with me?'

'I don't know who all is here now. Lisandro said that they'd only brought the best; with Claudia in charge I believe it.'

'So let Claudia pick?' he asked.

'As long as her choice isn't someone that you or I don't like to work with, and it has to be someone who works well with the police.'

'I'll see who Claudia wants to send. Do you have a preference where Dev goes in the rotation?'

'Do you? He and you partner a lot for guard duty,' I asked.

Either he made a small pleased sound, or I could hear him smile over the phone. 'I love that you asked my opinion, when you could just make your Bride suck it up.'

I smiled. 'I guess I'm just not that kind of Groom. Honestly, until you made that remark in the hospital I thought you and Dev were good friends.'

'I don't know if I can explain it to you, but he's a friend up to a point. When he lost it after the basement fight, his status in my friend list went down.'

'Because he was weak?' I made it a question.

'And because if that fight bothered him, then he doesn't want to know most of what I've spent my life doing. You can't really be friends with someone who only likes parts of you. I can be work friends with Dev, and share you with him like in the shower, that was fun, but he couldn't stomach who I really am, Anita. I know that now.'

Edward came up to me. 'Can I put a vote in?'

I nodded. 'Ted wants to put his two cents' worth in,' I said.

'I'm cool with that,' Nicky said.

I looked at Edward, raising my eyebrows. 'Who do you want to play with?'

'I don't know everyone they brought with them, but if I can't have Bobby Lee or Fredo, I'll take Lisandro. If they brought him, Socrates would be okay, too. I'd say Claudia, but she's not sure she likes me.'

'Claudia's never said she doesn't like you, at least not to me,' I said.

'She suspects I get you into more danger than I help you get out of.'

Nicky chimed in. 'I don't want Claudia. She's great in a fight, but she's not comfortable around me.'

'Why?' I asked.

'I'm a big, dominant male werelion; after what happened with your last lover who fit that description, she doesn't trust me.'

He very delicately hadn't said Haven's name, because he knew having to kill him had hurt me in ways that I was still discovering. Claudia had never liked Haven, and when the shit hit the fan she'd helped me kill him, after he shot Nathaniel and her and killed one of the other werelions. It had been a mess.

'Okay, I guess I can understand that,' I said, 'but I'd rather not use Lisandro.'

'He's good at the job,' Nicky said.

'Yeah, but he almost died last time he came out on a case. He's the only one on the list who's married and has kids. I'd rather not have to explain to his wife and kids why they're down one husband and father.'

'Lisandro knows the risks,' Nicky said.

Edward said, 'If you leave Lisandro home when it gets dangerous, then you've effectively ruined him as a guard.'

I sighed. 'Maybe, but humor me, okay?'

'If you're talking to me, just tell me what you want and I have to humor you, remember,' Nicky said.

'I remember, Nicky. I was talking to Ted.'

Edward said, 'Is Socrates in town?'

'Socrates is good,' I said.

'Yeah, but he doesn't trust me, makes it hard to work together.'

'Why doesn't he trust you?'

'I'm a bad guy and he's an ex-cop,' Nicky said.

'You're not a bad guy,' I said.

'Yes, I am, Anita.'

'We'll agree to disagree,' I said.

He gave that deep chuckling laugh. 'No, Socrates's cop sense goes crazy around me, and it should. I'm exactly what he thinks I am. I just don't hide it as good as Ted.'

I started to say, But Ted isn't a bad guy either, and then stopped myself. Bad and good were relative terms when it came to my best bud and to some of my lovers. I took a deep breath and let it go. It was a philosophical problem for another day.

'No, of the people they brought I'd prefer Lisandro or Domino. Pride would be okay, but he was raised and trained with Dev. He might have the same issue in a rough fight. Ethan is good, but I don't know if he can handle your job either,' Nicky said.

'Pride is here, really? Our other golden tiger guard hasn't ever come out on an away job,' I said.

'Apparently Claudia volunteered him and he didn't say no,' Nicky said.

'Who else?' I asked.

Edward came close and said, 'Anita, let Lisandro do his job.'

'I just remember how I felt when I thought we'd gotten him killed last time out. All I could think was I didn't want to tell his kids and his wife.'

'I have kids, and I'm Donna's husband except for a legal piece of paper, but you aren't leaving me home.'

I looked up into those blue eyes. He was saying something warm, but the eyes had bled to winter sky pale. I realized we were the last in the room, except for Hatfield. She wanted to ride with us, to learn the job the only way that seemed to work well, in the company of someone else who already knew how to do it. She was standing across the room, giving us privacy. Everyone else had taken their share of the addresses to check and left. Edward didn't have to pretend to be Ted when it was just me.

'Compromise,' I said. 'We bring Lisandro and Socrates. I'll talk to him about toning down his spider-sense about your thugginess.'

'You really think having Socrates along will keep Lisandro safe?' Edward asked.

I shrugged.

'You have to let him do his job, Anita.'

'No, no, I don't.' I looked at him.

He frowned at me. 'You can't be like this just because people are married and have kids. Your guards are going to have a life outside of their job, and that's going to include more kids eventually.'

'I know that,' I said, but I sounded defensive even to myself.

'Then stop letting your issues with your own childhood mess with Lisandro's ability to do his job,' Edward said.

'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'Anita,' he said, and just looked at me.

I wanted to pout, or get unreasonably angry, all things I'd done for years as a coping mechanism. 'Fine, but I still want a third guard to come with them.'

'Will you trust Nicky to pick the third guard?' Edward asked.

I sighed and then said, 'Yeah, sure.'

'Me, too,' he said.

I looked at him. 'Really?' I said, and didn't try to keep the surprise out of my face.

'Lisandro and who?' Nicky asked.

'Edward and I agree that you can pick whoever else comes with the two of you.'

'You used his real name,' Nicky said.

'Sorry, he just surprised me.'

'What'd he do to surprise you that badly?'

'I'll explain later,' I said. 'Just be ready. We'll pick you up on the way out of town.'

'Will do. Love you,' he said.

'I love you, too,' I said, and it was automatic, because I was still studying Edward's face. When Nicky had hung up, I said to Edward, 'You trust Nicky's judgment that much?'

He gave one nod.

'High damn praise,' I said.

'You know me, Anita; I like working with sociopaths who are willing to do anything to get the job done.'

'What's that say about me?'

He grinned, and it was all back to good-ol'-boy Ted. 'You'll never be as good a sociopath as I am, Anita, and neither of us will be as good at it as Nicky. It means he won't let emotion color his choice. It isn't that his feelings are hurt about Socrates not trusting him, it's that the lack of trust makes Socrates hesitate to follow Nicky's lead in a fight, and that makes for a bad team, and more than any sport, combat means you need a good working team.'

I stopped arguing, because Edward trusted Nicky. It was unprecedented that he had that much faith in one of my lovers. He liked Micah and Nathaniel. He didn't dislike Jean-Claude, but that wasn't the same thing as trusting any of them. I shoved it all away, put in a box to look at later, because we were running behind. I admitted to myself that the reason I'd argued about Lisandro had been about me losing my mother when I was eight. I knew how much damage that had done to me, and I didn't want to do the same thing to Lisandro's kids; there, that was the truth. I hated when my own issues interfered with me doing my job. They'd gotten in the way of my personal life for years, but my job was usually safe from my neuroses - well, most of the time.

We got Hatfield and went for Edward's SUV. I told her we were picking up some deputies on the way out of town. She didn't argue, just asked, 'Are we picking up the two blond men?'

'One of them,' I said.

'And new friends?' she asked.

'New to you,' Edward said.

'I look forward to meeting them,' she said.

I glanced in the rearview to see if she was being sarcastic, but her face looked open and honest.

'What?' she asked.

'Just trying to decide if you meant that.'

'If there's anyone, or anything, that can help me do my job better, I'm all for it. I got those people killed last night. I can't bring them back, but I can get better and not do it again.'

'You didn't kill them, Hatfield,' I said.

'Neither of you would have stored the body parts in the morgue of a hospital. If either of you had been in charge last night, all five victims from last night would be alive now. Tell me how my ignorance didn't cost them their lives.'

I didn't know how to answer her.

'We all make mistakes until we know better,' Edward said.

'Exactly, and I'm going to follow you both around like your fucking shadows and learn all I can before you leave.'

I wasn't sure I wanted Hatfield following me that closely, but I couldn't tell her no. Edward and I exchanged a look. He didn't tell her no either. I guess we had a third wheel. I wondered how she'd like Lisandro and whoever else Nicky picked. For that matter, I wondered what they'd think of Hatfield.