Skin Trade

“They already think we’re pussy-whipped; why disappoint them?”

I shrugged, realized he couldn’t see it, and said, “Okay, but please warn Bernardo and Olaf what we’re doing so that they don’t blame me.”

“I’ll tell them. Just get here.” I heard noise on the other end of the phone, and his voice trailing away, “Hello, Detective Morgan, yes, it is Marshal Blake.” Movement, then, “Ask nicely, and maybe I will.”

Apparently, he asked nicely. “Where the hell are you, Blake?”

“Following up a lead,” I said.

“What kind of lead?”

“Vampires,” I said.

“And what kind of vampire lead would that be?”

“One that didn’t lead anywhere.”

“So you just wasted an hour and a half of our time,” and his voice was hostile.

“Most leads don’t pan out, you know that. Besides, it’s not me that’s trying to double-paper my ass.”

“Just get your ass back here.”

“You aren’t my boss, Morgan. Put Ted back on.”

“Is he your boss?”

“Closest thing Vegas has to one, yeah.”

There was more noise, and movement, and then Edward came back on. “Sorry, about that, Blake,” he said in his cheerful Ted voice. I heard him walking, cowboy boots hitting some hard surface, and then he spoke in his normal voice. “Morgan didn’t agree with Shaw going to a judge. He thought we should throw Bering to the wolves.”

“So he’s taking his mad-on at Shaw out on us?”

“Yelling at us won’t get him fired or demoted.”

“I’m getting really tired of being everyone’s whipping girl, Edward.”

“Yeah.” He stopped walking. “Get here, Anita. We need this done.”

I was left with a buzzing phone. Actually, I’d have rather tackled the demon in the daylight, but two problems with that. One, some demons didn’t show up in daylight, so if you wanted to kill it or send it back, you needed it to be dark. Two, if the vampires were in there, again, I’d rather wait until daylight, but while we waited and played it safe, they might kill someone else. Not acceptable. So much of my job, lately, was just a choice of disasters. I guess that was true of a lot of police work, though.

I turned back to the vampires. “I need to get back to Vegas and help us push our warrant for a house.”

“I thought your warrant covered any house you needed,” Wicked said.

“It does, but we’ve got a pissy undersheriff and a judge who doesn’t like the execution warrants. A lot of judges don’t.”

“Why would they not like it? It’s only a nearly perfectly legal excuse to kill anything in your path,” Wicked said.

“You sound like you don’t approve.”

“Not my job to approve or disapprove.”

“Fine, Truth, you take me to Vegas.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it,” Wicked said.

“Then stop bitching. I’ve had enough of that from the locals.”

His face softened. “I’m sorry, Anita, but I am a vampire, and the executioners could kill me tomorrow with almost no proof of a crime and no trial.”

“Hey, at least you guys can’t be killed on sight in this country; better than most of the rest of the world.”

Wicked and Truth came to stand in front of me, giving me that mirrored look as if they were thinking the same thought. “We’ll take you where you need to go,” Truth said.

“Aren’t you afraid to touch me?” I asked.

He shook his head.

I studied that serious face. “Aren’t you afraid of the ardeur?”

“Yes.”

Wicked answered, “He’s not afraid of you, Anita. We know you meant what you said. Belle would never ask that of anyone. She likes being the monster.”

I shivered, and it wasn’t pleasure this time. “I’ve felt her touch.” I thought about her dream visit. I was almost sure that she’d kept Victor the weretiger from doing something to me in the dream, but in return she’d done something to the ardeur. Had it been her who caused the ardeur to spread to Truth from a distance? I didn’t know, and if I asked her, she’d lie.

“Whoever’s up for it, let’s fly me to Edward.”

“She’s afraid of heights,” Wicked said.

“How afraid?” Truth asked.

“Pretty,” he said.

Truth looked down at me, considering. “We would never drop you.”

I waved the thought away. “It’s a phobia, not logic. Just decide who’s taking me before I lose my nerve.”

They laughed, and it was like hearing it in stereo. Wicked said, “You may lose a lot of things, but you’ll never lose your nerve.”

“Pretty to think so; now who’s pilot for the return trip?”

“Why don’t you just order one of us?” Truth asked.

“Because I can’t fly, and I don’t know if Wicked is tired from carrying me here and then feeding the ardeur. So I trust you two to decide who’s up for it.”

Wicked smiled at me. “I’m almost more honored that you trust us, rather than order us, than I am about the sex.”

I shrugged. “You’re welcome, I guess. Now, whoever, but I need to get back to town.”

“I’ll take her,” Truth said.

“I’ve had more recovery time,” Wicked said.

“I’ll take her,” Truth repeated. The brothers looked at each other for a long moment. One of those unreadable moments that you can simply feel on the air like a weight of unspoken things, and you suddenly feel like a voyeur in someone else’s life. I realized why Bernardo had said something similar earlier about Edward and me. He was right.

Finally, Wicked said, “As you like.”

“I do,” he said.

Again, I felt like I was listening to shorthand, and that there were a dozen things going on below the surface of those few words, but you’re never supposed to let people know that you hear the unspoken things. It makes them nervous. I scare people enough without going all girl-intuitive, too.

Truth looked at me. “Are you ready?”

I took in a deep breath, let it out slowly, fighting to keep it from trembling, then nodded.

He closed the distance between us. He hesitated, then said, “I need to carry you.”

I nodded again. “I know.” My voice sounded just the tiniest bit unhappy. I could do this, damn it. It was just heights, and flying, and… Oh, hell, I did not want to do this, but we were too far out for driving, even if we had a car. This was the quickest way, and Edward had stalled for me long enough.

Truth picked me up in his arms, as if he meant to walk with me. Something must have shown on my face because he said, “It’s the most secure way for you.”

“It’s just that Wicked carried me differently.”

Wicked said, “I was afraid you might’ve started struggling with the hunger on you. Carrying you against my body, I had more control if you had gone… mad while we were flying.”

Truth turned with me in his arms and asked, “You said hunger, not ardeur.”

“The first hunger that came to her was blood and flesh. She had turned toward the humans when she asked me to take her someplace where she would not be tempted.”

Truth looked down at me, his face blank and serious, which I’d begun to realize was his blank face. It was