He grinned. “Too many politicians would be on the wrong side of it.”
“Probably,” I said.
He gave me that glance again. “You know any?”
“No, just being cynical.”
“You’re good at it.”
“Why thank you, always high praise from a cop.” I had the feeling that he still hadn’t asked all of his questions. I waited in the bright neon silence, punctuated by darkness between the lights, as if the night were thicker anywhere the light didn’t shine. My mood was showing in my head.
He pulled into the big circular drive at the New Taj. I realized I should have called ahead and had some of our people meet us. I’d expected to be dropped off by Edward and the boys, and I would have been safe enough. Now it was just me.
“You want me to walk you up?”
I smiled at him, hand on the door. “I’m a big girl.”
“This vampire has a serious hard-on for you, Anita.”
“You ask all the questions you wanted privacy for?” I asked.
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re blunt?”
“All the damn time.”
He laughed again, but there was an edge of nerves to it. “Do you ever get tempted to feed on more than you should?”
The doorman, or the valet, or someone, was at the door. I waved them off. “What do you mean, Rocco?”
“I can take a memory, Anita. I can take it and erase it from their mind. I did it accidentally a few times. It’s like it becomes my memory, not theirs, and it’s a high. It’s a rush. I think if I let myself, I could take it all, every bad memory they’ve ever had. Maybe more. Maybe I could take everything and leave them blank. I think about how it might feel to take it all.”
“Tempts you, doesn’t it?” I said.
He nodded and wouldn’t look at me.
“Have you ever done it?”
He gave me a look of shock, of horror. “No, of course not. It’d be evil.”
I nodded. “It’s not about being able to do something, Rocco. It’s not even about thinking about doing it. It’s not even about being tempted to go too far.”
“Then what is it about?” he asked.
I looked into that very grown-up, very competent face, and watched the doubt in his eyes. I knew that doubt. “It’s about deciding not to do it. It’s about being tempted but not giving in. It isn’t our abilities that make us evil, Sergeant, it’s giving in to them. Psychic ability isn’t any different from being good with a gun. Just because you could walk into a crowd and take out half of them doesn’t mean you will.”
“I can lock my gun up, Anita. I can’t take this out of me and put it somewhere safe.”
“No, we can’t, so every day, every night, we make the choice to be good guys and not bad guys.”
He looked at me, hands still on the steering wheel. “And that’s your answer: we’re good guys because we don’t do bad things?”
“Isn’t that what a good guy is?” I asked.
“No, a good guy does good things, too.”
“Don’t you do good things every day?”
He frowned. “I try.”
“Rocco, that is all any of us can do. We try. We do our best. We resist temptation. We keep moving.”
“I have to be older than you by a decade; why is it that I’m asking you for advice?”
“First, I think I’m older than I look. Second, I’m the first one you’ve met that you thought might be tempted in the same way. It’s hard when you think you’re the only one, no matter how old you are.”
“That sounds like the voice of experience,” he said.
I nodded. “Sometimes, sometimes I’ve got so much company I don’t know what to do with it.”
“Like that,” and he nodded toward the window. It was Truth and Wicked, patiently waiting for us to finish our conversation. Had they been watching for me, or had they just known I was here? Did I want to ask? Not unless I was ready for the answer.
“Yeah, like that. I turned back to him and offered him my hand. “Thanks for the lift.”
“Thanks for the talk.”
We shook, and there was no magic between us now. We were both tired, our fires dimmed behind use and emotion. He got out and helped us unload the car. The overeager bellman was allowed to touch my suitcase and nothing else. Most of my really dangerous stuff was still locked up at SWAT, but there was enough here that I didn’t want the staff carrying it. Wicked and Truth took the extra bags. Sergeant Rocco offered his hand to them. They were surprised by the offer, though he probably didn’t see the signs of it. They shook his hand. He said good night to me, and “See you tomorrow.”
“We’ll start in the area where he found all his vampire victims tonight.”
“Yeah, maybe his lair will be in the area.” He got in his truck. We went for the doors. I wished I felt more secure that Vittorio only hunted near his lair. It seemed like an obvious mistake, and he didn’t strike me as the kind to make those.
Wicked and Truth didn’t say much until they got to the elevator and we were alone. “You seem tired,” Truth said.
“I am.”
“You fed on both of us, and you’re tired already,” Wicked said. “Should we be insulted?”
I smiled and shook my head. “It was a stressful night, and no, it’s no reflection on either of you. You know just how good you both are.”
“A backhanded compliment, but I’ll take it,” Wicked said.
“I wasn’t fishing, I was just saying you seem tired.”
“Sorry, Truth, sorry, just a long damn night.”
They exchanged a look, which I did not like. “What was that look about?”
Wicked said, “Requiem is waiting in your room.”
“I figured that my room would have the coffins, or the adjoining room.”
“That’s not what he means,” Truth said.
“Look, I’m beyond tired, just tell me.”
“He’s waiting to feed you,” Wicked said.
“I fed on both of you less than”-I squinted at my watch-“less than six hours ago. I don’t need to feed the
“Jean-Claude gave instructions that you needed to have food available more often if you wanted it.”
“Did he now?”
The elevator doors opened. “He’s worried that you’ll lose it with the police as your only food, Anita,” Wicked said.
I thought about that and couldn’t argue that it wouldn’t be very bad. “I do not feel in the mood, guys.”
“We’re just giving you a heads-up, Anita,” Wicked said.
“Did you guys tell him I fed on you both?”
They exchanged that look again.
“What?”
“We came through the door, and he said, ‘She fed on you. She fed on you both.’ ”
“How did he know?” I asked.
They shrugged, and it was like a mirrored gesture. “He said he could smell you on our skin.”
“He’s a vampire, not a werewolf.”
“Look,” Wicked said, “don’t shoot the messenger. But he’s waiting in your bed, and if you turn him down, I don’t know how he’s going to take it.”
I leaned my back against the wall between two doors that were not ours. “Are you saying he’s jealous that I fed on you guys?”
“
