Kitty and the Silver Bullet

really nasty fight— no weapons, all hand-to-hand. Or claw and fang to hand. All ten victims tested positive for lycanthropy. Do you know any of these people? Can you identify them?'

These were Rick's lycanthropes. Despite the blood, I recognized them. No sign of the confident pack he'd gathered looked out at me now. I touched the pictures, lining them up.

'We also found three sets of what might also be remains, but there's not much there. Some ashes. I think they might have been vampires. There's no way to ID them.'

Only seven of these were Rick's. Two others were wolves from Carl's pack. Tough guys who didn't mind fights. Both had been wolves for over a decade. One of them worked as a bouncer in Denver. Now they were dead.

The tenth photo was Jenny. Her throat had been torn out. I couldn't see her neck, only a pulped mess. She was wearing the shirt she'd had on yesterday. Blond hair made a tangled, bloody frame around her. Her face was only speckled with blood and seemed incongruously relaxed, almost peaceful. She'd found another way to escape.

'You do know them,' Hardin said.

I'd lifted Jenny's photo and couldn't turn away from it. I couldn't feel what my face was doing, what expression Hardin saw on me. I only knew that I couldn't talk. My throat had shut tight, my voice had died.

'Kitty?' the detective prompted.

'She wasn't supposed to be here,' I said, forcing it out. The effort made my voice taut to the breaking point. 'She was supposed to be on an airplane. She's the one I told you about last night.' She was supposed to be free now.

Gently, Hardin drew the photo from my hand and put it back with the others. 'That one's odd. Her time of death came about seven hours earlier than the others. Her body was left there. She didn't die with them.'

No, Carl had killed her before and then dumped her with the rest. I had to assume it was Carl. He might have had help with the rest, but he'd killed Jenny all by himself. But how had he found her? How had she let him find her? How had he stolen her past airport security?

The implication of the rest of the photos only settled on me slowly, the shock wave after the initial blast of seeing Jenny dead: Rick's coup had failed. One of those piles of ash might be him. I had no way of knowing if he'd died. I might never know. Seven lycanthropes, three vampires— that was almost everyone.

'Are they all wolves?' I'd never seen Rick's henchman Dack as a human. I couldn't know if one of these was him. 'Was there any other kind of lycanthrope?'

'The tests aren't that good. I can tell you lycanthrope or not. Not which flavor. Yet.'

'What happened?' I said softly, though I could already guess. I already knew.

'These seven died from wounds inflicted by other lycanthropes. They practically had their hearts ripped out.' She grouped five of the photos together, the ones with the worst of the blood and mess. A lycanthrope could survive a lot of damage, but not that. 'These three, the bites are smaller, human-sized, and the victims died of blood loss. Vampire, I assume. I have to make some calls to verify that. What I don't know: Were they part of the same pack, or were they from two different packs having a conflict? Do vampires ever get involved in this sort of thing? What can you tell me about this?'

This wasn't just about the vampire and werewolf territories anymore; a third one had gotten involved: the law enforcement jurisdiction. How would she treat this sort of thing going on in her territory? I didn't want her involved. She and her people couldn't handle it. Unless she could, of course. She was open-minded about this. She had educated herself. She had silver bullets.

Maybe I didn't want to see what would happen if she took on this mess and was able to handle it.

'Detective, if I tell you, you have to promise to stay out of it. To keep your people out of it.'

'I can't promise that,' she said, shaking her head, clearly offended. 'I've got murder victims, I've got higher-ups breathing down my neck. What am I supposed to tell them? The werewolves are just getting a little feisty?'

'This isn't like anything you've ever dealt with before. You have to believe me.' What could I tell her that would convince her to back off? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. That was what made her a good cop.

I didn't want the cops involved. This whole thing would turn into us against them against them. I didn't want another front to worry about. I didn't want Arturo to decide that Hardin was a rival as well. I didn't want him to put her in danger.

'Kitty, I want to understand this. I need your help if I'm going to understand it.'

Then again, maybe she would be on my side. Maybe she could help me find out what had happened to Rick. Maybe she had the solution: throw them all in jail.

I wanted to run. I had this sudden, overriding instinct to just run.

'There's a war on,' I said.

A beat. 'You're kidding.'

'No, I'm not. It's over territory, over who gets to call themselves the Master vampire of the city.'

'Denver has a Master vampire,' she said flatly, disbelieving. Why didn't anyone think Denver was important enough for a Master vampire? Inferiority complex?

'Yeah. But it could all be over now.' They were all dead. We were all dead…I grouped the photos: Rick's seven, Carl's two, and Jenny, off by herself. 'These…they were working for the challenger's faction. These two are local. Jenny shouldn't have been there at all. I can't explain it.'

'The lycanthropes work for the vampires?'

'Sometimes, yeah.'

'Which faction do you belong to?'

I shook my head in vehement denial. 'I'm staying out of it. I tried to stay out of it.' I'd only sided with Jenny.

'They were strangers in town,' Hardin said. 'So this challenger brought them in to confront the local Master and local wolves, who fought back.'

'That's right.' Hardin was sharp.

'Then all I have to do is go to this Master vampire and charge him with instigating a dozen murders.'

I almost laughed, but my voice turned rough. 'Do you really think it'd be that easy? Look what he did to them.' What he'd do to me, if he found me…And Ben. Had they found Ben? I had to call Ben. We had to get out of here. 'You don't know what they're like, what I've seen them do—'

'Kitty, let me ask you a couple of questions. Just yes or no. Don't try to explain it to me. Okay?'

'Uh…yes?'

'Master vampires—if I understand the concept correctly, they claim certain cities as their territories. They have or create flunkies, other vampires, sometimes human servants, to do their bidding. Is that right?'

'Yes.'

'And if another vampire—with his own flunkies— moves into the city and wants to become Master of it, they fight. This war you're talking about.'

I nodded.

'Right. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to treat this like any other gang operating in my jurisdiction. This is gang-related violence. And if there's a gang war going on on my turf, I'm going to crack down. And you can pass that along to any vampires you happen to chat with, okay?'

I nodded. I loved Detective Hardin, really I did. She was an awesome, kick-ass woman cop. Didn't take any crap, didn't put up with any nonsense. I didn't want to end up on her bad side.

'Great. I'm glad we've had this little chat. You have my number in case you have any other bits of enlightenment for me?'

'Yes.'

'Good. Because I don't care what they are, or who they think they're Master of, nobody gets away with this in my city.'

She gathered her photos and left. I'd half expected to be arrested, to be questioned about how much I knew— to be forced to lead them to Arturo at gunpoint. I knew where he kept his lair.

But she let me go because she was going to tail me. She was going to have people watch to see who I talked to, who tried to contact me, and they'd follow those threads until they had someone they could charge.

I almost ran after her and begged to be taken into protective custody. Surely no one could get to me if I was locked in a jail cell. But then I'd have no place to run.

I called Ben on my way home. Every ring he didn't pick up terrified me. I was too late. They'd gotten him, Carl had tracked us and I was next—

'Yeah?' Ben finally answered.

I stumbled over the words in my hurry to speak. 'Ben, we have to get out of town. We have to leave right now, we can't stay, we—'

'Kitty, whoa. Slow down. What happened?'

'She's dead. I don't know how Carl got to her but he did, and Hardin showed up at work with the photos and he'll know we helped her. He's probably looking for us right now.'

He didn't have to ask who was dead. 'But you took her to the airport. How did he get to her? How did he get her away from there to kill her?'

'I don't know! It doesn't matter now. It's all over.'

'Where are you?'

'On my way home.'

'We'll talk when you get here. Stay calm, okay? Keep it together.'

He'd picked up my catchphrase, the thing I told myself when Wolf came too close to the surface, when her instincts started to override reason.

I nodded, which wouldn't reassure him on the other end of the phone. 'Okay. I'll be okay.' No, I wouldn't.

'I'll see you soon.'

'Okay,' I said, and we both hung up.

Nobody tried to kill me between the parking lot and the door of Ben's condo. It seemed like a miracle.

He was sitting on the sofa, waiting for me, looking far too calm. I wanted him to have guns on the coffee table. We had to circle the wagons, defend the Alamo.

We regarded each other in a moment that felt anti-climactic. Where was the panic? The hysteria?

He said, very calmly, 'What happened?'

I heaved a frustrated sigh. 'There's no time, I'll explain while we drive. We have to leave now.'

I went to the bedroom, found a duffel bag, and started shoving clothes into it. I didn't care what clothes—a handful of underwear, some shirts, some jeans. Pack it up, jump in the car, and go.

'What are you doing?' Ben said softly, patiently, like a parent with a kid throwing a temper tantrum. Waiting me out.

'Leaving. Rick made his move and lost. He's probably dead. Jenny is dead, I couldn't save her, Carl got to her somehow. And he'll kill me, and you, and there's nothing we can do.'

'Kitty—it's not your fault Carl got to her. You tried. You did what you could.'

'I can't fight him. I can't even instigate a little civil disobedience.'