done these horrible things." He didn't even try to keep his voice from sounding fake.
He knew I couldn't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it hadn't been just Nivia, who was conveniently dead. It was her weretiger that had tried to kill Peter, a human. Again, conveniently dead.
"Son of a bitch," I said, softly.
"Excuse me, Marshal."
"I have a warrant of execution and it works just fine for you and your mistress."
"But if you use it knowing that we did not do these crimes, then you are a murderer. Perhaps you will never be tried as such, but you will know that you have abused your powers and simply killed to protect your master like a good human servant, but not a very good federal marshal."
"You've done your homework," I said.
Micah was beside me now. I held up a hand so he wouldn't try to talk to me. I glanced back and found Nathaniel still talking to Zerbrowski. Whatever he was saying had the sergeant's full attention.
"We know you are honorable, and your master is honorable. We will not harm Malcolm or his people. We will simply challenge him for them, and use only legal means to win the challenge."
"Avery Seabrook is already blood-oathed to Jean-Claude. He's off limits."
"Very well, but the others are no one's flock."
"Malcolm gave them to Jean-Claude. We haven't blood-oathed them yet, but they are ours."
"Lies do not become you, Marshal Blake."
"Can you taste a lie in my voice?"
"I have that ability."
"Fine, then listen carefully, Giovanni. Malcolm gave his entire congregation to Jean-Claude and me. They belong to the Master of the City of St. Louis now. You can defeat Malcolm with your vampire wiles, but it won't win you shit. By vampire law you have to defeat the master that owns them before you can oath them to you."
He was quiet for a second. I heard him breathing, which isn't a vampire thing. He was human, somehow; he was her human servant. He had more powers than most human servants, but then so did I.
"I hear truth in your words. But I heard truth in Malcolm's speech to my mistress only moments ago. She forced him to tell truthfully if Jean-Claude had a claim to his congregation. He said Jean-Claude did not."
"You underestimated Malcolm's powers, Giovanni. He got a message to us, and you have a church full of legal American citizens with rights. You have a church full of vampires who belong to the Master of the City of St. Louis, and they have rights under vampire law, too. You've been very careful that my status as a police officer isn't invoked here. I'll hold you to vampire law just as tight as human law. You break either of them, and I will rain all over your parade."
"But as the laws constrain us, they also constrain you, Anita Blake."
"Yeah, yeah, you and the horse you rode in on."
"I don't understand. We have no horses."
"Sorry, it's slang. I mean that I understand what you said, and I'm not impressed."
"Malcolm used your young vampire here to somehow give you this message, didn't he?"
"I don't have to give you information, not by either set of laws."
"True," he said, "but if my mistress blood-oaths enough of these vampires, then she will have enough power to defeat Jean-Claude."
"You're Harlequin. You can't kill anyone without giving them a black mask first."
"We are not attacking as Harlequin. My mistress has grown weary of being a tool for the council. She wishes to have her own lands in this new country of yours. Jean-Claude was harder to destroy with vampire powers than she anticipated."
"You're supposed to give a formal challenge before you start battling to take over."
"Did Jean-Claude give a formal challenge to Nikolaos, the old Master of the City, before you slew her for him?"
I took a breath, then didn't try to say anything. Truthfully, I hadn't realized that killing Nikolaos would make him master. I'd just been trying to stay alive and keep her from killing other people. But it had opened the way for Jean-Claude to own the city. Saying it had been an accident would make us sound weak. So I shut my mouth and tried to think.
Micah was on his own cell phone. I heard him say, "Jean-Claude." Had Micah heard enough to tell Jean-Claude what he needed to know?
"I'll take that as a no," Giovanni said.
"I thought the Harlequin couldn't have a territory of their own. They're supposed to be neutral."
"We grow weary of this