me? Sexually?" I was almost hopeful on that one; it wasn't a fate worse than death and it certainly wasn't a fate worse than having Laila murdered while I listened to her die.
"We're not allowed," he said, and he sounded sad.
"You're not allowed to have sex?"
"Just not with you."
That was interesting. "Then what do you want with me?"
"My master is outside. Simply put down your weapon and walk out the door to him. I will release the girl and follow you."
Laila said, "Don't do it, Anita!" She yelled it, and then she screamed for real. Edward and the other marshal were next door. Help was coming.
The cloak rose up, and I saw the white mask, but Laila was held in front of him like a shield. Her eyes were fluttered back in her head, but she was alive. I raised the gun barrel higher so I'd hit the white mask and miss her. Then he was gone; I swear that he moved so fast Laila simply stayed in the air where he'd held her, and he was through the door and gone before she began to fall.
Edward shouted, "Anita!"
"I'm okay, did you see that?"
"I saw something," he called back.
I kept an eye on the doorway as I searched for Laila's pulse. Edward was in the doorway: shirtless, boxers, with a gun in each hand. I let him watch for bad guys and looked down at Laila. Her arm was broken at the wrist and maybe higher up. There was blood, too, and it wasn't from the arm. Fuck.
I heard the other marshal go back toward the room. "I'll call for an ambulance, and then will someone tell me what the hell just happened?"
Edward kept watch out into the night, but said, "Her warrant is vacated. I guess we have our warrant of execution."
"I didn't want it this way," I said.
"She's alive, Anita. It could have gone the other way."
He was right. I knew he was right, so why did I feel so shitty? "I don't know where the blood is coming from, but somewhere on her back. I don't want to move her, but there's too much blood. We need to find the wound and put pressure on it. If she bleeds out, nothing else matters."
He knelt down to help but kept his side toward the door so he could still see movement. "We can hunt them now, Anita, our way."
He helped me lift her and try to keep her neck from moving. It probably wasn't a spinal injury, but back wounds can be tricky, and cautious was better than being wrong. He helped me lift her just enough so I could search for the wound. But it wasn't just a wound, it was several. I found at least three. "Shit!" I said.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"It's multiple wounds, which means it wasn't a blade. He used claws."
"Powerful enough shapeshifter to change just his hands," Edward said.
"Yes."
"They're all going to be that powerful," he said.
"I know." I got towels from the bathroom to press against the wounds. "These are punctures. If they're deep, her chances of catching lycanthropy are higher."
"You'll have to tell the EMTs when they get here."
"I know." I pressed the towels against the wound and tried to stop the bleeding. Edward kept holding her up and trying to keep her neck from moving. It was the best we could do until the medics got here.
"What's our way?" I asked.
"What?" he asked.
"You said we'd be able to hunt them our way now. What's our way?"
"Violent, and very, very final."
I looked at him over Laila's unconscious body. My hands were already soaked with her blood. I was kneeling in it. "Did you see the speed of the thing?"
"Incredible."
"How do we kill that speed?"
"Wound it, then chop it up." He sounded eager.
"I'm scared, Edward."
He looked at me, his eyes empty and cold as a winter's moon. "I'm not." I guess he meant it to be comforting, and I guess maybe it was.
Chapter Six
ONE OF THE good things about wearing the tight, tiny jammies was that no blood had gotten on them. Edward had had to give up his boxers to go into a baggie for the lab. They had let him put on shorts and a T-shirt since his room wasn't a crime scene. Until the techs were done, my room was off limits. But neither of us had gotten to clean off the blood yet. My jammies were blood free, but the rest of me wasn't. I had blood on