Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,183

made Dev grin, and then Nicky chuckled.

I pointed a finger at Dev. ‘Don’t you dare.’

Dev’s mouth quirked as he fought not to laugh. Nicky’s face was alight with suppressed laughter. I fled to the bathroom with the king-size sheet wrapped around me like the most oversized robe in the world, grabbing my overnight bag as I moved, so that I actually tripped over the sheet and fell in the doorway to the bathroom.

‘Motherfucking son of a bitch!’

That was it; both of them laughed out loud. I gathered my sheet and what was left of my dignity and closed the door to the bathroom to the sounds of masculine laughter. I rolled my eyes at myself in the mirror and realized that I had no idea why Edward was in our room. I was betting it was business, which meant crime to solve, bad guys to catch, and a mysterious master vampire to find. That took the smile off my face, but I realized not entirely. Yeah, things were bad, and last night had been brutal, but I could still hear the men laughing to themselves. It was a good sound, and not a bad way to start the day.

55

Marshal Hatfield sat in Deputy Marshal Chapman’s office on the edge of her chair with the warrant of execution spread on the edge of his desk. She wanted to sign it over to me. There was precedent for it, but for some reason Chapman didn’t want her to do it.

Hatfield gazed up at him with hollow eyes. I wondered if she’d slept at all. Her hair was coming loose in strands as her ponytail sagged at the nape of her neck. She’d looked so crisp and together yesterday; now she looked like she needed a hug. I wondered if she had anyone in her life who could give her one.

‘I don’t understand, sir. It would have been Marshal Blake’s warrant in the first place, if she hadn’t been shot.’

‘The warrant was assigned to you, Hatfield, and we expect you to fulfill it.’

A look of near pain came over her face; lines that hadn’t been there before showed sharp and harsh. I’d have put her under thirty, but in that moment I put her over, but it wasn’t age it was just stress. It’ll mark you up. Sometimes the marks fade and sometimes they don’t. Just as smile lines are the mark of every happiness you’ve ever had, so some lines are the mark of every disappointment carved into your flesh as surely as any scar.

‘Technically, sir, Hatfield is a part of the Preternatural Branch of the service just like we are,’ Edward said.

‘I’m aware of that, Marshal Forrester.’

‘Well then, sir, you are aware that we are not in your direct line of command because you’re regular service and we’re preternatural service.’

Hatfield blinked at Edward, as if she weren’t tracking everything, but she’d heard something that seemed important.

‘Hatfield was in my direct command for several years, Forrester; she knows her duty.’

‘I thought our duty was to execute each warrant in the most efficient way with the least loss of life,’ I said.

Chapman frowned at me. ‘Of course,’ he said.

‘Then Blake should take this warrant,’ Hatfield said. ‘I’ll still work with her and Forrester to complete it, but I’d feel more comfortable with her in charge of the overall investigation.’

‘You have been a law enforcement officer longer than Blake. You have five years more experience than she does,’ Chapman said.

‘I do, and there are men on the force who are ex-military and she’s never been that either, but none of us have her background in dealing with the undead, sir. I believe that my lack of experience in that area led directly to the five deaths yesterday.’

‘You can’t blame yourself because Blake and Forrester here didn’t share information.’

I pushed away from the wall. ‘I was unconscious in the hospital, Chapman. How was I supposed to share information?’

He looked at me, then gave a little nod. ‘Perhaps that was unfair; if so, my apologies.’

‘I didn’t arrive in the state until after Marshal Blake was shot,’ said Edward. ‘I didn’t know the facts of the case until dark the next night; in what way did I conceal information that would have prevented the deaths yesterday?’ His voice was quiet, calm, but held enough suppressed anger to set fire to something. I’d never heard Edward sound this angry as Ted.

Chapman shifted on the balls of his feet, hands clasped behind his back like an echo of being