Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,189

truth, being trapped in a coffin was usually more punishment than trying to save you. I’d known vampires that had been driven crazy from long coffin imprisonment, but that wasn’t something I was sharing with Hatfield. She was being friendly, but she wasn’t my friend, not yet.

‘So, say you had a vampire wake up, or escape being imprisoned, whatever; they’d go after the nearest food, which would probably be animals, right?’ Hatfield asked.

‘Animals are harder to catch than you’d think,’ I said, ‘but maybe you can’t actually sustain yourself on animal blood, not even freshly killed animals.’

‘Why not?’ she asked.

‘Because you need that spark, that extra energy, whatever it is from humans to go with the blood.’

‘You mean like drinking someone’s soul?’

‘That presupposes that animals don’t have souls and I wouldn’t be willing to say that,’ I said.

‘Okay, then what? What makes us so special for vampires?’

I smiled. ‘If you can answer that question in a definitive way, Hatfield, you’ll be doing better than hundreds of years of religion and philosophy.’

‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I get that. But why do you think it’s an old vamp that just woke up?’

‘Because it’s a really rare talent, and I’ve only seen it in ancient vampires. If there were a vampire that old and this powerful, we’d know about it. You just can’t hide this much power from both the vampire and human community, not to mention the shapeshifters. He was able to mess with my friend through the bite of one of the vampires he possessed, not even his own bite, and he was able to control Ares, or drive him crazy, from a distance.’

‘I’ve never even heard of a vampire being able to possess its vamp followers in any of the literature. You should write a paper about it, publish it for the rest of us to read.’

I looked at Edward and he looked back. ‘Not all the really old vamps like their secrets being that out in the open, Hatfield.’

‘Oh, you mean they’re still alive. I guess I thought you killed them.’

‘I don’t kill every vampire I meet, Hatfield.’

She looked a little embarrassed. ‘I guess not; I mean, you are with your Master of the City. No offense meant.’

‘None taken; I am dating him.’

Hatfield had a moment where thoughts chased across her face so quickly I wasn’t sure what she was thinking; maybe she didn’t even know what she was thinking exactly.

‘Just say it, Hatfield,’ Edward said.

‘I don’t think I could ever get past the fact that he was dead, but if you had to be dating a vampire, your Master of the City is pretty gorgeous – again, no offense.’

I smiled. ‘Why should I be offended? Jean-Claude is gorgeous.’

‘I’m sorry I said pretty horrible things to you earlier about him, and Micah Callahan, and … oh, hell, I was awful and it was just that you cast a long shadow over the Preternatural Branch of the Marshals Service for the rest of us female officers.’

‘I’m sorry if my dating preternaturals makes it harder for the rest of you, but I’m not going to stop dating the men I love because people are bothered by it.’

‘Now that I’ve seen you in person, I realize a lot of it’s jealousy. You’re as tough as you are beautiful, which means a lot of women must hate you on sight, and the men can’t decide whether to try to compete with you or sleep with you.’

I frowned at her. ‘Sorry, I spend most of my time around men who make me look like the ugly stepsister, so I don’t get the beauty-being-intimidating part, but on the tough part, most of them can’t compete.’

‘If you’re the ugly stepsister, then your guys must be even prettier than their pictures.’

‘They’re pretty spectacular,’ I said.

‘And you let the men know they can’t compete,’ she said.

I shrugged. ‘In our job we can’t afford to baby anyone’s ego. They’re either up to the job or they’re not.’

She gave a small laugh. ‘Oh, yeah, a lot of your haters are just insecure around you. I didn’t think anyone could live up to your reputation, but you made a believer out of me, Blake.’ Her face sobered. She looked down at the papers in front of her. ‘This disease is pretty terrible. I’m sorry about Sheriff Callahan for a lot of reasons, but if he really is your future father-in-law, I’m sorry that Micah Callahan had to come home to this.’

‘The best thing I can do for Micah and his dad is