her, Anita. She is dead; even she could not come back after being torn apart by zombies and eaten.” Manny was one of the few people I’d told about Dominga’s real death. She’d been trying to force me to use an innocent victim as a human sacrifice to raise a very old zombie at the time, and only luck had put her henchmen in the circle so I could kill them, and raise a hell of a lot more than just one zombie with the rush of power those deaths gave me. He’d feared for his safety and that of his family from her, so I’d told him the truth. To my knowledge he’d never repeated it.
“I don’t think it’s her come back from the grave, Manny, but could it be someone who knew her? When I turned her down, did she recruit anyone else?”
“I don’t know; the day I took you to see her was the first and last time I’d seen her in years.”
“Who would know if she’d recruited someone else?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Think, Manny, think; these women are being tortured in a way that no one should have to endure outside of a lower circle of hell.”
“I will think on it, Anita, but I don’t know who would be willing to talk to me now. They know I brought the police to the Señora’s door, and only fear of my own power kept them from trying to retaliate.”
“I’m sorry, Manny; I didn’t mean to endanger you by asking for your help.”
“A good man must help stop evil when he is called, Anita; do not apologize for that.”
“I’m just tired of endangering people. I mean, it’s dangerous just to be around me sometimes.”
“That is not true,” he said.
“Isn’t it?”
“Anita, I don’t know what part of your past you are fighting, but fight harder, because you are a good person, you fight the good fight.”
“Thanks, Manny.”
“De nada.”
I smiled. “If you think of anyone to ask, or anywhere to look for this bastard, let me know.”
“I will.”
“Now go enjoy whatever family thing you’re doing.”
“I’m coming, Rosita,” he called out. I heard more voices, and then the voice on the phone was a woman’s. “Anita, congratulations on your engagement; I am so happy you are finally getting married.”
“Thank you, Rosita; now you don’t have to keep worrying I’ll be an old maid.”
“A woman should be married, Anita, that’s all.”
“You know I don’t agree with that.”
“But you are getting married anyway,” she said, as if that proved her point.
I sighed, and laughed a little. “We’ll agree to disagree, but yes, I am getting married once we work out all the details.”
“If you want help with anything, just call.”
“You’re planning Connie’s wedding, isn’t that enough?”
“Consuela’s wedding is almost done.”
“Congratulations to you and her.”
“Gracias, but I have been to every wedding shop, caterer, everything. I would be happy to give you a list of the places we found most helpful.”
“Okay, that might actually be useful, thank you.” I’d pass the list on to Jean-Claude.
“I will have Manny email it to you.”
“Thank you, Rosita.” It was probably the longest conversation I’d ever had with Manny’s wife.
“I hope you do let me help; I’d forgotten how much I love weddings.” She laughed, one of the best and happiest laughs I’d ever heard from her. She was usually pretty stern and uncompromising. I tried to picture that girlish laugh from the Rosita I knew, who was five-eight and last I’d seen her well over three hundred pounds. Manny was still lean and shorter than her, so that they looked like the Jack Sprat nursery rhyme. The laugh belonged to that young slip of a girl that Manny had met in Mexico long ago.
“So no issues with me marrying a vampire?” I asked, because I couldn’t leave it alone.
She made a harsh sound. “I am a devout Catholic, you know that.”
“I do, and since the Church declared all vampires soulless and damned, I thought you might have an issue with my fiancé.”
“They also declared all who raise the dead excommunicated, but our priest still gives Manny communion, even though he would get in trouble if they knew, so perhaps your man is a good one, too, even though the Church says otherwise.”
This was so open-minded for Rosita that I didn’t know whether to applaud or ask her what self-help group she’d been going to. Wisely, I did neither.
“Besides, it is not just any vampire, it is Jean-Claude, and he is . . .” She seemed to search