Ronnie shook her head. "Jesus, Anita, you are screwed."
That made me laugh, because she was right. It was either cry or laugh about it, and Richard had gotten all the tears he was getting from me for one day.
34
The phone rang, and I jumped. Now that the danger was over, I could be jumpy. I went into the kitchen and picked up the phone. Before I could even answer, I heard Dolph's voice. "Anita, you okay?"
"The police grapevine is even faster than I thought," I said.
"What are you talking about?"
I told him what I'd told the 911 operator.
"I didn't know," Dolph said.
"Then why did you want to know if I was okay?"
"Nearly every vampire-owned business or house in the city was hit about the same time this morning. They fire-bombed the Church of Eternal Life, and we've had one-on-one hits on non-vamps all over the city."
Fear rushed through me like fine champagne, useless adrenaline with nowhere to go. I had a lot of friends that were undead, not just Jean-Claude. "Dead Dave's, has it been hit?"
"I know Dave resents being kicked off the force after he... died, but we take care of our own. His bar's got a uniformed guard until we find out what the hell is going on. We got the arsonist before he could do more than smoke up an outside wall."
I knew that only the bad vamps were at the Circus, but Dolph didn't. He might find it strange if I didn't ask. "The Circus?"
"They defended themselves against a couple of arsonists. Why didn't you ask about the love of your life, first, Anita? Isn't he home?"
Dolph asked like he already knew, which could mean he knew or it could mean he was fishing. But I was pretty sure the council flunkies wouldn't have told the whole truth. Half-truth, it was. "Jean-Claude stayed over last night."
The silence this time was even thicker than before. I let it build into something thick and unpleasant enough to choke on. I don't know how long we listened to each other breathe, but it was Dolph who broke first. "Lucky for him. Did you know this was coming?"
That caught me off guard. If he thought I'd held out on something this big, no wonder he was pissed at me. "No, Dolph, I swear I had no idea."
"Did your boyfriend?"
I thought about that for a second. "I don't think so, but I'll ask him when he gets up."
"Don't you mean when he rises from the dead?"
"Yeah, Dolph," I said, "that's what I mean."
"You think he could have known about all this shit and not told you?"
"Probably not, but he has his moments."
"Yet you still date him... I just don't understand that, Anita."
"If I could explain it so that it made sense to you, Dolph, I would, but I can't."
He sighed. "You got any ideas why someone's hitting all the monsters today?"
"You mean, why monsters or why this date?" I asked.
"Either," he said.
"You've got some suspects in custody, right?"
"Yes."