"Yeah."
"This is my first hunt."
In my head, I thought, Well, fuck. "You mean you have never participated in a hunt?"
"No," she said.
"I know you said you'd only done morgue stakings, but I thought you'd gone on at least one hunt as the junior marshal. You've never even seen a vampire hunted and killed in the field?"
"I can handle myself."
I shook my head. "Now I need to ask you something without you getting insulted," I said.
She sat on the side of her bed. "That's fair; what do you want to know?"
"This is a bad case, Karlton. It's not a hunt for a first-time field agent."
"I know it's a bad one," she said.
"No, you don't, not yet." I sat on my bed and faced her. "I want you to sign the warrant over to me, please."
She was angry and didn't try to hide it. "I can't. I'm the girl, and if I back down on this the other marshals will never trust me again."
"It's not about being a girl, Karlton, it's about being new and inexperienced."
"I'll have your back, Blake."
"I'm not worried that you'll get me killed."