"He's human," Dolph said, "you can't just kill him."
"He's a human involved with the group that killed two cops. Anita's warrant of execution allows her to kill anyone who is involved in the crime that the warrant pertains to."
"That's when you're on an active hunt," Dolph said. "It was never intended to allow a police officer to shoot a human being in cold blood."
"If it was your wife with an arm around her neck and a bomb pressed to her back, would you be shooting in cold blood?" I asked.
"No," he said, finally.
"Wait," Hill said, "you're saying we let Anita go in there, and hope that all of them figure out that they're supposed to jump the bastard and hold him until we get in and kill him?"
"Yeah," Zerbrowski said.
"Nathaniel isn't trained in hand-to-hand combat," Claudia said.
"Dev and Nicky are," Pride said, "and Sin isn't bad for a beginner, and he's wicked fast."
My pulse was in my throat again, but my skin was cold in the sunshine. "I can 'tell' three of them what we plan to do." I made air quotes for the tell part.
"Nicky's good," Claudia said, "he'll move when they do."
"You mean when I do," I said.
"He's human with a couple of vampire bites on him," Pride said. "He won't be stronger than Nathaniel, Sin, Dev, and Nicky."
"You're saying I won't get a piece of him?"
"You won't need to grab him," Pride said.
"I don't understand."
Bram spoke for the first time. "He means you get to blow his brains out so that he can't set off the bomb."
Dolph shook his head. "I'm not sure this is legal."
"I've read those warrants backward and forward," Zerbrowski said, "it's legal by the letter of the law, and there's no trial to worry about, because once a warrant is executed it's done."
We all looked at each other.
"I don't like the idea of you going in there alone," Hill said.
"He never said no police," I said.
Hill smiled, and it was a fierce flash of teeth, like showing fangs. "Then I got your back."
"We," Killian said, "we got her back."
And that was what we did. I let Nathaniel and the others know what I needed them to do. I trusted that Nicky would move when Nathaniel did, and I bet his life on his speed and ability to wrestle the bomber long enough for the others to cross the room and help him. They just needed to wait, and then I'd be in the room with full SWAT backup. It all depended on Nathaniel using that same hand-eye coordination and speed that made him so amazing on the dance floor, in the gym, at the shooting range, to keep the bomber's hand pressed tight to the switch. That was all he had to do, and then the others would be there, and they'd pile on top of the bomber... and either they'd have him safe until we got there to finish it, or they'd all blow up together. As plans went, I'd heard better, but Hill, Killian, and the rest were willing to walk in with me. They were willing to trust that if I believed the loves of my life could do this, then they could. I trusted the men in my life, and Hill, Killian, Derry, and the rest, trusted me. Fuck, f**k, f**k.
Chapter Forty-Eight
I HAD TO keep my face uncovered so the bomber would be certain I was actually one of the heavily armed people about to come through the door, but other than that I geared up as if it were any other monster hunt. In a way it was, it was just part of an ongoing vampire hunt. I let myself fall into the rhythm of moving with the men in that shuffling movement that looked like it should be slow and awkward, but was anything but.
We were almost there, almost at the door I'd gone through a hundred times, a thousand times. I dropped my shields just enough to let Nathaniel "see" me above him. I was careful to stay further away psychically than I had before, because he needed to be as fast and smooth as only he could be, and I needed to move with precision with the men around me. We both had our jobs, our strengths, and we needed them now. I let Nathaniel know we were coming through the door, and then I cut ties, so everyone was alone in their heads. So, when Derry pushed the door open, and we slipped through in a wedge, the only way I knew Nathaniel hadn't fumbled the first grab was that nothing blew up. In fact, it took a second for our eyes to adjust to the dimness of the interior, to find that all the men were in a pile on the far side of the room. They had dog-piled the bomber.
I ran, I ran the way I had in the warehouse, except this time I wasn't moving to save some stranger from getting hit. I was moving to get to the men I loved, before the man they were struggling with could blow them up. I was across the room, above the pile of them before I'd had time to think. It was like magic, even to me, that I was just suddenly looking down at Nicky's broad back, his one big hand wrapped around everyone else's, like a desperate game of top-of-the-baseball-bat, Dev wrapping himself around the bomber, pinning him to the wall, his hand underneath Nicky's, Sin with his arms around the man's waist like he'd tried to tackle him, and Nathaniel with his hands around the man's one hand, his hair in its braid and the muscles of his shoulders showing through the edges of the cut tank top, and the man's face that I'd seen only through their eyes until that moment, as he looked wide-eyed at me. He had time to yell, "No!" Then I shot him through the forehead, just above his eyebrows. Blood and thicker things exploded out the back of his head, but the entry hole was small, neat even. I put another bullet beside the first one, and the back of his head was just not there anymore. His eyes rolled upward, and now all we had to do was hold on until the bomb techs got inside and told us we could let go.
Chapter Forty-Nine
WHEN ALL THE wires had been snipped and the bomb taken away, I sat on the edge of the stage with Nathaniel on one side and Sin on the other. Nicky and Dev were talking to Pride, Claudia, and the rest of the guards on the side of the room. I think they were already trying to figure out what had gone wrong, and how they could keep anything this bad from happening again. I didn't care.
I sat there with Nathaniel's hand in mine, and Sin holding on to the other hand, and just sat there holding them, and being held. That was enough. That was more than enough.
"Is this what it's like at your job?" Sin asked, and his voice sounded odd. I wasn't sure if he sounded odd, or the shock and gunfire in an enclosed space was messing with my hearing.
"Sometimes," I said.
"I don't think I'd want to do this every day," he said.
I smiled and squeezed his hand. "Good, then find some nice and much safer job."
He laid his head on my shoulder, and since he was nearly seven inches taller than I was, it had to be awkward, but he did it anyway. He held to my one hand with both of his, even though his hands were larger enough than mine that he was probably holding more of his own hand than mine.
Nathaniel had one hand on my thigh, the other holding my hand. He kissed my cheek and I cuddled into the kiss. I felt Jean-Claude wake for the day, felt him draw that first breath, and then his voice in my head, asking, "Ma petite, what has happened?"
For some reason, that was what made me cry.
Chapter Fifty
WEISKOPF GAVE US all the names of the other rogue vampires. He and his master, Benjamin, offered them up in the first-ever successful deal between a vampire and human law. They gave us the names and they were allowed to go free since they had truly not hurt anyone. Benjamin and Weiskopf were very disillusioned about their unblood-oathed vampires. Jean-Claude and I made them promise that they wouldn't try it again. We've pretty much told them that they may be safe from the human police, but if they try for another rebellion they will not be safe from us.
Nicky and Dev had their onstage debut at Guilty Pleasures and were a huge hit. Dev liked performing and may do it again, but Nicky, not so much. Though, watching them both on stage, Nicky seemed just as into it as Dev. Sociopaths are great actors. He refused to leave Nathaniel, not for me, but for him. He said it: He has a family for the first time in his life.
Sin had been at the club because Nathaniel was teaching him how to strip, not for the stage, but for me. He wanted to do a private dance for me, and Nathaniel was showing him how. Sin's reasoning was, "Most of the men you like best are sexy onstage."
"Micah isn't," I'd said.
"But everyone else is," and to that I had no comeback.
Asher left for his month to explore the new city. It would be a good fit for him, and the werehyenas are the major animal group, but... he would be hundreds of miles away. He doesn't want to leave, but Dev still wants more girl time, and honestly he'd do other men if he didn't think Asher would go completely apeshit. But Dev's deal breaker is that he needs female lovers, and if Asher can't deal with that, then they have to break up. Asher is trying to put Dev in my bed more; I am a girl, but I have other sweeties, other responsibilities to the other men in my life. Asher is jealous of Jean-Claude, too, and that is totally not cool. We're thinking about a two-month-long trip for Asher to try the new city out for size.