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Right. I did know that. The problem, of course, was that vampires, whether or not they act on it, crave blood. Human blood, specifically, although, as I understand it, Arcanid blood is just as… enticing. Animals, not so much. So working as a vet wouldn’t be an unending series of temptations for a vampire.
“You good at the moment?” I asked him.
“I am not in the habit of biting my patients,” he snapped, his blood-colored eyes narrowing. And maybe glowing just the tiniest bit.
“Didn’t think you were,” I replied calmly, trying to channel Doc. “But an actual dog wouldn’t really be that much of a tasty treat.”
Another exhalation through his nose. “I do have some self-control, detective.”
I nodded once. “Just checking.” I ruffled the dog’s head again. “You ready, bud?”
The dog looked nervously at Zhou, although whether the poor guy was more apprehensive about the fact that the vet was a vampire or the fact that he was about to forcibly shove his hip back in, I couldn’t say. If it had been me, I’m not sure which one I would have been more nervous about.
“I’ll share my onion rings afterwards,” I told the dog.
“You should—never mind.”
“Not give onions to a dog?” I finished.
“Except he isn’t a dog.”
“So the dietary rules don’t apply to shifters in animal form?”
“No.”
“You sure about that?”
He grimaced. “Do you really think this is the first shifter to come in here in the middle of the night?”
I reevaluated the situation quickly. “So… you’re running a Nid clinic out here, but you’re not allowed to actuallydothat because you’re a vamp.”
Zhou’s eyes glinted red under the fluorescent lights. “Are you going to attempt to arrest me for that speculation, detective?”
“Not unless you kill people, too,” I answered. “I’m homicide. You keep a few extra bodies off my streets, and we’re all good.” I also filed that information away—because it was always good to know people like Zhou, and not because I had any intention of tattling on him. Shifters had it shitty enough without me adding to their problems. “If you promise to call me if another canid shows up. Or a shifter who’s on the run from somebody who wants them dead. Or a vampire with shifter blood in its teeth.”
The dog whined, and Zhou’s eyebrows rose sharply. “Do I want to know?”
“Somebody’s kidnapping and killing shifters. And that somebody is employing at least one vampire. My job is to make sure they stop.”
Zhou looked down at the dog, who looked up at him and whined again.
“Including our friend?”
“He escaped from a vamp by hiding in a dumpster,” I replied.
“And you don’t think the injured shifters would go to a hospital?”
I shook my head. “Not fans of cops,” I replied.
Zhou looked between me and the dog.
“I only half count,” I told him.
The dog chuffed.
“Also, I may not have told anyone official that this guy isn’t a dog.”
Zhou’s expression changed. “Good,” he said softly.
