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“You helped me learn that,” he said.
I just smiled at him, holding a little tighter to Nicky. I realized I’d let him have his right hand free in an admission that I wasn’t doing well. I wasn’t sure if it was my family, or the attack, or what, but I wasn’t tracking well. I trusted Nicky to shoot the bad guys and give me time to untangle my arm and join the fight.
“The worst injury is the waiter from Burnt Offerings; they hit one of the waiters that was human, just wearing fangs for work. He’s still unconscious with a concussion.”
The elevator doors opened and we walked out into a dimmer hallway, like they saved all the bright and pretty stuff for the patients but needed more lightbulbs up here for the staff. I said, “Burnt Offerings is mostly pretend for families that don’t want to take the kiddies to see the real thing at Circus of the Damned. Most of the vampire waiters wear those big fake fangs that kids used to wear for Halloween.”
“Witness statements from coworkers say this waiter wore realistic fangs that fit over his real teeth. He’d gotten them fitted at a dentist that specializes in it.”
“It makes no sense for them to hit Burnt Offerings. It’s got horror movie posters up all over, and some staff wrap themselves up as mummies, or wear big rubber monster masks; they’re all camp, no reality. The adult bar has more real vampires behind the bar, but during the day they dress up as zombies or vampire victims. It’s Halloween every day there,” I said.
“The Brotherhood of Samson believe that Halloween is a sort of gateway drug for children, desensitizing them to the real monsters.”
“Are you quoting?” I asked.
“It’s part of their manifesto that they posted to the internet.They claim to have chapters in major cities around the world, and that St. Louis is just the beginning.”
“Do you believe them?”
He gave me a look.
I nodded. “Sorry, I forgot Cop 101—everyone lies.”
He nodded. “Exactly. I’ll want to do more investigation into their claims before I believe anything they said, except that they punched people in the face that they thought were vampires.”
The intern came over in their white coat. “Your friend is getting dressed; if one of you could please get in the shower next, so I can finish this errand and get back to my patients.”
“As soon as Ethan is back at your side, I will shower,” Kaazim said.
Dolph glanced at him, then at Nicky, then back to me. He stared at me. “Is there some other attack by the vampire hate groups that the rest of the police don’t know about yet?”
“I swear, Dolph, I’m not keeping anything from you.”
“You seem too upset for small things like this.”
I stepped away from Nicky and faced him, the anger just there instantly. “Jean-Claude was the target for the holy water throwing. What it did to Wicked and Truth was meant for him. If someone tried to do that to Lucille, wouldn’t you be shaken up? Afraid for her?”
He nodded. “I’d do whatever it took to keep her safe.”
“It’s not one of the Brotherhood of Samson, Dolph, this nut job was a one-off.”
“The uniform on scene said that one of your security team claimed the vampire that threw the holy water wasn’t trying to kill Jean-Claude, just disfigure him.”
“Yes,” I said.
“That the motive was—” He turned some pages in his notebook, then read, “The perp is terrified that he might be gay, but he blamed Jean-Claude for all his unnatural urgings. He believed that if hecould disfigure Jean-Claude’s face, then he wouldn’t be beautiful anymore and the perp’s homosexual attraction to Jean-Claude would go away and he would magically be straight again.”
“Yeah, that was the bastard’s motive.”
“How did your security person get all that out of the perp?”
I blinked and fought to keep as empty an expression as possible, because Echo had used vampire powers to make him talk and that was illegal. The confession would never be able to be used in court. Shit. I would have saidAsk Echo, but I wasn’t positive she understood she’d need to lie and say he just started babbling, no idea why. Fuck.
“She vamped him, coerced the confession from him, didn’t she?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I was either outside handcuffed by the first cops that arrived on the scene, or across the restaurant trying to make sure Jean-Claude wasn’t hurt.”
Ethan whispered through my head,Called Echo, she knows what to tell him.
