Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 22)

78

We got the first woman to the emergency room and left the woman that Henry had rescued there, too. She was shocky from the whole nearly-being-eaten-by-zombies thing. There were other injuries from zombie attack, including two police officers. There were zombie calls from all over the city. So far it was just one or two zombies attacking, but we still had an hour until full dark. I was betting that once night fell we'd get more zombies in larger groups just like up in the mountains, except there we'd all been armed and trained. The normal citizen wasn't going to fare very well against these things. Hell, a single officer in a patrol car was going to have trouble if there was more than one of them. You needed armed groups that knew how to shoot and work together, and even then there might come a point where overwhelming numbers, well, overwhelmed us. I stood there in the emergency room letting the noise and the movements of it wash over me. Nicky stood not far away. Lisandro and Dev were talking to the SWAT guys. Who you going to call when it looks like you're really going to have to survive the zombie apocalypse?

I knew exactly who to call. 'Ted, you know how you complained that I had a zombie apocalypse and didn't invite you?'

'Yeah.'

'Consider yourself invited.'

He gave a small chuckle, the way some men will do when you say something sexy.

'You're excited. After what we saw in the hospital and the basement you're excited about this,' I said.

'Yeah, I am.'

'There's something wrong with you, you do know that, right?' I said, and laughed.

'Yeah, I do know. Give me your location.'

I had Dev bring it up on his phone's GPS and gave him the address. 'We'll have to keep moving around from one emergency to the next,' I said.

'Understood, we'll be there as soon as we can.'

'We?'

'SWAT, remember?'

'Yeah, me, too. And, Ted?'

'Yes, Anita.'

'Bring your flamethrower.'

He gave that excited sex chuckle again. 'For real, you're not just teasing this time?'

'Zombie reports from all over the area and it's still daylight. It's just going to get worse after dark.'

He gave that low, deep laugh again. 'You say the best things.'

'Conversations like this is one of the reasons people think we're doing each other.'

'Maybe,' he said.

'Someone on your end of the phone said something you didn't like about us, or me, and you're rubbing their face in it.'

'Would I do that?' The words were innocent; the tone was not. Someone must have done something that truly pissed him off for him to play into it like this, because he knew it hurt my reputation worse than his. People expect men to be sex-hungry bastards, it's the old boys-will-be-boys idea, but a woman who sleeps around is a whore. I hated the attitude, but I knew it was a reality in most people's minds. I didn't understand it; I mean, if you think sleeping around is bad, shouldn't it be equally slutty no matter if a man or a woman does it? Or equally okay?

'Get here as soon as you can, and let me know which of the guys with you pissed you off and I'll help you play with him, between killing zombies.'

'You sweet-talking thing, you,' he said.

That made me laugh. We hung up with both of us laughing. There were so many reasons that Edward and I were friends.