Crimson Death (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 25)

Edward wanted me to go off with one of my people and try to heal my wounds with a little sexual healing before I did anything else. "It will take time for Pearson to get permission for you to do a demonstration to peacekeepers he doesn't have under his direct charge."

"How much time?" I asked.

"Make it a quickie, thirty minutes or so; they won't have everything organized before that."

"I knew there was a reason we were friends; I like a man who considers thirty minutes a quickie."

He grinned. "Twenty minutes in a pinch, but you're not just having sex; you're trying to heal a wound made by something supernatural. That might take more time."

I double-checked with Pearson, but Edward was right; it was going to take time to get all the Gardai's ducks in a row. Apparently someone had recorded us shooting the burned vampire to pieces in the street with a smartphone. It was all over the Internet and it looked pretty brutal, so the upper management of the local constabulary wasn't sure how much more help they wanted from the Americans. When I pointed out that they'd probably want the Americans on their side come nightfall, he'd said, "No one making this decision saw the vampires in person today. None of them have even walked into a crime scene or seen a victim in person. They don't want to believe what's happening to our city."

"They better believe and fast, Pearson, because we all need to make plans to try to keep Dublin from going up in blood and vampires tonight."

"I know that, Blake, but I'm not the one ultimately in charge."

"Are you actually saying that the powers that be may send me and my people home tonight rather than let us stay and help you fight?"

"It's not a fight, Blake. It's a crime to solve."

"We know who's behind it, Pearson. We just need to find her and make sure she can't do this again."

"We only have your vampire's word that it's his old master, Blake. We have no proof that we can take into court. We can't arrest her unless we catch her hurting people personally."

"Are you honestly saying, with Flannery and his people telling you the same thing that Damian and I are telling you, that it's not enough to convince your boss's boss that we just need to find her before nightfall and end her ass?"

"They aren't comfortable with the American solution."

"American solution . . . Shit, Pearson, you saw what just one vampire did to your . . . peacekeepers today. What do you think is going to happen when night falls and she can control that many vampires?"

"I can't prove that will happen, Blake, and neither can you."

"If they wait until tonight to plan a response, it's going to be a bloodbath. You know that."

"I have been very clear about what I believe is happening and will happen tonight, but you have to understand we have never had vampires here. We're Irish; we can usually make friends with any supernatural element that comes our way."

"Yeah, just a magical minority. I get it, but, Pearson, the Fey are scared, too. They don't know what's happening to Dublin, and they're worried it's going to spread from here to other cities."

"The gentle folk are part of the discussion with my superiors."

"And they still won't budge?"

"They're budging, but not as fast as you are wanting."

"It's not what I want, Pearson. It's what's needed."

"Perhaps, but I have to go through channels, Blake, and if you, or any of your people, act without clearance from us, then your likelihood of being escorted out of Dublin and to the airport when we need you most is almost a given."

"I'd like to say you're joking, but I know you're not."

"We do things differently over here, Blake."

"All bureaucracies are the same, Pearson. We've just had longer to deal with the problem in my country."

"No, Blake, one of the reasons that we preferred Forrester to you is that even your own FBI hasn't invited you to lecture and help train their agents. Even your own countrymen consider you more likely to resort to violence. Plus, you are a beautiful woman who is completely comfortable with violence. That unnerves some people almost more than the necromancy."

"Are you saying this comes down to some kind of weird sexism?"

"Publicly I will say no, but privately, a little bit."

"So if I were less attractive, this would go over better?"

"Even taller and more physically formidable would help, but you're this petite, attractive woman and it seems to bother some of my superiors that you're so comfortable with violence."

"That is ridiculous," I said.

"A little bit," he said.

"I can't grow taller in the next few hours, Pearson."

"I know that."

"Is there anything I can do to help them like me and my people better?"

"Stay out of trouble, and by trouble, I mean don't shoot anyone. Don't do anything violent until I've talked them through this."

"And if I'm attacked, can I defend myself?"

"Of course, you can defend yourself, but if you are attacked, making sure there are witnesses to them throwing the first punch, so to speak, would be helpful."

"So you're saying that even if I defend myself, any violence will count against me, us?"

"Just don't shoot anyone, please."

"I really don't want to get close enough to use a blade, Pearson. That's a good way to get even more hurt than I am."

"No, Blake, no blades either. Don't shoot anyone. Don't cut anyone with a knife."

"These are vampires, Pearson. What am I supposed to do, arm-wrestle them?"

"I know this sounds unreasonable to you, Blake."

"Damn straight, it does."

"But we don't resort to guns as soon as you do in your country. We call ourselves peacekeepers for a reason, because we see keeping the peace as our primary task."

"If you and your superiors don't have a battle plan before dark tonight, there won't be any peace in Dublin. As soon as Flannery's friends' magic fades enough, the Wicked Bitch of Ireland is going to call all her vampires to her. She has created an army here; don't you understand that?"

"We're hoping that most of the vampires are in the hospitals, currently under sedation."

"The drugs won't keep them unconscious once night falls," I said.

"The doctors think differently," he said.

"Because they think the vampires are people with a disease, and they aren't."

"Vampirism is a disease, just like cancer," he said.

"Yes, but cancer patients don't crave human blood, or become stronger and faster. They can't capture people with their gaze and force them to turn on their own people."

"The doctors in charge of the patients think the drugs will keep them comatose tonight."

"Fine, but what about the other

vampires in the city?"

"We're hoping that most of them are either dead or in the hospital wards."

"Oh my God, are you telling me that they, that you, really believe that we have most of the vampires in the city contained?"

He cleared his throat and said, "That is the prevailing theory."

"Theories are great in the laboratory, or in the boardroom, but out on the streets your theory is going to meet reality tonight."

"If you don't shoot or stab anyone between now and nightfall, I may be able to get them to agree to you and your people being part of the watch groups that will be patrolling the city."

"If we help patrol the city we will be cleared to shoot in self-defense, at least?"

"I won't ask that question and neither should you, Blake."

"Why not?"

"Because sometimes it's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission and be denied."

"Jesus, Pearson, you're setting your fellow Gardai up to be slaughtered."

"I'm doing the best I can; just stay out of trouble for a few hours. We have time before dark, if nothing else goes wrong and ends up on YouTube."

"We have no control over who has a phone and records what," I said.

"Stay out of sight then, just until I can talk them through this, and then you can show us how a holy item is supposed to work."

"Fine, fine, but . . . fine," I said, and hung up because I didn't trust myself to say more. Apparently I had time for more than just a quickie.

72

MY FIRST CHOICE would have been Nathaniel, or Nathaniel and Damian, but I'd fed the ardeur on them recently and I needed to give them another day of rest. Maybe more now that Nathaniel had donated blood to multiple vampires today. I actually asked Dev to go with me, but Jake stepped in, saying, "He has donated much blood today and should rest before he feeds anyone else again."

Dev had protested, but in the end we'd listened to the older and more experienced voice, which left me with a quandary. Fortune had also donated to multiple vampires, Magda was thirty minutes or more away with traffic, and honestly girl-on-girl sex took longer, because it was girl foreplay for two, instead of just one. Yes, some men need more foreplay than others and a lot more men enjoy foreplay than will admit it, but I was out of women and almost out of men. Just when you think you've overpacked, you realize you didn't bring enough of something.

I'd done my best to get both Ethan and Domino off my list of lovers, because they both wanted more emotional commitment than I could offer. I was so over my limit for emotional caretaking, but I needed to use the only healing ability I had, which like so many of the abilities I had inherited was sexual in nature. As Dev had said earlier, lust was better than fear, or death, or violence, and I could feed off anger, but I couldn't heal with anger and that was what I needed.