Skin Trade (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 17)

Chapter 5

THE PLANE LANDED in Vegas without me having hysterics. Brownie point for me. The really sad thing was that I flew better now if I had someone next to me, so while I was happy for some privacy, I also missed a boyfriend's hand to hold. I couldn't want to run away from them all and miss them, could I? I mean, that made no sense even to me.

St. Louis is hot, but Vegas is hotter. They can say it's a dry heat, but so is an oven. It was so hot that it took my breath away for a second. It was like my body just went, You're joking, right? No, unfortunately, we were not only serious, but we'd be hunting vampires in this heat. Great.

I slipped on sunglasses, as if that would make any difference to the heat, but it did help with the brightness.

The pilot was helping me unload my luggage when I spotted a big man in uniform coming our way. He had a few other uniforms at his back. They kept a respectful distance, and I didn't need to see the nameplate that said Undersheriff to make me guess it was Sheriff Shaw.

Shaw was a big guy, with a hand that swallowed mine when we shook. His eyes were lost to me behind mirrored sunglasses, but then my eyes were lost to him, too. Sunglasses may look cool, but they hide one of the best ways to decipher another person. People can lie with a lot of themselves, but eyes can give a lot away-sometimes not by what they show you but when they go their most hidden. You can judge a lot by what a person wants to hide. Of course, we were all standing in the middle of a desert, so maybe the glasses weren't for hiding anything, just for comfort.

"Fry and Reddick will get your bags," Shaw said. "You can drive ahead with me."

"Sorry, Sheriff, but once a warrant of execution is in effect and the hunt begins, I'm legally bound to keep my kit in sight, or secured by me, or with me watching, in an area out of sight of the general public."

"When did that change?" he asked.

It was Grimes who answered, "About a month ago."

I nodded at the lieutenant. "I'm impressed you know that."

He actually smiled. "We've been going in with our local executioner for a year. It's our job to know if the law has changed."

I nodded again. I didn't say out loud that a lot of police still treated the preternatural branch of the marshal service as a lesser unit, or maybe an embarrassment. I couldn't really blame the attitude; some of us were little better than assassins with badges, but the rest of us did our best.

"What caused the change?" Shaw asked.

I liked that he asked. Most wouldn't. I answered this time. "A vampire hunter in Colorado left his bag of tricks on the backseat of his car, where some teenage joyriders stole it. They probably had no idea what was in it, but they did sell the guns, and one of them was used in a holdup where there was a death."

Shaw looked at the heavy equipment bags. "You can't carry all that on a hunt. Some of those bags must weigh more than you do."

"I'll store them, then take what I need for the hunt. I'll get it down to a backpack and some weapons."

Grimes said, "We can store them at our place. We'll be with you when you serve the warrant, so you can come back and load up with us."

I nodded. "Sounds good."

Grimes gave me that smile again; I still wasn't sure if it was a real smile or his version of cop face. Some give a blank face, some give smiles, but all police have a face you cannot read. I might not even learn which it was on this visit, because the lieutenant would not be going in to help serve the warrant. He'd be back at the command center, commanding.

"Sonny will drive us back, then you can stow your gear." I wasn't sure who Sonny was, but I'd figure it out when someone got behind the wheel.

"I'll need to be taking Marshal Blake for debriefing," Shaw said.

"You want to ride with us, Sheriff?" Grimes asked.

Shaw seemed to think about it for a second or two. He took his hat off and wiped some of the sweat, showing that his haircut was shorter than the SWAT. He had what the marines call a high and tight, nearly shaved on the sides, and not much longer on top, as if he'd never left the service, or at least not its barbers.

"I'll follow you; let's just get out of the heat."

They all nodded, and I just waited for someone to move toward the car we'd be taking. I'd expected more speed when I hit the ground. Everyone was being way too calm, but then, so was I. Whatever we were feeling inside, outside it was all business. There'd be time for emotion later, maybe. Sometimes you keep putting off an emotional reaction until it just becomes moot. It becomes just one more thing that you couldn't afford to let yourself feel.

I picked up one of the big equipment bags and started to reach for another, but Rocco got there first. I let him get it. Hooper reached for the last bag, and I was okay with that, too. It was when Grimes started to reach for the bag I was carrying that we had problems.

"I've got it, Lieutenant, thanks."

We had a moment where he hesitated, and we looked at each other. I finally said, "You can get the luggage if you want."

He gave a little nod and went for the luggage. I learned that Hooper was Sonny, because he was the one who opened the back of an SUV. The back was full of his own equipment. His assault vest was visible, as well as two different helmets. There was a lot of stuff, but no guns were visible.

He answered as if I'd asked, "Gun safe." He moved the pile enough for me to see it.

"Aftermarket add-on?" I asked.

He nodded.

"I'll have to look into that. It would satisfy the new law, as written, and be a heck of a lot more convienient."

"We have to be ready to roll at any time."

"Me, too."

There was enough of his equipment already in there that adding my bags stuffed it full. Grimes joined us with my single suitcase in tow. "The pilot said this is all the luggage."

"It is," I said.

"Three bags, longer than you are tall, full of weapons, but only one suitcase for clothes," Rocco said.

"Yep," I said.

They all sort of nodded as they worked to find room for the suitcase in the back. I'd learned a long time ago that if you packed like a girl, you lost brownie points with the police. The idea was to try to be one of the guys; that meant you did not bring your entire wardrobe on a job. Besides, it was the continental United States; there'd be a mall somewhere if I ran out of clean clothes.

Hooper aka Sonny got in the driver's seat. Grimes rode shotgun. Highest rank usually rode in front, or in back. Depended on the officer. Sergeant Rocco got in beside me. The mound of weapons and bags seemed to sort of press in from behind, as if the potential for destruction could leak out of the bags, or maybe it was nerves? I knew I had grenades in the bags. Yes, Mr. Grenade is your friend until you press, pull, or otherwise activate it, but still, boomy and fiery things were fairly new for me to carry. Part of me didn't exactly trust it; no logic, just nervous. I didn't like explosives.

We pulled out, and Shaw was still standing there in his ring of uniformed officers. He'd been the one to suggest we get out of the heat, but he was still standing in it, watching me from behind his mirrored shades. I realized I'd never seen his eyes, not once. I guess, to be fair, he'd never seen mine.

"He does know we can still see him, right?" I said as we drove past.

"Yes," Grimes said, "why?"

"Because suddenly he looks unhappy."

"We lost men," Grimes said.

I looked at him and found that the pleasant face had slipped a little. Some of the pain that had to be in there showed around the edges. Pain, and that thin edge of anger that we all carry around with us.

"Nothing I can do will bring them back, but I will do everything I can to kill the vampire that did it."

"We're about saving lives, Marshal, not taking them," Grimes said.

I opened my mouth, closed it, and tried to say something that wouldn't upset him more. "I don't save lives, Lieutenant, I take them."

Rocco said, "Don't you believe that killing the vampires saves their future victims?"

I thought about it, then shook my head. "I used to, and it may even be true, but it just feels like I kill people."

"People," he said, "not monsters."

"Once I believed they were monsters."

"And now?" Rocco asked.

I shrugged and looked away. I was seeing a lot of empty land and the beginnings of strip malls. It might have been Vegas, but the landscape was more Anywhere, USA.

"Don't tell me the infamous Anita Blake is going soft?" This from Hooper.

Grimes said, "Hooper," in a voice that clearly meant he was in trouble with the boss.

Hooper didn't apologize. "You've told me my team is her go. I need to know, Lieutenant. We all need to know."

Rocco didn't so much as move or even wince; he went very still, as if he wasn't sure what was about to happen. Just that reaction from him let me know that they didn't question their looie much, if ever. That Hooper did it now showed just how upset they all were about the men they'd lost and the men in the hospital. That moment was Hooper's way of grieving.

I sat beside Rocco and let the weighted silence stretch in the truck. I was going to follow the sergeant's lead.

Grimes finally said, "You don't learn if you can trust someone from asking questions, Sonny."

"I know that, Lieutenant, but it's all we have time for."

I felt tension slide out of Rocco as he sat beside me. I took that as a good sign, and waited.

Grimes looked at me. "We can't ask if you've gone soft, Marshal. That would be rude, and I think you'd answer it the way any of us would: no."

I smiled and shook my head. "I'll kill your vampire for you, Grimes. I'll kill anyone who helps him. I'll kill everyone the warrant lets me kill. I'll get revenge for your men."

"We aren't about vengeance," Grimes said.

"I am," I said.

Grimes looked down at his one big hand where it lay on the seat. He raised brown eyes up to me then, face solemn. "We can't be about vengeance, Marshal Blake. We're the police. We're the good guys. Only the criminals get to do revenge. We uphold the law. Vengeance takes the law away."

I looked at him and saw that he meant it, down to the bottom of his eyes. "That is a brave and wonderful sentiment, Lieutenant, but I've held people I cared about while they died at the hands of these things. I've seen families destroyed." I shook my head. "Vittorio is evil, not because he's a vampire but because he's a serial killer. He takes pleasure in the death and pain of others. He will keep killing until we stop him. The law gives me the legal right to do the stopping. If you don't want it to be about revenge for your men, then that's your concern. He'll be dead no matter whose death I'm avenging."

"And whose death will you be avenging?" Hooper asked.

No one told him to stop this time.

I thought about it, and I had my answer. "Melbourne and Baldwin."

"The two SWAT you lost in St. Louis," Grimes said.

I nodded.

"Were you close to them?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Met them once."

"Why vengeance for two men you met once?" Rocco asked it, and there was the first trickle of energy from him. He'd lowered his psychic shields just a little. Was he an empath, wanting to read how I really felt?

The truck was pulling in, and Hooper was parking. I looked into Rocco's dark eyes, darker than the lieutenant's. Rocco's were so dark, they almost crossed that line from brown to black. It made his pupils hard to find, like the eyes of a vampire when its power begins to fill its eyes, all color of the iris and no pupil.

"What flavor are you?"

"Flavor of what?" he asked.

"You're too tall to play coy, Sergeant."

He smiled. "I'm an empath."

I gave him narrow eyes, studying his face. His pulse had sped, just that tiny bit, some parting of the lips. I licked my bottom lip and said, "You taste like a lie."

"I am an empath." He stated it, very firm.

"And?" I said.

"And what?" he asked.

"An empath and..." I said.

We stared at each other in the backseat, the air growing thicker, heavier, as we peeled our shields down.

"Can we move this inside?" Grimes asked.

"Yes, sir," Rocco said.

"Sure," I said.

"Are you willing to have him read you?"

"Grimes said it, questions won't tell you if I'm for real, but something tells me that the part of Rocco here that's not empath will tell you a hell of a lot more."

"We want to know about the last time you hunted this vampire, Marshal. Are you ready to relive that?"

I didn't even look at Grimes; I just held that dark, steady gaze from my fellow psychic, because I knew something that the lieutenant probably didn't know about his sergeant. Rocco was eager to try me. It was part that male instinct to see who's the bigger dog, but it was more than that. His power was eager, as if it had an edge of hunger to it. I couldn't think of a polite way to ask if his psychic ability fed on the memories he collected. If it did, if he could, then I wasn't the only living vampire in Vegas.