Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 27)

The change was so abrupt that I would have said something, but he looked at me and I trusted he had his reasons. He beeped the Jeep so it was unlocked and asked me to open the doors and let the heat out. It wasn’t that hot, but I didn’t argue. I just went to the car and opened both front doors. I’d finished the French fries a while ago, so I found a trash can in the parking lot and put the garbage in it while the car aired out or whatever.

Newman found me sitting in the passenger seat with the doors open. “Why the abrupt end?” I asked him.

“I didn’t want you to bewitch another dancer.”

“I’m in control now, Newman. Promise.”

“Let me see your eyes.”

I didn’t argue. I just lowered my sunglasses enough for him to see.

He sighed as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “Normal again.”

I put the glasses back on because, well, sunlight, but said, “Good.”

“Giselle started touching you and being all chummy. I just didn’t want to see you roll another dancer. Besides, we’d learned what we came to learn.”

“That Jocelyn’s alibi is airtight,” I said.

He closed his door, so I did the same. He started the engine and got the air going. “What happened in the club, Blake? I know you have some supernatural abilities, but I thought that was from the lycanthropy. What you did in there was vampire, not shapeshifter.”

Newman and I were work friends, not friend friends. I trusted him with my life, but I wasn’t sure I could trust him with all my secrets. “I usually carry protein bars and water with me, but I forgot this trip. I need to eat real food, not just coffee, about every four hours to keep the other metaphysical hungers under control.”

“Other metaphysical hungers? What does that even mean?”

“It means that I’ve been dealing with the supernatural a lot longer than you have, and the more time I spend with it, the more of it seems to rub off on me.”

He gripped the steering wheel. “Jeffries and Karlton both caught lycanthropy on the job on the same damn case. It was Karlton’s and my first time in the field on an active hunt. It could have been me.”

“They both got to keep their badges and their jobs,” I said.

“I don’t want to keep this badge enough to give up my humanity, Blake.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I let the silence grow until he filled it. “What I saw in the club, you with that dancer, that wasn’t human, Blake.”

“One should be careful fighting monsters, lest you become one,” I said.

“You’re going to quote Nietzsche to me, really?”

“It seemed appropriate.”

“Tell me what happened in the club, Blake,” he almost yelled.

“There are other things you can catch on the job besides lycanthropy, Newman. What you saw in there was one of them.”

“What was it? Give it a name, Blake.”

I told the truth up to a point. “There isn’t a test for it like there is for lycanthropy, Newman. What you saw inside is a side effect of being around too many vampires for too many years.”

“So it’s a type of vampirism?”

“Not according to my medical file, and trust me, they take blood and check me out regularly just like everyone else in the preternatural branch.”

“The regular marshals don’t get all the medical checkups that we do. They’re looking for . . . what?”

“Scary things,” I said.

“What does that mean, Blake?”