I nodded. "Yep."
He looked up at me, a slight smile on his face. "I'm listening."
"It's very common in hauntings for people to be uncomfortable in the area where the ghost is strongest."
"You're saying ghosts did this?"
I waved a hand. "Wait, wait until I'm done."
He gave a small nod. "Dazzle me."
"I don't know if it's dazzling, but I think it's how it was done. There are spells that supposedly can make a person uneasy in a house or a place. But the spells I read in college were for one person or one house, not a dozen homes and twice that many people. I'm not even sure a coven working together could affect that big an area. I don't know that much about actual witchcraft of any flavor. We'll need to find a witch to ask. But I think it's moot. I just mentioned it as a possibility."
"It's a possibility the cops haven't come up with yet."
"Nice to know I haven't entirely wasted the last five hours of my life."
"But you don't think it was witches," Edward said.
I shook my head. "Witches of almost any flavor believe in the threefold rule. What you give out comes back to you threefold."
"What goes around comes around," Edward said.
"Exactly, and no one is going to want this shit coming back on them three-fold. I would have said they also believe in 'do what you will, only harm none,' but you can have bad pagans just like you can have bad Christians. Just because your belief says something is wrong doesn't mean someone's not going to break the rules."
"So what do you think caused them all to leave their homes just when our killer needed it?"
"I think whatever is doing this, is big enough and powerful enough to simply arrive on the spot and want the people to go, and they went."
Edward frowned at me. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean."
"Our monster arrives, knows which house it wants, and he fills the rest of the houses with dread, driving the other families out. That takes a hell of a lot of power, but to then turn around and shield the murder house so that that one family doesn't flee, that's truly impressive. I know some preternatural critters that can throw a sense of unease around them. Mostly I think to keep hunters at bay. But I don't know anything that can cause this kind of controlled panic."
"So you're saying you don't know what it is," he said, and there was just a tinge of disappointment in his voice.
"Not yet, but if this is true, then it rules out a hell of a lot of things. I mean some vampires can throw out fear like this, but not on this large a scale, and if they could do the other houses, they couldn't shield the murder house."
"I know a vampire kill when I see it, Anita, and this isn't one."
I waved my hands in the air as if clearing it. "I'm just throwing out examples, Edward. Even a demon couldn't do this."
"How about a devil?" he asked.
I looked at him, saw he was serious, so I gave him a serious answer. "I won't go into how long it's been since anyone saw a devil, a greater demon, above ground, but if it were anything demonic, I'd have felt it today in the house. The demonic leave a stain behind, Edward."
"Couldn't one that was powerful enough hide its presence from you?"
"Probably," I said. "I'm not a priest, so probably, but whatever is mutilating these people doesn't want to hide." I shook my fiend. "It's not demonic, I'd almost bet the farm on it, but again I'm not a demonologist."
"I know that Donna can help us locate a witch tomorrow. I don't think she knows any demonologists."
"There are only two in the country. Father Simon McCoupen, who has the record in this century in this country for number of exorcisms performed, and Doctor Philo Merrick, who teaches at the University of San Francisco."
"You sound like you know them," Edward said.
"I attended a class taught by Merrick, and a talk given by Father Simon.
"I didn't know you were that interested in demons."
"Let's just say that I'm tired of running into them without knowing much about them."
He looked at me, sort of expectantly. "When did you run into a demon?"
I shook my head. "I won't talk about it after dark. If you really want to know, ask me again tomorrow when the sun is shining."
He looked at me for a second or two, as if he wanted to argue, but he let it go. Which was just as well. There are some stories, some memories, that if you tell them after dark, they seem to gain weight, substance, as if there are things listening, waiting to hear themselves spoken of again. Words have power. But even thinking about them is sometimes enough to make the air in a room heavy. I'd gotten better over the years at turning off my memories. It was a way to stay sane.
"The list of what our murderer isn't is getting longer," Edward said. "Now tell me what it is."
"I don't know yet, but it is preternatural." I leafed through the pages until I found the part I'd marked. "Four of the people now in the Santa Fe hospital were only found because they wondered outside their homes at night, skinned and bleeding. Neighbors found them both times."
"There's a transcript of the 911 call somewhere in this mess. The woman who found the Carmichaels had hysterics over the phone."
I thought about what I'd seen in the hospital and tried to imagine finding one of my neighbors, perhaps a friend, in that condition in the middle of the street. I shook my head and chased the image back. I did not want to imagine it. I had enough nightmares of my own, thank you very much.
"I don't blame her," I said. "But my point is this: how could they walk around in that condition? One of the survivors attacked his neighbor when the man came to help. He bit his shoulder so badly that the man was taken to the hospital with the mutilation victims. Doctor Evans said that they have to restrain all the patients in Albuquerque or they try to get up and leave. Don't you find that strange?"
"Yes, it's all strange. Is there a point in here somewhere?" And I heard that thread of tiredness in his voice.
"I think that whatever skinned them was, is, calling them."
"Calling them how?" he asked.
"The same way a vampire calls a person he's bitten and mind-raped. The skinning or something about it gives the monster a hold over them."
"Why doesn't the monster just take them with him the night he skins them?" Edward asked.
"I don't know."
"Can you prove that the skinned victims are being called by some bogeyman?"
"No, but if the doctors would okay it, I wonder where one of the survivors would go, if no one stopped him. Maybe the mutilation victims could lead us right to the thing."
"You saw the hospital today, Anita. They are not going to let us take one of their patients and set him free. Between you and me, I'm not sure I could stand to watch it myself."
"Well, the great Edward, afraid at last," another voice said.
We both turned to see Olaf standing in the far doorway. He was wearing black dress slacks, and a black polo-style shirt, the shirtsleeves a little short for his long arms. I guess there just aren't a lot of choices when you wear Jolly Green Giant sizes.
He glided into the room, and if I hadn't spent so much time around vampires and shapeshifters, I'd have said he was good at gliding. For a human, he was very good.
Edward stood as he spoke. "What do you want, Olaf?"
"Has the girl solved your mystery?"
"Not yet," Edward said.
Olaf stopped at the edge of the table closest to us. "Not yet. Such confidence you have in her. Why?"
"Four hours and that is the best question you can come up with," I said.
Olaf turned to me with a snarl. "Shut up!"
I took a step forward, and Edward touched my elbow. He shook his head. I stepped back, gave them some room. Truthfully, I wasn't up to arm wrestling Olaf, and I couldn't really shoot him just for yelling at me. It kind of limited my options.
Edward answered Olaf's question. "When you look at her, Olaf, you see just the surface, just the small, attractive packaging. Und
erneath all that prettiness is someone who thinks like a killer, and a cop, and a monster. I don't know anyone else who bridges all three worlds as well as she does. And all the preternatural experts you find are specialists; they're witches, or clairvoyants, or demonologists." He glanced at me as he said the last, then back to Olaf. "But Anita is a generalist. She knows a little about most of it and can tell us whether we need to find a specialist, and what kind of specialist we need."
"And what kind of magical specialist do we need?" He put a lot of sarcasm into that question.
"A witch, someone who works with the dead." He'd remembered my earlier request about finding out what I'd sensed on the road. "We're making a list."
"And checking it twice," I said.
Edward shook his head.
Olaf turned to me. "Was that a joke?"
"A little one, yes."
"Perhaps you should not try to make jokes."
I shrugged.
He turned back to Edward. "You told me all this before she came. You waxed eloquent about her abilities. But I have worked with your magical people in the past, and you never talked about them as you speak of her. What is it about her that is so God damned special?"
Edward glanced at me, then back to Olaf. "The Greeks believed that once there were no male and female, that all souls were one. Then the souls were torn apart, male and female. The Greeks thought that when you found the other half of your soul, your soul mate, that it would be your perfect lover. But I think if you find your other half, you would be too much alike to be lovers, but you would still be soul mates."
I was fighting hard to keep my face from showing the growing surprise at this little speech. I hoped I was succeeding.
"What are you trying to say?" Olaf demanded.
"She is like a piece of my soul, Olaf. "
"You are mad," Olaf said, "a lunatic. Soul mates, bah!"
I kind of agreed with Olaf on this one.
"Then why is the thought of giving her a gun while I hunt her one of my greatest fantasies?" Edward asked.
"Because you are mad," Olaf said.
Hear, hear, but I didn't say it out loud.
"You know that I have no greater compliment to give than that," Edward said. "If I wanted to kill you, Olaf, I would just do it. The same with Bernardo because I know that I'm better than both of you. But with Anita I'll never be sure unless we do go up against each other for real. If I die without knowing which of us is better, I'll regret the not knowing."
Olaf stared down at him. "You cannot mean to say that this girl, this die Zimtzicke of a girl is better than Bernardo or me."
"That's exactly what I mean."
Die Zimtzicke meant a quarrelsome or bitchy woman. Couldn't really argue with that one. I sighed. Olaf had hated me before. Now he was going to feel forced to be competitive. This I did not need. And compliment though it was, it was not reassuring to know that Edward fantasized about killing me. Oh, excuse me, hunting me while I was armed to see which of us was better. Oh, yeah, that was much more sane.
I checked my watch. It was 1:30 A.M. "Frankly, boys, I don't know whether to be flattered or frightened, but I do know one thing. It's late, and I'm tired. If we are really going to see the big bad vampire tonight, then it has to be now."
"You just don't want to look at the pictures tonight," Edward said.
I shook my head. "No, not just before trying to sleep. I don't even want to read the forensic reports tonight. I'll look at the gory remains first thing tomorrow."
"Afraid," Olaf said.
I met his angry eyes. "I need some sleep if I'm to function well while I'm here. If I see the pictures right before bedtime, I can't guarantee sleep."
He turned back to Edward. "Your soul mate is a coward."
"No, she's just honest."
"Thank you, Edward." I went to stand closer to Olaf, so that I had to crane my neck back to see his face, and he loomed over me. There was really no way to get decent eye contact, so I stepped back to a more comfortable angle for my neck, and settled for meeting his deep-set eyes. "If I'd been a man I'd have probably felt compelled to look at the pictures, to prove myself worthy of all Edward's praise. But one of the good things about being a woman is that my level of testosterone poisoning is lower than most men's."
"Testosterone poisoning?" Olaf looked confused. Probably not a new sensation for him.
"Show me to my room, then explain it to him, Edward. I want to get some extras if I'm going to be interviewing vamps tonight."
Edward led me past the brooding Olaf and out the door that everyone seemed to disappear through. The hallway was white and so unadorned it looked unfinished. He pointed out Bernardo's room as the first door and Olaf's was right beside mine.
"Do you really think Olaf and I bunking next door to each other is a good Idea?"
"By putting you right beside him, it shows him I'm not afraid for you."
"But I am," I said.
He smiled. "Just take some basic precautions. You'll be fine."
"Nice to know one of us confident. If you hadn't noticed, he outweighs me by like a ton."
"You're talking like it would be a standup fight. I know you, Anita. If Olaf comes through your door tonight, you'll just shoot him."
I studied his face. "Are you setting him up so I will kill him?"
He blinked, and I saw for a moment that I'd surprised him. "No, no. I meant what I said to Olaf. If I wanted him dead, I'd just kill him. I put you next door to him because I know how he thinks. He'll think it's a trap, too easy, and he'll behave himself tonight."
"What about tomorrow night?"
Edward shrugged. "One night at a time."
I shook my head and opened the door. Edward called to me before I could go inside or even turn on the light. I turned back to face him.
"You know most women get all mushy when a man tells them they're his soul mate."
"I'm not most women."
His smile widened. "Amen to that."
I looked at him. "You know what you said in there scares me. The thought that you fantasize about hunting me and killing me. That's creepy, Edward."
"Sorry," he said, but he was still smiling, still amused.
"But honestly if you'd said the soul mate stuff and meant it like lovey-dovey, that could have scared me more. I've known since we met that you might kill me some day, but fall in love with me ... that would be just too weird."
The smile faded a notch or two. "You know if we could love each other, our lives would be less complicated."
"Truth, Edward. Have you ever had a romantic thought about me?"
He didn't even have to think about it. He just shook his head.
"Me, either. I'll meet you out front by the car."
"I'll wait for you here," he said.
I looked at him. "Why?"
"I don't want you smarting off to Olaf on your way out if I'm not there to stop the fight."
"Would I do that?"
He shook his head. "Get the extra firepower and let's start the drive. I'd like to get to bed before dawn."
"Good point." I went into the room, closing the door behind me. There was a knock on the door almost immediately. I opened it back up, slowly, but was pretty sure it was Edward. It was.
"We'll take you into the club as my guest, just a friend. If the vamps don't know who you are, they might be more careless around you, let something slip that would make sense to you, that wouldn't make sense to me."
"What happens if I get outted during the evening? Think Her Worship will resent you sneaking the Executioner into her club?"
"I'll tell her that you wanted to see the best show in town and thought that they might not want the Executioner around, but that you're strictly there in an unexecution work mode."
"Will you say it just like that, unexecution work mode?"
He smiled. "Probably. She likes her men to be either very serious or very cute."
"She. You talk like you know her."
"Ted only kil
ls rogues. He is very welcome in a lot of the local monster hangouts."
"Edward the actor," I said.
"I do good undercover work."
"I know you do, Edward."
"But it always makes you uncomfortable to see me do it."
I shrugged. "You're such a good actor, Edward, sometimes it makes me wonder which act is real."
The smile faded, leaving his face blank, and empty like some of him had slithered away with his smile. "Go get your gear, Anita."
I closed the door with him still standing there. In some ways I understood Edward better than either of the men I had been dating. In other ways he was the biggest mystery of all. I shook my head, literally shaking it off, and looked around the small bedroom. If we came back here at dawn, I'd be tired, and tired could mean careless. I decided to make some changes now while I was fresh.
The room's only chair would go under the doorknob, but not until I was in for the night. I moved a line of miniature Kachina dolls from the dresser to the windowsill. If anyone opened the window, one or more of the dolls would fall. There was a small mirror on the wall that was framed by deer antlers. I placed it under the window, just in case the dolls didn't fall. I'd leave my suitcase to one side of the door entrance so if the door did somehow manage to open without knocking the chair over, Olaf might trip over the suitcase. Of course, I was almost as likely to trip over it trying to get to the bathroom on the way out. The moment I thought of it, I had to go. I'd hit the bathroom on the way out. Edward could stand outside and make sure Olaf didn't interrupt.
I searched through my suitcase. It was illegal for me to carry my vampire gear without a court order of execution. Carrying it without one was like premeditated murder. But no law against carrying a few extras. I had two thin vials of holy water with little rubber caps. You hit the cap with your thumb and it popped open, sort of like a grenade, but only dangerous to the vamp. Which made it a lot more user friendly than a grenade.
I slipped the holy water into each of my back pockets. They barely showed through the dark cloth. I already had my cross, but I'd had crosses ripped off of my throat before, so I had backups. I put a plain silver cross with chain in one front pocket of my jeans, and another one in the pocket of the black dress jacket. I opened the box of new ammunition that I'd packed.
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