“I love you more,” I said.

“I love you most,” he said. His eyes started closing, eyelids fluttering as he fought it. His eyes closed; his hand went limp in mine as he passed out.

I kissed his cheek and whispered, “I love you mostest.”

49

THEY PUT ME in the room next door to Rafael while they looked at my shoulder. Adding insult to injury, Rafael wasn’t healed. Once the endorphins from the sex, the magic, and then the emergency with Micah had passed, his back had started to hurt again.

Dr. Lillian looked at my shoulder, shaking her head. “I spend far too much time patching you up, Anita.”

“Some of the other guards get hurt more than I do.”

She frowned at me. “They’re guards, you are not. It’s their job to risk injury, not yours.”

“Patch me up, doc, I need to meet the FBI.”

“You need to rest and heal,” she said.

“No time, gotta catch the bad guys.”

She gave me a flat look out of her pale eyes. “The tough-guy act is getting old, Anita.”

“It’s not an act,” I said.

She sighed. “Fair enough, you are as tough as you think you are, but you are not as indestructible as you act.”

“This was not my fault,” I said.

“Was it Micah’s fault?”

I looked down and thought about it. “I don’t think so, he only got this new form earlier today. I think he was able to control his leopard when we had sex, but the tiger was newer. I think it surprised him when I fed the ardeur.”

“Don’t feed the ardeur on him again until he’s had tiger for at least a month, Anita. He had enough control to only puncture you; if he had clawed you . . .” She shook her head, looking way too serious for comfort.

“I know it would have been worse,” I said.

“I heard he was sniffing your neck; if he’d bitten you there . . .”

“Stop, just stop, okay; I was scared enough while it was happening.”

She looked at me. “You never admit you’re afraid.”

“Well, it’s been a hard day, and I have to be well enough to meet with the FBI when they let me know the meeting is on.”

“What could be important enough to push yourself this hard?”

“I can’t tell you about an ongoing investigation, but it is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen, doc. If I can stop it before they take one more victim, then it’s worth pushing myself.”

“Some of the things you’ve seen are terrible, Anita, really terrible.”

“Yes, they are,” I said.

She nodded. “Do you really think that your being there will make that much difference?”

“Yes.”

She sighed. “All right, I’ll bandage you, and put your arm in a sling, but what you really need is to lie in this bed with some of your animals to call and let their warmth and energy help you heal faster.”

“That’d be great, doc, but the FBI could call anytime, and I’m supposed to go to something for Cynric this afternoon.”

“He’s old enough to understand that you’re hurt, Anita.”

I shook my head.

“If he doesn’t understand, put me on the phone and I’ll explain it, but once you finish with the FBI, then you must rest. Can you at least call the agents you’ll be meeting with and see if you have time for a quick nap, or some solid food?”

It sounded reasonable, so I called Special Agent Manning. “We’re waiting on one of our agents to get into town.”

“Marshal Kirkland is in town already,” I said.

“We’ve got another specialist coming in to help review the videos.”

“How long until he arrives?” I asked.

“She, but maybe three hours at the outside, probably more like two.”

“Jesus, Manning, they could be picking a new victim right now.”

“They’re zombies, technically they aren’t victims.”

“You know that to capture their souls like this they have to be there ready at the time of their deaths. They may not be leaving that to chance; they may be killing these girls.”

“I know, Blake, I know that, but we’ve been ordered to wait for the last agent to arrive, and I have to listen to my superiors more than you do.”

“Fine, fine, I’m too tired to argue.” I was tired, suddenly and completely exhausted.

“How much sleep did you get last night?” she asked.

“None.”

She made an exasperated noise. “Then go to bed, take a nap. You won’t be any good to anyone if you’re too tired to focus.”

“That’s what my doctor said.”

“Doctor? Are you hurt?”

“Long story; I’ll get some sleep while we wait for the new guy, girl, whatever.”

“You do that; I’ll call when she gets into town. Now get some sleep while you can.”

I fought the urge to say, You’re not the boss of me, because sleep sounded amazing. I hung up and said to Dr. Lillian, “You’re in luck, I get to take a nap.”

She smiled and then went back to tut-tutting at me. “This is going to need stitches unless you get some help to heal it while you sleep.”

“I’ll find people to sleep between.”

“Not Micah, and he’s tucked into bed with Nathaniel, so not him either.”

“You’re ruining all my fun, doc.”

“I can stitch you up, and we’ll see how much fun that is.”

“Point taken; fine, who else is one of my flavors of lycanthropy and available for sleeping in one of the bigger beds?”

“Hold this dressing on your shoulder while I check.” I did what she told me to do, because if everything went well I’d heal and not need stitches. I hated stitches, especially now that painkillers were almost useless for me. Getting sewn up when you couldn’t have anything to dull the pain sucked, a lot. I promised myself I wouldn’t complain no matter who the doc found for me to bunk with if they could help me heal faster.

50

I LIED; I did complain. Graham, one of our local werewolves and guards, offered to share his bed with me and Clay, his good friend and fellow wolf and guard, but Meng Die was already in the bed. Yes, she was dead to the world and the men wouldn’t make me sleep next to her cooling body, but I didn’t trust her not to do something unfortunate if she woke before I did. She’d already hinted that she was willing to fuck me. I did not want to wake up with her trying to make that happen. I did not fuck people I hated, or who hated me. It was a rule, because a girl’s gotta draw the line somewhere.

Next offer was two of the wereleopards, Elizabeth and Caleb, who had been a couple, though not exclusive, for a while now. I’d once shot Elizabeth full of non-silver bullets, so she’d healed, and she’d feared me after that, but it didn’t make us buddies. She was the only one of the local wereleopards who had pushed me that far after I’d taken over their pard. Caleb would have been a bad guy if he’d had the balls to be truly evil; instead he was just sour, and cruel when he could get away with it. It was a shame, because he was cute in a Goth-boy, I’ve-pierced-too-many-things way, but his attitude stole all his attractiveness. I was glad they were dating each other; it saved anyone else from having to date either of them. They both went under the same rule as Meng Die. I wasn’t falling asleep in a bed with people who hated me.