hard for a fight? It wasnât like him to mess around on the job like that. I was the one who usually mouthed off.
I did the only thing I could think of to help; I swiped to the next picture heâd sent me. There was another dainty bite on a neck, but on the opposite side of the same neck was the bigger set of bite marks, not the one that was messy, but the first one that Iâd thought had degraded in the tearing-out of throats.
âDoes this next victim have two bite marks on it from both of our first vampires?â I asked. No one answered me, so I raised my voice. âTed, talk to me!â
âYes, the first two vamps seem to be working together.â
âDid that victim die?â
âNo,â Sheridan answered. âHe wandered into a hospital because his neck was bleeding, but he couldnât remember how he got injured.â
âTheyâre starting to figure out how to work together,â I said.
Loganâs voice was strident. âSome expert you are, Blake. You were wrong about the second vampire. Itâs not the one tearing out throats.â
âYouâve got at least three vampires on your hands,â I said.
âDid you hear me, Blake? You were wrong!â
âI heard you, Logan. Iâm okay with being wrong if it gets us better information to catch the vampires that are doing this.â
âTwo of them havenât hurt anyone too badly,â Sheridan said.
âHave any of the victims been attacked a second time?â
âNo,â Pearson said.
âI told them to put protection details on the earlier victims,â Edward said.
âDid they do it?â
âTheyâre having a little trouble convincing their bosses to approve the overtime.â
âJesus, donât they realize that the vampires can call their one-bite victims out again?â
âI explained it to them.â
âWhat we have a hard time understanding is, if this is true, then why isnât America overrun with vampires? If one bite enslaves a person, then you should all be slaves by now. You yourself are engaged to a vampire, Marshal Blake. If it were that easy to be enslaved, I donât think you would still be trusted as a police officer,â Pearson said.
âIf you donate blood willingly without being completely bespelled by the vampireâs gaze, then he canât enslave your mind and call you at his whim. Done willingly with the minimum of mind tricks, itâs not much more than a hickey or a love bite.â
âDo you donate blood to your fiancé?â
âIâll answer your question if youâll answer one of mine about your sex life,â I said.
âIâm not asking about your sex life, Marshal.â
âYeah, you are.â
Micah squeezed my hand and looked a caution at me. He was right;if I wasnât careful Iâd be telling them more about my love life with Jean-Claude than Iâd shared with my friends on the force here. Sometimes avoiding a question reveals more than just answering. I was sort of screwed on this one, very damned if you do and damned if you donât.
âThey call it coffin bait in the States,â Logan said.
âCoffin bait is the equivalent to a badge bunny, someone who will fuck any cop just because theyâre a cop. Iâm actually only dating one vampire currently, so I donât qualify as coffin bait.â
âHow insulting a term is that considered to be in your country?â Pearson asked.
âHeâs basically called me a whore who will let any vampire both fuck me and bleed me, so pretty damned insulting.â
Micah had let go of my hand so he could stand up and start massaging my shoulders through the robe, because Iâd suddenly become very tense. Imagine that.
âIâll apologize on Loganâs behalf and on behalf of all the Dublin Gardai.â
âGardai?â I made it a question with an uplift of the